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RAMSEY COUNTY 
HISTORY INDEX


The following is a brief index with summaries of Ramsey County History, the award winning quarterly magazine published by the Ramsey County Historical Society. 

The best and most cost effective way to get this publication is to become a member of the Ramsey County Historical Society. The magazine is a benefit of membership along with free admission to the Gibbs Museum. To become a member, or to learn more click now! Join the Society

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Add $1.50 shipping for 1st issue and $.50 for each additional magazine
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You can view back issues by visiting our library, for an appointment call 652-222-0701. 

Special thanks to Paul D. Nelson for summarizing each article in our index!

To search within this page click EDIT in the top left hand of your tool bar choose FIND form the drop down menu. Enter the topic or word you are interested in and click FIND NEXT  until an item you are interested appears.

New Issue!
Ramsey County History,
Volume 42, Number 4

Tommy Milton "St. Paul's Speed King"
Steven C Trimble
    See Tommy Milton Images

Labor Found a Friend
W.W. Erwin for the Defense
David Riehle

Ramsey County History,
Volume 42, Number 3

Clara Baldwin and the Public Library Movement in Minnesota
Robert F. Garland

Creating a Diocese
The Election of Minnesota's First Episcopal Bishop
Ann Beiser Allen

Frogtown's Arundel Street
James R. Brown

Roseville's "Lost Son" Honored
John M. Lindley

Ramsey County History
Volume 42, Number 2

Minneapolis and St. Paul Stumble-
Henry Ford Wins the Struggle for the High Dam
Brian McMahon
See online exhibit

The Bishop Jade Books and the St. Paul Public Library
Billie Young

Ramsey County History
Volume 42, Number 1

The Jews of Fourteenth Street Remembered
Gene Rosenblum

The William and Carrie Lightner Residence at 318 Summit
Paul Clifford Larson

The Forgotten Fate of Roseville's First Child,
Benjamin Rose
Patrick Hill & Cindy Rose Torfin

 
Ramsey County History
Volume 41, Number 4

"If It Can Be Manufactured From Wood, We Can Make It"
A History of the Villaume Family and the Company They Built
Steve Trimble

"A Great Experience"
Villaume Builds Gliders in World War II
John M. Lindley

An Encounter at Kaposia
The Bishop and Chief
Leo J. Harris

Ramsey County History
Volume 41, Number 3

A Little Known Railway That Couldn't: The St Paul Southern
John Diers

The 1894 Pullman Strike in St. Paul and the Death of Switchman Charles Luth
Greg Proferl

Memories of Frogtown in the 1930s
James R.. Brown

Ramsey County History
Volume 41, Number 2

“He was Mechanic Arts”
Mechanic Arts High School,
The Dietrich Lange Year, 1916-1939
John W. Larson

"Dreams of the Immensity of the Future"
Crex Carpet Company Revisted
Paul D. Nelson
Online Extra: Michael O'Shaughnessy Manuscript
See more Crex photos

Fighting Billy Miske
The Heart of a Champion
Paul Picard

Volume 41, Number 1

Mary Hill's Lowertown, 1867-1891
Eillen McCormack

Lowertown: Another Perspective
David Riehle

St. PaulUnderground
Stahlmann's Cellar: The Cave Under the Castle
Greg A. Brick

Growing Up in St. Paul
Stranger in a Strange Land: A culture That for a Child Was Foreign and Alien
Bernice Fisher

Volume 40, Number 4

'The Greatest Single Industry?'
Crex: Created Out of Nothing 
  Paul D. Nelson
See more Crex photos

My Years at the Andahazy School of Ballet
 Sandra Snell Weinberg

Rabies Scare in St. Paul
'Mad Dog on the Loose.' Panic prevails as fear rips through the city in 1910
 Susan Dowd

Fall, 2005 Volume 40, Number 3

The Cover Story
The Story of a Lost Estate and Oliver Crosby, the Inventive Genius Who Created It
Jay Pfaender
See photos of Stonebridge

Ramsey County's Distinguished Agriculturist Willet M. Hayes, the Scientist Who Saw 'Shakespeares' Among His Plants
Harlan Stoehr and Forrest Troyer
No back issues available  

