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 5
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took the soldiers' oath of allegiance and was ordered and was on the way to Camp Taylor, Kentucky, to enter the Officers Training Camp when the armistice was signed. Mr. Murdink is a Republican, a thirty- second degree Mason and Shriner, and a Knight of Pythias. In June, 1916, he married Bertha M. Dykeman, daughter of E. L. Dykeman, of Stephen, Minnesota.
CARL PEARSON is the active head of Olof Pearson & Son, contractors and builders at 209-211 Lake avenue, North, in Duluth. This is a business that represents a high-class specialty in building construction, comprising an organization of expert and skilled carpenters and cabinet makers, and prepared to give prompt and efficient service in the best classes of repairing and remodeling as well as all general carpenter work.
The founder of the business was the late Olof Pearson, who was born in Sweden and came to America alone in 1884. After several years in the eastern states he went out to North Dakota in 1888, and had the management of a large farm for a time. In 1890 he engaged in the building and contracting business under his own name, working alone three years, then one year with a partner, again alone for himself at 19 Second avenue, West, for about five years, and then moved to 207 West First street. Olof Pearson died in 1916. He married Fredericka Bowman, and had eight children, five of whom are still living.
Carl Pearson was born at Duluth, March 15, 1894, had a public school education and as a boy worked for his father and acquired pro- ficiency in all branches of carpentry and building. At the age of eighteen he went with another firm for a year and a half, then moved away from Duluth for two years, and on returning to the city joined his father in the firm of Olof Pearson & Son, and that organization and title he still maintains. The business employs about twenty expert men and has proved itself thoroughly competent in the handling of contracts.
Mr. Pearson is a Republican voter. On August 5, 1916, he mar- ried Miss Lillian E. Olsen. Her father, John Olsen, came to America in 1880. Mr. and Mrs. Pearson have one daughter, Marjorie W., and also one son, Robert H.
WILLIAM C. TOBEN, sales manager of the Certain-teed Products Corp- oration at Duluth, has been identified with this concern since 1915, and has contributed materially to the success of a concern which now manu- factures about one-third of the roofing and building paper used in the United States. Mr. Toben was born at 209 Third avenue, East, Duluth, September 15, 1889, a son of Bernard and Emma (Sugg) Toben, natives respectively of Illinois and Wisconsin. Bernard Toben has been a resi- dent of Duluth for about thirty-three years, during the major portion of which time he has been a retail dealer in meats. He still survives at the age of fifty-nine years, his wife being fifty-six years of age. They had seven children, William C. being the second in order of birth.
William C. Toben received good educational advantages in his youth, and is a graduate of the Duluth High School, the University of Califor- nia and the Houghton School of Mines. At the age of twenty years he embarked in civil engineering, which he followed as a profession for three years, the next two years being spent in association with his father. During the trouble on the Mexican border he served one year, and on his return joined the Certain-teed Products Corporation. He was with this concern until he enlisted in the United States Army, infantry branch, in April, 1918, and was assigned for instructive work at Camp Lewis. After eleven months in the service he received his honorable dis-
Carl G. Pearson.
Olaf Mandou
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charge and returned to the Certain-teed Products Corporation, and was appointed sales manager January 14, 1920, a position which he has since filled with excellent ability.
The Certain-teed Products Corporation was organized by George M. Brown of Saint Louis in the year 1904, under the name of General Roofing Manufacturing Company, a name under which it continued for about twelve years, during which time it had grown to be the leading manufacturer in roofing and building papers in the United States. The organization consisted at that time of thirty-six sales offices and forty- two warehouses. During this time the company confined itself to the manufacture of the highest grade of prepared roofing, the principal parts of the manufacture of which were the making of a rag felt and the proper saturation and coating thereof with a correct blend of asphalt. In 1916 the company was reorganized as the Certain-teed Products Corp- oration, and to its line of roofing and building papers added a complete line of paints and varnishes. The number of sales offices have been in- creased from thirty-six to thirty-nine, and forty-six warehouses are now being operated. These warehouses and sales offices are located all over the United States. During the period of its operation the company has grown from the very smallest in its line to a point where at the present it is manufacturing about one-third of the roofing and building paper sold in the United States. The company established a sales office and warehouse at Duluth in May, 1915. This office has always been located in the Sellwood Building, and the present location of the warehouse is at 122 East Michigan street. The Duluth office was opened, under the direction of L. R. Walker of Saint Louis, by J. R. Pflueger.
