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Progressive Men
Index
 JOHN FRANKLIN McGEE is a lawyer practicing
his profession in Minneapolis. Mr. McGee is of Irish
descent. His father, Hugh McGee, emigrated to this
country from the north of Ireland, in 1850, while yet a
lad of fifteen. He settled at Amboy, Lee County,
Illinois, and engaged in the railroad business as a
mechanic, where he still lives, retired, in comfortable
circumstances.
John Franklin was born at Amboy, January 1, 1861.
His mothers maiden name was Margaret Heenan. Mr. McGee
attended the city school of Amboy, graduating from the
high school in his twentieth year. During his last year
at the high school he read law with C. H. Wooster, of
Amboy. From there he went to Clinton, Illinois, and
entered the office of Moore & Warner the latter
member of the firm now being a member of congress. The
senior member of this firm, Mr. Moore, was partner with
United States Senator David Davis, of Illinois, from
1853 until the death of Senator Davis.
Mr. McGee was admitted to practice in the supreme
court of Illinois. November 10, 1882. He came west,
however, the following April, settling in Devils Lake,
Dakota Territory, going into partnership with D. E.
Morgan, at present district judge at Devils Lake. Mr. McGee
assisted Mr. Morgan, who was prosecuting attorney at
that time, trying all the important criminal cases from
the organization of the county until leaving for
Minneapolis. The most important case Mr. McGee tried
while at Devils Lake was the sensational Oswald murder
case, in April and May of 1886. He removed to
Minneapolis in April, 1887, and entered into partnership
with A. H. Noyes. which partnership was continued until
August 19, 1889. Since that time Mr. McGee has not
entered into any other partnerships. His specialty is
that of corporation law. He was the representative of
the old Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City Railroad,
and is also of its successor, the Chicago Great
Western. He
is also attorney for a number of elevator
companies.
One of the most important cases in which he has
been interested, and one which became of national
interest, was that of Norman Brass vs. North Dakota, a
suit brought to overthrow the grain laws of that state,
when this case was finally appealed to the supreme court
of the United States, the law was upheld by a vote of
five to four.
He has never been very active in politics, but is
an independent Republican in his belief. He has not held
any political office. He was married September 14, 1884,
to Libbie L.
Ryan, of Wapella, Illinois. They have four
children.
 JOHN COLIN
McINTYRE was born June 20, 1858, at River Dennis, Cape
Breton, Province of Nova Scotia, Canada. His father,
Archibald Mclntyre, was a farmer and merchant in fair
circumstances. At the time of the Fenian raid on Canada
he served as a colonel in the British army, taking part
in repelling the raiders. He was always a strong
supporter of governmental and church policies, whose
fundamental principles were liberty and in the interest
of humanity, and took an active part in confederation
measures for the provinces. Flora Noble (Mclntyre), the
mother of the subject of this sketch, was the eldest
daughter’ of Dr. John Noble, a prominent physician and
surgeon, and a descendant, on her mother’s side, of the
Campbells of Lorne, or the Dukes of Argyle. Her memory
is recalled with reverence by her son, for her strength
and force of character as a good Christian woman and
mother.
John Colin attended the public schools of his
native town, later graduating from an academy. He also
took a course in a commercial college, and entered upon
the study of law, but was not admitted to practice. Mr.
Mclntyre came to Minnesota August 22, 1882, locating in
Minneapolis the following May, where he has since
resided.
Previous to settling in Minneapolis he was
engaged in oil and gold mining in the provinces, but on
locating in this city he took up the fire insurance,
real estate and loan business, first as an employee but
later on his own account. He became a member of the firm
of Jones, McMullan & Co., which afterwards
dissolved, and the firm of Jones, Mclntyre & Co. was
organized.
Mr. Mclntyre is
independent in his political convictions, yet a strong
supporter of many of the principles of the Republican
party, though believing in the economic principles of
prohibition of trusts and the liquor traffic.
He has always taken an active
interest in all matters relating to good government, and
is at present president of the branch of the Good
Citizenship League in the Fourth ward of Minneapolis. He
was one of the first active supporters of the measure
establishing the patrol limit system in Minneapolis, and
one of the first advocates of the free text book law,
having been chairman of the committee which circulated
petitions for this measure throughout the state, and
which is called a mass meeting in the Swedish Tabernacle
in Minneapolis, at which were present the principal
educators of the state, the sentiment crystallized at
this meeting assuring the success of the bill. Mr.
Mclntyre is a Mason, a member of the Royal Arcanum and
of the Commercial Club of Minneapolis. His church
connections are with the Methodist Episcopal body, of
which he is a member. He was married October I, 1885, to
Miss Hattie M. Gunn. They have four children, Jean E.,
Florence J., Vera A. and Archibald W. D.
 EDWARD JOSEPH McMAHON is of Irish
descent.
Thomas McMahon, his father, emigrated from
Ireland to this country in 1831, settling at Buffalo,
New York. Bridget Shaughnessy (McMahon), his mother, was
also of Irish birth, coming to the United States when
thirteen years of age. The McMahon family removed to
Minnesota in 1857, settling at Faribault, where they
engaged in farming and became fairly prosperous.
Edward was born at Faribault, January 10, 1859.
He received a good general education, somewhat better
than that of the average farmer’s boy, attending the
public schools at Faribault, and graduating from the
high school at the head of his class in his sixteenth
year. For the next five years he worked on his father’s
farm, but, having a predilection for the profession of
law, he left the farm and entered the law office of John
H. Case, at Faribault, to take up its study. He was
studious in his habits, and at the end of two years, in
1882, was admitted to practice.
Mr. McMahon decided to remove to North Dakota to
take up the practice of his profession, and he hung out
his shingle in the little town of Hope. It was but a
short time after his arrival that he was appointed
county attorney. This appointment came to him in a
rather peculiar way. He was comparatively a stranger,
but one of the county commissioners came to him one day
to get his opinion on the legality of a certain measure
that was bothering the commissioners. The other local
attorneys have declared it legal, but Mr. McMahon gave an
opposite opinion, and was able to so convince the
commissioners. When they held their next meeting they
elected the young attorney for the office above
mentioned.
Mr. McMahon established a profitable practice in
Hope, but in 1889 removed to Minneapolis in order to
have a wider field. He formed a partnership in 1893 with
F. A. Gilman. under the firm name of Gilman &
McMahon. which still continues. They do a general law
business and enjoy a profitable practice, many times
engaged in important cases in the states of Wisconsin,
North and South Dakota. Mr. McMahon has always been a
Republican. While in North Dakota he was elected to the
office of county clerk and register of deeds for Steele
County, for the term of 1882-84. He is a member of the
Commercial Club, of Minneapolis, and of the I. O. O. F.,
and is also a Mason, belonging to all the Masonic bodies
in the city, and has served three times as Master of
Khurum Lodge.
No.
112.
 FRANK
GRIGGS McMILLAN is a resident of the City of
Minneapolis, and one of those whose energy, enterprise,
and public spirit have given to the “Flour City” her
enviable reputation. He was born in Danville, Caledonia
County, Vermont, October 4, 1856. His father, Colonel
Andrew McMillan, was a graduate of West Point, but
resigned his commission to engage in commercial
business. The family is descended from Colonel Andrew
McMillan, of Ulster, Ireland, who emigrated to America
in the year 1755. One of his sons General John McMillan,
was the grandfather of F. G. McMillan.
At
an early age, Mr. McMillan started in life for himself
as a printer, serving an apprenticeship in the old North
Star office in Danville, Vermont, and later as a
journeyman in Boston. In 1878, because of impaired
health, he came West, settling in Minneapolis, where he
worked successfully as a printer, carpenter and
millwright. In a very short time Mr. McMillan had worked
into the business of contracting, and today stands at
the head of the long list of Minneapolis builders and
contractors whose reputation is unblemished and whose
capacity in their business is unquestioned.
Many of the finest buildings and residences of
the city bear evidence to his taste in designing and
skill in executing.
Mr.
