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 37
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May 7. 1913. marked the marriage of Mr. Richards to Miss Lillian B. Gowan, of Duluth, and she was summoned to the life eternal on the 26th of December, 1919. She is survived by four children-Ann, William Andrew, Mary Henrietta and John Carver, Jr.
BERTRAM S. ADAMS, M. D. One of the institutions that round out and give symmetry to the community and public life of Hibbing is the Adams Hospital, which was opened in June, 1902, and has been continu- ously under the direct supervision of Dr. Bertram S. Adams.
Doctor Adams is the grandson of a physician, Dr. Henry Dwight Adams. Bertram S. was born at Racine, Wisconsin. November 10, 1875, a son of Henry Kirk and Frances (Sage) Adams. Henry Kirk Adams moved to North Dakota in 1882, and for many years was active in banking at Lisbon in that state.
Doctor Adams lived at Lisbon, North Dakota, from the age of seven until he attained manhood, graduated from high school, and completed a thorough and liberal education in the University of Minnesota prior to training for his profession in the same institution. He graduated in ยท medicine in 1901, and in the meantime served as an interne in St. Barnabas Hospital in Minneapolis. After graduation he was assistant for one year to Dr. Charles W. Brav in his hospital at Biwabik in St. Louis County, and then in June, 1902, located at Hibbing and established the Adams Hospital in a building specially erected for the purpose and representing every mechanical facility and equipment of the up-to-date modern insti- tution. Doctor Adams came to Hibbing primarily to take charge of the health work among the miners in the mines controlled by Joseph Sellwood.
Doctor Adams has served as chairman of the Village Board of Health of Hibbing, is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the St. Louis County and State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association, and fraternally is a Scottish Rite Mason and Mystic Shriner, a member of the Order of Elks, the Algonquin Club, the Curling Club, and the Presbyterian Church. In politics he supports the Repub- lican party. In 1903 Doctor Adams married Miss Vida Brugger, of Minneapolis. Their four daughters are Eleanor, Priscilla, Elizabeth and Sage.
FRED H. HOLLADAY formed his first connection with Hibbing and with the widely known contracting firm of Winston-Dear Company in 1906. He has been in that locality and with that one firm ever since, and from one of the minor employes has risen to the responsibilities of vice presi- dent of the company and general manager of its extensive operations.
Mr. Holladay is a native Virginian. He was born at Buckner, Vir- ginia, June 15, 1877, a son of Fred H. and Janet Collins (Garrett) Holladay. His father served as a Confederate soldier, was a planter, later a grain commission merchant at Richmond, Virginia, and he and his wife spent all their lives in Louisa County, where she died in 1889. He retired from active business in 1915 and died in Norfolk, Virginia, in February, 1919. For two terms he was a member of the Virginia State Legislature,
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representing Louisa County. Of their family of eight children five are still living.
Fred H. Holladay grew up at Buckner, Virginia, and his early educa- tion was directed by a private tutor at home. Later he attended high school at Louisa, and subsequently private schools, and his first business experience was as a loose leaf tobacco buyer and exporter with the E. G. Moseley Company at Danville, Virginia. Mr. Holladay came west in 1899, and at Minneapolis entered the service of Winston Brothers in connection with their contracts for railroad construction work in various northwestern, eastern and southern states. In 1906 he was sent to Hibbing, Minnesota, to take charge of the Winston-Dear Company's offices on open pit mine stripping work, where he expected to remain about eight months, but instead has found his permanent home and business energies centered in this community. In 1910 he was made superintendent of the stripping of the Burt Mine .. During 1912-13-14-15 was superintendent of the stripping of the Dunwoody Mine at Chisholm, was then transferred as superintendent of the stripping operations of the Webb Mine, and superintended ore loading from the Susquehanna Mine at Hibbing. In 1917 he was promoted to general manager of the Winston- Dear Company operations, and in 1920 became a vice president of the corporation.
Mr. Holladay is a member of the Christian Church, is a Scottish Rite Mason, an Elk, and a Southern Conservative Democrat in politics, and as such votes the Republican ticket often. On October 26, 1915, he married Miss Laura Downton Hall, daughter of Dr. W. A. Hall of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Their two children are Constance Downton and Sally Garrett.
