Trails-to-the-Past-Minnesota-Goodhue-biographies-Progressive-Men

Minneapolis Journal 1897

DWIGHT MAJOR BALDWIN is one of the oldest and most substantial citizens of Red Wing, Minnesota. He is a transplanted Yankee of the type which has given the Northwest so many excellent businessmen. Hart B. Baldwin, Mr. Dwight M. Baldwin’s father, was born at Woodbridge, Connecticut, on April 15, 1814. He was married to Miss Rebecca Barnum on May 6, 1835. She was a native of Bethel, Connecticut, and a cousin of Phineas T. Barnum, the famous showman. Mr. Baldwin still lives at Red Wing, a retired businessman, and “well fixed” financially. Mrs. Baldwin died January 5, 1870, at Red Wing. Their son Dwight was born at Woodbridge, Connecticut, on August 26, 1836.

He was the oldest of six children, five sons and one daughter. Two of his brothers are still living. Young Dwight finished his school days at the “Connecticut Literary Institution” at Suffield in 1853. He learned the carpenter’s and joiner’s trade with his father, then a contractor and builder, and at the lighter work could keep up with the most of the men then he was only fourteen years old. At eighteen he was a full fledged journeyman, working at the business in New York City. Later he went to Danbury, Connecticut, and clerked in his father-in-law’s grocery store.

In April. 1862 he moved to Red Wing, bringing with him the young wife, whom he had wedded at Danbury on October 30, 1860, and their first child. Mrs. Baldwin was Miss Susan Holmes, of Danbury. Upon his arrival in Minnesota Mr. Baldwin became warehouse clerk for Sheldon and Hodgman. His next employment was that of steamboat clerk for the old “Davidson” line between St. Paul and La Crosse. After several years of river life, he went into partnership with his brother George W. in the drug and grocery business, but was not altogether successful.

He then turned his attention to insurance and real estate business and still has an office in the same line, having built up a competence, and become interested in many of the business enterprises of Red Wing. Mr. Baldwin is president of the North Star Stoneware Company and Vice-President of the Union Stoneware Company, of Red Wing. Mr. Baldwin was not engaged in the War of the Rebellion, but was commissioned by Gov. Ramsey, Captain of Company A, Tenth regiment, Minnesota State Militia, organized under the act of the special session of the legislature convened in 1862-3. The company was fully armed and equipped and was ready for service, but was never called out. A Democrat on general principles, Mr. Baldwin is at the same time a “sound money” man.

His religious affiliations are with the Episcopal church. He is very prominent in the Masonic order, and is a member of Red Wing Lodge, No. 8, A. F. & A. M.; La Grange Chapter, No. 4, R. A. M.; Tyrian Council, No. 4, R. & S. M.; Red Wing Commandery, No. 10, K. T.; Red Wing Chapter, No. 88, O. E. S., and Osman Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of St. Paul. He is a past officer in all these divisions of the order and has been representative in its highest councils.

Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin have had six children, three of whom are living. Mrs. Mary Estelle Fuller was born at Danbury, December 31, 1861, and is now living in Minneapolis. Dwight Major Baldwin, Jr., was born at Red Wing on May 28, 1867. He is a resident of Minneapolis, and is proprietor of the “Dwight Flour Mills” at Graceville, Minnesota, and is doing a very successful business. He was married on September 18, 1889, to Miss Edith E. Sheehan, at Fargo, North Dakota, and they have two children, Rose Estelle and Dwight Major 111. Alfred Holmes Baldwin, born at Red Wing. February 17, 1877, is now living at home.

TAMS BIXBY, is an excellent example of a self-made man, and an instance where the making reflects credit upon the maker. Mr. Bixby is a resident of Red Wing. He was born December 2, 1856, at Staunton, Virginia, and is a son of Bradford W. and Susan Jane Bixby. His parents were poor and Tams commenced a career, which has proved to be a very successful one, unaided by personal fortune or by influential friends. It was in the fall of 1837 that his parents came to Minnesota and settled at Red Wing. As soon as he was old enough he was sent to the parish school there, and continued his attendance until he was thirteen years of age. Beyond that his educational advantages have been such as an active mind can derive from the educational facilities which it creates for itself, through reading, experience and observation.

Possessed of a remarkable degree of energy and enterprise, he was not slow to employ his business talents in whatever honorable enterprise promised profitable returns. The result has been that he has been engaged in the business of news agent, hotel keeper, baker, broker, and is now editor and publisher of one of the most flourishing dailies of Minnesota, the Red Wing Republican. His editorial duties, however, are only incidental to his more important duties as private secretary of Gov. Clough. By dint of perseverance, superior business ability and energy he has become connected with a number of important concerns in this and adjoining states. Among other things his present business connections have brought him the position of president of the Red Wing Printing Company, president of the Pierre, South Dakota, Water, Light and Power Company, and vice-president of the West Duluth Light and Water Company.