McMillan in 1890 was nominated as the Democratic
candidate for State Senator from his own, a strongly
Republican, district in Minneapolis, and was elected by
a handsome majority. He soon proved himself
to be one of the most efficient men of that body, being
active, conscientious, and yet conservative, his worth
being immediately recognized by his appointment to the
chairmanship of the Committee on Elections, the
Committee on University and University Lands, and also
served as a member of the Committee on Geological and
Natural History Survey, Grain and Public Warehouse,
Manufactories, Military Affairs and State’s Prison. He
was author of a resolution calling for a committee to
investigate and report to the Senate as to site, plans,
cost, etc., of a new Capitol Building. Being made
chairman of that committee, he drew the bill providing
for the erection of the new Capitol Building, which bill
became a law. Under its provisions a magnificent site
has been secured, plans have already been adopted, and
foundation walls laid ready for the superstructure. Mr.
McMillan was identified with a great deal of important
legislation during his four years’ term. Among other
important measures introduced or supported by him were
the Australian ballot law, a bill known as the corrupt
practices act to limit expenditures in elections, a
primary election law a bill to establish school savings
banks, a bill providing for the separation of municipal
from general elections, an amendment to the constitution
prohibiting special legislation, a bill providing that
no franchises to occupy public streets should be granted
to private corporations by any city without adequate
compensation. Mr. McMillan has always belonged to the
Democratic party, and has taken great interest in the
work of the Hennepin County Democratic League, of which
he is Vice President, and of the State Democratic
Association, in which he has been an efficient
officer. Last winter Mr.
McMillan was elected a member of the Board of Park
Commissioners of Minneapolis, an important and
responsible position in that city of parks and
boulevards. He is a director and member of the executive
committee of the Board of Trade, and President of the
Vermont Association of Minnesota.
Mr.
McMillan married in 1881, Miss Lillian Connor, a native
of Minneapolis, and now has a family of four children.
The family is attached to the First Congregational
church of Minneapolis, of which he is a member and
trustee. Mr. McMillan is a
gentleman who is held in high regard by his fellow
townsmen and has won for himself an honorable and
enviable standing as citizen of his city and
state.
 PUTNAM DANA
McMILLAN It requires a courageous heart and the
possession of lots of pluck and determination to
overcome many hard knocks in life’s struggle, especially
if accompanied by affliction. Putnam Dana McMillan has
had more than his share of misfortune, but he is the
offspring of men who shed their blood in the country‘s
cause, and he inherited their sterling qualities. His
paternal great-grandfather, Colonel Andrew McMillan, was
a participant in the Revolutionary War, born of Scotch
parents, in the County of Londonderry, Ireland, in 1731.
John McMillan, his son, was a general in the War of
1812. Andrew McMillan, son of General John McMillan and
Mehitable Osgood (McMillan), was the father of the
subject of this sketch. On the maternal side, General
Israel Putnam of Revolutionary fame, was a
great-great-grandfather. His daughter, Hannah Putnam,
married Winchester Dana, a descendant of Richard Dana.
Their son Colonel Israel Putnam Dana, was the father of
Emily Eunice Dana, the mother of Mr. McMillan. Colonel
Dana was a man of influence and wealth, and one of
Vermont’s most prominent men. As can be seen the
Christian names of our subject indicate the patronymics
of his maternal ancestors.
Andrew McMillan, his father, a civil
engineer by profession, was a graduate of West Point; a
prominent Democrat in Vermont politics, and was a member
of the legislature of that state, as well as of Maine,
where he formerly lived. In early life he was engaged in
mercantile pursuits, but this business not being
conducive to his health he turned his attention in later
years to farming.
Putnam Dana McMillan was born at
Fryeburg, Maine, August 25, 1832. His education was
received in the common schools of Vermont (his parents
having moved to that state when the boy was but a year
old) and later in an academy at Danville. He left his
school studies when but sixteen years of age, and for
four years clerked in a country store in his native
state. He then went to California, going in a sailing
vessel around Cape Horn. For five years he remained on
the Pacific Coast, engaged in mercantile pursuits and
mining, then returned to his old home in Vermont and
turned his attention to agriculture. When the war broke
out he joined the Fifteenth Regiment Vermont Volunteers
and served throughout its entire service as
quartermaster.
At
the expiration of his service he went to South America
and settled in the Province of Buenos Ayres, engaging in
sheep farming near Rosario on the Parana River. He was
very successful and remained there several years, until
he was compelled to leave by a series of terrible
misfortunes. A revolution broke out between the
Provinces of Buenos Ayres and Santa Fee, and his home
being between the two contending factions became the
battle ground of the contestants.
This brought ruin financially. But with the war
came cholera, which wrought deadly havoc in Mr.
McMillan’s family. Five out of eight members of his
household died, including his wife, and, broken in
spirit and health, Mr. McMillan left the
country with the only child surviving, a daughter.
On
his returning to the United States he came West, in
1872, located in Minneapolis, and engaged in the real
estate business. He has lived in
Minneapolis ever since, where he is held in high esteem
for his integrity as a businessman. He has not, however,
confined his real estate speculations to the City of
Minneapolis, but has for several years been engaged in
reclaiming several thousand acres of what was apparently
worthless land and an eye sore to the fertile
agricultural region in Southern Minnesota. His efforts
have not been fruitless, and the County of Freeborn and
the State of Minnesota are richer by the transformation
of over six thousand acres of watery waste to a fertile
tract of land, unequaled by any surrounding it.
“Ricelawn,” as it is now called, will stand as a lasting
monument to his foresight and indomitable perseverance.
Mr.
McMillan has been a life long Republican ; is a member
of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Loyal Legion,
and of the Congregational Church. He was married in
Vermont to Helen E. Davis, daughter of Hon. Bliss N.
Davis, one of the most prominent attorneys in that
state. She died in South America. The only surviving
child of the union is Emily Dana McMillan. He was
married a second time to Kate Kittredge, daughter of
Hon. Moses Kittredge, of
St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Three children
resulted from this union, of whom Margaret and Putnam
Dana are living.
 ALONZO DRAPER MEEDS was born
December 6, 1864, in East Minneapolis, then known as
St. Anthony. His early
education was received chiefly in the public schools of
Stillwater, Minnesota, and his college training at the
State University at Minneapolis, where he took the
scientific course, graduating in 1889, with the degree
of B.S. While in college he
was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity. Mr. Meeds’
parents, Charles H. Meeds and Sarah Lucy Means (Meeds),
were both born in Maine, the father at Standish and the
mother at Saco.
The
earliest family records indicate that the Meeds settled
at Harvard, Massachusetts, and Artemus Meeds,
grandfather to A. D. Meeds, moved from
there to Linnington, Maine, and thence to Standish,
Maine, where his father, C. H. Meeds, was born. Here
Samuel Meeds was born, June 18, 1732.
His father, Samuel Meads, (the name is spelled
Meads in these old records), came to Harvard from
Littleton, Massachusetts. He served in the French and
Indian wars from August to December, 1755, and his son,
Samuel, in a company commanded by Israel Taylor, which
was sent for the relief of Fort William Henry in August,
1757. Samuel, the elder, was
also engaged in the campaign against Fort Ticonderoga in
1758, and he was also among the Harvard men who sprang
to arms at the Lexington alarm and marched to Cambridge,
April 19, 1775. In July, 1777, when it was thought the
British were about to invade Rhode Island, he was again
in the service, although long past the military age.
Samuel, Jr., was in the service at various times, and
marched on Bennington at the alarm call. It thus appears
that the Meeds were active in the colonial defense,
although it does not appear that any of them occupied
very prominent positions. Charles Henry Meeds
enlisted in 1862 in the Maine Volunteers, but served
only a few months, being discharged on account of
disability. He came to Minnesota first in 1856, and
after the war, in 1864, returned with his family,
locating at St. Anthony. He was engaged in the steamboat
business between St. Anthony, Red Wing, Hastings and
adjacent points on the river. The family finally removed
to Stillwater in 1872.
