History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume I, Part 12

Author: Mitchell, William Bell, 1843-
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : H. S. Cooper
Number of Pages: 964

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HISTORY OF STEARNS COUNTY

Edith B. and Grace E. are teachers in the St. Cloud public schools; and Hazel E. is teaching at Frazee, Minn. Mr. Whitney is a member of the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery at St. Cloud, and the Shrine at St. Paul. He is also a member of the Elks at St. Cloud.

A. J. Whitney, officer of the Civil war, for many years a prominent citi- zen of Maine Prairie, was born in Maine; son of George R. (Sr.) and Martha Lyons (Noyes) Whitney. He started with the family and other relatives to the Northwest. His father died in Boston, and he, then seventeen years of age, being the oldest of the children, took upon himself the task of assisting his mother in the responsibility of caring for the family. Right well did he perform his task. The family lived a year in St. Anthony, then moved to Fair Haven and then to Maine Prairie, in this county. He was one of the first to enlist in response to Abraham Lincoln's call for three months' volun- teers. After serving that time in the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, he re-enlisted in the Fourth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and served as lien- tenant of Company D, until the close of the war. After the war he bought a farm in Maine Prairie, and settled upon it. Toward the close of his life he combined the mercantile business with agricultural pursuits. He died in the early part of June, 1884. His gentlemanly and friendly manner, his hon- esty and integrity, won the friendship and esteem of all who knew him. In his death the community mourned the loss of a good citizen, a kind and affectionate husband, and dutiful and loving son. He married Margaret Ellen Clark, now of Orange, California. They had four children: Willis M., of Orange, Cal .; Abbie M. (deceased) ; Maude M., now Mrs. Verner Goodner, of Kimball, and Effie, now Mrs. Geo. F. Zimmerman, of Orange, Cal.

George R. Whitney, engaged in the real estate, loan, and insurance busi- ness in St. Cloud, was born in Washington county, Maine, June 25, 1853; son of George R., Sr., and Martha (Noyes) Whitney. George R., Sr., was a lum- berman, and spent the span of his years in Washington county, Maine. He died in Boston, in May, 1857, while making preparations to depart for the Northwest. In 1859, the subject of this sketch was brought to Stearns county by his mother. He received his early education in the district schools of Maine Prairie and in the graded schools of Clearwater, finishing with courses in the St. Cloud High school. His youth, up to the age of nineteen years, was spent on the farm. Then, after clerking a short time at Maine Prairie, he and his older brother, A. J. Whitney, formed a partnership, and engaged in the mercantile and stock business in the same village. During the con- tinuation of this partnership, George R. Whitney was postmaster for four years. Next he went to Rich Prairie (now Pierz) in Morrison county, where he was merchant and postmaster for seven years. After selling out, he came to St. Cloud, and managed a lumber yard for two years, after which he went to Sauk Centre, where for seven years he engaged in the real estate, loan and insurance business. After returning again to St. Cloud he worked one year for the McCormick Harvester Co., and ten years in the Merchants National Bank. In 1907 he engaged in his present business. He has wide interests and maintains splendid offices in the Long block. Mr. Whitney is a member of the M. W. A., the I. O. R. M. and K. of P .. On June 16, 1884, he married

GEORGE R. WHITNEY

HISTORY OF STEARNS COUNTY

Typhena C. Jordon, and they have three children : Lucile, stenographer and bookkeeper ; Margaret, an elocutionist of considerable ability ; and Rollins J., a student at the Minneapolis High school.

