Bio of SHEVLIN, Thomas Leonard (b.1883 d.1915), 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 22-26
THOMAS LEONARD SHEVLIN
Thomas Leonard Shevlin was an American lumberman and athlete, born in Muskegon,
Michigan, March 1, 1883, son of Thomas Henry and Alice (Hall) Shevlin. He died
in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on December 29, 1915. On both sides of his family he
was of Irish ancestry. His father was a native of New York state, but
recognizing the opportunities offered by the middle west, moved to Chicago,
Illinois, in 1879, and later to Minneapolis, where as a member of the firm of
Hall & Shevlin Company-afterward the Shevlin-Carpenter Company-he began the
erection of the largest sawmill in Minneapolis and laid the foundation for
activities and enterprises the successful operation of which made him one of the
most conspicuous figures in his line of business in the west.
Thomas L. Shevlin was sent to the Hill School at Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where
he prepared for Yale College. Here he excelled in athletics and at the same time
received excellent marks in his studies. He established a record by throwing a
twelve-pound hammer one hundred and eighty-nine feet and was known as the
strongest boy in the school. After four years spent in the Hill School he
entered Yale College as a freshman. His reputation as an athlete had preceded
him, and from the beginning of his notable Yale career he attracted attention on
account of his fine record in athletic work and sports. In three years he was
known as "Tom" Shevlin, all-around champion, and probably best deserved the
title of Yale's greatest all-around athlete. He won his "Y" on three
teams-track, football and baseball. Only one other man in the history of Yale
athletics has accomplished that feat. He played on the football eleven for four
consecutive years, for three years being picked as all-American end, and in his
senior year was its captain. During his col­lege career Yale defeated Princeton
University three times and Harvard University four times. He was known as a
champion wherever football was played.
Every fall, after his graduation, he was accustomed to return to Yale just
before the championship games with Princeton and Harvard to assist in coaching
the team. Twice he responded to emergency calls to be head coach and produced
teams which defeated Princeton, accomplishing marvels by a combination of
ability, boundless energy, and sheer force of magnetic personality. At the time
of his death Mr. Walter Camp, the noted Yale football authority, paid him the
following tribute:
"A sportsman, a leader, a friend, always at the front with a dominant
personality that compels attention and success. Into life as into football, he
carried that per­sonality and it stood him in good stead. He never faltered, but
went straight ahead with vigor that was compelling and yet with a sound judgment
that brought its reward. Yale will miss him, football and sport will miss him,
but above all a host of friends will feel a deep sense of personal loss that
nothing can replace."
Upon leaving Yale in 1906, Mr. Shevlin spent the following year on the Pacific
coast, with the head timber man of his father's companies, who had been their
timber expert. He lived in the woods and spent his time looking over tracts of
timber in the United States and Canada, as well as inspecting practically all of
the large lumber manufacturing plants in that part of the country. In this way
he acquired a very extensive and preparative knowledge of lumber manufacturing
in that lo­cality. When he returned to his home he was made assistant manager of
one of the Minnesota plants and at the start developed a great faculty for the
absorption of details of operation, which, combined with his tremendous energy
and desire to accomplish, soon gained for him the confidence of his father and
his father's associates in the management of their extensive interests. From
time to time Mr. Shevlin was entrusted with the management of other business
concerns until at the time of his father's death (January 15, 1912) he was
president of all the Shevlin companies. These included the Shevlin, Carpenter &
Clarke Company, the Crookston Lumber Company, the Libby Lumber Company, the
Shevlin-Clarke Com­pany, Ltd.; the Land & Log Company, Ltd.; and many other
business enterprises of great importance. Known throughout the east as one of
the greatest of American athletes, Mr. Shevlin, in an incredibly short time,
became as well known in the west for his remarkable business aptitude. In the
four years he was at the head of the companies representing the Shevlin
interests, he displayed the most unusual ability for executive management, while
his grasp of great affairs, his handling of men, and his contagious enthusiasm
for work made themselves felt by all who worked about him. He had inherited his
father's gfft of organization; he had vast determination and indomitable energy
and in a few years undoubtedly would have become one of the greatest figures in
the financial and industrial world.
