|
Progressive Men
Index
 BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN NELSON is the head of the Nelson-Tenney Lumber
Company, manufacturers and dealers in lumber at
Minneapolis. Mr. Nelson is a splendid example of the
self-made man, and an instance in which the making has
been well done. He was born of humble parents in Greenup
County, Kentucky, May 4, 1843. His parents were natives
of Somerset County, Maryland. His father lost his health
and the support of the family devolved upon the sons.
This left Benjamin F., with little opportunity
for schooling, and when seventeen years of age he
engaged with a partner in the lumber business. This,
after two years, was broken up by the war, and an
attempt at farming was unsuccessful for the same
reason.
Kentucky, although a slave-holding state, and
sympathizing for the most part with the Confederacy, was
controlled by the strong arm of the Federal power, and
such of her sons as saw fit to enter the Southern army
did so from a firm conviction of right and duty, rather
than from loyalty to their state. Mr. Nelson was
nineteen years of age when he enlisted in Company C, of
the Second Kentucky Battalion, and went into active
service under the command of the Confederate general,
Kirby Smith. He served successively under Humphrey
Marshall, Wheeler, Forrest and Morgan, and participated
in the battles of Chickamauga, Mclnville, Synthiana,
Shelbyville, Lookout Mountain, Mount Sterling and
Greenville, besides numerous cavalry skirmishes. Mr. Nelson was
in the thickest of the fight for over two years. In
1864, while on recruiting duty in Kentucky, he ventured
into the Federal lines as far as the Ohio river. He had
secured a few recruits and was returning with them when
he was captured and sent to Lexington. While he was
confined in prison there fourteen men were taken out and
shot, two of them being recruits captured with Nelson,
and for a time he was in danger of suffering the same
fate on suspicion of being a spy. He was, however sent
to Camp Douglas, in Chicago, where he was held until
1865, when he was sent to Richmond and paroled at the
close of the war.
Mr. Nelson returned to his home in Kentucky,
where he was employed in a sawmill for a few months, and
then decided to try his fortune in the far West. It was the third
day of September, 1865, that he landed in St. Paul. He
only remained there one day, when he came on to St.
Anthony. He was much impressed with the value of the
water power, and believed the falls would be surrounded
by a great city. Mr. Nelson went to work at rafting
lumber, and when the season was over took up a claim
near Waverly, where he built a house, but farming did
not suit him, and he again went into the lumbering
business. In 1872 Mr. Nelson formed a partnership with
W. C.
Stetson in the planing mill business. The business
increased until they found it necessary to build another
mill in order to take care of their trade. At this time
they commenced dealing in lumber in a small way, which
rapidly increased until 1880, when the partnership was
dissolved. In 1881 Mr. Nelson associated with himself in
business William Tenney and H. W. McNair, and.
later, H. B, Frey was admitted to the partnership. Soon
afterwards Mr. McNair withdrew and W. F. Brooks entered
the firm.
It is now organized under the name of the
Nelson-Tenney Lumber Company. This company has two large
sawmills, with a capacity of seventy-five million feet a
year. Mr. Nelson is interested in
various other enterprises. In 1887 he bought the
Minneapolis Straw Paper mill, and in 1888 the Red River
paper mill at Fergus Falls. These were
consolidated under the name of the Nelson Paper Company.
In 1890, together with T. B. Walker he bought the print
paper mill in Minneapolis, and the old and new companies
were merged into the Hennepin Paper Company, operating
at Little Falls.
He is also a director of the Metropolitan bank.
B. F. Nelson commands the respect and confidence of his
fellow citizens of Minneapolis in a marked degree, and
has held numerous important public offices. In 1879 he
was elected alderman of the First ward, and was
continued in office until 1885. When the park board was
organized Mr. Nelson was elected to service in that
branch of the municipal government. For seven successive
years he served as a member of the school board, and in
1894, when the question of the price of gas was
submitted to arbitrators, Mr. Nelson was selected by the
city as its representative. In the same year occurred
the great strike on the Great Northern railway, and Mr.
Nelson was selected as one of the committee of citizens
of Minneapolis to arbitrate in that dispute. Mr. Nelson
was a member of the original building committee of the
Minneapolis Exposition ; he gave a great deal of his
time to personal supervision of the construction of the
building, and has been on the board of directors of the
Exposition ever since. He is now one of
the owners of the property.
Mr.
Nelson is a Democrat
in politics, but a man of broad and liberal views. He
has served his party locally as an active worker on
campaign committees, and exerts a large influence in its
plans and deliberations. Notwithstanding his extensive
business and many public duties, Mr. Nelson has found
time to see some of the world, having traveled
extensively in Mexico, Europe, Egypt and the Holy Land.
His religious connection is with the Methodist Church,
and his eminent business capacity was recognized in his
selection as trustee of Hamline University. He has been
twice married, first in 1860, to Martha Ross, who died
five years later, leaving two sons, William E. and Guy
H. His present wife was Mary Fredinburg, who has one
daughter.
