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

910 DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
Moonan homesteaded land at Elysian. He was a pioneer of Minnesota
territory. Soon after the beginning of the Civil War he volunteered
in a Minnesota regiment, leaving his family on the homestead. While
he was away in the army occurred the historic Indian uprising followed
by many massacres and a general devastation of frontier communities.
An Indian who had received some favor from Patrick Moonan came
to warn Mrs. Moonan of the threatened danger, and ^he was thus able
to take her children to a place of safety. After some years on the
homestead Patrick Moonan moved to Janesville, Minnesota, where he was
in the hotel business four years, and returning to Waseca built and
conducted a hotel there. In 1884 he moved to Minneapolis, and the
family lived in that city four years, after which he returned to Waseca,
where he and his wife spent the rest of their days. He died in 1899, at
the age of seventy-eight, and his wife in 1895, aged seventy-two. They
had a family of four sons and four daughters, and all the sons are still
living and also one daughter. The son John is a former state senator and
has tong been a prominent figure in Minnesota politics.
James Moonan grew up in Waseca County and finished his education
in the W'aseca High School. After school he started to learn telegraphy
with the Northwestern Railroad, but the superintendent advised him to
go into another branch of the service. For two years he was in the
operating or train service and for three years was in the general offices
of the company. xA.t St. Paul he became identified with the Minneapolis
and St. Louis Railroad, and earned a steady promotion in responsibilities
and salary until he was made agent for the company at St. Paul.
It was in 1901 that Mr. Moonan accepted his present responsibilities
as agent for the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad at Ely. His public
spirited interest in the community has been continuous with his residence
and railroad duties at Ely. For four years Air. Moonan was president of
the Ely Burntside Lake Outing Company, an organization that maintains
an ideal equipment, cottages and other facilities for tourists on Burntside
Lake. He is also first vice president of the Ely Commercial Club, a body
that has been the means of accomplishing a great deal of good in the
improvement of Ely and the Ely district.
W^hile his brother. Senator John Moonan, is a Democrat in politics,
Mr. Moonan has steadily maintained his affiliations with the Republican
party. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. In 1896 he married
Miss Hattie A. Felt, of Alinneapolis, who died in 1911. Mr. Moonan's
three sons are Willard J., now connected with the Proctor & Gamble
Soap Company of Cincinnati ; George D., a machinist in the railroad
shops at Ely ; and Lawrence G., a high school student. The son Willard
is an ex-service man, enlisting in April, 1917, at the beginning of the war
with Germany. He was trained at Camp Cody and went overseas to
France with the 125th Field Artillery. He received his honorable discharge
in February, 1919.
Fraxk S. Dane, superintendent of the Biwabik Mine, owned by the
Tod-Stambaugh Corporation, has been connected with this property since
1893, first as a steam shovel engineer, from which position he has been
promoted through others of trust and responsibility to his present one,
and all through his own merits. He is one of the most efficient men of
his calling, and understands every detail of his work.
The birth of Frank S. Dane took place at Lewiston, Wisconsin, July
14, 1862, and he is a son of Francis and Sarah (Terwiliger) Dane, the
former of whom was born in New York state and the latter in Canada.
They both died in 1895, he when seventy-four years old and she when
sixty-eight years old. By calling Francis Dane was a farmer, and he