Summer, 2005  Volume 40, Number 2

Rendezvous at the Riverbend
Pike's Seven Day in the Band of Little Crow-
Gary Bruggeman

Zebulon Pike and James Aird: The Explorer and the 'Scottish Gentleman'
Duke Addicks & James Aird

Lots of St. Paul: A Photo Essay on Downtown Parking
and What Urban History Can Tell Us About a City
Steve Trimble

I Remember My Aunt: Frances Boardman-
Music Critic, Who Covered an Archbishop's Funeral
Alexandra (Sandy) Klas

Spring, 2005  Volume 40, Number 1

The Force That Shaped the Neighborhoods
1890-1953: Sixty Years of Streetcars in St. Paul and Millions of Dollars in Investments
 John Diers 

Spanish Influenza in 1918
by Susan Dowd

Winter, 2005  Volume 39, Number 4

Curtain Up in 1933
The Legacy of the St. Paul Opera Association 
Steve Trimble

RCHS's Collection of Building Permits and the Story of the DeLoop Parking Ramp
Bob Garland

Union Park in the 1880s
Band Concerts, Ballon Ascensions Once Lured 10,000 People in a single day 
No back issues available  

Fall, 2004  Volume 39, Number 3

Another Lost Neighborhood
The Life and Death of Central Park-
A Small Part of the Past Illuminated
Paul D. Nelson
See extra photos of Central Park 

Hamline University and its Royal Refugee
The Prince and the Pearl of Great Price
John W. Larson

The Prince and the Fascists

The Rondo Oral History Series
Kathryn Coram Gagnon: Operettas, Dances, Parties, and a Growing Love of Music 
A HandinHand Interview with Kate Cavett

Summer, 2004  Volume 39, Number 2

From Farm to Florence: The Gifted Keating Sisters and the Mystery of Their Lost Paintings
Margaret M. Marrinan

Say it Ain't So, Charlie
The 1897 Dispute Between Charles Comiskey and the St. Paul Labor Trades 

The Rondo Oral History Project
Buelah Mae Baines Swan Remembers Piano Lessons and a 'nice vegetable garden' Out Back
A HandinHand Interview with Kate Cavett

Spring Wagons and No Roads
A Gibbs Daughter Remembers a Pioneer Family's Sunday as a 'serious Undertaking'
Lillie Gibbs LeVesconte 

'High and Dry on a Sandstone Cliff' St. Paul and the Year of the Grand Railroad Excursion
Steve Trimble 

Irvine Park in 1854: Its Homes and the People Who Lived There 150 Years Ago
Robert J. Stumm

A Quilt and a Diary: The Story of the Little Girl Who Road the Orphan Train to a New Home
Ann Zemke

Growing Up in St. Paul
Mechanic Arts - An Imposing 'Melting Pot' High School that Drew Minorities Together
Bernice Fischer

Winter, 2004  Volume 38, Number 4

'He Loved a Tall Story'
The Life & Times of I.A. O'Shaughnessy - The Man Who Happily Gave His Money Away 
John Lindley & Virgina Kunz

A Century Ago: Hundreds of Thousands Greet The Liberty Bell the Day It Came To Town
Susan C. Dowd  
No back issues available  

The University Farm Experimental Cave and How St. Paul Became the Blue Cheese Capital of the World
Greg Brick

A Pillar of Modern Psychology
Alfred Adler and His 1937 Lecture at the Historic St. Paul Women's City Club
Roger Ballou

'Laid to Rest by Strangers' Hands'
Death in the Railroad Yards: The Century-old Mystery of a Beautiful Young Woman
Susan C. Dowd

Gibbs Museum Heritage Orchard and the Comeback of the Ancient Apple
Ralph Thrane

Growing Up in St. Paul
A Stroll Down Memory Lane: Payne Avenue in the 1950's Was Like Living in a Small Town
DeAnne Marie Cherry

Summer, 2003  Volume38, Number 2

Fog and the Dark of an October Night--
The Fabled Wreck of the 'Ten Spot' in its Plunge to the River Below
David Riehle

