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 8
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In November, 1887, Mr. Lardner was married in Duluth to Ruhamah Finley, a daughter of Thomas, Jr., and Lucy Griffin Finley, of Niles, Michigan. Her grandparents came respectively from New York and Maryland originally. Mr. and Mrs. Lardner have no living children. They are members of the Protestant Episcopal Church and Mr. Lardner is a member of the American Lafayette League. A man of honest motives and generous impulses, he has won and retains a host of warm and loyal friends. While he has prosecuted a special line of business on his own account, he also belongs to that class of representative citizens who promote the public welfare while advancing individual success, and he possesses to a marked degree those sterling qualities which command uniform confidence and regard.
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FRANK H. COHOE. Until the present century life presented its oppor- tunities to Frank H. Cohoe largely in the field of agriculture in his native province of Ontario. Soon afterward he came to the Range country of northern Minnesota, and from one responsibility to another has identified himself with the active operations of iron ore mining, and for several years past has been general superintendent of the Hibbing-Chisholm District for the Hanna Ore Mining Company.
Mr. Cohoe was born in Oxford County, Ontario, May 4, 1869, one of the five living children of Justus and Marion (Farrington) Cohoe. His father was born in Canada, but his mother was a native of the state of New York. Growing up on a farm and acquiring a public school education, Frank H. Cohoe had the sound environment and training of a country boy, and at the age of twenty-one began his individual career as a farmer. In March, 1902, he came to the iron ranges of northern Minnesota and was first employed for a brief time by the Oliver Iron Mining Company at Hibbing as a sampler of iron ore and also in the billing of cars. He was next engaged in looking after supplies and doing clerical work until December, 1903. He sought every opportunity to improve his knowledge of iron ore, and in December, 1903, came his first important promotion when he was made surface foreman in the Hull- Rust Mine of the Oliver Iron Mining Company. In June, 1905, he was promoted to night foreman of stripping operations in that mine. A year later he became general foreman in the stripping of the Sellers Mine, and continued so until November 1, 1912. He was then sent with a picked crew to strip the Graham Mine at Old Mesaba, a work that continued during the winter of 1912-13. In April, 1913, he returned to the Burk- Sellers Mines as general foreman, and in February, 1914, was assigned work in stripping the Kerr Mine. In August, 1914, he went with the Arthur Iron Mining Company as superintendent of the Leonard and Dunwoody Mines. The Arthur Mining Company leased its operating facilities to the Hanna Ore Mining Company, and Mr. Cohoe worked with the latter organization as general superintendent, and in that capac- ity has been retained.
He is a well-known man in the mining circles of the Hibbing District. He is a Republican in politics, a member of the Algonquin and Kiwanis Clubs, and was reared in the Quaker church but is not a member of any religious denomination. At the age of twenty-one he married Miss Elsie Kelly, of Oxford County, Ontario. They have two children, Awrey W. and Welby C. Welby was trained in the Aviation Department of the American Armies, and for the greater part of his service was stationed at Montrose, Scotland, and completed his training about ten days before the signing of the armistice.
J. R. PATTERSON has been one of the energetic business men of the Head of the Lakes district for the past fifteen years, and is now manager of the well-known commission house of Paine, Webber & Company.
On coming to Duluth in 1905 he took charge of the contracting depart- ment of the Duluth & Mesaba Railway. That was his work for four years, and then after other experiences he became cashier on December 31, 1915, of Paine, .Webber & Company, grain and bond brokers, and since 1919 has been manager of that firm.
DAVID REID BLACK. A successful business is one that performs an essential service and has a gratifying growth in volume and patronage from year to year. Measured by such a standard one of the high class firms of Duluth is the D. R. Black Company, plumbing and heating, an
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old established industry. This corporation has been in existence for six- teen years. Its founder and active head, David Reid Black, has been identified with his trade and business in this city for over thirty years.
Along with his proficiency and thoroughness in the mechanical detail of his trade Mr. Black possessed those qualities of the business executive that enabled him to control and direct an establishment of his own, and his efficiency is partly due to the fact that he has been depending upon himself since boyhood. He was born in Scotland. His father, Allan WV. Black, brought his family to America in 1883, coming with six children. For one year he lived at Milwaukee, then removed to St. Paul, Minnesota.