Mr. Toben joined the Delta Tau Delta fraternity during his college days, and is a member of the Knights of Columbus. His religious faith is that of the Catholic Church. On February 14, 1920, he was married at Minneapolis to Miss Gladys Millen, a daughter of John G. Millen.
HERBERT S. KING. During the past thirty years several members of the King family have had an important share of the technical work and official administration of the mining districts of northern Minnesota. One of them, Herbert S. King, had a long and intensive training in mining affairs here and is now superintendent of the Chandler Mining Company of Ely.
He was born at Negaunee, Michigan, September 2, 1887, son of Henry and Rachel (Gordon) King. His parents were Canadians from the Province of Quebec, lived in Michigan for a number of years, and in 1892 removed to the Mesaba Range, locating at Virginia. Henry King has been connected with steam shovel operations in the mining district and has been employed by nearly all the iron companies here. He is now sixty-four and his wife fifty-four. Both are devout Presbyterians and he was an official member of the church for a number of years. They had a family of three sons and two daughters. Alexander, the oldest, is a highly trained technical man in mining affairs, being a graduate of the Minnesota State University and the Colorado School of Mines, and is now superintendent of the Holman Mine of the Oliver Iron Mining Company. Lillis King is the wife of Ray Fitzgibbons, of Monroe, Wis- consin. Myrtle R. is a kindergarten teacher at Duluth and formerly taught at Virginia. Ellard G. was a member of the Hospital Corps in France, and while on the battle front was gassed, and the Government is now enabling him to complete his education in the University of Cali- fornia at Berkeley.
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Herbert S. King was about five years old when the family moved to Virginia, and he graduated from the schools of that city at the age of eighteen. He then became a clerical worker in the office of the New York State Steel Company at Virginia, remaining there two years, and for four years did clerical work at the Commodore Mine at Virginia. Since 1911 he has been in the offices of the Chandler Mining Company, has made a thorough study of the business, and his quick comprehension of responsibilities has brought him various promotions. For several years he has been a member of the Board of Directors and since Janu- ary, 1921, has been superintendent of the company.
Mr. King interests himself in various matters affecting the welfare and progress of his community. He is one of the trustees of the Pres- byterian Church, is a Republican and is a master of Ely Lodge of Masons.
November 18, 1908, he married Miss Ruth Trimble, daughter of B. M. Trimble. Mrs. King was born at Virginia and she and Mr. King attended high school together. For two years she has been a member of the Ely School Board. They have four children : Kathleen, David, Audrey and Nancy.
ITASCA BAZAAR COMPANY. The largest mercantile business on the Mesaba Range, handling a general stock of dry goods, clothing, women's ready to wear garments, millinery and house furnishings, is the Itasca Bazaar Company, a strikingly successful mercantile enterprise, due to the extraordinary energy and ability of a woman, Mrs. D. M. Power, who has created and built up the store and is still its vital executive head. A small dry goods and house furnishing establishment was organ- ized at Hibbing under the name of The Bazaar in 1897 by Mrs. Dottie M. Power. By 1911 she had acquired a controlling interest in the Itasca Mercantile Company, and in 1913 became its sole owner. In the mean- time, in 1911, the two stores had been combined as the Itasca Bazaar Company, a name that has been continued. In 1920, owing to the moving of old Hibbing, a new building was erected as an appropriate home for his mercantile establishment at Third avenue and Howard street. It is a two and a half story brick building, 100x125 feet.
Mrs. Power, who deserves all the credit for this interesting example of commercial enterprise, was born in New York City and was a child when she went west to Sands and later to Gladstone, Michigan, with her parents, Thomas and Mary (Flynn) O'Connell. She graduated from St. Joseph's Seminary at Marquette, and in 1896 was married to W. J. Power of Hibbing.
