Progressive Men Index

In 1887 Mr. J, Fjelde came to America and located in Minneapolis, where he lived till his death, May 5, 1896. Here he made a number of portrait busts in plaster, marble and bronze, among them being Hon. Albert Scheffer, of St. Paul; Mrs. S. P.  Snider, of Minneapolis; Prof. Oftedal of Minneapolis; Prof. Sverdrup, of Minneapolis; Judge R. R. Nelson, of St. Paul; Senator Knute Nelson of Alexandria; Judges Vanderburgh, of the supreme bench, and Lochren, Young and Hooker, of the Hennepin district court. The heroic figure entitled ‘History.” which adorns the front of the library of Minneapolis, is from his hands. Mr.  Fjelde also executed the monument for the First Minnesota regiment on the battlefield at Gettysburg, and the group of “Hiawatha and .Minnehaha,” which were displayed in the Minnesota World’s Fair building, and afterwards in the public library in Minneapolis. He also made twenty four spandrel figures for the University library to represent different branches of science and art.  Mr. Fjelde completed just before his death the Ole Bull monument, which is now erected in the city of Minneapolis. He was a gentleman of very modest pretensions, but was recognized as an artist of great merit and held in high esteem by all who enjoyed his personal acquaintance.

GEORGE PERRY FLANNERY is a lawyer at Minneapolis.  Mr. Flannery’s parents were humble people; both were born in Ireland and came to this country in the forties. They settled in Connecticut and were married in that state in 1849.  The same year they removed to Wisconsin and located on a farm in Marquette County, where they remained until the spring of 1855, when they removed to Rice County, Minnesota. Mr. Flannery was then about two years old and came to this state in a covered wagon drawn by oxen.  His father’s name was Michael Flannery, a native of the County of Kilkenny, and his mother’s maiden name was Katharine Flynn. Her birthplace was in the County of Longford, Ireland. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Marquette, Wisconsin, February 12, 1852, and was the second child of the family. His first schooling was received in one of the primitive log schoolhouses then common on the frontier. In the fall of 1867 George P. Flannery entered the high school in Faribault and continued there two years, when he went to Shattuck Hall, at Faribault, and was a pupil in that school until May 1871. When he left his father’s farm in the fall of 1867 he undertook to provide for himself by teaching school, and working for the farmers during the harvest season. While he was a pupil at Shattuck the teacher of mathematics gave extra time and instruction to Flannery and two other boys, and as a result they finished with the class which started two years ahead of them. George P.  Flannery had determined to be a lawyer, and it was his good fortune to get into the office of Batchelder & Buckham, at Faribault, in May, 1871. He read law there and continued with them until April, 1874, with the exception of such intervals as it was necessary for him to teach and do other work for his own support.  He recalls now, with no little pleasure, that the first money he ever earned was received for one month’s work driving oxen and harrowing in wheat. He was admitted to the bar in Faribault in 1873, and the supreme court in 1874.

In the latter year he went to Dakota Territory and settled in Bismarck, where he formed a law partnership with Josiah De Lamater, then district attorney, which partnership continued under the name of De Lamater & Flannery until the spring of 1877, when Mr. De Lamater returned to Ohio.  Soon after going to Bismarck, and although a young attorney, Mr. Flannery was appointed attorney for the Northern Pacific Railroad and held that position until June, 1887, when he came to Minneapolis. In 1875 he was appointed assistant United States attorney for Dakota and held that position for two years. In 1877 he was appointed city attorney for Bismarck and during that year, in connection with the town site commission settled and adjusted the claims to all the lots contained in the original town site of Bismarck. He held the office of city attorney for three successive terms, beginning in 1877, and was again appointed to the same office in 1883. In 1879 he formed a partnership with John K. Wetherby, which continued five years, when Mr. Wetherby retired on account of failing health. Then came the great fight for the capital of the Territory of Dakota in the year 1883, and Mr. Flannery was selected by his townsmen to represent the town of Bismarck and make her bid for the honor of being the seat of territorial government, he was successful and the capital was removed from Yankton to Bismarck. In 1883 congress created the Sixth judicial district and Mr. Flannery was appointed attorney of that district by Governor Ordway and held that position until the law was changed and the office of district attorney became that of county attorney.  In 1884 he was elected president of the bar association of the Sixth district of Dakota Territory.  The same year he formed a partnership with E. C. Cooke, with which he is now associated in business. In 1883 he was made a member of the board of education in Bismarck and held that office until June, 1887, being president of the board the last two years. In 1885 he was elected county attorney of Burleigh County and held that office until he left Dakota.