David R. Black, fifth among the children, was fourteen years old when he came to America, and about two years later began doing for himself. He had a common school education, and he served his appren- ticeship in the plumbing and heating business at St. Paul. About thirty- one years ago he came to Duluth, and while he is a citizen of varied social and civic relationships, his fundamental work from the beginning has been in the plumbing and heating line. He was manager for Allan Black, a brother, who had four places of business, one at Grand Forks, one at
Minneapolis, one at St. Paul and one in Duluth. David R. Black man- aged the Duluth business branch for a time and then took it over, and it has since been under his individual direction. The D. R. Black Com- pany was incorporated in 1904 and has handled many large contracts as well as a great volume of general business in heating, plumbing and ventilating. The company is located in its own building at 314 West First street in Duluth.
Mr. Black is a member of the State Society of Sanitary and Heating Engineers. He is a director and for many years a member of the Duluth Builders Exchange. He is also a member of the Heating and Piping Contractors' National Association. Largely through the weight of his individual experience and business character he has given his company a prestige and responsibility all over northern Minnesota.
Mr. Black is a member of the Commercial Club, a member of the Longview Tennis Club, an associate member of Duluth Council Boy Scouts of America, is a life member of the Elks and a member of all the Masonic bodies including the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the Duluth Boat Club and the Kiwanis Club. He was born and reared a Presby- terian, and in politics is a Republican.
In 1899, at Duluth, Mr. Black married Miss Flora J. Louden, only daughter of Robert Louden, a lumberman and old settler of Duluth, now living in Portland, Oregon. To their marriage were born four children, all of whom are being given every encouragement and advantage in the way of school and college education for useful careers. The children are : David L., a student in the University of Virginia at Charlottesville ; Allan W., a student in the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington ; Newton R., who attends the Augusta Military Academy at Fort Defiance, Virginia ; and Genevieve, only daughter, a student in the Duluth High School.
CAPT. ELISHA MORCOM. A great deal of the history of ore mining in northern Minnesota might be written from the experiences of the Mor- com family. The late Capt. Elisha Morcom had the distinction of opening the first iron mine in Minnesota. That was over thirty-seven years ago, and he and other members of the family have figured promi- nently in the districts around Tower ever since.
Elisha Morcom was born in the Parish of Kenwyn, Cornwall, England, May 5, 1835, being son of a mining captain in Cornwall. When he was
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only fifteen years of age he voluntarily left school to go to work in a coal mine in Cornwall. While he had a limited amount of schooling, he never regarded his education as finished, and was a student and close observer of men and affairs all his life. He had the faculty of executive direction, and his abilities as a manager were as valuable as his technical skill in mining operations. . Four years after going to work in a coal mine he came to the United States, in 1854, in company with an uncle, William Grose. He landed at Philadelphia, and from there went on to the copper mines of Keweenau County, Michigan, and after two years removed to Ontonagon County in the same state. He was given the responsibility of mining captain at Rockland, Michigan, in 1863. From 1865 to 1870 he was mine agent for the Norwich Mine, and then for two years mine captain at the Nonesuch Mine at Nonesuch. In 1878 he was given charge of the underground work at Quinnesec on the Menomi- nee Range, with the rank of captain with the Menominee Mining Com- pany, finally becoming superintendent.
It was in 1884 that Captain' Morcom was chosen as superintendent for the Minnesota Mining Company and ordered to make preparations for the opening of the ore mines at Tower. His first work was to arrange for building homes for the miners. The first mines of the Range were opened under his direct supervision and the workers he imported largely from his wide acquaintance in the mining districts of Michigan. They came by way of Superior across the ice to Duluth, and thence were con- veyed overland to Tower, which was then without railroad facilities. For several years after 1889 Captain Morcom also operated a brick plant at Soudan. His services as a mining expert were in great demand. S. P. Ely sent him on several occasions to open iron mines on the Island of Cuba. He also opened the mines at Mckinley on the Mesaba Range and did much of a similar work in Michigan. He also explored the mines on the Mesaba Range at Coleraine. Many prominent mining officials in Michigan and Minnesota, some of those who hold responsible positions on the Range today, acquired their early training from the late Captain Morcom.
