Bio of ELWELL, George Herbert (b.1856), Hennepin Co., MN
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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
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GEORGE H. ELWELL (George Herbert Elwell) - Vol III, pg 258-262
Under the vigorous and progressive management of George H. Elwell the busi­ness
of the Minneapolis Furniture Company, of which he is the president, has
stead­ily grown and developed. In other fields, too, Mr. Elwell has labored
effectively and earnestly and particularly was he well known in connection with
his services as a member of the Minneapolis school board. He has been a witness
of the growth and development of this city almost from its inception, for he was
born November 25, 1856, in what was then the village of St. Anthony. He is a son
of Tallmadge and Margaret (Miller) Elwell, who were natives of the state of New
York, and both came to Minnesota in 1852. Mrs. Elwell and her sister engaged in
the millinery business at Stillwater from 1852 until 1854, when in a double
wedding Margaret Miller became the wife of Tallmadge Elwell and the sister the
wife of John P. Furber of Cottage Grove, Minnesota, the wedding ceremony being
performed by the Rev. David Secomb in the First Congregational church. Tallmadge
Elwell was a daguerreotyper for some years and made a number of pictures which
appear in the historic section of these volumes. After devoting several years to
the art he started a town site at Granite City, in Morrison county, in 1855 and
there resided until 1862. The indications for success were most promising until
that year, when the uprising of the Sioux and Chippewa Indians made it unsafe to
remain on the frontier and Mr. Elwell abandoned his project. He then removed to
Little Falls and after two years took up his abode in St. Cloud, Minnesota,
where a similar period was passed, during which time he was collector of
internal revenue in the employ of the government. In 1865 he became a resident
of Cottage Grove, Wash­ington county, Minnesota, where he continued until 1872
and then removed to Minneapolis, where he and his wife spent their remaining
days, Mrs. Elwell passing away on the 19th of March, 1894, while Mr. Elwell
survived until February 7, 1903. With his return to this city he engaged in the
manufacture of spring beds, being the pioneer in this field of industry in the
Northwest. Both he and his wife were members of the First Congregational church,
in which they were married. They reared a family of eight children: James T.,
who represented the thirty-ninth district in the state senate of Minnesota;
George H.; John F., of Wichita, Kansas; Rev. Robert T., who is a Congregational
minister in Seattle, Washington; Susie Isabel, the wife of C. T. Rickard,
proprietor of the Minneapolis School of Business; Mary Whitmore, the wife of T.
N. Spaulding, living at Pasadena, California; Mattie Laura, the deceased wife of
Dr. William Noyes, dean of chemistry in the University of Illinois; and Jessie
Helen Campbell, the wife of Dr. William Frost, professor of bacteriology in the
University of Wisconsin at Madison.
The youthful years of George H. Elwell were passed in the various towns in which
the family home was maintained until he arrived in Minneapolis at the age of
eighteen with the return of his parents to this city. He supplemented his public
school training by a three years' course of study in Carleton College and
afterward attended the University of Minnesota for a year. In early manhood he
took up the profession of teaching, serving as principal of the public school at
Appleton, Minne­sota, from 1879 until 1882. In March of the latter year he took
charge of the business of the Minneapolis Furniture Company, of which he was one
of the incor-porators, and became the first secretary and manager. The following
year he was elected to the presidency and has since remained the executive head
of the com­pany. The business has grown steadily under his capable direction and
now con­stitutes one of the important manufacturing enterprises of Minneapolis.
The out­put consists of bedroom furniture and Elwell kitchen cabinets, the
latter a very useful article now extensively sold. The business represents an
investment of three hundred fifty thousand dollars, while the annual trade
reaches approximately five hundred thousand dollars. Employment is furnished to
one hundred and fifty people and the concern has steadily developed under the
guiding hand of Mr. Elwell, whose systematic habits and progressive methods have
brought to him a substantial measure of success.
In the fall of the same year in which he took over the business of the
Minne­apolis Furniture Company, Mr. Elwell was united in marriage to Miss Belle
Horn, who had been one of his pupils in school. They have become the parents of
five children; Harold Manford, who is a graduate of the University of
Pennsylvania and is now secretary of the Minneapolis Furniture Company; Georgia
Belle, who is a graduate of the Columbia Teachers' College, taking a special
course in domestic science and art, which she has taught in the East high
school, and who is now supervisor of that course in the State high school, and
was state supervisor of Voca­tional Home Economics while working in Idaho;
Florence, now the wife of A. R. Compton of Webster, South Dakota; and Susie
Marie, who was graduated from the East high school and the State Teachers
College of Duluth and is now kinder­garten teacher in Minneapolis; and George
Herbert, Jr., who also completed his studies in the East high school and for one
year attended the University of Minne-ta. He has adopted music as his profession
and is now in France.
Politically Mr. Elwell has been an earnest republican since attaining his
major­ity, and while he has never sought or desired office as a reward for party
fealty, his fellow-townsmen, recognizing his ability and fidelity to the public
welfare, called upon him about fourteen years ago to serve as a member of the
board of education. Immediately after his election to that position he was
chosen president of the board and the period of his incumbency in the office was
one of the most important in the history of the school system of this city. The
schools grew rapidly under his direction, necessitating the erection of several
new school buildings, and marked improvement was shown in the methods of
instruction and in the introduction of new phases and features of teaching. He
gave much of his thought, time and energy to the work of the schools and
Minneapolis profited directly by his labors in connection with her educational
system. Both Mr. and Mrs. Elwell attend the First Congregational church, in
which they hold membership and in the work of which they are actively and
helpfully interested. When leisure permits Mr. Elwell turns for recreation to
farming instead of golf, and he also possesses a social nature which finds great
joy in the companionship of friends of similar tastes and interests. He is an
active member of the St. Anthony Commercial Club and the Six O'Clock Club, and
he is frequently found in those gatherings where men inclined to deep research
and investigation are met in the discussion of themes vital to the welfare and
progress of the community, for he is not only a representative and pros­perous
business man but also a most public-spirited citizen.