Title: Hansen Evesmith
Dates: 1903-1943
Collection Number: 10263
Quantity: .25 feet and 1 volume
Abstract: Consists of Zenith Coal Company Daily reports concerning shipments and receipts and disbursements for a coal mine, correspondence, notes, coal mine blueprint and information, and newspaper clippings. Also includes correspondence and newspaper clippings concerning procurement of North Dakota stone for the Washington Monument.
Provenance: The State Historical Society of North Dakota acquired this collection from Hansen Evesmith in January 1930.
Property Rights: The State Historical Society of North Dakota owns the property rights to this collection.
Copyrights: Copyrights to this collection remain with the donor, publisher, author, or author's heirs. Researchers should consult the 1976 Copyright Act, Public Law 94-553, Title 17, U.S. Code or an archivist at this repository if clarification of copyright requirements is needed.
Access: This collection is open under the rules and regulations of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
Citation: Researchers are requested to cite the collection title, collection number, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota in all footnote and bibliographic references.
Transfer: MSS 20348 was added to this collection along with two photographs from the A collection.
Biographical Sketch
From the Fargo Forum, Monday March 27, 1944
Hansen Evesmith, 77, retired president and engineer of Evesmith corporation died Monday morning in a Fargo hospital following a several months illness. He had made his home with two daughters, Hazel and Inez.
Mrs. Evesmith was born on Dec. 6, 1867 in the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein and was brought to the United States at the age of 2 by his parents, who were political refugees.
His education was in public and private schools and he graduated in engineering and commerce from Swensberg’s Institute in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Mr. Evesmith came into Minnesota in 1892 and became an employee of the Duluth Gas and Water Company. Shortly thereafter he was assistant treasurer of the Duluth Messabe and Northern Railroad. In 1894 he was cashier of the Iron Exchange Bank at Duluth. He was at one time president of the Duluth Chamber of Commerce and an incorporator and director of the Duluth Board of Freeholders for 11 years and 0pf the Duluth Water and Light commission, which he served as president for seven years.
He was identified with the organization and financing of the Paladic office building in Duluth; the Rainy Lake Lumber company; the Duluth Rainy Lake and Winnipeg railway; the Cliff and St. Croix mines of Utah. He was one of the first to make exploratory tests for iron ore in the Hibbing, Minn. territory.
He came to North Dakota in 1902 through his interest in the Zenith coal mines., west of Dickinson. He platted and named the community, organized a mercantile company, operated boarding housed, farmed quite extensively, located an elevator there.
Other enterprises in that section included holding the controlling stock in the Pittsburg mine at Lehigh, east of Dickinson; organization of Scoria Construction company and starting a settlement of Scoria, west of Medora, in the Badlands area, and his last venture in the territory, the operation of Scranton Collieries corporation, which took over a coal mine and electric plant in 1927.
Mr. Evesmith had patents issued for processing coal, combustion improvements and equipment.
In the days of his youth, Mr. Evesmith sailed both on the Great Lakes and the oceans. He was only 16 when he was on the Great Lakes as a sailor and was just short of 21 years of age when he received a captain’s rating in the merchant marine. But he quit the sea at that point while his ship was at harbor in San Francisco.
When the World war came along Mr. Evesmith found a place in the U.S. Army transport service. He was classified as a civilian employee with the U.S. shipping board, but he is given recognition as a serviceman of North Dakota in the Official Roster of North Dakota Soldiers, Sailors and Marines.
Mr. Evesmith was married to Mary Cecelia Wilson in 1891 at Manistee, Mich. Mrs. Evesmith died in April 1935. There ar four daughters and a son, Hazel and Inez, teachers in the Agassiz and Roosevelt junior high school respectively; Mildred E. Slater of Aberdeen, S.D.; Mrs. W. E. Bohner of Rochester, Minn.; and Ruggles W. of Duluth. Also surviving is one sister, Mrs. Emma Christianson of Ferndale, Calif.
Inventory
Box 1:
1 Hansen Evesmith biographical information 1922-1931
2 Zenith Briquet and Mines Corp. Indenture and Deed of Trust 1926
3 The Lignite Deposits of North Dakota 1925
4 Report on Properties of Zenith Briquet and Mines Corp. 1926
5 Change name of the Dakotas 1921-1926
6 J.C.R. 1919, 1932
7 Smoke from Minnesota forest fires 1918, 1932
8 North Dakota stone used in Washington Monument 1922-1931
9 Pioneer industrialists 1936-1939
10 Zenith Lignite Mines, Zenith (N.D.) 1913-1943
11 Zenith Coal Co. blueprint 1904
12 Newspaper clippings sent to Congress re: using North Dakota lignite to process Minnesota iron ore 1942-1943
13 Newspaper clippings, misc. 1921-1932
14 Photos 1902, 1922
Bound volume
Daily reports of Zenith Coal Company 1903-1914
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