In June 1887, he came to Minneapolis and formed a partnership with H. G. O. Morrison and E. C. Cooke, the style of the firm being Morrison, Flannery & Cooke. This partnership continued for three years, when Mr. Morrison withdrew. Mr. Flannery has been engaged in the practice of law since May 1, 1874, thirteen years in Dakota, and the rest of the time in Minneapolis. He has been engaged in most of the important litigation carried on in that part of Dakota Territory which now constitutes the state of North Dakota. He has always been a Republican. Was one of the alternates to the national convention in Cincinnati in 1876, and has held the office of chairman of the Republican committee of Burleigh county.  Since coming to Minneapolis he has enjoyed a large practice and has attained a prominent position in the bar of this city. He was married in 1876 to Alice Greene, and has four children, Charles S., Henry C, Marguerite and Alice.

GEORGE HENRY FLETCHER. of Minneapolis, traces his ancestry to Robert Fletcher, who came from England and settled in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1630. The Fletchers for several generations were farmers. Robert Fletcher, of the fifth generation, served in the early part of the Revolutionary War, and with his two sons was in the battle of Bennington. He died on his way home from the army in 1776. Luke Fletcher, his son, also served in the Revolutionary War, and Adolphus Fletcher, the son of Luke, served in the war of 1812. The Fletchers were generally a long lived family. Adolphus had seven sons and four daughters, and only one of the eleven died at an age less than fifty-eight.

The subject of this sketch was born February 18, 1860, at Mankato.  He was the son of Lafayette Gilbert Mortiere Fletcher and Lucina Bacon (Fletcher). L. G. M.  Fletcher removed from St. Lawrence County, New York, to Mankato, Minnesota, in 1854 and has been engaged since that time in surveying, farming, operating warehouses, dealing in real estate and banking. He has been a member of the Mankato Board of Education for more than twenty-five out of the past thirty years, and for a considerable portion of the time was president.  He served in the state senate from 1883 to 1886.  He married Lucina Bacon Foote a widow. Her family name was Bacon. The Bacons were of English descent and had lived in New England for several generations. She died at Mankato, September 14, 1870.

George Henry Fletcher began his education under the direction of his mother, but subsequently attended the public schools at Mankato, where he graduated from the high school in 1876, as valedictorian of the first class after the school was established. The following year he also received a diploma from the high school, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. In September, 1877, he entered the University of Michigan, where he graduated in June, 1881, with the degree of A. B. He did not attend the university during the junior year of his class, but was instructor in Latin and mathematics at the Mankato high school. During his college course he was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity. His summer vacations were spent on his father’s farms near Mankato, accumulating health and muscle and preparing himself for the confinement of college work during the balance of the year.

After graduation, in 1881, Mr. Fletcher was placed in charge of a triangulation party, under Capt. D.  W. Wellman, U. S. A., then engaged in the government survey of the Missouri river, and carried on that work from Fort Randall to Sioux City, beginning in August and ending the following October. In November, 1881, he came to Minneapolis to study law, in accordance with a purpose formed at the age of fourteen, and toward which every step after that age was taken. He entered the law office of William H. Norris, counsel of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, and when not otherwise engaged continued his studies there until August, 1883.