While at the university Alonzo, the
subject of this sketch, devoted especial attention to
the study of chemistry and geology, and in the summer of
1888 was engaged on the Minnesota geological survey in
field work in Northeastern Minnesota.
In the winter of 1889 he secured a position with
the Northern Pacific Railroad at St. Paul, and spent the
following summer on a survey in the state of Washington,
for that road. In September of that year he was
appointed assistant in the chemical laboratory of the
university, and in October, 1891, on a leave of absence,
joined a scientific expedition to Mexico, under Dr. Carl
Lumholtz, exploring the Sierra Madre mountains.
The expedition was undertaken under the auspices
of the American Museum of Natural History, of New York.
Returning May, 1892, the summer was spent in the
Minnesota Geological Survey, and in September Mr. Meeds
resumed his work in the chemical laboratory of the
university, where he continued as an instructor until
1894.
In
August of that year he was elected inspector of gas for
the city of Minneapolis, after a competitive
examination, and now holds that office. He has
discharged the duties of his position to the full
satisfaction of the public, and rendered important
service in maintaining the quality of the product. He is
a member of the American Association for Advancement of
Science, of the American Chemical Society, is secretary
of the Minnesota Academy of Natural Science, and is a
member of the Masonic order.
 PHILIP TOLLEF
MEGGARDEN chief deputy sheriff of Hennepin County, is a
native of Iowa and by descent of Norwegian extraction.
His parents were both born in Norway. The father, Tollef
K. Meggairden, was a dealer in livestock and later a
railroad contractor. He lived in Allamakee County, Iowa,
at the time of the breaking out of the war, and enlisted
in the Fourth Iowa Cavalry, serving three years. At the
close of the war he removed to Dickinson County, where
he lived until 1877 when the family removed to
Minneapolis. Philip was born in
Allamakee County, on October 2, 1864. He was the oldest
of seven children. During his early childhood he
attended the public schools near his home in Iowa and in
Minneapolis. In the fall of 1878 he had resolved to
prepare for the Lutheran ministry, and entered Augsberg
Seminarv, Minneapolis, but the next year his father died
suddenly leaving Philip at the head of a family of seven
and with little means for their support.
Putting aside the plans which he had
made, the boy commenced a struggle for a livelihood. He
obtained such employment as he could, first as clerk in
a fuel office, then bookkeeper and later as court
officer in the municipal court. At this time he was
studying as best he could, sometimes attending evening
school and again employing a private instructor. He
managed to get a course in a business college and at
last entered the university law school, from which he
graduated in 1892, taking the degree of LL. B. He was
admitted to the bar in the supreme court during the same
year. In 1893 he completed a postgraduate course in the
law school and received the degree of LL. M. Mr.
Megaarden commenced the practice of law, but on January
1, 1895, discontinued it to accept the office which he
now holds. He intends to resume practice upon leaving
the sheriff’s office.
Since coming of age Mr. Megaarden
has been a staunch Republican, and has taken an active
part in political affairs. He is a member of the Union
League and other political clubs. He has taken a
prominent part in the order of the Knights of Pythias
and is at present Chancellor Commander for the second
time of Monitor Lodge No 6, K. of P.
He has at times filled nearly every office in
this lodge. Repeatedly elected to represent his lodge in
the Minnesota Grand Lodge, and being a member of the
Grand Lodge of the Domain of Minnesota, he has taken a
prominent part in the affairs of the order in the
Northwest. He has held the office of Deputy Grand
Chancellor of the Grand Lodge. Mr. Megaarden is also a
member of North Star Division, No. 1, Uniform Rank,
Knights of Pythias. He holds membership in the Khurum
Lodge, No. 112, A. F. and A. M., and is also a member of
Ridgely Lodge, No. 85, I. O. O. F., and of Minnewa
Tribe, No. II, of the Improved
Order of Red Men. He is a member of the Minneapolis
Commercial Club. Mr. Megaarden is
unmarried.
 RICHARD
J. MENDENHALL The ancestry of R. J. Mendenhall is traced
back to England before the time of William Penn. The
American ancestry of the family emigrated with Penn, and
his descendants for many years lived in Pennsylvania.
The great great-grandson of the Quaker emigrant, Richard
Mendenhall, was an extensive tanner at Jamestown, North
Carolina. His wife was Mary Pegg, a descendant of an old
Welsh family which settled in America at an early
period.
Their son Richard was born at
Jamestown, on November 25, 1828. During his boyhood and
youth Mr. Mendenhall’s education
was more or less interrupted by various pursuits. In
1848 he studied at the New Garden Boarding School.
During a summer vacation spent in New Hampshire he met
Cyrus Beede, with whom he formed a friendship and who
afterwards became his partner in business in
Minneapolis.
During his boyhood he acquired
familiarity with farm life, and had taken a special
delight in the culture of fruits and flowers. After
leaving school Mr. Mendenhall went to
Ohio and was engaged in railroad work for a time. He
afterwards was associated with his brother in similar
work in North Carolina, and his experience in this
profession led him to come west. A year of surveying in
Iowa satisfied him with that locality, and at the age of
twenty-eight he arrived at Minneapolis.
His friend, Cyrus Beede. followed a year later,
and they became associated in the land, loan and banking
business, under the firm name of Beede & Mendenhall.
In the panic of 1857, which came upon them before they
were thoroughly established, they suffered considerable
losses but succeeded in preserving their credit. In
November, 1862, Mr. Mendenhall became president of the
State Bank of Minnesota. This was afterwards
merged into the State National Bank of Minneapolis, of
which Mr. Mendenhall also became president, continuing
in this position until 1871. He was also president of
the State Savings Association, which was forced to
suspend during the panic of 1873. At much personal
sacrifice Mr. Mendenhall has satisfied most of the
claims growing out of this failure.
In 1862 he was Town Treasurer, and for a number
of years secretary and treasurer of the Board of
Education.
Mr.
Mendenhall was married in 1858 to Miss Abby G. Swift, a
daughter of Captain Silas Swift, of West Falmouth,
Massachusetts. They now reside in a
beautiful home on Stevens avenue in Minneapolis.
Adjoining the house are extensive green houses, where
Mr. Mendenhall has in
recent years built up a large business in flowers and
plants. Both Mr. and Mrs. Mendenhall have continued
through their lives as active members of the Friends’
denomination.
 AMBROSE NEWELL
MERRICK was born in Brimfield, Hampden County,
Massachusetts, February 9, 1827. He comes of Puritan
stock. Thomas Merrick, the first of the family to come
to America, settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1630,
and afterwards became one of the founders of
Springfield, Massachusetts. The family name originated
in Wales.
Mr.
Merrick is a son of Ruel Merrick and Marcia Fenton, both
of Brimfield, Massachusetts, and was the youngest of
seven children. His father died when
he was about three years old. After attending the
district school until about sixteen years of age, Mr.
Merrick spent a few terms at the Westfield Academy and
Williston Seminary, where he completed preparation for
college. He entered Williams College in the sophomore
year and graduated in 1850. From 1850 to 1854 Mr.
Merrick managed the farm for his mother, studying law as
he had the time.
In
1855 he entered the office of the Hon. George Ashmun, of
Springfield, then one of the leaders of the New England
bar, and remained under Mr. Ashmun’s tutelage until his
admission to the bar in 1857. For ten years after his
admission to the bar Mr. Merrick was actively engaged in
practice in Springfield, devoting some time to politics,
and being for a long time a member of the executive
committee of the republican state central committee of
Massachusetts. While in Springfield he was for some time
president of the City Council and Chairman of the Board
of County Commissioners, and later served for some time
as City Solicitor.
In
1867 Mr. Merrick went to California and for two years
practiced at Los Angeles. After a winter in San
Francisco he went to Seattle, Washington, and with his
associates opened the first coal mine on Puget Sound.
