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 33
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In the city of Duluth, in February, 1895, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Apuli to Miss Margaret Onhala, who likewise is a native of Finland, and they have four children-Helmi S., Waino E., Carl A. and John A.
JONATHAN S. HENDERSON is essentially one of the progressive and representative business men of the village of Mountain Iron, where he successfully engaged in general contracting enterprise as senior member of the firm of Henderson & Murphy, his coadjutor being Charles W. Murphy, of whom individual mention is made on other pages of this volume.
Mr. Henderson was born at Parker's Prairie, Minnesota, on the 24th of November, 1877, and is a son of Hans J. and Mary Lulu ( Hazen) Henderson, the former of whom was born in the state of Pennsylvania May 16, 1852, of Holland Dutch ancestry. The marriage of the par- ents was solemnized November 8, 1870, and of the five children the subject of this review was the second in order of birth.
Hans J. Anderson was nine years of age when his parents immi- grated to America and established their home in the city of Chicago, where he was given the advantages of the public schools. His loyalty to the land of parental adoption was significantly shown when, at the age of fifteen years, he ran away from home to enlist for service in defense of the Union when the Civil war was precipitated. He became a member of the Third Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, with which gal- lant command he served three years and nine months-virtually the entire period of the war. In later years his continued interest in his old comrades was shown by his active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic. The major part of his active career was marked by asso- ciation with farm industry, but he was engaged in the retail grocery business at Mountain Iron, Minnesota, at the time of his death.
The initial educational discipline of Jonathan S. Henderson was ob- tained in the district school near the old home farm at Parker's Prairie, and later he attended the public schools of Henning and Wadena, Minne- sota. When twelve years of age he found employment in cutting bands on a threshing machine, and for this operative service he received fifty cents a day. At the age of seventeen years he found employment 'in the Minnesota Insane Asylum at Fergus Falls, where he remained about eighteen months. For thirteen months thereafter he was employed on a farm in North Dakota, and in 1898, at the inception of the Spanish- American war, he enlisted for military service at Fargo, that state. He became a member of the Third United States Cavalry, known as Grigsby's Rough Riders, and continued in service for four months, but his regiment was not called to the stage of active conflict. On the 20th of November, 1898, after having received his honorable discharge, Mr. Henderson entered the employ of his uncle at Bemidji, Minnesota, where he engaged in hauling steel for the Red Lake Transportation Com- pany. The following spring he went to Montana and engaged as a teamster for the Hibner Construction Company, connected with railroad construction work. In the autumn he became associated with building operations at Cass Lake, Montana, in the employ of the firm of Claven & Tanner, and in the winter of 1899 he entered the employ of A. B. Hazen, proprietor of the old Merchants' Hotel at Bemidji, Minnesota. He held the position of night clerk at this hotel until the following spring, when he made his way to San Francisco, California, in which state he was employed one year in the saw mill of N. W. Durney. He passed the summer of 1901 as an employe on the S. S. Dudley farm on the
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Wild Horse Indian Reservation in Oregon and in the following autumn went to British Columbia and took the position of ax man with the engineering corps that was surveying the branch line of the Great North- ern Railroad from Jennings, Montana, to Elco, British Columbia. During the ensuing spring and summer he was associated in the construction of a telegraph line for the Great Northern Railroad from Spokane to Seattle, Washington, and in the fall was transferred to Devil's Lake, North Da- kota, and assigned to line work. In November,. however, he returned to Bemidji, Minnesota, where he worked that winter on the homestead farm of Doctor Morrison. During the following year he clerked in a gro- cery at Bemidji, in which village he then purchased the Nicollet Hotel, which he conducted eleven months. He then sold the hotel business and again engaged as a grocery clerk. In 1905 he went to St. Paul, where he clerked in a mercantile establishment about one year, at the expiration of which he came to Mountain Iron, where he gave about three months of service as a teamster for the Oliver Mining Company. He next passed a similar period as steam-shovel fireman for the Pitt Iron Mining Company, and after having been identified with other lines of work for about two years he was engaged as a traveling salesman in the handling of household goods about eighteen months. He then returned to Mountain Iron, where he conducted a restaurant for six months. He then sold this business, and within a few months there- after was appointed chief of the police and fire departments of Moun- tain Iron, with ex-officio service also as truant officer. He continued to discharge these multifarious duties seven years, and for the ensuing years was associated with his father in the grocery and meat market business at Mountain Iron. In the autumn of 1917 he formed a partnership with Charles W. Murphy and purchased the Mountain Iron Livery, which they continued as a livery until the spring of 1920, when they turned their attention to general contracting, in which field of enterprise they have since continued with marked success.
