1921 Duluth & St Louis County MN, Van Brunt.pdf - Garon.us

DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY 831
the Masonic Lodge at Biwabik and with the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows at Gwinn, Michigan, and in politics casts his vote independently.
Gordon Brooks has been one of the live and enterprising business men
of Duluth for the past ten years, and as president of the American
Lumber and Construction Company has directed his organization in a
public spirited way toward solving some of the problems of housing
construction in the city.
Mr. Brooks was born in 188^, one of a family of five children, and
grew up and received his early education in Duluth. He was one of the
first pupils enrolled in the Irving High School. On leaving school he
engaged in business in 1909, and his experience and capabilities have been
chiefly in the field of contracting and as a dealer in builders' supplies.
The American Lumber and Construction Company, which was incorporated
in 1916 and of which he is president, handles all classes of
building materials, and also has the facilities and the organization for the
erection and sale of homes on the easy payment plan. During the past
three years this company has erected between forty and fifty houses, a
very important addition to Duluth's building program.
Mr. Brooks is affiliated with Euclid Lodge No. 198. Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons, is a Scottish Rite Mason, member of Royal League
No. 255, the Modern Samaritans, and politically supports the Republican
party. In 1908 he married Miss Elizabeth Siddall, who was reared and
educated in Canada, being a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Siddall.
Her father was a captain on the Great Lakes for forty years and is widely
known in Great Lakes transportation circles. Mr. and Mrs. Brooks have
four children: Fein, born in 1910; Dorothy, born in 1912; Wendell, born
in 1914; and Violet, born in 1918. The three older children are all pupils
in the Duluth public schools.
William M. Empie, M. D., has found in St. Louis County, Minnesota,
an excellent field for successful professional activity and service, and
is engaged in active general practice at Virginia, where he not only has
precedence as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of the
county but also has the distinction of being mayor of the city at the time
of this writing.
Doctor Empie was born on a .farm near the city of Dwight, Illinois,
on the 21st day of January, 1888, and is a son of William A. and
Winnie (Allison) Empie. the former of whom was born in Grundy
County, Illinois, in 1864, and the latter in Ohio in 1866. The
parents still maintain their residence on their homestead farm near
Dwight, Illinois, and Doctor Empie of this review is the elder of their
two children. In the public schools of his native county he pursued his
studies until his graduation in the Dwight High School in 1907. He then
entered the medical school of Northwestern University, this department of
the university being established in the city of Chicago. He was graduated
as a member of the class of 1911, and after thus receiving his degree of
Doctor of Medicine he was favored in being able to gain most varied and
valuable clinical experience through two years of service as interne in the
celebrated Michael Reese Hospital in the city of Chicago. He then
assumed charge of the practice of a i)hysician at Ishpeming, Michigan,
while that physician was sojourning in Europe. In 1914 Doctor Enii)ie
came to Evelcth, Minnesota, where he was associated with the Moore
Hospital until June 6tli of that year, when he estai)lished himself in active
general i)nictice at Virginia, which has since continued the central stage
of his earnest and successful professional work save for the period of his