But the frontier life of Washington was not an agreeable
one, and Mr. Merrick, in 1871, moved to Minneapolis. In
the spring of 1872 St. Anthony and Minneapolis were
consolidated, and Mr. Merrick became the first City
Attorney. He held that office for three consecutive
terms. He was one of the originators of the present
municipal court. From 1873 to 1875 Mr. Merrick, in
addition to the discharge of the duties of City
Attorney, was engaged with the late H. G. O. Morrison,
under the firm name of Merrick & Morrison, in a
large general practice.
In
1876 Mr. Merrick, owing to the ill-health of his wife,
was compelled to seek a different climate, and went to
St. Louis, Missouri, where he resided from 1876 to 1880.
On leaving St. Louis to return to Minneapolis, he was
the recognized leader of the bar of the Criminal Court
of that city. Upon his return to Minneapolis Mr. Merrick
immediately entered upon a large practice which he has
actively continued since. During his long term at the
bar Mr. Merrick’s practice has covered every branch of
the law. While in Washington Territory, as attorney of
the Indian department, he was charged with the care of
the legal relations of the Indians in that territory,
and in an action brought by a Chinaman against an Indian
for services rendered him, took for the first time the
position that an Indian sustaining full tribunal
relations was not capable of contracting or being
contracted with. The case excited great interest on
account of the principles involved.
Mr. Merrick during his nearly forty years’
practice at the bar has participated in the trial of a
very large number of important and interesting civil
causes, among them being one involving the
constitutionality of the insolvent law of 1881 of this
state, which was carried through the state courts
successfully by him and on appeal to the Supreme Court
of the United States, Mr. Merrick’s contention was
sustained and the act declared constitutional; another
calling on the Supreme Court of this state for the first
time to determine the relative rights of the Street
Railway Company and travelers upon the public streets
after the company had equipped its lines with
electrically-propelled cars.
In
politics Mr. Merrick was by education and surroundings
naturally a Whig, casting his first vote for Taylor and
Fillmore, and after that time continuing an active
worker in the Whig party until its dissolution as a
national party, after which Mr. Merrick went with the
free soil wing of the Whig party, which resulted in the
formation of the Republican party of today, in the
formation of which he was an active participant and
member of the executive committee of the State Central
Committee of Massachusetts for eight years, and with the
exception of the support which he gave to Horace Greeley
in 1872, and Samuel J. Tilden in 1876, his
connection with the Republican party has remained
unbroken, having been a desired speaker in every
national campaign until the campaign of 1896, when he
was compelled by his convictions to support
bimetallism. In 1858 Mr. Merrick
was married to Sarah B. Warriner, of
Springfield, Massachusetts, and this union resulted
eight children; two sons, Louis A. and Harry H., now
being associated with Mr. Merrick in the active
practice of the law.
 FRANK CECIL
METCALF register of deeds of Hennepin County, is
practically a “Minneapolis boy,” for, although he was
born at Dundas, Minnesota, in 1865, his parents moved to
Minneapolis the following year, and this city has been
his home ever since. His father was employed by the
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway company, as a
locomotive engineer, filling the post faithfully for ten
years, when exposure resulted in a severe attack of
inflammatory rheumatism, from which he never recovered
sufficiently to resume work, and which resulted in his
death in 1882.
When Frank became old enough, he
entered the public schools, beginning at the Washington
building, which stood on the site of the present
courthouse. Pressing steadily
upward in his course, he reached the high school in
1879. After attending the high school for a short time
he left to obtain a business education, and was
graduated from the Curtiss Business College in 1881.
During the seven long years of his father’s last
illness, Frank’s mother, who was a very energetic woman,
nursed her husband, sent Frank to school, and supported
herself and family by keeping boarders. His mother died
in 1888. After graduating from the business college,
Frank entered the employ of the C. M. St. P. R. R.
Company as “truckman” in their freight house: he was a
self-made man, and the very large measure of success
which he already has achieved is the result of patient
and intelligent effort added to his personal work and
unmistakable force of
character.
 JULIUS ELLIOT
MINER The Miner family is traced back to Henry Bullman,
a miner, who in the year 1339, with a company of one
hundred of his workmen, was of great assistance to
Edward III. in his war with France. For this service
King Edward changed his loyal subject’s name to Henry
Miner (the surname being in accordance with his
occupation), and gave him a coat of arms. The American
branch began with Thomas Miner, who was of the fourth
generation from Henry Miner. He came to this country in
1630 in the “Arabella,” which landed at Salem. When
there he went to Boston, thence to Charlestown,
Massachusetts, where he established its first church. In
1642 he went to Pequot with five others, where he
commenced the settlement of what is now New London.
Amost Miner, the great grandfather of Julius, served in
the Revolutionary War, entering as a private and coming
out as a captain. One of the most prominent members of
the Miner family was Rev. Alonzo Ames Miner, who was
president of Tuft’s College from 1862 to 1875: pastor of
the Universalist School Street Church, in Boston, for
upwards of forty-six years, and one of the most
prominent leaders in the United States of liberal
thought and temperance work.
Joel Guild Miner, the father of the subject of
this sketch, is of the eighth generation from the
founder of the American branch of the Miner family. He
was a farmer by occupation, and his financial
circumstances were always moderate but comfortable. His
family consisted of twelve children, all of whom are
living except one, who died in infancy. For the
education of his children J. G. Miner provided
liberally. His wife’s maiden name was Gennett Christiana
Allis, whose memory is revered by her children.
Julius was born at Fond du Lac,
Wisconsin, June 8, 1849. He attended the public schools
of his native town until his sixteenth year, when he
entered the preparatory department of Hillsdale College,
at Hillsdale, Michigan. After one year of study here,
his father removed with his family to Goodhue County,
Minnesota, and bought a half section of wild lands. For
the next four years young Julius worked at opening up
and improving the farm during the summer months, and in
the winter taught in the district schools. In the autumn
of 1870 he entered the state university.
He was compelled to support himself during his
college course by teaching and working at such odd jobs
as he could find. For two terms he taught at Long Lake,
in Hennepin County, and was principal of the public
schools at Le Sueur. Minnesota, for about
the same length of time. He graduated from the
university in the classical course in June, 1875.
For
a year after his graduation he taught school at Le Sueur
and then entered the law department of Union College, at
Albany, New York, graduating in the class of 1877. To
maintain himself while there, he secured a position as
principal of one of the night schools.
Returning to Minnesota, he entered the law
offices of John M. Shaw and Albert L. Levi, in
Minneapolis, and after studying for nearly two years was
admitted to the bar and commenced practice in that city.
His work professionally has been largely office work,
though he has tried many cases in court. He was one of
the attorneys for the defendants in the celebrated
King-Remington case; was attorney for the receiver of
the Minneapolis Engine and Machine Works, and was
assignee of Ezra Farnsworth, Jr.
Mr.
Miner has always affiliated with the Republican party.
In the fall of 1892 he was elected alderman from the
Eighth Ward, for a term of four years. Soon after taking
his seat he was appointed a member of the special
committee which investigated the irregularities in the
fire department. He was the only Republican alderman who
opposed and voted against the purchase of the Brackett
property for a city hospital site, and was chairman of
the special committee to investigate the expenditure of
the proceeds of one hundred thousand dollars of bonds of
the city by the Board of Corrections and Charities for
the present city hospital.
He was successful in opposing the Oswald sewer
contract, which would have cost the city thirty thousand
dollars, and was strongly opposed, also, to the effort
made in the council to award the contract for the
Seventh street bridge to the highest bidder. It is due
to his efforts that a bridge was constructed over the
Hastings & Dakota tracks on Hennepin avenue, one of
the most useful improvements made in the city. He served
as chairman of the committee on sewers, and as a member
of the committees on claims.
ordinances and police.
It
may be said of Mr. Miner that he was one
of the most able and conscientious men that ever served
in the Minneapolis City Council. He is a Mason and a
member of the Phi Beta Kappa. He is a member of the
Lyndale Congregational Church and of the Congregational
Club of Minnesota. He was married in July, 1877, to Miss
Viola Fuller. Mrs. Miner died in the spring of 1893. Two
children were the result of this union, Robert, aged
eleven, and Viola Fuller, aged four.