 GEORGE R. NEWELL Minneapolis would never have
become the metropolis she has if it had not been that
she numbered among her early residents many who, as
enterprising businessmen realized the importance of her
location and the future in store for her and devoted
their best efforts to the upbuilding of the city. Among
that list of public spirited men the name of George R.
Newell stands prominent. Mr. Newell is
senior partner of the firm of George R. Newell &
Co., one of the largest wholesale grocery houses in the
Northwest. This firm has built up a trade which extends
throughout the whole Northwest, and has a business that
amounts to several million dollars yearly. Mr. Newell has
achieved success in life entirely unaided by fortune. He
is a native of the state of New York, and was born in
Tonawanda, July 31, 1844, the son of Hiram Newell and
Phoebe Newell.
Hiram Newell was actively engaged in the dry
goods trade during his career, but has now retired from
business, and is residing at Saratoga Springs, New York.
The Newell family comes from good old New England stock.
George attended the public schools of his native
village until he was twelve years of age, and then
launched out into active business. He worked at all
sorts of jobs, but mostly clerking in stores. In 1866 he came
West to enjoy the advantages which the new region
afforded, and for some time worked on a Mississippi
steamboat. In 1867 he secured a position as a clerk in
Minneapolis and worked at this occupation for three
years. In 1870 in partnership with Messrs. Stevens &
Morse, he opened a grocery store, the firm being known
as Stevens, Morse & Newell. The partnership was
dissolved in 1873, and Mr. Newell continued the business
alone for a year. He then entered into partnership with
Mr. H. G. Harrison, the firm being called Newell &
Harrison.
As such it continued for ten years, at which time
the present firm of George R. Newell & Co. was
organized. Mr. Cavour S. Langdon being taken into
partnership with Mr. Newell. Through its several changes
of partnership and location, the firm constantly
increased its trade. For a long time they occupied a
large building at the corner of First and Washington
avenues North, but the constant accession to their trade
compelled a removal, and the splendid storehouse at the
corner of First avenue and Third street was erected.
This building is of pressed brick, five stories high,
with high basement, and covers about a quarter of a
block, being especially planned for the wholesale
grocery trade. The business affairs of this firm have
been conducted by Mr. Newell with a sagacity and
prudence that has established for it a high reputation
in the commercial world.
Mr.
Newell has always been a leader in any movement
lending to further the interests of Minneapolis, giving
his support to every projected enterprise that gave
promise of help in building up the city, and has been an
active spirit in the Jobbers’ Association, the Board of
Trade and other commercial organizations. He is one of
the most approachable of men accessible at all times,
and is as popular and held in as high esteem by his
employees as he is by his business associates, who
recognize his integrity and worth as a businessman. Mr.
Newell’s political affiliations have always been with
the Republican party, though he has never taken any
active part in politics. He is a Mason and a member of
the Minneapolis and Commercial Clubs. He was married in
1870 to Mrs. Alida Ferris, of Wyoming, New
York.
 JOHN A. NORDEEN was born in the village of
Statthult, in the province of Vester Gotland, Sweden, on
May 12, 1856. He was the only son of A. P. Larson Nordin
and Christina Larson. Mr. Nordeen’s father
is at present living on his farm in Sweden, having
retired from active public life. He was for many years a
member of the District Bench, and has during his life
taken part in the religious, political and social
affairs of his locality. For twenty years he occupied
high positions of trust in the community where he lived,
his ancestry for generations were officers in the
Swedish Army.
Mr. Nordeen received a common and high school
education. He studied law in his father’s office and at
the same time devoted part of his time to working on a
farm.
Afterwards he entered a technical school for the
purpose of studying architecture and mechanical
engineering, but in a short time he obtained his
parents’ permission to emigrate, and left Sweden in
1879. He visited England and then came to the United
States, arriving in Chicago in the spring of 1880.
Without friends and without a cent in his pocket he made
the best of the situation, obtained employment at common
labor and spent his evenings studying. Soon after his
arrival he obtained employment on the Chicago &
Northwestern Railroad, and remained with that company
for about a year, or until a better position was offered
in the employ of the Pullman Palace Car Company.
About two years later he left the Pullman Company
and took a trip for recreation and pleasure, through the
Southern states, Cuba and Mexico. Upon his return he
settled in St. Paul, Minnesota, and obtained employment
in the service of the Great Northern Railroad Company.
Thinking that prospects might he better in another
locality he shortly resigned and re-entered the service
of the Pullman Company at their St. Louis shops, but the
climate of Missouri did not suit him and in a short time
he was back in Minnesota. This time he came to
Minneapolis and entered the employment of the Chicago,
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, where he
remained until 1891, when he resigned to take a part
interest in the Northwestern Mantel Company. At present
he is engaged in the general business of contracting and
building.
