Bio of FOSSEEN, Manley L. (b.1869), 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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Vol III, pg 457-458
MANLEY L. FOSSEEN
A leading representative of the legal profession in Minneapolis is Manley L.
Fosseen, who is perhaps more widely known throughout the state of Minnesota for
his activities in connection with the work of the republican party of which he
has long been a loyal and influential member.
Manley L. Fosseen was born in Leland, Illinois, on the 10th of December, 1869.
Before removing to Minnesota, he attended the common schools of his native state
and the Dixon College of Dixon, Illinois. After coming to Minneapolis he
attended the Minneapolis Academy and the University of Minnesota, from which he
graduated with the LL. B. degree with the class of 1895. Since leaving school he
has been successfully engaged in the practice of law in Minneapolis. His ability
as a lawyer is generally conceded and his practice has become a large and
important one.
In addition to his law practice he has taken an active part in republican
politics of the state of Minnesota and is acknowledged as one of the strong
leaders of his party in this region. He has been a delegate to all sorts of
conventions and party councils of local and state importance, as well as an
active worker in his home district. In 1900 he was made a member of the Hennepin
County Republican Cen­tral committee and one of three men appointed on the
Speakers' Bureau.
In 1902 Mr. Fosseen was elected from his district to the house of
representa­tives, reelected in 1904, and in 1906 was elected to the state
senate, which office he held for the period of eight years, retiring from active
politics at the end of the 1913 session. He represented one of the strongest
labor districts in the state, naturally making a special study of labor
problems. In 1909, 1911 and 1913, he was chairman of the labor committee in the
senate and a member of a subcommittee of five to study questions of workman's
compensation, industrial insurance, working hours for men and women and child
labor. The bill presented by the committee of five was passed by the legislature
subsequent to the report of this subcommittee, and was at that time as good as
any legislation of its kind in the Union. His work as chairman of the Labor
committee was considered fair and equitable to all interests, and during the
1913 session more constructive legislation was passed than at any other session
prior thereto.
He was the author of the bills establishing evening schools, free textbooks and
the prohibiting of the use of basements for school purposes. All educational
ques­tions always found an enthusiastic champion in Mr. Fosseen, who believes
that our public school system is one of the bulwarks of democracy. Mr. Fosseen
was joint author of the so-called Wallace-Fosseen Abatement Law, the most
powerful weapon in the hands of public authorities for stamping out vice. He was
also the author of the law "establishing women police officers in the state. He
drew up the law requiring all foreign insurance companies to try their cases
involving residents of this state, in the Minnesota courts, instead of carrying
them to the federal courts, and to Mr. Fosseen is due the credit of introducing
the first bill attempting to regulate the use of cold storage in this state.
Realizing the importance to Minneapolis and the State University of the water
power in the Mississippi river, he introduced in 1911, in the state legislature,
the Power Dam Bill, which gives to the two cities and the University the right
to the water power under certain conditions, and at the present time this bill
is attracting national attention.
During the special session of 1912 he served as chairman of the reception
committee, appointed to review all bills introduced and pass upon them for the
purpose of eliminating all but the most important, thus cutting down the work of
the special session as a whole.
For two years following the session of 1911, he was a member of the joint
committee of legislators from Minnesota and Wisconsin, appointed to settle the
boundary dispute between the two states. During the summer of 1912 he devoted
much of his time to personal investigation of the disputed territory. While the
work of this committee did not result in the settlement of this dispute over the
boundary line, it did accomplish a better understanding between the two states.
In 1919, the mayor of Minneapolis appointed Mr. Fosseen a member of the Public
Welfare Board (which is an unsalaried position). He has served as vice president
during the four years and has given devoted and conscientious service.
In September, 1897, Mr. Fosseen married Carrie S. Jorgens of Minneapolis, and
they are the parents of two children, Freeman F. and Rolf O. L. Mr. Fosseen
possesses a genial nature and winning personality that have made for him a wide
circle of friends, and he enjoys the respect and confidence of the citizenship
of Minneapolis.