 A. L. MOHLER
has probably been connected with the railroad service in
the Northwest as long as any other man now engaged in
that line of business. His business career has been a
continual advance from the bottom to the top.
A record of his career shows that he has earned
his promotion from one stage of responsibility to
another by fidelity to his trust and the possession of
superior business ability.
A.
L. Mohler is of Swiss descent on his father’s side, and
on his mother’s side of Welsh origin. His father’s
ancestry came to Pennsylvania in 1650 and his mother’s
to Maryland in 1692. Both families were members of that
persecuted and yet sterling people, the Quakers. The
subject of this sketch was born in Euphrata,
Pennsylvania, May 6, 1849.
His educational advantages were those of the
common school, supplemented by a business training in a
commercial college. He grew up on the farm and entered
the railroad service as a warehouse office clerk for the
Chicago and Northwestern Railroad at Gait, Illinois, in
1868. In 1870 he was made
station agent of the Rockford, Rock Island and St. Louis
Railway at Erie, Illinois. His business methods
attracted the attention of his superiors and the next
year he was given a clerkship in the department of
operating accounts in the auditors office of the same
road.
Soon afterwards he transferred his
services to the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota,
now the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern and was
employed in the service of that company from 1871 to
October, 1882. During that time he served two years as
pioneer agent and traveling agent, two years as chief
clerk in the general freight department, from which he
was promoted to the position of assistant general
freight agent. After one year in that office he was
promoted to the position of general freight agent and
continued in that office for six years.
In 1882 the old St. Paul, Minneapolis and
Manitoba, now the Great Northern Railroad, was extending
its business rapidly into the Northwest and needed just
such men as A. L. Mohler for the best promotion of its
interests, and October 9, of that year, he was offered
the position of General Freight Agent. He occupied this
office until March 1, 1886, when he was transferred to
the position of land commissioner: a very important
office in the service of that company, as it had large
tracts of land to dispose of. The tide of immigration
poured in the Northwest and settled along the lines of
the Great Northern Railroad. Mr. Mohler continued in
this position until January 15, 1887, when he was
returned to the freight department as General Freight
Agent and held that position a little over a year. April
1, 1888, he was appointed General Superintendent of the
whole line and in October of the same year was promoted
to the position of Assistant General Manager. A year
later, or September 1, 1889, he was promoted to the
position of General Manager of the Great Northern and
Montana Central Railroads as successor to Allen Manvel,
the deceased president of the A., T.
& S. F. He held this position until December
I, 1893. In July, 1894, the Minneapolis and St.
Louis reorganized and, restored from the hands of
the receiver to its stockholders, called Mr.
Mohler to the position of general manager, the
office which he now holds, and under whose direction
this excellent property is enjoying a constantly
increasing prosperity, and has paid the first dividend
in the history of the old or new organization. Mr.
Mohler is a splendid example of a self-made man, one who
has demonstrated his ability to seize the opportunities
which come to men of industry and merit, and by an
exhibition of self-reliance and perseverance, he has
achieved the best which his chosen profession has to
offer.
 JAMES C. MOODEY is
the secretary and manager of the Minnesota Fire
Insurance Company, with headquarters at Minneapolis.
Mr. Moodey has been
engaged in active business since he was fifteen years
old, and is one of the self made men, who have achieved
success in whatever line of business he has undertaken.
His father was James C. Moodey, a lawyer and judge of
the St. Louis circuit court. Judge Moodey’s father was
James C. Moodey, of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
known as “Parson Moodey,” and for fifty-one years pastor
of Middle Springs Presbyterian church, in Cumberland
County, Pennsylvania. “Parson” Moodey was of
Scotch-Irish descent and was born the day the
Declaration of Independence was promulgated, July 4,
1776.
The
subject of this sketch was born May 3, 1856, at New
Albany, Indiana. He began his education in the common
schools of St. Louis, where he was a pupil until the age
of fifteen years. Subsequently he had some private
instruction, but his later education has been mainly
acquired in the hard school of experience. His first
business engagement was in the employ of Bradstreet’s
Mercantile Agency in 1870 and 1871. In the latter year
he removed to Chicago, where he was employed in the
local fire insurance agencies of R. S. Critchell, C. H.
Case and Fred S. James, from 1871 to 1880. January 15,
1880, he engaged as bookkeeper with the Western
department of the Niagara Fire Insurance Company, under
the management of David Beveridge, who was succeeded in
the management of the company April 1, 1881, by I. S.
Blackwelder. October 1, 1891, Mr.
Moodey was made the assistant manager of this company,
and served in that capacity until he was elected
secretary and manager of the Minnesota Fire Insurance
Company, January 1, 1894. He then removed to
Minneapolis, where he established the fire insurance
agency of James C. Moodey & Co.
Mr.
Moodey is a Democrat in politics, and while he takes no
active part in political campaigns, his vote is
generally cast on the Democratic side. He has always
taken an active interest in athletic sports, and for six
years, from 1886 to 1892, was president of the Chicago
City League of amateur baseball clubs, and an active
member of the “West End’ club of that organization. Mr.
Moodey is a member of the Presbyterian church. On
January 7, 1894, he married Bertha Tausig, of Chicago.
They have one daughter, Fay Critchell, born March 19,
1895.
 JAMES EDWARD
MOORE The idea fixed definitely in mind of following a
certain line of work as his profession in life, and
devoting all his efforts to that end in face of every
obstacle, in brief is descriptive of the life of Dr.
James E. Moore, of Minneapolis, who has attained the
goal sought in early life—surgery as a specialty, and
skill in all its lines of practice.
Dr. Moore’s paternal ancestors were of Scottish
descent. On his mother’s side he is of German descent.
Rev. George W. Moore, his father, is a retired Methodist
minister, who for thirty years was in active work in the
Erie conference. His mother’s maiden name was Margaret
Jane Zeigler. She was born in Mercer county,
Pennsylvania. Her father was a
farmer in that section, but in 1853 he migrated with his
family to Iowa, taking up a homestead on the prairie in
Jones county, near where Anamosa now stands.
He served throughout the war as a member of the
famous “Grey Beards.” The grandparents of Mrs. Moore
came to this country from Germany.
James Edward was born at
Clarksville, Mercer county, Pennsylvania, March 2, 1852.
His parents were indulgent to him and gave him
exceptional advantages for a good educational training,
which the boy did not fail to take advantage of. Until
his fifteenth year he attended the public schools, and
during his vacations, even from his ninth year, never
idled away his time, but worked on the farm, sold books
and sewing machines and worked in a rolling mill. Up to
his eighteenth year he attended the Poland Union
Seminary at Poland, Ohio—the same school, by the way,
where William McKinley received his education.
He usually stood at the head of his classes, and
was recommended by the principal of the institution to
General Garfield for appointment to West Point; but
James’ father objected to his receiving a military
training.
After leaving the seminary he taught
school in eastern Ohio for the following year, and
during his leisure hours took up the study of medicine.
During the year 1871 -2 he attended the medical
department of the University of Michigan, and the
following year continued his studies in Bellevue
Hospital Medical College in New York, from which he
graduated in the spring of 1873. Shortly afterwards he
located at Fort Wayne, Indiana and commenced practice.
It being confined largely to railroad employees and
laboring men, did not prove very encouraging. After the
panic of 1874-3. when his patrons could no longer pay
their bills. Dr. Moore concluded to return to New York
for further study. He remained there for nearly a year,
but after having been left penniless in the spring of
1876, through the failure of a bank in Pittsburg, he
went to the oil fields of Pennsylvania, thinking he
would have good opportunity here for practice in his
special line, that of surgeon. He located at Emlenton
and formed a partnership with Dr. B. F. Hamiliton and
enjoyed a profitable practice. He continued to practice
alone, for three and a half years longer, till, desiring
to enlarge his opportunities, he concluded to remove to
Minneapolis, which he did in August 1882. He formed a
partnership with Dr. A. A. Ames which continued for four
and a half years. By this partnership he was introduced
at once to a large practice, largely surgical, in a
direct line with his ambition. Ever since his
graduation. Dr. Moore has always kept up his studies,
and frequently returned to New York for the sake of
experience obtained in the hospitals.
