Andrew A. Warfield, pioneer businessman and banker, died at his home, 711 Lake Boulevard, at the age of 87 on Nov 4, 1955.
Mr. Warfield was born at Princeton, Ill., on Jan 12, 1868. As a young man, he located in St. Paul where he worked with several firms as a bookkeeper. He then went to Duluth and with Charles Fitzsimmons founded the wholesale produce firm of Fitzsimmons and Warfield.
Mr. and Mrs. Warfield were married Feb 14, 1894 at Congregational church in Duluth and went to California on their wedding trip. They were residents of Duluth for five years and then moved to Bemidji.
In 1899 Mr. Warfield came to Bemidji. The Crookston Lumber Company had trouble getting enough power to run their plant full time. Consequently Andrew and his brother Charles Warfield hired Marcus Stoner to design a new power plant on the Mississippi River just beyond the train bridge on the river outlet. The dam itself was three miles downstream of the outlet, but with that dam, there was enough power to run all fourteen of Bemidji’s sawmills and wood products plants and still have enough power to light the streets of the entire town. This was sold in 1915 to the Interstate Power Co. and until 1917 Mr. Warfield retired from active business.
Mr. Warfield first became connected with the First National Bank in 1907 as a stockholder. He was elected a director in 1917 and served as a vice president from that year until 1927 when he became president. He retired from banking on his 86th birthday anniversary.
Among Mr. Warfield’s numerous civic activities were the acquisition of the timber land now designated as Bemidji State Park and strong support of the movement to get the State Normal school, now Bemidji State University, located here.
He was also especially active in promotion of agriculture and served for many years on the school board. He was an ardent sportsman and maintained a summer cottage on Turtle River Lake, one of the first to be built in that area.
For many years, Mr. Warfield was particularly active in affairs of the First Presbyterian church and served a number of terms as an elder. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at the church.
Mr. and Mrs. Warfield had one son, Herbert Warfield, and two grandchildren: Rosemary Warfield and James Warfield, who served in the Seebees in the South Pacific during WW II.
His pallbearers were Rudolph Welle, Elgin Phillips, Lester Hoganson, John Warford, Leonard Dickinson and Ed N. French.
Material gathered from A Walk Through Bemidji, p. 38 and from the Bemidji Daily Pioneer, Nov 5, 1955.