WILLIAM NEILON came to the Range country of northern Minnesota more than a quarter of a century ago, and except for the first few years has continuously been identified with the fire fighting service, first at Hibbing and for the past thirteen years at Eveleth, where he is now chief of the fire department.
Mr. Neilon was born at Bridgeport, Connecticut, June 22, 1871, but has spent most of his life in Wisconsin and Minnesota. His father, Patrick Neilon, was a native of Ireland, during his youth removed to England, where he married Ellen Daily, and about a year later they immigrated to the United States. Mr. Neilon was an engineer in a paper making establishment near Bridgeport, Connecticut, and from there brought his family west to Escanaba, Michigan, where he became fore- man of the railway roundhouse. Giving up his trade, he became a farmer in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, and he and his wife spent their last years in Marinette County in that state.
One of a family of twelve children, William Neilon had to contribute something to the support of the large household as soon as his strength and abilities became sufficient. As a boy at home he attended the common schools. When about sixteen he began his real career as a saw mill hand at Marinette, Wisconsin. Mr. Neilon was twenty-two years of age when in 1893 he came to Hibbing, Minnesota. For several years he was in the service of the Longyears as explorer under John Bush. He then entered the Hibbing fire department, and in 1907 was invited to come to Eveleth to break in and train horses for the fire department of that city. He has been continuously identified with the department ever since, and in 1908 was made chief. He has disciplined and developed a high class fire fight- ing force, and it now has splendid equipment and the service is one of the most adequate found in any city of the size in Minnesota.
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Mr. Neilon is a Catholic, a member of the Elks Lodge and belongs to the International Association of Fire Engineers. In 1912 he married Loretta Kent. Their three living children are Laverne, William and Elizabeth.
EDWARD C. BOOTH. It is a remarkable fact that the men who do the most for education are those who themselves have lacked ordinary advantages. Still, after all, their attitude is not so wonderful, because having had to go through life without the knowledge which comes of an education they appreciate just what such a lack means to the ambitious boy or girl and exert themselves as they grow older to awaken the inter- est of their community to the supreme value of public education upon an extensive scale. Edward C. Booth, who was superintendent of the buildings and grounds for Independent School District No. 27 at Hib- bing, was one of the self-made men of St. Louis County. At an age when the majority of children are tenderly cherished by loving parents he was left to the cold mercies of strangers, and from the age of fourteen was self-supporting. Yet, after all, perhaps this vigorous training had its advantages, for in him it developed a sturdiness of character, a self- reliance of spirit and a thorough appreciation of the dignity of honest labor and the value of intelligent thrift.
Edward C. Booth was born at Oswego, New York, September 6, 1857, a son of Elliott Le Grand Booth, a livestock dealer of New York, who came of English ancestry. He enlisted in the Union army for service during the war between the North and the South, and lost his life in that conflict. His widow, whose maiden name was Celia Fitch, remarried, her second husband being Cyrus Henderson. When only seven years old Edward C. Booth had to live among strangers, who took care of him only until he was fourteen years of age. In his early years he was bereft of parental love and care and, as stated, his educational opportunities were very limited. In 1871 he drifted out to Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, and there worked as a farm hand until he was twenty-two years old. Attention then, in 1879, was being directed toward the territory of Dakota, and he went over the border into that portion now known as North Dakota, and was living there at the time the state was created. For five years he was deputy sheriff of Barnes County. At the time he was in office the county was new and lawlessness was prevalent, and it took a man of fearless character and intense courage to enforce the law.
About 1883 Mr. Booth returned to Wisconsin, and was engaged in carpenter work at Superior until 1905, when he came to Hibbing. He first worked in the Buffalo and Susquehanna Mines as a carpenter, build- ing the office and shaft houses, and did this at a time when the mines were newly opened. After about a year he was given charge of the old Center street school building, and was ever afterward connected with the schools of this district. Later he was employed to look after all of the buildings and grounds and rendered such valuable service that the utmost reliance was placed upon his judgment and recommendations. Mr. Booth died May 2, 1921, after an illness of a year.