Upon his arrival in the United States he
affiliated with the Republican party, taking an active
part in every campaign. In 1892 he was nominated and
elected to the City Council, as a result of a movement
on the part of certain political organizations and the
taxpayers of the Seventh Ward. While in the Council, Mr.
Nordeen was instrumental in securing the adoption of a
Subway Fire Alarm and Police Telephone System, which is
claimed to be the best in any city in the United States.
He introduced the revised ordinances on the subject of
electric wires, buildings, and gambling. He has held the
position of chairman of the council committee on fire
department, and has been a member of the committees of
public grounds, buildings, railroads, sewers,
underground wires, and reservoir. Mr. Nordeen is a
member of the Swedish-American Union of Minnesota, the
North Star League, and a member and trustee of the
Swedish Lutheran Augustana Church. In 1885 he was
married to Miss Ida C. Peterson, of Minneapolis. They
have three children: Albert Theodore Nordeen, born in
1887 Inette Theresia Nordeen, born in 1889, and Edith
Christine Nordeen, born in
1892.
 CYRUS
NORTHROP It is but a moderate statement of fact and but
a just recognition of worth to say that to Cyrus
Northrop, more than to any other one person, is due the
wonderful success of the University of Minnesota. Dr.
Northrop was elected president of the university in
1884. At that time the institution had less than three
hundred students, counting a large number in the
preparatory department and in almost entirely detached
classes of evening technical study. In 1896 the
enrollment of the university will reach two thousand and
six hundred. When President Northrop took up the
management of the university it had but one important
building; it now has a score of well equipped structures
adapted to the needs of a modern institution of
learning. In 1884 the school was a university only in
name; now its colleges embrace all the departments
usually deemed essential to a university in fact. But
more than all this, the university in the past twelve
years has risen from the position of an unknown Western
college to the second rank among state universities in
point of attendance and to an equal rank with the
leading educational institutions of the country in
scholarship. Dr. Northrop brought
to the work of building up a Western college an
experience of twenty years in a leading professorship at
Yale, a mind ripened by long study not only of books,
but of men and affairs, and genial, engaging traits of
character and the faculty of making friends
everywhere. From the moment he
entered the university he has been its leading spirit.
From the first he has been loved and respected by
students and faculty.
President Northrop is a native of
Connecticut. He was born on September 30, 1834, at
Ridgefield. His father, whose name was also Cyrus
Northrop, was a farmer. His mother, whose maiden name
was Polly B. Fancher, was a native of New York. He
attended the common school in Ridgefield until he was
eleven years old, and then went to an academy in the
same town. This school was held in a building which was
the birthplace of Samuel G. Goodrich, commonly known as
Peter Parley. At this academy he was under the
instruction of H. S. Banks and Rev. Chauncey Wilcox,
both graduates of Yale. In 1851, at the age of seventeen
he entered Williston Seminary, Easthampton,
Massachusetts, then under the principalship of Josiah
Clark, and graduated at the end of the year. The next
fall he entered Yale. During his college life he lost
one year by illness, so that his graduation did not
occur till 1857. His rank upon graduation was third in a
class of one hundred and four. During his college life
he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Skull and Bones,
Delta Kappa Epsilon and Alpha Sigma Phi. He was first
president of the “Brothers in Unity,” one of the
literary societies, which embraced half the students in
the college.
In
the fall of 1857 he entered the Yale Law School and
graduated in 1859. While in the law school he taught
Latin and Greek in the school of Hon. A. N. Skinner in
New Haven, and fitted two classes for Yale. At this time
Dr. Northrop had no other career in view than that of
the law. Upon completing his
course at the law school he entered the law office of
the Hon. Chas. Ives in New Haven. But the stirring times
just before the breaking out of the war were at hand,
and the young man was irresistibly drawn into the
political battle for the Union and freedom, which had as
its visible object the election of Lincoln. Dr.
Northrop took an active part in the campaign,
speaking in many places in Connecticut and New York.
In
the spring of 1860 he was elected assistant clerk of the
Connecticut House of Representatives, the next year was
made clerk, and in the following year he was chosen
clerk of the senate. He had opened a law office in
Norwalk in 1861, and expected to return to it, but in
1862 he was called to the editorial chair of the
New-Haven Daily Palladium, and for a year wrote all the
editorials and had entire charge of that paper.
This year, President Northrop admits, was one of
the hardest of his life. The paper was a prominent one
and at times required extensive and unceasing editorial
comment on the great events then transpiring. Papers had
not then the modern conveniences and facilities now
thought essential, and the mechanical details of the
work of an editor were exhausting.
