Bio of LUCE, Colonel Erle D. (b.1882), 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 366-370
COLONEL ERLE D. LUCE
The name of Luce is inseparably interwoven with the history of interurban
trans­portation in Minnesota, and today at the head of the Electric Short Line
Terminal Company stands Colonel Erle D. Luce, directing its policy and promoting
the interests of the corporation through the field of adequate and progressive
service to the public. His father was one of the promoters of the enterprise and
in young manhood Colonel Luce entered upon the work, attacking everything with a
contagious enthusiasm that has led to the accomplishment of desired results.
Progress has ever actuated him at every point in his business career and he
remains a dominant element in the control of an electric railway system that has
been of untold value and benefit to the district in which it operates.
Erle D. Luce is a western man by birth, by training and preference and the
spirit of western progress and enterprise that has led to the rapid growth of
this section of the country has ever been a dominant force in his career. He was
born at Red Wing, Goodhue county, Minnesota, May 20, 1882, his parents being
William L. and Nellie B. (David) Luce. The father represented an old New England
family and was born in Maine, but removing to the west, formed the acquaintance
of Nellie B. David, whom he wedded in Burlington, Iowa, in 1881, that state
being the place of her nativity. In the year 1885 he became identified with
Minnesota's development through the establishment of his home in Red Wing, where
he soon developed an important grain business, extending his activities until he
was a prominent factor in the grain trade circles of the state. He owned and
operated a number of well equipped elevators along the line of the Chicago Great
Western Railroad and his business constituted a source of prosperity to this
section, leading to the development of the agricultural district by furnishing a
market for the grains produced. In order to facilitate his operations as a grain
merchant he removed with his family from Red Wing to Minne­apolis, in 1889, and
continued active in his chosen field until about the opening of the present
century, when he turned his attention to real estate operations, and a little
later became a prominent factor in the promotion of the Electric Short Line
Railway. His knowledge of the grain trade had brought to him a thorough
under­standing of how valuable such a line would be to the west of Minneapolis,
serving a territory not adequately equipped with steam railroads, and he became
president of the company controlling the Short Line Terminal Company and
president of the Electric Short Line Railway. He is now president and treasurer
of the latter, but was succeeded in the presidency of the Short Line Terminal
Company by his son, Colonel Luce. The worth and value of the service of William
L. Luce in connection with the development and upbuilding of Minnesota can
scarcely be overestimated. A man of sound judgment, of keen discrimination and
of broad vision, he so directed his labors that splendid results accrued and the
growth of various sections was strongly stimulated by his efforts.
Erle D. Luce was a lad of but seven years when brought by his parents to
Minne­apolis, so that the major part of his public school education was acquired
in this city, where he completed the high school course as a member of the class
of 1903. Not long afterward he entered upon the study of law at the University
of Minnesota and won his B. L. degree upon graduation in 1907. From early
boyhood he was keenly interested in the question of electric transportation,
gaining much knowledge thereof through association with his father and delving
deep into the matter through reading and investigation. His law course was
pursued primarily with the purpose of making his knowledge of the principles of
jurisprudence of benefit in connection with the often intricate and involved
problems that confront a corporation in carrying on its work, aud when he had
finished his law course he became at once actively identified with the
management of the electric railway system of which his father was one of the
promoters. At all times he has been actuated by a spirit of progress that has
led to constructive efforts, and at the same time he has proven himself a most
able executive, wisely directing the affairs of the company of which he is now
the president. He has mastered the business in principle and detail and is
constantly reaching out along broadening lines of activity in connection with
the extension of the road and the improvement of the service. He has indeed made
this a public utility in the highest and best sense of the term, as it now
serves a wide territory and a vast number of people, giving adequate
transportation facilities with accuracy in every phase of the work, the
multitudinous details of such a business being so managed and adjusted that it
works with the ease and simplicity of a single piece of machinery.
