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 6
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at three different times, during 1892, 1894 and 1898, was in the service of George Ralph, in a party of state engineers engaged in surveying work in northern Minnesota. On moving to Duluth Mr. Burman en- tered the sheet metal business and since 1908 has been contracting indi- vidually. On March 25, 1919, he took in Mr. McGill as a partner, under the firm name of Burman & McGill. Their establishment is at 1625 West Superior street, and they have equipment for handling all classes of sheet metal work and the business of heating and ventilating engineers.
Mr. Burman is independent in politics and is affiliated with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. In December, 1902, he married Miss Lemberg. They have three children: Ethel, Mildred and Carl, all of whom are students in the public schools of Duluth.
RALPH FISCKETTI is a popular business man of Duluth and has been well known in the city for the past twenty years.
He was born in Italy October 25, 1875, and came to America in 1900, locating among relatives and friends at Duluth. His people had preceded him to this country by several years. Mr. Fiscketti learned the cabinet maker's trade in the old country and after coming to Duluth worked in a sash and frame factory three years, was with the Baxter Sash and Door factory and also was a journeyman carpenter. He was a very skillful man at his trade and competent for all branches of work. Eventually he got into business for himself as proprietor of a lunch stand at 5291/2 Superior street, and has since given all his time to the business of feeding the public.
In 1898 he married Miss Agnes Belfatto. They have three children : Henry G., born in 1910; Lucy, born in 1912, and Gelde.
B. W. HINTZ is active head of the Hintz-Cameron Company, whole- sale and retail dealers in flour, feed, hay, millstuff, field and garden seeds. Mr. Hintz has been in this business at Duluth for over ten years and prior to that had a widely varied commercial experience both here and in other cities of the country.
He was born at Mansfield in Freeborn County, Minnesota, January 17, 1883, son of August and Louise (Jost) Hintz. His father, a native of Germany, came to America alone about 1850 and spent a long and active career as a farmer in Minnesota at Mansfield. He died in 1894. Of his large family of thirteen children nine are still living, B. W. being the youngest.
B. W. Hintz attended school at Mansfield, also acquired a portion of his education in Duluth, and at the age of nineteen left the farm to go to work for Morris & Company, meat packers. He was with that concern three years, and for six months was an employe in the Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, branch house of Armour & Company. Then return- ing to Minnesota he was connected with the Duluth Cigar Company three years, and on March 21, 1909, engaged in the feed business at 114 East Michigan street. He has been in that one locality and in the same business ever since, but the volume of his trade and busi- ness has had a tremendous expansion. The Hintz-Cameron Company handle the products of the Albert Dickinson Company in Duluth, and distribute the products of various other mills and manufacturers.
Mr. Hintz is a member of the Commercial Club, the Elks Club, and was reared a Lutheran. August 17, 1906, at Minneapolis, he married Miss Marguerite Mostue, daughter of Louise Mostue, of Duluth. They have one daughter, Elinor, born April 25, 1916.
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BENJAMIN M. LIPPMAN. There are few men who have been more closely associated and for a longer time with the commercial life of the Mesaba Range than Benjamin M. Lippman, now a resident of Hibbing.
Mr. Lippman is an American citizen of varied experience, and though of foreign birth has been assimilated in every way with the life and ideals of this nation. He was born in southern Russia June 5, 1876, a son of M. E. and Zelda (Yesner) Lippman. His parents spent most of their lives in Russia and his father grew up a farmer, later became an importer and lived on the border line between his own country and Ger- many, importing goods from Germany and selling in Russia. He had been educated for a Rabbi and was a man of superior intelligence and influence. He made several visits to the United States, and his death occurred in Virginia, Minnesota, in 1916; and his widow is still living in that Minnesota town.
