Morrison County Influentials: 51-55

Last week’s Morrison County Influentials:

46.  Alfred Tanner (1840-1912) – Little Falls businessman.  Alfred Tanner came to Little Falls, Minnesota, in 1857 and established a mercantile business.  In 1868, Tanner switched to farming and five years later entered the hotel business, operating the Northern Hotel in Little Falls.  When he returned to the mercantile business in 1881 Tanner also started the Little Falls Milling Company on the west side of the Missippippi River.  Six years later he built a general merchandise house, known as the Tanner Block, in downtown Little Falls.  Tanner served as mayor of Little Falls in 1897 and was a Morrison County commissioner and postmaster.

47.  Dr. G. M. A. Fortier I (1857-1926) – Physician and surgeon.  George Marie Alma Fortier I came to Little Falls in 1881and set up his medical practice.  Fortier served in various public offices in Morrison County.  He was elected twice to the Little Falls City Council (1887 and 1889), was elected mayor of Little Falls in 1914, served as the city physician and was a member of the Board of Health.  Fortier also served as a United States pension examiner and a United States marine examiner.

48. Edward Morey (1909-1987) – Founder of the Morey Fish Company in Motley, Minnesota.  The Morey Fish Company, a wholesale and retail operation, began in 1938 when Edward Morey smoked his first fish in a homemade smoke house on a farm near Motley.  A wholesale and retail operation, the company shipped its products throughout the continental United States.  In 1979 the company was sold to Multi-Foods.

49. Barney Burton (1867-1942) – Little Falls businessman.  At the age of nineteen, Barney Burton moved the clothing business he had established with his brother in St. Cloud, Minnesota, to Little Falls.  After their partnership was dissolved in 1891, Burton’s business grew to be one of the largest clothing firms in central Minnesota with branches in Brainerd, Bemidji, International Falls, Pierz and Pine River.  In 1920, Burton sold his business and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he established a wholesale business.  Two years later he returned to Little Falls and once again entered the clothing business.  Burton was also a pioneer in the automobile business in Morrison County.  Orignally an agent for Nash, Burton also sold for Chevrolet and Oldsmobile.

50. Clarence Johnston (1859-1936) – American architect who designed the Weyerhaeuser and Musser homes in Little Falls.  Other buildings designed by Johnston include several on the various University of Minnesota campuses (St. Paul, Minneapolis, Morris and Duluth), the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand, the Glensheen Historic Estate in Duluth, and the St. Paul Central High School.    Johnston held the title of Minnesota State Architect for thirty years and was the favored architect for the upper-class of St. Paul, Minnesota.  According to Paul Clifford Larson in his book, Minnesota Architect:  The Life and Work of Clarence H. Johnston, forty-two of his designs line Summit Avenue in St. Paul.

Next week’s Influentials:

51. Dr. G. M. A. Fortier II

52. Charles Vasaly

53. Henry Adelbert (H. A.) Rider

54. Colonel Andrew D. Davidson

55. Alexander Rae Davidson

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