USA > Minnesota > St Louis County > Duluth > Duluth and St. Louis County, Minnesota; their story and people; an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development, Volume III > Part 32
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DULUTH IRON & METAL COMPANY. During a period of nearly a quarter of a century the Duluth Iron & Metal Company has maintained its integrity as one of the thriving and strictly substantial business indus- tries of this city. Founded in 1887 upon a policy of sound principles, it has grown and developed in scope, prosperity and usefulness, and today occupies a recognized position among the necessary industrial adjuncts of the city.
The founder of this business was Max Zalk, who in 1887 recognized the opportunity for the establishment of an enterprise for the handling of scrap iron. Gradually the business grew and developed, and during the early '90s H. Y. Josephs was admitted to the partnership. In 1904 Louis Zalk, son of Max Zalk, became a member of the firm. The business has continued to grow steadily and has lived through several alarming financial crises, including that of 1893, maintaining its honorable name and at all times discharging its responsibilities. From a business devoted purely for the handling of scrap iron, it has developed into an enterprise which takes in almost every class of steel products both new and second- hand, and serves a territory as far west as Washington and Oregon. It makes a specialty of buying complete railroads that are through serving their territory and distributing their equipment all over the country. During the war the company was a valuable feeder for the Minnesota Steel Company, and helped materially in swelling the output of the munition steel of that plant.
CLARENCE E. MOORE, who has practically spent all of his active life engaged at some branch of mining and now general superintendent of the Pitt Iron Mining Company at Virginia, operating the Miller Mine at Aurora and the Wacootah Mine at Mountain Iron, came to the Mesaba Range in the spring of 1894, bringing with him the first vulcan shovel on the range and probably the first to be used in Minnesota. He was in the early stages of his mining career connected with Lake Superior Iron Mines, Consolidated, owned by the Rockefeller interests, engaged as
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steam shovel engineer. Mr. Moore worked in the summer of 1894 at Mountain Iron, and in the fall of the same year started the first stripping on what is now the Adams open pit at Eveleth.
Mr. Moore was born on a farm in Williams County, Ohio, May 20, 1865, and is one of nine children born to John and Frances (Wight) Moore, both directly descended from a long line of American ancestry. He was three years old when he accompanied his parents to Camden, Indiana, where he was reared and educated. When he was twenty-one he began life for himself, and, incidentally, prior to that he obtained an inkling of civil engineering under the county surveyor of the county where his father was a member of the Board of Commissioners.
Mr. Moore worked on a gravel train at one dollar and ten cents a day to enable him to secure funds wherewith to acquire a special educa- tion at the Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso. He did all this inter- mittently. Through the influence, indirectly, of Mr. McNaughton of the Wisconsin Central Railroad he was induced to go to the Gogebic Range in Michigan to put in operation a steam shovel which had been unsuccessfully tried out. Messrs. Dickerman and Alcoott were then in charge of the old Lake Superior Consolidated. Mr. Moore filled two cars in the fast time of eight minutes, and this was the record up to that date. He remained on the Gogebic Range until the panic of 1893. In the following year he moved to Mountain Iron on the Mesaba Range of northern Minnesota. As previously mentioned, he worked at the Adams open pit and remained on various places on the Range until 1900, then taking charge of the mining for the Pitt Iron Mining Company, and since that year has been a resident of Virginia. In 1897, however, owing to abnormal depression in iron ore production, Mr. Moore secured a leave of absence to do steam shovel work for Thomas A. Edison. He became intimately acquainted with the noted scientist and inventor, and one of his highly prized possessions is an autograph letter from Mr. Edison, extolling the abilities of Moore in high terms.
On January 17, 1899, Mr. Moore was married to Miss Nellie Rowan, of St. Paul, Minnesota. They have three daughters: Frances, Lavelle and Eleanor. Fraternally Mr. Moore is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Kiwanis Club. He has never been a seeker after political office, but has always given a good citizen's atten- tion to civic matters designed for the public benefit.
WILLIAM F. LAWRENCE. Senior member of the contracting firm of Lawrence & McCann of Eveleth, and a leading and progressive business man of this community, William F. Lawrence has been a frequenter of the Range country for the past fifteen years, during which time he has established a substantial reputation for business integrity and sound citizenship. He is of Canadian nativity, having been born in the Province of Ontario September 8, 1879, and when three years of age was brought by his parents, William D. and Margaret (Fleming) Lawrence, to North Dakota, moving thence to Duluth and later to Two Harbors. The father, now deceased, was a farmer during his early years and later a con- tractor. He is survived by the widow.