George R. Whitney, Sr., the father of a number of well-known Stearns county people, never visited this part of the country, though it was long his intention to do so, for death cut short his career just after he had started on the trip. But his influence lives in the county in the daily life of his chil- dren. He was a lumberman, and spent the span of his years in Washington county, Maine. He was married in Beddington, in that county, in August, 1839, to Martha Lyon Noyes, who was born in Jonesboro, in the same county, February 23, 1821. In 1857, Mr. and Mrs. Whitney, and their children, with her aged father, and Mr. and Mrs. James Jenks (the latter being her sister), started out for the Northwest. In Boston, Mr. Whitney died. Cherishing his memory in her heart Mrs. Whitney, for the sake of the children, turned a courageous face to the world, and with her little ones, pressed on to this state and found a home at St. Anthony. Most of the old settlers of Minnesota underwent many hardships but Mrs. Whitney had rather more than her full share. She was possessed, however, of a cheerful disposition, and an abiding faith in the goodness of God, and she cheerfully met and conquered obstacles that would daunt many a woman. After a short time in St. An- thony, Mrs. Whitney and her family moved with Mr. and Mrs. Jenks to Fair Haven, and later to Maine Prairie, both in this county. In the latter township she married D. A. Hoyt. After his death she lived for a while in St. Cloud. There she married Sylvanius Jenkins, and with him moved to Farmington, in Dakota county, Minn. Mr. Jenkins was one of the early pioneers of Stearns county, and came to Minnesota in territorial days. After Mr. Jenkins' death, Mrs. Jenkins returned to St. Cloud, where she made her home with her daughter, Mrs. W. H. Thompson and her son, Dr. F. A. Hoyt. She died on the Friday before Thanksgiving day, 1906. At that time it was said of her : "Mrs. Jenkins was for seventy-one years a devout and most consistent Chris- tian, having joined the Methodist church in Maine when a girl of but fifteen. Her nature was a peculiarly cheerful one and notwithstanding all the trials and hardships which came to her from time to time, her view of life was never changed. Her last days were spent among her children, and grandchildren, and her passing away was as peaceful as the falling asleep of a child." Mrs. Jenkins was the mother of nine children, seven by Mr. Whitney and two by Mr. Hoyt. One died in infancy; A. J. Whitney was a lieutenant in the Civil war, and later lived for many years on Maine Prairie; Alverton, also a veteran of the Civil war, died of measles during that conflict; Horace, was lost in the Missouri floods many years ago; Frederick H. Whitney is principal keeper and disciplinarian at the St. Cloud State Reformatory; George R. Whitney, Jr., is in the real estate and loan business in St. Cloud. Mary A. is now Mrs. W. H. Thompson, of St. Cloud. Charles W. Hoyt is deceased. Dr. Freeland A. Hoyt is a prominent dentist of St. Cloud.

Ephriam B. Whitney, a pioneer, who, in assisting in the development of several of the agricultural regions of the Northwest, became a prosperous and successful farmer and citizen, spent several years of his life in Stearns county

HISTORY OF STEARNS COUNTY

in the early days. He was born in Whitneyville, Maine, a town which took its name from members of his family, who had settled there in Colonial times. He married Elizabeth N. Wakefield, of Cherryfield, Maine, and together they came West about 1854. For a time they lived on a farm in Brooklyn, in Hennepin county, near Minneapolis, where their four children were born. Later they moved to a farm near Osseo in the same county. Upon disposing of this place, they moved to Fair Haven, in Stearns county, from whence they came to St. Cloud, shortly afterward moving out into the township to the farm where the Hess & Moog brick yards are now located. In 1866, they disposed of this farm, and purchased a place three miles south of Clearwater, in Wright county. Mrs. Whitney died on this farm in 1870, and in 1872, Mr. Whitney exchanged this property for village holdings in Clearwater, where he made his home until his death in October, 1900. In the Whitney family there were four children. Olive died at the age of twenty-six. George H. also died at the age of twenty-six. Anna is now a resident of New York city. Albert G. is a leading citizen of St. Cloud.

Albert Gideon Whitney. The desirability of any city as a residence; its growth ; the comfort, convenience and even health of its inhabitants; its repu- tation throughout the country ; its assurance of permanent progress; and even its civic spirit ; rest to a large degree upon the character of its public utilities. When a city progresses, is known far and wide for its advantages, and at- tracts a substantial law-abiding class of citizens, the reason lies in the work and character of the men who are willing to toil and sacrifice, to give the best years of their life and the richest fruit of their brains, and to bear heavy burdens of care, worry and responsibility. St. Cloud has such a man in Albert G. Whitney. It is his career that has made possible the most important of the advantages of daily life in this city. While he is still in the prime of his activities, with great accomplishments still ahead of him, he has already done more for his fellow men, attained more of a business success, and ac- complished more of real achievement than do most men in the full span of their years, and while the real greatness of his work can not be fully judged until long after he has completed it, nevertheless, in this history, it is fitting that his contemporaries should prepare for the perusal of posterity a few of the details of what he has thus far done. From a farm in central Minnesota he gained his energy and strength, and with no hereditary fortune, and with no help save from his own character, integrity and ability, he has become one of the foremost men of his time in this state. Future generations will number him as among those who left a real impress on the commercial progress of the present day. Modest, unassuming, entirely devoted to the cause which he has espoused, he has made life more desirable for his fellow man, and has demonstrated that those who serve the public well and honestly may reap even greater rewards than those who serve only their own selfish interests.