From June, 1882, to July, 1883, he was assistant in the office of Superintendent of the Poor, in Minneapolis, and also during that time examined Latin, History and Geography papers for the state high school board. In August, 1883, he entered the office of Judge Ell Torrance as clerk, and the following December he was admitted to the bar.  Beginning with the following February and until June 1, 1890 he was associated with Judge Torrance in the law firm of Torrance & Fletcher.  He then formed a partnership with Robert S.  Dawson, to which Chelsea J. Rockwood was admitted in February, 1891. In March, 1895, the firm became Fletcher, Cairns & Rockwood, and in August, 1896, the present firm of Fletcher & Taylor was formed. Mr. Fletcher was secretary of the Minneapolis Bar Association from 1887 till 1892. He has taken an active interest in Republican politics, and is a member of the Union League. He was secretary of the League in 1883, vice president in 1884, and president in 1893. He represented the Thirty-second district in the lower house of the legislature in 1893, and was chairman of the judiciary committee during that session. Mr. Fletcher is a member of the Universalist Church, and was secretary of the Church of the Redeemer in Minneapolis for ten years. July 28, 1887, he married Annie Maria Kimball, daughter of George C. Kimball, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They have two children, Kimball and Alice Kimball.

LOREN FLETCHER, is the representative of the Fifth district of Minnesota in the congress of the United States, and is now serving his second term in that body. He is one of the pioneers of Minneapolis, his identification with the city dating back to 1856, when as a young man of twenty-three he brought his newly wedded wife to the rural village of St. Anthony and made his home there.

His father, Capt. Levi Fletcher, was a prosperous farmer in the town of Mount Vernon, Kennebec County, Maine, where he lived in a state of comparative prosperity, giving his four sons and two daughters the best educational advantages which the neighborhood afforded. Loren was the fourth son, and was born April 10, 1833.  The usual attendance at the village school was supplemented by two years at Kent’s Hill Seminary.  At the age of seventeen he had determined to learn a mechanical trade, but a short experience as a stone cutter satisfied him that a mercantile life was more to his taste. So he went to Bangor, where he obtained a situation as a clerk in a shoe store, and where he remained for three years.  Although earning but small wages, he had already acquired habits of thrift and economy, and with his savings he sought new fields of activity in the West.

After a few months spent at Dubuque, where the prospects did not appear inviting, he joined the tide of immigration to Minnesota, and arrived at St. Anthony in the summer of 1856.  He found temporary employment as a clerk in a store, and the following year entered the services of Dorilius Morrison, who was then carrying on an extensive lumber business. Loren s occupation was sometimes in charge of lumber yards at Hastings and St. Peter; at other times in the woods supervising the winter’s cut of logs, and then on the drive, and again in the mills at the falls. He was thus occupied for about three years. In 1860 he purchased an interest in the dry goods store of E. L. Allen. The following year he associated with himself in the mercantile business, Charles M. Loring, and they established a general store on the present site of the old city hall. They dealt chiefly in lumbermen’s supplies.  This business was carried on for more than fifteen years at the same stand. It extended however, to other lines of activity and investment, including dealings in pine lands, in lumbering, in farm lands, in contracts, in Indian supplies, in town and city lots and finally in milling. In this latter particular his firm has been prominent for many years. At first they were interested with the late W. F. Cahill; afterwards they were the proprietors of the Galaxy mill and the Minnetonka mills. Their business was prosperous and both members of the firm became wealthy. It is a noteworthy tribute to the sterling qualities of Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Loring that this partnership has continued for thirty-five years without a break and with the completest cordiality between them.

But Mr. Fletcher has not devoted all his energies to the massing of a fortune or the service of his own interests. For ten years he was a member of the lower house of the state legislature, having been elected as a Republican from Minneapolis, and during three successive sessions was chosen speaker of the house; the last time by the unanimous vote of the house, receiving every vote of all parties, an instance of political favor rare in the history of any state. His services as a member of the legislature were marked by distinguished ability and substantial benefits to his constituency, a fact to which his long service in that capacity bears the best testimony.  After a number of years of retirement from public service he entertained the laudable ambition to represent his city in the national congress, and when Minneapolis and Hennepin County were first constituted a district by themselves he was nominated by the Republicans and elected in 1892. He was re-elected in 1894 by a largely increased majority, and has acquired a position among his congressional colleagues which enables him to be of peculiar service to his constituents. Mr. Fletcher is not an orator and mazes no pretentions to display on the floor of the house, but his long experience in legislative service, his thorough knowledge of affairs, his capacity for making friends among his colleagues, and his adroit management of the interests of his district make him a must valuable member.

