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

890 DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
Merrill, who was born December 24, 1912, and Lydia, who was born
July 16, 1914.
Michael F. Chalk is a Duluth pioneer. He first knew this city
over forty years ago and has been a resident there forty years. His
name is especially familiar to all the Great Lakes transportation interests
centering at Duluth. For many years he has held the responsible
office of federal steamship inspector.
Mr. Chalk was born September 1, 1851, in the state of Rhode Island,
a son of Michael and Catherine (Ragen) Chalk. His father, a native
of Connecticut, was a life-long mechanic and followed his vocation both
in the United States and Canada. He died in 1888. Michael F. Chalk
was second in a large family of clhildren. He attended school only a
few terms, and acquired most of his education by active contact with
men and affairs. At the age of eleven years he was apprenticed to
learn the trade of mechanic and boilermaker. He served thirty-two
months in Connecticut and then took up another vocation, becoming
a fireman on a Great Lakes steamboat. He was on Great Lakes boats
plying between Buffalo, Collingwood, Chicago and Duluth for ten
years or more. In 1880 he located permanently at Duluth, and for five
years was chief of the fire department of the city. Later he became local
inspector of steamboats, and in that capacity has inspected for the Federal
Government all the boats in a large territory, including part of the
Mississippi River and northern Minnesota. His offices are on the second
floor of the Federal Building.
Mr. Chalk has witnessed Duluth grow from an outpost on the northwestern
frontier to a splendid city of over a hundred thousand population.
He is a recognized authority on many matters connected with water
transportation. His character has always been that of a thoroughly
progressive citizen and deeply interested in everything intended to promote
the growth and development of Duluth. He is a member of the
Elks order. Mr. Chalk married in 1876. His wife died in 1888, leaving
him one daughter. Miss Pearl Chalk of Duluth.
John A. Harri. A hardware merchant at Ely for the past thirteen
years, John A. Harri is one of the best known of local citizens, and has
called Ely his 'home for thirty years. His has been an honorable record
whether in connection with business, with public affairs or as a soldier
of his adopted country.
Mr. Harri was born in Finland in 1880, son of Edward and Mary
Harri, who were born in the same country, the former in 1854 and the
latter in 1856. Both are now residents of Ely. When they brought their
family from Finland during the eighties they lived for a short time at
Ironwood, Michigan, then for four years at Port Arthur, Canada, and in
1891 established their permanent residence at Ely. Edward Harri for a
short time was employed in the Chandler Mines, and later became a
contractor supplying the mines with timber and lumber. For the past
ten years he has been in the cattle business, owns several tracts and parcels
of land, and has a summer home on the lake. Of the family of
Edward Harri, six sons and two daughters, seven live on the Ranges in
Minnesota.
John A. Harri acquired most of his education at Ely. It was the
main business of every member of the Harri family to get out and hustle
as soon as age and strength permitted, and John Harri was well equipped
for a strenuous participation in the work of the world, being big and
strong. As a boy he went into the timber and soon became an adept
in all branches of logging and lumbering. During the Spanish-American