FREEMAN P. LANE, is a lawyer of Minneapolis, the son of poor but eminently respectable people of that city, who were able to give him only those educational advantages afforded by the common schools of the city. His father, Charles W. Lane, is a mechanic, his trade being that of carriage maker and blacksmith. His mother and father are both living in this city.  They are of Scotch and Irish descent, honest people who have lived quiet and uneventful but useful lives.

Beyond this brief statement Mr.  Lane claims to know little about his ancestors, although, as he uniquely puts it, he has been a candidate for office. Freeman P. Lane was born in Eastport, Maine, April 20, 1853. He came with his parents to Minneapolis in 1861. From 1862 to 1865 he was the official bill poster of the town, and served his apprenticeship in business as a bootblack and newsboy, where he learned self-reliance and was trained in the severe school in which lads in his circumstances often acquire those qualifications which make for success in after life. During the summers of 1868 to 1871, inclusive, he was employed in building telegraph lines through Minnesota, Iowa and Dakota Territory. His ambition, however was for professional life, and he began the study of law with Albee Smith in the old Academy of Music building, in 1872, and tried his first case before J. L. Himes, a justice of the peace. He attended the Albany Law School, at Albany, New York, in 1873 and 1874, and was admitted to practice in Albany in May of the latter year. 

He returned to Minneapolis and began the practice of his profession with George W. Hael, the style of the firm being Lane & Hael. Subsequently James H. Giddings became Mr. Lane’s partner. He remained in partnership with Mr. Giddings for nine and a half years. He then formed a partnership with Fred B. Dodge, the style of the firm being Lane & Dodge. This partnership lasted for five years, after which the firm became Lane & Johnson, the new partner being Benjamin F. Johnson, with whom Mr.  Lane was associated for two years. Since the dissolution of that firm Mr. Lane has been associated in business with Frank P. Nantz, under the name of Lane & Nantz. He has always taken an active interest in local and state politics, and was elected to the lower house of the legislature in 1888 as a Republican.

Mr. Lane was married at Minneapolis, July 6, 1875, to Mollie Lauderdale, daughter of William H. Lauderdale. They have four children, Bessie, wife of Thomas F.  Maguire, Ina, wife of John E. Christian, Mabel and Stuart.

ROBERT BRUCE LANGDON From 1848, up to the time of his death,.  July 24, 1895, Mr. Langdon was engaged in the construction of railroads, and a full account of his life would almost comprise a history of railroad building in the United States during that period. Mr. Langdon was born on a farm in New Haven, Vermont, November 24, 1826.  On both his father’s and mother’s side his ancestry was English. His father, Seth Langdon, was an agriculturist, and was also born at New Haven. His paternal grandfather was a captain of a Massachusetts regiment in the Revolutionary War. At its close he settled in Connecticut, but later removed to Vermont, and was one of the pioneers of that state. The mother of R. B. Langdon was of an English family by the name of Squires. Robert Bruce Langdon grew up to manhood in his native town, receiving his early education in the district schools, which was supplemented by a brief academical course. He began his business career in 1848 as the foreman of a construction company engaged in building the Rutland & Burlington Railroad in Vermont. A short time later he left his native state in the employment of Mr. Selah Chamberlain, coming West, and for several years was engaged in railroad construction work under his employer in Ohio and Wisconsin.  The first contract Mr. Langdon received on his own account was for fencing the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad from Fond du Lac to Minnesota Junction. In 1853 he had charge of the construction of a section of seventy-five miles of the Illinois Central road from Kankakee, Illinois, to Urbana, Ohio, and later was engaged on contracts for the .Milwaukee & La Crosse and the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien railroads. ‘The first ground broken for a railroad in Minnesota was done under the direction of Mr. Langdon in 1858. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was compelled to abandon the construction of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, on which he had been engaged two years. During his business career as a railroad contractor, in association with D. M. Carpenter, D. C.  Shepard, A. H. Linton and other gentlemen Mr.  Langdon constructed more than seven thousand miles of railroad in the states of Vermont, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Tennessee, Mississippi, Iowa, the Dakotas, Montana and the Northwest Territory. But in addition to being one of the foremost railroad contractors in the United States, he was connected with the management of some of the most important lines in the Northwest as a stockholder and director. He was vice president and a director of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad, and for several years a vice president of the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic Railroad. 

