Warren sheaf. [volume], September 01, 1915, The Royal Road to Farm-Lands Best, Section Two, Image 14

About Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
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The real founder in a commercial sense, of Warren,
was K. J. Taralseth, who established the present bus
iness in 1882, starting in a small way, but by integrity
of dealing, and with a kindly personality, built up the
largest department store in Northwestern Minnesota,
as the crowning sheaf of his successful career, down
to the time of his death in the fall of 1905. When the
business was at its height in 1904, K. J. Taralseth in
corporated for $50,000, and since his death, through
the management of his son, R. Taralseth, who is
president of the company, the business has taken on
new life, o-wing to the filling up of the country with
new settlers, which naturally expands the volume of
the mercantile business. To keep pace with this, new
departments have been added and a big business
block was erected, size 75x140 feet, two stories with
full basement, a classy pi ess brick stiucture, with
full plate glass fronts, 75 feet on the side and 140 feet
in front, the equal of any big department store of
the great metiopolitan centers, which has naturally
made Warren the pulling trading center of this rich
Valley. A department store that carries all the pop
ular and best known lines of merchandise that are
bought right and sold right. The K. J. Taralseth Co's
big store has been a great educator to those having
goods to buy, as the puces are always the lowest,
where a child can buy as cheaply as the most expert
buyer. A store that has not hesitated to undersell
the catalogue houses and, therefore, putting them out
of business in this terntory. The city dwellers and
those on the farms have become wise to the fact, that
they can buy better grades of goods, up to the minute,
in all lines of merchandise and save the time, postage
and parcels post charges, at the K. J. Taralseth
Company's great department store, and avoid taking
the chance of buying "unsight and unseen" goods of
inferior quality, cash in advance. This has been their
drawing ca'd and explains their yeaily inciease in
volume of business.
The interior fittings and furnishings of this Big
Store are the equal of any to be found The Twin
Cities, having cash carrier system, while the stock is
carried the latest full front show cases mounted on
sanitary marble bases, and the woodwork is in mahog
any finish Then there is the Ladies' Rest Room and
observation gallery over the office. One of the at
tractive features in the rear is the business office,
which is under the supervision of the president, Mr
R. B. Taralseth. Miss Hannah A. Munson is book
keeper and Miss Ellen Pearson cashier. The office
fittings are superb and for the safekeeping of the
books and records, a fire-proof reinforced concrete
vault is part of the equipment. In fact the business
has been systematized to a nicety, thus giving quick
service which is so helpful and satisfying to discrim
inating buyers. Then there are trying-on or dressing
rooms for the Ladies' and Misses' ready-to-wear, and
the Men's and Boys' clothing departments, which adds
another lure to the popularity of this great emporium.
The Big Store By Departments.
The Dry Goods Department is what we would call
"Ladies' Delight" and is presided over by E. Forseth
The stock carried comprises all the latest and best
weaves in American and Imported dress goods, silks
and velvets, notions and trimmings in endless var
ieties. This department has done much to build the
reputation of this large mercantile establishment.
The Ladies' Ready-To-Wear Department is presided
over by Miss Hattie Nelson and covers suits, coats,
skirts, dresses, waists and underwear, misses and
children's wear. In Ladies' suits, in order to give in
dividual selection, there are no two alike, which enables
the fair ones to be reasonably sure that their suit
will not be duplicated, which of itself is a great draw
ing card. There are suits covering all the latest fash
ions in the dressmakers' art and at prices to fit any
pocketbook, and that price is a reasonable profit
The Shoe Department is presided over by John M.
K. J. TARALSETH CO. WARREN'S GREAT DEPARTMENT STORE.
9into
GREAT NORTHERN DEPOT, WARREN, MINN.
THE ROYAL ROAD TO FARM-LANDS
Halvorson and is stocked with the best makes of Lad
ies', Men's and Children's shoes chic, classy shoes,
just the kind to appeal to wearers of correct styles in
footwear, which has made this department a leader.
The Clothing and Furnishing Departments, cover
ing men's, youths' and boys' clothing of the correct
sort, is in charge of Hans Urtes, who is noted for his
discriminating taste as a buyer. This is one of the
big departments and is fitted up with seven revolving
cases, holding seventy-five suits each. There are
clothes for all kinds of occupations, ultra-fashionable
evening wear, business, and workingmen's suits,
youths' school suits, and in fact everything, that a
man or boy would need to be well dressed and com
fortable, and at pi ices within the reach of all Then
there is the Gents Furnishing Department, a veritable
realm to select fiom covering everything that goes
to make up the well dressed man and youth.
The Grocery Department is presided over by W
Erickson and covers everything staple and fancy
groceries, canned goods and fiesh fruits, a department
with a stock which is the equal of many of the smaller
jobbing houses, so laige and extensive is its patronage
The Hardware Department covers everything in
builders and shelf hardware, paints, oils, building
material, stoves and ranges, the leader being the fam
ous Majestic range, while one of their specialties is
the De Laval Gieam Separator Then there is the
Cutlery and Sporting Goods Department, making this
completeness itself This depaitment is presided over
by Iver Wmberg who has had laige experience
this department of merchandise.