In 1883 he was married to Amelia Zingg, and nine children were born to them, namely: Laura E., who is Mrs. DeLoss Hall; Edward Stanley ; Lida, who is Mrs. Arthur J. Trudeau, a widow ; Elwood ; Olive, who is Mrs. John Williams ; Elliott ; Helen, who is Mrs. Thomas Eldred ; Norman; and Gladys, who is Mrs. K. P. Anderson. Mr. Booth be- longed to the Episcopal Church. He was a member of the Masons, Odd Fellows and Elks.
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Laura E. Booth is now superintendent of schools of Carter County, Montana. While the family lived in Dakota she took up a claim very near to the historic Custer battlefield, and while proving it up, taught school, and drove eight miles each day to her school. She passed the United States civil service examination and taught among the Indians at Pine Ridge Agency. After her marriage she moved to Montana, where she has been a forceful factor in politics, stumping the state for Janet Rankin, the first woman to be elected to Congress. This brought her into prominence, and when Carter County was created Mrs. Hall was appointed by the governor as superintendent of schools and has since then held that office, being elected to it several times. She is a brilliant , woman, and her family are very proud of her and what she has accom- plished and the future which lies before her.
CHARLES H. CLAYPOOL. The Tod-Stambaugh Company of Cleve- land, Ohio, is one of the larger organizations of capital and operating facilities owning and exploiting the ore resources of the iron ranges of northern Minnesota. Their activities in the Hibbing district of the Mesaba Range are carried on through the subsidiary companies known as the Dean Iron Company, the Mead Iron Company, the Stambaugh Iron Company, and the Orwell Iron Company. The general superin- tendent for all these companies is Charles H. Claypool of Hibbing, who is a practical ore man and mining engineer of long experience in these districts.
Mr. Claypool was born at Duluth October 3, 1881, a son of George H. and Emma M. (Huston) Claypool. His father, who was born in Arm- strong County, Pennsylvania, came of a family of farmers and was a pioneer settler in Duluth, where for many years he was interested in lumbering operations, but for a number of years past has been in the real estate business. One of three children, Charles H. Claypool grew up at Duluth, graduated from the high school in 1900, and had the bene- fit and advantage of the two years' course in the University School of Mines at Minnesota University.
He began his practical career in the mining industry in the fall of 1902 at Hibbing, in the service of E. J. Longyear, and was employed as a sample man in the Buffalo, Susquehanna & Scranton Exploration Works. He was then in the engineering department as transit man, working west from Hibbing to Grand Rapids, and in 1905 went with the Oliver Iron Mining Company, at first as an engineer in the Coleraine district, later as chief engineer, and subsequently as superintendent of the experimental work in the washing plant. He also superintended the construction of the new plant at Coleraine, and in January, 1910, before that plant was completed, he formed a partnership with J. C. Agnew and G. G. Hartley, making the Cavour Mining Company. They opened up the Cavour Mine at Kinney, and Mr. Claypool was superintendent of that mine. In 1916 he became associated with the Inland Steel Com- pany of Chicago as superintendent of their Julia Mine at Virginia, but in 1918 left the Inland Company and came to Hibbing to take up his present duties as general superintendent for the Tod-Stambaugh Com- pany's interests.
Mr. Claypool is one of the thorough experts and one of the best known officials in the iron ore district. He is a member of the Algon- quin Club and the Kiwanis Club, is affiliated with the Masonic Order, is a Republican and a Presbyterian. April 10, 1907, he married Cath- erine Garrettson, of Kenton, Ohio. Their three children are Charles H., Jr., Jane and Catherine.
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GEORGE W. MARTIN. A career of consecutive application and con- secutive progress has been that of George William Martin, who has gained a place of prominence and influence in connection with important industrial interests and business activities in the city of Duluth and who has been a resident of the Lake Superior region for virtually forty years. He is now actively identified with a special field of enterprise in con- nection with the lumbering industry, and has been concerned with exten- sive operations in manufacturing and handling railway ties, telegraph and telephone poles, etc.