Mr. Bixby has a genius for politics, and has had, of late years, superior opportunities for the development of his ability in that field. He began his career in politics as chairman of the Republican county committee of Goodhue County. His excellent work in that capacity attracted the attention of Republicans in other parts of the state to him, and when the Republican League of Minnesota was organized he was made secretary of that organization. Subsequently he filled the position of secretary of the Republican State Central Committee, from which responsible position he was promoted to that of chairman. In that capacity he has conducted several important campaigns with signal success, and established for himself the reputation of being one of the most skillful and adroit politicians in the state. At the same time he has added to his list of acquaintances many warm friends, who have come to appreciate his ability and devotion to the public interest. In the way of political office the only positions Mr. Bixby has ever held are those of secretary of the railroad and warehouse commission in the early days of that body, and later the office of private secretary to Gov. Merriam during the two terms in which he occupied the office of chief executive; also to Gov. Nelson, Gov. Merriam’s successor, and at this writing he occupies the same relation to Gov. Clough, who succeeded Gov. Nelson. Mr. Bixby has sustained his confidential and important relation to the chief executive of the state for a period of eight years, and has made himself invaluable to the occupant of that office. He possesses rare qualities of sociability and geniality, and attaches men to himself in warm friendship.

He is a member of the Commercial Club at Red Wing, the Commercial Club of St. Paul; is a Mason and Knight Templar, and is also a member of the I. O. O. F. He was married April 27th, 1886, to Clara Mues, and has three sons, Edson K., born April 9th. 1887: Joel H., born November 3oth, 1888, and Tams, Jr. born September 12th, 1891.

JENS KRISTIAN GRONDAHL enjoys the distinction of being one of the youngest men in the state to serve in the legislature. He was elected in 1894 when but twenty-five years of age. He is a newspaper man and a resident of Red Wing, where he came with his parents from Norway in 1882.

His father, Lars Grondahl, was a farmer of limited means but with advanced ideas as to the education and training of his children, a man of warm heart and generous disposition. Mr. Grondahl died in 1895 at the age of seventy-two. His wife, whose maiden name was Martha Margrete Julsrud, is still living aged sixty-seven. She is a woman of most estimable character. Their son Jens was born at Eidsvold, near Christiania Norway, on December 3, 1869.

He attended the public schools at the place of his birth and, after coming to America, at the age of thirteen, at Red Wing. He graduated from the Red Wing Seminary in 1887 with high honors. Later he attended the University of Minnesota for one year. Shortly before graduating from the seminary in 1887 he won the oratorical prize of fifteen dollars. This, rather oddly, led him into the newspaper business. He invested the money in the confectionery business, starting a tiny shop, where be soon accumulated enough debts to last him for several years. To mend the failing fortunes of his enterprise he carried papers and later acted as correspondent for some of the city dailies. When the “Red Wing Daily Independent” was started in 1891 he was engaged to conduct the paper—a post which proved to consist in preparing all the local and editorial “copy,’” distributing it among three printing offices, and, after the matter was set up, collecting the type and carrying it to the office where the paper was printed. Occasionally these manifold duties were supplemented by the light work of running off the edition on the cylinder press and delivering the paper to the waiting subscribers. During the summer of this year Mr. Grondahl made a brief excursion into the lecture field, assuming the role of humorous lecturer—an experience which he now looks back upon as one of the most humorous in his career, whatever the public may have thought about it. A one-night stand, and an audience of one, discouraged the budding lecturer, and he has since devoted himself to journalism and politics.

The campaign of 1892 found Mr. Grondahl an active worker in the Republican ranks. Two years later he was a candidate for the legislature to represent Goodhue County in the lower house. A bitter campaign against the “boy” candidate ended in his election by a large majority. During the succeeding session he took an active part in the affairs of the house and made some very effective speeches on prison labor reform, the training school bills and other measures which he regarded especially worthy of support or denunciation. He was also successful in securing various important legislation for the benefit of his own county. He was one of two men who were present at every session of the legislature. With this record behind him, Mr. Grondahl went into the representative convention in 1896 and received the re-nomination by acclamation. In 1892 he became connected with the “Red Wing Daily Republican,” and in 1894 assumed charge of “Nordstjernen,” a Norwegian weekly which was then started by the same company. In the spring of 1896 he was elected secretary of the Minnesota Republican Editorial Association. Mr. Grondahl has taken an active part in the Republican state conventions for the past two years. He was chosen as one of the delegates to represent Minnesota in the national convention of Republican clubs at Milwaukee, in August 1896. Mr. Grondahl is unmarried. He is a Lutheran.