The year before coming West, Mr.  Fletcher married Amerette J. Thomas, daughter of Capt. John Thomas, of Bar Harbor. Mrs.  Fletcher was a most estimable lady, and the gentleness and kindliness of her character endeared her to a large circle of friends. The loss of their only child in early girlhood and the death of Mrs. Fletcher, in 1892, were afflictions which have borne heavily upon a strong and courageous spirit.

HIRAM W. FOOTE of Minneapolis, is state inspector of oils. His father, Rev. Hiram Foote, born at Burlington, New York, in 1808, was a Congregational clergyman. He was educated in Oneida Institute and at Oberlin College, graduating from the latter in 1837. He was ordained as a minister in 1839, and was married the same year to Eliza M. Becker, of Cooperstown, New York. About that time he removed to Joliet, Illinois, where he took charge of the Congregational Church of that city, subsequently going to Wisconsin. He had pastorates at Racine, Janesville, Brodhead and Waukesha. Mr. Foote was a pioneer in the cause of education in Wisconsin, and one of the first to agitate the graded school system in that state, for many years he was president of the Janesville board of education, and a trustee of Beloit College. He was also trustee of the Rockford Illinois, Seminary for Girls, and the Wisconsin State Institute for the Blind. Rev. Mr. Foote was strongly anti-slavery in his sympathies and was a friend and co-worker of the leaders in the anti-slavery movement before the war. He was a delegate to the first anti slavery convention held in New York state, and his home was always a station on the famous underground railroad by which slaves reached Canada from the South. Upon the organization of the Republican party he identified himself with it and remained an active Republican until his death at Rockford, in 1889.

The wife of Rev.  Hiram Foote, the mother of the subject of this sketch, was Eliza M. Becker (Foote.) She was a woman of education and refinement and useful in a remarkable degree to her husband in his pastoral work. She was born in New York and educated at Oneida Institute. During the War of the Rebellion she not only sent two of her sons to the defense of the Union, but spent much of her time in providing hospital supplies for use at the front. On the organization of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union she identified herself with it, afterwards going over to the Non partisan Society. Although seventy-eight years of age, she is still a very active woman, and devotes her time and energy largely to philanthropic and religious work. The family ancestry, both on the father’s and on the mother’s side, is traceable back to the first settlers of the country. On the father’s side it is English, and on the mother’s side it runs to the Hollanders, who settled in New York. Both families furnished soldiers for the Revolutionary War on the American side.

H.  W. Foote, the subject of this sketch, was born near Janesville, Wisconsin, February 9, 1846. He attended the public schools and afterward Carroll College at Waukesha. When he left school he began to learn the drug business, but in 1864 enlisted in Company D, One hundred and Thirty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. At the close of the war he engaged with a wholesale book company in Milwaukee, and was afterward for several years with a wholesale oil and paint company in that city. Later he formed a partnership with his brother in the drug business which they sold out in 1870.

In February, 1872, he removed to St. Paul to close up the state business of the Grover & Baker Sewing Machine Company, of Boston. When this was completed he was appointed Northwestern representative of the oil refineries of Cleveland. In 1882 he moved to Minneapolis and went into the carriage business.  Selling out his business in 1892 he was appointed by Governor Nelson in 1893 as state inspector of oils for Minnesota, and was re-appointed in 1895 by Governor Clough. He has always been a Republican, and has always taken an active part in the work of the party. He has been on some one of the party committees in Hennepin County and Minneapolis during nearly the whole time of his residence here, and is at present a member of both the congressional committee of the Fifth district and of the Hennepin County Republican Executive committee. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, past master of Ark Lodge, No. 16. A. F. and A. M. past high priest of Ark Chapter, No. 53, R. A. M., a member of Zuhrah Temple, of the A. A. O. N. M. S., and Minneapolis, No. 44, B. P. O. E.; also of the Minneapolis Commercial Club. Mr. Foote was married in 1874 to Viola D. Horton, in St. Paul. Their only child is a daughter, Miss Clara B. Foote, who is a graduate of the Central High School.