Louise and Her Legacy See Books Page 31

Fall, 1999 Volume 34, Number 3 Crawford Livingston, Chauncey Griggs and Their Roles in St. Paul History —Page 4

Crawford Livingston, from a copy of a portrait, and used by permission of Livingston's grand­ daughter, Mary Griggs Burke. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director ■W" "W" RAMSEY COUNTY Priscilla Famham Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz History RAMSEY COUNTY Volume 34, Number 3 Fall, 1999 HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Laurie A. Zenner CONTENTS Chair Howard M. Guthmann 3 Letters President James Russell 4 “.. .no time or sympathy for one who wouldn’t work” First Vice President Crawford Livingston, Chauncey Griggs and Then- Anne Cowie Wilson Second Vice President Roles in St. Paul History Richard A. Wilhoit John M. Lindley Secretary Ronald J. Zweber 31 Books Treasurer W. Andrew Boss, Peter K. Butler, Charlotte H. Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from Drake, Mark G. Eisenschenk, Joanne A. Eng- Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H.Cowie, Jr. lund, Robert F. Garland, Judith Frost Lewis, and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon John M. Lindley, George A. Mairs, Marlene Marschall, Richard T. Murphy, Sr., Bob Olsen, Linda Owen, Fred Perez, Marvin J. Pertzik, Vicenta D. Scarlett, Glenn Wiessner, Charles H. Williams, Jr..

EDITORIAL BOARD Message from Editorial Board John M. Lindley, chair; Thomas H. Boyd, his issue of Ramsey County History brings together the stories of two related, and Thomas C. Buckley, Pat Hart, Virginia Brainard Kunz, Thomas J. Kelley, Tom Mega, Laurie Tyet different, major figures in the history of St. Paul during the late nineteenth and Murphy, Vicenta Scarlett, G. Richard Slade, early twentieth centuries. The are Chauncey Wright Griggs and Crawford Livingston. Laurie Zenner. Griggs came to St. Paul from New England in 1856. Crawford Livingston left New York for Minnesota in 1870, and relocated to St. Paul a few years later. HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD Crawford Livingston was a canny investor who prospered from railroads, utilities, Elmer L. Andersen, Olivia I. Dodge, Charlton Dietz, William Finney, Otis Godfrey, Jr., insurance, and land sales. Chauncey Griggs put his money into supplying coal and Robert S. Hess, Fred T. Lanners, Jr., D. W. wood and into transportation, land sales, the wholesale grocery business and, finally, “Don” Larson, George Latimer, Frank the lumber business. Their habits of hard work and a willingness to seize upon busi­ Marzitelli, Joseph S. Micallef, Robert Mirick, ness opportunities helped both to acquire large personal fortunes. The 1915 marriage Samuel Morgan, Marvin J. Pertzik, J. Jerome of one Livingston daughter with one Griggs son meant that their parents’ stories be­ Plunkett, James Reagan, Rosalie E. Wahl, Donald D. Wozniak. came even more intertwined. Today the names of Chauncey Griggs and Crawford Liv­ ingston live on in St. Paul in the Crawford Livingston Theatre, in streets named for RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISIONERS Griggs and Livingston, and in the Burbank-Livingston-Griggs house still standing on Commissioner Rafael Ortega, chairman Sum m it A venue. Commissioner Susan Haigh Commissioner Tony Bennett John Lindley, who chairs the Ramsey County Historical Society’s Editorial Board, Commissioner Dino Guerin has brought the L ivingston and G riggs careers and their fam ilies to life. H is research on Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt these tw o business leaders is based on work in m ore than twenty archives, libraries, and Commissioner Janice Rettman Commissioner Jan Wiessner manuscript collections in Minnesota and elsewhere. To do this, he has had the help of many people who have provided information and suggestions along the way, particu­ Paul Kirkwold, acting manager, Ramsey larly Tom White of the James J. Hill Reference Library; Jim Sazevich, an independent County historian, researcher, and geneologist of St. Paul; Virginia Brainard Kunz, editor of Ramsey County History is published quar­ Ramsey County History, and Molly Spillman of the Ramsey County Historical Society terly by the Ramsey County Historical Society, 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth staff. Street, St. Paul, Minn. 55102 (651-222- In addition, this project w ould not have com e to fruition if the author had not had the 0701). Printed in U.S.A. Copyright, 1999, encouragement and support of Patricia Sweney Hart, a Griggs descendant, and Mary Ramsey County Historical Society. ISSN Griggs Burke, a Livingston granddaughter. They have been extraordinarily generous in Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. No sharing family stories, letters, photos, and ideas about Chauncey Griggs and Crawford part of this publication may be reprinted Livingston because they wanted others to known how these two men helped to shape or otherwise reproduced without written perm ission from the publisher. The Soci­ St. Paul’s history. ety assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors. Fax 651-223-8539; Priscilla Famham, executive director, Ramsey County Historical Society e-mail address [email protected].; web site address www.rchs.com

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY “... No Time or Sympathy for One Who Wouldn’t Work” Crawford Livingston, Colonel Chauncey W. Griggs,

John M. Lindley

n January 18,1912, Crawford Livingston, a successful former St. Paul and after 1888 in the timber industry in railroad entrepreneur and businessman who recently had established a Washington State. Although the Griggs and Livingston Wall Street brokerage house in New York City, wrote to his daughter, families would not be linked until 1915 MaryO Steele Livingston, about his new firm, Livingston & Company. Liv­ when Theodore Wright Griggs, the boys’ ingston’s son, Gerald M., known in the family as Gerry, was the lead partner in uncle, married Mary Steele Livingston, this new financial house, while the firm’s letterhead identified Gerry’s father as these brief comments from two parental a “special partner.” letters written in the second decade of the twentieth century reveal a shared belief The senior Livingston commented You boys have a grand inheritance from in hard work, personal industry, and the first on Mary’s report in her most recent your immediate grandparents on both sides. value of financial endeavors. They also letter to her father that the weather in They were producers, they were workers, help to explain why Crawford Livingston Cable, Wisconsin, where she was stay­ and after all it’s the only kind of life that and Colonel Chauncey Griggs achieved ing, was “quite mild now as it is only 12 brings satisfaction.2 so much in their lifetimes. below zero.” Then he added: The boys’ grandfather, Colonel Gerry is very much pleased with his busi­ Chauncey Wright Griggs (1832-1910), Griggs, Livingston, and ness. They have a very nice office, and so far had come to St. Paul in 1856 where he St. Paul have done very well. I work as hard as any had started in business and took time out While the story of the Griggs and of them, so hard that I do not get my after­ to serve in the Union Army during the Livingston families follows a parallel noon nap any more and have lost 5 pounds Civil War. He then had returned to course through more than fifty of the most in weight.1 Minnesota and St. Paul where he had colorful years in American life, Crawford achieved great financial success, first in Livingston remains an elusive figure in Crawford Livingston was then sixty- supplying wood and coal to Minnesotans, St. Paul history. Chauncey Griggs does four. Because of his wealth, he could then in the wholesale grocery business, not. The roots of both men lay in the have chosen a more relaxed and comfort­ able pace for himself. Apparently he didn’t. His attitude toward life and work was not unique. In another parental letter, dated April 16, 1913, Chauncey Milton Griggs, ten years younger than Crawford Livingston, wrote to his sons, Everett and Ben, the day after their grandmother, Martha Ann Gallup Griggs, died in Tacoma, Washington. His letter is a tribute to his sons’ grandparents, especially their grand­ mother, for her selfless role in supporting her husband and her family through the years that preceded their coming to great wealth. He wrote:

Here was a woman who did her share, not only in the acquisition of her family’s capi­ tal, but in helping others to help themselves. The Burbank-Livingston-Griggs house at 432 Summit Avenue, as it looked in the 1880s. It was She had no time or sympathy for one who the home of Crawford Livingston and his family and later of Theodore W. Griggs and his wife, wouldn’t work. Mary Livingston Griggs, Crawford Livingston’s daughter. Minnesota Historical Society photo.

4 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY and Their Roles in St. Paul History

East, but Livingston’s remained there. Even though he married into one of Minnesota’s pioneer families, and his St. Paul associates included General Henry H. Sibley and many of the city’s more formidable leaders, Livingston lived much of his life in New York. Griggs did not. He put down new roots, first in Minnesota, then on the West Coast. The imprints of both these men, however, still lie on St. Paul, in the Crawford Liv­ ingston Theatre in downtown St. Paul, in the Burbank-Livingston-Griggs mansion that still stands on Summit Avenue, in St. Paul’s Livingston Street, in its Griggs Street, and in the Griggs-Midway Build­ ing on University Avenue. Colonel Chauncey Wright Griggs came from an old New England family. Bom on December 31,1832, in Tolland, Connecti­ cut, he was the son of Captain Chauncey Chauncey Wright Griggs and Martha Ann Gallup Griggs. These photos are used courtesy of Griggs and Heartie Dimock Griggs. Cap­ Patricia Sweney Hart. tain Griggs had fought in the War of 1812, been a judge of probate in Tolland County, and had served in the Connecticut legisla­ sus for 1857 identifies Griggs as a “lum­ sidered the founder of the dynasty. He ture. Heartie Dimock Griggs was de­ ber merchant.” The next year he became emigrated from Scotland to America in scended from early Massachusetts settlers, engaged to Martha Ann Gallup, who had 1673 and, with the help of a royal land some of whom had fought the British in been bom in Ledyard, Connecticut, on grant, settled south of Albany, New York, the Revolutionary War. September 7, 1834, the daughter of on the east side of the Hudson River on an Young Chauncey Griggs was edu­ Christopher Milton Gallup and Anna S. estate of 160,000 acres. As the “First cated at Monson Academy in Massachu­ Billings Gallup.3 Lord of the Manor,” as Robert Livingston setts and, for a time, was a teacher. In At the same time that Chauncey later came to be called, he definitely was 1852 he moved to Detroit, Michigan, Griggs was making a start in St. Paul an aristocrat, a gentleman of property, where he lived with his sister, Frances, with his new bride, Crawford Livingston and some of his descendants helped to and her husband, Guerdon Williams. Be­ was growing up in New York City. Bom mold the youthful republic of the United tween 1852 and 1857 Griggs supported on May 6, 1847, he was the only son and States. His grandson Philip signed the himself in several occupations. He was a youngest child of Crawford Livingston Declaration of Independence. Philip’s bookkeeper in a bank in Detroit, and part (bom on October 22,1811) and Caroline brother William signed the Constitution; owner of a livery stable and transfer busi­ C. Chapman Livingston (bom in 1818). William’s son fought the British in the ness in Ohio and Iowa; he operated a They had married on May 27, 1833, and Revolutionary War and later served as a general store in Ohio, and sold furniture two daughters, Frances (1836-1847) and justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. in Detroit. Finally, in early May 1856, Elizabeth (1842-1917), preceded the Robert R. Livingston, a member of an­ Chauncey Griggs moved to St. Paul in younger Crawford’s birth in 1847.4 other branch of the family, was a member Minnesota Territory “where he engaged The Livingston family is a long and of the Committee of Five that drafted the in contracting, merchandising, and real distinguished family in American history. Declaration of Independence, adminis­ estate.” The Minnesota Territorial Cen­ Robert Livingston (1654-1728) is con­ tered the oath of office to George Wash-

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 5 ington, and served as the new nation’s hundred. The arrival of such a delicacy mentary, but the likely purchaser was first secretary of state. He had also helped soon became a local event and was ad­ Crawford’s cousin, Johnston Livingston Robert Fulton in building the first suc­ vertised in the newspapers. (1817-1911), because it was about this cessful steamboat, the Clermont, which By 1843 the three partners were able time that he became involved in the ex­ for a time held a monopoly on steam to offer daily express service using a press business of Livingston, Wells and transportation on the Hudson River be­ large trunk to hold their growing volume Company.6 tween New York and Albany. Other Liv­ of freight. Initially Wells paid about $15 An 1835 graduate of Union College in ingstons served in Washington in the for a ticket for himself and his excess Schenectady, New York, Johnston Liv­ House of Representatives, or the Senate, freight; later he would negotiate for a re­ ingston, the second Crawford Liv­ or in other public positions. duced fare. In the meantime Pomeroy & ingston’s uncle, had studied engineering Company became Livingston, Wells and and worked for a time as a surveyor for Fourth Lord of the Manor Pomeroy, then Livingston, Wells and the Erie Railroad. By 1852, when Henry The senior Crawford Livingston was Company. In 1845 the company began to Wells and William Fargo established a not called to a life of governmental ser­ compete with the U.S. Post Office for the new business,Wells, Fargo & Company, vice, but unlike many Livingston family delivery of mail. At the time, postage for Johnston Livingston was a member of its members in the first half of the nineteenth delivery of a letter from New York to board of directors. Wells and Fargo set century, he had not retreated from the Buffalo was twenty-five cents. Liv­ up their firm to transport gold dust, bul­ public world for a private life of aristo­ ingston, Wells and Company charged six lion, silver, and other valuables from Cal­ cratic ease. In her book, An American cents and still made money. The govern­ ifornia to the East after the board of di­ Aristocracy: The Livingstons, historian ment didn’t like the competition and re­ rectors at American Express had voted Claire Brandt wrote: sponded by cutting its rate in 1848 to a not to expand into the California market. uniform cost of three cents for the entire Because their competitors had carried It is worth noting that the enterprising United States. The private express com­ some $68 million in gold from California William and Crawford Livingston sprang panies couldn’t make a profit at that to the East the previous year, the organiz­ from the unlikely loins of the “Fourth Lord price. ers of Wells, Fargo felt the risks of such a of the Manor,” the feckless Peter R. Liv­ By this time William G. Fargo had venture were worth setting up a separate ingston. They were the offspring of his joined Henry Wells and the Livingston firm that might reap a portion of the po­ fourth son, Moncrief, a prosperous citizen of brothers in the express business. In 1846 tential profits from the Gold Rush. Be­ the town of Hudson, New York, who man­ the firm set up European offices in Lon­ cause some American Express directors aged to instill in his sons the wisdom and don, Paris, and New York. Crawford Liv­ also were Wells, Fargo directors, the two initiative to break free o f the manor and bus­ ingston managed the New York branch, businesses essentially had an interlock­ tle profitably in the outside world.5 and the volume of business grew to the ing directorate with American Express William A. Livingston (1805-1860) point that even after Henry Wells joined concentrating on express business in was older than the first Crawford by him in New York, the strain of work was the East and Wells, Fargo in the trans- six years. The two brothers early on be­ detrimental to his health. Missouri West. Wells, Fargo is today came involved in the express business Added to this was the strain of compe­ known for its banking business, but the between Albany and Buffalo, New tition. In 1847 Butterfield, Wasson and firm didn’t actually get into banking until York. In 1841 Crawford Livingston, Company set up a rival business on the 1853.7 Henry Wells, and George E. Pomeroy New York Central Railroad, drawing on Having in all likelihood sold her late established the firm of Pomeroy & Com­ $50,000 of capital stock. Realizing that husband’s stock in the express business, pany, which provided express messen­ the bitter competition hurt both firms, the Caroline Chapman Livingston remarried ger service via the railroad and stage owners of the two companies agreed to in 1852. Her second husband was Profes­ lines between Albany and Buffalo on a join forces on March 18, 1850. They sor William Franklin Phelps ( 1822— once-a-week basis. Given all the diffi­ called the new firm the American Ex­ 1907), a professional educator. Bom in culties in railroad and coach travel at press Company and capitalized it at Aurelius, New York, William Phelps at­ that time, the early trips between the two $150,000. By this time, however, Craw­ tended district schools during the winter cities typically involved four nights and ford Livingston was dead, probably from months and worked on his parents’ farm three days of travel. Henry Wells often tuberculosis. in the summers. When he was sixteen, he acted as the messenger, carrying valu­ Because the articles of association for began teaching in rural schools and did ables such as gold, silver, currency, and the American Express Company pro­ so well that he was invited to attend the commercial paper in a carpetbag. The vided that shares of stock could not be State Normal School at Albany. He grad­ three entrepreneurs also encouraged sold to “married women, infants, or irre­ uated in 1846 and joined the Normal local producers to use their service to sponsible persons,” the Livingston fam­ School faculty where he taught until ship luxuries such as fish, game, fruits, ily story that Crawford’s widow had to 1852. During his time in Albany, he also and the like. Thus in 1842 Wells carried sell his shares of stock is probably accu­ earned a master’s degree from Union oysters to Buffalo at the cost of $3 per rate. The records for this period are frag­ College.