An important record of public service could also be compiled to his credit. While in Michigan he held such offices as state legislator and county supervisor, and at Tower was for many years a member of the School Board and mayor, had charge of the Minnesota state mining dis- play at the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893, for many years was a mem- ber of the Board of County Commissioners of St. Louis County and chairman of the board. He was a master of Quinnesec Lodge of Masons, and was affiliated with the Knight Templar Commandery and the Shrine. In politics he was a Republican, and was a liberal contributor to the support of all churches.
Captain Morcom, who died at Tower November 21, 1908, married at Rockland, Michigan, in October, 1858, Elizabeth Ann Wicks. They had journeyed side by side as husband and wife for just half a century. Mrs. Morcom, who is still living, was born in Cornwall, England, Septem- ber 16, 1842, and. was brought to America by her father, John Wicks, a mining captain who settled in Michigan. Captain and Mrs. Morcom had three daughters and two sons. Two of the daughters, Carrie and Har- riet, are now living with their mother at Tower and were in charge of the postoffice at Tower for twenty-four years. The other daughter, Alvina, is the wife of Rev. Edward Bull, of Keithburg, Illinois. The two sons are Elisha, J., Jr., and Harry W., the latter a successful physi- cian at Duluth.
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Elisha J. Morcom, Jr., was born in Ontonagon County, Michigan, September 30, 1865. He never attended school after he was thirteen, but, like his father, has been a student all his days. At thirteen he went to work in machine shops and as a young man was employed as a machinist with the Marinette Iron Works at Duluth. Mr. Morcom arrived on the Minnesota Iron Range on St. Patrick's Day, 1884. Of old-timers on the Range at that date some eight or ten still remain, including Mr. Morcom, and these pioneers managed to celebrate a little reunion nearly every year. Mr. Morcom was employed as a machinist at Ely for eleven years, and also had some interesting experiences in Cuba and Mexico. In Cuba he was on a railroad survey, and while in Mexico during 1891-92 was employed on a drainage plant in the city of Mexico, a public utility that was established in the early history of that city. While at Ely Mr. Morcom was with the Chandler Mine. In 1905 he was trans- ferred to the Soudan Mine and for seventeen years has been local master machinist and general foreman of that plant. Mr. Morcom was also one of the organizers and is president of the Vermillion Boat and Outing Company of Tower, an organization that looks after the comforts of many thousands of tourists to the Lake Vermillion district every year.
April 26, 1893, he married Mary E. Coffey, daughter of Bartholomew Coffey. She was born in Michigan. They have four children. The sons, Harold E. and Clifford J., are both employed in the local shops of the Soudan Mine, and the other two children, Alvina and Ronald J., are both at home. Clifford was with the Twenty-first Recruits Engineering Corps at Camp Forrest, Georgia, during the World war.
For six years Mr. Morcom has been master of Vermillion Lodge of Masons, is a member of the Royal Arch Chapter and Council at Duluth and the Knight Templar Commandery at Eveleth. He is a Republican in politics, for several years has been a member of the Tower School Board, and has also been township supervisor and justice of the peace. He performs a practical duty in maintaining religious facilities.
WILLIAM O. PEALER was born on a farm adjoining the village of Asbury, Columbia County, Pennsylvania, August 4, 1855. His grand- father, Daniel Pealer, moved to that county in an early day and accu- mulated several hundred acres of rich farming lands. Daniel Pealer was the father of fourteen children, twelve sons and two daughters. The oldest son, George, became the father of the subject of this sketch. He was born in 1818, and assisted his father until his marriage to Rebecca Hampton, when he bought a piece of land and commenced farming for himself, clearing and improving the farm on which William O. was born.
William O. Pealer's great-grandfather on his mother's side was Abijah Hopkins, a prominent Episcopal bishop and circuit rider in western New York and northern Pennsylvania during the early days.
George and Rebecca Pealer became Methodists, were Whigs in politics and were prominent in the early history of the Republican party and staunch Unionists during the Civil war. William O. was next to the youngest and is the only survivor of a family of eight children. He worked on the farm during the summer season and attended the district school during the winter. Later, during the spring and fall months, he attended one term at the Orangeville Academy and two terms at the Columbus Academy, Pennsylvania, and during the winter taught district school.
