Bio of SHEFFIELD, Benjamin B. (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

Vol II, pg 66-69
BENJAMIN B. SHEFFIELD
James Russell Lowell once said "an institution is but the lengthened shadow of a
man." His business is ever the tangible evidence of his interests and his
activities and if Benjamin B. Sheffield is to be measured by the Lowell standard
he o'ertops a great majority of his competitors and his contemporaries in
business life. Varied and important are the commercial interests which he now
controls as the president of the Sheffield Elevator Company, the president of
the Commander Elevator Company, the Commander Mill Company, the Big Diamond
Mills Company and the Empire Milling Company. Because of what he has
accomplished and the methods he has pursued, his life history cannot fail to
prove of widespread interest, indicating as it does the possibilities for
successful achievement on the part of the individual.
Benjamin B. Sheffield was born December 23, 1860, in Aylesford, Nova Scotia, a
son of M. B. and Rachael (Tupper) Sheffield, who were also natives of that
country who came with their family to Minnesota in 1865, settling at Faribault,
where the father resided until his death.
Benjamin B. Sheffield pursued his education in the Shattuck Military School at
Faribault, from which he was graduated with the class of 1880 and his interest
in his Alma Mater is indicated in the fact that for a quarter of a century he
has served as one of the trustees of the Shattuck school. He is also a life
trustee of the Bishop Seabury Divinity School and throughout his career his
interest in educational advancement has been of a most tangible character. Early
in his business career Mr. Sheffield also became identified with banking and
rose to the presidency of a number of banks, including the Security Bank of
Faribault and the Security Bank of Owatonna. From the time when he made his
initial step in the business world he has displayed thoroughness, keen sagacity,
close application and unfaltering diligence and upon these qualities he has
builded the superstructure of his splendid success. Business, however, has never
been allowed to monopolize his time and attention to the exclusion of interests
in public affairs and cooperation with plans and projects for the general good.
While residing in Faribault he served as mayor of the city for two terms and his
administration was characterized by businesslike management and by the
introduction of various reforms and improvements. He was a Roosevelt
presidential elector when "the most typical American citizen" was a candidate
for office and he has never regarded politics as a thing apart from the life of
the average business man. On the contrary he feels that politics should be a
matter of deep concern to every American citizen and that his ballot should be
made the tangible expression of his belief in or opposition to vital public
measures.
While all of these activities have claimed the attention and cooperation of Mr.
Sheffield, his interests, however, have centered in the grain trade and the
milling business and in this connection he has steadily advanced, step by step,
until he is now one of the notable figures in control of interests of this
character in the upper Mississippi valley. Today the Sheffield Elevator Company,
of which he is the president, operates Elevator K with a capacity of one
million, six hundred thousand bushels. It would seem that the control of an
enterprise of that magnitude would be sufficient to demand the entire attention
of an individual, but Mr. Sheffield has become actively connected with a number
of other large and important concerns, being the president of the Commander
Elevator Company, the Commander Mill Company, the Big Diamond Mills Company and
the Empire Milling Company. These other mills have a capacity of seven thousand
barrels. The Commander Elevator Company operates a line of elevators largely in
southern Minnesota. Mr. Sheffield is today a most forceful factor in that great
milling industry which has been one of the chief sources of the growth and
progress of Minneapolis and the extension of its ramifying trade relations into
every section of the world. In addition to all of his other interests he is a
director of the Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern Railroad.
On the 11th of July, 1887, Mr. Sheffield was married to Miss Carrie A. Crossett
of Faribault, Minnesota, who passed away in 1903. In May, 1905, he wedded Flora
E. Matteson, also of Faribault. There were two daughters of the first marriage:
Blanche, who is now the wife of David R. West of Minneapolis; and Amy Tupper,
the wife of Walter F. Jaffray. Mr. and Mrs. Sheffield reside at No. 1771 Logan
avenue and they are active members of St. Mark's church. Mr. Sheffield's public
service includes the presidency for a number of years of the board of directors
of the State Institution for the Deaf and Blind. No good work done in the name
of charity or religion seeks his aid in vain and it has been his rule of life
not only to achieve success in business but to make each year mark off a
full-faithed attempt to contribute to the world's progress along intellectual
and moral lines as well. He is a thirty-second degree Mason of St. Paul and
belongs to Zuhrah Temple of the Mystic Shrine. In club circles, too, he is well
known, his membership being in the Minneapolis, the Lafayette, the Interlachen
and the Minneapolis Athletic clubs. He is always found to be an approachable
genial gentleman, courteous and of unfeigned cordiality, recognizing the true
worth of the individual and judging his fellowmen by that standard.