6 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY become a state just three years earlier, Griggs, along with many others, decided to take up arms in defense of the Union. Griggs, who had been operating a general store, dealing in real estate, and had in­ vested in a lumber mill in St. Paul, set about organizing and recruiting a mili­ tary company. He was mustered into the Union army as a private in Company B of the Third Minnesota Infantry. Soon Griggs received a commission as a cap­ tain and within three months in 1861— 1862, he was promoted to the rank of major, due to gallantry in the field. Later he was advanced to lieutenant colonel. Initially the Third Minnesota regiment was stationed in Kentucky where it helped guard the Union supply train, but in 1862 the regiment moved to Tennessee to support the Union advance on Nashville and Chattanooga.10 Colonel Chauncey W. Griggs in his Civil War Uniform. Minnesota Historical Society photo. While Chauncey Griggs was away de­ Professor William L. Phelps. Minnesota fending the Union, Martha Ann Griggs Historical Society photo. traveled with her two infant children, Lester judged the Confederate force was Chauncey Milton Griggs and Herbert much larger in number than it actually In 1855, after a period of poor health, Stanton Griggs, to her family’s home in was; so when Forrest demanded he sur­ Phelps accepted an offer to be the princi­ Connecticut. She made the trip in stages. render, Lester called his captains together pal (today the title would be president) of She and her children first went to Mil­ and urged them to do so. Griggs and four the New Jersey State Normal School at waukee, then to Grand Rapids, Michigan, others voted against surrender, but they Trenton, which was due to open its doors and from there to Detroit where she were outvoted. After Lester surrendered that fall. For the next nine years, as stayed for a month with relatives before his command without a fight, Griggs and Phelps built the New Jersey Normal going east by train to Connecticut. There some of the other officers spent three School’s academic program and physical she and her children lived until 1864, months in notorious Confederate prisons when they returned to Minnesota.11 facilities, he gained a national reputation at Madisonville, Georgia, and Richmond, In July 1862, the Third Minnesota as an educator of teachers.8 Virginia, before they were freed through met its first serious test in battle. The In the meantime, Phelps’s step-son, a prisoner exchange. The enlisted men regiment had been ordered to protect a Crawford Livingston, had received his were paroled. Union supply depot at Murfreesboro, early education at Albany Academy and Tennessee. A Confederate cavalry force in Burlington, New Jersey. He moved to Dismissed and Promoted under the command of General Nathan New York City where in 1864 he was as­ President Abraham Lincoln subse­ Bedford Forrest made a surprise attack sociated with a stock brokerage firm lo­ on July 13 on the Ninth Michigan in­ quently dismissed Lester and the others cated on Broad Street. The firm took the fantry regiment. The commander of the who voted with him from the army, but name of White, Livingston & Kendrick. Michigan unit called on the Third Griggs was promoted to colonel and or­ When Livingston’s health took an ad­ Minnesota, which was only a short dis­ dered to reorganize the regiment. In Jan­ verse turn, he left the brokerage business tance away and had earlier repulsed uary 1863, the Third Minnesota became a and served for two years as deputy trea­ a Rebel attack. When the commander of part of General U. S. Grant’s Army of the surer for the state of New Jersey.9 the Third Minnesota, Colonel Henry C. Tennessee. Assigned to the Sixth Divi­ Lester, rejected Griggs’s request to take a sion, Sixteenth Corps, Griggs and the Chauncey Griggs and the company to aid the other unit, the men Third Minnesota built defensive fortifica­ Civil War from Michigan were overwhelmed leav­ tions on Haines’ Bluff and Snyder’s Although the outbreak of the Civil ing the Minnesotans alone to face the Bluff in the rear of Grant’s army as it be­ War in 1861 seems to have had no signif­ Confederates. sieged the Confederate stronghold of icant impact on Crawford Livingston’s When Forrest’s men attacked the Vicksburg, Mississippi. Vicksburg was a career, it did change the life of Chauncey Third Minnesota’s camp, Lester refused key to the Union strategy of seizing con­ Griggs. Perhaps because Minnesota had to allow his men to go to its defense. trol of the Mississippi River. Because

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 7 the Confederates were unable to break through Grant’s forces surrounding the city, Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, 1863. The rigors of military service had taken their toll, however, on the colonel’s health. Suffering from malaria and be­ lieving that the Federal victories at Get­ tysburg in the east and Vicksburg in the west meant that the Union eventually would prevail, Griggs resigned his com­ mission and returned to Minnesota. There he found his business interests also had suffered from the war.12 Instead of settling again in St. Paul, Griggs decided to live in Chaska, a rural community on the Minnesota River about forty miles upstream to the west of the capital city. There he welcomed back his wife and children and set about mak­ The Lower Levee at the foot of Jackson Street around 1870 when Chauncey Griggs joined ing a new start in brickmaking, dealing in James J. Hill in the firm of Hill, Griggs & Co., a fuel and transportation business. The firm’s transfer house is just in front of the big elevator. Minnesota Historical Society photo. wood and coal, contracting and deliver­ ing supplies to the government, and rep­ resenting Scott County first in the Min­ nesota House and later in the state ments. But the situation in New Jersey supposedly beneficial effect of the Min­ Senate. Two more children were bom: was not nearly so difficult as it was at the nesota climate on his health. There he Heartie Dimock Griggs and Herbert fledgling normal school in Winona, Min­ was employed first as the general pur­ Stanton Griggs, in 1866 and 1868, re­ nesota. The Winona State Normal School chasing agent and later as general ticket spectively, while the Griggses lived in had first opened its doors in 1860, but the agent for the Winona & St. Peter Rail­ Chaska. trustees closed the school in 1862 after road (W&SP), the second railroad to As part of rebuilding his business life, the war broke out. When in 1864 they de­ begin operations in Minnesota. The Griggs and William B. Newcomb of St. cided they could reopen it, they offered Winona City Directory for 1875 lists Paul built a barge to ship grain and wood Phelps the principalship. He accepted. Crawford Livingston as a boarder, but down the Minnesota River to St. Paul. Phelps not only reopened the school, he not at the residence of Professor Phelps.16 Then on August 20, 1869, Griggs and also energized its academic program, ob­ Newcomb joined James J. Hill in estab­ tained state and local money to build a lishing the firm of Hill, Griggs & Com­ new physical plant, and set a high stan­ pany, with Hill as the senior partner. Al­ dard of excellence in training teachers though Hill and Griggs also were very that other normal schools soon came to profitably engaged in the steamboat busi­ emulate.14 ness transporting people and freight be­ Although the professional opportunity tween Moorhead, Minnesota, and Fort represented by the position at Winona Garry, Manitoba, between 1872 and was probably the most important factor 1878, their main focus was on the fuel in Phelps’s decision to leave New Jersey and transportation business centered in for Minnesota, there was a family reason St. Paul. Thus the Griggs family moved as well. Some time before 1864, William from Chaska to the state capital in Phelps’s parents, Halsey Phelps and Lu­ 1869.13 cinda Hitchcock Phelps, had moved from New York to Winona on the west bank of Livingston Moves to the Mississippi River some eighty miles Minnesota south of St. Paul. Winona County records While Chauncey Griggs was off in the indicate Halsey Phelps died there in South fighting the forces of the Confeder­ 1859, his widow in 1876.15 acy, William Phelps was dealing with de­ Crawford Livingston, at the age of clining enrollments at the New Jersey twenty-two, followed his step-father to James J. Hill. Minnesota Historical Society Normal School due to wartime enlist­ Winona in 1870, in part because of the photo.

8 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Railroading got its start in Minnesota continued in the last third of the nine­ Thus railroad leaders used the financial in the 1850s. On March 3,1855, the Terri­ teenth century, as Chauncey Griggs and tools of loans, the sale of common and tory of Minnesota had incorporated the Crawford Livingston understood, but preferred stock, the mortgaging of the Transit Railroad Company and authorized canny and resourceful investors such as road’s property with the sale of bonds, it to build a line from Winona west to a these two transplanted Easterners in­ and the promotion of sales of acreage ad­ point on the Minnesota River. In 1857 the creasingly resorted to the financial mar­ jacent to the road’s fine to pay the invest­ Congress granted lands amounting to 4.5 kets to realize their business goals. ment costs in building the fine. The lands million acres to the Territory of Min­ that the railroads had acquired through nesota to assist four railroads with the Land Grants to Railroads federal land grants they typically sold to construction of lines. One of these four Given the substantial capital invest­ immigrants and other settlers who were land grant roads was the Transit. In­ ment that construction of a railroad re­ seeking farmland, and to real estate de­ vestors, including the future first governor quired before it could actually begin car­ velopers who were buying acres on of Minnesota, Henry H. Sibley, bought rying paying freight and passengers, the which they could plat town sites in the stock in the Transit, and ground was bro­ Congress made land grants to railroads to areas of the West that the railroads had ken for the line in June 1858. The financial encourage individual investors, busi­ recently opened to rapid settlement. This crisis of 1857-1859 caused all work to be nesses, or governments to buy securities was the making of an education for the suspended, the road was unable to pay the from the roads. The railroads then would young Crawford Livingston. interest on its bonds, and it went bankrupt. have the funds to purchase land, con­ Just at the time the early railroads Reorganized in 1862 as the Winona & St. struct the roadbed, and lay the track, buy in Minnesota appeared to be ready to Peter Railroad, the line received a grant of the locomotives and rolling stock, and take off, the Panic of 1873 intervened. land from the state of Minnesota and had pay their employees and other debts. Jay Cooke (1821-1905), a New York secured new investment money from an These land grants were not gifts; the rail­ banker who had marketed U.S. govern­ eastern financier, D. N. Barney, who be­ roads, in turn, signed contracts with the ment bonds to finance the Union effort came president of the W&SP. federal government agreeing to carry any in the Civil War, had invested heavily Danforth N. Barney was not only the and all shipments by or for the United in the Northern Pacific (NP) Railroad, railroad’s president, he was also a direc­ States over their fines at one-half the cost and become impossibly overextended. tor and the president of Wells, Fargo & of current freight rates. Cooke’s financial fall not only thrust Company. Between 1862 and 1873, con­ Because the early records of the himself and the NP into bankruptcy, but struction of the W&SP moved westward W&SP were destroyed in a fire in the it also helped initiate one of the worst from Rochester to Waseca to St. Peter 1880s, there is no way to determine depressions the United States had yet and Mankato on the Minnesota River and whether Barney or any of his associates experienced.19 finally to Watertown, Dakota Territory. (one of whom was Johnston Livingston, However, out of this depression came In 1867 Barney and the other W&SP in­ another Wells, Fargo director) may have financial opportunity for another resident vestors sold the line to the Chicago & had any involvement in Crawford Liv­ of St. Paul, James J. Hill. In the spring of North Western, which allowed the road ingston joining the railroad in 1870. It is 1878 Hill and three other wealthy in­ to continue to operate under its own certain, however, that the job was a valu­ vestors were able to buy control of the St. name. The eastern firm retained, how­ able introduction to railroad operations, Paul and Pacific (SP&P) Railroad, which ever, ownership of more than 1,678,804 financing, and management. at that time was owned by the bankrupt acres that had been part of the 1857 land Financing a railroad, given its high NP. Because Hill had to commit much of grant to the road.17 fixed asset costs, was a complex matter in his personal fortune to the purchase of Before the Civil War, the most com­ the last third of the nineteenth century. the SP&P, he began in the mid-1870s to mon way to make money in the United Railroads could, and did, borrow money gradually withdraw from some of his States was through the buying and selling to help pay their start up costs. The inter­ other business investments. He sold most of land, although fortunes were made, est on these loans added, of course, to of his shares in the Red River Transporta­ and lost, by other means, of course. their costs. Alternatively the roads could tion Company in which Colonel Griggs Banking, manufacturing, and maritime sell stock. But, as Jean Strouse points out was also an investor. Hill could see that shipping all had been vehicles for creat­ in her fine biography of J. P. Morgan, the railroad soon would prove to be a ing personal wealth before 1865. But more efficient and cheaper way to trans­ after the war, the demand for investment [sjelling stock instead of borrowing would port people and goods between the Dako­ capital in the growing economy, which have required no fixed payments, but stocks tas and Winnipeg. was often fueled by investment money in America’s fledgling capital markets were from Europe, meant that an enterprising still considered highly speculative, and cau­ Problems with Bills individual, such as Crawford Livingston, tious investors wanted bonds—mortgages Hill’s growing preoccupation with the could use the emerging financial markets on the road’s property, issued at high rates SP&P also would come to benefit in the nation to achieve great wealth. The of interest. Most U.S. roads were capitalized Chauncey Griggs. Hill, Griggs & Com­ importance of land as a moneymaker primarily with bonded debt.18 pany advertised in the early 1870s that

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 9 they could supply the Twin Cities market wrote to Griggs and proposed that they they met at this party. Crawford is sup­ with wood and coal, particularly an­ and the other coal operators divide up the posed to have said to a bystander that he thracite coal, which was harder and Twin Cities market with an arrangement not only would marry Mary Potts, but burned cleaner than other types of coal. whereby “everything is going to run that he also one day would five in the Up to this time wood had been the stan­ smooth and harmonious [sic] and that our Burbank mansion with her. In 1875, in a dard fuel in heavily forested Minnesota, sales will aggregate over 40,000 tons for double wedding that included Mary’s sis­ but Hill and his partners had worked dili­ this year and our profit will be full.”22 ter Abbie and Charles W. McIntyre, a gently to persuade their customers to In his biography of James J. Hill, his­ former New Yorker who was an agent for switch to coal. They knew that coal torian Albro Martin writes “these profits U.S. Express Company in St. Paul, Liv­ would grow in importance for the rail­ in coal eventually provided much of the ingston achieved the first of these goals. roads and other industries as well as for seed money with which [Hill] would He would have to wait until 1888 to ac­ heating homes. enter the railroad business.”23 The same complish the second.24 The Panic of 1873, however, meant point can be made equally well in regard that many fuel buyers weren’t able to pay to Chauncey Griggs and his subsequent their bills with Hill, Griggs & Company. investments in the wholesale grocery Hill, Griggs, in turn, then had trouble business in St. Paul and the timber busi­ paying their suppliers of coal. Griggs, ness in Washington State. who was eight years older than Hill, seems to have been the object of many of Livingston’s New the appeals from customers who asked Partnership for more time in paying for their fuel. He In 1875 Crawford Livingston formed seems to have been more willing to con­ a different kind of partnership from the sider the problems of his customers as a type that had involved Griggs and J. J. consequence of the economic depression Hill. Instead of a business partnership, and to look favorably on their appeals. Crawford Livingston got married to Hill, on the other hand, saw the situation Mary Steele Potts on January 28 in St. differently. Paul at the home of General Sibley. The Once when Griggs had quoted prices St. Paul City Directory for 1873 fists to a customer for coal that was to be de­ Crawford Livingston as boarding at livered six months in the future, Hill rooms on the Irvine block, which today grew exasperated. He judged this was too would be in the vicinity of Kellogg risky for the firm, given the substantial Boulevard and Seven Comers. No occu­ price fluctuations that could occur in coal pation is given in the 1873 directory, but Dr. Thomas Ft. Potts. Minnesota Historical at their sources. Thus Hill noted in 1873 thé 1874 directory identifies Livingston Society photo. in his diary: “Spent forenoon talking over as a clerk in the U.S. Harbor and River matters with C. W. Griggs. He expressed Improvement Office. In 1875 the city di­ much sorrow for his conduct on Saturday rectory lists his occupation as secretary and desires to try to do better.”20 Unfortu­ and manager of the Alliance Mutual Life The Potts Family nately no record of Griggs’s thoughts on Assurance Society of the United States, Like the Griggs and Livingston fami­ this discussion have survived. and his residence as the Park Place Hotel, lies, the Potts family also had its roots in Even though the coal business re­ which would have been near the present- the East. Mary Steele Potts was the mained profitable throughout the depres­ day site of the Minnesota History Center. daughter of Dr. Thomas Reed Potts and sion, this type of conflict between the se­ The 1873 directory also identifies his fu­ Abbie Ann Steele. Thomas Potts was nior partners put a strain on their working ture wife’s father, Dr. Thomas R. Potts, bom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in relationship. The two men brought the as physician and St. Paul health officer 1810. He received his early education Hill-Griggs partnership to an end on with offices at 109 Jackson Street. there and graduated from the medical de­ May 1, 1875, when Hill paid Griggs Livingston family lore includes a partment of the University of Pennsylva­ $35,000 for his share of the business.21 charming account of how Crawford Liv­ nia in 1831. He then practiced medicine Having sold out to Hill, Griggs stayed, ingston and Mary Steele Potts met. James for ten years in Natchez, Mississippi, be­ however, in the coal business and com­ C. Burbank, a wealthy St. Paul resident fore moving in 1841 to Galena, Illinois. peted vigorously with Hill and his new who had made his money in riverboat The 1847-48 Galena City Directory fists partners. Griggs found Hill to be a deter­ shipping, stagecoach transportation, and Dr. Potts as a “practicing physician.”25 mined and resourceful competitor, but insurance, gave a reception in the early Because the Steele family hailed from Griggs didn’t wilt under the pressure 1870s at his mansion at 432 Summit Av­ Chester County, Pennsylvania, which is from his former partner. When prosperity enue. Crawford Livingston and Mary west of Philadelphia, Dr. Potts may have began to return in the spring of 1876, Hill Potts were among the invited guests, and been drawn northward by the presence in

1« RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Minnesota of at least two members of the bad. He did tell me a great deal that was very Steele family, Sarah Jane Steele, Abbie’s good and very pleasing to me for what can younger sister who in 1843 had married be more gratifying than to hear any one Henry Hastings Sibley (1811-1891), and speak with such kindness of those we love. Franklin Steele (1813-1880), an older It is w ell he did not tell me any thing bad for brother. Sibley was already a leader in I should not have believed him (I beg his the Minnesota region because he held ex­ pardon, but I could not). You need not refer clusive management of the American Fur me to any one my dear Dr. for information Company’s trading operations with the as regards your present or past life. I tell you Dakota, Ojibway, and other Indian tribes now as I told you before[,] I am perfectly in an area ranging from southern Min­ satisfied. I knew my Mother would give her nesota to the Canadian border and west to consent. I told you she loves me too well to the Rocky Mountains. Franklin Steele want to make me unhappy and she is so well had been appointed post sutler at Fort acquainted with my disposition she knows Snelling by President Martin Van Buren well I could not love one day and forget the in the late 1830s. He also had invested in next. . . did she but know how dearly [?] I lumbering along the St. Croix River and love you dearest Dr.27 Mary Potts Livingston, who married Craw­ in land around St. Anthony Falls, and The couple was married on October 28, ford Livingston in 1875. Minnesota Historical what eventually would become the city 1847, at the home of Henry and Sarah Society photo of an original oil portrait owned of Minneapolis.26 Jane Sibley in Mendota.28 by Mary Griggs Burke, her granddaughter. In a letter that Abbie Steele wrote to Correspondence in the Henry H. Sib­ Thomas Potts in August 1847 from the ley papers indicates that Thomas Potts Robert street, and though having a large Sibley home at Mendota, she informs the was an able letter writer and a sharp ob­ practice and a number of offices, yet he had doctor that she has had a letter from her server of the politics of the day who only a slight appreciation of money, and left sister (probably Rachel Steele) “and I wanted to move to Minnesota if Sibley but little property to his widow, who is still suppose I may take it for granted my dear could help him get a post there. In 1850 living and residing in the family of Gen. Sib­ Mother had given her consent.” Presum­ Potts received an appointment as a con­ ley. One looking upon her tall and graceful ably Potts had written to Abbie’s mother, tract surgeon at Fort Snelling, but before form and pleasant countenance, though sad­ Mary Hume Steele, asking for her con­ he and his wife moved to St. Paul, a dened by care and sorrow, is forcibly re­ sent to marry Abbie, whose father, daughter, Mary Steele, was bom in minded of the old, old times which have Brigadier General James Steele, had died Galena on January 11,1849. gone, never to return.30 in 1845 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Potts held his position for only eight Sarah Jane Sibley, the general’s wife Abbie adds that Rachel reported her months. Then he served for a year as sur­ and Abbie Ann Potts’s sister, had died in mother as saying that it was strange that geon to the Dakota and Ojibway Indians 1869, not long after two Sibley children Franklin Steele or Henry Sibley had not in the vicinity of Mendota. Then he was had died in infancy. Given Newson’s de­ written to her because they both knew elected the first president of St. Paul scription of Dr. Potts’s finances at the Potts and could tell her about him. under its Charter of 1850. During the time of his death, General Sibley’s kind­ Abbie then writes that “Mother says if Civil War, Potts again held the post of ness toward Abbie Potts probably was Dr. Potts is known to Frank and Mr. Sib­ contract surgeon at the fort. In 1866 he mutually beneficial. When Sibley be­ ley to be a gentleman of integrity and was appointed city physician for St. Paul came a widower, he was left with four such a one as they would wish their sister and later in 1873 was appointed the city’s children to look after. In late 1874 Abbie to marry, she cannot withhold her con­ health officer. Not long thereafter, Potts Potts had four also: Mary Steele, Henry sent. Of course she knows nothing of him died in St. Paul on October 18,1874.29 Sibley (known as Harry), Charles John, [Potts] but what she heard from them. One contemporary observer, T. M. and Abbie. Sibley also may have acted as They are now your [Abbie’s] guardians, Newson, has left the following personal a surrogate father-in-law when in Janu­ and I know they would not wish you to portrait of Dr. Potts. marry one who was not worthy of you. ary 1875 Mary Steele Potts married (No danger of that dear Mother.)” Dr. Potts was an “institution” of the city, Crawford Livingston in the General’s After some light-hearted teasing that having practiced here for over a quarter o f a home. All the newspaper report of the this information might make Potts vain, century, and was well known among all the wedding states is that the double wedding old settlers.. . . At the time of his death he ceremony was “quite private” and the Abbie writes that a mutual friend proba­ was the oldest practicing physician in St. family was “in mourning.” bly has told Potts about the long talk the friend had with her: Paul. He was a man of strong predilections; The newlyweds soon had their first full of fun and humor; social in his nature child. A son whom they named Crawford You say in your last letter you told him to and kind-hearted in his practice. He resided Jr., or Corsey, as he was known to the tell me all he knew about you, both good and for many years in a small white house on family, was bom on October 29, 1875.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 11 Although Corsey lived to adulthood, he died in 1904 of Bright’s disease. Mary Steele Livingston, their first daughter, was bom in St. Paul on December 20, 1876.Three more children followed: Abbie (or Abbian) Frances (1878-1944), Henry Sibley, who died in infancy, and Gerald Moncrieffe (1883-1950), who was also bom in St. Paul. The Livingston daughters, Mary and Abbie, received their schooling at a fancy private school in New York City. Gerald attended Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachu­ setts, but he did not go on to college due to ill health. With five children bom within the space of eight years, Crawford and Mary Steele Livingston probably depended The St. Paul railroad yards at the Lower Landing in 1887, the heyday of the railroad era. from time to time on the advice and assis­ Minnesota Historical Society photo. tance of Mrs. Potts and her brother-in law, Henry Sibley. The Potts-Sibley con­ nection had begun when Dr. Potts was still living in Galena, but an 1870 letter . . . it will do no harm for his Uncle[Sibley] transcontinental road. Other railroad from the good doctor to his wife indicates to talk to him. If anyone has told his Uncle leaders, such as James J. Hill, discounted the two families were close even before that he saw him drinking, and it should be the value of Duluth as an eastern termi­ the doctor died. The letter, mailed from untrue, his Uncle ought to tell him who it nus of a transcontinental road and be­ Duluth in an envelope with the letterhead was that so informed him.31 lieved that St. Paul was the more logical of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Rail transfer point. Although Hill and the var­ Road, was addressed “Mrs. T. R. Potts, Although Potts may not have been much of a businessman in terms of making ious leaders of the NP would be competi­ care of Genl. H. H. Sibley, St. Paul, tors at many different times and in many Minn.” money from his medical practice, another different ways in the future, the choice of As a physician, Potts appears to have letter that he wrote to his daughter Abbie Duluth or St. Paul as the eastern terminal gone to Duluth from time to time on rail­ reinforces the impression that Dr. Potts would remain central to their different road business. The Lake Superior and was a perceptive observer of the world of approaches to the problem of building Mississippi road connected St. Paul and business around him. This letter was writ­ and operating a transcontinental railroad. Duluth and was one of the principal ways ten in September 1870. In it, he informs That year of 1875 was not only event­ that Hill, Griggs & Company got an­ his daughter that the Northern Pacific ful for Crawford and Mary Potts Liv­ thracite coal shipped in from the East. Railroad connection to Duluth was nearly Great Lakes barges hauled the coal to completed. “Persons who are interested ingston, it was also a year of change for Duluth where it was then transshipped by here find it a great future for Duluth,” the Northern Pacific. After the railroad rail to the Twin Cities. Potts wrote, “but for my part, I do not see went bankrupt in 1873 and was placed in Potts wrote to his wife “I suppose Mr. it. The climate and the long winters will, receivership by the federal court, Freder­ Sibley has gone East on Rail Road busi­ in my opinion, retard its growth.”32 ick Billings (1823-1890), one of the ness from the fact that [J. L.] Merriam road’s directors, worked out a compli­ and [E. F.] Drake went on about the same The Northern Pacific cated plan for reorganization in 1875 and time, and from seeing in the newspapers Potts’s comment is significant because submitted it to the court for review and that they had leased their road [the St. at the time the Northern Pacific plan was approval. Paul and Sioux City Railroad] to the to build a transcontinental railroad from Billings had left his native state of Penna. Central R. Road.” J. L. Merriam Duluth, at the head of the Great Lakes, to Vermont for California in the days of the and E. F. Drake were vice president and the Pacific with a western terminal on the Gold Rush. He was one of the first president, respectively, of the St. Paul Puget Sound. The Congress had char­ lawyers to practice in San Francisco, and Sioux City Railroad. Most of the let­ tered the NP in 1864 as a land grant road, where he made a sizeable forptune deal­ ter concerns, however, the conduct of the but the first transcontinental route linking ing with litigation involving land claims couple’s older son, Harry. Although both the Union Pacific and Central Pacific rail­ and investing in real estate. In 1869 he parents had talked to Harry about his roads had been completed in 1869.The bought stock in the NP. Now living again habits, Potts wrote that NP expected to be the first northern in the East, Billings soon became a direc-

12 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY tor of the road. His involvement in the and the Dakotas. These feeder or branch 1880. Not long after Billings righted the NP grew and eventually he became chair­ lines would provide populated areas with NP’s financial ship, the directors voted to man of the railroad’s land committee. a steady flow of passengers and freight simultaneously build westward from Bis­ This meant he was responsible for plan­ from the areas surrounding the road and marck and eastward from the Columbia ning and overseeing the NP’s handling of generate a cash flow to help pay for fur­ River.37 The NP also sought, and ob­ land sales and the bringing of new set­ ther westward expansion. tained, a six-year Congressional extension tlers onto the acreage in Minnesota and In short, by the mid-1870s the NP lines in the deadline to complete their transcon­ Dakota Territory that the NP received had been hastily, often poorly, con­ tinental line to guarantee the road would from the federal government under its structed, and were a tempting target for qualify for its land grant. land grant.33 speculators even after Jay Cooke had lost The NP was not the only railroad that When Congress chartered the NP in his powerful control over the road. Land brought immigrants to the upper Mid­ 1864, it had not given the road any sub­ rich but financially strapped, the NP got west states and territories in the late sidy in the form of loans, such as had help from millionaire Frederick Billings 1870s and 1880s. James J. Hill and his St. been the case with the Union Pacific and and his supporters, one of whom was a fel­ Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba (later the Central Pacific. Instead the Congress low NP director, Johnston Livingston. reorganized and renamed the Great gave the NP a land grant of twenty sec­ Billings’s complex reorganization plan Northern in 1889-90) also transported tions per mile of track in the states it hinged on the road’s bondholders agreeing many settlers seeking land, and so did crossed and forty sections per mile in the to convert their bonds to preferred stock, other railroads. After the national econ­ territories. This amounted to an enor­ but it also offered something for everyone omy picked up in the late 1870s, there mous 47-million-acre checkerboard on who had a financial interest in the NP.36 was such a vast influx of immigrants to either side of the actual and projected At noon on August 12, 1875, the fed­ Minnesota and the Dakotas that railroad roadbed of alternating publicly and pri­ eral court sold the NP to the only bidder, historian Michael Malone reported: vately held sections of land.34 Johnston Livingston, who represented the This land grant was a double-edged bondholders, for $100,000. Billings had The Dakota Boom crested in 1882, dur­ sword for the NP. It created a tremendous successfully overcome all the legal objec­ ing which year forty-two thousand immi­ incentive for the road to build westward tions, persuaded the court of the merits of grants came to the Red River valley. The to the Pacific. It wanted to take posses­ his plan, and made it possible for the NP to promotion-immigration bureaus of the NP, sion of this acreage as soon as possible extinguish all its debts. The railroad, the Manitoba, and the other railroads after the government inspectors had ap­ which by that time had built westward to brought a tidal wave o f settlers to the region. proved each new section of track that had Bismarck on the Missouri River in Dakota By 1890 the valley was settled and no longer been laid and authorized transfer of the Territory, had 575 miles of track, ten mil­ in any sense a frontier, and a thin wave of public land to the NP. In 1875, for exam­ lion acres of land, and the legal right to white habitation lapped into the Drift Prairie, ple, the NP sold 475,000 acres in Dakota earn about thirty million more acres if it beyond to the West. In the first state census Territory alone. Thus by 1878 the rail­ could complete construction to the Pacific of-North Dakota (1890), fully 43 percent of road had realized some $8 million from before the Congressional dead line of the population was foreign-bom.38 land sales to 3,000 purchasers. The Dakotas were experiencing a land boom due to the fertile soil along the Red River of the North, good annual rainfall that began in the mid-1870s, a decline in the grasshopper population, and a growing demand for wheat, which thrived in the rich prairie soil.35 On the other hand, the potential rev­ enue the NP would realize from building westward in the territories and taking prompt advantage of the land grant sub­ sidy meant that the railroad’s directors had little incentive to first build a strong short line that would connect the main track that headed west from Duluth through Brainerd with the growing Twin Cities. The lure of the land grant also meant there was not likely to be suffi­ cient money to build the necessary feeder The children of Chauncey W. and Martha Ann Griggs, left to right: Heartie, Everett, Herbert, lines along existing tracks in Minnesota Theodore W., Chauncey M., and Anna. Photo courtesy of Patricia Sweney Hart.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 13 By the time the NP had reorganized o f the Northern Pacific road. The purchasers cumstances and connections in St. Paul and regained solvency, the family of were eight different parties, who paid cash and New York, he was in a position to Colonel Chauncey Griggs had grown to and will proceed to break one-fourth of their take advantage of the railroads’ need for six children. Theodore Wright Griggs purchases this present season. . . . a great enterprising investors who were willing was bom on September 3, 1872, and the tide [of settlers] is setting in this direction. to take the financial risks and who had Griggs’s last child, Anna Billings Griggs, Minnesota and Dakota are the great centers the determination to see building plans was bom two years later. Despite the dis­ of attraction.41 through to completion. Crawford Liv­ solution of the Hill-Griggs partnership in ingston could have continued his work As if selling land, lumber, and fuel 1875, the colonel was abusy man. He had for the Alliance Mutual Life Assurance weren’t enough, Griggs also found time Society of the United States or for the Pa­ formed a successful partnership dealing to serve for seven years as an alderman in in real estate, wood, and coal with Gen­ cific Mutual Life Insurance Company of St. Paul. In 1882 he chaired a committee California, who were his employers in St. eral Richard W. Johnson, a Sibley and a of city council members who negotiated Potts brother-in-law. In 1877 Griggs en­ Paul in the late 1870s. Instead, about the city’s purchase of the property, rights, tered into another partnership with Addi­ 1880 he chose to establish his own firm, and franchises of the St. Paul Water son G. Foster, who had recently moved to C. Livingston & Company, which the St. Company so that the city would own the St. Paul from Wisconsin and whose Paul City Directory identified as “money municipal water works. Once the sale brother, Everett, had served with Griggs brokers,” and to serve as secretary of the had been completed, Griggs served on in the Third Minnesota regiment. St. Paul Board of Trade. Because the rail­ the first board of water commissioners. In roads were important to Crawford Liv­ Warehousing and addition he moved into banking in 1872 ingston, an understanding of what was Wholesaling and by the mid-1880s he was a director happening to the railroads is central to for three banks.42 The Griggs and Foster partnership understanding his business career. concentrated on warehousing and whole­ Livingston and the Northern Having overcome the objections to saling provisions in the Duluth area, Pacific making the completion of the NP as a which, as Dr. Potts had observed, was transcontinental railroad the first priority, About the same time that Colonel growing due to all the railroad building. Billings became so immersed in the nec­ Griggs was dealing with the Northern Pa­ The Duluth business soon led the part­ essary work that he soon failed to see a cific for land in the Red River Valley, ners to open a general store in 1878 in the threat approaching from another direc­ Crawford Livingston began his involve­ Cumberland, Wisconsin, area. Two years tion. It came in the form of an aggressive ment with the NP. Perhaps his uncle later Griggs and Foster bought shares in a NP stockholder named Henry Villard Johnston Livingston, who served as an Cumberland lumber business.39 (1835-1900), a German-bom immigrant NP director from 1875 to 1881 and 1884 At the same time that Griggs and Fos­ who had risen to prominence as a jour­ to 1885, had some connection with ter were expanding their operations in nalist during the Civil War. In 1866 Vil­ Crawford’s entry into railroad building. Duluth and northern Wisconsin, they lard married Helen Frances “Fanny” Gar­ During Johnston Livingston’s first term were heavily involved in real estate sales rison, daughter of the famous abolitionist on the NP board, the president of the road in Minnesota and the Dakotas. For exam­ William Lloyd Garrison. Villard’s al­ had been Charles B. Wright, but in May ple, they advertised the sale of lots at liance with the Garrison family opened 1879, the road’s directors elected Freder­ Spring Park, Lake Minnetonka. More many doors to wealthy and influential ick Billings to that position. Wright had significantly they also began buying land men in post-Civil War America for the wanted the NP to shore up its finances by in the Dakotas in 1880 using shares of bright and articulate Villard.44 building feeder lines and making sure the NP stock that they had bought at bargain In the early 1870s Villard returned to road had direct access to the Twin Cities. prices when the railroad was under finan­ Germany for health reasons. While there, Billings, on the other hand, wanted to he met a group of German investors who cial duress. By buying rich wheat land in push ahead with construction westward. owned a majority of the bonds for the the Red River valley with stock that had An internal struggle between the propo­ Oregon & California Railroad (OCR). subsequently greatly appreciated in nents of these two strategies had taken Because these investors were concerned value, the partners acquired nearly place, and those who supported Billings about the financial security of their in­ 100,000 acres for what in some instances won out. So building the NP westward vestment in the OCR, they engaged Vil­ amounted to as little as twenty cents an became the top priority.43 lard to investigate the railroad’s financial acre.40 The St. Paul Globe carried the fol­ In the last third of the nineteenth cen­ condition. lowing report on how Griggs turned these tury, railroads played a central role in the Back in the United States, Villard dis­ acres into profits: development of Minnesota and the covered that OCR’s management had Col. C. W. Griggs returned from a month’s Northwest. Railroads also were the key been fraudulently reporting the financial absence in New York yesterday, in excellent to Crawford Livingston’s rise to personal state of the road. On behalf of the Ger­ health and spirits. During his absence he fortune because they offered a significant man investors, he negotiated a deal that sold 30,000 acres of land adjacent to the line investment opportunity. Given his cir­ gave his employers control of not only