William F. Lawrence received his educational training at Two Harbors and Duluth, in the public schools, and at the age of sixteen years secured a position as bookkeeper for a lumber concern at Two Harbors. Follow- ing this he was engaged in logging, sawmilling and lumbering, and through these connections became identified with his present line of business. Mr. Lawrence is part owner of a lumber yard at Two Harbors, his associate in the business being his former employer there. For six
A.a. Farmand
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years he was a partner at Duluth of the contracting firm of Pastorer- Lawrence Company, but severed his connection with that enterprise in January, 1913, when was formed at Eveleth the firm of Lawrence & McCann, of which James H. Lunz was a member one year, Mr. Law- rence's present partner being Charles R. McCann. This concern has always had its headquarters at Eveleth, where it maintains offices in the First National Bank Building. The business of Lawrence & McCann pertains principally to contract work in road grading and paving city streets and alley work of all kinds, water works and sewers and general construction connected therewith. Their contracts have included all the paved streets of Eveleth, Biwabik, Gilbert and Aurora, with a good deal of the same kind of work done at Mountain Iron, Virginia and Buhl, and sewers and water works have been erected by them at all these places.
Mr. Lawrence is a Protestant in his religious faith, and in politics is a Republican. He is fraternally identified with the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, and also holds membership in the Eveleth Rotary Club.
HUGH A. FARNAND has been on the Mesaba Range since 1909, and by practical experience rather than through the advantage of a technical degree acquired in college has become an expert in the different phases of iron ore mining, and for several years has enjoyed increasing responsi- bilities from the Inland Steel Company, who now employ him as local superintendent of the Laura Mine at Hibbing.
Mr. Farnand was born at Buckingham in the Province of Quebec, Canada, June 20, 1886. He is the oldest of five sons of Patrick N. and Mary (Fahey) Farnand. In 1894 the family moved to the United States and located at Norway, Michigan, where Patrick Farnand lived until his death on March 12, 1908.
' Hugh A. Farnand graduated from high school at Norway in 1905, and during the subsequent fifteen years has had a great variety of busi- ness experience. His first important employment after leaving high school was as blacksmith's helper in the Monroe Mine at Norway. For about a year he filled the position of assistant postmaster at Norway. He was next employed as a line man for the Telephone Company, filled some positions in the Hiawatha Mine at Michigamme, Michigan, assisted in installing the electric light plant at Iron River, Michigan, spent six months in Duluth and then in 1909 came to the Mesaba Range at Eveleth and kept time underground in the Fayal Mine for the Oliver Iron Mining Company. Two years later, on February 22, 1911, he became clerk at the Laura Mine at Hibbing for the Inland Steel Company. In the next fall that corporation began operating the Grace Mine, and Mr. Farnand was given additional responsibilities as clerk of this mine. June 1, 1915, he was promoted to superintendent of both mines, and since the opera- tion of the Grace Mine was discontinued in 1918 his duties have been as local superintendent of the Laura Mine.
Mr. Farnand is a Catholic, is a fourth degree Knight of Columbus, and votes independently. He was appointed a member of the Library Board in 1919. On January 22, 1913, he married Miss Mary Cummings. Their five children are Patrick Bernard, Katharine Mary, John Francis, Margaret Ellen and Elizabeth Ann.
WILLIAM A. MASTERS. While there have been active mining opera- tions in the Chisholm district for over twenty years, the history of the village began in 1901, and just about two years later William A. Masters appeared on the scene and has been continuously identified with the life
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and affairs of the locality and in a way to give him prestige as one of the leading citizens.
When he came to the village his first duties were as bookkeeper in the mercantile firm of E. G: St. Clair and Anton Enger. Mr. Masters recalls that when he arrived at Chisholm the village consisted of only ten or twelve buildings on Main street. The population was just begin- ning to exert itself in the matter of municipal improvements. They had been getting light and power from a sawmill on Longyear Lake. A very small amount of sidewalk had been constructed, but no sewerage system had been installed. Mr. Masters by continued residence has witnessed all the remarkable changes in Chisholm, transforming it from a mining camp to a modern city. He was here during the great fire which swept away the village in the fall of 1908, and was one of the citizens who with courage returned and set themselves toward the task of rebuilding.
After about two years of service as bookkeeper he was recorder of the village for three years, until 1909. In that year he bought the Chis- holm Herald, the first newspaper established at the village and in the same year as the village was incorporated. He bought the paper and plant from its founder, F. W. Tallboys. He continued its publication a year and then sold out to engage in the automobile business. His was the first venture of the kind in Chisholm and he was owner of the second car in the town. Mr. Masters has sold automobiles for the past ten years, and has represented the Wyllis-Knight, Overland and Mitchell cars and has also carried a line of automobile accessories.
