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 36
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Charles Jesmore, the fourth in order of birth in a family of five chil- dren, gained his early education in the schools of the old Empire state, and he was but thirteen years of age when he made a surreptitious depart- ure from the parental home and found employment as a driver on the tow path of the Erie Canal. When fifteen years of age, just prior to the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox, he had enlisted for service as a youthful soldier of the Union in the Civil war, but the war having thus closed he was never mustered in.
In 1867 Mr. Jesmore made his way to Michigan and found employ- ment in connection with the great lumber industry, which was then at its zenith in that state. He worked in the logging camps and sawmills in the northern part of Michigan for ten years, and in 1877 became a pioneer of St. Louis County, Minnesota, where for several years he gave much of his time and attention to assisting settlers in making their locations. In this early day he assisted also, as a foreman, in the construction of the road from the little village of Tower to the Itasca county line, the road running along the Bear River. He recalls with pleasing memory that the country hereabouts was then the home of all kinds of wild game in great numbers, including deer, moose, bear and the smaller game ani- mals and game birds, the while the waters of the locality teemed with the finest of fish.
Mr. Jesmore became associated with O. W. Sanders in logging opera- tions, in which they continued one year, Mr. Jesmore having within this period taken out the first timber on Willow Creek. During one winter he put 8,000,000 feet of logs into Longyear Lake at Chisholm. This timber was taken from the site of the present Mckinley Mine.
It was in the year 1889 that Mr. Jesmore made his initial appearance in the Mesaba Range country, where mining operations were just begin- ning to assume important proportions. In January of the following year he established his residence at Eveleth, then a mining camp of some six
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or more buildings, and here he opened the McNinnis Hotel, the first in the town. This hotel building now stands at the southeast corner of Grant avenue and Jackson street and is a landmark of the early days. Mr. Jesmore conducted the hotel about eighteen months, and in the mean- while opened and conducted a livery barn. He continued the livery busi- ness until 1914. At the time of the memorable gold rush to Gold Island he established a bus line to operate from the head of Vermillion River to Crane Lake, and he developed a large and rushing business in trans- porting passengers to the new field until the discovery of gold in the Klondike overshadowed completely the pretentious gold discoveries of St. Louis County, Minnesota.
For a long period of years Mr. Jesmore has been a prominent and influential figure in the political activities of this section of the Gopher state, and his secure place in the confidence and good will of the com- munity has resulted in his being called to various positions of distinctive public trust. He served one term as president of the Village Council of Eveleth, and had the distinction of being elected the first mayor after the place had gained its city charter. At the expiration of his term he was twice re-elected, and he gave a characteristically vigorous and pro- gressive administration. In 1914 he was appointed postmaster of Eveleth, and of this position he has since continued the valued and hon- ored incumbent. He has been a loyal and zealous factor in the sup- porting of the various measures and undertakings that have conserved the material and civic development and upbuilding of Eveleth ; his political allegiance is given to the Democratic party, he is actively affiliated with the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian Church.
In 1890 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Jesmore to Mrs. Matilda (Johnson) Murray, and their only child is a daughter, Ruth Marian. By her former marriage Mrs. Jesmore has two children-David Allister Murray, and Mamie, who is the wife of Alexander King.
EDWIN J. COLLINS was born May 28, 1875, in Greenland, Michigan, and is the son of Lawrence Collins, who for many years was successfully engaged in the mercantile business, and of whose two children Edwin J. is the younger. He received his public school education at Greenland, Michigan, and then entered the employ of the Calumet and Hecla Min- ing Company at Calumet, Michigan, being employed for five years as a machinist and four years as a draughtsman. He graduated from the Michigan College of Mines at Houghton in 1903. In 1905 Mr. Collins became superintendent of the Wolverine and Arizona Mine at Bisbee, Arizona, serving as such until his appointment as general manager of the Nevada Smelting and Mines Corporation, which position he held until 1908, in which year he came to Duluth and opened an office as consult- ing engineer. Since that time he has gained a wide and flattering reputa- tion as a reliable and able engineer. his business relations extending practically over the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic Order, the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and. socially, of the Kitchi Gammi Club. the Commercial Club. the Kiwanis Club and the Northland Country Club. On January 10. 1905, Mr. Collins was married to Edith M. Cook, and to them have been born four children, three of whom are living. Mr. Collins is a public-spirited man. aiding in the upbiulding of his com- munity in any way, and he possesses those sterling qualities of character which commend themselves to persons of standing and intelligence.
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CHARLES TRENGOVE
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CHARLES TRENGOVE, master mechanic at the Elba Mine for the East- ern Mesaba district for Pickands, Mather & Company, has been asso- ciated with the mining industry practically since he was twelve years of age, and his father was one of the men whose names should be preserved in history for some of the first work of discovery and exploration in the mineral sections of northern Minnesota.