Walter J. Power was born at Copper Harbor, Michigan, March 29, 1879, and is son of a distinguished lawyer and brother of Victor Power of Hibbing, noted elsewhere in this publication. Walter J. Power was educated in the public schools of Escanaba and Calumet, read law under his father, and was admitted to the bar and has been in practice at Hib- bing for over twenty years. He was associated with P. H. Nelson in organizing the Merchants and Miners State Bank of Hibbing, and for a year or so served as president of that institution.
EMIL J. ZAUFT. To few men do various Minnesota counties owe more for a practical demonstration of substantial and effective building than to Emil J. Zauft. Skill, energy, resource and continual advancement are levers in the constructive machinery of this master builder. He has the natural pride of the true artisan, especially of one who uses his worth to create, and who must needs be surrounded by his work in the future
Gro Ho Sunberry
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and hear on all sides the estimate placed thereupon by the community.
Mr. Zauft was born at Waukesha, Wisconsin, was reared on a farm at Baraboo, that state, and when sixteen years of age began an appren- ticeship to the carpenter's trade, at the same time gaining a high school education. When twenty-one years of age, in 1889, he came to West Duluth and for three years worked as a journeyman carpenter. After that he began jobbing in a small way and since then has steadily advanced in his vocation, making his work of lasting good to the community. He operates extensively in the building of schoolhouses and county court houses in the state of Minnesota, as well as in Wisconsin, and among the buildings to his credit are the Young Men's Christian Association structures at Duluth and . West Duluth. His offices are maintained at No. 5613 Grand avenue.
During the early days of the village of West Duluth he was a mem- ber of the Volunteer Fire Department and had command of the local hook-and-ladder company. He served five years as a member of Com- pany G, Minnesota National Guard, and held the rank of sergeant when the company was disbanded. Mr. Zauft was one of the organizers of the West Duluth Commercial Club, of which he was elected president in 1916, is a member of the Duluth Commercial Club, the Duluth Boat Club and the Duluth Rotary Club, and is president of the Duluth Build- ers' Exchange. In 1914 he was president of the Minnesota Builders' Exchange. He assisted in the organization of the Western Curling Club and each year has appeared with a prize-wining rink at the North- western Bonspiel. He has served as chancellor commander of Duluth Lodge No. 123, Knights of Pythias, and twice has held the office of noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
In 1901 Mr. Zauft was united in marriage with Miss Florence Felt, whose father was one of the pioneer settlers of Superior, Wisconsin.
GEORGE H. LOUNSBERRY. On the basis of proved achievement and accomplishment, the name of George H. Lounsberry is synonymous with building construction in and around Duluth. As a general contractor he has been in business many years, and probably no other contractor can exhibit a better proportioned list and group of important building work than Mr. Lounsberry.
He was born at Fairmont, Minnesota, April 29, 1869, a son of Colonel C. A. and Victoria (Hoskins) Lounsberry. His father was a native of the state of New York and his mother of Michigan. Colonel Lounsberry has long been a prominent man in the northwestern country. He was postmaster and at one time publisher of the Tribune at Bis- marck, North Dakota, and about 1885 helped established the News Tribune of Duluth. For many years past his home has been in the state of Washington, where he does special land agent work and is now sev- enty-six years of age. Of his five children four are living.
The second oldest of the family, George H. Lounsberry acquired his early education in a seminary at Bismarck, North Dakota, but has been practically earning his own living since he was ten years of age. As a boy he carried messages and papers, and at the age of seventeen began an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade. He worked as a journeyman seven years, and at Duluth entered building construction work with George Smith, under the firm name of Lounsberry & Smith. This part- nership continued four years and since then Mr. Lounsberry has been in business alone as a general contractor. Since August, 1916, his business offices and headquarters have been in his own building at 322
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East Superior street. He is a master of details of every phase of the building industry. He has assembled a large force of competent and skilled workers, and has a large amount of capital invested in equipment of every kind for the handling of some of the very largest contracts involved in building construction. He has erected some of the largest building blocks in Duluth, and a number of years ago carried out con- tracts involving upwards of a million dollars in the construction of houses of the "Model Town" of the United States Steel Corporation, has built bridges and many public buildings, including U. S. Grant and Park Point school houses, the telephone building at Duluth, and many others. Ten years ago Mr. Lounsberry helped organize the Verna Brick Company, and is vice-president of that industry.