In
1863 Dr. Northrop was called to the chair of rhetoric
and English literature in Yale, a position which he held
till 1884, when he was called to the presidency of the
University of Minnesota. Neither of these positions was
sought by him, and he was not aware that he was under
consideration as a candidate for either position until
it was actually tendered to him. He visited Minnesota
with his family in 1881, but had, at that time, no
thought of becoming a resident of the state. While a
professor at Yale, during the war and the subsequent
agitation respecting reconstruction, Dr. Northrop took
an active part in politics, making many addresses, and
in 1867 he was a candidate for Congress in the New Haven
district. Since 1876 he has not
taken any part in politics except to cast his ballot.
During the administrations of Presidents Grant and Hayes
he was the collector of customs of the port of New
Haven.
During the twelve years in which
President Northrop has lived in Minneapolis, though
devoting his time and energies to building up the
university, there have been many demands for his
presence on the public platform, and he has made many
addresses, delivered numerous lectures and has
frequently occupied leading pulpits.
He is a direct, straight-forward speaker, using
no tricks of oratory to make his points, but often
making an almost homely phrase or a humorous statement
of a proposition count for more than studied eloquence.
As an after dinner speaker he is easily the foremost in
the Northwest, and has been so much sought after in this
capacity that he has been obliged to refuse all but a
very few invitations for such occasions.
Though not, as he asserts, in politics, President
Northrop, through his influence on hundreds of young men
who have graduated from the university and become voting
citizens almost at the same time, has exerted an
influence on the standards of citizenship which will be
far reaching in its effects.
President Northrop was married
September 30, 1862, to Miss Anna Elizabeth Warren,
daughter of Joseph D. Warren, of Stamford,
Connecticut. Their eldest daughter,
Minnie, died at the age of ten years and six months.
Their son, Cyrus, Jr., is a graduate of the University
of Minnesota. Their daughter,
Elizabeth, entered the university, but on account of ill
health, did not graduate. President Northrop is a
Congregationalist, and has been very prominent in the
affairs of that denomination. In 1889 he was moderator
of the National Council, held that year in Worcester,
Massachusetts. He was also a delegate to the
International Congregational Council, held in London,
England, in the summer of 1891, and he was one of the
two vice presidents appointed from
America.
 WILLIAM HENRY NORRIS was born at Hallowell,
Maine, July 24, 1832. His father was Rev. William Henry
Norris, a Methodist clergyman for fifty years, who died
in 1878. Rev. Mr. Norris shared the lot of itinerant
ministers, living for different periods in Brooklyn and
in New Haven, and in 1839, at the age of thirty-four,
going to South America in charge of Methodist missionary
churches. During this time he was located in Montevideo
and Buenos Ayres. He endured the privation of a
missionary’s life and never had a salary beyond a
thousand dollars. He was able, however, to afford his
children a liberal education. He was descended from
a family of Irish farmers, who settled in New Hampshire
about 1750.
The subject of this sketch attended no school
until past fifteen years of age, receiving his early
education at the hands of his father. He then fitted for
college at Dwight’s High School, in Brooklyn, and in
1850 entered Yale college, where he graduated in 1854 as
valedictorian of his class. While he was in
college he was a member of Linonia. Alpha Delta Phi and
Phi Beta Kappa societies. After leaving college he
taught school a year at Mamaroneck, New York. He then
took part of the law course at Harvard University. A year later he
came West and settled in Green Bay, Wisconsin; continued
his studies in the law office of James H. Howe, and in
1857 was admitted to the bar. He remained with Mr. Howe until 1862.
The next ten years he carried on his law practice alone.
He was then associated professionally with Thomas B.
Chynoweth for six years, and subsequently with E. H.
Ellis.
Twenty-three years were spent in the practice of
law at Green Bay.
During the greater part of this time Mr. Norris
was local attorney of the Chicago & Northwestern
railroad, and for six years attorney for the Green Bay
& Minnesota railroad, now the Green Bay &
Western. These engagements led him to make a specialty
of railroad law. He moved to Minneapolis in 1880, and
opened an office for general practice. In January, 1882,
he was selected by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
Railway Company as its state solicitor. In his trial of
claims and in all his practice in behalf of his railroad
clients he has been highly successful, having, in
several cases, advised his clients to disregard acts of
the legislature as unconstitutional, contentions upon
which the court has, in each case, ruled in his favor.
In politics he is a Republican, but does not always vote
the entire ticket selected by his party. He is a member
of all the Masonic orders, and a member of Plymouth
Congregational church. He was married at Green Bay in
1859 to Hannah B. Harriman daughter of Joab Harriman, a
ship builder of Waterville, Maine. They have three
children, Louise, wife of Alfred D. Rider, of Kansas City; Georgia and
Harriman.
 FRANK MELLEN NYE
is county attorney of Hennepin County. His parents were
both natives of Maine. His father, Franklin Nye, was
formerly a lumberman in that state, but removed to
Wisconsin in 1853 and engaged in farming. His mother was
Eliza M. Loring.