LUCIUS FREDERICK HUBBARD. Hubbard County, Minnesota, is named after the man who for two successive terms filled the office of governor with distinguished ability. This man was Lucius Frederick Hubbard, of Red Wing, who was born January 26, 1836, at Troy, New York, the eldest son of Charles F. Hubbard and Margeret Van Valkenberg (Hubbard.) At the time of his father’s death Lucius was but three years of age, and was sent to live with an aunt at Chester, Vermont, where he remained until twelve years of age, when he was placed at school at the academy at Granville, New York, for three years. At the age of fifteen he went to Poultney, Vermont, and began an apprenticeship to the tinner’s trade, subsequently completing his apprenticeship at Salem, New York, in 1854.

Then, a young man of eighteen years of age, he resolved to go West, and moved to Chicago, where he worked at his trade for three years. With the exception of the school facilities already described he was self educated. Having literary tastes and studious habits he devoted all his spare time to systematic and careful study in reading, and in this way acquired an excellent practical education. In July, 1857, Mr. Hubbard came to Minnesota and located at Red Wing. Although without experience in the publishing business, he started the Red Wing Republican, the second paper in Goodhue County, and by reason of his energy, perseverance and good practical judgment made the paper a success from the start. In 1858 he was chosen by the people of Goodhue County as Register of Deeds.

In 1861 he became the Republican candidate for the state senate, but was defeated. In the meantime the War of the Rebellion had broken out and Mr. Hubbard was just the kind of a man to feel the responsibility and obligation resting upon him of service to his country. In December, 1861, he sold his paper and enlisted as a private in Company A, Fifth Minnesota, and on the fifth of the following February was elected captain. The regiment was organized March 20, 1862, when Mr. Hubbard was advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel. The following May it was divided, three companies being ordered to the Minnesota frontier, the other seven to the South. Mr. Hubbard went with the division sent South, and four days after its arrival at its destination was engaged in the battle of Farmington, Mississippi, then in the first battle of Corinth, where Col. Hubbard was severely wounded. In August, 1862, he became colonel of full rank. He was in command of the regiment at the battle of luka, at the second battle of Corinth, and at the battles of Jackson, Mississippi Springs, Mechanicsburg and Satartia, Mississippi; Richmond, Louisiana; and the assault and siege of Vicksburg. After the fall of Vicksburg, Col. Hubbard was given command of the Second brigade, first division. Sixteenth Army Corps, within a very short time the brigade had been in seven battles on Red River in Louisiana and in Southern Arkansas. On returning to Memphis, Col. Hubbard’s command took part in several engagements in the northern part of Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri, encountering Gen. Price. Col. Hubbard, with his brigade, was ordered to reinforce Gen. Thomas at Nashville, and was engaged in the battle of Nashville, December 15, and 16, 1864. Here the brigade was badly cut to pieces, Col. Hubbard having two horses killed under him, and being severely wounded. The brigade, which had long enjoyed a well-earned reputation under its gallant commander for endurance and bravery, on this occasion added to its honors by capturing seven pieces of artillery, many stands of colors, and forty percent more prisoners than there were men in the command itself. The military records of the Fifth Minnesota contain this official entry:

“Col. Lucius Frederick Hubbard breveted brigadier general for conspicuous gallantry in the battles of Nashville, Tennessee, December 15 and 16, 1864.” Subsequently Gen. Hubbard was engaged in operations in the vicinity of New Orleans and Mobile, and was mustered out in September, 1865. He was engaged in thirty-one battles and many engagements, and has a military record of which his state had reason to be proud.

Returning to his home in Red Wing the latter part of 1865 with shattered health he rested for a time, and the following year his health having improved he engaged in the grain business, his operations subsequently extending into Wabasha County and becoming quite extensive. In 1876 he became interested in railroad building and completed the Midland Railway from Wabasha to Zumbrota. This road was purchased by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, but resulted in the construction and operation of a competing line by the Northwestern Railway. Subsequently Mr. Hubbard projected and organized the Minnesota Central from Red Wing to Mankato. More recently he projected the Duluth, Red Wing and Southern, which is now under his management.