Fear a Powerful Motivator
A Harvest of Victims: the Twin Cities 
and St. Paul's Traumatic Small Pox 
Epidemic in 1924
Paul D. Nelson

The Story of Minnie Dassel: 
Was She a Mysterious Countess Who Settled in St. Paul?
Paul Johnson

Growing Up in St. Paul
'I Didn't Know If We Were Rich or Poor--
Times Were Idyllic Then ...We Roamed at Will'
Carleton Vang

'A shady Pair' and an 'attempt on his life'-- Sitting Bull and His Life'-
Sitting Bill and His 1884 visit to St. Paul
Author Paul D. Nelson

The St. Paul Fireman Who Rose to Command the First Minnesota Volunteer Regiment in Gettysburg
Author Patrick Hill

The Volunteer Hook and Ladder Company

Oakland Cemetery and Its First 150 Years
Author Chip Lindeke.

Roots in the English - St Paul's First German Methodist Church
Author Helen Miller Dickison

Growing Up in St. Paul
'Homer Van Meter, a Member of the Karpis Gang, Was Shot Across the Street from our house'
Author Bernice Fisher

Winter 2003 Volume 37 Number 4

The 146-Year History Of The Louis Hill House… New Settlers, A Booming Real Estate Market, And A Summit Avenue Site Acquired On Speculation
Author Eileen McCormack

Growing Up In St Paul - Diamonds, Gravel Roads, And A Little Chevrolet - The Life And Times Of A Venture Capitalist
Author Alan R. (Buddy) Ruvelson

A Flourishing Fur Trade Industry And The U.S. Army Corp Of Engineers Centre Building
Author Matt Pearcy

Slunky Norton: The Chimney Sweep Who Rocked The Rafters With His Buglers
Author Albert W. Lindeke Jr

Lost Neighborhoods - Borup's Addition And The Prosperous Pioneer African Americans Who Owned Homes There
Author David Riehle

Fur Traders, Banker, Danish Vice Consul… This Was The Borup Of Borups Addition
Author Virginia Brainard Kunz

St. Gaudens' New York Eagle: Rescue And Restoration Of St. Paul's First Outdoor Sculpture
Author Christine Podas-Larson

Summit Overlook Park: Once Upon A Time: Carpenter Park And Its Five Story Hotel
Author Thomas Zahn

Click here to see this article
Growing Up In St Paul - Seeing, Talking To, Calling On Sprits: Grandma Minda's Adventures In Spiritualism
Author Joanne Englund

Those Squealing Red River Ox Carts - Norman Kittson And The Fur Trade

Books

Summer 2002 Volume 37 Number 2
Singles, Doubles And Pairs, Fours And Quads - Life On The Mississippi: The 132 Years Of The Minnesota Boat Club And Its Rich History
Author Jim Miller
A history of the Minnesota Boat Club from its 1870 founding to the present. It began as a sporting and social club for well-to-do gentlemen and remained so through its 1915 peak. It suffered decades of decline from World War I through World War II, and slow but steady revival since. The club has had its home at the same place, Raspberry Island in the Mississippi at downtown St. Paul since1873. The article deals also with the club’s boathouse, a downtown fixture since1910, and the redevelopment efforts in the riverfront area in recent decades. Eleven photos including front and back covers.

'Hang Him! That's The Best Way' A Lynching In St. Paul? Almost, In 1895, An Era Of 'Vigilante Justice' In The Nation
Author Paul D. Nelson
Twenty-five years before the infamous Duluth lynchings, itinerant African-American Houston Osborne narrowly escaped lynching in St.Paul. This piece describes the near-lynching, the events leading to it, the press coverage, African-American community reaction, what became of Osborne, and where this event fits in the national lynching phenomenon. A sidebar describes four recent books about lynching.

Which One Is Houston Osbourne? Research Fails To Provide The Answer
Author Paul D. Nelson
This companion piece to the previous article recounts the author’s efforts to verify a Stillwater Prison photograph of Houston Osborne.

