Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/715

 HISTOID OF GOODHUE COUNTS 625 of the directors of the Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company and the Minneapolis Electric Elevator Company. In a number of other industries in Red Wing and elsewhere he has smaller interests where his business counsel is freely soughl and gener- ously given. In politics Mr. Rich has been a Cleveland Democrat, and since the free silver campaign of 1895 he lias been an inde- pendent voter, supporting the Republican national ticket. In religious matters he affiliates with the Episcopal Church, and the Sha thick School, at Faribault, which is controlled by that de- nomination, finds in Mr. Rich one of its most able and interested directors. Mr. Rich is a member of the Masonic order, the Red Wing Commercial ( Ink the Minneapolis Club and other organi- zations. Notwithstanding his exceedingly busy life, Mr. Rich has found time to devote much of his energy to the public welfare. In 1899 he was elected mayor of the city, and he made one of the best executives that any city ever had. His fairness, his abso- lute fearlessness and his insight into the future needs of the city was in many cases fully demonstrated. He declined a reelection which would have been unanimously given him. He has also served as a member of the city council and on various boards in the city government. But whether in or out of office he has taken the same deep interest in the welfare of the community and can always be counted upon to give his time and means to the Desirable City. Broadway Park, with its landscape beauties, is an example of his generosity and love of civic improvement along artistic lines. In his exceedingly active life there is noth- ing to which he looks back with more satisfaction and pleasure than the organization of the Red Wing Civic League, which has done so much to make Red AVing beautiful, and which has set an example for civic work and civic pride even in the great cities throughout the United States. Though very successful in his enterprises, he is unassuming, democratic and easily ap- proachable by any one who may need his assistance or advice. Mr. Rich was married May. 26, 1880, to Julia Wilder Williston, daughter of the late Judge AV. C. AVilliston. Three children have been born to them, AVilliston Canfield, Harrison Pierce and Alary Dorothea. The malting business, comparatively a new industry in Red Wing, has outstripped in its amount of business its older com- panions, the lumber and milling enterprises, and stands second, in tonnage shipped, to the clay products factories. The Red Wing Malting Company, situated in a conspicuous position overlooking the Mississippi river and the Milwaukee railroad, at the end of the Great Western line, is a landmark for all travelers who in recent years have passed through the city. The company was organized July 5, 1901, with the follow-