14 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY year 1881-1882, Villard summed up his policy:

It is well known that the growth of the great Western railroad corporations is in the largest measure due to the gradual construc­ tion of systems of tributary lines. But all these companies succeeded in providing themselves with such local systems only through the efforts, sacrifices, and embar­ rassments of years. The Northern Pacific is, and will probably remain, the only Com­ pany so fortunate as to command that source of prosperity to the fullest extent, and practi­ cally without financial burdens, in the early stages of its career.47 The practical effect of this strategy was to depend on the high credit rating of the O&T in the financial markets to provide the investment capital necessary to build or complete the branch lines Billings and Villard wanted. The 1880s was a time that was ripe for this kind of railroad con­ struction. In that decade, the rail network The Northern Pacific Railroad’s celebratory arch in downtown St. Paul in 1883, the year the of the entire United States grew by 43 NP reached the Pacific. By this time, Livingston was deeply involved with the railroad. This percent. In Minnesota alone, railroad photo by W. H. Illingworth looks east down Fourth Street to Broadway. Minnesota Historical trackage increased in the 1880s by 2,315 Society photograph. miles or 54.7 percent, while the state’s population grew by 521,053 people.48 the OCR, but also the Oregon Steamship what Villard was doing when he started The Right Place, the Right Company and the Oregon Central Rail­ to buy NP stock. After Villard obtained Time road. Soon Villard was in charge of all majority control of the road, Billings re­ All of these factors offered great op­ these companies, and by 1879 he had signed as president, but stayed on as a di­ portunity to Crawford Livingston. If any formed a syndicate of American in­ rector. Johnston Livingston, however, re­ ambitious and hard-working person was vestors that bought out the Germans. signed as a director on April 22,1881.45 in the right place at the right time, it was Villard formed a new company called Villard then set up a holding company Crawford Livingston. Through his fam­ the Oregon Railway & Navigation Com­ called the Oregon & Transcontinental ily and friends, he had connections with pany (OR&N) to pursue control of the Company (O&T) to oversee both the NP both railroad leaders and potential in­ rail and shipping business along the Co­ and the OR&N. Now firmly in control of vestors. He also appears to have had his lumbia River. In 1881 when Villard real­ this widespread transportation business, own substantial investment capital. Thus ized that Frederick Billings’s construc­ Villard vigorously moved ahead with the Crawford Livingston was in an ideal po­ tion program for the NP would soon Billings plan so that he could link his Ore­ sition to seize the opportunity to build challenge his control of transportation in gon operations with the Midwest. By the branch lines for the NP. the region, Villard set about buying con­ fall of 1883 after many setbacks and diffi­ Although each of the branch lines Liv­ trol of the NP. He raised $20 million culties and at a cost that at one time ingston was involved in building has a dif­ from wealthy investors in what the news­ amounted to $2 million per month, the NP ferent history, there are similarities in how papers of the day called a “blind pool,” tracks reached from Duluth to the Puget these roads were built and incorporated an arrangement whereby the investors Sound.46 into the NP. A good example of this is the put up the money without knowing how At the same time that Henry Villard Little Falls & Dakota Railroad Company Villard would use it. Backed by this pool pushed the NP to complete transconti­ (LFD). The LFD received a corporate of funds, Villard soon owned enough nental construction, he too was prodding charter from the state of Minnesota on shares of NP stock to take control of it, the road to build branch lines because he February 19, 1879. Whether Crawford too. judged the NP now had the financial re­ Livingston was an investor in the road at Billings and his supporters, such as sources to do this work as well. In his this time is not clear. The largest investor Johnston Livingston, hadn’t realized report to the NP’s stockholders for the at the time of incorporation appears to

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 15 have been Colonel William Crooks O&T’s boards. With the O&T holding a ford Livingston was the highest bidder on (1832-1907), a West Point trained engi­ majority of the stock in each branch line the LFD bonds and the NP sold them to neer who was a pioneer in Minnesota rail­ that was to be built, the O&T paid for the him, he would be able either to retain or road building. According to the LFD’s cost of constructing the line and selling try to resell the bonds to other investors charter, the road was to run from the bonds in these roads at the rate of at a higher price than he had paid for Western Minnesota Railroad’s station in $20,000 per mile of track. The NP, in them.55 Litde Falls, which was south of the east- turn, operated the branch lines, and two west NP line through Brainerd, then years after completing construction, the Other Railroad Investments southwesterly to Sauk Center and on to NP paid six percent interest annually on The O&T and NP had similar con­ Morris, where it would intersect the main the bonds sold to those who had invested tracts with the Northern Pacific, Fergus, line of the St. Paul Minneapolis, and in the road plus one percent annually to a and Black Hills Railroad and with the Manitoba Railroad (StPM&M), owned sinking fund set aside to pay off the Jamestown and Northern Railroad in by James J. Hill. From Morris, the line bonds. Once the bonds were retired, the which Crawford Livingston had also in­ would have joint use of the StPM&M NP would own the stock of each branch. vested. The Northern Pacific, Fergus, and tracks westward to the Minnesota-Dakota In the meantime, the NP would have a Black Hills ran from Wadena, which was boundary.49 right to the dividends and the votes on the a town located on the NP trunk line be­ Although the NP records indicate that stock.52 tween Brainerd and Fargo, to Fergus the road’s board considered the LFD’s These terms and other details are Falls, and from there west to Brecken- plan on April 20, 1880, nothing signifi­ spelled out in individual contracts be­ ridge and on to Milnor, Dakota Territory. cant happened until March 3,1881. That tween each branch line, the NP, and the Construction of this branch fine was spring the Minnesota legislature granted O&T. The tripartite LFD contract was completed in late 1883. The Jamestown to the LFD six sections of swamp lands dated October 20, 1882, and signed by and Northern originated in Jamestown, per mile of track after construction of Robert Harris, an NP director who was Dakota Territory, another station on the each thirty-mile section of track was also president of the LFD.53 NP trunk line, and ran north to the Cana­ completed. The total distance from Little In the NP’s president’s files there is a dian border. Begun in 1882, construction Falls to Morris was eighty-eight miles. copy of a handwritten letter of September was not completed until 1885.56 The grant amounted to 334,080 acres. 11, 1882, from Henry Villard to Craw­ Crawford Livingston also invested in Completion of the line also would entitle ford Livingston. Villard’s letter reads in the Duluth and Manitoba Railroad the LFD to $164,800 in county bonds.50 part: around 1882. On June 1, 1887, Liv­ The grant came just at the time ingston, as president of the railroad, I have your note of the 6th inst. in reference Billings and his supporters were locked signed a lease with the NP for the con­ to my making a proposition for the sale of in the struggle for control with Henry struction of a line that would originate at the Little Falls & Dakota . . . bonds. The Villard. When Villard emerged from the a point on the NP main line in Clay proposition should come from you. It is my contest in full control of the NP, the rail­ County, Minnesota, and head north purpose to receive propositions for these road’s directors adopted a resolution on through Clay, Norman, and Polk Coun­ bonds whenever they com e to hand, arrang­ August 18,1881, to proceed with con­ ties to the U.S.-Canadian border. The fine ing [?] a sale to the highest bidder. struction of branch lines, such as the also would run from Polk County to the LFD. Subsequently on February 3, 1882, Red River, crossing it at Grand Forks, If you decide to make a proposition on the the NP’s executive committee adopted a and then heading north to Pembina at the bonds at that time, I will give you an oppor­ recommendation from the road’s chief Canadian border. tunity to do so. I must add that the possibil­ engineer that five branch lines be built or In July of 1886, the Duluth and Mani­ ity [?] is that they will bring more than the completed in 1882-1883. Of those five toba had executed a mortgage with the Otter Tail County bonds [for the Northern lines, Crawford Livingston had invested Farmers’ Loan & Trust Company to se­ Pacific, Fergus, and Black Hills Railroad].54 in three: the LFD, the Jamestown and cure payment of bonds for the railroad in Northern, and the Northern Pacific, Fer­ This letter needs explanation. After the amount of $15,000 per mile. The gus, and Black Hills. Although each of completion of the LFD, which actually bonds, with an interest rate of six percent, these railroads was separately incorpo­ began operation on November 1, 1882, would be redeemed on June 1,1897. The rated and could issue its own bonds, the the NP would receive more than underlying purpose of this railroad was to NP effectively controlled the construc­ $164,800 in bonds as donations from the compete with James J. Hill and his tion of these roads because at some time towns located along the LFD’s tracks. At StPM&M for traffic to and from Win­ in 1881, the O&T had purchased suffi­ that time, the NP would be free to sell nipeg, Manitoba.57 cient stock in each line to have majority these bonds, just as it would be able to The significance of Crawford Liv­ control of the ownership of the railroad. sell the land the LFD received in the land ingston’s role in the financing of branch In the case of the LFD, the O&T owned grant from the Minnesota legislature. On lines of the NP was tangibly confirmed in 6,300 shares.51 the LFD land grant, for example, the NP the 1883 celebration of the completion of Villard sat on both the NP’s and the grossed nearly $500,000. Thus if Craw­ the NP as a transcontinental railroad.

16 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY press Company. In 1871 he went into the grocery business as a traveling salesman for Beaupre & Kelly in St. Paul, and he worked there until joining Griggs, Cooper in 1889. When Griggs, Cooper was incorporated in 1900, Cooper be­ came a vice president, a position he held until his retirement in 1921. His back­ ground in the grocery business and his fa­ miliarity with the needs of customers all over the Northwest, helped Cooper move the firm into the manufacture of canned goods and the establishment of a series of picking and packing plants in key loca­ tions around Minnesota. Garden and or­ chard farm products were delivered to these plants and converted to groceries that could be shipped all over the coun­ try. This part of the Griggs, Cooper busi­ ness prospered so well that the firm then got into the manufacture of cans, boxes, A horse-drawn Griggs, Cooper wagon in downtown St. Paul. The firm, organized in 1882, passed through several changes in its name before becoming Griggs, Cooper in 1890. Min­ crates, baskets, and other containers re­ nesota Historical Society photo. quired for shipping their goods. The size and efficiency of the Griggs, Cooper operations led to the develop­ ment of its famous “Home Brand” yellow Henry Villard spent an enormous sum of firm of Glidden, Griggs & Company, a label goods. At the end of the century, money on this celebration. He invited business that specialized in wholesale Griggs, Cooper made and packed coffee, about 400 guests, including former Presi­ groceries: all kinds of spices, maple syrup, extracts, dent U. S. Grant, many of the NP’s Ger­ This firm had the most ingenious display of mince-meat, canned goods, cornstarch, man and British investors, executives the whole division. In the forward wagon soda, rolled oats, cheese, olives, herbs, from other U.S. railroads, a number of was a large engine made of the materials of vegetables, and bird-seed under the other foreign visitors, and the nation’s the grocery trade. The driving wheels were Home Brand label, which was the com­ press, to travel in four trains to Gold made of tubs, the piston driving rod of a pany’s highest grade of goods. It also of­ Creek, Montana, for the ceremonial dri­ patent broom handle, and the small stack of fered a standard grade of the same goods, ving of the gold spike to signal comple­ a white paper basket. This locomotive was known as the “Bengal Brand.” Eventu­ tion of the line. one of the most creditable features of the ally Griggs, Cooper became the largest When the party stopped in St. Paul en whole procession.59 wholesale house west of Chicago.61 route to Montana, a celebration with pa­ The 1880s in St. Paul was not only the rade and banquet was held. The NP Earlier in 1882 Chauncey Griggs had decade for railroad construction, it also records include a detailed account of all started the firm of Glidden, Griggs & was the decade for building mansions on the events, descriptions of all the floats in Company to profit from the growing mar­ Summit Avenue. Before 1880, only the parade, lists of local political and ket for groceries needed by all the immi­ twenty-four homes had been built on this business leaders who participated, and grants and others who were moving to wide boulevard high above the center of the speeches given that day. The head Minnesota and the Dakotas. Glidden re­ the city and overlooking the Mississippi table at the banquet included not only tired in 1884; so the business changed its River. During the decade of the 1880s, General Grant and Villard, but also name to Yanz, Griggs & Howe. In 1889 more than sixty homes joined their prede­ James J. Hill, Henry H. Sibley, E. F. Jason Walker Cooper (1843-1925) be­ cessors there, a sign of the community’s Drake, and W. D. Washburn, a Min­ came a partner. After another partner growing affluence. James J. Hill built his nesota congressman. Seated at the second died, and a second was bought out, the mansion at 240 Summit in 1887, but table was guest number forty-six, Craw­ firm became Griggs, Cooper & Company Colonel Griggs and his business partner, ford Livingston.58 in 1890.60 Addison G. Foster, built their adjoining Cooper had settled in Minnesota fol­ homes at 476 and 490 Summit, respec­ Griggs, Cooper & Company lowing service in the Union army in the tively, in 1883.A young, newly graduated One parade float deserves particular Civil War. Beginning in 1864, he trav­ architect from the Massachusetts Insti­ mention because it was sponsored by the eled extensively for the American Ex­ tute of Technology named Clarence H.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 17 Johnston designed both houses and their joint carriage house in the prevailing Ro­ manesque style. The Griggs home, with twenty-four rooms, cost $35,000; the Foster home, with twenty rooms, cost $23,000.62 Henry Villard’s 1883 triumph with the Northern Pacific may have been an occa­ sion for civic celebration by Griggs, Cooper and Company as well as other businesses, but the heady feelings brought on the driving of the last spike were short lived for Villard. The cost of completing the transcontinental and branch lines left the NP with severe fi­ nancial problems. The problems were so great that in January 1884, Villard re­ signed from his posts with the NP and the Oregon & Transcontinental and left for Germany in an effort to recover his finan­ cial and physical health.63 The house at 476 Summit Avenue that Chauncey W. Griggs built in 1883. Designed by Livingston and Clarence H. Johnston, the brownstone structure cost $30,000. Minnesota Historical Society A. B. Stickney photo. About this time, A. B. Stickney, who was another St. Paul railroad builder, and his partner, William R. Marshall (1825— had headed west. Stickney settled in taken advantage of his position with the 1896), who had served two terms as gov­ Stillwater, where he served for a time as a railroad for personal gain. Nevertheless, ernor of Minnesota in the 1860s and had postal worker and a teacher before being in 1881 Stickney left Hill’s employ to be­ been a Minnesota railroad commissioner admitted to the Minnesota bar in 1862.65 come vice president of the Minneapolis from 1874-1882, were looking for in­ Although Stickney soon became in­ & St. Louis (M&StL) Railway Company. vestors for a railroad known as the Min­ volved in local land speculation, he One of Stickney’s assignments in his new nesota & Northwestern (M&NW) that moved to St. Paul in 1869 seeking greater job was to oversee the construction of the the two men had acquired in 1883. Al­ opportunities for a young lawyer. There Minnesota Central, a M&StL subsidiary. though chartered in 1854, nothing had he assisted in organizing in 1871 the The M&StL was a north-south rail­ come of this road until Stickney and Mar­ North Wisconsin Railway Company, road that wanted to expand its service to shall obtained its franchise and bought which convinced him that railroading customers in Minnesota, Iowa, Wiscon­ 10,000 shares of outstanding stock in the might be a road to a personal fortune. By sin, and Illinois between the Twin Cities, road. The new owners recognized that 1872 Stickney was vice president, gen­ St. Louis, and Chicago. As part of this they had a potential tax windfall in the eral manager, and chief counsel of the plan, the Minnesota Central was laid out M&NW because the road’s state charter newly organized St. Paul, Stillwater & from Red Wing, Minnesota, in a westerly stipulated that “the company is forever Taylor’s Falls Railroad Company. direction some sixty-six miles to Water- exempt from all local and other taxation In 1879 James J. Hill invited Stickney ville, Minnesota, where it would intersect in Minnesota except a two percent tax on to take on responsibilities as superinten­ the M&StL’s main north-south route. its gross earnings.”64 dent of construction of Hill’s rapidly ex­ About the time the Minnesota Central Alpheus Bede (who always went by panding St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Man­ was finished, Stickney left the M&StL his intitials) Stickney (1840-1916) had itoba road. A year later Stickney also for the Minnesota & Northwestern where been bom in Maine to an impoverished took on the duties of general superinten­ he could be in charge. To build the family. He obtained a common school dent of the western division of the Cana­ M&NW, Stickney brought in Crawford education between frequent interruptions dian Pacific (CP) Railroad, another of Livingston, who served on the road’s to work in factories because his father Hill’s projects. board of directors, and other English and had abandoned him and his mother. When Stickney became embroiled in a American investors. Stickney briefly read law in an attorney’s controversy over a possible conflict of in­ Given the departure of Henry Villard office in Dexter, Maine, but in 1861 he terest relating to land speculation along from the NP and that road’s financial left for Minnesota, following the exam­ the CP’s route, he persuaded Hill that he problems in the mid-1880s, Stickney’s ple of an older brother who previously was innocent of the charge that he had M&NW was just the sort of new opportu-

