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

DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY 881
Department. In 1919 he was called to Duluth as construction engineer
for St. Louis County in carrying out the new highway program.
St. Louis County voted and approved a bond issue of seven and a
half million dollars in July, 1919, for the purpose of constructing approximately
two hundred and fifty miles of hard surface roads. This program,
in the carrying out of which Mr. Shepard is an expert technical adviser,
will when completed connect all the outlying villages and cities with
the county seat of Duluth by modern hard roads.
Mr. Shepard is affiliated with Ionic Lodge No. 186, Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons, in Duluth, with Keystone Chapter No. 20, Royal i\rch
Masons, at Duluth, and with Duluth Council No. 6, Royal and Select
Masters. He is also a member of the Phi Gamma Delta and Triangle
fraternities. He is an Episcopalian in religious faith, and in politics has
chiefly supported Republican candidates and principles. On September
4, 1917, he married Miss Lucile M. Bradley, of Duluth. Mrs. Shepard
was educated in the Duluth High School and Vassar College at Poughkeepsie,
New York.
James C. McGivern, president of the First National Bank and mayor
of Biwabik, is one of the leading citizens and financiers of St. Louis
County, and a man who has played a very important part in the history
of Mesaba Range. Since 1916 he has been the chief official of his bank,
and is serving his fourth term as mayor. He is a native son of Brainard.
where he was born July 21, 1886, a son of Barnard and Mary T. (Kennedy)
McGivern.
Born in Ireland, Barnard McGivern was twenty years old when he
came to the United States, and immediately after landing he made his
way to Chelsea, Michigan, and there he and his wife, then eighteen years
old. were married. In 1883 they went to Brainerd, Minnesota, where he
is now living at the age of sixty-three years. His wife died in April.
1915. Until 1903 Barnard McGivern was employed as a boilermaker in
the railroad shops of the Northern Pacific at Brainerd. After that he
was engaged until his retirement in operating a farm he had previously
homesteaded in the vicinity of Staples, Minnesota. He has always been
a shrewd business man and very successful. He and his wife had seven
sons, of whom James C. McGivern was the second. During the World
war three of these sons served on the battle line overseas.
James C. McGivern was graduated from the Brainerd High School
in 1904. after which he obtained employment in a grocery store at Staples,
and continued for a year. For the subsequent two years he held a clerkship
in the mechanical dei)artment of tlie Northern Pacific Railroad Company,
but left that cor])oration in 1908. In that year he came to Biwabik
to become timekeeper for the Oliver Iron Company. After a year he
left tiiat company to accept a similar position with the Monroe Mine at
Chisliolm. in 1911 he began his long connection with the First National
Bank at Piiwabik as cashier, and in 1916 was made its president. A
politician by inheritance and inclination, he soon became a dominating
force in local affairs, and was clecli'd township clerk In-fore he was honored
bv his first election to the nia\oralt\-, in which he defeated the
Sociahst candidate. Since then lie has been three times elected to suc-
ceed himself, and has done much to make the city what it is today.
Practically all of the ])resent improvements have been inaugurated under
his several administrations, including the water system and street paving,
and this municipalitv comj)ares fa^-orabiy with any other of its size in
the count r\.