Along with a prospering business Mr. Masters has seldom been with- out official occupation and duties in Chisholm. In 1911 he was elected municipal judge, and held that post continuously for eight years, until 1919. He has been a member of the School Board since 1912.
Judge Masters was born in a log house on a farm in Schuyler County, Missouri, September 10, 1883. He was one of three children, two of whom are still living. His father was Henry Clay Masters and his mother, May Rowland. His father spent his early years as a farmer, but more recently has been engaged in the mining industry. In 1884, when William A. Masters, was a year old, his parents moved to Ottumwa, Iowa, and he spent his childhood and boyhood there to the age of thirteen. He acquired a common school education, and from boyhood has been a worker and most of the years of his life he has been on his own respon- sibility. His home has been at Chisholm since he was twenty years of age. Mr. Masters is a Republican in politics and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, the Order of Elks and the local Kiwanis Club. On April 28, 1907, he married Miss Bertha Harris, of Hibbing. Their three children are William A., Jr., May and Frederick.
FRANK W. BULLEN, M. D. In no other profession is the true char- acter of a man brought out so prominently as that of medicine, and as he really is, so is he held by his professional associates and colleagues. All who have the honor of Doctor Bullen's acquaintance admit that he is respected, honored and beloved not only by his associates but those to whom he has long been a ministering friend. Since 1907 he has been connected with the medical fraternity of Hibbing, and his influence is strongly felt here and throughout St. Louis County.
Doctor Bullen was born at Mason, Michigan, October 23, 1869, a son of George and Lodema (Wright) Bullen, both of whom were of English parentage. George Bullen was a farmer who died about 1874. Growing
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up in Michigan, Doctor Bullen passed his boyhood on his father's farm, and after he had studied in the Mason schools he spent two years at the Michigan State Agricultural College, following which he embarked in a drug business and was engaged in this line in Kansas and Colorado for a few years and later at Chicago. He then took a six months' course at the Chicago School of Pharmacy. In 1893 he entered Rush Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1896, following which he served for eighteen months as an interne in Cook County Hospital and then was resident physician of the Milwaukee Emergency Hospital. In 1900 he located at Eveleth, Minnesota, and was there engaged in a general practice, following which he established himself at Hibbing, and is connected with the Rood Hospital. He is a member of the St. Louis County Medical Society, the Minnesota State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Doctor Bullen is a thirty-second degree Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner. He was examining physician for the Local Draft Board during the great war. A Republican, he has served as deputy county coroner for several years, and was elected a director of the Hibbing School Board in 1920 to serve a term of three years, and was elected chairman of the board in 1921.
In 1904 Doctor Bullen was united in marriage with Maude Betts, of Litchfield, Minnesota. They have two children, Janet and Ann. Doctor Bullen is an exceptionally capable man in every respect and his fellow citizens show their appreciation of him and the service he is rendering his community whenever the opportunity is given them.
JOHN W. DOHM is a graduate engineer of the University of Wis- consin, and almost ever since leaving the University has been identified in a professional capacity with Hibbing, where he is now president of the Dohm Building Company.
Mr. Dohm was born on a farm in Dane County, near Madison, Wisconsin, August 25, 1887, son of W. A. and Frederika Dohm. His father was a native of New York State and his mother of Germany. W. A. Dohm as a boy accompanied his parents to Wisconsin when that was still a territory. Owing to the early death of his parents he became head of the household at the age of sixteen, bore his responsibilities with courage and fortitude and for many years lived the life of a capable farmer and stanch citizen of Dane County. In early years the nearest railroad point was Milwaukee, and he was one of many settlers who carried the produce of the farm to that city to market.
John W. Dohm, one of ten children, all of whom are still living, grew up on the homestead in Dane County, acquired a district school education, and was graduated from the high school of Madison in 1905. Then after some experiences chiefly connected with the home farm he entered the engineering school of the University of Wisconsin in 1907. He was graduated in 1911, and for several months following was employed in the engineering department of the Northwestern Railway Company.