In 1877 he came west to Three Rivers, Michigan, where he made his home with his brother Russell R. Pealer, a prominent lawyer of southern Michigan who begun his practice at Three Rivers in 1867. Russell R.
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Pealer was a soldier in the Civil war, and served as circuit judge of St. Joseph County and Branch County, Michigan, from 1882 to 1888.
William O. Pealer attended high school at Three Rivers and gradu- ated from there in the spring of 1878. He then read law in the office of his brother, and taught a term of district school during the winter of that year, returning to the study of law again in the spring. He also opened a real estate office, out of which he made the money to enable him to attend the law department of the University of Michigan, from which he graduated in the spring of 1882. His brother, Russell R. Pealer, having been elected judge of the Circuit Court of that district in the fall of 1882, William O. commenced to practice law in the office formerly occupied by his brother and continued to do so until Judge Pealer retired from the bench, when they entered into a partnership and practiced under the name of Pealer Brothers until 1890, when William O. moved to Duluth.
While in Three Rivers, William O. Pealer was active in civic affairs and in the development of the city. In 1887, on his instigation, and with the assistance of A. C. Titus and Edward B. Lemmon, the Three Rivers Building and Loan Association was organized and he became one of the managing directors and its attorney. That institution has been an active and prosperous institution ever since, and is now one of the oldest and leading building and loan associations in the state of Michigan.
On coming to Duluth Mr. Pealer entered into the active practice of law and later formed a partnership with Albert Titus, under the name of Pealer & Titus, with offices in both Duluth and Superior, Mr. Pealer remaining in Duluth and Mr. Titus in Superior. In 1893 Judge Bruce Lemmon, a former schoolmate and friend of Mr. Pealer; joined the firm and they continued under the name of Pealer, Titus & Lemmon, until the fall of 1896, when Mr. Lemmon died. Later the firm was dissolved, Mr. Pealer continuing the practice in Duluth and Mr. Titus in Superior.
In the fall of 1896 Mr. Pealer formed a partnership for the practice of law with Judge Bert Fesler, and they continued to practice under the name of Pealer & Fesler until Mr. Pealer was elected referee in bank -. ruptcy, and Mr. Fesler became city attorney, when the firm was dissolved. Since that time Mr. Pealer has been practicing law alone at Duluth, and during the last sixteen consecutive years has filled the office of referee in bankruptcy.
He is a member of the First Methodist Church of Duluth, is a Mason, a Knight Templar, a member of the Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, and a member of the Commercial Club of Duluth. In June, 1883, he was united in marriage with Ida M., daughter of Marvin M. Dennison, of Union City, Michigan. Mrs. Pealer died in 1904. He has one daughter, Florence M. Pealer.
JOHN F. SEGOG. In the exploration, handling and development of timber and mineral lines over the northwestern country John F. Segog of Duluth has had a conspicuous part for many years. Acting for himself, for associates, and for other aggregations of capital his business has been one of great variety and involving an enormous aggregate of interests.
Mr. Segog was born at Canandaigua, New York, November 1, 1859. His father, Byron G. Segog, was born in Ireland, was brought to America by his parents, and lived at Canandaigua, where he died in 1862. John F. Segog, the younger of two children, was three years of age when his father died, and he was reared largely by his grandmother. As a boy he did farm work in the intervals of his schooling, and remained in his native state until his twenty-first year.
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In 1882, thirty-eight years ago, Mr. Segog came to Minnesota, and has ever since been engaged in the timber and mineral land business in the northern part of the state. He has his offices in the New Jersey Building at Duluth. In later years Mr. Segog has been an active member in several organizations that have developed mineral properties. One of the most important is the Wyoming Oil & Coal Company, in which he is a heavy stockholder and the president. He is also president of the Black Diamond Coal Company. Both these companies are fully equipped to handle and develop properties for the production of coal and oil. Mr. Segog is also president of the Wyoming Chemical Products Com- pany, which he organized in 1917. This company has mineral properties and rights involving sixteen merchantable mineral products, largely derivatives or combinations of potash, aluminum, sulphate and other salts. The headquarters of this organization are in Duluth and Mr. Segog has active charge of the business. He is a Republican in politics.
