Wm. P. Foley, Pioneer Bemidji Businessman, Died at Age 88.
Mr. Foley came to Bemidji in the early lumbering days. He was born in Underhill Center, VT., in the family of the famous Civil War General Phillip Sheridan. He was named for the general, who was a favorite uncle.
An adventurous youth, Bill Foley traveled from Vermont throughout the United States in the days of the covered wagon, the river boats and the narrow gauge railway. His early life was filled with the color of the opening frontier. He came to Princeton, Mn., from the East and learned the brickmaker’s trade. He was a millwright and a cruiser. In the latter capacity, he settled in Bemidji when there were bears in the street, 50 saloons, a boardwalk and very few churches.
Bill Foley was fascinated with the folk lore about Paul Bunyan, and with William Laughead was successful in having some of these legends set down in print. Throughout his entire life, he had a great interest in Paul Bunyan and was a charter member and an officer in the Paul Bunyan Assn., that staged the first Paul Bunyan Winter Carnival on Lake Bemidji.
Foley owned a livery stable with Claude McIver, whom he later bought out. Foley owned the first automobile in Bemidji. At first he couldn’t drive it — he sent a man to school for that, but with many pioneers in the area, he became a force behind the Minnesota highway system. He planned the road around Lake Bemidji, and the first road was constructed with volunteer help. He owned the first gasoline pump in the Northwest, having obtained a Standard Oil franchise from the Rockefeller family.
Bill Foley also operated the first bus line in the city — two White buses that operated between downtown and the mill district. He also improvised exhaust heaters in the buses and operated them between Bemidji and Minneapolis. This was the first intra-state automobile bus line in Minnesota and he operated it until 1919. (A full account is continued in the Bemidji Sentinel, Feb. 21, 1964)