In politics Mr. Hubbard has always been a Republican. In 1868 he was nominated for congress from the Second District of Minnesota, but, a question of the regularity of the nomination having arisen, he declined it. In 1872 he was elected to the state senate, and again in 1874, but declined a re-election in 1876. In 1881 he was nominated for governor of Minnesota and was elected by a majority of 27,857, the largest ever received by any candidate for governor up to that time. In 1883 he was renominated and re-elected. He discharged the duties of his responsible office throughout his entire incumbency with marked ability and dignity. Among the important measures of Gov. Hubbard’s administration enacted in response to his recommendation, were: The creation of the present Railway and Warehouse Commission: the existing system of state grain inspection; state inspection of dairy produces; the present state sanitary organization for protection of the public health; the creation of the state board of charities and corrections; the establishment of the state public school at Owatonna: the organization of the State National Guard, and the change from annual in biennial elections. The state finances were also administered on business principles of a high order. During the five years Gov. Hubbard was in office, the taxes levied for state purposes averaged less than for the ten preceding years or for any period since. The rate of taxation was largely reduced, while the public debt was materially decreased and at the same time the trust funds were increased from $6,278,911.72 to $9,001,637.14. Gov. Hubbard also held other important positions of trust. He was on the commission appointed by the governor in 1866 to investigate respecting the status of the state railroad bonds and ascertain the terms on which holders would surrender them; on the commission appointed by the legislature in 1874 to investigate the accounts of the state auditor and state treasurer; in 1879 on the commission of arbitration appointed by the legislature to adjust differences between the state and the state prison contractors, and in 1889 he served on the commission appointed by the legislature to compile and publish a history of Minnesota military organizations in the Civil War and Indian war of 1861-65. Mr. Hubbard is a member of Acker Post, G. A. R., St. Paul, Minnesota Commandery of the Loyal Legion, the Minnesota Society Sons of the American Revolution, Society of the Army of the Tennessee. Red Wing Commandery of Royal Arch Masons, and the board of trustees of Minnesota Soldiers” Home.

Mr. Hubbard was married in May, 1868, at Red Wing, to Amelia Thomas, daughter of Charles Thomas, a lineal descendant of Sir John Moore. They have three children, Charles F., Lucius V. and Julia M. Mr. Hubbard is descended upon his father’s side from George Hubbard and Mary Bishop who emigrated from England to America during the Seventeenth Century, and on his mother’s side from the Van Valkenburgs of Holland, who have occupied the valley of the Hudson since its earliest history.

THEODORE B. SHELDON Red Wing is one of the substantial towns of Minnesota and among its most substantial citizens is Theodore B. Sheldon, president of the First National Bank of that place. Mr. Sheldon located in Red Wing forty years ago, and has been prominently identified with the growth of the city during nearly its entire history.

He was born January 31, 1820, at Bernardston, Franklin County, Massachusetts. His parents were Izatus Sheldon, a manufacturer of boots and shoes, and Mary Pickett (Sheldon). His ancestry, so far as he has been able to trace it, has lived in New England. He received a common school education, and in 1856 removed to Minnesota, settling at Red Wing on the third of July. He has been a resident of that place ever since. At the age of twelve years he began to work in a woolen mill in Greenfield, Massachusetts. He continued at that business until 1840, when he entered the employment of John E. Russell in a cutlery factory. He remained in this business for about three years, and then went to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he obtained a situation in a tool and lock manufacturing company. He remained with that company about two years when he removed to Whitneyville, near New Haven, Connecticut, and was employed in Whitney’s gun manufactory on rifles, which the company had contracted to supply the government. Two years later he removed, to Windsor, Vermont, and was employed by Messrs. Robbins & Lawrence on rifles to fill government contracts.

On the third of July, 1856, Mr. Sheldon arrived at Red Wing, and in the fall of that year went into partnership with Jesree McIntire, in the mercantile business. The spring of 1860 he sold his interest in the mercantile business to his partner, and in the fall of that year built a large warehouse and went into the grain business, in which he is still interested. He has also been identified with nearly all of the important enterprises affecting Red Wing. He was appointed agent for the Commodore Davidson Packet Company, also for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad and for the American Express Company. The agency of the packet company and the railroad company he retained until the railroad was completed from St. Paul to La Crosse, and the agency of the American Express Company was retained by him for about twenty-five years. Mr. Sheldon has also been interested in the First National Bank, an institution of which he is president, and also of the Goodhue County Bank, from the time they were organized.

He has been interested in the Red Wing & Trenton Transit Company, organized for the purpose of building a road and a bridge over the Mississippi river between Red Wing, Minnesota, and Trenton, Wisconsin. He was president of this company and one of its directors from the time it was formed, some fifteen years ago, until about a year ago when he resigned. He was one of the prime movers in the Minnesota Stoneware Company, and also in the Red Wing Gas and Electric Light Company, the Red Wing Furniture Company and the Red Wing, Duluth & Southern Railway Company. His business capacity has been recognized by his election as president of all these different enterprises. But he has not given all his time to his private affairs.

Naturally a man of public spirit, he was called upon to serve the city as one of the board of supervisors under township organization, and was a member of the council since the city was organized. In politics Mr. Sheldon is a Democrat, and has usually voted that ticket. His church connections are with the Episcopal church. Mr. Sheldon was married in 1848 to Mary T. Sturtevant, of Hartland, Vermont. Five children were born, all of whom died. Mrs. Mary Sturtevant Sheldon died in November. 1891, and Mr. Sheldon was married again in June, 1893, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Miss Annie L. Langton.

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