USA > Minnesota > Todd County > History of Morrison and Todd counties, Minnesota, their people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 17
USA > Minnesota > Morrison County > History of Morrison and Todd counties, Minnesota, their people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 17
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FRANK X. BASTIEN.
It is eminently proper to determine the success of a man by his relations to the public. When a man has been honored repeatedly by election and re-election to a responsible office it is a very strong testimony of his worth as a citizen and his reputation in the community where he lives. Frank X. Bastien, present register of deeds in Morrison county, has been repeatedly honored by his fellow citizens and has worthily discharged the duties of this responsible office.
Frank X. Bastien is a native of Belle Prairie township, Morrison county. Minnesota, where he was born on February 20, 1873. He is the son of Felix and Adeline (Fournier) Bastien, the former of whom was born at Three Rivers, Canada, where he lived until maturity. In 1855 he came to Morrison county, Minnesota, and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Belle Prairie township, where he made his home until his death. After coming to Morrison county he also homesteaded one hundred and
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sixty acres in Belle Prairie township. Later he bought eighty acres of school land. At the time of his death he owned four hundred acres of land. His wife was born in Canada. Her parents had moved first to Holyoke, Massa- chusetts, and after remaining there for a few years settled in Morrison county, Minnesota, where she met and married Felix Bastien. She bore her husband thirteen children, three of whom are deceased. The names of the surviving children, in the order of their birth, are as follow: Joseph F .; John B .; Fannie, who married Samuel La Fond; Frank X., the subject of this sketch; Addie, who married Henry Colombe; Oliver, Delima, who married Maxim La Blanc; William H., Ferdinand and George O. The late Felix Bastien was a stanch Democrat and served his township as supervisor for a number of years.
Frank X. Bastien was educated in the public schools of Morrison county, Minnesota, and after completing his education assisted his father on the farm until he reached his majority. Subsequently, he worked in the depot at Sauk Rapids for ten months and was then transferred to Little Falls, where he worked in the depot until the spring of 1900. He then went to Hope, Idaho, and worked in the round-house of the Northern Pacific rail- way for six months, and then went to Spokane, Washington, as a fireman for the Northern Pacific railway. After firing on the Northern Pacific for six months, during which time his hand was crushed, he left railroad work and returned to the farm. In the fall of 1901 he purchased a bowling alley in Red Wing and operated it for one and one-half years. Afterwards he was employed by the Northern Pacific railway at Duluth, Minnesota, and worked in the freight office for three years. He was then transferred to the Little Falls freight office and worked here for three years.
Mr. Bastien was appointed to fill an unexpired term as register of deeds. He has been three times re-elected to this important office, the last time in 1914, when he was chosen to fill a four-year term.
In 1901 Frank X. Bastien was married to Mary B. Kowalczky, who was born at Winona, Minnesota, November 18, 1882, and who accompanied her parents to Little Falls, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Bastien have had four children, Jerome B., Bessie L., Harry W. and Daniel L .. all of whom are attending school.
Mr. Bastien was a Republican, but the office he holds is a non-partisan office, in which partisan politics is not permitted to figure. Mr. and Mrs. Bastien are members of the French Catholic church. Mr. Bastien is a meni- ber of the Knights of Columbus, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of the Maccabees.
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LEIGH V. TANNER.
Among the prosperous industries of Little Falls, Minnesota, is the Little Falls Milling Company, which was established in this city by the late Alfred Tanner and of which his son, Leigh V. Tanner, who for several . years operated the business in partnership with his brother, is now the sole proprietor.
Leigh V. Tanner as a native of Little Falls, Minnesota, where he was born on May 9, 1878. Mr. Tanner is the son of Alfred and Mary J. (Sim- mons) Tanner, the former of whom was a native of New York state and who came with his parents to Little Falls, Minnesota, about 1865. When he had grown to manhood, he engaged in the mercantile business and also became heavily interested in the lumber business. Later, however, he sold out his lumber interests. In the meantime, he had become interested in flour-mills throughout Morrison county and established a number of mills in different parts of the county. Alfred Tanner also established the Little Falls Milling Company, a splendid flour-mill with a capacity of one hundred barrels of wheat flour daily and of fifty barrels of rye flour daily. He operated this mill until his retirement from active business, when it was turned over to his son. In the meantime, having established the Tanner Mercantile Company, he also handled government supplies for this section of the state and, when he retired from active business, he turned this industry over to his son, H. H. Tanner. He lived to be sixty-eight years old, dying in October. 1912. His wife, who, before her marriage, was Mary Simmons, was a native of the Buckeye state and is still living in Little Falls, at the age of fifty-eight years. Of the nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Tanner, Leigh V. is the sixth.
