Bio of JESSEN, James (b.1860), 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 II, pg 33-34
JAMES JESSEN
Since 1898 James Jessen has been in business for himself as a machine designer
and mechanical engineer and he is widely recognized as one of the most
public-spirited citizens of Minneapolis. His birth occurred in Slesvig, Denmark,
on the 20th of September, 1860, his parents being Christian and Maren
(Jorgenson) Jessen. The maternal grandfather was Jens Jorgenson of Lunden,
Denmark. Christian Jessen was a farmer of some note in his native country.
In the acquirement of his education James Jessen attended the schools of Holm,
on the island of Als, Slesvig, which had then been incorporated in Prussia. He
emigrated to the United States in 1880 and engaged in railroad work in the
vicinity of Chicago, Illinois. In 1881 he came to Minneapolis and secured work
at the Pillsbury flour mills, which were in process of construction at that
time. After engaging in mill work at Austin, Minnesota, for a number of years he
went to Kansas, where for two years he was active in the milling business. While
there he invented a machine for breaking wheat for the new roller process of
making flour. Subsequently he returned to Minneapolis and for ten years was
actively identified with the firm of Paul & Paul, patent attorneys, as
mechanical draftsman and engineer. At the termination of that time Mr. Jessen
engaged in the mechanical engineering business on his own account and since 1895
has been active as a designer of special machinery. He has achieved substantial
success in that connection and is one of the foremost men in that line in the
Northwest.
In politics Mr. Jessen is progressively democratic and a stanch advocate of
single tax as the ultimate solution of our economic problems. He is a member of
Hennepin Lodge, No. 4, A. P. & A. M., of Minneapolis, and has attained the
thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He is also a member of the
Theosophical Society Lodge of this city and his hobby, aside from his work of
mechanical design and invention, may be said to be a keen interest in and the
furthering of political, economic and psychological science.