Kaplan, Morris, 1869-1959.

Morris Kaplan was born in 1869 in Kalvive, Lithuania and immigrated with his parents and his brother Abraham to the United States in 1864. The familty settled first in San Francisco and thence to New York City, where Kaplan grew up in the slums of the Lower East Side. Kaplan moved to Boston in 1896, where he became active in Socialism and attended organizing convention (1899) of the American Socialist Party. He and his family moved to Chicago, operating a discount general store, until his first wife, May, died in childbirth. His family returned to the East Coast and Kaplan moved to Duluth, where he became active in organizing grocery cooperatives. After the Duluth cooperative movement lost its momentum, Kaplan and his wife moved to Bemidji where they opened a discount grocery store, expanding it into the Kaplan Glass Block building in 1916. He continued to operate the store until his death in 1959.

From the guide to the Morris Kaplan and family papers., 1924-1966., (Minnesota Historical Society)