Mr. Dohm came to Hibbing in the spring of 1912, and for seven months was connected with the engineering department of the Oliver Iron Mining Company. For about a year he performed similar services for the Meriden Iron Company, and after that until 1916 was in the engineering department of Hibbing village. In 1916 he organized the Dohm Building Company at Duluth, and supervised the operations of the company at Duluth until the fall of that year. He then returned to Hibbing to perform some special engineering service for the village, and in 1917 transferred the headquarters of the Dohm Building Company
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to Hibbing. This business succeeded that of Gust Linder, and for the past three years the company had devoted all its facilities to the general building and contracting business. Some of the work accomplished by Mr. Dohm's organization includes the construction of the gas plant at Hibbing, the village market and barn, the laying of concrete pavements at Mountain Iron, the erection of an ore washing plant at Calumet, and the building of the incinerating plant, greenhouse and administration hall for the village of Hibbing.
Mr. Dohm is a member of the Commercial Club, is an independent voter, and belongs to the Presbyterian Church and the Order of Elks. On November 29, 1919, he married Irma M. Clarke, of Rice Lake, Wisconsin.
JOHN CURRAN is a native son of Minnesota, has long been active in business affairs, and his career for a number of years past has been closely identified with the village of Hibbing, not only as a merchant but as one of the live and public spirited citizens of the community.
He was born at Gaylord in Sibley County, Minnesota, December 11, 1876, son of Martin and Mary (Manion) Curran. His parents were both natives of Ireland. Martin Curran, who came to this country about 1851, possessed only an ordinary education, but exemplified stalwart manhood and Americanism. He lived in Maine and the New England states, but shortly before the outbreak of the Civil war moved out to Hastings, Minnesota. While there he enlisted and served in the Union army, participating in the battle of Lookout Mountain and through all the Atlanta campaign. With the close of the war he located at Gaylord in Sibley County, subsequently lived at New Ulm, and died there in 1917.
One of a family of seven children, John Curran grew up at Gaylord, acquired a public school education, and after examination qualified for teaching and for three terms followed that profession in country schools in Minnesota. Since then the chief line of his experience has been mer- chandising. He was a general merchant at Franklin, Minnesota, for about seven years, but in October, 1906, came to Hibbing and engaged in the grocery and meat market business on Pine street. His place of business for the past six years has been at 709-11 Third avenue.
Mr. Curran has always taken a decided interest in community affairs. While at Franklin he served as village recorder two years. In 1912 he was elected a member of the village Council of Hibbing, and has been a member of every successive council to the present. He has helped plan and execute all the many improvements that have given Hibbing an enviable reputation among the villages of the United States. Mr. Curran is a Catholic in religion, an independent voter, and is a member of the Hibbing Commercial Club. September 9, 1907, he married Miss Lillian H. Miller, of St. Louis, Missouri. Their five children are Harry W., Dorothy H., Irene M., Catherine G. and John J. Jr.
FRANK E. DOWNING. The industrial interests of northern Minnesota are too important to permit of the employment in official positions of any but the most expert of men in their several lines. To secure and hold such positions and be able to meet and solve the numerous perplexing problems constantly coming up the successful candidate for them finds useful a technical knowledge gained through a university training, but must have practical knowledge as well, and both of these requisites are possessed, as well as others, by Frank E. Downing, assistant to the gen- eral manager of the Shenango Furnace Company at Chisholm until he recently moved to Gadsden, Alabama, and is now with the Cherokee Coal and Iron Company.
John Curran!
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Frank E. Downing was born at St. Charles, Winona County, Minne- sota, August 17, 1878. He is a son of Benjamin F. and Ida (Nichols) Downing, farming people, and grandson of a New Hampshire born and bred man, who in 1856 came to Winona County, Minnesota. After he located a claim he returned to New Hampshire with the expectation of taking his family back west with him, but contracted pneumonia and died, leaving his ambition in this respect ungratified. In 1857, however, his family carried out his wishes and moved to Winona County, and there his son Benjamin F. Downing is still residing on the homestead his father entered from the Government so many years ago.
One of the four children born to his parents, all of whom survive, Frank E. Downing was reared on this homestead and taught to be a useful member of his community. He attended the local schools, com- pleted the St. Charles High School course when seventeen years of age, and in the subsequent winter taught his first and last term of country school. For several years following this he worked at various occupa- tions and attended the University of Minnesota, from which he was graduated in 1904 with the degree of Civil Engineer. It was while he was working his way through the university that he was employed on Government surveying of the headwaters of the Mississippi River from July, 1899, to September, 1900, and later as transitman for E. J. Longyear on the Mesaba Range from October, 1901, to September, 1903.
