William Hood Dunwoody

File:OctagonalSchool.JPG, built by his father, James Dunwoody, in 1842.Some sources say it was built by a great grandfather named James Hood. Deferring to the historical society, that it replaced an earlier school, in: {{cite web|url=http://www.historicnewtownsquare.org/historic-sites/octagonal-schoolhouse/|publisher=Newtown Square Historical Society|access-date=August 21, 2015|title=Hood Octagonal Schoolhouse}}]]

Of Scottish descent, Dunwoody was a QuakerGray, pp. 34, 43. but worshiped as a Presbyterian at Westminster Presbyterian Church. In 1684 his maternal ancestors John and Ann Hood and their family emigrated from Castle Donington in Leicestershire to Pennsylvania. Dunwoody visited the area in 1893, when he and the genealogist he hired tried and failed to find a Quaker meeting place.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/genealogydunwoo00copegoog/genealogydunwoo00copegoog_djvu.txt|title=Genealogy of Dunwoody and Hood Families: And Collateral Branches|author=Cope, Gilbert|year=1899|publisher=Tribune Printing Co. via Internet Archive|lccn=37016952|page=74}}

He was born March 14, 1841, in Westtown, Chester County, Pennsylvania, about eleven miles from Philadelphia,{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0zFJAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA227|title=The Minnesota Loan and Trust Company Appointed Steward of Magnificent Dunwoody Bequests|journal=Trust Companies|publisher=Trust Companies Pub. Association|volume=18|year=1914|author=Banking Publicity Assn. of the United States}} to James and Hannah (Hood) Dunwoody, who were farmers. He had two brothers—Evan, who lived in Colorado Springs and survived him, and John, who died in Minneapolis.{{cite journal|journal=Commercial West|title=William H. Dunwoody Dies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bb4aAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA6-PA10|publisher=Commercial West, Co.|volume=25|year=1914}} Dunwoody went to local country schools, and at fourteen he attended an academy in Philadelphia. He then worked for five years with his uncle Ezekiel Dunwoody, who owned a grain and feed business in Philadelphia. Then as senior partner at age 23, he started his own business, Dunwoody & Robertson, and became a flour merchant.{{cite journal|journal=The Banking Law Journal|volume=31|year=1914|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4BNLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA185|title=Obituary: William H. Dunwoody|page=185|last1=White|first1=Edward}}

He and Kate L. Dunwoody (née Patten) married in 1868; they had no children.{{cite book|title=Dunwoody, William Hood (1841 - 1914), Capitalists / Financiers, Flour Milling Industry Leaders|url=http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1000477|publisher=American National Biography Online, Oxford University Press|date=February 2000|doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1000477 |isbn=9780198606697|access-date=August 16, 2015|last1=Lach |first1=Jr }} They made a permanent move to Minneapolis in 1869, when Dunwoody was 28. William Channing Whitney built their first home at Mary Place & 10th Street in 1882, and they later donated the house to the Woman's Boarding Home.

Whitney built their second home in 1905.{{cite book|author=Millett, Larry|title=Once There Were Castles: Lost Mansions and Estates of the Twin Cities|year=2011|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=9781452933115|page=259}} Called Overlook, the Tudor Revival house had 42 rooms. After a 20-year battle between the neighborhood association and a developer, it was demolished in 1967.

File:Cataract-Holly-Union-Arctic mills-Minneapolis.jpg

To start, Dunwoody represented businesses in the east as a flour buyer. In 1871 his business was organized as Tiffany, Dunwoody & Co., under which he owned and managed the Arctic mill; Dunwoody also owned and managed the Union mill and was a member of H. Darrow & Company.

Dunwoody distinguished himself by organizing the Minneapolis Miller's Association, under which millers for a time cooperated in buying wheat. The organization became the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce.

File:The Leading Flour-A0327-01.jpeg

He agreed with Cadwallader C. Washburn that flour could be sold directly to the United Kingdom and in 1877 Washburn arranged his trip there. Through "clouds of insults, uncertainties, and rumors," "Dunwoody made his quiet way."Gray, pp. 33–34. Eventually in 1878 English bakers realized that American flour made more loaves per barrel than English flour. Dunwoody overcame "most determined opposition", successfully arranged for direct export, and set patterns of business that persisted for years. Exports to the United Kingdom and continental Europe increased from a few hundred barrels in 1877 or 1878 to four million barrels in 1895. By 1900 exports peaked at about one third the output of Minneapolis mills.Gray, p. 41.