Mr. Shevlin had a wonderful personality about his business. He was demo­cratic
to the last degree and it is common talk in lumber circles in this part of the
country that any lumberjack would quit his job with another company if he knew
there was a job for him in any of the Shevlin camps. Mr. Shevlin was a pioneer
of this part of the country in logging with machinery. After giving the matter a
little study, he started out by ordering a large quantity of machinery to
revolution­ize logging methods. He met with a good deal of opposition at first,
but when he personally went on the job and told those under him that he had made
a big in-, vestment which he proposed to make successful, opposition ceased and
the results were beyond his expectations. There was nothing that so annoyed Mr.
Shevlin as "disorganization." Everything about the business might be going wrong
and he would pass it off without any worry, but the knowledge that one
department head was not working harmoniously with another or that some foreman
was not in harmony with his superior was something he could not tolerate.
However, he did not believe in discharging a man for this failing. His method
was to transfer the individual to some other department to see if he could not
be made to work har­moniously. In some instances he would transfer a man four or
five times before his patience would become sufficiently exhausted to permit the
man to be discharged. He always prided himself upon the harmony of his
organization.
Mr. Shevlin's character and business achievements can be best summed up in the
resolutions which were passed by all of the stockholders and directors of the
various companies of which he was the directing head. These resolutions are as
follows:
"Thomas Leonard Shevlin, president of this corporation since October 1, 1911,
died at his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, age thirty-two years, on the 29th
day of December, 1915. Through his passing his associates have lost a cherished
friend. His leadership abounded in wisdom, enthusiasm and energy, which
in­spired cooperation and confidence, and the result was an organization
devoted, loyal and competent.
"He brought to his business the same forceful, manly qualities which he
exemplified so notably on the football field, and nature endowed him, in
addition, with the rare business qualities of judgment and foresight. Had he
lived he would surely have taken rank with the foremost captains of industry of
his generation.
"He not only administered and developed the large enterprises inaugurated by his
father, but founded and established on a sound basis, others of equal magnitude
and importance.
"He was taken in the full vigor of his young manhood while he was filled with
the great joy of accomplishment, but the enterprises of which he was the head
must go forward, both the new ones which are now budding with great promise, as
well as the older ones which have reached the flower of development.
"His fellow officers and stockholders in meeting assembled, desire to express
and record their deep sense of personal loss and grief at his untimely death,
and to testify to their high appreciation of his worth, character and ability."
Mr. Shevlin was liberal-minded and generous-hearted. While in college he gave
away hundreds of dollars to his poorer classmates, but his charities were always
anonymous. He was devoted to the success of his companies and had the rare
business foresight to capitalize his brains and earning capacity by obtaining
life insurance policies amounting to one million five hundred thousand dollars
in favor of his business partners identified with The Shevlin Company and The
Shevlin-Hixon Company. Mr. Shevlin was succeeded as president of The Shevlin
Company by Mr. Elbert L. Carpenter, formerly vice president, who also became
president of the subsidiary corporations in which he was interested; and Mr. F.
P. Hixon succeeded to the presidency of the remaining companies in which he was
interested and Mr. Carpenter was not interested. Mr. Shevlin was a member of the
Minneapolis, Mini-kahda and Lafayette clubs of Minneapolis; Town and Country
Club of St. Paul; the Chicago Club, the New York Athletic Club and the Yale Club
of New York.
On February 1, 1909, Mr. Shevlin was married in Louisville, Kentucky, to Miss
Elizabeth B. Sherley, a famous Louisville beauty. There are two children: Betty
Brite Shevlin, born in January, 1911; and Thomas Henry Shevlin, born in 1913.