Bio of EUSTIS, William Henry (b.1845), 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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WILLIAM HENRY EUSTIS - Vol II, pg 24-29
There is no greater stimulus to individual activity and enterprise than that
which is found in the life history of such men as William Henry Eustis, whose
indomitable will has enabled him to rise superior to adversity, and conquering
all obstacles and difficulties in his path, he has steadily progressed, winning
a position of distinction in business and professional circles of Minneapolis.
He was born in the village of Oxbow, New York, July 17, 1845, a son of Tobias
Eustis, a native of Cornwall, England, and Mary (Marwick) Eustis, who was also
of English descent. The father emigrated to the United States, where he learned
the trade of wheelwright. They had a large family, of whom the subject of this
review was the second.
William H. Eustis was early obliged to seek employment, finding various jobs in
the neighborhood and also grinding bark in the village tannery. When fifteen
years of age he met with a very serious accident and the result of this
affliction was to change his whole course in life. His recovery was largely due
to his strong constitution and resolute will and eventually he became able to
teach the district school. Spurred on by a laudable ambition, he applied himself
to the study of bookkeeping and telegraphy and later he secured a position as
solicitor for a life insurance company. Through these means he obtained
sufficient funds to meet the expenses of en education and became a student in
the seminary at Gouverneur, New York. In 1871 he entered the sophomore class of
Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, from which he was graduated in
1873. That same year he entered the law school of Columbia College of New York
city, which conferred upon him the LL. B. degree in 1874. He had completed a two
years' course in one year and was qualified for the practice of law. Securing a
position as teacher day and night in New York city schools, he was able at the
end of six months to discharge a debt of a thousand dollars, which he had
incurred towards his college expenses. During this time he had made the
acquaintance of John R. Putnam, a prominent attorney of Saratoga Springs, New
York, who offered him a partnership. This association was maintained for six
years, during which period they conducted a large and profitable law business.
In the spring of 1881 Mr. Eustis went abroad with the intention of spending
several months in Europe, but on learning of the assassination of President
Garfield he was so impressed by its significance that he immediately returned
home.
About this time Mr. Eustis decided that better opportunities for advancement
were to be found in the west and he therefore set out on a prospecting tour,
visiting St. Louis, Kansas City, Dubuque and other enterprising cities of the
middle west, and on the 23d of October, 1881, he reached Minneapolis. Believing
that a great future was in store for the city, he decided to make it his
permanent residence ana time has proven his choice to be a wise one. He at once
entered upon the practice of law and also made judicious investments in
property, having brought with him a small sum of money. As the years passed he
added to his holdings and he is now the owner of some of the most valuable
realty in the city. He erected the brick block on the corner of Sixth street and
Hennepin avenue, the Corn Exchange and the Flour Exchange, in addition to
several other less imposing structures, and has always been identified with
enterprises for the advancement of the city. He was one of the original
directors of the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic Railroad, while he
also aided in organizing the North American Telegraph Company, a line
established for the purpose of furnishing the people of the Northwest with
competition in telegraphic service, becoming a director, secretary and treasurer
of the company. He has been equally successful in the practice of law,
possessing all the requisites of an able attorney, and is the owner of a
valuable library. He is a man of strong convictions whom neither fear nor favor
can swerve from the course which he believes to be right. During the city's
formative period in the early '80s his activities kept him continually in the
thick of the fray. He fought many battles in defense of the growing city, one of
the most-noted controversies in which he participated being the census fight,
and he will ever be remembered in this connection.
Mr. Eustis is a stanch republican in his political views and a leader in the
ranks of the party. In 1892 he was a delegate to the national convention which
nominated James G. Blaine for the presidency and has rendered invaluable service
to the party in campaign work. He possesses notable oratorical powers and has
addressed many public gatherings, it being generally conceded that he has no
superior in the state as an after dinner speaker. In 1892 he was elected mayor
of Minneapolis, serving a two years' term, and his administration is frequently
referred to as the most notable in the history of the city. He originated the
policy that the police force could show better results by efficient men than by
mere numbers, and he held that in order that the police force might protect the
ninety-nine and one-half per cent of lawful people, who as a rule need no
police, against the one-half of one per cent of criminals, the most important
thing for the force was to know the criminals. In order that this might be
accomplished he introduced the novel plan of having all satisfactory applicants
for police serve six months as guards in the workhouse, where sooner or later
the professional lawbreaker finds himself, and thus in time more than ninety per
cent of this element became known to the police officers of the city. How to
handle saloons wisely was the burning question of that day. Big rival brewing
companies and wholesale liquor houses had taken over control of a large
percentage of the saloons in all of our big cities. They advanced the high
license money and named, in many cases, the proprietors. In this transition from
individual to mass control it often happened that ex-convicts, ex-deputy jailers
and crooks were employed to run the saloons of the baser sort. Naturally, these
became festering sores of vice, meeting places for criminals, their former pals
and partners in crime. Questionnaires were sent out requiring the policeman to
make an accurate return of the character in detail of each saloon on his beat.