The Road To The Selby Tunnel, Or How To Make It Up The St Anthony Hill
Author Virginia Brainard Kunz
St. Paul’s hills posed a challenge for the street railways of the late19th and early 20^th centuries. This article describes the earliest days of horsecars, the problem of hills, the brief experiment with cable cars, the coming of electric streetcars, St. Paul’s curious relationship with street rail magnate Thomas Lowry, and the conquering of St. Anthony (now Cathedral) Hill by the Selby Tunnel.

"Lost Neighborhood: A Story in Pictures," pp. 18-20.
Five photos of the neighborhood at the intersection of Selby and West Third (now Kellogg) just before construction of the Selby Tunnel. A companion piece to the previous article and the first of a Lost Neighborhoods series.

Growing Up In St Paul - Manager, Fight Promoter, Minnesota Game Warden - Johnny Salvator And His Impact On Boxing In St Paul
Author Paul R Gold
The young German Johann Salwetter (b. 1891 in Serbia) came to St. Paul around 1910 and became, in time, Johnny Salvator – boxer, trainer of World War I soldiers, movie-house operator, boxing manager, and big-time local boxing impresario before losing everything during the Depression. Then he served 25 years as Ramsey County game warden. He died in 1973.

Books
Valdes, Dionicio Nodin, Barrios Nortenos, St. Paul and Midwestern Mexican American Communities in the Twentieth Century (Austin: University of Texas Press), 2000.
Rosenbloom, Gene H., Jewish Pioneers of St. Paul, 1849-1874 (Chicago: Arcadia Publishing), 2001.
------, The Lost Jewish Community of the West Side Flats, 1862-1962 (Chicago: Arcadia Publishing), 2002.
Also In Print:
Brief reviews of recent publications by Afton Historical Society Press: The Gag Family: German-Bohemian Artists in America, by Julie L’Enfant; Sketches from Around the World, by Ralph Rapson; Ojibwe: Waasa Inaabidaa (We Look in All Directions), by Thomas Peacock; and American Ruins: Ghosts on the Landscape, by Maxwell MacKenzie

Spring 2002 Volume 37 Number 1
'The Best School In The City,' 1896-1916…
Mechanic Arts High School: Its First Twenty Years
Author John W Larson

A Memoir - A Temporary Shelter For Six Under 12 - St. Joseph's Catholic Orphan Home
Author Janet Postlewaite Sands

Donations And Their Own Pockets - An Orphanage's Roots In 1869 St. Paul
Author Paul D. Nelson

Growing Up In St Paul - The War To End All Wars:
A Schoolboy's Recollections Of World War II
Author Ray Barton

The Fire Insurance Patrol: Gone But Not Forgotten
Author John S Sonnen

Doing History In Ramsey County And St. Paul - A Review Essay
Author John M Lindley

Books
No back issues available  

Winter 2002 Volume 36 Number 4
Crises And Panic And Mergers And Failures –
St Paul's Struggling Banks And How They Survived Their First 75 Years
Author G. Richard Slade

A Memoir - Jimmy Griffin, S.t Paul's First Black Deputy Police Chief,
Remembers His First Years On The Force
Author Kwame JC McDonald

Tubal Cain In New Brighton - The Harris Forge And Rolling Mill Company
Author Leo J. Harris

Books

Fall 2001 Volume 36 Number 3
The Financial Angel Who Rescued 3M - The Life & Times Of Lucius Pond Ordway
Author Virgina Braniard Kunz & John Lindley

Landmarks Reborn: Channeling The Past Into The Present
Can History Come Alive? A Nation Finds Its Roots In Historic Sites
Author Elmer L. Andersen

St. Paul's Stately Old Buildings - Going, Going, Almost Gone`
Author Georgia Ray Decoster

Old Federal Courts Building - Beautiful, Unique - Its Style Of Architecture Facing Extinction
Author Eileen Michels

Preservation Before Preservationist: The Beginnings Of Preservation In St Paul
Author Charles W. Nelson

Books

Spring 2001 Volume 36 Number 1
A 'Good Man' In A Changing World…
Cloud Man, The Dakotah Leader, And Hi Life And Times
Author Mark Dietrich