Mr. Langdon also turned his energies in other directions aside from that of railroad building, and was connected with numerous other enterprises in the Northwest. He was held in great esteem for his ability as a financier and his indomitable business energy, and his advice was sought as to a great many public, as well as private, enterprises. He built the canal of the Minneapolis Milling Company in 1866; was president of the company which built the Syndicate Block and the Masonic Temple in Minneapolis; was a director of the Twin City Stock Yards of New Brighton, and of the City Bank of Minneapolis: a partner in the wholesale grocery firm of George R. Newell & Co., and was interested in the Terminal Elevator Company and the Belt Railway, connecting the stock yards at New Brighton with the interurban systems of railroad. Not only was he active in all enterprises tending to the upbuilding of his city and state, but Mr. Langdon also took an active part as a legislator, and was distinguished for his close attention to the interests of the community which he represented and for his sound and practical ideas. He was connected with the Republican party all his life. In 1872 he was elected to the upper house of the state legislature, and his services were so satisfactory in that body that he was successively re-elected, serving continuously until 1878. In 1880 he was again elected to the senate and served until 1885. He was the choice of his party for the same office in 1888, but was beaten by his Democratic opponent by only a few votes, this defeat being due to the Farmers’ Alliance landslide of that year. He was also a member of the state senate at the extra session called by Governor Pillsbury to act upon the adjustment of the state railroad bonds, and was an earnest supporter of all efforts made toward securing adequate legislation for the final settlement of this vexatious question.  It is noteworthy of Mr. Langdon’s popularity that he ne\-er had a competitor in a convention, receiving his nomination by acclamation. He often represented his party in state conventions, and was a delegate from Minnesota to three national conventions: at Cincinnati in 1876, and Chicago in 1884 and 1888. To his influence to a considerable extent is due the fact that Minneapolis secured the national convention in 1892. 

He had a large acquaintance among men of national reputation in this country, and his influence was widespread and potent, but only in molding the business and political destinies of his city and state, but in the councils and the national conventions of his party. He was a man of large, robust physique, and possessed a personality that was both magnetic and impressive.  His numerous business enterprises did not deter him from studious habits formed in youth, and few men were his conversational equals on such a diversity of topics. The sterling qualities of his character were such as to endear him to men in all walks of life, and his death is mourned by a large circle of sincere and devoted friends.  His name has been honored by having two towns named for him, viz.: Langdon, in North Dakota, and Langdon, in Minnesota. Mr.  Langdon was for some time president of the Minneapolis Club. In his religious faith he was an Episcopalian, and up to the time of his death was a vestryman of St. Mark’s Church. He was married in 1850 to Miss Sarah Smith, a daughter of Dr. Horatio A. Smith, of New Haven, Vermont.  In 1866 he brought his family to Minneapolis, where they have ever since resided. The family consists of three children, Cavour S.  Langdon, Mrs. H. C. Truesdale and Mrs. W. F.  Brooks, all three of whom are married and live in Minneapolis.

ORLO MELVIN LARAWAY One of the early pioneers of Minneapolis was O. M. Laraway, the subject of this sketch, who came to the village by the falls of St. Anthony in 1857, and has been a prominent factor in its business life ever since, contributing much toward making Minneapolis the metropolis that it is today.  Mr. Laraway is a native of the Buckeye State. He was born September 7, 1832, in Chardon, Geauga County, Ohio, the son of Stephen Van Rensselaer and Phoebe Spafford (Barber) Laraway. The father was a native of New York, having been born June 4, 1791, in Phillipstown, and following the occupation of farming. The mother was born at Castleton, Vermont, December 21, 1796. They moved with their family to Ohio in 1830.

Their son Orlo obtained his early education in the common schools of his native town, and afterwards attended Geauga Seminary, where he was for one term a schoolmate of James A. Garfield. After leaving school the boy worked on his father’s farm for a year or two, and then for a few years clerked in stores in Youngstown and Warren, Ohio.

In 1837 having made up his mind to come to the North Star State in order to grow up with the country, he located in Minneapolis.  Here he opened a store for the sale of butter, cheese and dried fruits (in the shipment of which from Ohio he was interested). This store was located on the corner where the old Pence Opera House now stands. The business of this small provision store rapidly increased Mr. Laraway gradually adding groceries to his stock, until in 1865 he went into the wholesale grocery business with H. W. Mills. Mr. Mills later transferred his interest to J. H. Shuey, and the firm continued business under the name of Laraway & Shuey until the death of Mr. Shuey in 1870. Mr. Laraway then, in connection with some other gentlemen, organized the Minneapolis Plow Works. This manufacturing concern continued in business until 1882, when the property of the company was taken for depot purposes by the Great Northern Railroad Company. At this time Mr. Laraway was appointed postmaster of Minneapolis, which office he held for the next four years.