Leigh V. Tanner received his education in the public schools of Little Falls and in the Little Falls high school, from which institution he was grad- uated with the class of 1898. Being a young man of industrious habits, which he had acquired from association with his father, he immediately went to work after finishing his education, and for some time was employed by the Tanner Mercantile Company. Mr. Tanner remained with this firm until he became interested in his father's other enterprise, the Little Falls Milling Company, in 1900. Three years later, in partnership with his brother, H. H. Tanner, Leigh V. took over the Little Falls Milling Company and the two brothers operated the mill until 1909, when Leigh V. succeeded to the entire business. Since 1909 he has operated the business alone and has made a
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very flattering success of it. He has built up a large local trade in wheat and rye flour, feed and cereals in Morrison and adjoining counties, and, as a business man and citizen, is popular with all classes of people.
On September 2, 1902, Leigh V. Tanner was married to Effie B. Green, a native of St. Cloud, Minnesota, where she was born on November 30, 1876. To them have been born four children, Edward Keith, Raleigh Vergne, Louis Jean and Dorothy Lee, all of whom live at home with their parents.
Mr. and Mrs. Tanner are popular in the social life of Little Falls and are highly respected citizens of Morrison county.
JOHN WILLIAM CROSSFIELD.
Prominent in the business and commercial life of Morrison county, Minnesota, is John William Crossfield, a well-known real estate and insur- ance agent of Little Falls, where he settled in 1892, eight years after coming to America, from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. His career is one replete with well-defined purposes, which carried to successful issue have won for him an influential place in the business circles of Morrison county and a high personal standing among his fellow citizens. His life work has been one of unceasing industry and perseverance, and by systematic and honorable methods he has won the confidence of his business associates and fellows. Some eight years ago, he engaged in the general insurance and real estate business and has built up a lucrative patronage in Morrison and adjoining counties.
John William Crossfield, whose name was legally changed from Johannes Willi Kreutzfeldt, to its present Anglicized form, was born in the historic town of Ploen, in the province of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, on March 28, 1861, and is the son of Johannes Ludwig and Maria Margaretha ( Reimers) Kreutzfeldt. He was baptized under the name of his parents. but after coming to America adopted the Americanized spelling. Mr. Cross- field's father owned a flour-mill with ten pair of stones, a farm of one hun- (red and eighty acres, a bakery and kept six horses and about thirty cows. In 1883 a non-insured ship, by which he was sending twelve thousand sacks of flour each weighing two hundred and eighty pounds to England, sprang a leak and the flour was all destroyed, the pecuniary loss amounting to more than one hundred thousand dollars. He was forced to sell out following this
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disaster and to rent a mill. The shock proved so severe that he survived it only a short time, dying on December 4, 1883, at the age of sixty-two years. He served as a dragoon against Denmark from 1848 to 1851, a war in which the Danish troops won. He was grand master of the Free Masons of the province of Schleswig-Holstein in 1873. On April 10, 1854, he was mar- ried to Maria Margaretha Reimers, who bore him nine children, and died on October 24, 1871. Of these nine children, three died in infancy, Emma, Robert and Hans. Six are still living, as follow: Frau Emilie Stoltenberg, Edmund Kreutzfeldt, Max Kreutzfeldt, and Frau Minna Ohrt, all of whom are living in Germany; Otto Kreutzfeldt, a brother, is president and general manager of the Thomson Bridge Company, of San Francisco, California; and John William, the subject of this sketch.
Educated in the Gymnasium of the Empress Augusta at Ploen, John William Crossfield, after leaving school, learned the miller's trade and after completing the trade served in the Eighty-fifth Infantry Regiment, in which he was promoted to corporal. He served at various times as clerk of the company and as assistant clerk in the battalion office. He was honorably discharged on September 18, 1881.