Benjamin M. Lippman is one of eight children, four of whom are still living. His home was in Russia to the age of twenty. During that time he devoted himself to his studies under the supervision of his tal- ented father and other excellent instructors. As he grew toward man- hood he carefully considered the future and his environment in central Europe and determined that destiny offered him the greater rewards in another land. Accordingly in 1896 he came to the United States. He reached here without capital, without a knowledge of language and customs, and with such handicaps showed remarkable resourcefulness in finding a way to start and at a time when the country was still slowly recovering from the results of a panic. At Altoona, Pennsylvania, some friends credited him with seventeen dollars and a half in trade, and he laid in a stock of notions and started peddling. That was the real beginning of his American career. In this way he went on until 1899. and in that year came to the Mesaba Range in northern Minnesota. He was at Eveleth, but about three months later established a store at Mckinley, and in the mean- time had assisted his brother Samuel to come to northern Minnesota, and they were partners in the venture at Mckinley. They soon opened another store at Eveleth, Samuel being in charge of the Mckinley stock, while Benjamin went to Eveleth. Later Benjamin Lippman operated a store at Cass Lake, Minnesota, for two and a half years. He and his brother Samuel then established a business at Buhl, and for a time were propri- etors of three stores, at Mckinley, Buhl and Mount Iron. In the mean- time they had induced another brother, Henry, to cross the ocean, and it was Henry who was manager of the business at Mount Iron. This enterprise rapidly grew and in 1905 Benjamin Lippman moved there to give it his personal supervision. It was on the 14th of February of that year, and after he had been in America for nine years, that Mr. Lipp- man married Annie J. Margulis.
Early in 1906 the business of the brothers was divided and Benjamin moved to Virginia, where he established a store and conducted it three and a half years, until selling out. In 1909 he moved to Hibbing and with Charles Hallock founded the Hibbing Department Store on Pine street. Their partnership was dissolved in 1913, in which year Mr. Lipp- man established his present department store. He is just completing a fine brick building in the new town of South Hibbing. to which he will remove when completed. This building is of brick 100 feet frontage, 125 feet deep and three stories in height, with 37,500 square feet of floor space. It is strictly modern in every way and when completed will be the finest department store in northeastern Minnesota. While he was in Virginia Mr. Lippman established branch stores at Nashwauk
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and Hibbing, subsequently selling both these enterprises, as well as another store which he founded at Hibbing. He is now president of the Minnesota Dry Goods Company of Virginia, and has one of the largest and best-stocked department stores at Hibbing on the Mesaba Range.
Mr. Lippman has for years regarded himself as an American and all his actions are the best proof of his thorough Americanism. He naturalized as a citizen as quickly as possible, and no native son is more ready to support matters involving patriotism and public spirit. During the World war he enrolled himself as a member of the local Home Guards, and was honorably discharged when the war was over. On one occasion during the war he put on a sale conducted by the public as clerks, giving ten per cent of all the proceeds to the Red Cross. While he has never aspired to office he was elected municipal judge while at Buhl. , Mr. and Mrs. Lippman have two children, Monroe I. and Blessing.
L. C. COFFIN. The record of Mr. Coffin is that of a man who by his own unaided efforts has worked his way from a modest beginning to a position of affluence and. influence in the business world. His life has been of unceasing industry and perseverance and the systematic and . honorable methods which he has followed have won him the unbounded confidence of his fellow citizens. L. C. Coffin is a Yankee by nativity, having been born at Collis, Vermont, on the 27th of November, 1876, and is the sixth in order of birth of the eight children born to Fessenden and Sophronia (Lord) Coffin. Both of his parents were natives of Vermont and both are now deceased, the father dying in 1887. He was a farmer by vocation and stood high in the esteem of his fellow citizens.
L. C. Coffin attended the public schools and then was a student in the Vermont Methodist Seminary at Montpelier, Vermont. At the age of seven years he had left home and worked on a farm until ten years old, when he went to Barre, Vermont, and thereafter until twenty-four years old was identified with the granite industry. In 1904 Mr. Coffin came to Duluth, Minnesota, and engaged in the music business. Three years later he founded the Boston Music House, which proved to be a most successful enterprise and in 1912 the company was incorporated, with the following stockholders and officers: L. C. Coffin, president and treasurer ; Al Bluett, vice president, and Gusta Rustafson, secretary. They carry on a general music merchandising business, carrying a full line of musical instruments, as well as a large stock of music of every character. By their energetic efforts, sound business judgment and courteous treatment of their customers this company has grown from a modest beginning to one of the largest music houses in the northwest, certainly the largest of its kind at the Head of the Lakes. They also handle pianos and talking machines and phonographs, and fifteen sales people are constantly engaged, the sales rooms and stock rooms occupy- ing the four floors of their building at No. 1820 Lake avenue, North.
