31. The Louisville Syndicate – A group of businessmen from Louisville, Kentucky, the Louisville Syndicate was responsible for building a new and more structurally sound dam in Little Falls, Minnesota, in 1887. One of the businessmen, I. N. Hubbert, is believed to be a relative of C. H. Hubbert, who was secretary of the Little Falls Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber led the effort to transform Little Falls from a village into a city. The organization drafted a city charter in February 1889 which laid out the boundaries of the city, the number and type of city officers, term limits, and precincts.
32. Francis Eliza Babbitt -Archaeologist. Born in New York in 1824, Francis Eliza Babbitt taught in Little Falls and was acclaimed for her studies of paleolithic quartz implements that were discovered along the Mississippi River near Little Falls. Her scholarly papers appeared in national publications. Babbitt had a collection of several thousand quartz pieces from the Little Falls area, a collection that was later disposed of by a relative.
33. B. F. Nelson – Benjamin F. Nelson started the Hennepin Paper Company in Little Falls in 1890 with fellow businessman, Thomas B. Walker. Nelson and Walker already owned a pulp mill near St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when they chose Little Falls for a new mill. Little Falls was selected because of the city’s water power facilities, close proximity to pulp wood sources and good railway connections. The Little Falls mill, which was built with local brick, produced its first pulp in early October 1890.
34. Cass Gilbert – St. Paul-based architect, Cass Gilbert, designed the Northern Pacific Depot in Little Falls. The depot, which was built in 1899, was one of Gilbert’s last works in Minnesota before he moved east to New York City. A pioneering American architect best known for his skyscrapers (i.e. Woolworth building), Gilbert designed a wide variety of structures, including the Minnesota State Capitol. A mix of Shingle and American Craftsman styles, the depot in Little Falls attained National Register of Historic Places status in 1985.
35. Gertrude Staples – The first woman elected to the board of education in Little Falls was Gertrude Hilborn Staples. Gertrude, who worked as a teacher in Little Falls prior to her marriage to Isaac E. Staples in 1888, took an active interest in her community. According to the 1899 publication of Nichol’s Headlight, “(S)he is prominent in church and educational work; is a leader in all public movements….Her services are sought in all local literary and musical events”.
This week’s Morrison County Influentials are another interesting bunch:
36. Isabel Flood
37. Paul Larson
38. Clara Fuller
39. Jacob Kiewel
40. Ellen Nichols