Three years later Mr. Crossfield emigrated to America, arriving in New York city on April 6. 1884, having left his native country on March 16th of the same year. From New York city he made the trip directly to North Dakota, where he worked on a farm near Arthur all that summer. In the fall he went to Minneapolis and obtained work in the Crown roller mill. Mr. Crossfield worked in the mill until August, 1885, when he was employed in the Franconia flour-mill, at Franconia, Chicago county, Minnesota.
While living at Franconia, Mr. Crossfield sent for his sweetheart, Emma Horstmann, a native of Kiel, Germany, who arrived in St. Paul on April 10, 1887, on which day they were married. To this happy union there have been born nine children, eight of whom are still living. Emma died at the age of seven months and ten days at Little Falls, Minnesota. The names of the children in the order of their birth are as follow: Herman, Bruno. Roy. Edmund, Otto, John, Louise and Charles.
In 1892 Mr. Crossfield came to Little Falls and engaged in various work until 1907, when he opened his present real estate and insurance office. He owns two lots adjoining his residence, which he has converted into the "Acme Poultry Farm." where he breeds fancy White Wyandottes, Rose-comb Rhode Island Reds and Single-comb White Leghorns. He succeeded in winning first prize on the stock of the "Acme Poultry Farm" at the St. Paul. Minneapolis, St. Cloud, Fargo and Grand Forks poultry shows.
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Mr. Crossfield speaks fluently the Scandinavian, German and English languages. He has served as clerk of the local lodge of the Modern Wood- men of America since 1908, and in 1908 and 1914 was a national delegate of this organization. He is identified with the Socialist party and has been his party's candidate twice for representative, once for mayor and twice for assessor. In every instance Mr. Crossfield has been defeated, but he claims that he has achieved a victory on principles in spite of his defeat. The Cross -! field family are all members of the Presbyterian church.
JOSEPH GILLISPIE MILLSPAUGH, M. D.
The career of Dr. Joseph Gillispie Millspaugh, a distinguished physician and public-spirited man of affairs in Morrison county, presents a striking example of well-defined purpose with the ability to make that purpose sub- serve not only his own interests but the welfare of his fellowmen. He has built up a preeminent reputation as a physician and surgeon in the North- west, and has served in many positions of trust and responsibility. During his practice in the state of North Dakota, he served as the first superintendent of the North Dakota board of health and also as president of the North Dakota State Medical Association. He was one of the instigators of the movement to obtain the passage of an act regulating medical practice in the state of North Dakota. He is at present councilor for the State Medical Society, second district. He is ex-president of the Upper Mississippi Med- ical Society. He also served as secretary of the local pension board for about fifteen years.
Joseph Gillispie Millspangh is a native of Battle Creek, Michigan, where he was born on February 19, 1851. He is the son of Jacob M. and Mary Ann (Dicker) Millspaugh, the former of whom was born in 1808. Jacob M. Millspaugh was born in Orange county, New York, and after having engaged in farming and in the mercantile business in Orange county for forty years, immigrated to Michigan and purchased a farm near Battle Creek, where he resided until his death in 1859. At the time of his death he was fifty-one years old. His wife, who before her marriage was Mary Ann Dicker, was also a native of Orange county. New York. She bore her his- band five sons, and died early in life at the age of thirty-six years. All of her children grew to manhood. Dr. Millspaugh's father was a member of the Presbyterian church and was identified with the Whig party.
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The second son in a family of five boys, Joseph Gillispie Millspaugh was educated in the common schools of Battle Creek, Michigan, and in the Battle Creek high school. He was also graduated from Hope College, at Holland, Michigan, in 1874, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts and afterwards attended the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, graduating from the last-named institution in 1876. Subse- quently, he took a course in medicine and surgery in Columbia University, New York City, and was graduated from Columbia in 1877.
After passing his medical examination, he began the practice of medi- cine and surgery at Battle Creek, and remained there for six years. In 1879 he was married, and subsequently, on account of his health, abandoned his practice at Battle Creek and removed to Park River. North Dakota, where he practiced for eight years. While in North Dakota he became prominent in the medical profession. From North Dakota he removed to Superior City. Wisconsin. and remained there one year. Climatic conditions being unfavorable, in the care of one of his children, in 1892 he removed perma- nently to Little Falls and began the practice of medicine in Morrison county.