Frank M. Nye was born in Shirley, Maine, March 7,
1852, and came with his parents to Wisconsin and settled
near River Falls. He grew up on a farm and commenced his
education in the common schools, afterwards attending
the academy at River Falls. He followed the
course often pursued by young men of limited means and
larger ambition, teaching school several terms while he
pursued the study of law. In 1878 he was admitted to
practice at Hudson, Wisconsin, and soon afterward
located in Polk County, the same state, for the practice
of his profession. He was elected district attorney and
held that office two terms. He was also chosen by the
people of Polk County to the lower house of the
legislature.
In the spring of 1886 he removed to Minneapolis,
where his talents soon attracted attention. He took an
active part in politics and made an enviable reputation
as a speaker. When Robert Jamison was elected county
attorney he appointed Mr. Nye as his assistant. In the
fall of 1892 he was elected to succeed Mr. Jamison, and
was re-elected in the fall of 1894, and is now serving
his second term in that office. Mr. Nye’s legal practice
has been largely in the department of criminal law,
where he has met with remarkable success. Among the
important cases prosecuted by him was that of the Harris
murderers, where under peculiar difficulties he
succeeded in unraveling the mysterious plot and in
procuring the conviction of the criminals. He also
prosecuted the famous Hayward case, and won new laurels
as a criminal lawyer. This was one of the most famous
trials in the history of criminal prosecutions in this
country, and the ability with which the case was
conducted attracted general attention. His reputation as
a prosecutor is not confined to his own state, and he
has been called upon to assist in important cases in
other courts. A notable instance was that of the
prosecution of Myron Kent, in North Dakota, for the
murder of his wife. Mr. Nye made the
principal address to the jury, and the trial resulted in
the conviction of the accused.
He
has also rendered important services to the county in
the conduct of its civil business, and is regarded as
one of the most capable men who has ever served it in
that capacity. He has secured the esteem and confidence
of his fellow citizens to such a degree that he has been
urged to accept higher preferment in the public service,
but has thus far chosen to confine himself to the
practice of his profession. Mr. Nye was married in the
spring of 1876 to Carrie M. Wilson, of River Falls,
Wisconsin, and has a family of four
children.
 WALLACE GEORGE
NYE is the comptroller of the city of Minneapolis, the
duties of which position he has discharged with ability
and fidelity for two terms. The end he has aimed at as
the occupant of that office has been to simplify the
methods by which the public business is transacted and
to reduce to the lowest practicable limit the expense of
the municipality. Mr. Nye’s ancestors, so far as he
knows, have been natives of this country. His father was
a farmer boy who grew up in Ashtabula County, Ohio, but
when only twenty years of age he moved to Milwaukee
County, Wisconsin, and continued the business of
farming. Here he was married in 1850 to Hannah A.
Pickett, and two years later settled near the village of
Hortonville, Wisconsin. Four years ago that
farm, after being developed into one of the best in that
section of Wisconsin, and after having been the family
home for thirty-nine years, was sold and a home
purchased in the village where Mr. Nye’s father still
resides. His mother died in October, 1893.
Wallace was the third of seven
children. His father served as a private soldier in the
civil war and is now passing his declining years in
comfort and ease. Wallace G. Nye was born on the farm at
Hortonville, October 7. 1850. He attended the district
school until the winter of 1875 and 1876, when, at the
age of sixteen, he engaged in teaching in a neighboring
district. With the money thus
earned he began a course at the State Normal School at
Oshkosh, and continued there until the fall of 1879. He
was then employed as principal of the high school at
Plover, and also in the same capacity at
Hortonville. After two years at
Plover and Hortonville he abandoned the profession of
teacher and took up the study and practice of pharmacy
in Chicago.
In
September, 1881, he left Chicago to find a suitable
location for his business in some Wisconsin town, but on
the train he heard a good deal about Minneapolis and its
promising future and concluded to visit it. He was so
pleased with its activity and thrift that he decided to
locate there, establishing a drug business.
He took an active interest in politics, and,
also, a particular interest in the affairs of the
northern portion of the city, where he assisted in
organizing the North Minneapolis Improvement
Association, which has rendered much valuable service in
building up and beautifying that section. He was its
first secretary. In the campaign of 1888 he represented
his ward on the county campaign committee, and the
following January was chosen secretary of the board of
park commissioners, which position he held for four
years, being elected annually. In 1892 he was nominated
by the Republicans for city comptroller, was elected,
and was re-elected in 1894.
receiving the highest vote of any candidate on
the city ticket. In 1893 he was chosen to fill the
vacancy on the park board caused by the resignation of
Hon. C. M. Loring.
Mr.
Nye is a member of the Board of Trade, Union League, the
Commercial Club, the I. O. O. F..
the A. P. and A. M.. the K. of P., and the A.
O. U. W. he has been honored with various offices by
the Odd Fellows; was elected Grand Master of the order
in Minnesota in 1890, Grand Representative to the
Sovereign Grand Lodge for two years and in 1894 was made
Grand Patriarch of the Encampment branch of the order in
this state, from which position he was again promoted to
the office of Grand Representative, which position he
now holds. He is an attendant of the Baptist Church, and
was married in 1881 to Etta Rudd, at New London,
Wisconsin.