GEORGE G. BARNUM. One of the old residents of Duluth. Was born in Buffalo, New York, October 10, 1843. Enlisted in the Hundredth Regiment, New York Volunteers from Buffalo. Served three years in the Civil war and retired as captain and is a member of the Loyal Legion. Came to Duluth in 1867 as a member of the first survey party, surveying a railroad from St. Paul to Duluth, afterwards known as the Lake Super- ior and Mississippi Railway Company, of which he was the paymaster and purchasing agent. Left the employ of the railroad company in 1873, when with Col. J. B. Culver and William R. and George Stone he took a contract with the Duluth Blast Furnace Company to bring up 300,000 tons of iron ore from Marquette. To do this they bought the propeller Manistee and steamer Metropolis. The Manistee ran from Duluth to Buffalo and the Metropolis opened a line from Duluth to Marquette. These steamers were the first large boats on the lakes owned and operated by Duluth people. The Manistee was afterwards lost between Bayfield and Ontonagon. The steamer Metropolis, after running several seasons, proved to be too small for the trade and was sold.
Mr. Barnum then entered the grain business at Duluth, was one of the incorporators of the Duluth Board of Trade and general manager of the Globe Elevator Company with a capacity of 5,000,000 bushels, for eighteen years. He then organized the Barnum Grain Company, which exists at this time. He has been identified with the Washburn-Crosby Company since 1872 and is now one of the directors.
HERMAN T. OLSON. In the community of Tower the first man in business importance and civic enterprise is Herman T. Olson, who has been writing his business record there for a number of years, and who among other responsibilities holds the office of mayor and chairman of the school board.
Mr. Olson was born at Paskin in Barron County, Wisconsin,. August 21, 1888, son of Halvor D. and Hattie (Olson) Olson. His mother was born in Norway, while his father was of Norwegian parentage and was born at Winchester, Wisconsin, in 1866. Halvor Olson followed farm- ing and did work in the lumber mills of Wisconsin, and in 1903 removed to Tower, where for a number of years he has been identified with the police department. He is a Republican in politics, and a member of the Lutheran Church. There are five living sons: Oscar M., associated in business as a merchant with his brother Herman; Herman T .; Samuel D .; Albert J., of Virginia ; and Henry C., of Duluth, who served with the Railroad Engineers in France in the World war.
Herman T. Olson
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Herman T. Olson attended the public schools of his native town of Paskin, also the high school at Olivet, Wisconsin, and finished his educa- tion in Tower. About the time he left school he went to work for a provision and meat company, then for two years was in the general merchandise store of O. C. Sovde, for two years was clerk at the railroad depot, and after a commercial course in Superior had employment in different capacities with T. P. Corey. at Buhl, with the Crete Mining Company at Hibbing, and in 1911 became clerk in the store at Tower owned by N. J. Branson. He was soon given the responsibilities of man- ager and in 1913 he and A. H. Lofgren contracted to buy the thirty thou- sand dollar stock of goods. Mr. Lofgren had a thousand dollars and Mr. Olson about six hundred, and this was the cash capital with which they took over this extensive business. Both were energetic young busi- ness men, and they handled the enterprise with gratifying results until America entered the war with Germany, when Mr. Lofgren joined the army and the entire responsibility fell upon Mr. Olson. He proved equal to all demands made upon him, and today has the largest store of general merchandise, drugs, hardware, groceries, dry goods and tourists' supplies in this section of northern Minnesota.
Mr. Olson is also president of the Northern Outing Company. He was recently elected mayor of Tower, and for several years has been chairman of the School Board and secretary of the Commercial Club. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church and is affiliated with the Masons and Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Olson married Ethel E. Burgess, daughter of J. N. Burgess, of Tower. Mrs. Olson died April 27, 1920, leaving three children: Harriet May, Robert B. and William H.
W. J. SUFFEL is one of the veteran merchants and business men of Duluth, having been continuously identified with the commercial life of the city for thirty-five years.
He came to Duluth well equipped in business experience gained in his native province of Ontario, Canada. He was born at Vienna in that province December 29, 1850, a son of George and Anna (Davison) Suffel. His father was born in England and after settling in Canada operated a general store at Prescott on the St. Lawrence River. He was a merchant all his life and a very successful business man. In politics he was a mem- ber of the Reform body. He was the father of nine children, four sons and two daughters now living.
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