Growing Up In St Paul - All For Under $11,000: 'Add-Ons, 'Deductions' - The Growing Pains Of Two Queen Annes'
Author Bob Garland
No back issues available  

Winter 2001 Volume 35 Number 4
Attacked By A Starving Wolf - Four Sisters Of St. Joseph And Their Mission To St. Paul: Patience, Courage Joyfulness In A Crude Log Cabin
Author Sister Ann Thomasine Sampson, Csj
In November of 1851 four young nuns of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet arrived in the dreary hamlet St. Paul, invited there by Bishop Joseph Cretin. During the rest of that decade they established schools, a hospital, and an orphanage, taught children of many of the notable pioneer families, ministered to Indians, cared for victims of the 1854 cholera epidemic, and spread their mission work to St. Anthony and Long Lake. Their work lived on for many years in St. Joseph’s Academy (now the site of Christ’s Household of Faith) and St. Joseph’s Hospital. This article, drawn from the author’s book, Seeds on Good Ground, traces the lives of the four sisters from their origins through their fates after leaving St. Paul, plus the history of the order and its work in North America before 1851. It also offers details of life in St. Paul in the 1850s. Illustrated with five photos, two maps, and five drawings or paintings (including front and back covers.)

The Practical Millionaire - James J. Hill And His Oriental Rugs
Author Lou Ann Matossian
When Mary Hill died in1921 her estate included 116 oriental rugs used to furnish the Hills’ Summit Avenue mansion. James J. Hill’s obsessive record-keeping has permitted a considerable, though incomplete, summary of the collection – their origins, the dealers, their use and placement in the house, and their value. Only one and a fraction of these rugs remain in the Hill House.

Growing Up In St Paul - A Child With An 'Eye Problem'
And Memories Of The Vision Classes In The St. Paul Schools
Author John Larson
The author’s memories of growing up in the Merriam Park and North End neighborhoods in the late 1920s and the 1930s touch upon treatments for his eye disease, the local swimming hole and blacksmith shop, the end of Prohibition, his "vision classes" at Webster and Irving Schools, exploring the new Ramsey County Courthouse, and riding the streetcars.

Books
Andersen, Elmer L., A Man’s Reach (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 2000[?].

Fall 2000 Volume 35 Number 3
Two Horses And One Buffalo Robe - The Ramsey County Attorney's Office And Its 150 Years: All Frailties Of Human Nature
Author Anne E Cowie

The Aches And Pains Of St. Paul Property Ownership: Taxes, Assessments And Fees Between 1856 And 1904: A Snapshot Of The Lives Of The Flanagan Family
Author Leo J. Harris

Was That Really Cloudman? The Pitfalls Of Research: Two Leaders Same Name

Books

Summer 2000 Volume 35 Number 2
Dilettante, Renaissance Man, Intelligence Officer –
Jerome Hill And His World War Two Letters From Frances To His Dearest Mother
Author G. Richard Slade

A Roof Over Their Heads - The Ramsey County 'Poor Farm'
Author Pete Boulay

Plans For Preserving 'Potters', Field' - Heritage Of The Public Welfare System
Author Robert C Vogel

Recounting The 1962 Recount - The Closest Race For Governor In Minnesota's History
Author Thomas J. Kelley

Books

Spring 2000 Volume 35 Number 1
The Two Worlds Of Jane Gibbs: The Gibbs Farm And The Santee Dakota
Author Julie A. Humann

Gummy, Yellow, White Flint Corn - The Dakota Garden At The Gibbs Museum
Author Janet Cass

The Gibbs Farm, Its Neighbor, The University Farm,
And How Both Of Them Influenced Minnesota's Agricultural History
Author William F. Hueg Jr

Growing Up In St Paul - Mystic Caverns And Their Short-Lived Glory Days
Author Ray Barton

Books

Winter 2000 Volume 34 Number 4

A Water Tower, A Pavilion And Three National Historic Sites -
 Clarence Wigington And The Historical Legacy He Left To The People Of St Paul
Author David V. Taylor