 ROBERT RANSOM ODELL is a lawyer practicing
his profession at Minneapolis. Mr. Odell traces his
ancestry on his father’s side to Ethan Allen. His great
grandmother was the daughter of that famous New
Englander. He is a son of Jesse Ballou Odell, a farmer
in comfortable circumstances in Wayne County, New York,
and of Marie Ballou (Odell). His mother was a cousin of
James A. Garfield’s mother, whose maiden name was Eliza
Ballou, and in this way Mr. Odell claims relationship
with the martyr president.
Mr. Odell was born at Newark, New York, November
28, 1850. He commenced his education in the common
schools of Newark, and also attended the Newark Academy,
but did not enjoy the advantages of a college course. He
was a young man, however, of ambitious spirit, and,
determined to better his condition in life, he read law
with Senator Stevens K. Williams, of Newark, and was
admitted to practice January 8, 1875, when barely
twenty-five years old, at Syracuse, New York. The
following September he was admitted to practice before
the United States circuit court at Utica, New York, for
purpose of bringing an action for the second mortgage
bondholders of the S. P. & S. Ry., involving one
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. He continued
the practice of his profession in New York for six
years, when he decided to join the army of young and
progressive men moving toward the West in search of
larger opportunities and richer fields of effort.
He came to Minnesota October 5, 1881, and located
in Minneapolis, where he formed a partnership with Hon.
Frank F. Davis, and was associated with him in the
practice of law until April I, 1882. Mr. Odell has been
engaged in a great deal of important litigation. He prosecuted
the action which involved the whole of the tract known
as Forest Heights, in the city of Minneapolis, in 1882,
and more recently has been engaged in litigation
relating to the excessive taxation of outlying tracts of
real estate within the city’s limits as the attorney for
the property owners. He was the attorney of Claus A.
Blixt. the murderer of Katherine Ging.
Mr. Odell was appointed United States
commissioner, December 5, 1881, and still holds that
office. When the census fight between Minneapolis and
St. Paul was on in 1890 the St. Paul prosecutors of the
Minneapolis census takers refused to bring the cases
before Mr. Odell because they claimed that he being a
Minneapolis man would not be unprejudiced and filed
their complaint before a commissioner in St. Paul. This was, of
course, unsatisfactory to the Minneapolis people, and
resulted in the final transfer of some of the cases
before a commissioner in Winona. As he was a friend of
Deputy Marshal John Campbell, some nineteen cases were
returned before Mr. Odell, and then the real trouble
began. The authorities wanted them held without
examination; this he refused to do, and an agreement was
made settling the whole matter, and Mr. Odell claims to
have saved both cities from further disgrace. While thoroughly
loyal to Minneapolis, he was governed in his official
action by his duty in the premises, and was able to
render valuable service to the city.
He has always been a Republican until 1892, when
he was so disgusted at the defeat of James G. Blaine in
the convention of that year, that he went over to the
Democrats.
He is a member of Minnehaha Lodge, A. F. and A.
M. September 5, 1876, he married Carrie C. Vorbaugh, at Newark,
New York. They have two children, Clinton N., aged
seventeen, and Corinne V., aged
six.
 SEAVER E. OLSON The above name is a household
word throughout the State of Minnesota, and will be
readily recognized as that of the head of the firm of S.
E. Olson
Co., of Minneapolis, which runs one of the largest
retail stores in the Northwest. Mr. Olson was born in
the parish of Ringsaker, near Hamar, in Norway, on
February 2, 1846. His father was a contractor and
builder.
Seaver’s early training was strongly religious in
its character, both his parents being members of the
Baptist Church and holding strong religious views, and
in other respects his home advantages were unusually
favorable. Tollef Olson, an uncle of Seaver’s, was for
fifty years a seminary professor, receiving at the end
of this period a gold medallion from the king for being
the oldest educator in continuous service in that
country. It was under his uncle’s tuition, up to his
tenth year, that young Seaver received his early
educational training. That the
elementary knowledge he received at that early age was
of great value may be judged from the fact that from his
tenth to twelfth year he taught a district school.
The Olson family emigrated to America in 1838,
landing at Quebec.
From there they came directly to the United
States and located at La Crosse, Wisconsin. The father
“took up” a piece of public land a distance of seventeen
miles from that place and pursued the occupation of an
agriculturist until his death in 1884.
The subject of this sketch worked on the farm for
a year, and then secured employment in a general store
in La Crosse, where he worked for nearly two years. He
was but fourteen years old at this time and desired to
have a college education, which his parents could not
afford to give him. He determined to secure it himself,
however, and with this purpose in view started out for
Beloit, Wisc. He struggled for nine months attending
school and working at such employment as he could get to
pay his expenses, but finally was compelled to give up
the hope that he had cherished for so long, determined
in mind, however, that his younger brother should not
lack the college education of which he had been
deprived. It is to Mr. Olson’s credit to say that this
purpose, formed in youth, he carried out later in life.