18 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY nity that would appeal to Livingston. Villard and A. B. Stickney, Crawford 1883, and their second son, Harry, who Stickney’s plan was to construct the rail­ Livingston had achieved both great fi­ was just over two years old, died in 1884 road between St. Paul and Mona, Iowa, a nancial reward and confirmation of his from croup. Surely this must have been a small town just south of the Minnesota- own stature as a leader in the St. Paul terrible blow to Crawford and Mary Liv­ Iowa border. At Mona, the M&NW business community. When Mary Potts ingston at a time when Crawford’s rail­ would connect with the Cedar Falls & and Crawford Livingston were first mar­ road investments were starting to pay Minnesota, a railroad leased by the Illi­ ried, they had lived at 40 and later 65 handsome returns.69 nois Central. Once M&NW traffic gained Iglehart Street, at the comer of Carroll, Crawford and Mary Livingston soon access to lines controlled by the Illinois near the present-day Capital Approach found a way to leave behind the painful Central, further connection to roads lead­ area. Mary Griggs Burke, Crawford and memories associated with 574 St. Peter ing to Chicago was assured.66 Mary’s granddaughter, remembers that Street and to signal their own member­ Before he began to build the M&NW, when she was growing up in St. Paul, she ship among the leading families of St. Stickney set up another Minnesota com­ took an interest in the poorer residents of Paul. Not far from the stately Summit pany called the Minnesota Loan & the city who she felt were living in slums. Avenue homes of Chauncey Griggs, Debenture Company. Its purpose was to Talking with her mother, young Mary Addison G. Foster, and A. B. Stickney, arrange for construction of the M&NW. was told that there were no slums in St. who built his house at 288 Summit in The Minnesota Loan & Debenture Com­ Paul. Later, as the two were out driving, 1884, stood the impressive mansion that pany hired a firm to lay the road’s rails at young Mary pointed to a house and said, James C. Burbank had built in 1862-63 in the lowest possible cost, but it charged the “Well, Mother, if that is not a slum, I the style of an Italian villa. His house, M&NW considerably more than the don’t know what is.” Indignant, her which stood at 432 Summit, was built amount billed by the construction firm. mother denied that the house was a slum from gray Mendota limestone. A hand­ As a Dubuque, Iowa, newspaper subse­ because it was the house at the comer of some cupola that gave a wide view of the quently reported about the arrangement, Iglehart and Carroll Streets where she surrounding area and the Mississippi Stickney and his other investors “openly had been bom. River below topped its three stories. admit that they made their money in con­ About 1880 the Livingston family In 1883 Burbank’s widow sold the structing it [the M&NW], and that they do moved to 15 Nelson Street, today the home to George R. Finch, a partner in the not expect to make any by operating it.”67 local dry goods company that eventually Construction began in September easternmost part of Marshall Avenue and became Finch, Van Slyck and Company. 1884, and the 110 miles of track between not far from the St. Paul Cathedral. In St. Paul and Mona were completed a year 1881 the family, which by now included The Finch family lived at 432 Summit later. Once the M&NW began operating four children, moved again, this time to for only a year before they sold the prop­ in the fall of 1885, local newspapers spec­ 574 St. Peter Street (194 St. Peter under erty to Thomas F. Oakes. At that time, ulated openly that larger railroads might the city’s old numbering system). Built in Oakes was first vice president and gen­ attempt to take over the M&NW. But 1870 by Dr. J. T. Alley in the popular eral manager of the Northern Pacific Stickney didn’t sell the M&NW; instead French Second-Empire style, this house Railroad. Subsequently, Oakes subdi­ he set out to acquire other lines that would survived until 1959, when it was demol­ vided the property and the neighboring facilitate rail connection between St. Paul ished to make way for Interstate 94. lot and sold them in mid-1887 to William and Chicago, as well as St. Joseph and While the Livingston family lived there, G. Riley. Early the next year, John J. Kansas City, Missouri. Whatever may their youngest son, Gerald, was bom in Watson bought 432 Summit and nearby have been his motives in building the M&NW, Stickney found that he liked op­ erating and expanding his road. So did his investors. By 1887 Stickney had become the president of a regional rail system, which he called the Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City. In 1892 this road became the Chicago Great Western (CGW). By the time. Stickney retired from railroading and the CGW in 1908, he had achieved a reputation as something of a railroad maverick, but also as an astute and suc­ cessful businessman.68 A Move to Summit Through his association with success­ Downtown St. Paul as it looked from Summit Avenue in the 1880s when the Livingston and ful railroad entrepreneurs such as Henry Griggs families were living on Summit. Minnesota Historical Society photo.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 19 Summit Court from Riley. In 1888, Wat­ son sold the Burbank mansion to Craw­ ford Livingston. Crawford and Mary Livingston are likely to have long admired the Burbank mansion from the time they seem to have met there before their marriage in 1875. As a business associate of Henry Villard and Thomas Oakes, Crawford Livingston may well have been a guest at the Bur­ bank mansion when Oakes owned the home. Between 1888 and 1968 when Crawford Livingston’s granddaughter gave the house to the Minnesota Histori­ cal Society, the Burbank-Livingston- Griggs house, as it is known today, was a center of St. Paul society. Although the house is no longer owned by the Min­ nesota Historical Society, it remains the second-oldest house still standing on Summit Avenue.70 Griggs and Lumbering In the same year that Crawford Liv­ Crawford Livingston and his family in front of 432 Summit, now the Burbank-Livingston- ingston bought the Burbank mansion, Griggs house, around 1888. Left to right: Livingston; his wife Mary; a groom; and three of the Henry Villard returned to the presidency Livingston children, young Crawford, Abbie, and Mary, who would marry Theodore lN. Griggs of the Northern Pacific and the Oregon & and live there also. Minnesota Historical Society photo. Transcontinental Company. Between 1884 and 1888, the NP had continued to have financial problems. Villard, how­ Hewitt Jr. of Menasha, Wisconsin, and thirty miles of Tacoma. The purchasers ever, had been able to secure new invest­ Charles Hebard Jones of Menominee. also agreed to build a mill in Tacoma ment for the railroad from German Oakes invited the four men to meet with within a year that could cut thirty million bankers; thus he was asked to take charge him in early May 1888, and to discuss board feet of lumber annually. The con­ of the NP once more. By that time he re­ freight rates and lumber prices. During tract also called for additional rail con­ alized that the road faced stiff competi­ and after that meeting, Oakes encouraged struction to move the timber from the for­ tion from the Union Pacific for control of them to pool their financial resources and est to the mill, the building of a second rail transportation in the Pacific North­ lumbering experience so that they could mill, and favorable freight rates on the NP west. After James J. Hill was able to construct a lumber mill in Tacoma, and that would assure that the partners and complete transcontinental construction he assured them that the NP would be their mill would earn a profit. With this of the Great Northern from St. Paul to able to provide the mill owners with fa­ contract in hand, the four Midwesterners Seattle in 1890, the NP once again felt vorable freight rates for eastbound Dou­ incorporated the St. Paul and Tacoma the competitive pressure from its old glas fir lumber, allowing them to com­ Lumber Company on June 4, 1888, with Midwestern rival. pete effectively on price with the Chauncey Griggs as its president.71 In the late 1880s, the NP had plenty of traditional white pine lumber the Mid­ At that point, Chauncey Griggs knew westward passenger and freight traffic, western mills produced. his future lay in Washington Territory but it needed to greatly increase its east­ Partially as a result of Oakes’s persua­ and not in St. Paul. The Griggses sold ward traffic if it was going to realize its sive arguments and partially out of a their home at 476 Summit for $100,000 full potential on operating income. Thus recognition that the sources of white to James McNaught, general counsel for when Thomas Oakes learned that, inde­ pine in the Midwest were rapidly dimin­ the Northern Pacific, and moved to pendent of each other, two pairs of Mid­ ishing, the four men agreed to combine Tacoma. Although the colonel was still western lumber mill owners were investi­ their resources and proceed with a plan to the senior partner in Griggs, Cooper and gating timber possibilities in Washington begin lumbering operations in Tacoma. Company, he delegated day-to-day man­ Territory, he determined to bring the two Chauncey Griggs met in New York with agement to his oldest son, Chauncey Mil- groups together. One pair of mill owners other NP leaders and, after much negoti­ ton Griggs. His youngest son, Theodore was Chauncey Griggs and Addison ating, signed a contract with the NP to Wright Griggs, also a member of the Foster of St. Paul; the other was Henry buy 80,000 acres of timberland within Griggs, Cooper management, eventually

20 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY would rise through the organization to over the NP lines was severely curtailed railroad historian Albro Martin identifies the post of vice president. by the worsening economic conditions, Crawford Livingston as a member of the Writing in 1886, T. M. Newson, a and the railroad soon sank into bank­ “Billings crowd,” the evidence for this contemporary of Chauncey Griggs, has ruptcy and receivership. Villard resigned assertion is not presented in his book on left this verbal portrait of the man: on June 21,1893. Internal conflict among James J. Hill.74 NP directors, the road’s creditors, and its Eventually the NP was reorganized Col. Griggs is a fine-looking man, well- bondholders soon followed. Some NP di­ in 1897, largely due to the leadership and proportioned and possessing excellent busi­ rectors sought out James J. Hill in the substantial investment of money from ness qualities. He is quiet in his movements, hope that he might be able to help the NP. J. Pierpont Morgan, the New York cool and deliberate, but effective in results, As Hill wrote in an 1894 letter to one of banker. The “Morganization” of the NP, and has laid a basis upon which he is build­ his long-time associates, as it has been called, led to the formation ing up a fortune. He is exceedingly social of the Northern Securities holding com­ and pleasant in nature, yet back of all this he When I was in N.Y. some of the old pany shortly after the turn of the century, is shrewd and scheming. He has made a “Billings” crowd as they call themselves... effectively merging the NP and the Great good public officer, more so by his earnest came to see me . . . wanting to know if I Northern under James J. Hill. The U.S. work than by outward display, and may very would take into consideration a plan of re­ Supreme Court eventually ruled that the justly be classed among our sensible, saga­ organization with a view of bringing the Northern Securities Company was acting cious, solid, able citizens. Nor. Pac. and our own property much closer in restraint of trade and forced the two together. I told them I would consider i t . . . Colonel Chauncey Griggs had a produc­ railroads into separate management. tive and financially successful career in Crawford Livingston had by this time If the Nor. Pac. could be handled as we han­ Tacoma. He retired from the St. Paul and turned his attention elsewhere. In the dle our property, and all the wild and un­ Tacoma Lumber Company in 1908 and 1890s an independent businessman such called for rate cutting stopped, it could be died at the age of seventy-eight on Octo­ as Livingston would not have had much made [a] great property. Its capacity to earn ber 29, 1910.72 scope for action in an operation domi­ money is g o o d ,. . . but it has not been run as nated by men such as J. P. Morgan and a railway for years, but as a device for creat­ The NP and the Panic of James J. Hill. Not until 1917, after both ing bonds to be sold.73 1893 Morgan and Hill had died, did Crawford While Chauncey Griggs and his part­ Since Frederick Billings had died in Livingston again have any significant in­ ners were establishing a lumber business 1890, some of his associates, such as volvement with the Northern Pacific, in Washington, the Northern Pacific Johnston Livingston, who had supported when he agreed to serve as a director of found itself overextended and its treasury him when he was the NP president, were the railroad. Ill health forced him to re­ fearfully depleted of cash reserves. When trying to untangle the mess and to protect sign as a director in the spring of 1925. the Panic of 1893 hit the country, traffic their investment in the railroad. Although The St. Paul Gas Light Company With his involvement in railroad building winding down in the late 1880s and early ’90s, Crawford Livingston put his energy and business savvy into lead­ ing or advising other companies and or­ ganizations. In about 1886 he bought the St. Paul Gas Light Company and served for a time as its vice president before selling the business to M. S. Frost. He was a director of the Merchant’s Na­ tional Bank, the Title & Insurance Com­ pany of Minnesota, the Edison Electric Company, which was located in New York, the Inter-State Investment Com­ pany, the Livingston Land Company, and a trustee of the Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company. For a time, he was also president of the St. Paul Board of Water Commissioners. The 1884 fire that destroyed the Griggs & Foster (as it was then known) warehouse on Third General Henry Sibley, Livingston’s Street, causing $134,000 in damages. Minnesota Historical Society photo. long-time friend and adviser, may have

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 21 played a part in Livingston’s decision to Dakotas, but he was not a director; thus is how she recalled that experience: take on a senior role with the St. Paul Gas logic seems to favor Johnston Livingston I remember clearly when I was six and seven Light Company and the Minnesota Mu­ as the family member for whom the town the great excitement of being snowed in tual Life Insurance Company. In 1867 was named.76 there for part o f two winters. The frozen lake General Sibley had been elected presi­ was a magic place with tiny ice castles along dent of both these firms, and he contin­ Livingston and His Family the shore. Sometimes the lake made a ued in these positions for more than At this time in his life, Crawford Liv­ strange low rumble like the deep voice of a twenty-three years until his death in ingston seems to have increasingly fo­ giant. Among its joys, spring brought a blan­ 1891.75 Similarly Henry Villard had been cused more of his time and attention on ket of white trillium and other wild flowers an early investor in the Edison Electric his family. In 1902, for example, he spread over the earth. In the fall the bril­ Company, and he may have encouraged bought 100 acres of land and a large liance of red and gold maples and glistening Livingston to invest in the future of elec­ cabin from the North Wisconsin Lumber white birch awoke us from a relaxed and tric lighting and to serve on the com­ Company. The cabin, which Livingston sleepy summer.77 pany’s board. called “Forest Lodge,” is situated on a The purpose of the Livingston Land cove on Lake Namekagon, east of Cable. Recorded in the tum-of-the-century guest Company was to sell land in Livingston, Built in 1893, it may have been used as a book at Forest Lodge are the names not Montana. When the Northern Pacific was bunkhouse for the lumber crews, and it only of the many friends and family building its transcontinental line across may have come to Livingston’s attention members who visited there, but also the Northwest, it often would survey through his association with A. B. Stick- some long lists of the local game that town sites along the projected tracks. Ac­ ney, who had spent considerable time Crawford Livingston and his wife and cording to NP records, on August 18, building railroads in northern Wisconsin. sons had shot. 1882, the railroad’s board of directors According to Mary Griggs Burke, In 1902-1903 Mary Livingston, her considered an application from Crawford Crawford Livingston’s granddaughter, oldest son Corsey, her daughters Mary Livingston and another investor “to pur­ “[h]is children were young adults when and Abbie, and Mrs. E. A. Young, a sister- chase or acquire otherwise an interest in they began spending time there [at Forest in-law who was one of General Sibley’s the Company’s projected town site of Lodge]. It took the family almost all day daughters, and Mrs. Young’s daughter Livingston, in Gallatin County, Montana. on the train from St. Paul to Cable, and made a cruise around the world. Al­ The President was authorized to decline another six hours from Cable station to though Corsey apparently stayed on the these and all similar applications.” Some Forest Lodge by horse-drawn wagon.” boat most of the time, the party visited time later, however, the NP’s directors In the early 1920s, Mary Burke and such exotic places as Egypt, India, must have reconsidered their position her mother, Mary Livingston Griggs, Burma, Japan, and possibly China. Not long after their return, Corsey died on and decided to allow Livingston and oth­ spent two winters at Forest Lodge. This ers to buy the land. March 31, 1904, in New York City from Livingston is located on the Yellow­ Bright’s disease, a form of chronic stone River in Park County. In 1806 nephritis. He is buried in Oakland Ceme­ Lieutenant William Clark, of the Lewis tery in St. Paul. and Clark expedition, and several others While the travelers were away from in the group were the first whites to visit Minnesota, Crawford Livingston’s the site. The NP’s surveying party came mother, Caroline Livingston Phelps, died through the area on July 14, 1882, and on March 12, 1903. She and her second they named this location Clark City in husband, Professor William F. Phelps, honor of Lieutenant Clark. had been living at 599 Summit Avenue, Several sources on Montana history and Phelps remained there until his own state that the town’s name was later death on August 15, 1907, from a “lin­ changed to Livingston in honor of Craw­ gering illness.”78 ford Livingston, who is identified as an According to the 1899 St. Paul City NP director. NP records, however, iden­ Directory, Crawford Livingston’s sister, tify Crawford’s uncle, Johnston, as the Elizabeth Willis; his half-sister, Alice L. NP director who was honored. It was cus­ MacGregor; and Mrs. MacGregor’s hus­ tomary for railroads to name towns for band, Alexander T. MacGregor, also their directors as they surveyed across the were living at 599 Summit, which is one West. The NP was no exception. of several row houses there. Today 599 Billings, Montana, is a prime example. Summit is best known as the house where A young Mary Griggs Burke with her father, When Clark City was renamed Liv­ Theodore W. Griggs at Forest Lodge, Cable, F. Scott Fitzgerald lived in the summer of ingston, Crawford Livingston was asso­ Wisconsin. Photo courtesy of Mary Griggs 1919 when he was revising This Side of ciated with the NP in Minnesota and the Burke. Paradise.

