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 35
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In April, 1918. Dr. Weber received appointment to the staff of Shaw Hospital at Buhl, Minnesota, where he initiated his effective service in the following month and where he remained until June, 1919, when he engaged in private practice at Mountain Iron, though still continuing his association with Dr. Shaw at Buhl. He has charge of the medical and surgical work at the mines in the vicinity of Mountain Iron, besides which his general practice is of representative order. He is health officer at Mountain Iron, and also official physician of the village schools. The Doctor is an active member of the St. Louis County Medical Society, the Minnesota State Medical Society and the American Medical Associa- tion. He is affiliated with the Epsilon Chapter of the Phi Alpha Gamma medical college fraternity, and also with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
March 27, 1912, recorded the marriage of Dr. Weber to Miss Delia E. Morrison, who was born in the State of Oklahoma, and they have three fine little sons-William M., Donald P. and John L.
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FRANK W. CANUTE, who holds the responsible position of master mechanic for the Hanna Mining Company, eastern district, with residence and business headquarters at Mountain Iron, was born at Berlin, Michi- gan, on the 30th of June, 1872, and is a son of George H. and Mary M. (Schell) Canute, both natives of the state of New York, where the former was born in the year 1830 and the latter in 1838. Their son Frank is the fourth in their family of seven children.
Frank W. Canute gained his early education in the public schools of his native state and was graduated in the Traverse high school as a mem- ber of the class of 1889. During the summer seasons he had worked in the lumber mills while still attending school, and after leaving the high school he was employed in the saw mill operated by his father, this asso- ciation continuing until about the year 1891. Thereafter he was employed about eighteen months in the Michigan Orphan Asylum at Traverse City, and later was employed in various saw mills in that section of the Wolverine state. Finally he became engineer of a locomotive on a logging railroad, in the employ of A. F. Anderson & Company at South Borden, Michigan, and in February, 1906, came to Crookston, Minnesota, where he was given night charge of the saw mill of the Crookston Lumber Com- pany. In the following spring the company transferred him to Folds, this state, and assigned him to the position of locomotive engineer on the logging road. After thus serving about one year he was for two months employed by Cook & O'Brien at Virginia, Minnesota, and in the following summer had charge of the erection of two small rotary mills at Angora. There he continued in charge of sawmill operations for Clifford Sherman until the following spring, when he took the position of foreman for the Keewadin Lumber Company, with which he thus con- tinued his connection at Ontario to the following November. He next gave about eighteen months of effective service as sawyer for the Inter- national Lumber Company at International Falls, for which corporation he constructed hoists and a lumber camp.
In July, 1912, Mr. Canute removed with his family to Mountain Iron, his family having in the meanwhile resided at Virginia, and it was at this time that he entered the employ of the Hanna Mining Company at the Brunt Mine. He was first assigned to the charge of the steam plant of the drying establishment, which was then in course of construction, and in the winter of the same year went to Baudette, Minnesota, to assist in the erection of a mill for the Engler Lumber Company. In May, 1913, he returned to the Brunt Mine, where he was in charge of the work of the repair crew until the close of the ensuing winter. In the spring he was placed in charge of the drying plant, to which he gave his attention for the following two years. In the spring of 1916 he was appointed master mechanic for the eastern district of the Hanna Mining Company, and of this position he has since continued the efficient, valued and popu- lar incumbent. He is one of. the prominent and public-spirited citizens of Mountain Iron, where he is serving as chairman of the Board of Educa- tion. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of the Maccabees, and in politics is a Republican, though not constrained by partisan lines in local affairs. During America's participa- tion in the World war he was an active executive and worker in connection with the Liberty Loan drives and had charge of the Victory Loan drive in the Hanna Mining Company's eastern district.
May 3, 1893, recorded the marriage of Mr. Canute to Miss Alice M. Elliott, of Bay City, Michigan, and they have one child, Harry D., who is now employed as a locomotive engineer in connection with his father's department of business activities.
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STANLEY A. MAHON is a young man whose sterling character and marked executive ability need no further voucher than the statement that he is assistant general superintendent of the Hanna Mines, eastern district, with residence and official headquarters at Mountain Iron.
