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

DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY 891
war he served as a member of Company L of the Fifteenth Minnesota
Regiment, and later went to the Philippines in Company C of the Thirty-fourth
United States Infantry, under Captain George E. Gibson. Mr.
Harri participated in twenty-three engagements during the Filipino insurrection,
an honorable service record such as few men on the Ranges
can excel.
Mr. Harri established himself in the hardware business in 1908, and
has a large patronage and his business ability and personal character
have won him a great leadership and popular following. In 1903 he
married Hilma Mieltunen of Ely. They have a family of four sons and
four daughters. Mr. Harri is affiliated with the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, Eagles, Woodmen of the World, Moose and the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, and has joined in heartily with the
program of the Commercial Club, which has contributed so much to the
improvement and advancement of Ely in recent years.
Michael H. Godfrey has given a quarter of a century of service
to the Oliver Iron Mining Company and is one of the veterans in the
service of that corporation and is its district manager at Hibbing. Everything
connected with the mining, transportation, marketing and manufacture
of iron ore has attracted the study, thought and efifort of Mr.
Godfrey, and he is one of the readily recognized experts in the range
country of northern Minnesota.
Mr. Godfrey has spent practically all his life in the great mining section
of the north. He was born in Champion, Michigan, April 13, 1872,
son of Robert and Bridget (Hogan) Godfrey. His parents were born in
Ireland, were married after they came to the United States, and since 1898
have had their home at Hibbing. They reared a family of ten children.
Michael H. Godfrey grew up in his native state, completed a high
school education at Champion and for one year attended college at Joliet,
Canada. While there he became well versed in the French language,
and that knowledge had much to do with some of his early advancements
in business. For a time he clerked in a postoffice at Norway,
Michigan, and for about three years was employed there in the
store of the Penn Iron Company. It was his knowledge of French that
brought this appointment. He was soon in t)he accounting department
and had much to do with handling trade and other work involving the
use of the French language.
Mr. Godfrey came to Virginia City on the Mesaba Range in Minnesota
in February, 1893, and was first employed in the accounting
department by the Merritt brothers. After the shutdown of the Minnesota
Mine, in which 'he was working, in August, 1893, he was transferred
to the Mountain Iron Mine in charge of the accounting department. In
September, 1895, he was transferred to Hibbing, and began work under
Pentecost Mitchell, now vice president of the Oliver Iron Mining Company.
Since then continuously for a quarter of a century he has been
with the Oliver Company, has been promoted through various grades and
since .'\pril, 1917, has been district manager of the Western District for
the Oliver interests. The years of undiminished enthusiasm, constant
study and initiative and enterprise have brought him notable advancement
and a place of high influence in the industrial life of the north.
^ He
has likewise been closely identified with the public welfare of
Hibbing, and in the early days of the village served as a member of the
council. He is a Republican and a menil)er of the Catholic Church. On
October 12, 1897, Mr. Godfrey married Ceceha Gandsey, who died in
1916. Of her eight surviving children one son was a soldier in the World