CEOs, ex-convicts, dairy cows

Editors’ note: Unless otherwise noted, all information in this story was adapted with permission from Ronald F. Eustice’s book, “Famous Farmers of Minnesota: Volume II.”

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Two ex-convicts, Herbert H. Bigelow and Charlie Ward, both of whom received presidential pardons, sat successively at the top of the Brown & Bigelow printing company in St. Paul for the first half of the 20th century. Not only did these executives lead the company, they also owned dairy cows in Hudson, Wisconsin.

Quality Park Farm was the home to registered Holsteins and Guernseys from around 1906 until the early 1950s. From 1930 to 1950, there were 158 animals registered with the Holstein Friesian Association under the Quality Park prefix. The Bigelow farm also raised pigs and buffalo.

Brown & Bigelow’s business was printed calendars and promotional swag. The company published eight out of 10 of the calendars in the U.S. in 1940, and was famous for its Boy Scout calendars and pinup girl calendars. The company employed artists such as Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish. A series of images of “Norma Jean” Dougherty on Brown & Bigelow products from 1946 to 50 was the start of Marilyn Monroe’s career.

Bigelow’s farming enterprises consisted of six farms in the Hudson area. By 1938, under Ward’s ownership, the farms spanned 3,000 acres.

The Holstein dairy herd remained until Sept. 8, 1952, when the herd was dispersed.

“One of the real show-places of the Northwest is Quality Park Farms, owned and operated by Mr. Charles A. Ward,” the sales flier read. “Formed of multiple-units, its fields and pastures are dotted with immaculate white buildings in orderly, richly landscaped surroundings.”

Among the over 100 animals sold was the herd sire, Carnation Sir Galahad, son of Car-nation Homestead Revelation and out of Carnation Heilo Cinderella Violet. Sir Galahad sold for $9,200, and was the second highest-selling Holstein bull at auction for 1951 and 1952.

Much of the Quality Park Farms, which existed in Bigelow and Ward’s day, has disappeared. According to an article in the Republican Eagle, some of the farm acreage has the Lighthouse at Hudson Pier development on it. A Historic Hudson WI Facebook post published Dec. 18, 2020, also said the abandoned barn standing across from Walgreens on Carmichael Road is a surviving structure from one of the original farms.

Bigelow started Brown & Bigelow with his investment partner, Hiram Brown, in 1896. Ward took over as president of the company after Bigelow drowned in 1933 in Basswood Lake, which is on both sides of the U.S. and Canada border near Ely.

Five weeks before drowning, Ward had been added to Bigelow’s will to inherit a third of his $3 million estate. In the estate, Ward received controlling interest in Brown & Bigelow according to a 2013 article in the Saint Paul Almanac entitled, “Swimming with the Sharks.” It also mentions there were no criminal investigations into Bigelow’s death.

Bigelow and Ward had originally met in prison. Bigelow was sent to prison at Leaven-worth, Kansas, for tax evasion in 1924. Later, in 1928, he was pardoned by President Calvin Coolidge. Ward was at the same prison for cocaine and morphine drug charges.

In prison, it did not go well for Bigelow. Ward waited until he saw Bigelow reach bottom and then stepped in. Ward helped Bigelow get better quarters, got the prison to give Bigelow a stenographer and to allow him to send out 75-100 letters a day to operate his business via mail.

When Bigelow was released after serving eight months, he promised to give Ward $15,000 after Ward’s release in a month or a job. When Ward came for his job, Bigelow was reluctant, but gave him the task of feeding rubber into a processing machine.

It took Ward nine years to go from feeding rubber to running the company.

“I saw that if (I) didn’t get rid of the men above me one at a time, they would get rid of me eventually,” Ward said in a 1938 interview for Saturday Evening Post. “(I) used facts, figures, and argument to convince Mr. Bigelow that I was the better man for the job.”

The company board tried to get rid of Ward more than once, but Brown & Bigelow’s pol-icy of hiring ex-convicts, which started after Bigelow’s release from prison, meant Ward worked with many loyal colleagues.

Hiring convicts was touted as a redemption story by Ward after he headed the company.

Under Ward’s leadership Brown & Bigelow became financially profitable after being in a deficit when he took over.

According to an article in TIME published July 5, 1948, some of the new products Ward introduced included playing cards, lighters, pens and pencils. The article also mentioned Brown & Bigelow was the largest calendar company in the world at the time and had 21 foreign outlets. The company was projected to bring in over $40 million that year, which, adjusted for inflation, would be around half a billion today.

In 1935, Ward received a pardon from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Ward always claimed the drug charges were a setup.

Ward’s story before prison at Leavenworth included prospecting gold, being a musher in Alaska, serving as a bouncer in saloons, gambling, retrofitting vehicles into armored cars for Mexican generals in the Mexican Revolution, and more.

While at Brown & Bigelow, Ward loaned money to a crime syndicate and was suspected to be connected to the murder of journalist Walter Liggett in 1935.

“Liggett had fiercely campaigned against political corruption … and publicizing Ward’s seamy background,” the Saint Paul Almanac article said.

Ward was blackmailed in the late ‘30s for claimed involvement in the Liggett murder, according to the same article. Apparently, the blackmail note was lost in police custody and the blackmailers retracted their accusations during police questioning.

Ward was also a philanthropist and was commended by Pope Pius XII for his efforts according to the TIME article. Ward died in 1959, seven years after the dairy herd was sold.

Sources:

—“Famous Farmers of Minnesota: Volume II” by Ronald F. Eustice.

— Saint Paul Almanac article from 2013 entitled “Swimming with the Sharks.”

— TIME July 5, 1948, “Corporations: Big House to Big Board.”

— Republican Eagle April 15, 2012, updated June 7, 2021.

— Historic Hudson, WI’s Facebook post, published Dec. 18, 2020.