Fraternally, he is affiliated with the various branches of Masonry, including everything up to the thirty-third degree of the Scottish Rite. He is a member of the Commercial Club and the Builders Exchange and is a Republican in political affiliations.
At Duluth July 15, 1896, he married Miss Margaret Harrington, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Harrington, who came from Ireland. Four children have been born to their marriage: Paige Lounsberry, born in 1898; Harlow, born in 1903; Sylvia, born in 1906; and Jessica, born in 1910. The younger children are still attending school at Duluth, while Paige, the oldest, after completing the work of the Duluth schools, fin- ished his education in Culver Military Academy in Indiana and is now associated with his father.
D. H. LONERGAN is a highly qualified expert in all the complications of mortgage loans, rentals, real estate and insurance, and with knowledge he combines an exceptional energy that has brought a tremendous volume of business and effective enterprise to his organization.
Mr. Lonergan was born at South Bend, Indiana, July 29, 1886, and began his business career practically as a wage earner. His parents were James A. and Phoebe (Smith) Lonergan. His father for the greater part of his life has been a landscape gardener for Notre Dame University at South Bend, and is still living at the age of seventy-six. Of his four children three are living, D. H. being the eldest.
He attended the parochial schools of South Bend, and at the age of fourteen was earning his living and acquiring business training as clerk in a dry goods store. Later he learned the trade of molder, which he followed for seven years. Leaving his trade, he has engaged in the ral estate and loan business, and had an experience in that line for seven years before coming to Duluth. His specialty is real estate exchange, and from a small beginning he has developed a volume of business amounting to a million dollars annually. Some of the largest business properties and most expensive residences have been handled by him and he has shown a remarkable capacity to bring buyer and seller together. While practically all his business is now concentrated at Duluth, he also operated at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, for several years. Mr. Lonergan is married and has one daughter, Helen Phoebe.
WILLIAM JAMES MUDGE. Few men cultivate more intensively the opportunities of life than William James Mudge has done. Possessed of an eager mind, an industrious disposition, an aspiring ambition, he has worked faithfully where circumstances have placed him and has prepared himself for other duties beyond and has had a most interesting range of experience and achievement.
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Mr. Mudge, who is now superintendent in charge of the South Chandler Mine in Ely, was born at Beeralstone, Devonshire, England, July 25, 1862, son of William and Mary (Channon) Mudge. His mother was also a native of Devonshire, while his father came from County Kent and was an under captain in the Russell United Mines of Devon. During his early manhood he also performed a mission as a special agent of the British Government in the United States.
William James Mudge acquired his preliminary education at Gun- nis Lake and took his grammar school work at Tavistock in Devon. When he was twelve he joined the British Navy. His grammar school education was finished while working on an eight-hour shift in the mines. His mining experience covered several of the English mining districts and when he first came to the United States he worked in the mines at Mount Hope, New Jersey, and also in the copper mines at Calumet, Michigan, and the silver mines at Park City, Utah. For a time he was also engaged in construction work with the Flagler Railroad on the coast of Florida.
Having in the meantime seen much of the world, Mr. Mudge returned to England and for a year or so applied himself to the study of lan- guages, science and theology, and fitted himself for the ministry of the Bible Christian Church, becoming an evangelist. During a period of three years as a means of self support he also worked in the Russell United Mines and in other mines.
On his second trip to the United States Mr. Mudge located at Negau- nee, Michigan, and for sixteen years was identified with that mining district, holding among other positions that of head shift boss. During the past twenty years his work as a miner has been in northern Minne- sota. As a mine captain he opened the Hawkins Mine at Nashwauk in 1901. Under his superintendency the LaRue Mine was opened in 1903 and the Adriatic Mine at Mesaba in 1906. Since 1919 his duties have been as superintendent of the South Chandler Mine at Ely.