On January 1, 1914, Mr. Coffin was married to Mildred Francis, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Francis, of Lake Linden, Michigan, and they have one child, Lional, born September 14, 1919. Mr. Coffin also has a daughter, Velma, by a former marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Coffin are members of the Pilgrim Congregational Church, to which they give generous support. Mr. Coffin is a member of the Commercial Club, the Rotary Club, the Retail Merchants Association, and fraternally is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is essen-
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tially a man of affairs, of sound judgment, keen discernment, far-seeing in what he undertakes, and his success in life has been the legitimate fruitage of consecutive effort, directed and controlled by good judgment and correct principles. Because of his success and excellent qualities of character he enjoys a high standing throughout the community.
WILLIAM C. BARRETT, who has been a resident of Hibbing since the fall of 1893, is now engaged in an undertaking business and has won the gratitude of the people of this community for the dignified and sympathetic service he renders in the time of greatest bereavement. Mr. Barrett was born at Willsborough Point, Essex County, New York, on Lake Champlain, August 15, 1857. His father, Peter Barrett, of Canadian nativity, came to the United States when a child, and lived in New York the remainder of his life, dying at Sandy Hill, New York. He married Mary Gordon.
Growing up in his native state, William C. Barrett was given the advantage of careful training by his watchful parents, and apprenticed to learn the stone-cutting trade when old enough to do so under his father, who was foreman in the Lake Champlain Blue Stone Quarry for years. While he learned his trade, Mr. Barrett's opportunities for acquiring an education were meagre. When he reached his majority he came west and located at Norway, Michigan, and for some years was on the Menominee Range, leaving it for the Gogebic Range, and from there he went to Ely on the Vermillion Range of northern Minnesota. At the latter place he was employed in. drilling for a couple of years. His next venture was the operation of the Oliver House in partnership with another man, and he subsequently lived for a short time at Mount Iron, coming from the latter place to Hibbing in the fall of 1893.
When Mr. Barrett arrived at Hibbing the village was but a small mining camp. Murphy Brothers kept the post office, and W. H. Day, the Gearys, Dennis Haley, Doctor Rood were a few other of the early settlers whom Mr. Barrett found at Hibbing. Pine street was the only business thoroughfare, and the Sellers shaft was the only mining then started, for the exploration of the Mahoning was just beginning. There were no churches, but plenty of "blind pigs" were operated in sheds and tents. Mr. Barrett operated a livery business and represented a brewery during the first few months he was at Hibbing, but in 1894 embarked in an undertaking business and has pursued it ever since. His first place was at the corner of Second and North streets, but later he moved his business directly opposite and there he remained until December, 1917, when he secured his present premises.
On June 1, 1893, Mr. Barrett was united in marriage with Mary Hurley, and they have had five children born to them, namely: Clinton, Russell, Veronia, Wilfred and Donald. Both Clinton and Russell answered their country's call during the great war. Clinton was in the state militia prior to the entry of this country into the war, as a non- commissioned officer of Company M, Third Minnesota National Guard, and as such went to the Mexican border in 1916. His command became the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Field Artillery, Battery B, during the great war, and he went to Deming, New Mexico, for training. He was sent overseas in September, 1918, and was five hours' march from the front when the armistice was signed. Russell was in the coast artil- lery and received his training in California. In July, 1918, he was sent overseas and was occupied driving ammunition trucks, and participated in the Chateau Thiery offensive. He received his honorable discharge after the signing of the armistice. Both young men returned home
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safely after their period of military service and have resumed more peaceful occupations. It is doubtful if these young men, or any others who wore the uniform, will ever be unmindful of the needs of the coun- try they risked their lives to preserve. What is worth fighting for is worth working for, is certainly true.