Architect To The Kings Of The Carnivals 'Cap' Wigington And His Ice Palace 'Babies'
Author Bob Olsen

Transplants From Europe Germans, Poles, Italians - Settlers On The Levee
Author Gregg Schach

Growing Up In St Paul - First A Tiny Stucco Starter Home;
Then A New Post-War Suburb Beckoned
Author Joanne Englund

Books
No back issues available  

"…No Time Or Sympathy For One Who Wouldn't  Work "Crawford Livingston, Colonel Chauncey W. Griggs, And Their Roll In St. Paul's History
Author John Lindley

Books

Summer 1999 Volume 34 Number 2

Escaping The Heat On A Hot Summer Night - The St Paul Figure Skating Club And Those Popular Summer Pops Concerts
Author Kathleen C. Ridder

Growing Up In St Paul - The Story If Life On The Farm In A Changing World With Changing Fortunes
Author Henry & Samuel Morgan

Two Who Were There Remember: How Ramsey County's Governance Moved Into The 20th Century
Author Thomas J Kelley

Spring 1999 Volume 34 Number 1
In The Beginning The Geological Forces That Shaped Ramsey County
And The People Who Followed
Author Scott F Anfinson

Handy With Pistols - Ramsey County's Territorial Editors

A Short History Of Ramsey County The Territorial Years And The Rush To Settle

Ramsey County Heritage Trees
Author Joe Quick

The Dakota Perspective 'We Have Been Cheated So Often
Author Mark Diedrich

Ramsey County History Preserved In Its Survey Office

Hardship & Struggle The Pioneer Years Of White Bear Lake

And The Township That Bears Its Name

Little Canada - Heritage From The French Canadians

A Pioneer's Early Memories - Farming With Flail And Cradle

The Great Horse Market Years At Prior & University

In North St. Paul Boom, Boom, Bust, Come-Back!

Winter 1999 Volume 33 Number 4
Timber, Steel, Law, And Politics -
St Paul's Pioneering Attorneys And Their More Interesting Cases
Author Samuel Morgan
"Never in the state of Minnesota has one group of lawyers made such a mark, not just on its own community but nationally and internationally, as did the founding partners of the firm of Davis, Kellogg and Severance." Two served in the U.S. Senate, two served as president of the American Bar Association, one won a Nobel Peace Prize, and the firm played a central role in important early anti-trust cases against Standard Oil and the Union Pacific Railroad and tax issues surrounding the iron mining industry of northern Minnesota.

What became in time the St. Paul law firm Briggs and Morgan began with Davis, Kellogg, and Severance and a Wisconsin partnership, Clapp and Macartney, in the 1880s. Separately, then together after their merger in 1960, these firms represented the giants of Minnesota industry and commerce, including Weyerhauser, 3M, H.B.Fuller, U.S. Steel, the Swift and Armour meatpacking companies, Cream of Wheat, Burlington Northern, International Harvester, and many others. This work put them at the center of the vital taxation, regulation, political, and commercial issues of the last century and more.

The author, a retired partner of the firm and son of its Morgan namesake, traces the firm from its origins to the present. His account includes a brief portrait of law practice at the turn of the twentieth century, the gubernatorial election controversy of 1962, the American Allied Insurance collapse of 1965, and others.

More About The Life Of Frank B. Kellogg
Author John Lindley
A one-page biographical sketch of the St. Paul lawyer, U.S. Senator, diplomat and ambassador, Secretary of State, international judge, and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

'300 African American Performers' The Great Cuba Pageant Of 1898: St. Paul's Citizens Support The Struggle For Civil Rights
Author Dave Riehle
In November 1898 the African American citizens of St. Paul and Minneapolis demonstrated their patriotic enthusiasm for the Spanish-American war with a remarkable theatrical pageant called CUBA. Written, directed, and performed entirely by black citizens, the pageant featured original music, scenes from an imagined Cuba, dances, even battle scenes. The author places the pageant in the context of the civil rights issues, local and national, of the time, including the controversy over performance of the cakewalk, a row that featured one of the pageant’s stars, the prominent attorney Fredrick McGhee. Detailed footnotes.