Mr. Mahon was born at Minden City, Michigan, on the 14th of December, 1884, and is a son of Edward and Sophia (Geck) Mahon, the former of whom was born at Tilsonburg, Province of Ontario, Canada, in 1844, of English and Irish lineage, and the latter of whom was born in the city of Rochester, New York, in 1859, her ancestral lines tracing to English and German origin. The marriage of the parents was solemn- ized in 1880, and their son Stanley is the second of their three children. The father was twenty years of age when he came from Canada to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. The major part of his active career was given to farm industry.
After having duly profited by the advantages offered in the public schools of his native village Stanley A. Mahon completed a course in the Ferris Institute, an excellent preparatory and business school at Big Rapids, Michigan, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1906. For six months after leaving school he was employed as a diamond drill man for the Longyear and Hodge Company in the iron mines of northern Michigan, and thereafter he was similarly employed in connection with construction work on the great New York aqueduct until 1908. With a well ordered ambition and determination to further his technical education Mr. Mahon then entered the Michigan College of Mines at Houghton, and in this celebrated institution was graduated as a member of the class of 1911 and with the degree of Mining Engineer. For six months after his graduation he held the position of assistant cap- tain of underground operations at the American Mine of the M. A. Hanna Company on the Marquette Range, and the ensuing six months found him employed in the concentrating plant of this company. He then went to Nashwauk and engaged in experimental work at the LaRue Mine, where he remained until the autumn of 1914. He then entered the service of the Wakefield Iron Company at Wakefield, Michigan, where he served as ground captain one year. For two years thereafter he was again asso- ciated with the LaRue Mine, first in connection with rebuilding opera- tions and later in charge of the concentrating plant. Thereafter he opened and had charge of the Hobart Mine at Gilbert, Minnesota, and in 1918 he assumed the professional and executive office of which he is now the able and valued incumbent. In January, 1919, the Hanna Mineral Company sent him to Georgia to assume the position of superintendent of a pyrites mine, and soon after completing his service there he resumed his position in Minnesota, where he is superintendent of the Pilot, Hobart, Fay, Sliver and Brunt Mines. Mr. Mahon has gained high rank in the technical and practical work of his profession and is a prominent figure in connection with the iron mining industry in this section of Minnesota.
At Hibbing, this state, Mr. Mahon maintains affiliation with York Rite bodies of Freemasonry, and in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, he is affiliated with the Scottish Rite and also the Mystic Shrine. In politics he is an independent Republican and he is a Protestant in religious faith. At the time of the World war he signified to the Government his willingness to enlist for active service, but the authorities decided that his services were of greater value in connection with the productive enterprise with which he was identified. He, however, gave most vigorous and loyal co-opera- tion in the furtherance of local war activities and made liberal subscrip- tions to the various Liberty Loans and other war agencies.
TILL
Marin Van Buskit
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On August 2, 1916, was recorded the marriage of Mr. Mahon to Miss Aileen Hunter, of Akeley, Minnesota, she being a representative of a family whose name has been long and worthily identified with American annals. Mr. and Mrs. Mahon have two children : Phyllis, born June 22, 1917, and Stanley A., Jr., born June 30, 1919. The pleasant family home is at Mountain Iron, and Mrs. Mahon is a popular factor in the social life of the community.
MARVIN V. VAN BUSKIRK. The career of the late Marvin Van Buskirk was one in which his experiences were varied and interesting, carrying him into strange and unexplored parts of the country and bring- ing him eventually to a well-earned success and the respect of his fellow citizens. This pioneer of the Mesaba Range, whose death occurred at Eveleth January 22, 1904, was born at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, December 23, 1851, and that city continued to be his home until he was about eighteen years of age. His early life was spent much after the manner of the' average boy of his day, although perhaps he was permeated with a greater love of adventure than were the most of his companions. He excelled in mathematics, and because of this fact assisted the surveyors to a con- siderable extent, and also worked in a sawmill, and by reason of his industry and ability was advanced to the post of manager.