The Trengoves are a family whose original seat was in Cornwall, England, a country primarily devoted to the great mining industry. Charles Trengove was born there February 27, 1856. His father was John Trengove. John and three brothers were men of remarkable stature, each standing six feet three inches in stocking feet. All served as members of the Queen's Life Guard. Aside from his military record John Trengove was a practical miner and an expert in many phases of the mining industry. The British Government once sent him to Cuba to look into mining possibilities on that island, and he spent eighteen months there. Later he was sent to the United States on a similar service. It was during this time, more than sixty years ago, that he made his first visit to St. Louis County, Minnesota, a remote and almost unsettled district. With Joseph Bice, who afterward married his sister, John Trengove built a shack where No. 1 shaft of the Spruce Mine at Eveleth now stands. John Trengove subsequently returned to England and mar- ried Mary Drundry. Soon after his marriage he returned to the United States and joined the mining camp at Marquette, Michigan. With that as his headquarters he made some exploring expeditions, and on one occasion discovered a silver lead mine. In the meantime he had sent to England for his wife, and she joined him with her son Charles, who was born during the absence of the father in America. John Trengove oper- ated his silver lead mine for a time, and subsequently was in the lumber business at Ripley, Michigan, making that his home for many years. He finally removed to New York city, where he died.
Charles Trengove grew up in Michigan, had only a common school education, but by self study and practical experience has acquired all the varied expert knowledge used in the mining industry. He was in his twelfth year when he began picking silver in the old Franklin Stamp Copper Mill. Under John Funkey, master mechanic of a foundry at Ripley, he learned the machinist's trade, and remained there as a jour- neyman for a time. He next became a locomotive fireman on the Mineral Ridge Railroad, and in a comparatively short time was advanced to the post of engineer, and served in that capacity about seven years. One of his earlier experiences was eighteen months at Butte, Montana, where he was an engineer on the Montana Union Railroad. He remained there until the collapse of the Anaconda Mines,, when with scores of others he was thrown out of work without a moment's notice. Mr. Trengove came to northern Minnesota at Tower in September, 1887, a third of a century ago. After a few months spent in the mine shops he was made superin- tendent of the Tower & Soudan Street Railway, and subsequently fol- lowed his trade as a machinist. While in that capacity he erected the first steam plant at Tower .. Still further variety was given to his expe- rience when for three and a half years he carried mail for the United States Government between Tower and what is now International Falls. He took the first mail sack by contract to International Falls, and also drove the first team of horses to that location.
He gave up mail carrying to become master mechanic of the Spruce Mine at Eveleth, but since 1900 has been master mechanic for the Elba Mine, and is one of the oldest men in the service of Pickands, Mather & Company in the Mesaba district. Mr. Trengove is a Royal Arch
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Mason, a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of Aad Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and his family are Presbyterians. During the World war he was a deputy sheriff of St. Louis County, and was one of the local men who took a firm stand for the Government against occa- sional outbreaks of sedition.
Mr. Trengove was also represented in the World war by a soldier son. September 18. 1880. he married Miss Minnie Gundry. The three chil- dren born to their marriage are Harley G., Stanley Alvin A. and Florence M .. wife of William Rutherford. The soldier was Stanley Trengove, who was a member of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Infantry. He was in the service twenty-three months and ten days, most of the time in France. and his discharge paper shows that he participated in five battles. While never wounded, he was gassed. -
CHARLES B. HOEL, president of the Miners National Bank at Eveleth, has by his own ability and well directed course made for himself a place of no insignificant prominence in connection with the banking activities of his native commonwealth. He was born on a farm near Stephen. Marshall County, Minnesota, on the 23d of April. 1883, and is a son of Edward P. Hoel, whose father. Peter P. Hoel, was born in Norway and who became a pioneer settler in Minnesota, where he developed a pro- ductive farm and stood exemplar of loyal and sterling citizenship. Edward P. Hoel has been prominently concerned with agricultural indus- try in Minnesota for many years, has achieved worthy success and high communal standing, and he and his wife, whose family name was Sanderson, still maintain their home in Marshall County.