George W. Martin was born at Brantford, Province of Ontario, Can- ada, on the 23d of June, 1854, and is a son of George and Margaret Martin, both of whom were born and reared in Scotland and both of whom were young folk when they emigrated from their native land to Canada and gained pioneer honors in Brant County, Ontario, whichi section of the province was at that time little more than a wilderness. The parents worthily did their part in connection with civic and material development and progress in that county and there they continued to maintain their home until the time of their deaths. They reared a large family of children, some of whom remained in Ontario and others of whom came to the state of Minnesota.
The early education of George W. Martin was acquired at the rural schools of his native county, and in the meanwhile he contributed his share to the work of the home farm in Brantford township. He con- tinued his association with farm industry in his native county until 1881, when, at the age of twenty-seven years, he set forth for the state of Minnesota. At Port Edwards, Ontario, he embarked on the old steamboat "Quebec," which afforded him transportation up through the Great Lakes to Duluth, in which embryonic city he arrived in Octo- ber of that year. During 1881-2 he worked on railroads and in the lumber woods, and in the spring of the latter year assumed the position of cashier for the Northern Pacific and St. Paul & Duluth Railroads at Northern Pacific Junction, which was the nucleus of the present vil- lage of Carlton, judicial center of Carlton County. He retained this position about five years, and he then became bookkeeper and general office man in the employ of A. M. Miller at Thomson, Carolton County. He was thus identified with the sawmill and lumber operation conducted by Mr. Miller until the latter closed out the business. For a period of about eighteen months thereafter Mr. Martin was manager of the busi- ness of Cutler & Gilbert at Duluth, and he then went to Foley. Benton County, where he entered the employ of Foley Brothers in the capac- ity of office manager, lumber salesman and manager of stores. He con- tinued his alliance with this firm for eight years, or until the supply of available timber became so diminished as to render further operations unprofitable in the general lumbering business of the concern. At this juncture in his career Mr. Martin returned to Duluth and initiated inde- pendent operations in the handling of timber and the production of railway ties on a very large scale. He found a ready demand for his products, which were sold to the various railroads entering Duluth, and the scope of the business was amplified by the extensive production also of pulp wood, cedar posts and poles, logs and other forest products, In the upbuilding of the large and important enterprise Mr. Martin has had as his valued coadjutor his brother Thomas H., and the busi- ness has been conducted under the firm name of Martin Brothers. Mr. Martin has shown both energy and good judgment in his independ- ent business activities and by initiative, discrimination and progressive policies has achieved substantial success, with high standing as one of
George w Martin
PJELS
ASTOR T NIA TILDEN FUL
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the reliable and representative business men of Duluth. He had had no desire for the activities of practical politics, but is a loyal supporter of the cause of the Republican party, even as he has been earnest in the support of the prohibition movement. Both he and his wife have long been actively affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In the fall of 1921 there was installed in the tower of the First Meth- odist Episcopal Church a set of very fine and melodious church chimes, the gift of Mr. Martin and brother, at a cost of $10,000, and a token of their deep interest in this church home.
In the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, on the 29th of January, 1893, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Martin to Miss Olive A. Swenson, who there received her education in the public schools. The parents of Mrs. Martin were numbered among the very early pioneer settlers in Chisago County, Minnesota, they having come by steamboat up the Mississippi River to St. Paul, and row boats and ox teams having been utilized in continuing the journey and transferring the home effects to Chisago County, where Mr. and Mrs. Swenson had the distinction of bringing in the first piano of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Martin have three sons, George Carlyle, Maurice W. and Warren E.