In the early days of the Gogebic Range of northern Michigan, Mr. Van Buskirk spent two years there as a timber cruiser, and during this time lived with the Indians, learned their language, and was given the name of "Mokineese." For a time he had charge of some logging camps, and then became the first white settler of Crystal Falls, Michigan. On December 15, 1883, he married Anna Harding, a native of Madison, Wis- consin. At Crystal Falls, Mr. Van Buskirk learned the painter's trade, and after working at that vocation for a time became the first chief of police of his town. Following this, he devoted some time to exploring, and while thus engaged, in 1890, came to what is now the site of Eveleth, although at that time such a place did not exist. After being employed as a prospector for a time, in 1893 Mr. Van Buskirk brought his family to Eveleth, and their first home here was a tent, while the last stage of their journey, from Auburn, had to be made on a single trail, as the road was still incomplete. Shortly afterward Mr. Van Buskirk had a log cabin erected for his family, and this continued as their home for some years.
Mr. Van Buskirk put in the greater part of his time during this period in exploring, but he also devoted a part of his time to the painting trade. He also had charge of test pits and tramped over practically the entire surrounding country, being employed as an explorer by all the well known men of the Range. When Eveleth began to assume the importance of a metropolis he was elected the first village president, and likewise became the first chief of the local volunteer fire department.
Mr. Van Buskirk was a man of marked characteristics. He was quiet, inoffensive and unassuming, but a man of unquestioned courage. He had a wonderful faculty of making and retaining friends, to whom, when occasion offered, he was generous to a fault. In fact this peculiarity was so marked that it was often taken advantage of by the unscrupulous as a means to defraud him of honest and hard earned money. He contributed with more than ordinary liberality to the support of all good causes, and while he was not a member of any religious denomination he had a devout reverence for sacred things. Late in life he organized a local body of men and as the representative of this body went to Idaho and selected timber claims for the individual members. At the present time these properties have greatly enhanced in value. Mr. Van Buskirk was a
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Republican in politics. He and his widow, who survives him, had eight children, all of whom survive.
ANTHONY JOHN VAN BUSKIRK, the eldest son of Marvin V. and Anna (Harding) Van Buskirk, was born at Crystal Falls, Michigan, November 5, 1890, but his entire life, practically, has been passed at Eveleth. When his people came here he was the only boy in the little community, and as he grew up he attended the public schools, being grad- uated from the Eveleth High School with the class of 1909. For a time he was employed in a clerical capacity by the Miners National Bank, subsequently being timekeeper in the mines and later shipping clerk, etc. He became deputy city clerk in 1916, and served as such by appointment until January 6, 1920, since which time he has been city clerk. He has been very active in local athletics and has been instrumental in keeping athletic sports alive in his town. In 1908 he became a charter member of Company F, Minnesota National Guard, and in 1915 was commissioned a lieutenant of this organization by the Governor and sent to the Mexican border, where he remained seven months. He resigned his commission at the end of that time, but subsequently served as captain of a local motor corps and also helped train troops for the World war.
Mr. Van Buskirk, who has a number of important connections at Eveleth, is unmarried and resides at home with his aged mother.
JOHN GLODE has been well known in the life of the Range country for nearly thirty years, as landlord of two of the popular houses of public entertainment for nearly a quarter of a century, but for several years past has been the efficient chief of police of the city of Eveleth.
ARTHUR G. KINGSTON is one of the real pioneers of the Range country in northern Minnesota, having been identified with the section for the past thirty years. He was a merchant for a long time, but finally turned his resources and personal initiative to what might be called the conserva- tion side of mining operations, and has demonstrated a high degree of profit and production through his operations.
Mr. Kingston, whose home is at Eveleth, is a native of Minnesota, born in Goodhue County, May 15, 1857. That date indicates that the family were territorial pioneers of Minnesota. His father, DeWitt Clinton Kingston, was born in Michigan and first came to Minnesota in 1855. In 1858 he settled in the state permanently. He married Mary Jane Holiday. DeWitt C. Kingston pre-empted land in Goodhue County and went through all the experiences and hardships of pioneering, ran the risk and dangers of Indian depredations and was a real frontiersman.
