Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023
Bernardino Dean Taranto Toronto was born Jan. 27, 1901, in Seattle, Washington, son of Giuseppe Joseph Taranto, Sr. (1873-1962) and Lillian Margaret Lilly Lehnertz Taranto (1874-1943). Dean’s grandparents were Bernardino Taranto and Santina Santa D’Arrico Taranto, who were born in Italy, and Gerard Lehnertz (1831-1913) and Joanna Jane Rossbach Lehnerz (1846-1878).
Two years after he was born, Bernardino’s father died in Seattle, and in 1905 the widowed mother and the four-year-old son moved to Shakopee. Dean, as he was called, attended school and grew to maturity, according to an article from the Shakopee Argus-Tribune on July 7, 1941 called “Dean Toronto, 40, Buried Saturday.”
Bernardino Dean Taranto Toronto married Mary Ellen O’Brien (1906-1956), daughter of John O’Brien (1872-1960) and Catherine Kate Gallagher O’Brien (1872-1943) in St. Paul.
Dean and Mary Ellen lived in Shakopee, where they had six children: Howard Joseph (1924-2007); Patricia Mary (1926-2018); Eugene Francis (1928-2004); Margaret Ellen (1930-1939); James Edwin (1931-2016); and Marc Edward Toronto (1938-2009).
According to the article in the Shakopee Argus-Tribune, Dean was “a good hearted, upright and honest man…above all else a devoted husband and father. He was known for his genial disposition and warmly regarded throughout this area where he had spent the major portion of his life.”
In the beginning of July 1941, Dean was working on an electric power line in Carver, north of the city of Shakopee. While he was working on the line, Dean was killed. The Minnesota Star on July 10, 1941, and the Minneapolis Tribuneon July 10, 1941, had an amateur photographer who watched all the drama.
Dean, on July 9, 1941, came in contact with a wire line he had just repaired. He slipped from the pole he was climbing and was electrocuted. Rescuers made a daring attempt to haul down lineman Dean Toronto, who was a victim of high-power wire near Shakopee. While they tried to rescue him as he hung from top of a pole by his safety belt, it was not enough, and Bernardino Dean Taranto Toronto was killed, leaving his widowed wife and five children.
“His death came as a stunning blow not only to his immediate relatives but to every one who knew him,” said the article in the Shakopee Argus-Tribune. Funeral services were conducted by Rev. Father McRaith at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Shakopee, and Father Kauer officiated at the grave. The pallbearers were R.S. Condon, Roy Dellwo, Harvey Dressen, Morse Johnson, and George A. Ring.
Mary Ellen sued the city of Shakopee, the Travelers Indemnity Company, insurance company, and the Minnesota Electric Service Company on Oct. 30, 1942.
The record held to sustain finding of industrial commission that the lineman was an employee of electric service company and not of the city at time of his death, according to Julius J. Olson, justice. The review, an order of the industrial commission, awarded compensation to the widow of Dean Toronto. The issue is whether at the time of his fatal injury the employee was working for the city of Shakopee or for relator, the Minnesota Electric Service Company. They found relator to be such employer, and on appeal the industrial commission unanimously affirmed.
Neither the relator nor the city produces electric energy, and neither has facilities for its production. The city purchases power from the Northern States Power Company not only for its own distributing system, which is wholly within the city limits, but also to service the relator’s customers, some 100 in number, in an area adjacent to but outside the corporate limits of the city. The city resells the electric energy required by the relator at a profit to itself.
Toronto was a resident of Shakopee at the time of his death and had been for several years. His work was in the electrical field. He rendered service to the city from time to time, and, as an individual enterprise, also did a lot of work wiring houses and making other electrical repairs and installations for private individuals and concerns.
Dean handled wires charged with electricity. These are referred to as “hot wires,” and Toronto was called “the “hot wire man.” On the day in question, as he was making a last connection of these wires to complete his job, he was electrocuted.
A few of the facts may be thus summarized:
Toronto had been paid at the rate of 75 cents per hour while he worked for relator, for whom he had rendered many services in the past and at various times. His regular pay when employed by the city was 60 cents per hour. When he worked for the city, it was his custom to punch a clock registering the time when he started his work each day and likewise when he finished. The last day he worked was July 1. There the time clock stopped as far as Toronto was concerned. His death occurred on the ninth.
May he rest in peace.