In Camden we have a school named for him and there’s a park bearing his name downtown, but there’s a lot more to know about Charles Loring.
Charles Morgridge Loring was born on November 13, 1833 in Maine. His father was a seaman and raised Charles to follow in his footsteps. However, Charles disliked being at sea and instead moved to Chicago in 1856 and became a successful grain trader. While living in Chicago, Loring became ill and his doctor advised him to move to Minneapolis.
In 1860, Charles Loring moved to Minneapolis with his wife Emily and their young son Albert. They would later have a daughter Eva Maria. He would find work in a supply store owned by another Maine native, Dorilus Morrison. A year later, Loring and a coworker, Loren Fletcher, opened a dry goods store that would become the foundation of their later financial success. They would eventually become the owners of three mills. Loring founded a number of businesses including the Minnesota Brush Company, the North American Telegraph Company, and the Soo Line Railroad.
Loring was also involved with a large number of civic and business organizations, such as the Minneapolis and St. Anthony Union Board of Trades, the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, the Hennepin County and Minnesota Horticultural Societies, the Minnesota Forestry Association, the National Park and Outdoor Association, the Lakewood Cemetery Association, the Athenaeum (which helped create the Minneapolis Public Library), and the Civic Improvement Association. Loring served as the District 3 Overseer of Highways for the Township of Minneapolis in the 1860s and as the 3rd Ward Alderman on the Minneapolis city council in 1872.
Despite all of these accomplishments, Charles Loring is most remembered for his love of trees and parks. In 1866, Minnehaha Avenue was surveyed as a route from St. Anthony Falls to Fort Snelling. Loring, along with other businessmen, personally planted trees along the new thoroughfare. He was also involved in the development of Murphy Square, the first park in the city of Minneapolis. Loring planted the trees and laid out the paths for the new park along with Edward Murphy, the landowner who had donated the land to the city. In 1882, land was donated to the city by the heirs of Franklin Steele, founder of St. Anthony, with the express condition that Charles Loring would develop a park on it.
In 1883, legislation was passed to create a Board of Park Commissioners. After a bitterly fought referendum, the city ratified a Park Act on April 3,1883 and the Board of Park Commissioners was established. Charles Loring was appointed the commission’s first president. He was reelected to seven terms and served until 1890 when he insisted on resigning because a property in which he held financial interest was under park board consideration. During his tenure, Minneapolis added 36 parks to the three already existing, for a total of 39, an increase of over 1,400 acres of parkland. Loring especially believed in the importance of parks to children. He was among the first to push for including children’s playground equipment in Minneapolis parks.
Emily Loring died in March of 1894 and in November of 1895 Loring married Florence Barton. In later years, he and Florence would spend many winters in Riverside California where Charles was also involved with parks and trees.
In 1919, Charles Loring wrote a book titled A Plea for the Planting of Memorial Trees in Memory of our Dead Heroes and for Beautifying our State Highways. In the book, he writes in great detail about the Memorial Tree movement around the country, and notes that Minneapolis had already begun work on the Victory Memorial Drive (at Loring’s insistence). He writes about the bronze markers with the names of the fallen of WWI being placed by each tree. He further states that the drive would cost over $100,000 dollars, with $50,000 having been given by “a citizen” in trust for its maintenance. He fails to mention that the citizen in question was Loring himself, who had also paid for the elm trees that eventually were planted to mark the plaques. Besides his donations to the Victory Memorial Drive, he had also donated the shelter in Loring Park in 1906 and donated the Loring Cascade, a man-made waterfall beside Glenwood (now Theodore Wirth) Lake in 1917.
Loring’s last public appearance was to take a ride on the Memorial Drive he had worked so hard to build the day before its dedication. He passed away on March 18, 1922, and was buried in Lakewood Cemetery. Charles Loring left a legacy that is still felt a hundred years after his passing.