He took his brother off the farm and for ten years
furnished him the means of completing his studies, both
in this country and in Europe, having fitted him for the
honored position which he afterwards held as president
of the South Dakota State University. This brother
lost his life in the disastrous Tribune fire in 1889.
After giving up his idea of attending college
Seaver obtained a position in a store in Beloit. The
proprietor of the store shortly afterwards opened
another at Cambridge, Wisconsin, and the young lad was
given the management of it. He held this position until
January 1, 1864, at which time his former employer at La
Crosse offered him the position of head bookkeeper and
general manager of the store in which he had worked as a
lad. Mr. Olson held this responsible position until
January 1, 1867, at which time he started out in
business for himself and opened a store in Rushford,
under the firm name of S. E. Olson & Co.
This firm did a large business, but in 1870 Mr. Olson
sold out and attached himself to his former employer in
La Crosse as a partner. Three years
later he organized in La Crosse the wholesale and retail
dry goods house of Olson, Smith & Co. This firm was
dissolved in 1876, the jobbing interests of the concern
being retained by Mr. Olson.
In 1878 he removed his stock to Minneapolis and
became connected with the firm of N. B. Harwood &
Co. The failure of this house, however, two years later,
left the young merchant stranded, he was not
discouraged, however, but in company with M. D. Ingram
succeeded in borrowing sufficient money to buy the
remnant of the stock from the sheriff’s sale, and
started up in business again under the firm name of
Ingram, Olson & Co. The business became prosperous
in a short time, so that in 1887 Mr. Olson was able to
purchase Mr. Ingram’s interest and continue the business
as sole owner.
The business grew to such an extent that Mr.
Olson decided to make a venturesome departure. In 1893 he built
a large business block on the corner of Fifth street and
First avenue south, Minneapolis, in which a department
store was opened. In 1894 he organized the present S.
E. Olson
Co. Mr. Olson is an enterprising and progressive
merchant and has within that short time built up an
enormous trade, the S. E. Olson mammoth establishment
being one of the largest of its kind west of Chicago.
In all matters tending towards the welfare and
development of Minneapolis, Mr. Olson has always taken
an active part. He is said to have been one of the first
to suggest the idea of an exposition in Minneapolis, and
contributed a great deal of his time to make the
expositions successful. He was for several years
president of the State Bank of Minneapolis. Despite his busy life he has devoted some
attention to politics, and is one of the recognized
leaders of his nationality who espouse the Republican
cause. He has, however, refused all tenders of office.
Mr. Olson’s church connections are with the Baptist
body. He was married in 1880 to Miss Ida Hawley, of
Minneapolis.
 JOHN CONRAD OSWALD has been a resident of
Minneapolis and a merchant in that city since 1857. He
is a native of Switzerland and was born in Oberaach,
Canton Thurgau, May 20, 1824. His father, Jacob Oswald,
was a stock raiser and trader in Oberaach. John Conrad
attended the common schools of his native village until
the age of sixteen, when he was apprenticed in a cotton
manufactory, and after two years’ employment his
industry and aptness were rewarded by his appointment as
overseer. He retained that position until May, 1847,
when he came to America.
In October of that year he was appointed the
agent of a large tract of land in West Virginia. It was
a wild region, the land was unimproved and the locality
afforded none of the comforts and conveniences of life
to which he had been accustomed. Nevertheless he
look the agency of the land, and also opened and
constructed a country store, remaining in that business
for ten years.
He then sold out and came to Minneapolis, whither
the brother of his wife, and former employer, had
already preceded him. In connection with his brother,
Henry Oswald, he opened a general store in North
Minneapolis, but in June of the following year, 1858, he
purchased his brother’s interest and removed his stock
of goods to the old land office buildings in lower town.
In the spring of 1859 Mathias Nothaker was taken into
partnership, and that firm continued in business until
March, 1862, when both members sold out.
Soon after that Mr. Oswald purchased a farm in
the northwestern part of the city, a tract which is now
known as Bryn Mawr. Previous to this, in 1858, in
company with Godfrey Scheitlin, Mr. Oswald had
experimented in the manufacture of native fruit wine.
The experiment proved a great success, and in 1862 they
built a wine cellar on the farm, and from that time
manufactured wine extensively. In 1862 and 1863 he
undertook to raise tobacco and made a success of it for
two years, but the crop was destroyed by frost in
August, 1863, and the attempt was never repeated. In
May, 1866, Mr. Oswald established a wholesale wine and
liquor store in connection with the native wine
manufactory. In 1868 Theophil Basting entered into
partnership with Mr. Oswald, and is still a member of
the firm of Oswald & Co. Mr. Oswald has always taken
an active interest in public affairs.