On a careful inspection of these returns, the saloons were divided into four
classes, ranging from good to bad. The liquor interests were advised that the
low, tough saloon made, in public opinion, the general reputation of their
business, not so in any other business. It was what took place in these low
resorts that set on edge the teeth of the community and society refused to
classify as good or bad, but made them all alike, social outcasts. A docket was
kept showing the character and record of each saloon. In the enforcement of
liquor laws the mayor held that he ought to use reasonable discretion, as with
other laws, the better to eliminate the evils and accomplish the real object of
the law. In eating or drinking it is the abuse and not the use that constitutes
the evil and makes sumptuary laws necessary. Theory is all the good one can
think; practice all the good one can do. Municipal government is a very
practical problem. An order was issued that every saloon would be held
responsible for every unlawful act occurring therein, within the bounds of
reason. This, in fact, made each proprietor a special policeman for his
premises. The object was to arouse in them a lively sense of their moral and
legal responsibility for the good conduct of their places of business. If a man
was robbed in a saloon, the proprietor made it good. If drunk and arrested, he
paid the fine. Minor offenses of like character had a money compensation.
Results: Sharpers, gamblers and crooks were no longer encouraged as hangers on
to fleece the intoxicated victims and divide the spoils with the proprietor.
Selling to minors and other major offenses were followed by revocation of their
license. This was the main power in the hands of the mayor to enforce the new
policy. It was the first time in the history of the city that licenses were
revoked as a disciplinary measure. This simple rule of reason produced most
striking results. It was worth at least fifty policemen to the force, and made
possible a ten per cent reduction both in the number of men on the force and in
the expenses of the department. Drugging, robbing, selling to minors and
habitual drunkards were practically eliminated. This work was supplemented by
sending to the workhouse questionnaires and having the superintendent make a
full daily report to the mayor of all drunks committed, giving age, family ties,
trade, times arrested for drunkenness, and where he got his liquor. This soon
showed that nine-tenths of all drunks came from one-tenth of the saloons. The
offending saloons were notified and admonished. One result of these reports
showed that many habitual drunkards represented from fifteen to thirty
commitments each. These moral and physical wrecks were given an opportunity to
take the Keeley cure. More than threescore and ten took advantage of this offer,
and as illustrating the spirit of cooperation induced by this new method, the
liquor interests contributed liberally to this expense. Not all, but many
protected the cure. A record of all the instances of real charity performed
during Mr. Eustis' incumbency as mayor would fill a volume. The ex-mayor holds
with many others, that the harboring of criminals, the encouraging of crime, and
the running riot, on the part of the low tough saloons, without moral and rigid
official legal restraint, was very largely responsible for the adoption of the
Eighteenth Amendment and the passage of the Volstead Act. The pendulum, as is
often the case, swung from one extreme to the other. Mr. Eustis received the
republican party nomination for governor of the state in 1898, but failed of
election due to the nationality of his foreign-born opponent. In 1902 he was
appointed special United States commissioner to the Hawaiian Islands to report
on post office sites for the cities of Honolulu and Hilo and on needed currency
reform. He is a prominent Mason and was a member of the building committee which
had charge of the erection of the beautiful temple constructed by that
organization. He is a man of agreeable personality whom it is a pleasure to meet
and his genial nature and genuine personal worth have drawn to him a host of
stanch friends. He has been a close student of the great political, economic and
sociological problems of the country and has ever kept abreast with the best
thinking men of the age. His activities have touched the general interests of
society to their betterment and he is a dynamic force in any movement with which
he is associated.
Recently Mr. Eustis gave nine acres of land and a million dollars for the
establishment of a hospital for crippled children and in reference to this one
of the Minneapolis papers paid him the following tribute:
"The name of W. H. Eustis, has long been written high in the civic annals of the
community. Its position is now better justified than ever before by virtue of
his generous gifts for the education and welfare of crippled children.
"When plans made possible by cooperation of the University of Minnesota, the
Mayo Foundation and the City of Minneapolis are completed, Mr. Eustis' donations
of money and land will provide Minneapolis with what is expected to be the
premier plant of the world for the care, education and treatment of little ones
whose bodies are seriously impaired. There will be established in connection
with the home and schools a notable clinic for crippled children.
"Mr. Eustis himself has been physically handicapped since his early youth. He
knows what it means to overcome or minimize the odds that run against those who
are crippled in foot, hand or otherwise. Personal experience has enriched him
with a practical sympathy that those with normal bodies cannot share in quite
the same measure. The Michael Bowling School for Crippled Children is one of the
visual expressions of the interest of Minneapolis in this kind of education and
cherishing care. The big thing set in motion by Mr. Eustis will be another.
These are institutions of which the city will have reason always to be proud.
"Whether or not the plant endowed by Mr. Eustis shall bear his name, he has made
his memory secure in this community, although this latest form of his
philanthropy was not necessary to give that assurance. He already had earned the
meed of grateful remembrance.
"Here we have another of the private fortunes of Minneapolis going largely back
into the community for its good. Examples of this kind are more or less
infectious in their beneficent influence. The roll of Minneapolis benefactors
already is a comely one, and it doubtless will be added to as the years go on.
Mr. Eustis wisely has left his gift in trust, and has not hedged it about with
conditions that might in time prove to be burdensome or impossible of
fulfillment. In this respect he has taken valuable counsel of the mistakes of
other men of wealth over the country."