In 1886 he went to Europe, attending Dr.
Berg-man’s clinic in Berlin. He also spent some time in
the Charing Cross and Royal Orthopedic hospitals in
London.
On
returning from Europe he dissolved partnership with Dr.
Ames in order to be able to select his practice to his
liking, gradually culminating medical practice until the
fall of 1888, since which time it has been exclusively
surgical. Dr. Moore has done much to aid the development
of modern surgery in the Northwest and established for
himself a reputation not confined to the local center.
In addition to general surgery, he has also a special
reputation in orthopedic surgery. He is the author of a
book on that subject, which is now in the hands of an
Eastern publishing house. In 1885 he was made professor
of orthopedic surgery in the Minnesota Hospital Medical
College; later occupied the same chair in the St. Paul
Medical College. When the medical department of the
State University was established, he was elected to the
same chair in that institution which he still holds, in
addition to that of professor of clinical surgery. In
1894 he represented the university at the International
Medical Congress at Rome. Dr. Moore is also a constant
contributor to medical journals throughout the United
.States. He is a member of all the local and state
medical societies. In 1895 was elected a Fellow of the
American Surgical Association, one of the most exclusive
national societies. He is also a member of the American
Orthopedic Association, Congress of American Physicians
and Surgeons, and the American Medical Association. He
was appointed an honorary vice-president of the
Pan-American Medical Congress. He is surgeon to St.
Barnabas Hospital, and consulting surgeon to the
Northwestern, St. Mary’s and City Hospitals.
Dr.
Moore is a Republican. He is a member of the Minneapolis
Club. His church connections are with the Universalist
body, being a member of the Church of the Redeemer. He
was married in 1874 to Bessie Applegate, who died in
1881. In 1884 he was married to Clara H. Collins, who
died a year later, leaving a daughter, Bessie Margaret
Moore. In 1887 Dr. Moore was again married to Louie
Irving.
 DARIUS F. MORGAN was
born in Jackson County, Iowa in February, 1854. His paternal ancestors
were New England farmers, who, emigrating from Wales
about the middle of the last century, played a
conspicuous part in the revolutionary struggle for
liberty. From his mother, Ruth Duprey, of Meadville,
Pennsylvania, he is descended from a French Huguenot
family, which in early Colonial times fled from
religious persecution at home to the hospitable shores
of the new world. His father, Harley Morgan, was a
native of Vergennes, Vermont, but in 1842 brought his
family West to the Mississippi valley, settling first in
Jackson County, and fourteen years later in Winneshiek
County, Iowa, in which latter county young Morgan spent
his boyhood and youth, and laid the foundation of a
substantial education in the common schools. In 1876,
until which time he had lived with his father, working
on the farm in summer and going to school in the winter,
he began to study law, and in the fall of 1877 he was
admitted to the bar at Austin, Minnesota, which city had
now been his home for almost a year, and where he had
supported himself as a student, as a reporter in Judge
Page’s court.
A
year after admission to the bar he went to Albert Lea,
where he formed a professional partnership with John A.
Lovely, which lasted for ten years. In November, 1888,
Mr. Morgan was elected to represent Freeborn County in
the lower house of the legislature, and in the session
of 1889 he was chairman of the committee on
appropriations.
In
1890 he removed to Minneapolis, where he formed a
partnership in the law with W. H. Eustis, which lasted
until Mr. Eustis’ election as mayor of Minneapolis in
November, 1892. May 1, 1893 the firm of Hale, Morgan
& Montgomery was organized, and it became in a short
time one of the strongest at the Hennepin bar. In 1894
Mr. Morgan was sent to the
state senate from the Thirty-second District, comprising
the Minneapolis Fifth and sixth wards, for a term of
four years, in the sessions of 1895 and 1897 he served
with distinction as a member of the judiciary committee
of the senate. In 1895, he was, in addition, the
chairman of the finance committee. In 1897 he was
chairman of the committee on corporations and a member
of the committee on taxes and tax laws. These are among
the most important committees of the senate. Mr. Morgan
early became attached to the Republican party.
His eloquence made him a power on the stump, and
his good judgment and conservatism made him useful in
party counsel. For almost eighteen years he was a member
of county and state central committees. For two sessions
of the legislature he has been one of the leading
members of the senate, and few men in the state are more
widely or more favorably known.
In
1876 Mr. Morgan was married to Ella .M. Hayward, of
Waukon, Iowa, and a son and two daughters were born of
the union. In March, 1893, Mrs. Morgan died, and after
almost three years had passed by, Mr. Morgan married
again. The present Mrs. Morgan was Mrs. Lizette F.
Davis, of Auburn, New York. Senator Morgan belongs to
but one secret society, the Elks. He attends Gethsemane
Episcopal church with his family.
 SAMUEL VANCE MORRIS,
JR, an insurance man of Minneapolis, was born on October
4, 1870, in Hamilton County, Ohio. He is descended on
his mother’s side from Benjamin Harrison, one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the
progenitor of a distinguished line of public men of that
name. His great grandfather was President William Henry
Harrison, and his grandfather was John Scott Harrison,
who served two terms in Congress from the Second
congressional district of Ohio. Ex-President Benjamin
Harrison is his mother’s brother. Mr. Morris is also
descended on his mother’s side from John Cleve Sims, who
at one time owned all that part of Ohio between the Ohio
and the Miami rivers, including the site of Cincinnati.
Mr. Morris’ father, Samuel V. Morris, Senior, is chief
clerk in the United States engineers’ office at St.
Paul, under Col. W. A. Jones.
Previous to coming to Minnesota the
family lived in Indianapolis. As a boy Mr. Morris
attended the public schools of Indianapolis.
His business instincts developed early, and while
quite young he formed a partnership with a school mate,
and contracted to keep seventy-two lawns cut, in the
vicinity of his father’s home.
During this season the boys were kept busy, but
by working early and late, before breakfast and after
school, the boys fulfilled their contract, and Samuel
found that he had earned about ten dollars per week as
his share of the profits.
During his first year in the
Indianapolis high school he took a position with the
firm of B. D. Walcott & Co., fire insurance agents
at Indianapolis. He worked in the morning as clerk in
the office and went to school in the afternoon. After
some months he left school and devoted his whole time to
business. It was not long after this that the business
was sold and the firm subsequently became Walker &
Prather, the head of the firm being Col. I. N. Walker,
past commander of the G. A. R. Mr. Morris remained as
policy clerk and collector with the new firm until his
father removed to Minneapolis. Upon coming to
Minneapolis, he secured a position similar to that which
he had filled at his old home, with the fire insurance
firm of Pliny Bartlett & Co. He remained with this
firm about three years, and then seeing a good opening
in the accident insurance business he accepted a
position as local agent for the Provident Fund Accident
Society, of New York. When that company reinstated its
business, Mr. Morris accepted a position as special
agent for the Preferred Accident Insurance Company, of
New York, under C. W. Bliler.
During the year Mr. Bliler removed to Kansas City
and Mr. Morris received the appointment as general agent
for Minneapolis, and ever since then his territory has
been increasing until he now has the entire state of
Minnesota with the exception of the two cities of St.
Paul and Duluth.
Mr.
Morris is an ardent Republican, and secretary of the
Young Men’s Republican Club of Minneapolis. Though
taking an active part in politics, he has not yet
aspired to public office. He is a member of the First
Presbyterian church, of Minneapolis.
 WILLIAM RICHARD
MORRIS The Afro-American race affords not a few examples
of the ability of that people to arise above race
prejudice and the disadvantages of birth to positions of
standing and influence in the community. One such
example is found in the subject of this sketch. William
Richard Morris was born near Flemingsburg, Kentucky,
February 22, 1859, the son of Hezekiah Morris, a slave.
