Trails-to-the-Past-Minnesota-Lyon-Biographies-Progressive-Men

Minneapolis Journal 1897

CHRISTOPHER FRANCIS CASE The Lyon County Reporter, of Marshall, is published by C. F. Case, for a score of years. Mr. Case has been identified with Lyon County journalism, and has been unusually successful. He comes of good old New England stock with ancestral lines running back to the revolution and before.

Ashbel W. Case, his father, was descended from Richard Case, who had an estate in South Manchester, Connecticut, as early as 1671. He married Dorothy, daughter of Rev. Mr. Spencer, of East Hartford. The Cases were among the earliest settlers in that part of New England. A. W. Case married Miss Eleanor D. Hollister, of South Manchester. She was also of a very old family. A connected line of ancestry is traced by the family back to Lieutenant John Hollister, who was born in England in 1612 and who came to Connecticut and had large landed interests in Wethersfield and Glastonbury. Several of his descendants were officers in the wars which followed. Thomas, Gideon, Asahel, Jonathan and Elisha Hollister were in the Revolutionary War. Other members of the family were in that and other wars and several were taken prisoners by the Indians, two being carried into long periods of captivity.

Mr. Case’s father was a teacher and farmer and later a paper manufacturer in Rockton, Illinois. He moved from there to Waterloo, Iowa, where he died in 1856, his wife having died the year previous. His mother lived to the age of ninety.

Christopher was born at South Manchester, November 1, 1839, and received his early education in the public schools of that place and in Illinois and Iowa. He spent one year at Beloit College in Wisconsin and finished his education at the University of Michigan with the class of ‘68. After leaving college he went to Clarkesville, Iowa, and commenced the publication of the Clarkesville Star. Five years later he went to the Pacific coast and spent a year there and in Mexico. Returning to Iowa he published the Waverly Republican for two years and then moved to Marshall, Minnesota, in 1874. He bought a paper called the Prairie Schooner and changed its name to the Marshall Messenger. In 1882 he published a history of Lyon County with a sectional map locating residents. In 1883 Mr. Case went out of the newspaper business for a time and spent several months in the south, but the climate did not agree with him and he returned to Marshall. It can be said of the newspaper profession, “Once a newspaper man, always a newspaper man.” This has proved the case with Mr. Case. In 1890 he went back in the newspaper field with the Lyon County Reporter and has continued its publication ever since. Mr. Case worked his way through college and has practiced the qualities of self reliance which he developed when a young man. This with industry and fairly good fortune have made him a competence. He is owner of lands and buildings worth probably $40,000. Mr. Case was a member of the Fortieth Wisconsin Infantry.

He was married in Iowa on November 6, 1874, to Miss Caroline F. Waller, and they have three children, Frank Waller Case, aged twenty-one, now a junior in the University of Minnesota; Frederick Hollister Case, aged fourteen, and Dorothy Alice, aged twenty-two months. Mr. Case has been a life long Republican and has taken an active interest in politics ever since he cast his first vote for Lincoln. He has held town offices, was Mayor of Marshall in 1894, was postmaster under appointment from Hayes for five years and has been president of the school and library boards of his town.

DANIEL THOMAS McARTHER. No photo One of the leading bankers in Southwestern Minnesota is D. T. McArthur, cashier of the First National Bank of Tracy. Mr. MacArthur’s ancestry is Scotch. C)n the paternal side he traces his family line back to Archibald and Mary (McGregor) McArthur, who were born near Greenock, in the highlands of Scotland. His grandfather, Donald McArthur, was also born in Greenock and married Catharine McDonald, of Inverness. He spent his last days in Cheltenham, Province of Ontario, Canada. Daniel McArthur, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Toronto, Canada, and reared to the occupation of farming. He came to Minnesota in 1857, and was married the following year to Jane Martin, daughter of Thomas and Jane (Annet) Martin, who were natives of Edinburgh, Scotland. The paternal grandparents of Mrs. McArthur were John and .Margaret (Colwell) Martin, who lived all their lives in Edinburgh. Her maternal grandparents were James and Jane (Stevenson) Annett, who were born near Glasgow, where they lived and died.

Daniel Thomas McArthur was born in Farmington township, Olmsted County, Minnesota, February 4, 1865. His elementary education was received in the district schools and the public schools of Rochester, Minnesota. Later he pursued his studies in the private school conducted by Sanford Niles of that place. When twenty years of age he entered the Lincoln County Bank, a private banking institution at Lake Benton, Minnesota, where he was employed two years. He then went to Dakota where he remained four years, engaged in banking, in the real estate business and in merchandise. In 1891 he moved to Tracy, Minnesota. and in connection with Messrs. Tucker and Holway purchased the small private bank owned by John E. Evans, known as the Commerce Bank, and organized the first state bank, with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars, which was increased to thirty-five thousand dollars two years later. On the eighth of April, 1895, the bank was reorganized and the First National Bank was opened with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. Mr. McArthur has served as cashier of the banking institution since it was first organized. The bank has been very successful in its business, a great deal of which is due to the efficient management of Mr. McArthur. In addition to his banking interests Mr. McArthur has also extensive real estate holdings he is the owner of fifteen hundred acres of land in Southern Minnesota, of which sixty-five acres is within the corporate limits of Tracy. On this particular piece of land he conducts an experimental farm, which is managed according to the latest scientific methods.

In his political views Mr. McArthur is an ardent adherent of the principles of the Republican Party, and he takes an active interest in all local affairs, giving his support to all efforts calculated to advance the public welfare of the community. He has served as president of the village council of Tracy, also as treasurer, and is now serving his second term as alderman. He is a young man as yet, but his success so far in life gives promise of his taking a foremost position among the financiers of the state. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, has been past chancellor and a delegate to the grand lodge; of the Ivy Leaf Lodge, No. 36, Order of Rebecca: of Modern Woodmen of America; of the Mankato Lodge of the B. P. O. E., and is connected with the Chosen Friends, Lodge No. 100, of Tracy.

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!