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

914 DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
meat and grocery business on Pine street. After the firm was dissolved
Mr. Messner became associated with B. J. Burrows, J. R. Bresnahan and
J. A. Lamson in establishing the present house of Burrows-Lamson Coni-
p'any, and they probably do the largest business, jobbing and retail, in
meats and groceries in Hibbing. • • ,
Mr. Messner has always distinguished himself as a public-spirited
citizen and active member of his community, served in 1913 on the
Village Council and since 1914 has been continuously in the office of supervisor
of the town of Stuntz. He is a member of the Episcopal Church,
belongs to the Commercial and Kiwanis Clubs, the United Commercial
Travelers and the Order of Elks. September 12, 1893, he married Sarah
Salverson. Two sons were born to their marriage, William John and
Ernest. The son William J. was one of the youths of the Iron Ranges
who made the supreme sacrifice of service in the World war. He was
chief mechanic in Truck Company B of the Coast Artillery Corps. He
was at the front in France, participated in some of the hardest drives after
America entered the war, and probably from the effects of being gassed
died in France on February 10, 1918.
Edward William Stevens, secretary of Duluth Lodge No. 133 of the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is one of the city's well known
citizens, and for a number of years has been active in business affairs and
in public office.
He was born at Duluth December 2, 1888, son of Richard and Emma
Stevens. His father came to Minnesota from Nova Scotia, Canada, first
locating at Stillwater, and thirty-four years ago moved to Duluth, where
he lived until his death in June, 1917. The mother of E. W. Stevens was
born in Bristol, England, where she married William Parfitt, and both of
them came from England to Duluth thirty-nine years ago. Mr. Parfitt
was a stone contractor and builder and died several years after moving to
Duluth. In the two families there were nine children, Edward W. being
the youngest of his mother's second marriage.
He received his education in the public schools of Duluth, but began
earning his own living at the age of fifteen as bell boy at the Commercial
Club. He was similarly employed at the Spalding Hotel, and at the same
time was diligently supplementing his earlier educational advantages by
attending night school. For nine years Mr. Stevens was in the service of
the Oliver Iron Mining Company, doing clerical work in the offices of the
various departments.
In the meantime he had become interested as a silent partner in the
grocery business at Duluth, and seeing that it needed his more active
cooperation he resigned from the Oliver Iron Mining Company in 1915 to
become an active partner. This line of business not progressing to his
satisfaction, in February, 1916, he joined the Duluth Police Department in
the Bureau of Identification, and in June, 1918, became pawnshop inspector
in the Detective Bureau.
Mr. Stevens for a number of years has been one of the popular members
of the Duluth Lodge of Elks. He filled various chairs in the lodge,
and finally it was decided by the officers and members that no better selection
could be made for the office of secretary than Mr, Stevens, and he
accepted that post in September, 1920. For the past eleven years he
has also been a member of Palestine Lodge No. 79, A. F. and A. M., and
is a Scottish Rite Mason.
James H. Ryan. It is not a new statement to make, in the words
of the great essayist, Macaulay, that "the history of a country is best told
in a record of the lives of its people," nevertheless, it is so true that it will