File:Vicinity of 104 Groveland Terrace.jpg

He became a silent partner in Washburn-Crosby & CompanyGray, p. 35. (which became General Mills) with Washburn, John Crosby and Charles Martin.{{cite book|author=Century Publishing and Engraving Co|title=Encyclopedia of Biography of Minnesota|publisher=Higginson Book Company|year=1900|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_qVg0AQAAMAAJ|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_qVg0AQAAMAAJ/page/n279 232]}} There he oversaw the development of the production of "new process" white flour. The prevailing motto of the time, reflecting Dunwoody's influence and the company's deep conservatism, was, "Addition, division, silence."Gray, p. 186. A reserved and shrewd capitalist,Gray, p. 279. he served a time as vice president of the company and was sometimes in demand because of his banking connections.

In 1888, after Washburn had died and Dunwoody himself was ill, he traveled to Philadelphia to recruit James Stroud Bell (father of James Ford Bell, who founded General Mills in 1928). After the Pillsbury company was sold to foreign investors, in 1889 Dunwoody helped Bell stop an English syndicate from buying their company.Gray, pp. 45–49, 50. Then United States Milling Company of New York started to speculate and succeeded in buying the rival Northwestern Consolidated. In 1898 Dunwoody bought 75% of his company from the surviving Washburn brothers, preventing a takeover and making the company operators its owners for the first time.Gray, p. 62.

Dunwoody was vice president of the Minneapolis Loan & Trust Co. (formally merged with Northwestern in 1934{{cite web|url=http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00376.xml|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|author=Historical Note|title=Northwest Bancorporation: An Inventory of the Records of Its Member Banks|access-date=August 29, 2015}}), and at various times president and chairman of the board of Northwestern National Bank (today known as Wells Fargo).{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wCBEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA325|year=1914|title=Herringshaw's American Blue-book of Biography|author=Herringshaw, Thomas William}} He was an organizer of the Minneapolis chamber of commerce and president of the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts. He was president of the St. Anthony & Dakota, vice president of the Duluth and the St. Anthony Elevator companies, and president of the Barnum Grain Company. He was a director of the Great Northern Railway.

Dunwoody was ill for six months, reportedly from a heart ailment, and died at his home (104 Groveland Terrace, Minneapolis) on February 8, 1914. Kate Dunwoody died the following year. They are buried in Lakewood Cemetery.The Dunwoody Obelisk in section 10 is part of a tour of Lakewood Cemetery, in {{cite web|title=Lakewood Cemetery: A Self-Guided Tour|publisher=Lakewood Cemetery|url=http://www.lakewoodcemetery.com/files/Self-Guided_Tour.pdf|access-date=August 21, 2015|archive-date=March 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202423/http://www.lakewoodcemetery.com/files/Self-Guided_Tour.pdf|url-status=dead}}

File:Dunwoody sign.JPG, endowed in 1914 and 1915 by Dunwoody and his wife Kate, celebrated its centennial in 2015.]]

Of a total of {{dollarsign|US}}4.6 million in gifts in his will, Dunwoody gave {{dollarsign|US}}2 million to build an industrial trade school for young people, with a focus on handicrafts, useful arts, the milling arts, and construction of milling machinery. He felt the milling business was threatened by young people's tendency to enter the "office end" of the business after they graduated from high school.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116849769/dunwoody-left-8000000/ |title=Dunwoody left $8,000,000. |date=February 15, 1914 |newspaper=The New York Times |location=Minneapolis |page=8 |access-date=2023-01-20 |via=Newspapers.com}} Kate Dunwoody gave an additional {{dollarsign|US}}1.6 million on her death in 1915.{{cite web|url=http://www.dunwoody.edu/pdfs/Alumni-Centennial-Timeline.pdf|publisher=Dunwoody College of Technology|date=Spring 2014|title=100 Years of Excellence in Technical Education|access-date=August 16, 2015}} In 1998 the institute was accredited by The Higher Learning Commission to award bachelor's degrees. Today known as Dunwoody College of Technology, it occupies a campus near downtown Minneapolis. As of 2015 Dunwoody offers workforce training and continuing education, and programs in applied management, automotive, computer technology, construction sciences and building technology, design and graphics technology, engineering, radiologic technology, and robotics and manufacturing.{{cite web|url=http://www.dunwoody.edu/academic/programs-list/|title=Full List of Academic Programs|access-date=August 16, 2015|publisher=Dunwoody College of Technology}}

File:Minneapolis Institute of Art 12.JPG building designed by McKim, Mead & White.{{cite web|title=Mia Stories|author=Gihring, Tim|url=http://new.artsmia.org/stories/once-at-mia-two-letters-that-built-a-museum/|publisher=Minneapolis Institute of Art|access-date=August 18, 2015|date=January 1, 2015}}]]