Charles B. Hoel gained his full quota of experience and hard work in connection with the development and general activities of the old home farm. and his early educational advantages included those of the public schools at Park Ridge. In the pursuance of higher education he entered Luther College at Fergus Falls, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1898. Thereafter he held for some time a clerical position in a bank at McIntosh, Polk County, where later he served as assistant postmaster. In. 1902 he established himself in the retail grocery and meat-market business at Eleveth, and with this line of enterprise he here continued his active association four years. He then, in 1906, assumed the position of bookkeeper in. the Miners National Bank, and in 1908 was promoted to the post of assistant cashier. His executive ability, personal popularity and faithful service continued to give him increasing prestige in connection with the affairs of this repre- sentative financial institution, of which he became casher in 1911, vice president in 1917. and president in January, 1920. He has been a resource- ful factor in the upbuilding of the substantial and representative business of this banking institution, and as its chief executive is giving a careful and well-ordered administration, based on prior experience. thorough knowledge of the requirements of the community and safely progressive policies. Mr. Hoel takes loyal interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of his home city, and is one of its liberal and progressive citizens and representative business men. He is a Republican in politics ; he and his wife are communicants of the local parish of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Bene- volent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a valued member of the local Commercial Club and the Rotary Club. He is a member of the Eveleth Board of Education and of the Board of Trustees of the Eveleth Public Library. In the period of the World war he was chairman of
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the local War Savings Stamp organization and was influential also in other war activities in this community.
On the 25th of September, 1911, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hoel to Miss Lillian Perkins, of Pine City, Pine County, and their only child is a daughter, Elizabeth Jane.
CHARLES N. HOLLANS. In such men as Charles N. Hollans there is peculiar satisfaction in offering their life histories-justification for the compilation of works of this character-not that their lives have been such as to gain them particularly wide notoriety or the admiring plaudits of men. but that they have been true to the trusts reposed in them and have shown such attributes of character as entitle them to the regard of all.
Charles N. Hollans was born on October 10, 1884, in Ogdensburg, New York, and is the son of William Hollans, who was a native of Den- mark and whose death occurred at Ogdensburg in 1903. The father after coming to this country, located at Ogdensburg, and that was his home during the remainder of his life. He was a gunner in the United States Navy and was a veteran of the Civil war. Later he became a machinist and mechanical engineer, which vocations he followed during the remainder of his active life. Of the twelve children born to him and his wife Charles N. of this sketch was the ninth in order of birth, and three of these children are still living.
Charles N. Hollans received his educational training in the public and grammar schools of Ogdensburg. He spent four years of his early life with his father, working at the machinist's trade, spent four years as an assistant engineer on the Great Lakes, and then as chief engineer up to 1917. He returned to Duluth, where he had formerly lived, and became connected with the American Bureau of Shipping, with offices in the Palladio Building, with which he remained till his death. Mr. Hollans was thoroughly qualified by training and experience for that business and achieved a pronounced success in it, enjoying the respect and esteem of all who knew him. Mr. Hollans died February 16, 1921, of septic meningitis.
On the 17th of January, 1916, he was married to Zelma Moyer, the daughter of William F. Moyer, and they had a daughter, Kathryn, born on August 6, 1917. The Hollans family move in the best social circles of their city and are extremely popular among their acquaintances.
EDWARD J. HAWLEY. Years of experience in any certain line enables a man to render an efficient service and to produce results impossible to one without practical knowledge. Edward J. Hawley, engineer of Hib- bing, is one of the expert men in his line, and under his skillful superin- tendence the village is securing a service many a city much larger would be glad to have. Mr. Hawley is a native of Wisconsin, having been born at Green Bay June 17, 1879, a son of Thomas and Mary 'C. (Creig) Hawley, both of who are natives of Ireland. Each came separately to the United States, were married in this country, and lived at Green Bay, Wisconsin, where the father operated as a steamboat captain. He died in that city in 1898, and there his widow continues to reside, being an aged lady of eighty-four years.
Edward J. Hawley was the tenth born in a family of eleven children, nine of whom are still living. He was reared at Green Bay. Wiscon- sin, and was graduated from its high school course in June, 1898. For some time thereafter he worked at engineering and similar jobs, and then entered the Wisconsin State University and was graduated there-
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from in 1908 as a civil engineer. That same year he came to Hibbing and was a mining engineer for the Shenango Furnace Company, and later for the Oliver Iron Mining Company and the Stevenson Iron Mining Company, continuing in this line until 1913, when the village of Hibbing secured his services as its engineer, and he has since devoted his energies to the responsibilities of that position.
On September 28, 1910, Mr. Hawley was united in marriage with Emma A. Howlett, of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Mr. Hawley is a Roman Catholic. He belongs to the Knights of Columbus, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Engineers' Club of Northern Minnesota, the Duluth Engineers' Club, the Minnesota Engineers' and Surveyors' Society, the American Association of Engineers and the Commercial Club. It is to men like Mr. Hawley that Hibbing owes its wonderful prosperity. By insuring to its residents all of the comforts and luxuries of a metropolitan community many have been induced to locate here who possess ample means, and their money has been invested in local enter- prises. Mr. Hawley's own interests are centered at Hibbing and he is proud of the place and his own part in developing it.