One of eight children, Arthur G. Kingston, had to adapt himself to the limitations of a home of thrift and meager circumstances in the northwest. He lived on his father's farm to the age of thirteen, in the meantime attending district school in winter, and has been a worker ever since he had sufficient age and strength to be assigned regular duties. From the age of thirteen to seventeen he employed his time more or less regularly as a clerk. At seventeen he went into business for himself at Northfield, and in 1882 became a merchant at Fisher, Minnesota, where he was located until he came to the Iron Range district at Tower in July, 1891. Mr. Kingston was a merchant at Tower for nine years, and since 1900 his home and headquarters have been at Eveleth, where he continued in merchandising for about four years.
He then invested his capital and enterprise in contracting, owning and operating a steam shovel outfit at the mines. He has done mining at
Alan Buckisk
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several of the old works in the Iron Range district. In several cases he has taken contracts to strip where previous operations had all been by the underground method of mining. In fact, he was identified with the pioneer stripping operations, and has demonstrated the safe and profitable side of that strictly modern feature of ore mining.
In 1915 Mr. Kingston organized the Kingston Mining Company, and since then organized the Rutland Mining Company and the Fault Mining Company. These concerns are operating two mines at Eveleth and one at Chisholm, also one near Mesaba, and the business is one employing on an average 150 men. Mr. Kingston has worked a large force con- tinuously for the past fifteen years.
Politically he is an independent Democrat. While living at Tower he served as a member of the City Council. He is a member of the Presby- terian Church and the Commercial Club of Eveleth. In October, 1877, he married Lestina Lovering. They have two sons, William A. and Merton, and one daughter, Lina, Mrs. R. M. Cornwell.
CHARLES R. McCANN, of the contracting company of Lawrence & McCann, Eveleth, is one of the substantial business men of St. Louis County who has helped to make several communities progressive and enterprising centers of the mining industry. Strangers visiting Eveleth, Gilbert, Biwabik, Aurora and other towns of this locality are impressed at once with the substantial condition of the streets, alleys, sewers and water works-unfailing evidence of prosperity and good management -- and for these municipal virtues Mr. McCann is largely responsible, as his firm is an extensive contractor in these lines.
Mr. McCann was born 'at Springdale, Iowa, January 26, 1884, a son of Harry and Delilah ( Maxson) McCann, the former a farmer and later a blacksmith by occupation. One of four children, Charles R. McCann was reared at Springdale, where he was graduated from the high school in 1903, at which time he entered the engineering department of the Iowa State University at Iowa City and was graduated in 1907. He began his business career in the employ of a general contractor at Minneapolis, but three years later transferred his activities to Duluth, where he entered the service of Pastorer & Lawrence, with whom he remained for about two years. In January, 1913, was organized the firm of Lawrence & McCann, and for a year James H. Lunz was a member of the concern. The company began business at Eveleth, and has continued here ever since, its offices being in the First National Bank Building. They confine their activities largely to doing contract work in road grading and paving, city street and alley work of all kinds, water works and sewers and general construction connected with these lines. Their work has included all the paved streets of Eveleth, Gilbert, Biwabik and Aurora, and they have likewise extended their activities to Virginia, Mountain Iron and Buhl, having also constructed sewers and water works for these places.
Mr. McCann is a member of the local Commercial Club, is a Knight Templar and York Rite Mason, a thirty-second degree Ancient Arabic Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine, and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He was married January 6, 1912, to Miss Della Edna Worrall, of West Branch, Iowa, and to them five children have been born : Dorothy, Joseph, Margaret, Katherine (who is deceased) and Barbara. Mr. and Mrs. McCann are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
WILLIAM R. VAN SLYKE has been a resident of the Range country in northern Minnesota for the past fifteen years, is a mining engineer by
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training and profession, and has responsible duties in connection with the mining interests grouped at Eveleth, his home.
