The Dickinson press., 1915-01-02
Political
Career of Local
Business Man

appeared in the Sunday edition of the
Courier-News Of Fargo:
In the person of Henry Truelsen,
one of the local members of the Da-
kota Ignite Mines Co., which was
created recently by the consolidation
of the Zenith Coal Co., with the Da-
kota Fuel Co., it has been discovered
that we have one of the most inter-
esting characters of the early Duluth
pioneer political days, that region
prolific of startling personalities, ever
turned out. He has been alderman of
the famous city on the lake, sheriff of
three great counties acting as one,
and twice mayor Of Duluth, in which
capacity he cleverly turned the trick
on the "gang" and saved the city
nearly a million in cold cash, in the
purchase of a city waterworks plant.
Mr.. Henry Truelsen is another
striking sample of the possibilities
wrapped up in our German immi-
grants. He was born in Germany in
1874, in the province of Schleswig-
Holstein. He thinks that very prob
ably the family sprang from Danish
extraction, but so far as the immedi-
ate forbears of the said Henry are
concerned, the family has been en-
tirely German.
He immigrated to America in '66,
finding employment in the mercantile
business on the Upper Peninsula, of
Michigan till $50, when he came to
Duluth. That famous city at that
time was wholly in the future, con-
sisting of a few cabins and about a
dozen white men. However, a rail-
road from st. Paul reacher there in
10, and young Truelsen, with some Of
the other pioneers, saw great posi-
bilities in the Lake Superior city,
which has since grown to be, as the
common saying is, "A mile wide, five
miles long and a mile high" refer
ring to the immense bluffs upon which
it has been built. The Duluth en-
thusiasts in 1870 based their expecta-
lions on the lumber trade and the
traffic on the lake that would natur-
ally make that point a carrying port
for many hundreds Of miles of North
ern Minnesota country. Many
thought the early settlers there Wis
ionary, but events proved them cor
rect beyond even their own expecta-
lions.
1t was also in 1870 that iron was
discovered in that norther country.
York C. Stone made the discovery at
Tower, about one hundred miles north
Of Duluth. He was a brother of the
Stone whose name heads the firm of
Stone, Ordean & Wells of Duluth. Mr.
Stone tried in vain to interest Mr.
Truelsen in the great discovery, but
Truelsen couldn't see the millions in
it that Stone could, and that subse-
quently proved to be there. He mar
rowly missed at this time being many
times a multi-millionaire, by failing
to take a hand in the iron business;
that is, if he had not, subsequently,
dropped the whole wad to Rockefeller,
or some other eastern capitalist, as
so many of the men did who went into
iron at that early date. -
Stone interested a Mr.. Tower in the
enterprise, who put several million
into what is now known as the "Iron
Range" railroad. 1t was built from
Two Harbors to fewer, with a branch
running to Duluth. ~-
Mr.. Truelsen quickly got interested
in Duluth politics, and served as city
alderman from '78 to '86. In '86 he
was elected sheriff of the Eleventh
Judicial district, which comprised the
counties of st. Louis, Cook and Lake.
In '88 he was defeated for the sheriff's
office because he was a democrat, the
mining regions of northern Minnesota
being then very heavily republican.
In 81 he became president of the
Board of Public Works, serving in
that capacity till '94. About this time
there arose in the city of Duluth a
great, deal of agitation over the pos
sible purchase of the Duluth Gas and
Water Company's plant. Great dis
satisfaction had arisen over the fact
that they YER furnishing impure wa
ter for the city which resulted in
many cases of typhoid, the number at
one time reaching the appalling total
of three thousand six. hundred cases
and the deaths from that one disease
in that one city reaching to n hun
bred and tweny cases for that year.
The company offered to sell their
plant for $2,106,000, which Truelsen
and others interested in public works
considered ~exhorbitant. The PROPOSE
ton was submitted to a vote of the
people and failed, though the water
COMPANY oPSAAV LoAAy pc03OOo III "a ~
fort to win at the poles.
Truelsen led in the organization of
a Municipal Reform league which
sought to secure the ownership Of
public utilities either by sale or by
building, and when the water COM
pany tries to secure to consent Of the
voters at another campaign and
claimed the election by a good major
ity, the Reform league declared the
election to be fraudulent, and Henry
Truelsen personally brought suit in
the district court c%ontesting the cleo
ton on the grounds Of illegality, due
to a confusing ballot. The district
court held that a contest Of that kind
could not be brought and Truelsen
carried it to the supreme court which
overruled the district court, and or
|dered it to consider the case The
district. court declared the ballot all
right and that the election had been
carried in, favor of the company.
Truelsen doggedly carried it again to
the supreme court, which again re-
versed 1.-The lower court and declared
- ~. g. Rna - EehI - FE