In politics Mr. Henderson is independent of strict partisan lines, and the year 1920 found him giving his fourth year of service as a member of the municipal Board of Trustees of his home village, in the welfare and advancement of which he takes loyal and vital interest. Mr. Hen- derson is affiliated with the lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Virginia, as well as with the camp of the Modern Woodmen of America at that place. His religious faith is that of the Lutheran Church.
January 28, 1902, recorded the marriage of Mr. Henderson to Miss Frances Helen Hoyt, who was born and reared in the state of Wis- consin, and they have four children-Robert I., Beatrice A., Orville and Dida H.
CHARLES W. MURPHY, junior member of the firm of Henderson & Murphy, which has developed and controls a substantial and important general contracting business at Mountain Iron and which is one of the representative business concerns of the great mining region of this section of Minnesota, is a young man of ability and progressiveness and is entitled to specific recognition in this publication.
Mr. Murphy was born at Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, on the 19th of April, 1883, and is a son of Angus and Jane (Graton) Murphy, both natives of the Dominion of Canada, where the former was born, in Nova Scotia, on the 15th of October, 1848, and where the latter was born June 25, 1863, she having been but sixteen years of age at the time of her marriage. Angus Murphy came to the United States about the year 1880,
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and he was long identified with lumbering operations in Michigan and Wisconsin. He served as foreman in the lumber districts, and he died on the 3d of October, 1909, about twelve days prior to his sixty-second birthday anniversary. His widow now resides at Hibbing, Minnesota, and of their ten children, Charles W., of this sketch, was the fourth in order of birth.
Charles W. Murphy acquired his early education in the public schools of Chippewa Falls, where he also attended for one year a Catholic parochial school. After leaving school he was for two years employed on a farm in his native county, and for the ensuing three years was employed by the Northern Lumber & Boom Company, for which corporation he worked in the lumber woods during the winter seasons and in the lumber yards during the intervening summers. From 1900 to 1905 he was employed by this company in the vicinity of Ovet, Wisconsin, as a worker in the lumber camp during the winters and in the saw mill in the summers. During the following autumn and winter after leaving the employ of this company Mr. Murphy held a position as brakeman on the Duluth & Northern Railroad, and he then took a similar position with the Great Northern Railroad, in which connection he continued his service until February, 1906, the following year finding him similarly engaged with the Mesaba Southern Railroad. During the summer and fall of 1907 he worked as a brakeman on the railroad operated by the Oliver Mining Company, with headquarters at Mountain Iron, and during the following winter was similarly employed by the company at Gilbert. On the 6th of April, 1908, he was appointed village marshal of Gilbert, and of this posi- tion he continued the efficient incumbent until the spring of 1910, when he assumed a similar office in the village of Coston. The following winter found him in service as a conductor on the line of the Mesaba Southern Railroad, and in the spring of 1907 he was appointed night patrolman at Mountain Iron. He served in this capacity until 1915, and during the following winter owned and conducted a pool and billiard room at Mountain Iron. In the following spring he entered the employ of William Golden, who was engaged in the retail liquor business in this village, and in the summer of 1917 he amplified his experience by purchasing and conducting a confectionery store, which he retained about one year. In the fall of 1917 he purchased the Mountain Iron Livery, in company with Jonathan S. Henderson, and in the spring of 1920 the firm of Henderson & Murphy withdrew from the livery business to establish its present thriv- ing contracting enterprise. In the spring of 1919 Mr. Murphy purchased a farm adjacent to the village, and he is developing this into one of the excellent places of this locality. That he has secured place in popular confidence and esteem in the community is shown by the fact that in 1920 he is serving his fourth consecutive term as president of the Village Council of Mountain Iron. He is a stalwart Democrat in politics, and he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church. At Virginia he is affiliated with the lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. At the time of the World war Mr. Murphy was a member of the com- mittee which had charge of the various drives in support of the Govern- ment war loans in this community, and was also chairman of the Local Defense League.