Mr. Van Slyke was born at New Paris, Indiana, April 18, 1883. His grandfather, William Nelson Van Slyke, was a pioneer of northern Ohio and a ship carpenter by trade. William R. Van Slyke is a son of Rev. William M. and Josephine (Suman) Van Slyke. His father was a Methodist minister and spent the years of his active career in the itinerant and pastoral work of the church.
William R. Van Slyke grew up in northern Indiana and southern Michigan, attending the public schools in several localities. He was a student in the engineering department of the University of Michigan one year, and acquired his technical education by three years in the Michigan College of Mines. at Houghton. Soon after graduating in June, 1905, he came direct to Eveleth, and has performed the duties of assistant engineer and fee agent for various estates. Since 1910 he has been the engineer in active charge of fee interests at Eveleth.
Mr. Van Slyke is a member of the Engineers Club of Northern Minne- sota, the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, belongs to the Rotary and Commercial Clubs of Eveleth, and has taken an interest in all movements for community welfare. Since July, 1917, he has been a member of the Eveleth School Board.
VICTOR E. ESSLING is not only one of the representative younger members of the bar of St. Louis County but also has the distinction of being mayor of the vigorous little city of Eveleth at the time of this writing, in the spring of 1921. Still further interest attaches to his status in the community by reason of the fact that he claims Minnesota as the place of his nativity. He was born at St. Peter, Nicollet County, this state, on the 15th of May, 1891, and is a son of Joel E. and Magdalena M. (Schulz) Essling, both of whom were born in Sweden. Magdalena M. Essling was a resident of Nicollet County at the time of her death, when comparatively a young woman, and her husband subse- quently contracted a second marriage, he being now a resident of St. Peter, Minnesota. Joel E. Essling was a son of Gustaf Johnson, but the ancient custom governing family names in Scandinavia was abandoned by this family upon coming to the United States, where the patronymic was changed to the present form, Essling. Gustaf Johnson immigrated to this country in 1866 and established the family home in the vicinity of St. Peter, Minnesota, where he became a pioneer homesteader, landholder and farmer, St. Peter having at that time been under favorable considera- tion in connection with being chosen capital of this commonwealth. He obtained Government land by homestead, and lived up to the full tension of the pioneer days, when advantages were meager and when Indians were still numerous in the county where he established his home.
The childhood and early youth of Victor E. Essling were compassed by the activities and influences of the old home farm, and in the public schools of his native county he continued his studies until he was gradu- ated in the St. Peter High School as a member of the class of 1909. Subsequently he there continued his studies in Gustavus Adolphus College, spending one year along academic lines preparing himself for the profession of his choice. He entered the St. Paul College of Law, in which he continued his studies two years, in the night classes. He then successfully passed the state examination and was duly admitted to the Minnesota bar in February, 1915. He immediately came to St. Louis County and initiated the practice of his profession at Eveleth, where since October, 1919, he has been a member of the representative law firm of
المسح.
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Essling & Trost, with offices in the Miners National Bank Building. The firm controls a substantial and important law business, and the senior member has gained secure status as a resourceful trial lawyer and well fortified counsellor. When the nation became involved in the World war, Mr. Essling entered the military service, but the armistice brought the war to a close before he could be sent with his command to the stage of conflict.
The mayor of Eveleth is a staunch advocate of the cause of the Republican party, is a valued member of the Eveleth Commercial Club, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is a communicant of the Swedish Lutheran Church, in which he still holds membership in the church at St. Peter, Nicollet County. He was elected mayor of Eveleth in November, 1919, and has given a most vigorous, progressive and satisfactory administration.
July 9, 1914, recorded the marriage of Mr. Essling to Miss Marjorie M. McGrath, and they have two children, William Warren and Mark Theodore.
CHARLES JESMORE, the efficient postmaster of Eveleth. has in his administration fully justified his appointment to this office in the Gov- ernment service, and he is a man who commands the unqualified esteen of the community which he thus serves. He was born at Oswego, New York, November 15, 1850, and is a son of John and Victoria (DeLoram) Jesmore. The father, who had long been identified with farm enterprise, removed in the '70s to Saginaw, Michigan, where both he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives.
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