Bio of ATWOOD, Fred B. (b.1871), Hennepin Co., MN ========================================================================= USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. If you have found this file through a source other than the MNArchives Table Of Contents you can find other Minnesota related Archives at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/mn/mnfiles.htm Please note the county and type of file at the top of this page to find the submitter information or other files for this county. FileFormat by Terri--MNArchives Made available to The USGenWeb Archives by: Laura Pruden Submitted: June 2003 ========================================================================= Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ======================================================== submitted by Laura Pruden, email Raisndustbunys@aol.com ======================================================== EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical FRED B. ATWOOD - Vol II, pg 377-378 Fred B. Atwood, secretary of Forman, Ford & Company, manufacturers of paints and dealers in paints and glass, has been a resident of Minneapolis since 1897 and has been identified with the present corporation since 1898. Entering the employ of the company as an accountant, he has steadily advanced and, in fact, his course since making his initial step in the business world has been one of continuous progress, resulting from the wise use of his time, talents and opportunities. Born in Newaygo, Michigan, on the 2d of June, 1871, Mr. Atwood is a son of Charles L. and Ruth Amelia (Barnes) Atwood. The father was a carpenter by trade and followed the business for many years in Michigan, spending his last days in Grand Rapids. The public school system of his native state accorded Fred B. Atwood his educational privileges and after leaving school he entered upon an apprenticeship to the piano building trade, working in the Chase Brothers piano factory in Grand Rapids and in Muskegon, Michigan. While working at the bench as a piano maker he frequently had a shorthand textbook by his side and thus he learned stenography, this constituting a step forward in his business career and indicating the determination and ambition which actuated him. In 1888 he became a bookkeeper for John W. Davis & Sons at Mackinac Island and his next position was that of bookkeeper with J. B. Mathews & Company at Ash­land, Wisconsin, for whom he also served as stenographer, his previous studies now serving him in good stead. Later he acted as bookkeeper, stenographer and credit man with the Ashland Cigar & Tobacco Company and left that employ in 1906 to accept a position as stenographer with the Milwaukee Harvester Company. In 1897 he was sent by the company to Minneapolis as assistant branch manager or general man, continuing here for one year. On the 5th of November, 1898, he became associated with Forman, Ford & Company as an accountant and the adaptability with which he took up the work and acquainted himself with the various phases of the business, led to his promotion from time to time until in 1905 he was elected secretary and has so continued through the intervening period of seventeen years. This concern is one of the largest of the kind in the Northwest, the business having reached a considerable magnitude with its ramifying trade relations covering a wide territory. Mr. Atwood has also become a director of the Marquette National Bank and the Marquette Trust Company. In 1895 Fred B. Atwood was married to Miss Nellie Sherman, who passed away in 1900. Mr. Atwood was again married in March, 1912, Amelia A. Bohlke of Minne­apolis becoming his wife. They have one daughter, Doris E., and one son, Fred B., Jr. Mr. Atwood belongs to the Masonic fraternity, is a past master of Minneapolis Lodge, No. 19, A. F. & A. M., and is secretary of the Masonic Building Association. He has taken the various degrees of the York Rite and the Scottish Rite and belongs to Zuhrah Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He has membership in the Lynnhurst con­gregational church and is actively identified with all progressive steps in the church work. Mr. Atwood belongs also to the Minneapolis Advertising Club and is ex-chairman of the Better Business Bureau of that organization. His name is on the membership rolls of the Civic & Commerce Association and that he is not an inefficient unit of the organization is shown in his excellent service as chairman of the Public Solicita­tions committee. He is likewise a past president of the Minneapolis Association of Credit Men and has cooperated in all those organized forces which make for the extension of trade relations and the development of higher standards of business. At the same time he has never allowed business affairs so to monopolize his time as to exclude his active participation in those events and interests which are based upon the needs of the individual for intellectual, cultural and moral training and advance­ment. In all of these fields his activities have been far- reaching, beneficial and resultant.