Joseph Gillispie Millspaugh was married in 1879 at Battle Creek, Mich- igan, to Anna M. Zang, a native of Battle Creek, who was born in May, 1855, and who is a graduate of the Battle Creek high school. Doctor and Mrs. Millspaugh have had three children : Florence is the wife of Arthur M. Ide ; Mark G. is unmarried ; Lula B. died early in life.
No physician in Morrison county is better known than Doctor Mills- paugh and no one is more highly respected either within or without the profession than the subject of this sketch. He is possessed of a native aptitude for medicine and surgery aside from his exceptional professional knowledge. He has always enjoyed a large practice in this county.
E. P. ADAMS.
Farmer, school teacher and lawyer-such, in brief, is the summary of the career of E. P. Adams, a well-known lawyer of Morrison county, Minne- sota, who forty years ago received the degree of Bachelor of Science from Illinois Wesleyan University, at Bloomington, and three years later the degree of Bachelor of Laws. The president of Illinois Wesleyan University for many years was Dr. W. H. H. Adams, one of the leading Methodist ministers of the state.
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E. P. Adams is a native of Illinois, having been born on July 28, 1851, near Mattoon. He is the son of C. B. and Sarah (Gannaway) Adams, the former of whom was born at Xenia, Ohio, in May, ISII, and the latter was born in Kentucky in 1821. C. B. Adams was educated in the district schools of the Buckeye state and farmed there until 1836, when he removed to Effingham county, Illinois, where he entered a tract of government land. After living there for a few years he removed to Coles county, Illinois, near Mattoon, and lived there until 1865, when he removed to Macon county Illinois, eight miles east of Decatur. There he remained until 1880, when he passed away, at the age of sixty-nine years. By occupation he was a farmer. In Effingham county, Illinois, he had met Sarah Gannaway, whom he later married. She bore him six children, of whom two died early in life. The others were William H. H., for many years the president of Illinois Wes- leyan University; Emmarine E., who married James A. Wilson; Eliza A., who married Thomas J. Kizer ; and E. P., the subject of this sketch. The mother of these children died in 1854, at the age of thirty-three years.
After attending the country schools of Illinois, E. P. Adams spent his freshman year in college at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and entered Illinois Wesleyan University, from which he was graduated in 1875 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. In 1878 he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws from the Law Department of the same University. After- wards he taught school in Oakland, Illinois, and for a number of years was principal of the Oakland schools. Ile also taught in other nearby towns. In 1882 Mr. Adams removed to Miller, Hand county, South Dakota, and homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land. After four years, on January 1, 1887, he opened a law office in Minneapolis, but remained in Minneapolis only a few months, when he settled permanently in Little Falls and engaged in the practice of his profession.
In 1890 Mr. Adams was in partnership with C. A. Lindbergh. This arrangement continued for two years, after which. until 1905, he practiced alone. In July, 1905, he removed to Britton, South Dakota, and remained there for ten months in partnership with J. J. Barrett in the practice of law, after which he returned to Little Falls.
Mr. Adams is interested in Morrison county real estate and has other substantial property interests.
On August 25, 1880, E. P. Adams was married to Emma A. Ross, a native of Grundy county, Illinois, By their marriage there has been born one son. Marc Ross Adams, who is cashier of the First State Bank at Big Falls, Minnesota.
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Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Adams are members of the Methodist church. Mr. Adams is a member of the United Workmen and Modern Brotherhood of America. He is an ardent Republican and has served two terms as city attorney of Little Falls and is an official examiner of titles for Morrison county, appointed by the judges of the district court.
DURA CORBIN.
The union soldier during the great Civil War builded wiser than he knew. Through four years of suffering and hardship, through the horrors of prison pens and through the shadows of death, he laid the foundation for the greatest structure ever erected and dedicated to human freedom. The world looks on and calls those soldiers sublime, for it was theirs to reach out the mighty arm of power and strike the chains from off the slaves, to preserve the country from dissolution and to keep unfurled the country's flag. For all the unmeasured deeds the living present will never repay them. To the children of generations yet unborn it remains to accord the full measure of appreciation for the immortal character of the American soldier who suffered and bled during the dark days of the sixties. Numbered among these valiant soldiers is the venerable Dura Corbin, the former postmaster of Little Falls and farmer of Morrison county, who is now living retired.