One of the important features is that of the man
ufacture and repair department, where cornices are
made and contracts are taken foi installing cisterns
and approved heating and ventilating plants foi
schools and othei public buildings
In the basement, size 75x140 feet, fitted up and
sub-divided
departments is an elegant show-room
where the rug department, covering American and Im
ported weaves, the celebrated Wilton, Axminster, and
Brussell's, are in great profusion, all sizes, to suit
the fancy of purchasers mattings and linoleums, cur
tains and fittings Just off of this department is the
bedding, trunk and valise departments, glassware,
china and enamelware and toys for the little folks.
On leaving these departments, we next come to the
surplus stock rooms, every department having its own
special storage, covering dry goods, clothing and
furnishings, shoes, groceries and hardware, in addi
tion to moth-proof lockers for furs, while a double
fire-proof vault is another accessory. Then there is
the cold-storage vault, with approved ventilating
system, while last, but not least is the double steam
heating plant, in a semi-fire-proof compartment,
which furnishes the heat for the whole building.
To give a still larger idea of what the K. J. Taral
seth Company stands for, we have only to mention
that there are nineteen high-priced people employed
in the various departments, to take care of the in
cessant stream of business from the time that the
great store opens its doors for business to the closing
hour. Then there is the delivery system, covering
the whole city three times each day, so that every
want of its customers may be faithfully filled.
The second floor of this splendid business block is
fitted up for offices, every one of which is filled. The
Warren Commercial Club has a suite of three rooms,
while the Masons and the Knights of Pythias have a
large space devoted to their temple and lodge rooms.
We could write columns on the up-to-dateness of
K. Taralseth Co's. great department store and yet
not tell the story of its marvelous rise and its gre.at
trade, that has been won by its liberal, progressive
policy, which may be summarized, "One for All and All
for One," for the glory and expansion of Warren as a
city and as a great trading mart of the Minnesota
Red River Valley.
FAR EAMED MINNESOTA RED RIVER VALLEY
THE SPAULDING ELEVATOR COMPANY.
This is one of the largest line elevator companies
the interior of Minnesota, owning as they do six
elevators in Marshall county and fourteen in North
Dakota, which gives them exceptional facilities for
taking caie of the grain crop of the farmers each
year To better iacilitate the handling of grain a
new 60,000 bushel house containing four steel tubes
is be'ng erected on the Soo Line right-of-way at War
len, at a cost of $30,000 This new elevator will be
in condition for th's fall's crop The Spaulding El
evator Co was established 1905 and is incorporated
for $50,000. Their activities cover the buying and
shipping of wheat, oats, barley, flax and flour, of
which they have an established trade, covering a
wide temtory In the fail of 1895, Warren shipped
more gram than any other point on the line of the
Great Northern railway the Northwest, from
farmeis' wagons, and wa^ known on the boards of
trade xn the great centers of the United States and
Europe as the greatest primary receiving point on
the Western Continent Since then grain growing has
been somewhat side-tracked for diversified farming,
and while this section will always be a large grower
of grain, still the tendency is toward crop rotation.
The officers of the Spaulding Elevator Co., are C.
L. Spaulding, president and general manager Geo. S.
Spaulding, vice-president H. R. Stanchfield, cashier
J- M. Porteous, assistant secretary and treasurer and
N. L. Allen, auditor all citizens of the highest stand
ing, not only as gram dealers, but as people who do
things for the development of their territory.
HON. K. J. TARALSETH.
In writing of men of affairs who have made War
ren what it is today, this great educational issue
would not be complete without paying a passing trib
ute to the Hon. Knud Taralseth, who located here
in 1882, when Warren was but a little station, and
here opened up a small business which grew and ex
panded with each succeeding year until the name of
The K. J. Taralseth Company, General Merchandise,
became a household word throughout this Valley. In
1888 he built part of the biick block upon the site of
which now stands the largest press brick general de
partment store in Northern Minnesota. Mr. Taralseth
was one of the organizers of the State Bank of War
ren and at the time of his death was vice-president.
He was president of the Citizens' State Bank of Fer
tile, a director of the State Bank of Oslo, a stockhold
er in the bank at Alvarado, and also the Scandia Bank
of Crookston and a stockholder in the wholesale house
of Alfred Andreason & Co., of Minneapolis. In po
litical honors he was fitly rewarded, serving as village
trustee from 1884 to 1888 president of the village
council 1889-1890 city treasurer 1891 to 1893 city
alderman from 1896 to 1898 elected mayor in 1900,
serving three years in succession. He was the first
president of the board of education, serving from 1898
to 1902. In all of these places of honor, he was an in
telligent worker and so shaped civic matters that
Warren grew and prospered and became the great
trading center of this section of the Minnesota Red
River Valley. He was generous to a fault as a con
tributor to everything that tended to the up build of
this, his adopted city and county. In religious belief
he was a member of the Norwegian Lutheran church
and was one of its most loyal members to the time of
his death.