He had always taken an active interest in the local affairs of his city, and in 1859 was elected clerk of the board of town supervisors, and a year later was elected a member of the town board, which then consisted of only three members. In 1863 he was appointed Secretary of the Sioux Commission, a commission which was authorized by Act of Congress to settle claims of settlers for depredations committed by the Sioux Indians during the outbreak of 1862.  In February, 1867, when the city of Minneapolis was organized, Mr. Laraway was elected city treasurer, which office he held continuously for a period of ten years. In 1886, after his term as postmaster had expired. Mr. Laraway engaged in the fire insurance business with his son, under the firm name of O. M. Laraway & Son, in which business he is still interested. He is also secretary of the Mechanics’ & Workingmen’s Loan & Building Association, which position he has held for the past twenty years. Mr. Laraway is a member of the Zion Commandery No. 2, of Minneapolis Lodge No. 19. A. F. and A. M., and the A. O. U. W. No. 6.

His church connections are with the Plymouth Congregational Church, of which he is a member. In 1857 he was married to Abbie F. Clark, of Warren, Ohio.  They have two children, F. M. Laraway, who is in business with his father, and Mrs. A. von Schlegell.

CHARLES MORGRIDGE LORING, is known as the father of the park system of Minneapolis, and while he has always been prominently identified with nearly every important movement for the benefit of the city, he will be held in especial esteem by the citizens of Minneapolis for the invaluable service which he has rendered in planning and securing for the city its admirable park system.

Mr. Loring is a native of New England, where the family name is well known. The first of the family was Thomas Loring, an early settler from England. The grandfather of C. M.  Loring was a successful and honored teacher in Portland, Maine, where he was known as “Master Loring.” His son, Captain Horace Loring, was a shipmaster, voyaging to the West Indies. He married Sarah Wiley, whose mother, Margaret Smith Wiley, was a niece of “Parson Smith,” a noted clergyman of Portland, Maine. She was of Scotch descent.

Charles M. Loring, the subject of this sketch, and a son of Horace Loring and Sarah Wiley (Loring), was born at Portland Maine, November 13, 1833. His father took him while yet a lad on his voyages and destined him to be a navigator. He became a mate on his father’s ship and spent some time in Cuba, but the life of a shipmaster was not to his taste, and he, to the great disappointment of his friends, relinquished that which was the height of every Maine boy’s ambition, a chance to become a sea captain, and started for the West in 1856. He located first at Chicago and engaged in wholesale business with B. P. Hutchinson, the well known grain speculator. Ill health at that time brought Mr. Loring to Minneapolis, when through the aid of his friend, Loren Fletcher, he obtained employment with Dorilus Morrison as the manager of his supply store in connection with his lumber business. This was in 1860. The following year he joined Mr. Fletcher in the general merchandise business in Minneapolis, under the firm name of Fletcher & Co., which firm is still in existence, and the oldest in Minneapolis.  Fletcher & Co. were very successful in their business, and the firm became one of the strongest in the city. In 1868, together with W.  F. Cahill, they purchased the Holly Mill and operated it until 1872, when they sold it and bought the Galaxy mill, which they successfully operated for a number of years. In 1873 they also became the principal owners of the Minnetonka mill, located near Lake Minnetonka. Since 1880 Mr. Loring has not given active attention to his interests in the milling business, but has depended in that respect chiefly upon his son.

He has, however, been active in other lines of business, and has become a large owner of real estate and other property which required his attention.  Mr. Loring is a man of refined tastes, and a great lover of nature, and is devoted to horticulture in its most artistic aspect, and when the first board of park commissioners was selected his name was placed at the head of the list, although he was absent at the time in Europe.  This board was organized in 1883, and for the next seven years Mr. Loring gave largely of his time and ability to the acquirement and development of the system of parks and boulevards for which the city of Minneapolis is justly famous.  In recognition of his great services in this regard, the name of Central Park was changed and that beautiful pleasure ground of the people will always be known as Loring Park. When the state decided to establish a state park at Minnehaha he was appointed one of the commissioners.  This property has since become a part of the park system of Minneapolis, and the acquirement of that tract around the romantic and historic waterfall was due to Mr. Loring. Notwithstanding his impaired health in later years, Mr. Loring has been actively interested in various business enterprises. He was one of the projectors of the North American Telegraph Company, and has been its president since its organization in 1885. In 1886 he was elected president of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, and held that office until 1890, when he declined a re-election.  Upon the organization of the Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company, including the Galaxy mill of which he was part owner, he was made a director of the company and still retains that position. He has also been identified with various financial institutions of the city.