On the 20th of November, 1909, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Murphy to Miss Elizabeth England, of Ashland, Wisconsin, and she presides as the popular chatelaine of their pleasant home at Mountain Iron. They have no children.
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MOUNTAIN IRON PUBLIC LIBRARY. With the spread of education and the consequent growing taste for knowledge, the opening of a modern public library in a community is a notable event. The benefits of a library have been recognized from far olden times, ever since civilization and culture moved hand in hand along the path of progress. Far back before the art of printing precious manuscripts and hieroglyphics graven on wood and stone were carefully preserved for the study and edification of the learned, and, fortunately, for the perpetuation of historic annals. We may be led to wonder, perhaps, concerning the types of students who took advantage of the first public library on record, that established by the philosopher Pisistratus at Athens in 337 B. C., and recognizing the urgent call of the present day for more knowledge we may well believe there were also in ancient times many who were profited thereby. Many of the great libraries of the world, however, have been entirely closed to the general public, and while their priceless manuscripts and heavy tomes have been rich with learning, there has been afforded no key to this vast accumulation of knowledge, entertainment and satisfaction that the humble as well as the high could turn in the lock.
When the late Andrew Carnegie determined to donate a part of an unusual fortune to the building of libraries it was in recognition of this fact and memories of the inadequacy of library service that hampered his own ambitious search for knowledge in youth. It will ever be impossible to truly estimate the value of his philanthropy.
Among the many communities benefited through accepting the reason- able terms of Mr. Carnegie in relation to establishing a library, Mountain Iron, Minnesota, is now in the enjoyment of a public library second to none in the country. It was opened in 1915, during the administration of an able library board, of which Charles Walker was president and J. F. Muench was secretary. It was built at a cost of $25,000, exclusive of the site, $8,000 of which was donated by Andrew Carnegie. The architect of this beautiful structure was Mr. Shand, and Mr. Sampson was the contractor. On the main floor there is a general room, one side for adults and the other for children, a reference room and an office. In the base- ment, which serves as a community center, there is an auditorium, a men's smoking room, a fully equipped kitchen and a magazine store-room. On the library shelves are 6,000 books, a full line of both technical and fic- tional magazines. In 1920 there were 871 active subscribers and 22,156 books were borrowed.
Since the opening Miss Stella M. Stebbins has been librarian. The president of the Library Board is J. F. Muench, Esther Peltier being secretary. The other members are C. A. Webb, P. Hagen, D. E. Burley. T. Williams, P. J. Erickson, W. F. Anderson and Oscar Luhkarila, all business men and reputable citizens. Deep interest is shown by the entire community and the enterprise may confidently be declared one of great and permanent benefit.
PERCY A. CARMICHAEL. It has been the privilege and fortune of Percy A. Carmichael to realize many of his worthy ambitions and through the exercise of energy and the acceptance of opportunities to attain suc- cess in his chosen field of endeavor. Starting his career in boyhood in a humble capacity, he has gradually worked his way up the ladder, and today is superintendent of the Hobart Mine at Gilbert for the Hanna Ore Mining Company.
Mr. Carmichael was born at Michigamme, Michigan, March 19, 1887. a son of James Carmichael, who was born in Canada, and a grandson of
AST TILDEN .OU IN
JAS. A. ROBB
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Gilbert Carmichael, a native of Scotland. Gilbert Carmichael was a young man when he immigrated to America, settling first in Canada, and then coming to the United States and locating in northern Michigan, where his death occurred. James Carmichael was engaged in the butcher business for some years at Michigamme, whence he went to Calumet and followed the same line, and then entered the employ of the Oliver Iron Mining Company in the capacity of clerk. Through his brothers the name of Carmichael is widely known in mining circles as belonging to early miners and developers of mines on the Mesaba Range of northern Minnesota. In 1907 James Carmichael came to Hibbing, Minnesota, and worked as a clerk in the clerical department of the Oliver Iron Mining Company until his death in 1920. He was married at Michigamme, Michigan, to Louise Croll, and they became the parents of three children, all of whom survive : Irving, a consulting engineer at Winnipeg, Canada ; Percy A., and Ruth, the wife of Walter H. Trenerry, of Duluth.