Albert Gideon Whitney was born on a farm near Robbinsdale, now a suburb of Minneapolis; son of Ephriam B. Whitney and Elizabeth N. (Wake- field) Whitney, and as a boy lived successively in Osseo, Fair Haven, St. Cloud city, St. Cloud township, Clearwater township and Clearwater village, all in Minnesota. After the death of his mother in 1870, he went in 1872 to live with

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HISTORY OF STEARNS COUNTY

his uncle, Sylvanius Jenkins, at Farmington, Dakota county, also in this state. While here he attended school in Farmington, and later for a short period in Minneapolis. Then, in 1874, he returned to Clearwater, and there attended school until 1879. In the winter of 1878-79 and again in the winter of 1879-80 he taught school at Silver Creek, in Wright county. In the mean- time, in 1879, he worked several months in the insurance business. In 1880 he removed to Sauk Centre in Stearns county, where he engaged in the real estate, loan and insurance business. While there, in 1883 and 1884, he com- piled a complete set of abstract books for the western third of the county. This is a service that can scarcely be overestimated. By the use of these books, thus compiled at so great an expense of time and effort, the people of the western part of the county are enabled to obtain at Sauk Centre as com- plete an abstract of their property as could be secured by making the long and often inconvenient journey to the courthouse at St. Cloud. The work on the books has been continued to the present time, and the complete set is now owned and kept by J. F. Cooper, of Sauk Centre. In March, 1887, Mr. Whitney closed his connection with his offices at Sauk Centre (being succeeded by Whitney & Cooper), where he had already established the foundations of his later success, and removed to St. Cloud, where he formed a partnership with C. Parker McClure, in the real estate, loan and insurance business. This partnership continued until April, 1891, after which time Mr. Whitney re- mained in business alone, until 1902, when the enterprise was incorporated as the A. G. Whitney Land & Loan Co. The business is continued and Mr. Whit- ney is president, and H. A. Mckenzie is secretary and treasurer. In 1897 Mr. Whitney made some heavy purchases of land in North Dakota, and with Charles A. Wheelock, his brother-in-law, as a partner, under the firm name of Whitney & Wheelock, maintained a branch office at Fargo, North Dakota, and conducted a land business in North Dakota on a most extensive scale. Aside from this large and significant venture, Mr. Whitney has confined his interests largely to central and northern Minnesota. No individual has ever handled as much land in northern Minnesota or in North Dakota as he has, and probably no man has induced so many families to make this state their abid- ing place. From South Dakota, Iowa, southern Minnesota, Illinois and other localities, the sturdy home-makers have come, sharing the development of this great state, and assisting materially in its growth and progress.

No sooner had Mr. Whitney located permanently in St. Cloud in 1887, than he made the first of a series of efforts which have placed St. Cloud among the front rank of the smaller cities in regard to excellence of equipment in the public utilities. With C. Parker McClure and Frank Tolman as leading spirits, and with R. L. Gale, O. W. Baldwin, L. T. Troutman, F. H. Todd, A. T. Whitman, and others as associates, he perfected the organization of the St. Cloud Street Railway Co. and built a street car line from the dam to the old Great Northern station, which line was operated for some years with horses. This line passed into the hands of capitalists in St. Paul and eastern cities, who electrified the road and extended it to Sauk Rapids. In the fall of 1900, Mr. Whitney commenced his public utility business and purchased the steam power and heating plant on 5th avenue North, which is now the Central