2 2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Elizabeth Livingston had married Henry B. Willis on December 20, 1883, in the home of her stepfather, Professor Phelps, in Winona. The Winona newspa­ per account of the wedding stated that Crawford Livingston was unable to at­ tend due to the illness of one of his chil­ dren. Possibly the child who was ill that day was Gerald Moncrieffe Livingston, who had been bom a few months earlier on August 31. Henry Willis was a partner in a wholesale plumbing supply firm. He died on March 12, 1902, at the age of fifty-six. His wife Elizabeth outlived her husband by fifteen years. She died on May 14,1917, at 599 Summit. Alice L. MacGregor, Crawford’s half- sister, outlived all the Livingston family members of her generation. She had been bom in New Jersey on May 13, 1856, when Professor Phelps was the principal at the New Jersey State Normal School in Trenton. Alice MacGregor, who lived to be eighty, died on June 4, 1936, at an apartment at 579 Summit, where she was living at the time.79 In 1898 Crawford Livingston built a house at 339 Summit Avenue. In his book on historic homes of Summit Avenue, architectural historian Ernest Sandeen provides considerable informa­ tion about the house. Designed by Cass Gilbert in the Medieval-Rectilinear style, the house cost $14,000. Whether Craw­ ford Livingston ever lived there is ques­ tionable, however, since several St. Paul city directories for this period list his res­ The house, designed by Cass Gilbert, that Crawford Livingston built in 1898 and is still stand­ idence as 432 Summit. Perhaps Liv­ ing at 339 Summit Avenue. Ramsey County Historical Society photo. ingston intended this house as a gift for his oldest son Corsey or as a speculative investment, but he apparently sold the to do the same for his brother-in-law, chance in spelling out his investment house shortly after it was finished to Charles John Potts, brother of Mary Potts preferences and minimizing any risk to Charles H. F. Smith, a St. Paul invest­ Livingston. As part of his instructions, the funds he was leaving to care for these ment broker.80 the will stated that the trustees family members. Although the evidence is somewhat A second glimpse of how Crawford shall never invest said trust funds or any fragmentary, the letters and papers deal­ Livingston took care of other members of part thereof, or any proceeds thereof, in ing with Crawford Livingston that are his extended family comes from a letter or upon the security of any mining stocks, available indicate that his Livingston from his son Gerald to Gerald’s Aunt insurance stocks, bank stocks, or in any family was important to him. An exam­ Alice MacGregor. While he was alive, speculative stocks whatsoever. I recommend ple can be found in his will. The will stip­ Crawford Livingston appears to have reg­ investment thereof in Municipal, State and ulated that after he died, which was in ularly sent his half-sister monthly checks United States securities, and in first mort­ 1925, his executors were to establish two in the amount of $175. In 1927, about two gage bonds of old established prosperous trust funds, each in the amount of years after Crawford’s death, Alice wrote railway companies.81 $50,000. One fund was to provide in­ to Gerald apparently complaining that come for his half-sister, Alice L. Mac­ As an experienced investor, Crawford she was having a difficult time making Gregor, during her lifetime; the other was Livingston wanted to leave nothing to ends meet, even with the income from the

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 23 $50,000 trust fund. This letter is lost. His a flower in his buttonhole. Pat, his decidedly response, however, is available and it said Irish gardener, grew small button dahlias on either side of the long driveway on Granite I do object to your criticizing my father in Point perfect for this purpose. I can see any way whatsoever. You must surely real­ grandfather walking down this road with his ize he not only kept his own family going handsome gold-headed cane admiring the but his mother, stepfather and two sisters. I flowers and drinking in the sea air. think this is something to be proud of.82

As the Livingston children grew to In spite of his dignified appearance, grandfa­ adulthood in the first decade of the new ther had a pixie-like slightly sadistic sense century, Mary Livingston and her chil­ of humor. He loved to tease his grandchil­ dren traveled extensively. Some of their dren and play tricks on us and particularly he letters report on trips to Paris, Madrid, delighted in stirring us all up so that our par­ elsewhere in Europe, and to the Grand ents temporarily lost control of us. I think Canyon in Arizona. Crawford Liv­ we all loved him for this, but it did keep us ingston, however, appears to have spent on our toes and guessing. He would sud­ much of his time in New York, where he denly say things like, “none of you are very could be in touch with the financial mar­ bright, but you are all good looking.” ... kets. He also was scouting the Maine coast for a place where he could build a Grandfather also made up a game called Mary Livingston Griggs. Minnesota Histori­ summer home. cal Society photo. “lazy bones.” It took place at breakfast on In 1910 the Livingstons’ younger the sun porch, where those who got to their daughter, Abbie, married then U.S. Army places at the table first had the right to call captain Cleveland Coxe Lansing, and later arrivals “Lazy Bones.” This seemed to tures his excitement and delight in find­ their youngest son, Gerald, married ing a spot on the Maine coast where he us a most embarrassing name to be called, Eleanor Hoffman Rodewald. Abbie’s could build a house. and we tried to devise strategies to avoid it wedding took place in the garden of the by creeping in on all fours, hiding behind the Livingston home at 432 Summit Avenue. I am called back to N.Y.—as usual by im­ maid when she came in to serve, or making a Based on the newspaper account of the portant business— and am leaving tomor­ dash for it. We took it very seriously. . . . day’s events, it was an elaborate and well- row, Monday AM, by auto to Boston. I will Occasionally grandfather would dress up in attended celebration. In contrast, when use the long distance phone and see if I can­ disguise and sit silently at the end of the daughter Mary Steele Livingston married not stay at Salisbury [with Abbie and her table until we all began to giggle. Theodore Wright Griggs, the youngest husband] before going to N.Y., if not I hope Griggs son, her long-time friend and to see you & Mary in N.Y. Another very strong characteristic of grand­ suitor, on November 26, 1915, guests father was his delight in arguing. He enjoyed were invited to an afternoon tea at the I wish you could all have come here & it for its own sake. It was a game. Unfortu­ Livingston home in St. Paul and informed helped me locate the house. I have found a nately for grandfather, his wife would never that the wedding had been performed new location, in fact two, & am in doubt respond. She often won her point by smiling shortly before they arrived. which is the best. We have allready [sic] benignly and quietly going ahead with Abbie and Cleveland Lansing and done some work on the [one] that I think is her plans. An example of this, which my Gerald and Eleanor Livingston made the best. It certainly is very beautiful. I am mother described to me, concerned the fact their homes on the East Coast not far sure you will like it. Monday we start in in that grandfather wished her [Mary Steele from New York City, while Mary and earnest to build & hope to have it all finished Livingston] to be christened Marie while Theodore Griggs lived at 432 Summit before April 1st.84 grandmother preferred Mary, and Mary it Avenue. With the arrival of grandchil­ turned out to be. dren in 1911 and 1912 in the Lansing and Memories of Grandfather Gerald Livingston families, Crawford The daughter of Theodore and Mary Grandfather, however, seemed to lead his Livingston had even more incentive to Livingston Griggs, Mary Griggs Burke, own fife in spite of, or perhaps because of, find a summer place that was easily ac­ has written an account of her memories his differences with grandmother. At the cessible from New York and where he of the house in Biddeford, which Craw­ time I knew my grandparents, while they could gather the growing Livingston ford named Fortune’s Rocks, located at seemed to have affection for each [other], family together.83 Granite Point, and of her Grandfather they were often apart, only coming together One Sunday about this time Crawford Livingston. because of their mutual love of their chil­ wrote an undated letter on stationery dren. Grandmother lived with my parents from the Sea View Inn at Biddeford, He w as. . . an elegant gentleman impecca­ and me in the house in St. Paul [432 Summit Maine, to his wife Mary. This letter cap- bly dressed with a neat, waxed mustache and Avenue], which grandfather Livingston had

24 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY bought when he had become wealthy. While Astoria hotel and using the Lee, simply does a brokerage business and grandfather stayed with us, it was almost Kretschmer offices as his local headquar­ therefore would not be interested. At one like a visit when he came to his own house ters. Based on information in a letter time my father, the late Crawford Liv­ in St. Paul. The majority of his time was from Mary Livingston, Crawford’s wife, ingston, built the Rialto Theatre and was spent in New York, near his youngest and to her daughter Mary, Kretschmar died interested in others, but personally, I only surviving son Gerald___ Grandmother on December 2, 1911. Mrs. Livingston have no interest in this kind of appeared to be quite happy in St. Paul. She reports: “Gerry is looking well, and starts business.”89 was very beautiful, with large dark eyes set to work today [December 6], Your Father o ff by a mass o f white hair, but she reminded has taken an office for him, and has a The Impressario and the me of a Buddha in her imperturbability. She partner. I think your Father will probably Investor appeared placid and sweet at all times.85 do most of the work. . . . Your Father The Rialto Theatre episode reveals an­ seems to feel his [Kretschmar’s] death other facet of Crawford Livingston’s per­ The 1907 edition of The Book of Min­ very much and says he misses him sonality and character. All that is avail­ nesotans, a Minnesota version of a greatly.”87 able to explain what happened in the “who’s who,” carried a short biography course of this investment are the reports of Crawford Livingston that included the Livingston & Company in the New York Times in 1916. Oscar statement “now retired from active busi­ This letter appears to signal the begin­ Hammerstein, who’s identified in the ness.” However, it also listed his office as ning of Gerald’s involvement with what newspaper accounts as an impresario, “51 Exchange Place, New York” and his would become Livingston & Company, a had had an office in the old Victoria The­ residence as “Summit Av. St. Paul.”86 stock brokerage firm. According to the atre on Forty Second Street in New York. This information captures succinctly the New York Times, Livingston & Company Apparently the Victoria was being exten­ paradoxical circumstances of Crawford had its origins in 1893 as Lee, Livingston sively renovated, and its name was Livingston’s life. His home was in St. & Company. Presumably, the Livingston changed to the Rialto. When Hammer­ Paul, but his office was in New York. He in the firm’s name was Crawford Liv­ stein went to the Rialto to go to the office was retired, but the evidence that is avail­ ingston, who was then associated with he had had on the third floor when the able from that period in his life definitely Lee, Kretschmer & Co. Initially Liv­ building had been the Victoria, he was indicates he neither had slowed down nor ingston & Company had its Wall Street ejected from the theater because, the withdrawn from active engagement with offices at the comer of Pine and William building manager explained, “he might the business world. Streets in the heart of the financial dis­ make a speech to the workmen and delay The address “51 Exchange Place” was trict. Later in the 1920s, the firm moved the completion of the building,” which the office of Lee, Kretschmar & Com­ to 111 Broadway, not far from the New was at the time months overdue. Ham­ pany, one block south of Wall Street. At York Stock Exchange. In 1934, after sev­ merstein then went to the nearest police least as early as April 1906, Crawford eral years of difficulty due to the Wall station and “asked for police protection Livingston was living at the Waldorf- Street Crash of 1929 and the subsequent from bodily harm he feared would be severe economic downturn throughout done him by men working on the Rialto.” the country, Livingston & Company The police station captain detailed a pa­ merged with the firm of Abbott, Proctor trolman to accompany Hammerstein to & Paine. At that time Gerald Livingston the theater, but he later reported that po­ was a “special partner” in Livingston & lice protection was not needed. Hammer­ Company. He had been elected a memher stein had withdrawn to another office of the Board of Governors of the New nearby. York Stock Exchange in 1924, and not The next day’s paper continued the long thereafter, retired from the firm, al­ saga under the headline “Oscar In Three though he maintained his membership in Reels.” Reel I summarized the previous the Stock Exchange.88 day’s events. Reel II reported that Ham­ Among the papers in Crawford Liv­ merstein had gone to court and obtained ingston’s estate is a copy of a letter Ger­ summonses for Crawford Livingston, ald wrote in 1927 to a firm in Cleveland, president of the Rialto Company, and the Ohio. The Cleveland firm had asked building superintendent. Reel III ex­ whether Livingston & Company would plained that later that day Hammerstein be interested in underwriting a first mort­ returned to the Rialto, only to be again gage of $1.75 million for a complex of a barred from entry. He then explained that theatre, some stores, and an apartment he had a lease that allowed him to occupy house the Cleveland company planned to his offices. The theater’s management Theodore W. Griggs. Minnesota Historical build. Gerald replied that “Livingston & said he was welcome to use his offices as Society photo. Company is not a banking house, but soon as the building was completed. The

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 25 building manager added that if Hammer- teen other stocks in his portfolio as stein “continues to give an imitation of “worthless.” Six others were labeled “no Mount Vesuvius in eruption,” he would market value.”91 Thus, even for as expe­ be jeopardizing the good will of the the­ rienced an investor as Crawford Liv­ ater owners toward him. ingston, there were some stocks and The following day the fiesty Hammer- bonds that turned out to be losers. stein and his lawyer met his adversaries In the papers left from the settlement and their attorney in court. The defendants of Livingston’s estate, there’s not much, admitted they had kept Hammerstein out other than the lists of assets, to suggest of the Rialto because of Hammerstein’s what investment strategy he may have interference with the workmen, which had. The directions he left for the invest­ had caused delays. The defendants’ ment of the trust funds indicate his atti­ lawyer assured the court that as soon as tude toward risking money left for the the theater was finished, they would per­ support of others, but it was not a guide­ mit Hammerstein to occupy his offices. line he always followed in investing for The court then adjourned until the follow­ himself. The motion picture stocks argue ing month when the parties once more that he was definitely interested in this gathered before the magistrate. new medium of entertainment and was Once the parties were again in court, willing to take some substantial risks in Mary Griggs Burke. Minnesota Historical the magistrate dismissed Hammerstein’s buying these equities. Society photo from an original oil owned complaint because the memorandum on By the 1920s, motion-picture produc­ by Mrs. Burke. which Hammerstein based his claim for tion, distribution, and exhibition had use of the offices was drawn up after the grown into a major national industry. Al­ lease was written, but it had never been though Livingston’s stocks appear to have been those of companies involved in signed. Thus Hammerstein had no case.90 Providing for His Family Hammerstein, the combative opera a variety of activities, some such as the manager, didn’t intimidate Crawford Triangle Film Corporation and New York Crawford Livingston’s will is dated Livingston, who had done his homework Motion Picture Corporation were movie June 27, 1919. A codicil, in which he set on the details of the lease. In true comic production companies, and most of the up the trust for Charles J. Potts, his opera fashion, Hammerstein emerged movies these companies produced during brother-in-law, is dated September 3, from the fray looking foolish, to the obvi­ Livingston’s lifetime were silent films. 1925, a little more than two months be­ ous amusement of the New York Times. Because of his stature as a successful fore Livingston’s death. Neither the will Over the last ten or fifteen years of his investor, Livingston received letters from nor the codicil is lengthy or elaborate. life, Crawford Livingston tended his in­ timé to time from people who wanted his Crawford Livingston essentially left his vestment portfolio. He bought municipal, advice on what stocks to buy or invest­ property to his wife. Should she prede­ state, and U.S. bonds, and he invested in ments to make. Among his papers are a cease him, his estate would go to his “blue chip” stocks, such as railroads like few of his answers to these inquiries. For three children, Gerald M. Livingston, the Northern Pacific. He owned 7,000 friends who seemed to be somewhat in­ Abbie L. Lansing, and Mary L. Griggs, shares of Great Northern Iron Ore Prop­ experienced investors, he answered their “share and share alike.” If one of these erties, which was probably his single questions courteously but made no rec­ three children predeceased him, Liv­ biggest equity holding, but he also in­ ommendations. With others, such as ingston provided that that son or daugh­ vested in more speculative stocks. Craw­ William Hamm, of the Hamm Brewery ter’s child or children should have the de­ ford Livingston seems to have been very family in St. Paul, he was more forth­ ceased parent’s share of the estate on a attracted to the fledgling film industry. In coming, more willing to give an opinion per stirpes basis. Throughout the will the accounting of his stock holdings that or recommendation. In a 1923 letter to Livingston referred to his oldest daughter is among the papers in his estate, he Louis W. Hill, one of James J. Hill’s as “Marie, “ as he preferred to address owned at the time of his death at least sons, he recommended a plan the Great her, and not as “Mary,” her mother’s 1,400 shares of the Triangle Film Corpo­ Northern might use with the independent choice of name. Livingston also ap­ ration, sixteen shares of the Reliance Mo­ steel manufacturers to increase the vol­ pointed his wife, son, and the husbands tion Picture Corporation, thirty shares in ume of iron ore the GN was hauling for of his two daughters as the executors of the New York Motion Picture Corpora­ them.92 The available correspondence is the will and trustees of the trusts estab­ tion, eighty-five shares in the Mutual not very voluminous, but it does show lished under the will.93 Film Corporation, and 1,300 shares in the that Crawford Livingston was an active Providing for his family after he was Film Exchange Corporation. His execu­ investor and businessman even as he gone was not just a matter of drafting, tors, however, identified these motion grew older and his health began to give signing, and witnessing a will. On picture stocks, along with at least seven­ him increasing problems. January 1,1922, for example, Livingston