His mother’s maiden name was Elizabeth Hopkins. His
father having died when he was only two years of age,
his mother moved, after the war, to Ohio, where Willam
attended the public schools of New Richmond and
Cincinnati, and later a pay school in Chicago,
Illinois.
He
entered Fisk University at Nashville, Tennessee, when
seventeen years of age, graduating with high honors from
the classical department in the class of 1884. He was
apt and studious, and recognized as a bright scholar, a
logical debater, a good essayist and an eloquent and
forcible speaker. He was termed a
“typical Fiskitc” by lesson of his fine scholarship,
devotion to his race and strict adherence to the
principles of rectitude. He was made a member of the
faculty after graduating, and was for more than four
years the only Afro-American member of that body of
twenty-five professors and teachers.
He taught classes in mathematics, languages and
the sciences at Fisk University for five years, giving
complete satisfaction. While a student he taught public
schools in Mississippi and Arkansas during vacation. He
represented the Afro-Americans of the South at the
annual meeting of the A. M. A., at Madison, Wisconsin,
in 1885, delivering an address entitled “The Negro at
Present,” which won in him a wide reputation. In 1886 he
was employed by the State superintendent of education of
Tennessee, to hold institutes for Afro-American teachers
of that state. He has lectured at different times and
written articles for the press which have been highly
commended. In 1887 he received the degree of M. A. from
his Alma Mater, and in the same year was admitted to the
bar by the supreme court of Illinois, in a class of
twenty-seven, being one out of three to receive the same
and highest mark. He was also admitted to the bar by the
supreme court of Tennessee, and practiced some at both
Chicago, Illinois, and Nashville, Tennessee.
He
resigned his position at Fisk University in June 1880,
and came to Minneapolis, and has practiced in that city
ever since, having been the first Afro-American lawyer
to appear before the courts of Hennepin County. He has
handled a number of important cases and won for himself
an enviable reputation as a lawyer, both in civil and
criminal practice. One of his most important cases was
the defense of “Yorky,”’ or Thomas Lyons, in the famous
Harris murder trial, who was discharged. He is a
Republican in politics and a member of the Fifth
District Congressional committee. He has taken the lead
in Minneapolis in everything pertaining to the
upbuilding of his race, and has never wavered in the
struggle for their rights. He was elected president of
the Afro-American State League in 1891. He is also a
thirty-third degree Mason, a member of the Supreme
Council, Sheik of Fezzan Temple of the Mystic Shrine,
High Priest and Prophet in the Imperial Council, Scribe
of the Chapter, Deputy Supreme Chancellor of the Knights
of Pythias. Brigadier General of the Uniform Rank, a
trustee of the Supreme Lodge, Generalissimo of the
Commandery K. T., and an N. F. of the Odd Fellows. He is
a member of the Plymouth Congregational church of
Minneapolis. July 14, 1896, he
married Miss Anna M. La Force of Pullman,
Illinois, a most estimable young woman of acknowledged
literary ability.
 DORILUS MORRISON
Of the early pioneers of Minnesota—the men who have seen
it develop from a vast wilderness into a state second in
commercial importance to none in the Northwest and what
contributed to that result—none are more deserving of
the appellation of a self-made man than Dorilus
Morrison, from early youth he was compelled to rely upon
his own resources but by perseverance and industry, in
connection with his natural business sagacity, he
gradually climbed the ladder of success, and can now
look back with pardonable pride on a life that has been
an eminent success.
The
ancestry of Mr. Morrison is Scotch. He is the son of
Samuel Morrison, an early settler in the state of Maine,
and a wheelwright by trade, and Betsey Benjamin
(Morrison). His birth occurred in the town of Livermore,
Oxford County, Maine, on the twenty-seventh of December,
1814. Dorilus received a common school education, which
was supplemented by a three months’ course in an academy
at Redfield, in his native state. Afterwards he taught
for a while in a country district school. While yet in
his eighteenth year he secured employment with William
H. Britan, a merchant, farmer and general trader,
working for a salary of seven dollars a month and board;
the second year he worked for ten dollars a month, and
on demanding twelve dollars a month the third year, and
being refused, he left and sought employment elsewhere.
Within three months, however, his former employer
offered him twenty-five dollars a month if he would
return. He accepted this offer and at the end of the
year he came a partner in the business. He continued as
such for five years, enjoying good success, and laying
by a small fortune of four thousand dollars.
In 1842 he removed to Bangor and engaged in the
mercantile and lumbering business, which business he
pursued prosperously until 1853. He had at this time
saved up about twenty thousand dollars, and being
attracted by the opportunities Minnesota afforded for
carrying on the lumbering business, he came to this
state the following spring with the purpose of locating
pine lands for himself and others. His visit impressed
him so favorably that he returned to Maine, disposed of
his interests there, and returned in the spring of 1855
and located at St. Anthony.
He
secured a contract to supply the sawmills, located at
that time on the east side of the Mississippi, with logs
from the pineries, having invested in a large tract of
pine lands on the Rum river. This business was continued
for many years. After the completion of the dam built by
the Minneapolis Mill Company, Mr. Morrison built a saw
mill and opened a lumber yard, engaging extensively in
the lumber business, until 1868, when accumulated
interests had become so large that he turned this
business over entirely to his sons. Mr. Morrison was
principal incorporator of the Minneapolis Mill Company,
which was incorporated in 1856, acting as its treasurer.
This company were the builders of the first dam and
canal, an undertaking which proved marvelous in its
results making Minneapolis what it is today. This
company built sawmills and sold mill sites both upon and
below the dam. The outlay was large, and for years the
enterprise proved unremunerative. But Mr. Morrison
foresaw the immense possibilities of the future and
bought up the shares of the stockholders who were so
severely pressed by the demands made upon the resources
of the company that they gladly relinquished their
holdings. In time, Mr.
Morrison’s faith in the ultimate success of the
enterprise was justified by the result.
He remained a director, and served several times
as president of the company, until the property was sold
to an English syndicate, which now owns it. This company
owned all the water power upon the west side of the
river, several saw mills and flour mills, a large
elevator and the North Star Woo1en mill.
In
1869, when the construction of the Northern Pacific
Railroad was commenced, Mr. Morrison associated with him
Messrs. Brackett, King, Eastman, Washburn and Shepherd,
of Minneapolis; Merriam, of St. Paul; Payson and Canda,
of Chicago; Balch, of New Hampshire, and Rose and
Robinson of Canada, and secured the contract for
building the first section of this road, from the St.
Louis river to the Red river, a distance of two hundred
and forty miles. The work was finished and the completed
road turned over to the company in 1872.
Mr. Morrison was chosen as one of the directors
of the road, which position he held until the general
reorganization of the company, after the failure of its
financial agents, Jay Cooke & Co.
Again in 1873, in association with some of the
gentlemen above mentioned, he secured the contract for
the next section of two hundred miles of the road, from
the Red river to the Missouri.
There was no money forthcoming when this contract
was completed, and Mr. Morrison assumed the shares of
his associates and received in payment a large tract of
the company’s lands in Northern Minnesota, which
contained pine timber. He was also a large
stockholder in the Minneapolis Harvester Works; assuming
the stock of his associates when the enterprise almost
proved a failure, he made the business a success.
Notwithstanding his large business interests,
Mr. Morrison still found
time to devote to the public affairs of the village
which has grown up to the metropolis of today. When the
Union Board of Trade was organized in St. Anthony in
1856 Mr. Morrison was chosen its president, and was a
director for several years. In the several trade
organizations which followed this board in the pioneer
days he has always been an active participator and
worker. In 1864 he was elected to the state senate, his
colleagues in the legislature from Hennepin County being
such men as John S. Pillsbury, Cyrus Aldrich and Judge
F. R. E. Cornell. When the city of Minneapolis was
incorporated in 1867, Mr. Morrison was chosen its first
mayor, and in 1869 was again elected to the same office.