Throughout his life Colonel Luce has been a builder not only of his own fortunes
but of the city's greatness and development in many ways. Extensive as are the
demands made upon his time and energies in connection with the presidency of the
Electric Short Line Terminal Company, he has also found opportunity for
cooperation in various other business interests and has added much to the
architectural beauty of the city through the erection of many fine buildings. In
1912 he was instrumental in building the Coliseum at a cost of seventy-five
thousand dollars and the State Audi­torium at a cost of thirty thousand dollars.
His extensive and judicious investments in real estate have made him the owner
of the Phoenix building, the Hampshire Arms, Netley Corners, Dunsmore House,
Forest Court and the Fremont and Franklin avenue apartment buildings. Whatever
he undertakes seems to lead to success. This is due to certain elements. Where
others hesitate he moves forward, and his determination and energy enable him to
reach his objective.
A most interesting chapter in the life record of Colonel Luce covers his
military experience. He is widely and popularly known through his connections
with the military interests of the state. On October 14, 1898, he enlisted as a
private in the Fourth Regiment of the Minnesota National Guard and on the 18th
of October, 1899, was made corporal of Company C, becoming sergeant of Company
B, First Infantry, May 20, 1900. He was commissioned second lieutenant February
12, 1901; captain April 1, 1901; major June 10, 1910; and colonel of the First
Infantry on the 17th of July, 1911. At the outbreak of the trouble along the
Mexican border the First Minnesota Infantry, Colonel Luce commanding, was
ordered to the Brownsville (Texas) district on June 19, 1916, and served in that
field until January 1, 1917, at which time it was ordered by General Funston to
San Antonio. While there General Funston died very suddenly and Colonel Luce was
selected to be one of the pallbearers at the funeral. On the 3d of March, 1917,
when it was apparent this country would enter the World war, the regiment was
brought home and was used to guard government and state property in Minnesota
during the summer. The regiment was then enrolled in the United States army,
becoming the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth United States Infantry, and with
Colonel Luce at the head was ordered to Camp Cody, New Mexico, on October 10,
1917. From January 1, 1918, to April 1, 1918, Colonel Luce was stationed at the
Field Officers School at San Antonio, Texas, where he made a most exceptional
record. Returning to Camp Cody, he was placed in command of the Sixty-eighth
United States Infantry Brigade and on August 18th ordered to France. The troops
reached Camp Dix, New Jersey, on the 24th of August. On September 10, 1918,
Colonel Luce was placed in command of the Thirty-fourth Division of the United
States army and ordered to board the transports on the 22d of September, but
owing to the fact that influenza broke out on the 21st these orders were
cancelled and the division did not sail until the 9th of October. On September
22, 1918, Colonel Luce was stricken with influenza and spent the next six months
in the hospital and convalescent quarters regaining his health. He was honorably
mustered out of service at Camp Dodge, Iowa, November 20, 1919. The One Hundred
and Thirty-fifth United States Infantry is now the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth
Infantry of the Minnesota National Guard and Colonel Luce is its commander. On
the 12th, of September, 1922, he was elected president of the Thirty-fourth
Division Veterans' Association.
Happy home life had its beginning when on the 27th of December. 1904, Colonel
Luce was married to Miss Hazel Brown, daughter of Clarence A. Brown, a prominent
grain merchant of Minneapolis. Colonel and Mrs. Luce have a son, William L. The
family are members of Trinity Baptist church and Colonel Luce also has
membership with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the
thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is likewise a member of the Mystic
Shrine. He also belongs to the Phi Delta Phi and Theta Delta Chi college
fraternities and he has membership in the Minneapolis, Lafayette and Interlachen
clubs, while of the Minnesota National Guard Association he has served as the
president. His political support has ever been given to the republican party and
he has served as president of the Young Men's Republican Club of Minneapolis and
as chairman of the republican central committee of Hennepin county. Loyal
support is ever given by Colonel Luce to any cause which he espouses and he
attacks everything with a contagious enthusiasm that produces results. His work
in support of the Republican party, therefore, his advocacy of Masonry, his
identification with the National Guard, as well as his connection with important
interurban transportation interests, have contributed sources of growth and
progress along every line and he is recognized as a dynamic element in
connection with the best interests of the city along material, intellectual,
social, political and moral development.