Knud J. Taralseth was a native of Hornindal,
Bergen's Stift, Norway, having been born there on
November 2, 1848. In 1856 he was made an orphan
at the age of eight years and started his active life's
work as a cattle boy, which occupation he followed
until he was sixteen years of age, his herds having
the run of the rugged mountain ranges of Norway.
In 1864 he started his apprenticeship as a carpenter,
working at his trade in summer and in winter fishing.
In 1872 he bade farewell to his native land, sailing
for America, coming directly to Red Wing, Minn.,
where he secured work as a railroad laborer at $1.25
per day for the first year. He then went to Minneap
olis, where he worked at his carpenter trade until
1875. Mr. Taralseth prospered so well financially
that he returned to Norway and married Miss
Ragnhild Satren, his old sweetheart, and then return
ed to Minneapolis to work at his carpenter's trade.
In 1878 he removed to Osakis, Minn., and purchased a
half interest in a small store, where he remained until
1882, when he disposed of his interest, coming to War
ren.
His was an eventful, active life, that was crowned
with success a splendid citizen, a faithful husband
and a loving father, beloved and mourned by those
who knew and had dealings with him. The members
of the family that survived him are Mrs. Taralseth, a
daughter, Mrs. Ed. Mossfin, and two sons, O. H.
Taralseth, president of the State Bank of Warren,
and B. Taralseth, proprietor of the K. J. Taralseth
Co., great department store.
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HON. HALVOR STEENERSON.
In point of national service as Congressman of the
Ninth District of Minnesota, covering the counties of
Marshall, Polk, Kittson, Becker, Clay, Clearwater,
Ottertail, Pennington, Red Lake, Wilkin, Roseau, Nor
man and Mahnomen, few have attained a higher
standing than that of Honorable Halvor Steenerson,
whose home is Crookston, the metropolis of the
Minnesota Red River Valley. He was first elected to
the Fifty-eighth Congress is serving his seventh term,
and is a ranking member of the Committee on Post
Offices and Post Roads During this period of his ser
vice he has taken a conspicuous part as a national
law-maker in perfecting and extending the rural free
delivery service, initiating legislation for the drain
age of ceded Indian lands, and in aiding homestead
settlers on the public domain xn handling the trust
question and other advanced legislation for the ben
efit of the whole people. Mr. Steenerson, while a
Republican, has been a vote-getter regardless of party,
as a recognition of services rendered. In April, 1880,
the subject of this sketch located in Crookston, and
in the fall of that year was elected County Attorney,
serving two years in 1882 elected State Senator, ser
ving in the session of 1883 and 1885 in 1884 and 1888
was chosen a delegate to the National Republican con
ventions held in Chicago, and is at present a member
of the Executive Committee of the Republican Nation
al Congressional Committee, which fully certifies his
eminent standing as a party leader. Congressman
Steenerson is a native of Dane County, Wisconsin,
but came here in territorial days, his parents having
settled in Houston County, where he was educated in
the common schools and at the high school at Rush
ford, this state He later studied law in an office at
Austin, and rounded out his education' by attending
the Union College of Law, Chicago. In June 1878 he
was admitted to the bar in the Supreme Court of
Illinois, and the same year to practice in the courts of
Minnesota
Congressman Steeneison has a high standing in
his profession as a trial lawyer, and as an orator on
public questions has few equals, and these qualities
have given him, not only local, but nation-wide fame.
SHERIFF HANS C. HANSON.
One of the best known men in Marshall county is
Sheriff Hans C. Hanson, who was nominated and
elected Sheriff in 1914, being then a resident of Vik
ing, where he had held a position as grain buyer for
the Atlantic Elevator Co. for five years. Mr. Hanson
was one of the first settlers in Viking township, lo
cating there in 1883, where his father took up a home
stead, and in 1896 he, also, homesteaded 160 acres.
He started life as a farm boy, but before coming to
Marshall county, he was located in Waseca county,
where he was born in 1872 and there received his
early education in 1882 he came with his parents to
New Solum township.
Sheriff Hanson in politics is a Republican, and for
years he battled for party supremacy in season and
out of season, without seeking reward. Recognizing
his past services and his availability, he was in 1914
urged to become a candidate for sheriff and after a
strenuous political campaign was elected. He is a
very popular man and known all over the county as
"Honest Hans Hanson". As a public officer he has
made a record for law enforcement that meets with
the approval of the people in this law-abiding com
munity. His is a four-year term of office under the
new law, and when he has rounded out the full term
of his office, he will be found to have been a faithful
public official and to have made a record for efficiency
upon which he need have no fear to go before the
people for re-election for a second term, if he desires
to do 60.
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