Percy A. Carmichael received a grammar and preparatory school edu- cation, and at the age of fifteen years entered upon his independent career as a clerk in the office of a lumberman in his home community. At Hibbing, subsequently, he secured a position in the engineering department of the Oliver Iron Mining Company, and continued to be identified there- with for some seven years after which for seven months he was under- ground foreman at the Mississippi Mine. Following this he was ore inspector for the Great Northern ore lands, and when the Arthur Mining Company inaugurated its safety plan Mr. Carmichael became their first safety inspector. From this position he became captain of the Alex- andria Mine at Chisholm, and in August, 1918, was made superintendent of the Hobart Mine at Gilbert for the Hanna Ore Mining Company, a position which he has filled capably to the present time. Mr. Carmichael's experience has covered many phases of the mining industry, and his thorough and comprehensive knowledge of various departments and details makes him a valuable man to his company. He is energetic and progressive, possesses the confidence of his superiors and the good will of his men, and out of a busy and energetic life has gained that self-confi- dence that comes through holding one's own in a hard struggle for supremacy.
Mr. Carmichael is a Presbyterian in religious faith and in political allegiance supports the Republican party and its candidates. He has not sought public preferment, but is a good citizen and during the World war period was one of the directors of the United States Defense League at Gilbert and a director of the Liberty Loan campaigns. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias, is a thirty-second degree Ancient and Accepted Scot- tish Rite Mason and holds membership in the Mystic Shrine. Mr. Car- michael was married October 14, 1919, to Miss Corinne Whitney, of Clayton, Minnesota.
JAMES A. ROBB. Many causes contribute to the almost invariable interest surrounding the early settlers in any community. As the years lend distance and romance to their arrival the honor becomes a coveted one, more especially if the settlement has utilized its most enlightening opportunities and become the abode of peaceful and prosperous humanity. A companion of the wilderness of early northern St. Louis County, James A. Robb, one of the earliest of the pioneers of this part of the state, has participated in the development and progress of several towns of the Mesaba Range, and since 1896 has resided at Eveleth, where he is at the head of a prosperous fuel and building material business.
Vol. III-15
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James A. Robb was born at Ottawa, Canada, May 9, 1863, a son of John and Jane (Noble) Robb, natives, respectively, of Scotland and the North of Ireland. The parents emigrated separately to Canada, where they were married and where both died, leaving seven children. James A. Robb was reared in Canada, where he received his education in the public schools, and at the early age of thirteen years began caring for himself. He began his career as a clerk in a general store in Canada, but in 1884 came to Minnesota, where, at Tower, he went to work in a saw- mill operated by the Minnesota Iron Company. He was compelled to walk from Two Harbors over the railroad right-of-way, the road not then having been completed, and when he arrived at Tower he found it but a straggling mining camp. He was employed there until 1889, when he went to Mesaba, the second town on the Mesaba Range, and continued working in a sawmill. Later, with Frank S. Colvin, he opened a lumber yard at Merritt, the first town on the Mesaba Range, but after a short time went to Biwabik, which was then only a railroad point. In 1896 he came to Eveleth, and has since been engaged in a flourishing fuel and building material business.
Mr. Robb has been an integral part of the wonderful development of northern St. Louis County. During his residence here he has seen the country in its various stages of progress from a vast woods, filled with Indians, packed with deer, moose, bear and other wild game, a fisher- man's paradise, to a thriving center of industrial and commercial activity. To those who took part in the early settlement of the county was vouch- safed a wealth and diversity of experience beside which that of those active in later years pales into insignificance. If the men of the rough frontier suffered, they also lived, and their existence was turned to far higher purpose than the mere getting and parading of wealth and its luxuries. The country, while wild, was clean, and in those days a code of honor prevailed which exemplified the straightforward qualities of the men who blazed the way for those who came later.