HISTORY OF STEARNS COUNTY

power station of the Public Service Co., and where the gas plant is now located, for the distribution of electrical energy for St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids. He organized that power plant as the Light, Heat, Transit & Public Service Co. Immediately after purchasing he remodeled and rebuilt the old steam power and heating plant, which he had purchased in 1900, and in stalled new and modern machinery, and later converted it into the Central power station, after the consolidation of the two power companies. In 1902 he purchased the St. Cloud Gas and Electric Co., owning the plant now on the canal at the dam and now known as Station No. 2. This company had just passed from a receivership into the hands of the bondholders, and the pur- chase was made from them. At the same time he secured control of the street railway company then in the hands of a receiver, and reorganized it as the Granite City Street Railway Co., of which he has continued the moving factor. Under his direction, the line has been greatly extended and improved, and possibly no town of its size has as complete a street car service as has St. Cloud. The growth from the small line purchased in 1900 to the extensive system of the present has been most unusual, and reflects much credit on Mr. Whitney's faith in the city, and his liberality as a public-spirited citizen. The tracks now cover eight and one-half miles. Immediately upon his passing into the possession of the St. Cloud Gas & Electric Co., he began to consolidate it with his own company, the Light, Heat, Transit & Public Service Co., and rebuilt the entire pole line system of the city, equipped the power station at the dam with all new and modern machinery, and upon the completion of the work, perfected the consolidation, reorganizing them as the Public Service Co. In 1906 the gas plant was installed on the same site with the main power plant. This plant is recognized as one of the best and most efficient gas plants in the state. In May, 1908, he bought the St. Cloud Water Power Co., owning the St. Cloud dam and immediately started the construction of the new and large power house now known as Station No. 1, at the foot of the canal.

Foreseeing the phenomenal growth of the smaller villages of Stearns county which has come in recent years, he in 1912, commenced the building of the transmission lines connecting several of the outside towns, and has 'tied" Waite Park, St. Joseph, Rockville, Cold Spring and Richmond into his St. Cloud power houses. Aside from furnishing power for these towns, he sup- plies electric light and power for St. Cloud, Sauk Rapids and the outlying quarries adjacent to St. Cloud, as well as the polishing plants, the Minne- sota State Reformatory and the Great Northern shops at Waite Park. The substitution of electrical power for steam in these various plants has wrought a revolution in industrial conditions in this locality. The plant of the Public Service Co., as developed and brought to perfection by Mr. Whitney is con- sidered one of the finest, largest and best equipped in the state of Minnesota outside of the Twin Cities and Duluth. No detail has been neglected, and to guard against any possible interruption of the service, in the fall of 1913 and winter of 1913-14, Mr. Whitney added to the waterpower plant by building additional units, and installing a steam plant of 1,000 horse power, as an auxiliary.

Busy as he is in the public service and real estate line, which require an

I & Hay ward

HISTORY OF STEARNS COUNTY

expenditure of energy far beyond the capacity of the average man, he has also found time for other ventures. About 1899 he saw that the interests of the producers in Stearns county would be best conserved and promoted by the installation of cold storage facilities. Accordingly he and R. L. Gale or- ganized the St. Cloud Cold Storage & Produce Co., of which he was made president, a position which he still retains. This company has met with the same success that has attained all his efforts. Another venture was the State Bank of Richmond, which he organized, conducted for several years, and sold in 1911. For some years past he has been a director in the Merchants Na- tional Bank, of St. Cloud.

Ultimately Mr. Whitney intends to build a dam similar to the St. Cloud dam on the site of the Sauk Rapids Water Power Co., which he acquired at the time when he began to be interested in the electrical plants at St. Cloud, in 1900. Mr. Whitney is an extensive land holder, and owns a large number of farms scattered throughont central Minnesota. Of these he operates two and rents the remainder. It is interesting to note as a matter of history, that one of these farms which he operates is the old homestead of his uncle, Sylvanius Jenkins in Dakota county, on which Mr. Whitney spent so many happy hours as a care-free boy.

While Mr. Whitney has attained success in life such as has been achieved by few, and though his many interests make almost super-human demands on his time and energy he is affable and approachable, ever willing to lend his hand to every good cause. His good fellowship is shown by his member- ship in the I. O. O. F. and the B. P. O. E. No good work is projected that does not receive his help and encouragement, no public venture fails to find in him a supporter, and the fact that he refuses all offices, makes his opinion and influence on all public questions of all the greater importance. All in all he is a useful citzen, the extent of what his work has meant to St. Cloud and the state can never be estimated, the amount of the good he has done will never be known. His name is inseparably connected with the growth, progress and standing of the city. Mr. Whitney has been aided and encouraged in all his stupendous tasks, by a most happy married life. He was married October 13, 1891, to Alice M. Wheelock, of Moscow, N. Y., and they have three chil- dren, Wheelock, born in 1894, is studying electrical engineering at Yale Uni- versity ; Lois and Pauline are students at the St. Cloud high school.