George Carlyle Martin was one of the gallant young men who rep- resented Minnesota in the nation's service in the great World war, and has gained lasting distinction for the loyal and patriotic record that is his in this connection. On the 13th of May, 1917, about one month after the United States became formally involved in the World war, George C. Martin entered the First Officers' Training Camp opened at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and on the 15th of the following August was made second lieutenant in the quartermaster's corps of the United States Army, whereupon he was immediately ordered to Camp Dodge, lowa, and assigned to duty in the quartermaster's department of the division. He was later transferred to Camp Joseph E. Johnston at Jack- sonville, Florida, and on the 7th of March, 1918, was ordered to report to the Eigty-second Division at Camp Gordon, Atlanta, Georgia, where he was assigned to Company B of the Three Hundred and Seventh sup- ply train of that division. This supply train left Camp Gordon on the 31st of March and proceeded to Detroit, Michigan. During a period of about three months thereafter Lieutenant Martin was in the convoy serv- ice in the transporting of motor equipment from Detroit to the Atlantic seaboard. On the 28th of June, 1918, his command embarked for service overseas, the voyage across the Atlantic having been made on the British steamship "Justicia" (F. 8261), and disembarkation having been made in the port of Liverpool, England, on the 10th of July. The following day the command embarked at Southampton, and on the 12th of July landed at Le Havre, France. On the 14th of the same month Lieutenant Martin left Le Havre, and on the 17th he arrived in the Toul sector, where he again joined the Eighty-second Division, the main body of which had arrived in France at an earlier date. Two weeks after his arrival in France Lieutenant Martin was appointed adjutant of the sup- ply train, and in this position he continued his service during the remainder of his stay in France. The division with which he served participated in the actions of the Toul sector, the historic St. Mihiel drive and those of the Argonne Forest, where it was stationed during twenty-six consecutive days of vigorous conflict. After the signing of the armistice the Eighty-second Division returned to the Pranthoy area, between Langres and Dijon, and about the first of March it thence proceeded to Bordeaux. From Bordeaux Lieutenant Martin sailed with his outfit at 11:30 p. m., April 25, 1919, the medium of transport having
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been the United States steamship "Huron," a converted German liner formerly known as Frederich der Grosse, and on the 6th of May, 1919, the vessel arrived in the port of New York city. The command was thence ordered to Camp Dix, New Jersey, and there Lieutenant Martin was mustered out on the 10th of the same month, his honorable dis- charge having been given after a period of faithful, efficient and patri- otic service with the American Expeditionary Forces in the great battle area where the destinies of the world were determined. Since his return from France Lieutenant Martin has taken unto himself a wife, in the person of Miss Lorreta O'Gorman, a young woman of most gra- cious personality and exceptional musical talent, their home being in the city of Duluth.
LAWRENCE J. McGOVERN almost from the beginning of his business career has been identified with the New York Life Insurance Com- pany and came to Duluth in charge of the agency organization work about four years ago.
Mr. McGovern was born at Irondale, Illinois, November 9, 1882, a son of Thomas E. and Mary (Cullen) McGovern. His father is still living, at the age of sixty-five. Thomas E. McGovern for many years has been a leading contractor of road construction. Lawrence J. McGov- ern is second in a family of five living children and was reared and educated in Chicago, attending the public schools and the De La Salle Institute. His active commercial experience has given him a wide knowledge of different lines of business. On leaving school he was for two years bookkeeper for a soap manufacturing company. Then for a year he was in the auditing department of the Rock Island Railroad. Following that for two years he was employed in the rate department of a large advertising concern having its headquarters in Chicago. Addi- tional variety to his experience was given by service of one year as bookkeeper with Marshall Field & Company of Chicago. It was at that time he first joined the New York Life in the Chicago offices, employed in the loan department. After two years he left to accept a place in the purchasing department of the nationally known contracting firm of Thompson Starrett Company at San Francisco. He was on the Pacific Coast with this firm for six months, and then returned to the New York Life as assistant cashier of the St. Paul offices. After two years there he was transferred to the Milwaukee office four years, then for six months was in the Missouri Clearing House, was then returned to Milwaukee as assistant cashier, following which the company sent him out to Grand Forks, North Dakota, as cashier in the office. He was at Grand Forks for seven years, and from there came to Duluth to take charge of the agency organization.
Mr. McGovern has been at Duluth four years and in that time has added a large number of men to the agency ranks. The business of the New York Life has been steadily growing, and it is the aim of the company to have one of the most progressive agency organizations in the country at the Head of the Lakes, and Mr. McGovern has been selected as the man whose qualifications especially fit him for directing these developments. The general offices of the company are in the Torrey Building.
JOHN J. E. WERTIN is president of the Gray-Wertin Company, insurance, real estate and investments, with headquarters in the Alworth Building in Duluth. This was the first firm to handle and call attention by judiciously placed publicity to the natural resources of Lake Ver-
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