Notwithstanding the activity of his business life, Mr. Loring has found time to gratify his refined tastes, and is a gentleman of culture and attainments. Never of very rugged physique, he has of late years found it desirable, owing to the severity of the Minnesota climate, to spend his winters on the Pacific coast, where he has acquired, at Riverside, California, a fruit ranch. He has also spent considerable time in travel abroad as well as in this country, and has availed himself of the opportunity thus afforded to gratify his tastes for art and learning.  He is a man of most kindly manners and is held in highest esteem by his fellow citizens. He is a Republican in politics, and in religion liberal, yet sincere. He cast his first vote for John C.  Fremont. He recalls with pleasurable recollection the fact that the first money he ever earned was by selling the New Year’s address of a newspaper carrier, from which his receipts were $7.32. 

Mr. Loring was married in 1855 to Emily S.  Crosman, of Portland, Maine, who died March 13, 1894. Their children were Eva Maria, deceased, and Albert C, who is the secretary and treasurer of the Consolidated Milling Company. Mr. Loring was married again, November 28, 1895, to Miss Florence Barton, daughter of A. B. Barton, of Minneapolis.

STEPHEN BROWN LOVEJOY or as his friends like to call him, “Steve” Lovejoy, is one of the substantial business men of Minneapolis, and is prominent in local and state politics. Mr. Lovejoy came to Minneapolis when a small boy with his father and mother who emigrated in 1854 from Maine. 

The family is an old one and carried an honorable name through the Revolution and the War of 1812. Mr. Lovejoy’s great-grandfather, Abial Lovejoy, lived at Sidney, Maine. He was a ship owner and lumber manufacturer. The ship landing at that place is still called “Lovejoy’s Landing.” His son, William, was also a ship owner, and served as a lieutenant in the War of 1812.  His son, John L. Lovejoy, father of Stephen B., was a lumber manufacturer in Calais, Maine. He married Miss Ann M. Albee, who was descended from William Albee, a lieutenant in the Revolution, who rendered his country distinguished service as commandant of the fort at Machias, Maine, in repulsing a British man-of-war which tried to ascend the river. Mrs. Lovejoy’s ancestors were largely interested in lumbering operations. 

Upon his settlement in St. Anthony, now a part of Minneapolis. Mr. Lovejoy commenced the manufacture of lumber in partnership with John L. Brockway, under the firm name of Lovejoy & Brockway. He died in 1860.

Stephen B. Lovejoy was born at Livermore, Maine, on the Lovejoy farm on January 19, 1850. He came West with his parents in 1854 and grew up in Minneapolis, surrounded by the influence of the bustling frontier town. When sixteen years of age he was sent East to the Pennsylvania Military Academy at Chester, and the following year went to the Clinton Liberal Institute at Clinton, New York. Here he won the second prize for essay at the annual commencement. On returning from school that year he entered the First National Bank of Minneapolis and remained with the bank for five years. When he left he was head bookkeeper. He left the bank to take a position as manager of a flour mill at Manomin, Minnesota. In the spring of the following year, 1875, he was elected treasurer and agent of the Mississippi and Rum River Boom Company. This position he held for eleven years. Governor McGill appointed Mr. Lovejoy surveyor general of logs and lumber in 1877; he held the office for one term. In 1884 Mr. Lovejoy formed a partnership with John Woods as railroad contractors. This partnership was dissolved in 1892, since which time Mr. Lovejoy has continued the business by himself. He has been a stockholder in several of the large corporations and banks of the city, and from its organization until it was dissolved in 1895, he was a member of the flour milling firm of Lovejoy, Hinrichs & Co. Mr. Lovejoy has been very successful in business, and is counted as one of the substantial businessmen of Minneapolis. Since voting for Grant in 1872, Mr. Lovejoy has been a staunch Republican. Though seldom holding office he has been very prominent in political affairs in Minneapolis, and has been a member of the county or city committees of his party frequently during the past twelve or fifteen years.  For four years past he has been chairman of the congressional committee, and during the same period has been a member of the campaign committee.  At the last organization of the committee he was reappointed chairman for the ensuing two years. He was a member of the old city water board, under appointment by Mayor Ames, after two months of service he was obliged to resign, not having time to devote to the affairs of the office.

In 1895 he was elected to the state legislature from the thirty-first district. While serving in the house of representatives he introduced, and was instrumental in securing the passage of the law regulating child labor. Mr. Lovejoy was married on October 13, 1872, to Miss E. Louise Morgan, a daughter of Brigadier General George N. Morgan, who was formerly colonel of the famous old First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. They have four children, Emma L., Edith D., Ethel M., and Marjorie.  Mr. Lovejoy is a Thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Knight Templar and a member of Zuhrah Temple.