Josiah E. Hayward. In the march of civilization, the extending of the outposts of settlement further and further into the wilderness, and the gradual subduing of the wild, there are three important factors, transportation, food and shelter. The early tavern keeper who could furnish accommodations, the man with ox teams who could transport goods onto far-away claims, the man with horses who could carry into the interior the people who landed from the steamboats-these men were of more immediate necessity than the teacher or the preacher. Among those whose work of this nature helped to make the conquest of the Northwest possible, may be mentioned the subject of this notice, generous, kindly, jovial and sympathetic "Uncle Josiah."

Josiah E. Hayward was born at Mechanics Falls, Maine, February 2, 1826, and at the time of his death in St. Cloud, March 13, 1895, had entered his seven-

HISTORY OF STEARNS COUNTY

tieth year. Like other New England boys of his time and circumstances he attended the schools of his neighborhood, and helped his parents with home duties. Maine being then a great lumber state, it was natural that young Josiah's attention should early be turned to that line of industry. In 1849, however, he and his brother, Samuel, like hundreds of other hardy sons of the Pine Tree state, started for the west with the hope of bettering their material condition. Upon their arrival in Minnesota they found conditions much more primitive than they had supposed. A few log houses constituted all the evi- dences there were of what is now the capital eity of St. Paul, while many Indian teepes adorned the site of the present metropolis of Minneapolis. So the brothers returned to their homes in the East. But Josiah had seen Minne- sota and could not forget it, so in 1856 he returned. His first intention was to settle at St. Anthony Falls, but his friends urged him on to Stearns county as a suitable field for his future endeavors, and accordingly he located in Winnebago prairie, in what is now Brockway township, and there opened a farm. It is said that he sent a man to Washington, D. C., to file his claim to the land on which he had settled. About this time he started lumbering along the upper Mississippi and its tributaries, a line of endeavor to which he gave more or less attention nearly all the remainder of his life. In the course of these operations he purchased a tract in Itasca county which after cutting off the pines he still retained. On this land is now located the Areturns iron mine, in the famous Mesaba range district. When the township of Brockway was organized in 1858, he was elected chairman of the first board of super- visors. He soon, however, was convinced that wider opportunities for his efforts lay in St. Cloud, and when the Indian outbreak came, he moved his family to that place, living for a time with Dr. Marlett's. April 13, 1863, he purchased the old Central House standing where the Grand Central Hotel is now located. This hotel had originally been built of tamarack logs, but at the time of Mr. Hayward's purchase it was a frame structure. Later he rebuilt it, and still later erected the present brick structure, giving it also a new name. Subsequently Mr. Hayward purchased the West Hotel, a hand- some structure a block from the original hostelry. The West Hotel was burned, but the son, Daniel S. Hayward is still operating the Grand Central. Josiah E. Hayward, in time, purchased a tract of land in St. Cloud township, which has been developed into the splendid farm now occupied by a son, Samuel S. Hayward. On this farm, Josiah E. Hayward erected a mill, which did a large business for several years. The mill was burned in 1880. In the early days, St. Cloud was one of the outposts of civilization, it was one of the centers of trade with the Indians, the outfitting point for trips into the wilder- ness, and the Central House and its proprietor enjoyed a full measure of prosperity. In his lumber operations which consisted principally in the pur- chase and sale of pine lands, he showed a keen perception, and a rare judg- ment as to ultimate values.

Mr. Hayward was a director in the German American Bank and the Merehants' National Bank, and had other financial interests. At the time of his death he had practically retired from business, the active management of the hotel having been placed in the hands of Daniel S. Hayward, and the

Mary & Hay ward

HISTORY OF STEARNS COUNTY

Inmber and transportation business, with its horses, oxen, camps and equip- ment, having been sold to D. H. Freeman. At the time of his death it was said of Mr. Hayward " 'Uncle Josiah' had a warm sympathetic nature, quick to respond to the cry of the helpless and needy. His death removed one of the pioneers of central Minnesota. His acquaintance was large, and few men were better known in this part of the state than he."

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History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume I, Part 12

Author: Mitchell, William Bell, 1843- Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago : H. S. Cooper Number of Pages: 964

Author: Mitchell, William Bell, 1843-
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : H. S. Cooper
Number of Pages: 964