Mr. Robb is independent in his political views, and has served capably as treasurer of the Village of Eveleth and as a member of the School Board. He has the distinction of having been made the first Entered Apprentice Mason in the Masonic Lodge in Eveleth, and at present is a thirty-second degree Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine, and also holds membership in the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks.
Mr. Robb was married at Biwabik, Minnesota, February 12, 1896, to Miss Elizabeth Trevarthen, and they have three children: Florence J., John Albert and Thomas. Mrs. Robb is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Robb belongs to the Commercial Club and Rotary Club of Eveleth.
JOHN N. CARLSON. In his evolution from a poorly-paid farm hand in Iowa to the proprietorship of a flourishing mercantile business, John N. Carlson, a pioneer merchant of Gilbert. supplies an inspiring example of the compelling power of high ideals and the worth of homely, sterling virtues. He was born in Sweden, February 26, 1874, a son of Carl J. and Carrie Johnson, and after the manner and custom of his native land took his father's given name, adding "son" thereto, thus making his name Carlson.
Until he was twelve years of age, John N. Carlson lived in his native land and attended school, and for four years thereafter was variously employed. From a sister and several friends who had come to the United States he kept receiving reports as to the opportunities obtaining in this
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country for bright, ambitious and energetic youths, and in 1890, when he was sixteen years of age, he crossed the Atlantic and went to Harcourt, Iowa, where he secured employment on a farm. At this time he knew nothing of the language, but during his first winter spent three months at school, and this aided him to an understanding of the tongue, which was furthered during the seven years of his employment on the farm. In the fall of 1897 Mr. Carlson came to northern Minnesota and found employ- ment at the old town of Sparta, firing and working on a steam shovel in the old Genoa Mine of the Oliver Iron Mining Company. Later on he also became a sampler of ores in connection with his other work.
In October, 1897, Mr. Carlson embarked in the haberdashery business with a partner at Sparta, their combined capital being $500. Mr. Carlson put in but a part of his time at the store and the rest of the time at other work. In the spring of 1898 he worked as a carpenter on the first shaft house built at the Sparta Mine, and also worked the pumping station for the Village of Sparta. In the meantime the business had grown, and in the fall of 1899 a hardware stock was added to the original line. In the fall of 1901 a fire destroyed the possessions of the partners, resulting in a serious financial loss, but, undiscouraged, they rebuilt their store and resumed business, which prospered until 1908, when Sparta was sold to the steel corporation.
In 1909 the business was removed to the new town of Gilbert, and Mr. Carlson and his associates dissolved partnership, Mr. Carlson at that time commencing alone in the hardware, furniture and undertaking busi- ness. He has continued in these lines to the present time, and has added farming implements and other articles to his stock. These, in brief, are the salient points in the career of a poor Swedish boy who had the courage to leave his native land and seek his fortune and a home in the new world, where through his own industry and ability he has won his way to inde- pendence and a substantial business position. Mr. Carlson has a reputa- tion for business integrity that extends beyond the limits of his immediate community, and has fully discharged the duties of citizenship ever since taking out his naturalization papers in 1896. He is a Lutheran in relig- ious belief and in politics is a Republican. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of the Maccabees and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Mr. Carlson was married February 18, 1903, to Miss Ellen Olson, a native of Sweden, who came to the United States in girlhood, and they have the following children : Arlin B., Dean Willard, Clinton John, Elea- nor Caroline and Walter Myron.
DAVID B. CAVAN was born and reared in the atmosphere of the min- ing districts of the Great Lakes region, and was one of those who early used his opportunities to perfect himself in the technical branches of mining, is a graduate mining engineer and now assistant general superin- tendent for Pickands, Mather and Company of Cleveland in the Eastern Mesaba District, his primary duties being at the Elba Mine at Gilbert.
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