In Devonshire Mr. Mudge married Mary Prout Hawkins Chapman. She died while they were living at Nashwauk. Of their five children four are living: Mrs. P. H. Hubbard, of Ely, whose husband is a con- ductor on the Iron Range Railroad; William, general foreman at Bab- bitt ; Stanley Howard, now at Eveleth, who enlisted early in the war with Germany, was in service for twenty-two months in the Philippines, and received his discharge as an invalid; Norman E., who was in the Students Army Training Corps at the State University, and is in the insurance business ; and Eugene, who died at Nashwauk in childhood. In 1908 Mr. Mudge married Miss Ada Chapman, a sister of his first wife.
Mr. Mudge is a Christian who makes his religion part of his daily life. He is a devout Methodist, a teacher of the Bible Class and Sunday School and of a men's class each Sunday afternoon. For some time he has made it a practice to read the Bible through every year. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite and York Rite Mason and Odd Fellow.
Mr. Mudge has performed much public service since coming to Minnesota. While at Nashwauk he was clerk of the School Board and clerk of the Township Board, served as president of the Town Board at Mesaba for seven years, was president of the School Board of District No. 13 for six years, for four years was president of the County School Board, and for one year was president of the State Board of Education. Recently he was appointed special judge at Ely.
Vol. III-3
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GEORGE E. LEHMAN. There are some people who express surprise at the very remarkable development which has taken place in the Mesaba Range, resulting in the creation of one of the finest little cities in the world at Hibbing, and yet when a roster is compiled of the men who are living in this part of St. Louis County the keen observer realizes that this expansion is but the logical outcome of such an aggregation of citizens, to whom progress comes as a matter of everyday endeavor. One of these energetic and dependable men who has accomplished much dur- ing the eighteen years he has been a resident of St. Louis County is George E. Lehman, district road engineer for the Seventh Commission District of the County. ยท
Born at Negaunee, Michigan, June 14, 1878, he is a native of the north country. His parents were William and Elizabeth (Heppe) Leh- man, both of German nativity, but residents of the United States from childhood. William Lehman is still living, although eighty-six years old, and resides at Negaunee, but his wife is deceased. His chief work in life was accomplished as a carpenter. During the war between the north and the south he served in the Union army from Missouri.
George E. Lehman was reared in his native city, and after attending its common and high schools became a student at the Northern State Normal School at Marquette, Michigan. For six years subsequent to the completion of his studies, he was a school teacher in Michigan, but afterward became a civil and mining engineer, and with the idea of securing employment in his professional capacity he came to Hibbing, and for eighteen months was timekeeper for the Oliver Mining Com- pany, during which time he secured an acquaintance which justified his establishing himself in a general practice as a civil and mining engineer, and continuing in it until 1916, when he received his present appointment from the Board of Commissioners of Saint Louis County. His duty is to have charge of the road work and bridge work of his district, and through him much has been accomplished for this region. He is a thor- oughly experienced man and capable of discharging the onerous respon- sibilities of his office in a highly efficient manner and at the least cost to the taxpayers.
Mr. Lehman is independent in his political affiliations. He belongs to the Episcopal Church. The Masonic fraternity holds his membership and he also belongs to the Commercial Club of Hibbing, the State Engi- neers and Surveyors Society and the Northern Minnesota Engineers Club.
In 1911 Mr. Lehman was united in marriage with Miss Mary Isabelle Neely, of Negaunee, Michigan, and they have three children, namely: Isabelle, Ray and Janet. Possessed of strong personality and extraordi- nary abilities, he has won the confidence of all of his associates and has become the moving spirit of his district in securing and completing pub- lic improvements.
C. L. BURMAN. One of the oldest established sheet metal concerns of Duluth is that of C. L. Burman, the business title at present being Bur- man & McGill, at 1625 West Superior street. Mr. Burman has been a resident of Minnesota for upwards of thirty years and has spent most of his active life as a sheet metal worker.
He was born in Sweden October 1, 1869, and was reared and edu- cated in his native country. In 1891, at the age of twenty-two, he came to the United States, joining his grandfather in Minnesota. He soon located at St. Paul, and was employed there in the sheet metal trade for five years. For a short time after that he was located in Montana, and
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