Mr. Barrett and his family are members of the Roman Catholic 'Church. He is a Republican and has served on the Township Board, the School Board and the Village Council. The Elks, Red Men, Knights of Columbus and Kiwanis Club all hold his membership. Having passed through the pioneer period of Hibbing and participated in its remark- able development, Mr. Barrett can appreciate the value of the present conditions better than one of the later arrivals in the community. It is a source of pride to him that he has borne his part in bringing about such desirable changes, and he has great faith in the future of the Mesaba Range and all of this part of the state, for he knows their wonderful possibilities.
WILLIAM MITCHELL is an expert mechanic and has been employed in technical occupations in the mining districts of northern Michigan and northern Minnesota for the past thirty years. His service in late years has been of a public nature, as superintendent of light and water at Ely.
Mr. Mitchell was born in Cornwall, England,, January 31, 1871, son of James and Mary (Tomkin) Mitchell. His father had the training and experience of the mining district of Cornwall, and in 1879 brought his family to America, first locating at Kingston, Ontario, and in the following year moving to Quinnesec, Michigan, and in March, 1884, was one of the skilled miners recruited by Captain E. J. Marcom for pioneer mining work at Tower, Minnesota. He was employed in the Soudan Mine, and died in August, 1886, at the age of forty-four. The widowed mother survived until 1910, at the age of sixty-five. Of her children John is a diamond drill expert in the Birmingham District of Alabama. A daughter, Mrs. H. Grosnick, died in Michigan. Beatrice is a trained nurse at Washington, D. C. Mrs. Mary Trudell lives at Worcester, Massachusetts.
William Mitchell was about thirteen years of age when the family moved to the Iron Ranges of Minnesota. He had in the meantime attended school at Quinnesec, Michigan. His first regular employment and technical training was acquired in the blacksmith shop of the Soudan Mines. For about a year he did engine work in the Arcadian copper district of Michigan, and in 1900 came to Ely, where he has been one of the valued and esteemed citizens for twenty years. For three years he was employed as timekeeper at the Pioneer Mine, and in 1903 became engineer for the City Light and Water Plant, and since 1913 has effi- ciently discharged his responsibilities as superintendent of this plant. He is a man who knows his business and is exceedingly loyal to his duties.
Mrs. Isabel Mitchell, his wife, was born at Hammerstburg, Canada, and was a teacher in the public schools of Ely until her marriage in 1910. They have a living daughter, Margaret, and another daughter, Frances, died at the age of three. Both Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Mitchell being superin- tendent of the Sunday School and treasurer of the Church Society. Politically he is a Republican.
LEIF JENSSEN, a highly qualified architect who has practiced his profession in Duluth some ten years, is a member of the firm German
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& Jenssen, whose professional work is exemplified in many of the out- standing public structures of Duluth and vicinity.
Mr. Jenssen was born in Norway February 16, 1879. He was liberally educated in his native country and graduated from the Norwegian Poly- technic Institute. He came to America alone in 1901 and for a time was employed as a draftsman in New York city. In 1903 he removed to Chicago and was similarly engaged there until he came to Duluth in 1909. During the following four years he was in the offices of the architectural firm German & Lignell. When that firm was dissolved in 1913 Mr. Jenssen became associated with Mr. German under the firm name of German & Jenssen, architects, whose offices are in the Exchange Building.
During the past five or six years they have had a large share of the architectural work of the city and have drawn plans and supervised con- struction for many prominent residences and business and public build- ings. Some of the public structures for which they have been architects are the Washington Manual Training School, Superior High School, the Lincoln School, the Young Men's Christian Association and Young Women's Christian Association Buildings and many beautiful residences. Mr. Jenssen is a member of the American Institute of Architects. and belongs to the Duluth Engineers' Club and the Architects' Association of Manitoba. In 1907 he married Miss Larsen, whose people also came from Norway. They are the parents of three children.
F. LABOVITZ. Considering the small amount of capital he possessed, and the difficulties involved in the acquisition of a new language and new customs and conditions, F. Labovitz has earned his remarkable suc- cess during twenty years of American residence. He is proprietor of one of the most successful department stores in Duluth, known as The Fair.
