Bio of SHEVLIN, Thomas Henry (b.1852), 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 III, pg 18-22
THOMAS HENRY SHEVLIN
Thomas Henry Shevlin, a man of dynamic power in the accomplishment of his
purposes-and those purposes were ever of a character that contributed to the
progress and upbuilding of the sections of the country in which he
labored-became actively identified with the interests of Minneapolis in 1886 and
through the re­maining period until his death in 1912 was an outstanding figure
here in connection with the lumber trade and many other interests. He was born
January 3, 1852, in Albany, New York, a son of John and Matilda (Leonard)
Shevlin, both of Irish line­age. When but fifteen years of age, having attended
the public schools up to that time, he entered the employ of John McGraw &
Company, lumber dealers of Albany, with whom he remained for ten years, having
charge at different periods, of the lumber interests of the firm in Albany and
Tonawanda, New York, and in Bay City, Michigan. In 1879 he went to Muskegon,
Michigan, where in various capacities he represented T. W. Harvey, a prominent
lumber dealer of Chicago. In 1880 he entered into partnership with Stephen C.
Hall of Muskegon and in 1882, with the organization of the Stephen C. Hall
Lumber Company, he became treasurer and general manager. Up to that time they
had been engaged in the purchase of logs, timber and timber lands and
incidentally in the manufacture of lumber. After the organization of the company
they increased their operations as lumber manufacturers and such was the growth
of the business that within two years they established a branch company in
Minneapolis under the name of the North Star Lumber Com­pany. Another two-year
period passed and Mr. Shevlin took up his abode in this city in 1886, organizing
the Hall & Ducey Lumber Company, in which he was asso­ciated with P. A. Ducey,
S. C. Hall and H. C. Clarke. When Mr. Ducey withdrew from the firm the business
was reorganized under the style of the Hall & Shevlin Lumber Company and so
continued until after the death of Mr. Hall in 1889 and the acquirement of an
interest in the business by Elbert L. Carpenter in 1892, when the company became
known as the Shevlin-Carpenter Company.
Mr. Shevlin was long the guiding spirit in this business. He early recognized
the fact that the timber supply of Michigan would become exhausted and began
looking elsewhere for investments in white pine woods. His judgment concerning
timber values was almost unerring and his splendid powers of organization
con­stituted a strong element in the constant growth and development of the
business. He was constantly extending his activities. In 1895, associated with
J. Neils of Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, he organized the J. Neils Lumber Company,
owning a mill with a capacity of fifteen million feet of lumber annually, while
in 1900 the company built a band and band re-saw mill at Cass Lake, Minnesota,
increasing the output of the two mills to fifty million feet annually. In 1896
Mr. Shevlin, in company with Frank P. Hixon of La Crosse, Wisconsin, bought a
large amount of timber on the Red Lake Indian reservation, tributary to
Clearwater river, and organized the St. Hilaire Lumber Company, which built a
sawmill with a capacity of forty million feet annually. A year later this
company bought the sawmill and logs of the Red River Lumber Company at
Crookston, Minnesota, and all of its tributary timber holdings. The Crookston
Lumber Company was then organized with Mr. Shevlin as president and its annual
productive capacity amounted to forty million feet. In the winter of 1902-3 the
Crookston Lumber Company, which resulted from the con­solidation of the St.
Hilaire and the old Crookston companies, built a large mill at Bemidji, with a
capacity of seventy million feet of lumber annually and built a logging spur
twelve miles in length, penetrating to the east of Red Lake and con­necting with
the Minnesota and International Railway at Hovey Junction, thus securing direct
rail transportation from the timber to the mill and making available a large
body of timber hitherto difficult of access. At the time of Mr. Shevlin's death
the Crookston Lumber Company owned, tributary to its various plants,
ap­proximately four hundred million feet of stumpage, with general offices and
head­quarters at Bemidji. A number of retail yards were established under the
name of the St. Hilaire Retail Lumber Company and constantly the business was
de­veloped and increased, operations being extended into the south by the
purchase of a large interest in the Winn Parish Lumber Company, owning
approximately one, billion feet of virgin pine in Louisiana and engaged in the
manufacture of lumber at Pyburn, that state. To the Pacific coast Mr. Shevlin
also extended his opera­tions, personally purchasing large timber holdings in
British Columbia, and in the fall of 1903 he and his associates organized the
Shevlin-Clarke Company, Lim­ited, in the province of Ontario, and bought timber
berths from the Canadian gov­ernment aggregating two hundred and twenty-five
million feet of pine stumpage. In the same year the Rainy River Lumber Company,
Limited, was organized by Mr. Shevlin and purchased a large amount of timber
from the Canadian govern­ment, while in the winter of 1903-4, at Rainy River,
Ontario, was erected one of the most complete sawmill plants in the world, with
an annual capacity of seventy million feet of lumber. The lumber companies in
which Mr. Shevlin was interested at the time of his death had an annual output
of more than three hundred million feet. This indicates something of the
magnitude of his operations, his splendid powers as an organizer and his notable
executive ability. Determination, force-fulness and broad vision made him a
dynamic power in business circles and his efforts were a most potent element in
the utilization of the natural resources and the development of not only the
west but of various other sections of the country.
On the 8th of February, 1882, Mr. Shevlin married Miss Alice A. Hall and they
became parents of three children: Thomas Leonard, the father's successor in
busi­ness who died December 29, 1915, more complete mention of whom is made on
an­other page of this work; Florence, the wife of D. D. Tenney; and Helen, wife
of George C. Beckwith. The death of Mr. Shevlin occurred at Pasadena,
California, January 15, 1912, and was the occasion of deepest regret not only
throughout Min­neapolis but wherever he was known. He had long played an
important part, not only in the material development and upbuilding of the city
and state but in the advancement of all that pertained to public welfare. He
never lightly regarded the duties of citizenship but fully met every obligation
that devolved upon him in public connections. He voted with the republican party
and was the Minnesota member of the republican national committee from 1900
until 1904. He was also a delegate to the reciprocity convention which met in
Washington, D. C., but he would never accept offices of a political character,
feeling that he could do better service to his country as a private citizen
through the conduct of his mammoth busi­ness affairs. Appreciative of the social
amenities of life, he had membership in the Minnesota, Minneapolis, Commercial,
Minnetonka Yacht, and Automobile Clubs and other clubs of this city, also the
Union League Clubs of New York and Chicago, the Manitoba Club of Winnipeg and
other organizations in different sections of the country. The cause of education
found in him a stalwart champion and he made contribution of the Alice Shevlin
Hall to the University of Minnesota and also five ten-thousand-dollar
scholarships. Life was to him purposeful and its opportunities a call to action.
He never hesitated when a chance came to enlarge the scope of his labors and
thus into many sections of the country he extended his efforts, build­ing for
present greatness and for future development, his labors being at all times
directed not only by the desire for legitimate gain but by the wish
conscientiously to use his talents for the benefit and welfare of his fellowmen.