JAMES CAMERON HARTNESS, who is engaged in active professional work as a mining engineer of marked technical skill and experience, maintains his residence at Eveleth, and aside from his professional ability and high standing in the community there is no little distinction attend- ing him by reason of his having given gallant service with the American Expeditionary Forces in France at the time of the late World war, in which he gained the rank of major. He was associated with Bowe & Burke, miners and shippers, for about one year and is now practicing as consulting engineer. He has maintained his headquarters at Eveleth since 1910. During the greater part of the intervening period he has been employed professionally by the fee owners of ore property in the mineral range of northern Minnesota, besides which he has done an appreciable amount of independent work along engineering lines. He is an active member of the Rotary and Commercial Clubs of Eveleth and the Engineers' Club of Northern Minnesota. In the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is identified with the Mystic Shrine, besides which he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and with the American Legion, his religious faith being that of the Presbyterian Church and his political support being given to the Republican party.
James Cameron Hartness was born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, August 2, 1882, and is a son of Rev. Jacob Van Ness Hartness and Marion G. (Cameron) Hartness, his father having been a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church. Major Hartness was a child when his father assumed a pastoral charge at Lansing, the capital city of Michigan, and there the son continued his studies in the public schools until his gradu- ation in the high school at the age of eighteen years. For a year there- after he taught in district schools near Marquette, Michigan, in which city his parents had established their home in 1900. After his pedagogic service Major Hartness was for eighteen months a student in Alma Col- lege at Alma, Michigan, and thereafter was for several months employed as an electrician at the blast furnace of the Pioneer Iron Company at Marquette. He then entered the Michigan College of Mines at Hough- ton, and in this institution was graduated in 1906, with the degree of Bachelor of Science and Engineer of Mines. For the ensuing five years he was engaged in professional work in the mining districts of Arizona and California, where he gained valuable experience in connection with
I.T. Hartuces
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gold, silver and copper mining. In 1910, as already noted, he became a resident of Eveleth, Minnesota, and of his professional activities since that time due mention has been made in a preceding paragraph of this context.
When the nation became involved in the World war Major Hartness subordinated all other interests to tender his services to the Govern- ment. In May, 1917, he entered the First Officers' Training Camp at Fort Snelling, and.later he continued his training at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Thereafter he was assigned to the Three Hundred and Thirteenth Engineers and was stationed about one year at Camp Dodge, Iowa. On the 5th of July, 1917, he received his commission as captain of engineers, and in October of the following year gained the rank of major of engineers. He arrived in France September 1, 1918, his com- mand being a part of the Eighty-eighth Division, a division that for one month held the front line of trenches in the Belleforte sector in Alsace. It was while in this hazardous service at the front that Major Hartness received his commission as major. After the signing of the armistice he remained in France until June, 1919, when he sailed for home, his honorable discharge being received by him on the 17th of that month at Camp Dodge, Iowa.
On the 20th of April, 1912, was solemnized the marriage of Major Hartness to Miss Maude Tubbs, of Minneapolis, and their only child is a daughter, Helen. Mrs. Hartness is a popular figure in the representa- tive social life of the home community and is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
JOHN C. RICHARDS. In his chosen profession Mr. Richards has found and developed a definite individual potential and effectively proved the consistency of his choice of vocation. He is one of the able, successful and popular mining engineers of the Mesaba Range district of northern Minnesota, with residence and professional headquarters at Virginia, where his offices are in the First National Bank Building.
Mr. Richards was born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, September 26, 1883, and is a son of James W. and Nettie (Hogue) Richards, the former of whom was born at Cleveland, Ohio, and the latter at Cincinnati, that state, their home at the present time being in the city of Duluth, Minnesota, and their children being three in number.
John C. Richards was a lad of seven years at the time of the family removal to Duluth, and there he continued his studies in the public schools until his graduation in the high school as a member of the class of 1904. Thereafter he was for two years a student in the University of Minnesota, and he then entered the Michigan School of Mines at Houghton, in which admirable technical institution he continued his studies three months and effectively fortified himself for the practical work of his chosen profession. In the autumn of 1906 Mr. Richards proceeded to Hibbing, Minnesota, and became an engineer for the Carl- son Exploration Company, his duties involving the locating of properties, the making of plans for drilling and general exploitation of these projects, the estimating on bodies of ore, etc. After two years of effective service in this important capacity he emancipated himself from such direct asso- ciation and became a freelance in the work of his profession. At this time he established his residence at Virginia, and here he has since con- tinued in the active pursuit of his profession, in which he has done a large amount of important service and gained a most comprehensive knowledge of mining properties and prospects in this extensive and important field. For several years past he has also been superintendent
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of the Knox, Midget and Cavour Mines. He is a member of the North- ern Minnesota Mining Engineers' Club and of the Rotary Club of Vir- ginia. In the Masonic fraternity he is a Scottish Rite Mason. In his home city he is an appreciative and popular member of the lodge of Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. A staunch Republican, he has assisted in the promotion of the party cause in his resident district, and in January, 1918, became a member of the City Council of Virginia, in which position he continues to serve at the time of this writing.
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