Mr. Labovitz was born in Roumania August 26, 1874. He was reared and acquired some commercial experience in his native land, where he married. With his wife he came to America in 1900, and soon estab- lished a home in Minneapolis, where for seven years he was in the retail fruit business. At that time he made much progress in American ways and customs and amassed a small capital, with which he came to Duluth in 1907 and opened a stock of merchandise at 5161/2 West Superior street. Gradually his business expanded and grew, and after eight years he moved to a larger building at 221-223 West First street and then opened the department store known as The Fair. This business has grown and developed, and its thousands of customers appreciate the service rendered as a store of large and well selected stock of economical wares. The business is now one involving an aggregate sales of about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually. Mr. Labovitz has always depended upon fair dealing to win his customers, and is head of a business that requires a large clerical force.
He and his wife have three children, Maurice, born in 1900; Roslind, born in 1902; and Israel M., born in 1907.
VICTOR L. POWER is undoubtedly one of the best known men in St. Louis County. He has achieved distinctive success in the law, but the associations of his name outside of his home town of Hibbing are largely due to the aggressive fight he has made from time to time in carrying out and perfecting a public policy for the benefit and improve- ment of Hibbing while he has been president of the village.
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Mr. Power was born at Calumet, Michigan,. April 29, 1881, son of John and Elizabeth (Corgan) Power. His father, the late John Power, who died at Chicago May 20, 1920, was for many years a distinguished lawyer of northern Michigan. A son of Matthew and Bridget (Veale) Power, the former born in 1802, John Power was born at Waterford, Ireland, July 13, 1846, and was reared in a home of culture and had good advantages during his youth. About 1861 he ran away from home and came to America, and in 1863, by special orders, enlisted as a drum- mer boy in the Union army in Company A of the Seventeenth New York Infantry. He was with Sherman's Army on the March to the Sea, and was twice wounded and served until mustered out June 19, 1865. After the war he entered the regular army for frontier duty in the Thirty-sixth Michigan Infantry, with headquarters at Fort Wilkins in the copper country of northern Michigan. Incidentally he was also made lighthouse keeper there, studied law, and was elected and served as county school superintendent. He was admitted to the bar in 1872, and began practice at Red Jacket, Michigan, where he enjoyed a rising position at the bar for twelve years, but in 1881 removed to Escanaba, where he continued his professional work until a short time before his death. He was five times nominated by the Democratic party for Congress, served as village and city attorney of Calumet and Escanaba for fifteen years, was county prosecuting attorney, and in 1894 was appointed and for more than four years filled the office of Federal district attorney for the western district of Michigan. For ten years he was a member and president of the Board of Education of Escanaba, also served as county superintend- ent of schools of Delta County, and, in the words of a committee of the Delta County Bar, was "considered one of the leading lawyers of Michi- gan and was recognized as a versatile trial lawyer and as a successful and well fortified counsellor. He was prominently concerned in many important litigations in the State and Federal Courts. He was a man of great natural ability and was a close student of the law. He was a man of high ideals and generous impulse. He was ever ready to do his duty as a public and private citizen. He was a man with many friends and the possessor of a generous and charitable nature. His natural ability and his extraordinary diligence as a lawyer were rewarded with such suc- cess as was possible to achieve. His eloquence as an advocate before the bar soon attracted attention throughout Michigan and Wisconsin." While he was performing the duties of lighthouse keeper at Upper Harbor in 1868 he married Miss Elizabeth Corgan, a native of Montreal, Canada. She died in 1914, the mother of eight children.
Victor L. Power, who was born at Calumet, Michigan, April 29, 1881. was two years old when his parents established their home in Escanaba, and later he was sent to Chicago to finish his education. He graduated from the Irving High School at the age of eighteen and then took special work in Latin, science and trigonometry in Lewis Institute. Returning to Michigan, he began his serious career as a checker on the ore docks at Escanaba, and for a time operated the Clifton Hotel at Marquette. Mr. Power visited Hibbing in the home of his brother in December, 1899, and that brief acquaintance gave him such a liking for that district and its people that he determined to make it his future home. Remaining here, he was employed as bookkeeper in a store, then as helper on the diamond drill in and around the village of Chisholm, and he also worked as a blacksmith's helper for the American Steel & Wire Company in the Chisholm Mine, which was the only industry on the site of what is now a flourishing town. The son of a successful lawyer, Mr. Power did not
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