26 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY wrote to his daughter from New York of its kind in this country, which means in ber of documents concerning the value of wishing her a Happy New Year. Much of the world. I think he is very happy over it. I the estate, the tax issues relating to the es­ the brief letter communicates, however, am only a special partner, but I go down tate, and the distribution of the property his frustration over getting $200,000 in nearly every day. It’s hard for an old dog to after taxes among the three Livingston bonds to her. Livingston wrote: give up his tricks.97 children. On October 6, 1926, the New York Times reported that when Crawford On January 27, 1925, Crawford and . . . it is all most [s/c] unbelievable that a Livingston’s will was filed for probate in Mary Livingston celebrated their golden man tried to give his daughter $200,000 & Biddeford, which he claimed as his resi­ wedding anniversary in New York City, she took so little interest in the gift that he dence after he built his summer home but neither was in good health. Mary Liv­ could not get her to acknowledge the gift or there, the railroad builder left an estate tell him where to send them to. If you read of ingston died first on July 28, 1925, in valued at $10,783,174 to his three surviv­ a case like that in a novel, you would not be­ Biddeford from apoplexy and pneumo­ ing children. The inventory filed with the lieve it & say such an absurd thing never oc­ nia. She was seventy-four. Soon he began will placed the value of Livingston’s real curred in real life. Do you know that not to fail. Death came on November 16, estate at $90,000, goods and chattels at only did I sweat drops of blood to make the 1925, at the age of seventy-eight, from $9,384,456, and credits at $1,308,718. A $200,000, but I spent days in trying to get cardiac failure. The St. Paul Dispatch Gerald Livingston letter dated November good bonds cheap & [i]t took a lot of work hailed Livingston as a “pioneer rail 12, 1926, states that the estate paid to see I got the right bonds, pack them, have builder,” “associate of James J. Hill,” and $1,488,488.57 in federal taxes. A copy of them registered at the P.O. & insure them at “founder of the St. Paul Gas Light com­ a 1927 document from the Minnesota the insurance Co. I trotted around with them pany, which recently passed into the probate court lists Minnesota inheritance on foot & was pretty well used up when I fi­ hands of the Northern States Power com­ taxes for the three Livingston children as nally got them off. It’s a queer world & pany,” In its obituary, the New York $4,205.88.100 queer people in it.94 Times identified Livingston as a “railroad Crawford Livingston was an extraor­ builder and capitalist” and mentioned his By 1923 Livingston was beginning to dinary man in his ability to understand association with Henry Villard and A. B. the economics of railroad building and to feel his age. A letter to a real estate com­ Stickney in the “development of the use this understanding to create a sub­ pany that he wrote in December 1923, Northwest.” Both Mary and Crawford stantial fortune. Although there is much about an apartment at 1148 Fifth Avenue Livingston were buried at Oakland that is not well known about Crawford that he planned to rent includes the infor­ Cemetery in St. Paul, where their two Livingston’s business life, the significant mation that he had been confined to his sons and Thomas and Abbie Potts also contribution he made to the development bed from March 1 to September 28 of were buried.98 of railroads in Minnesota and the Dako­ that year. Eventually he did move to Most of the work of settling Crawford tas deserves to be better appreciated and 1148 Fifth Avenue. In April 1924, he Livingston’s estate fell to Gerald Liv­ acknowledged than has been the case. wrote a Long Island golf club that he was ingston, with some help from Theodore Crawford Livingston did not achieve giving up his locker there because he had Griggs. Much of the surviving correspon­ the fame and notoriety associated with been “confined to my bed for something dence relating to the estate deals with the other Midwest railroad builders, partly over a year and do not expect to play golf preparation of an accurate inventory of because he seems to have lacked interest again.”95 That same day he wrote Dr. Livingston’s portfolio of stocks and in the limelight and partly because he James Hall of Oyster Bay, Long Island, bonds and of determining the values of spent so many of his later years in New that he had been confined to his bed “the these properties for tax purposes. One York. Nevertheless, the record clearly major part of the time since I saw you 1926 letter from Gerald Livingston to a shows that he was an extremely hard­ last—same old trouble, high blood pres­ partner in his firm indicates that Gerald working and astute investor who helped sure, high pulse and itch; none of which and an associate planned to go over all make St. Paul and the Upper Midwest a seems to improve. In fact I am not nearly the “old book and effects” from Craw­ center of commerce in the nation in the so well, so far as I can judge, as I was ford Livingston’s office at 51 Exchange late nineteenth and early twentieth cen­ when I saw you last.”96 Place and they “would destroy all the turies. Without Chauncey Griggs and Despite Crawford Livingston’s health books and papers except those that the Crawford Livingston, Minnesota and its problems in the early 1920s, Livingston law may require for us to keep.” Another capital city of St. Paul might not be what & Company was prospering. In a letter letter from Gerald to Tiffany Studios they are today. that he wrote his son-in-law, Theodore written in 1927 discusses the design and Griggs, on May 30, 1922, he expressed making of a fine hammered Rhode Island John M. Lindley is a freelance writer, his very evident pride in how well this granite memorial cross containing the past president of the Ramsey County His­ business was doing: Livingston name and coat of arms that torical Society and chairman of the Soci­ I.wish you and Mary lived in New York or was to be set up at Oakland Cemetery. ety’s Editorial Board. He holds a doctor­ near here. Gerry has now got a big business, The cost was estimated at $8,000.99 ate in history from Duke University, probably one of the largest, if not the largest, The estate papers also contain a num­ Durham, North Carolina.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 27 End Notes ingston and Allied Families, pp. 80-81; Loomis, 800-801; Ogren, 17: 432-433; Malone, 34: 532; pp. 13, 15-20; and W. Turrentine Jackson, “A C. O. Ruggles, Historical Sketch and Notes: 1. Crawford Livingston letter from New York New Look at Wells, Fargo, Stagecoaches and the Winona State Normal School, 1860-1910 City to Mary Steele Livingston, January 18,1912, Pony Express,” California Historical Society (Winona, Minn.: Minnesota state Normal School from the Livingston Family letters in the posses­ Quarterly (December 1966): 291-297. Board, 1910), pp. 15-25,36-37,41-52,187-189; sion of Mary Livingston Griggs Burke, New York, and Jean Talbot, First State Normal School, 1860; 8. Christine A. Ogren, “William Franklin New York. Hereinafter this collection is referred Winona State College, 1960 (Winona, Minn.: Phelps,” in John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, to as “Livingston Papers.” Winona State College, 1960), pp. 1-8. editors, American National Biography, vol. 17 2. Chauncey Milton Griggs letter to Everett (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 15. Phelps Family Record Group, compiled Gallup Griggs II and Benjamin Glyde Griggs, 432-433 and “William Franklin Phelps,” in August 28,1996, Winona County Historical Soci­ April 16,1913. Copy in the possession of Patricia Dumas Malone, ed., Dictionary of American Biog­ ety, p. 1. Sweney Hart, St. Paul, Minn. This letter is raphy, vol. 14 (New York: Charles Scribner’s 16. “Crawford Livingston,” 6 The Northwest reprinted in Henry A. Castle, Minnesota: Its Story Sons, 1934), pp. 532-533. Details of Phelps’s Magazine (January 1888): 10 and Winona City Di­ and Biography, vol. 3, (Chicago: Lewis Publish­ work at the New Jersey State Normal School can rectory 1875 (Winona, Minn.: W. M. Campbell, ing Co., 1915), pp. 1519-1520. be found in the annual reports that Phelps submit­ 1875), pp. 89 and 108. 3. Biographical materials on Colonel Chauncey ted to the New Jersey Legislature beginning in 1856. The reports are printed volumes available at 17. Information on the early history of the Wright Griggs and his family are readily available. W&SP RR comes from R. E. Miles, A History of The most complete sources are: Henry A. Castle, the library of the College of New Jersey, Trenton, Early Railroading In Winona County (Winona, Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, vol. 3, N. J. Minn.: no publisher, 1958), pp. 3-8. A copy is (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1915), pp. 9. Information on Crawford Livingston’s edu­ available at the Winona County Historical Soci­ 1517-1520; Murray Morgan, The Mill on the cation and early career is from Lawrence, Ge­ ety; Franklin Curtiss-Wedge, compiler, The His­ Boot: The Story of the St. Paul and Tacoma Lum­ nealogical Histories of Livingston and Allied tory of Winona County Minnesota (Chicago: H. C. ber Company (Seattle, Wash.: University of Families, pp. 86-87, “Crawford Livingston,” in Cooper, Jr. & Co., 1913), pp. 461-469; and Washington Press, 1982), pp. 8-21; “Ledger’s Se­ the National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Theodore Christianson, Minnesota: The Land of ries of City Builders— No. 23 [Chauncey Wright vol. 42 (New York: James T. White & Co., 1958), Sky-Tinted Waters, vol. 1 (Chicago: American Griggs],” The Tacoma Sunday Ledger, October pp. 393-394, and “Crawford Livingston,” 6 The Historical Society, 1935), pp. 398,425-426. 31,1909,25; Evelyn Burke, “The Griggs Family,” Northwest Magazine (January 1888): 10. probably written in 1942 or 1943, copy in the pos­ 18. Jean Strouse, Morgan: American Financier session of Patricia Sweney Hart, St. Paul, Minn; 10. The details of Col. Griggs’s service in the (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 133. Civil War can be found in Castle, 3: 1517-1518; “A Glimpse Of The Lives Of Chauncey Wright 19. Michael P. Malone, James J. Hill: Empire Griggs And His Wife Martha Ann Gallup Griggs,” Morgan, pp. 9 and 11; Virginia Brainard Kunz, Muskets to Missiles: A Military History of Min­ Builder of the Northwest (Norman, Okla.: Univer­ author unknown, privately printed February 1978, sity o f Oklahoma Press, 1996), pp. 35-49 and copy in possession of Patricia Sweney Hart, St. nesota (St. Paul: Statehood Centennial Commis­ sion, 1958), pp 47^18; and Board of Commission­ Albro Martin, James J. Hill and the Opening of the Paul, Minn.; “Geneology: Descendants of Northwest (St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Historical ers, Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars, 2d ed. Chauncey Wright Griggs and Martha Gallup Society Press, 1991; original edition published in (St. Paul: State of Minnesota, 1891), 151; and Pio­ Griggs,” compiler unidentified, summer 1991, New York by Oxford University Press, 1976), pp. neer Press Co., St. Paul History and Progress: copy in possession of Patricia Sweney Hart, St. 116-154. Paul, Minn.; and James A. Sazevich, compiler, Principal Men and Institutions (St. Paul: Pioneer “Griggs Family Historical Chronology,” July 27, Press Co., 1897), p. 92 (hereinafter referred to as 20. Morgan, pp. 20-21; Martin, pp. 96-98. 1995, unpublished manuscript, copy in the posses­ St. Paul History and Progress). The Hill diary quotation is on p. 98. sion of Patricia Sweney Hart, St. Paul, Minn. 11. The account of how Martha Ann Griggs 21. Martin, p. 98. traveled to Connecticut is found in the letter of 4. Ruth Lawrence, Genealogical Histories of 22. Martin, pp. 106. Livingston and Allied Families (New York: Na­ Chauncey Milton Griggs to Everett Gallup Griggs tional Americana Society, 1932), pp. 73-75. II and Benjamin Glyde Griggs, April 16, 1913, 23. Martin, p. 107. which is reprinted in Castle, 3:1519-1520. 5. Clare Brandt, An American Aristocracy: The 24. Richard Edwards, compiler, St. Paul City Livingstons ( New York: Doubleday & Co., 1986), 12. Detailed accounts o f the Battles of Directory, 1873 (St. Paul, Minn.: Richard Ed­ p. 197. Murfreesboro and Vicksburg and the role of the wards, 1873), pp. 278,292,356, and 487; the infor­ Third Minnesota Infantry in them are in Castle, 3: mation from the 1874 and 1875 directories is cour­ 6. Material on Crawford Livingston’s involve­ 1517-1518; Morgan, pp. 11-12; Kunz, pp. 48-51; tesy of James Sazevich; Christina H. Jacobsen, ment in the express business comes from Alden Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars, pp. “The Burbank-Livingston-Griggs House: Historic Hatch, American Express: A Century of Service 151-158 and 162-166; James Lee McDonough, Treasure on Summit Avenue,” 42 Minnesota His­ (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1950), pp. Stone’s River—Bloody Winter in Tennessee tory (Spring 1970): 29; Eleanor Ostman, “Liv- 15-29; Lawrence, Genealogical Histories of Liv­ (Knoxville, Tenn.: The University of Tennessee ingston-Griggs Home Reflects Old World,” St. ingston and Allied Families, pp. 73-75; Neil M. Press, 1980): pp. 3-10; and Frank J. Welcher, The Paul Pioneer Press, February 13, 1966, pp. 1, 8, Loomis, Wells Fargo (New York: Clarkson N. Union Army 1861-1865: Organization and Oper­ and St. Paul Dispatch, January 29,1875, p 4. Potter, 1968), pp. 8-9; and Sylvie R. Griffiths, ations, vol. 2 The Western Theater (Bloomington, 25. Galena City Directory, 1847-8 (Galena, “Johnston Livingston, the Express Business, and Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1993), pp. the California Connection,” 4 IU„ 1847), pp. 26,53. Hudson Valley 199-202,291-296,892-899. Regional Review (March 1987): 21-37. Griffiths 26. Nathaniel West, The Ancestry, Life, and 13. Morgan, pp. 12-20; Sazevich, pp. 7-13; states (pages 25 and 27-28) that Johnston bought Times of Hon. Henry Hastings Sibley, LL.D. (St. and Marion H. Herriot, “Steamboat Transportation Crawford’s share in the express business, but she Paul, Minn.: Pioneer Press Publishing Co., 1889), on the Red River,” 21 Minnesota History (Septem­ provides no source for this. She also reports with­ p. 427; Return I. Holcombe, ed., Minnesota in out documentation (page 22) that Crawford died of ber 1940), 245-271. Three Centuries, 1655-1908, vol. 2 (Minneapolis, tuberculosis. 14. “Wm. F. Phelps,” in History of Winona Minn.: The Publishing Society of Minnesota, 7. Lawrence, Genealogical Histories of Liv­ County (Chicago: H. H. Hill and Co., 1883), pp. 1908), pp. 95-97; handwritten Steele family ge-