After completing school work Mr. Downing was engaged in prospect- ing for iron ore in Canada for E. J. Longyear until August, 1905. On August 30, 1905, he was married to Alice Gaumon, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and that same year located at Hibbing as an employe of the Meriden Iron Company, and served it as engineer until March, 1906, when he became an engineer for the Oliver Iron Mining Company. This work occupied him until September, 1908, when he was placed in charge of the ore estimating department in the office of Mr. J. U. Sebenius, general mining engineer in the Duluth office of the Oliver Iron Mining Company, and retained this position until October 1, 1911, when he came to Chisholm as chief engineer of the Shenango Furnace Com- pany, and in March, 1914, became assistant to the general manager. Mr. Downing is a member of the Duluth Engineers Club, the Engineers Club of Northern Minnesota, the Minnesota Engineers and Surveyors Society, and the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. He and his wife are the parents of three children, Lewis B., Isabel M. and Joan M.
GUST A. APULI. Far from the place of his birth, in the fair Euro- pean northland, Mr. Apuli has found opportunities for the achieving of substantial and worthy success through his own ability and efforts, and he is today one of the leading merchants of Mount Iron, Minnesota, where he is engaged in the hardware and furniture business. He was a young man when he came to America, and here his advancement has been won by honest and earnest endeavor.
Mr. Apuli, the eldest in a family of eight children, was born in Finland, December 29, 1869, and is a son of Karl and Susanna Apuli, the father having been a farmer in Finland and there having passed his entire life, and the mother is still a resident of that far distant land. The subject of this sketch acquired his early education in the schools of his native land and at the age of twelve years initiated his practical experience by entering upon a virtual apprenticeship in the shop of his paternal grandfather, who was a coppersmith by trade and vocation. He remained with his grandfather seven years, and in the meanwhile became
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a skilled artisan at the trade noted. Ambitious and determined of pur- pose, he then severed home ties and came to the United States, he having been nineteen years of age at the time. On his arrival in this country he made his way to the home of kinsfolk at Brainard, Minnesota, and there he found employment in unloading coal cars on the Northern Pacific Railroad, this arduous occupation having engaged his attention during a period of thirteen months. The railroad company then sent him to Staples, this state, where eventually he won promotion to the position of inspector in the railroad yards. In August, 1890, he made his appearance in the city of Duluth, where he soon found employment with the Duluth Cornice Company, which assigned him to service in con- nection with doing the sheet-iron work on the new union railway station. Later he was engaged in similar work at Superior, Wisconsin, but in November, 1890, became a clerk in the hardware store of A. C. Osborn at Duluth, a position which he retained until the autumn of 1893. In the fall of the preceding year he and five other young men journeyed with team and wagon from Duluth to Mount Iron, and here he filed entry on a homestead of 160 acres a few miles distant from the village. He later perfected his title to forty acres of this homestead, and in the meanwhile he had continued his service in the hardware store at Duluth until the fall of 1893, after which he followed an independent business as a sheet-iron worker until 1895. He then went to Bismarck, North Dakota, where for three years he continued in the employ of the Hare & Holt Hardware Company. In this connection he gained valuable experience in and became a skilled workman at the plumbing and heating trade, and his ambition led him also to devote his evenings to study, in connection with which he took a special course in the celebrated International Correspond- ence School at Scranton, Pennsylvania. One of his friends had at this time charge of the plant of the Hughes Electric Company at Bismarck, and in this plant Mr. Apuli passed many hours after the completion of his regular work. The knowledge which he thus gained by close obser- vation and study resulted in his being placed in charge of the plant when his friend was transferred to another station. Within a month after he had assumed this position the company sent him to the city of Fargo to erect a new electric plant, and after completing this assignment he was placed in charge of the new plant. In 1900 Mr. Apuli was appointed superintendent of the electric plant of the North Pacific Railroad at Brainard, Minnesota, where he retained this position two years. The following years he passed as clerk in a hardware store at Eveleth, this state, and he then came to Mountain Iron to take up the work of jacket- ing engines for the Oliver Mining Company. In March, 1903, Mr. Apuli here opened a small hardware store, and from this modest nucleus has built up a substantial and prosperous hardware and furniture business, with an establishment of the best equipment and service. He has become one of the popular and influential citizens and business men of Mountain Iron, where he has served continuously since 1904 as a member of the municipal Board of Trustees, and as a director of the Board of Educa- tion since 1907. He was village assessor in 1905-6 and also served two terms as village treasurer. He is a Republican in politics, is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and his wife are active communicants of the Lutheran Church. During the nation's participation in the World war Mr. Apuli had the active supervision of the first Young Men's Christian Association drive at Mountain Iron, and was otherwise loyal and influential in the furtherance of local war activities. While a resident of Duluth he served four years as a member of Company H. Thirteenth Regiment, Minnesota National Guard.
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