In 1863 he was appointed captain in the Thirtieth
regiment of the state militia by Governor Henry A.
Swift, and in September of the following year was
appointed major of the same regiment by Governor
Miller. He
has always been actively identified with commercial and
industrial enterprises of a public nature. He has served
as director in the Minneapolis & St. Louis railway,
and, also, in the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie &
Atlantic railway. He was one of the first members of the
park board, but being about to depart for Europe he
resigned.
In 1887 he was elected to the state senate, and
is now a member of the courthouse and city hall
commission.
On August 12, 1847, in the city of New York, Mr.
Oswald was married to Miss Elizabeth Ursula Scheitlin.
Nine children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Oswald,
four of whom are still living. The eldest, Mathilda, is
now the wife of Mr. Basting. Elizabeth, married Floyd M.
Laraway, and Emma is the wife of William L. O’Brien. Bertha M. is
unmarried.
 ERIK NIELSEN OULIE is the son of a well-to-do
farmer in Odalen, Norway. His mother, whose maiden name
was Karen Olsen Brynildsrud, was noted throughout Odalen
as a very talented musician, and especially noted for
her skill in playing upon the somewhat ancient
instrument called the “langelek.” She came of a musical
family, and it was from one of his uncles that Erik
received his first instruction on the violin. The grandfather, on the paternal side, was also a
farmer, and in his time noted as a very impressive and
able extemporaneous composer of words.
Erik Nielsen was born November lo, 1850. He spent
his boyhood at Odalen on his father’s farm and began his
education in the common schools, where the principal
subjects taught were religion, mathematics and manual
training. This school work had no bearing upon his later
career as a musician. Subsequently he attended military
school at Christiania, where he received his first
training in music, except what he had learned from his
uncle at home. He was thoroughly devoted to music and
pursued his studies under such distinguished instructors
as Johan Svensen and Johan Selmer. From them he received
instruction in counterpoint and harmony. On the violin
he was instructed by Gulbrand Bohn. On the organ he
received lessons from Ludvig Lindeman, the most famous
organist in Scandinavia. For thirteen years Mr. Oulie
belonged to the Royal Musical Military Academy at
Christiania, and was one of the three successful
candidates out of twenty for graduation on April 15,
1872.
After having finished his studies he was engaged
as musical director with a traveling opera company, and
later appointed instructor in singing at the Tivoli in
Christiania and also became leader of the orchestra in
that theater.
This position he held for some years until he was
appointed organist at the cathedral of the city of Bodo,
Norway. He was occupying this position when he asked for
and was granted permission to take a trip to America for
a year. He arrived at Boston in 1890, and was so pleased
with the prospects held out to him in this country, that
he did not return to Norway. He was appointed to the
position of leader of the choir of Scandinavian singers
just prior to the Scandinavian singing festival in
Minneapolis in July, 1891. He was also elected leader of
the Swedish Glee Club, of Boston, and of the Norwegian
Singing Society of the same city, and later became
leader of the United Singers of Boston in opposition to
many competitors.
In the fall of 1892, Prof. Oulie came to
Minneapolis to take the leadership of the Normaendenes
sang-forening, and was also elected organist and
director of the choir of the Norwegian Lutheran Church
of St. Paul. His services were also in demand as a
leader of a number of singing societies of the Twin
Cities, and at the time of the festival of the United
Singing Societies of the Northwest at the World’s Fair
in Chicago in 1893, he was chosen as their leader. At the great
convention in Boston in 1895, at which all the
Scandinavian singing societies of the United States were
represented, he was elected musical director-in-chief of
the United States of America, which position he now
holds. The Normaendenes sang-forening, under Professor
Oulie’s instruction, received first prize at the
international tournament given by the Ole Bull’ Monument
Association, May 17, 1896, and the Unga Svea also under
his instruction received the popular prize. The vote was
given by the audience of seven thousand people. lie is
now an honorary member of the Scandinavian Chorus of
Boston, the Swedish Glee Club of Boston, and the
Normaendenes sang-forening in Minneapolis, and, also, of
the Literary Society Fram. Professor Oulie is also a
composer and has contributed very largely to the
elevation of Scandinavian music to its present standard
in America, and also takes great interest in church
music, and has helped to raise the standard in this
particular among his countrymen. In 1879 he was married
to Sophie Wilhelmine Freemann, a native of Denmark, who
was a leading member of an operatic company of which Mr.
Oulie was at one time musical director. She has also met
with much success as an instructor and leader of
dramatic performances in Boston, as well as in
Minneapolis.
The information
on Trails to the Past © Copyright
may be used in personal family history research, with
source citation. The pages in entirety may not be
duplicated for publication in any fashion without the
permission of the owner. Commercial use of any material
on this site is not permitted. Please respect the
wishes of those who have contributed their time and
efforts to make this free site possible.~Thank
you! | | | |