The William Hood Dunwoody Care Center in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, earned 5 of 5 stars as one of the nation's best nursing homes according to U.S. News & World Report in 2015.{{cite news|url=http://health.usnews.com/best-nursing-homes/area/pa/william-hood-dunwoody-care-center-395329|title=William Hood Dunwoody Care Center|date=2015|publisher=U.S. News & World Report|access-date=August 16, 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.dunwoody.org/history.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140721122012/http://www.dunwoody.org/history.php|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 21, 2014|title=Our History|publisher=Dunwoody Village|access-date=August 16, 2015}} Dunwoody left $1 million in his will to build a retirement village in his birthplace.{{cite web|url=http://www.historicnewtownsquare.org/newtown-square-history/historic-newtown-township/part-iii-chapter-3-three-philanthropists/|title=Part III – Chapter 3 – Three Philanthropists|publisher=Newtown Square Historical Society|access-date=August 16, 2015|archive-date=September 24, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924030404/http://www.historicnewtownsquare.org/newtown-square-history/historic-newtown-township/part-iii-chapter-3-three-philanthropists/|url-status=dead}}

Dunwoody started Abbott Hospital for Dr. Amos Abbott, who had operated successfully on Kate Dunwoody.{{cite web|url=http://www.actionsquad.org/abbotts/abbott-history-notes.html|title=A century of history - snippets and notes|publisher=Action Squad|access-date=August 16, 2015}} The hospital was owned until 1963 by Westminster Presbyterian Church; it merged with Northwestern Hospital to become Abbott Northwestern Hospital and later became part of Allina Health.

The Minneapolis Institute of Art purchased Lucretia (1666) by Rembrandt van Rijn, considered one of the finest Rembrandts in America, with $1 million from the William Hood Dunwoody Fund."This fund can only be used for the purchase of works of art." in {{cite book|title=Handbook of the Minneapolis institute of arts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U42TZRHm5MwC&pg=PR7|year=1922|page=viii|last1 = Arts|first1 = Minneapolis Institute of}} Among thousands of other works, it also bought Olive Trees (1889), part of the final series by Vincent van Gogh.{{cite web|url=http://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/HighlightsOfTheCollection_Brochure_web.pdf|title=Highlights of the Collection|publisher=Minneapolis Institute of Art|access-date=August 16, 2015|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045243/http://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/HighlightsOfTheCollection_Brochure_web.pdf|url-status=dead}} At her death in 1915, Kate Dunwoody gave the institute their personal collection. It included two major works by Constant Troyon, a small work by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, a George Inness and work by Thomas Cole.{{cite web|url=http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/2747/portrait-of-william-hood-dunwoody|title=An Important Bequest of Paintings|publisher=ArtsConnectEd|access-date=August 16, 2015|archive-date=September 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923174428/http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/2747/portrait-of-william-hood-dunwoody|url-status=dead}}

Some of the thousands of works from the Minneapolis Institute of Art purchased with The William Hood Dunwoody Fund:

File:Les Marronniers du Jas de Bouffan en hiver, par Paul Cézanne (1885-86).jpg|Chestnut Trees at Jas de Bouffan by Paul Cézanne (1885-1886)

File:Vincent van Gogh - Olijfbomen (Minneapolis).jpg|Olive Trees with yellow sky and sun by Vincent van Gogh (1889)

File:Rembrandt lucretia.jpg|Lucretia by Rembrandt (1666)

File:Winslow Homer - The conch divers.jpg|The Conch Divers by Winslow Homer (1885)

File:Portrait of Elizabeth L Burton.jpg|Portrait of Elizabeth L Burton by Thomas Eakins (circa 1905–06)

File:Camille Pissarro 003.jpg|Place du Théâtre Français, Paris: Pluie by Camille Pissarro (1898)

File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Bildnis des Moritz Büchner.jpg|Portrait of Moritz Büchner by Lucas Cranach the Elder (circa 1520)

File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Bildnis der Anna Büchner.jpg|Portrait of Anna Buchner, née Lindacker by Lucas Cranach the Elder (circa 1520)

File:Cole Thomas Landscape 1825.jpg|Landscape by Thomas Cole (1825). Bequest of Mrs. Kate L. Dunwoody.

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• {{cite book|author=Gray, James|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|year=1954|lccn=54-10286|title=Business without Boundary: The Story of General Mills|url=https://archive.org/details/businesswithoutb0000unse|url-access=registration}}

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• First home in Minneapolis, later Kate Dunwoody Hall, [https://www.facebook.com/oldmpls/photos/a.119636488056535.13615.119633278056856/455438717809642/ demolished]
• Second home in Minneapolis, [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151013842086378&set=o.119633278056856&type=1&hc_location=ufi demolished], [https://www.facebook.com/oldmpls/photos/a.565738803446299.1073741827.119633278056856/565738813446298/?type=1&hc_location=ufi second photo] 1967

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Category:1841 births

Category:1914 deaths

Category:People from Chester County, Pennsylvania

Category:Businesspeople from Minneapolis

Category:Businesspeople from Pennsylvania

Category:Burials at Lakewood Cemetery

Category:General Mills people

Category:Wells Fargo employees

Category:Flour merchants

Category:19th-century American merchants

Category:American bank presidents

Category:Millers