28 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY nealogy, Livingston Papers; Edward G. Longacre, 35. Robin W. Winks, Frederick Billings: A Life ingston, September 11, 1882, in Subject Files of “Henry Hastings Sibley,” in John A. Garraty and (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 210. the Presidents, Northern Pacific Railroad Papers, Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biogra­ box 3, vol. 24, #442, Minnesota Historical Soci­ 36. Winks, pp. 211-212 and E. V. Smalley, phy, vol. 19 (New York: Oxford University Press, ety, Minnesota History Center, St. Paul, Minn. ed., History of the Northern Pacific Railroad (New 1999), pp. 913-914; and “Henry Hastings Sibley,” York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1883), pp. 208-210. 55. Renz, p. 111. in Dumas Malone, ed., Dictionary of American Bi­ ography, vol. 17 (New York Charles Scribner’s 37. Winks, p. 213. 56. Renz, pp. 109-112. Sons, 1935), pp. 144-145; and Rodney C. Loehr, 38. Malone, pp. 23-25. 57. Duluth and Manitoba Railroad Company, “Franklin Steele, Frontier Businessman,” 27 Min­ Lease, Duluth and Manitoba Railroad Company to nesota History (Winter 1946): 309-318. 39. Morgan, pp. 23-25. Northern Pacific Railroad Company, June 1,1887, 27. Abbie Ann Steele letter to Dr. Thomas R. 40. Morgan, p. 27 pp. 1 ,3 ,8 ,9 , and 19, Minnesota Historical Society, Potts, August 1847, Livingston Papers. Minnesota History Center, St. Paul, Minn. 41. Quoted in Sazevich, p. 17. 28. E. G. Gear, chaplain, U.S. Army, hand­ 58. Northern Pacific Railroad Company, An 42. Andrews, pp. 152-153. written marriage certificate dated March 10,1864 Account of the Celebration Held in St. Paul, Min­ certifying the marriage of Abbie Steele and 43. Malone, pp. 54-55. neapolis and Along the Line on Completion of the Thomas R. Potts, M.D. on October 28, 1847, at Main Line to the Pacific in September 1883 (St. 44. Biographical materials on Henry Villard Mendota with Henry H. Sibley and others as wit­ Paul, Minn.: Northern Pacific Railroad Company, are from Jon Huibregtse, “Henry Villard,” in John nesses in the Livingston Papers. 1883), p. 29, Minnesota Historical Society, Min­ A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American nesota History Center, St. Paul, Minn, (hereinafter 29. Sources differ on the place and date of National Biography, vol. 22 (New York: Oxford referred to as Celebration). Mary Steele Potts’s birth. The records of the Oak­ University Press, 1999), pp. 362-363; “Henry Vil­ land Cemetery Association in St. Paul give her lard,” in Dictionary of American Biography, 59. Celebration, pp. 66-67. birthplace as Pennsylvania and no birth date, but edited by Dumas Malone, vol. 20 (New York: 60. Morgan, p. 27; St. Paul History and their records list her age at death as 74. Since she Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936), pp. 273-275; Progress, p. 93; and Castle, 3:1518. died in July 1925, this would place her birth date in “Henry Villard,” in National Cyclopedia of Amer­ 1851. However, a handwritten note from her ican Biography, vol. 3 (New York: James T. 61. St. Paul History and Progress, p. 94; daughter, Mary Livingston Griggs, to her brother White & Co., 1893), p. 498; and R. L. Polk & Co., “Jason Walker Cooper,” in National Cyclopedia of Gerald in the Gerald and Crawford Livingston Pa­ St. Paul City Directory 1880-81 (St. Paul: R. L. American Biography, vol. 35 (New York: James T. pers, 1920-1933, in State Historical Society of Polk & Co., 1880), p. 352 for information on C. White & Co., 1949), p. 554; and “Remarkable Evo­ lution in the Wholesale Grocery Business,” 16 Wisconsin, Archives Division, Madison, Wis. Livingston & Co. The (hereinafter referred to as Gerald and Crawford Northwest Magazine (December 1898): 22-25. 45. Louis Tuck Renz, The History of the Livingston Papers), roll 3, p. 0438 [undated but Northern Pacific Railroad (Fairfield, Wash.: Ye 62. Morgan, pp. 29-30 and “476 Summit Av­ circa 1927] gives the birthplace as Galena in 1849. enue,” Historic Sites Survey, Ramsey County His­ Galleon Press, 1980), pp. 74—76. This place and date are used here. Material on the torical Society, St. Paul, Minn. career of Dr. Potts is from West, p. 427; Lois M. 46. Renz, pp. 87-88. Fawcett, head of Reference Department, Min­ 63. Renz, pp. 117-119 and Jon Huibregtse, 47. Smalley, History of the Northern Pacific nesota Historical Society, letter to Mrs. Theodore “Henry Villard,” p. 362. Railroad, p. 305. W. Griggs, October 7,1955, which quotes from the 64. Quoted in Grant, p. 4. Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Min­ 48. H. Roger Grant, The Com Belt Route: A 65. Grant, pp. 2-4; Edward L. Lach Jr., nesota published by A. T. Andreas (Chicago, 1874) History of the Chicago Great Western Railroad “Alpheus Bede Stickney,” in John A. Garraty and in the Livingston Papers; C. C. Andrews, ed., Company (DeKalb, 111.: Northern Illinois Univer­ Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biogra­ History of St, Paul, Minnesota (Syracuse, N. Y.: sity Press, 1984), p. 1. D. Mason & Co., 1890), p. 299; and T. M. Newson, phy, vol. 20 (New York: Oxford University Press, Pen Pictures of St. Paul, Minnesota and Biograph­ 49. Renz, p. 111 and Smalley, History of the 1999), pp. 760-761; “Alpheus Bede Stickney,” in ical Sketches of Old Settlers, vol. 1 (St. Paul, Northern Pacific Railroad, p. 304. Dictionary of American Biography, edited by Dumas Malone, vol. 18 (New York: Charles Minn.: the author, 1886), pp. 95-97. 50. E. V. Smalley, comp., Northern Pacific Scribner’s Sons, 1936), pp. 15-16; “Alpheus Bede Railroad Book of Reference for the Use of the Di­ 30. Newson, 1:142. Stickney,” in National Cyclopedia of American rectors and Officers of the Company (New York: Biography, vol. 19 (New York: James T. White & 31. Thomas R. Potts letter to Abbie Ann Potts, E. Wells Sackett & Rankin, 1883), pp. 187-188 Co., 1926), p. 33; and John L. Relf, The Man April 12,1870, in the Livingston Papers. (hereinafter referred to as Book of Reference) and Whose Dream Came True: A Biography of A. B. Renz,p. 111. 32. Thomas R. Potts to his daughter Abbie Stickney (Dellwood, Minn.: J. L. Relf, 1991), pp. Potts, July 25,1870, in the Livingston Papers. 51. Smalley, Book of Reference, p. 244 and 45-65. Renz, p. 111. 33. Biographical information on Frederick 66. Grant, pp. 4-5 and Frank P. Donovan Jr., Billings is from Robin W. Winks, “Frederick 52. Smalley, History of the Northern Pacific Mileposts on the Prairie: The Story of the Min­ Billings,” in American National Biography, vol. Railroad, pp. 304-305 and Renz, p. 110. neapolis & St. Louis Railway (New York: Simmons- 2, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes Boardman Publishing Co., 1950), pp. 12-18; and 53. Northern Pacific Railroad Company, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. “Crawford Livingston, “ 6 The Northwest Maga­ Leases and Traffic Contracts, Branch Lines, vol. 768-769; “Frederick Billings,” in Dictionary of zine (January 1888): 10. American Biography, vol. 2, edited by Allen VI, #73, “Tripartite Contract Between the Little Johnson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, Falls and Dakota Railroad Company, the Northern 67. Quoted in Grant, p. 4. Pacific Railroad Company, and the Oregon and 1929), pp. 265-266; and “Frederick Billings,” in 68. Grant, pp. 5-7. The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Transcontinental Company [October 20, 1883],” vol. 25 (New York: James T. White & Co., 1936), Minnesota Historical Society, Minnesota History 69. “Harry Walter Livingston,” Oakland p. 361. Center, St. Paul, Minn. Cemetery Association, St. Paul, Minn. 34. Malone, p. 35. 54. Henry Villard letter to Crawford Liv­ 70. Christina H. Jacobsen, “The Burbank-

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 29 Livingston-Griggs House: Historie Treasure on 79. R. L. Polk & Co., St. Paul City Directory 90. New York Times, April 4, 1916, p. 24; Summit Avenue,” 42 Minnesota History (Spring 1899 (St. Paul, Minn.: R. L. Polk & Co., 1899), April 5,1916, p. 24; April 6,1916, p. 21; May 3, 1970): 25-29 and Eleanor Ostman, “Livingston- pp. 938, 1132, and 1474. An account of the 1916, p. 11; and May 5,1916, p. 9. Griggs Home Reflects Old World,” Livingston-Willis marriage is in the Winona Daily St. Paul Pio­ 91. Gerald M. Livingston letter to John P. Republican, December 21, 1883, p. 3. For Henry neer Press, February 13, 1966, pp. Ê 8; and Deering, Biddeford, Me., May 27,1926, roll 6, pp. Willis, see “Henry B. Willis,” Oakland Cemetery Robert Stewart Burton, The Burbank-Livingston- 1006-1007 in Gerald and Crawford Livingston Association, St. Paul, Minn. Alice Livingston Griggs House, 432 Summit Avenue, St. Paul, Min­ Papers. John Deering was a judge in Biddeford MacGregor’s obituary is in the St. Paul Pioneer nesota: A Brief Assessment of Its Architectural who had been a witness to the signing of the codi­ Evolution and an Assessment of Its Existing Interi­ Press, June 6,1935, p. 5. The newspaper identifies cil to Crawford Livingston’s will in 1925. ors (Bronxville, N.Y.: R. S. Burton, 1996). her birthplace as Albany, N. Y., but the records of the Oakland Cemetery Association give her birth­ 92. Crawford Livingston letter to “Kitty” [Al­ 71. Morgan, pp. 3-7 and 48-54. place as New Jersey, which is where Prof. Phelps lison], May 5,1920, roll 6, p. 0230; Crawford Liv­ 72. The Newson quotation is from his Pen was when he was the principal of the New Jersey ingston letter to J. W. Smith, Fargo, N.D., July 6, Pictures of St. Paul, Minnesota and Biographical State Normal School at Trenton. 1920, roll 6, p. 0354; Crawford Livingston letter to Sketches of Old Settlers, vol. 1 (St. Paul, Minn.: T. Alvin W. Krech, New York, N. Y., July 6, 1923, 80. Ernest R. Sandeen, St. Paul’s Historic M. Newson, 1886), p. 577. Sazevich, pp. 21,23. roll 6, p. 0323; William Hamm letter to Crawford Summit Avenue (St. Paul, Minn.: Living Historical Livingston, March 16, 1923, roll 6, pp. 73. Quoted in Martin, p. 442. Museum, Macalester College, 1978), pp. 58-59, 0418-0419; Crawford Livingston letter to William 61 and “339 Summit Avenue” Historic Sites Sur­ 74. Martin, p. 441. Hamm, March 20, 1923, roll 6, pp. 0420-0421; vey, Ramsey County Historical Society, St. Paul, and Crawford Livingston to Louis W. Hill, Febru­ 75. “Crawford Livingston,” 6 The Northwest Minn. ary 1, 1923, roll 6, p. 0423, in Gerald and Craw­ Magazine (January 1888): 10; R. L. Polk & Co., .81. Crawford Livingston will, June 27, 1919, ford Livingston Papers. St. Paul City Directory 1886-7 (St. Paul, Minn.: and codicil to the will of Crawford Livingston, R. L. Polk & Co., 1886), p. 619. The 1885-6 Di­ 93. Crawford Livingston will, June 27, 1919, September 3,1925, both p. 1, microfilm roll 6, pp. rectory lists Crawford Livingston as president, and codicil, September 3, 1925, roll 6, pp. 0953 and 0956; the quotation is on p. 0956, in Ger­ Como Railway Company, and president, St. Paul 0953-0958 in Gerald and Crawford Livingston ald and Crawford Livingston Papers. District Telephone Company. It also lists C. Liv­ Papers. ingston & Company, brokers, at 63 E. 3rd Street, 82. Gerald M. Livingston letter to Alice L. 94. Crawford Livingston letter to Mary Living­ St. Paul (p. 539). The lists the MacGregor, November 29, 1927, roll 3, p. 0866, 1887-8 Directory ston Griggs, January 1,1922, in Livingston Papers. Livingston residence as 432 Summit and his office in Gerald and Crawford Livingston Papers. as “Globe bldg.” (p. 763). 95. Crawford Livingston letter to 1148 Fifth 83. A newspaper account of Abbie’s wedding Avenue Corporation, New York, N. Y., December 76. Smalley, Book of Reference, p. 256. Works is in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 21,1910, p. 5. 11,1923, roll 6, pp. 0412-0413 and Crawford Liv­ Progress Administration, Federal Writers Project, The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported on Mary’s ingston letter to Wheatley Hills Golf Club, East wedding to Theodore Griggs on November 26, Montana, Montana: A State Guide Book (New Williston, Long Island, N. Y., April 23,1924, roll York: Viking Press, 1939), p. 199; Roberta Car- 1915, p. 1. 6, p. 0490 in Gerald and Crawford Livingston keek Cheney, Names on the Face of Montana: The 84. Crawford Livingston letter to Mary Steele Papers. Story of Montana's Place Names (Missoula, Mont. : Potts Livingston, no date, from Biddeford, Maine. Mountain Press Publishing Co., 1984), p. 161; 96. Crawford Livingston letter to Dr. James Livingston Papers. “Livingston,” Encyclopedia Britannica (Britan- Hall, Oyster Bay, Long Island, N. Y., April 23, nica.com, November 14, 1999). Northern Pacific 85. Mary Livingston Griggs Burke, “Remem­ 1924, roll 6, p. 0487 in Gerald and Crawford Liv­ Railroad, “Livingston, Park County, Montana,” in bering Mary Livingston Ripley,” unpublished ingston Papers. manuscript, no date, pp. 7-9, Livingston Papers. “Place Names N-O,” vol. 2, Minnesota Historical 97. Crawford Livingston letter to Theodore Society, Minnesota History Center, St. Paul, Minn, 86. A. N. Marquis Co., The Book of Min­ W. Griggs, May 30,1922, in Livingston Papers. and Northwest Magazine, June 1884. nesotans (Chicago: A. N. Marquis Co., 1907), p. 98. An obituary for Mary Steele Potts Liv­ 311. 77. Mary Livingston Griggs Burke, “Forest ingston is in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 29, Lodge Story,” unpublished manuscript, no date, p. 87. Crawford Livingston letter to his daughter 1925, p. 1. See also “Mary S. Livingston,” Oak­ 1, and “The Origin of the Cable Natural History Mary, April 14, 1906, on Lee, Kretschmar & Co. land Cemetery Association, St. Paul, Minn. Obitu­ Museum,” unpublished manuscript, no date, pp. stationery. This letter establishes that Livingston aries for Crawford Livingston are in the St. Paul 1-2, Livingston Papers. was associated with Horatio C. Kretschmar at least Dispatch, November 16, 1925, p. 1 and the New 78. The around-the-world cruise is described as of 1906. Mary Steele Potts Livingston letter York Times, November 17, 1925, p. 25. See also in Mary Livingston Griggs Burke, “Some Notes to Mary Steele Livingston, December 6, “Crawford Livingston,” Oakland Cemetery Asso­ On Mother & Her Sister Abbie,” unpublished 1911 on Waldorf-Astoria stationery discusses ciation, St. Paul, Minn. Kretschmar’s death. Both letters are in the Liv­ manuscript, no date, pp. 1-2, Livingston papers. 99. Gerald M. Livingston letter to Walter W. “Crawford Livingston Jr.,” and “Caroline Liv­ ingston Papers. Price, April 17, 1926, roll 2, p. 0638 and Gerald ingston Phelps,” Oakland Cemetery Association, 88. New York Times, August 15, 1922, p. 13; M. Livingston letter to Edwin Stanton George, St. Paul, Minn. An obituary for Caroline Liv­ January 11, 1924, p. 24; September 24, 1929, p. Tiffany Studios, New York, N. Y., June 23,1927, ingston Phelps is in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, 38; October 3,1934, p. 32; November 20,1943, p. roll 4, p. 0331 in Gerald and Crawford Livingston March 13,1903, p. 2. Prof. Phelps’s obituaries are 13 provide a brief account of the history of Liv­ Papers. in St. Paul Dispatch, August 16, 1907, p. 15; ingston & Company and of the career of Gerald M. Winona Independent, August 17, 1907, p. 6; and 100. New York Times, October 6,1926, p. 22; Livingston. Winona Republican Herald, August 17, 1907. Carl Taylor, New York, N. Y., letter to Gerald M. Phelps is buried in Winona. Abbie Steele Potts, 89. Gerald M. Livingston letter to the Paul Livingston, November 12, 1926, roll 6, p. 1046; Livingston’s mother-in-law, died in St. Paul on Brothers Company, Cleveland, Ohio, September Minnesota Probate Court, In the Matter of the Es­ February 1,1901. She is buried in Oakland Ceme­ 16,1927, roll 4, p. 0022, in Gerald and Crawford tate of Crawford Livingston, roll 6, p. 0494, all in tery, St. Paul, Minn. Livingston Papers. Gerald and Crawford Livingston Papers.

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