In 1871 he was elected to a term of two years on the
board of education, and later, in 1878. he was
re-elected to a term of three years, and was chosen
president of the board. When the park board was
organized Mr. Morrison was chosen a commissioner, and
was also re-elected to the same office. He devoted much
time to the services demanded of him as a commissioner,
and Minneapolis’ present beautiful park system owes much
to Mr. Morrison’s labor and counsel. He was also
interested in the Athenaeum, the predecessor of the
present public library, serving on the board of
managers, giving a good deal of his valuable time to aid
in building up this institution.
In
his politics Mr. Morrison has always been a staunch
Republican. He has been a believer in the Universalist
faith for a great many years, and been a liberal
supporter of the Church of the Redeemer.
In 1840 Mr. Morrison was married at Livermore,
Maine, to Miss H. K. Whittemore, who became the mother
of three children, George H., now dead; Clinton and
Grace, wife of Dr. H. H. Kimball.
She died in 1881, at Vienna, Austria, while on a
European trip. His present wife was Mrs. A. G.
Clagstone, who is a lady of artistic taste and
liberal culture. Though eighty-two years old, Mr.
Morrison is still enjoying robust health, due to
the active life he has always led and always
reinvigorated by the frequent journeys he takes to
seaside resorts.
 ROBERT
GEORGE MORRISON. The subject of this sketch is a member
of the law firm of Jayne & Morrison, of
Minneapolis.
On
his father’s side he is of Scotch and Irish descent, his
grandfather having been a preacher in the north of
Ireland, and served one congregation for about forty
years. On his mother’s side he is of Scotch descent, his
grandfather, however, belonging to one of the old
Pennsylvania families. Mr. Morrison was born at Blair’s
Mills, Huntington County, Pennsylvania, July 31, 1860,
the son of David Harbison Morrison and Margery B.
McConnell (Morrison). D. H. Morrison has been engaged in
the general mercantile business from his boyhood, first
as an apprentice in North Ireland, where he was born and
lived until a young man, when he came to this country
and first connected himself with a wholesale house in
Philadelphia, but soon afterwards engaged in the general
mercantile business at the village of Blair’s Mills,
Pennsylvania. In 1872 he moved to Morning Sun, Iowa,
where he engaged in the same line of business which he
has ever since conducted. Robert G. attended short
winter terms at the country school house near his native
village, and an occasional session in the village school
of Waterloo, a mile from Blair’s Mills.
After removal to Iowa he attended the public and
eventually the high school of Morning Sun, from which he
graduated in June, 1876. He had then expected to receive
instruction in banking and make that his life business,
his father being at that time an officer in the local
bank. Within a few months, however, he became desirous
of procuring a college education, and during the
following winter continued the study of Greek and Latin
under the instruction of Rev. C. D.
Trumbull at home, then and now pastor of the
Reformed Presbyterian Church at Morning Sun.
In
the fall of 1877 he entered the Iowa State University,
at Iowa City, becoming a member of the second
sub-freshman class, from which he graduated in 1882,
receiving the degree of A. B.
The year following he entered the law department
of the university, graduating with the degree of LL. B.,
in 1883, at the same time being admitted to the bar to
practice in the supreme court of Iowa and the United
States district and circuit courts. In 1890 he received
the degree of A. M. from the same
institution. While at college he was commissioned first
lieutenant Battery, Iowa National Guards, was a member
of the Zetagathian Literary Society, at one time its
president, and had a place on two of its annual public
exhibition programs. He was chosen as valedictorian of
his class for the Class Day exercises.
He was a member of the Beta Theta Pi college
fraternity. His vacations he spent in his father’s
store.
Mr.
Morrison came to Minneapolis in the fall of 1883,
entering a law office, where he remained for a year or
more in the further study of his chosen profession. He
then secured a position in the business office of the
Western Union Telegraph Company, which he held until he
started out in business for himself, in July, 1886. Mr.
Morrison opened a law office for the practice of his
profession by himself, continuing to practice alone
until April, 1892, when he formed a partnership with
Trafford N. Jayne, under the firm name of Jayne &
Morrison, which still continues.
This firm is engaged in a general law practice,
though running particularly to corporation and
commercial law, and enjoys an extensive clientage.
Mr. Morrison’s political affiliations are with
the Republican party, and he is more or less active in
local politics. His church connections are with the
Westminster Presbyterian Church, of which he is a
member. He is not married.
 DR. HOWARD MCLLVAIN
MORTON is an oculist and aurist in Minneapolis. His
birthplace was the old city of Chester, Pennsylvania,
and his birthday May, 23, 1866.
His
father was Dr. Charles J. Morton, a well-known surgeon
of Eastern Pennsylvania, who had practiced in Chester
for more than thirty years. Dr. Charles Morton was the
great grandson of John Morton, a signer of the
Declaration of Independence, whose monument erected to
him at Chester bears this inscription: “John Morton,
member of the Stamp Act Congress from this Colony. Judge
of the Supreme Court. Delegate to the First Congress in
1774. Speaker of the House of Assembly. Re-elected to
the Congress of 1776, where in giving the casting vote
of his delegation he crowned Pennsylvania the Keystone
of the arch of liberty, and secured to the American
people the Declaration of Independence. Himself a
signer. Born 1724. Died 1777.” In the rotunda of the old
state house in Philadelphia are portraits of the signers
of the Declaration of Independence, but no portrait of
John Morton was preserved, and in its place one may see
a large tablet erected to his distinguished memory.
Dr. Howard Morton’s mother was Annie Coates, the
daughter of Moses and Lydia Taylor Coates, Lydia Taylor
having been a near relative of President Zachary Taylor
and a cousin of Bayard Taylor.
J. Moses Coates was the founder of Coatesville,
one of the old Pennsylvania towns, to which he gave his
name. He was a man of remarkable inventive genius, and
also a mathematician of wide reputation in his time.
The
subject of this sketch, Howard Mcllvain, attended a
private school in Chester until he was twelve years of
age, when he entered Maplewood Institute to prepare for
college. He was admitted to Lafayette College, at
Easton, Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1884, and was
graduated in 1888. Howard Mcllvain took an active part
in all college affairs, literary and athletic and was a
member of the Delta Tau Delta Greek fraternity. He was
captain of the college athletic team, manager of the
football team and was elected to membership in the
Manhattan Athletic Club, of New York City, the third up
to that time to be so honored in his college. He won a
number of championship medals for athletic sports, and
was the referee of many of the principal football and
athletic contests between the large colleges. His
purpose as a student was to prepare for the medical
profession, and in the fall of 1888 he entered the
medical department of the University of Pennsylvania,
from which he graduated in 1891. He was a charter member
of the Phi Alpha Sigma medical fraternity, of the
William Pepper Medical Society, and was honored in 1891
by Chancellor Pepper with the appointment as one of the
two selected to escort the visiting Pan-American
congress on the occasion of their visit to the
university. While at the
university and afterward he studied with and assisted
Dr. James Wallace and Dr. G. E. De Schweinitz in
treating the diseases of the eye, a department of
medicine which he afterward made his specialty. For six
months he was house surgeon for St. Luke’s Hospital in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, received the degree of B. S.
from Lafayette College in 1888, and M. S.
from the same institution in 1891.
Dr.
Morton has been a resident of Minneapolis for over five
years, during which time he has been the oculist and
aurist to Asbury Hospital, and clinical professor of
ophthalmology and otology in the College of Physicians
and Surgeons in Minneapolis.
He is now the oculist and aurist to St. Barnabas
Hospital, and chief of the eye and ear clinic of St.
Barnabas Hospital Free Dispensary. He is a member of the
Hennepin County Medical Association, the Minnesota State
Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the
Mississippi Valley Medical Society, of the Minneapolis
Art Society, and of the Sons of the American Revolution,
and is vice-president of the Northwestern Alumni
Association of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr.
Morton was married in December, 1891, to Miss Lucretia
Yale Jarvis, daughter of the late Charles H. Jarvis, a
musician of considerable distinction in
Philadelphia.
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