Dura Corbin is a native of Chautauqua county, New York, where he was born on August 9. 1842. He is the son of Isaac and Harriett ( Med- berry) Corbin, who were natives of New York state. Isaac Corbin was a carpenter during most of his life. In 1846 he removed to what was then the territory of Wisconsin, driving overland with a team. He purchased fifty-five acres, mostly wild land, in 1847, and built a log house on the land. The shingles were made on the farm and were of oak. Men were employed to clear and cultivate the land while he worked at his trade. After living on the farm for seven years, he sold out and removed to North Prairie, Wis- consin, purchasing one hundred and fifty acres where he lived for three years. He then sold out and removed to Ohio, where he purchased fifty acres of land. After two years near Oberlin, he again sold out and removed to Winona county. Minnesota, driving from Ohio to Winona county with his personal effects. The trip required about two weeks. He purchased one hundred and seventy acres of land in Winona county and built a frame house, clearing and farming the tract until 1863, when he again sold out and
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removed to La Crosse county, Wisconsin. There he bought eighty acres of land, which he improved and farmed until 1865. Even in his later years, he moved from place to place. During the last few years of his life, he lived retired at Little Falls with his daughter, Mrs. J. C. Burrall. He died in Little Falls at the age of eighty-eight years, in 1903. His wife died at the age of seventy-eight years on April 17, 1895. She bore her husband five children, namely: Dura, the subject of this sketch; Jane married L. G. Gates, of Winona county, Minnesota, and died on March 24, 1915; Julia is the wife of J. C. Burrall, a well-known carpenter of Little Falls; Annette died at the age of eleven years; Manning died in Little Falls several years ago.
Educated in the state of Wisconsin and at Oberlin, Ohio. Dura Corbin lived with his parents until August 31, 1864, when he enlisted in Company I, Eighth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, at La Crosse, Wisconsin. He participated in the battle of Nashville and in the siege of Spanish Fort in Alabama, and was mustered out of the service on August 31, 1865.
After the war, Mr. Corbin settled at St. Charles, Minnesota, where he worked in the mercantile store owned by Hyde & Broughton. After a few months he returned to Wisconsin and spent the next winter there. He then removed to Minneapolis, where he worked as a carpenter. After living in Minneapolis and at White Water. Wisconsin, for several years. In 1871 Mr. Corbin removed to Morrison county, Minnesota, homesteading one hun- dred and sixty acres in section 14, of Swan River township. The tract of land was covered with wild timber and meadow at the time, but Mr. Corbin cleared a spot and built a log house, into which he moved in December, 1871. The next spring he was able to plant a small crop of potatoes and corn. After living in Swan River township until 1897, having in the meantime cleared considerable of the land and erected a comfortable house and barn, he was appointed postmaster of Little Falls and after renting the farm removed to town. Mr. Corbin served a little more than four years as post- master, and after the expiration of his term of office engaged in the farm machinery business for one year. For some time he speculated in Dakota land, but has disposed of his holdings in that state. In 1902 Mr. Corbin sold his homestead. He now owns two hundred and eighty-four acres in Clough township, Morrison county, and of this farm eighty acres are under cultiva- tion. The rest is wild land. Mr. Corbin is now living retired in Little Falls.
On March 15. 1867, Dura Corbin was married, at Minneapolis, Minne- sota. to Minnie R. Burrall, who was born in New York state on September 8, 1844, and who removed with her parents to the state of Wisconsin in
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1849. She made her home with her parents until her marriage. In the meantime she taught school in Minnesota for several terms, her parents hav- ing moved to Minnesota.
Mrs. Corbin has borne her husband two children, of whom Floy mar- ried Homer W. Hilborn, now living at Portal, North Dakota. Max, the second child, married Alta Bowman, and is a jewelry merchant of Little Falls, Minnesota.
Mr. Corbin is an enthusiastic and stanch Republican. He served twelve years as clerk of Swan River township and was a member of the Morrison county board of commissioners for three years. He has also held various school offices. He is a member of Workman Post No. 31, Grand Army of the Republic, and is at present the adjutant of the post. In 1906 Mr. Corbin served as junior vice-department commander of Minnesota.
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