Growing Up In St Paul - Eleanor Joins The Family At The Fish Hatchery
Author Muriel Mix Hawkins
Muriel Mix grew up in the 1930s at the fish hatchery that long operated below the southern point of Dayton’s Bluff. One day an orphaned moose came to live at the hatchery and became a treasured family pet.

Books, Etc.
Shannon, James Patrick, Reluctant Dissenter – An Autobiography (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Co.), [ ].
No back issues available  

Fall 1998 Volume 33 Number 3
Banker & Philanthropist - Richard C. Lilly: The Man Who Led Two Lives
Author Virgina Brainard Kunz

Henry Bosse And Samuel Clemons As Mark Twain –
Parallel Lives On The Mighty Mississippi
Author Michael Connors

Books, Etc.
No back issues available  

Summer 1998 Volume 33 Number 2
A 'Wicked Looking Revolver' And $3,000 In Gold - F.R. Bigelow's Dash To France To Rescue His Family From The Guns Of August
Author Fredric R. Bigelow

A Win At Wimbledon In 1959 - Links, Courts, Lanes, Diamonds –
Ramsey County's Woman Athletes And Their History Of Success
Author Kathleen C. Ridder

Growing Up In St Paul - Porches Parties Around The Piano
A Year In The Life Of Mary Etta Manship
Author Margaret Manship

Spring 1998 Volume 33 Number 1
Stairway To The Abyss The Diverting Story Of The Cascade Creek
And Its Journey Under St. Paul
Author Greg Brick

Westminster Junction And Its Tunnels –
An 1880's 'Highway Intersection' For The Railroads
Author Andrew J Schmidt

The Story Of Rose Hanna And Her Journey From Old-World Palestine To St Paul
Author Rose Hanna As Told To Jean Hanna

The Upper Levee: Memories Of Its People And Its Place In St Paul's History
Author Joe Lepsche

Growing Up In St Paul - Dawn To Dusk:
Grand Hill And Its Grand Fourth Of July Extravaganza
Author Charlotte Mckendre Wright Lewis

Books, Etc.

Winter 1998 Volume 32 Number 4
A 'Launching Upon Journalistic Seas'
A Chronicle Of The St Paul Daily News - 1900-1933
Author James B. Bell

The Legend Of Sam Taran: Bootlegger And St. Paul's "Fighting Tailor"
Author Paul R. Gold

Growing Up In St Paul - From Amerika To America: Alma Crosses The Border
Author John W Larson

Fall 1997 Volume 32 Number 3
Speakers, Style Shows, And 12,000 Shoppers -
The Women's Institute And How It Revived Downtown St. Paul
Author Kathleen C Ridder

19th Century Technology And A Field Engineer's Canadian Travels
Author Robert F. Garland

Life In 1937's 'Home Of Tomorrow'
Author Brian McMahon

'A Beautiful, High-Minded Woman' Emily Gilman Noyes And Woman Suffrage
Author Rhoda R. Gilman

Growing Up In St Paul - A Childhood Revisited:
The State Fish Hatchery And A Collision Of The Past & Present
Author Muriel Mix Hawkins

Books, Etc.

Summer 1997 Volume 32 Number 2
Last Of Its Kind In Minnesota The Old Wabasha Street Bridge
And How It Linked East To West
Author Demian J. Hess

Millions Of Years In The Making - The Geological Forces That Shaped St. Paul
Author Edmund C. Bray

No Grass Beneath Her Feet - Harriet Bishop And Her Life In Minnesota
Author Norma Sommerdorf

Growing Up In St Paul - West Seventh Street:
Czechs, Slovaks, Bohemians, And Kolache Dough Rising In The Warm Attic
Author Emily Panushka Erickson

Books, Etc.
No back issues available  

Spring 1997 Volume 32 Number 1
The View From The 17th Floor - Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly
And Its 11 - Year History
Author Virginia L. Martin

Growing Up In St Paul –
The Milkman, The Iceman, And Ice Chips In The Sawdust At The Bottom Of The Wagon
Author Ruth F. Brin

Books, Etc.
No back issues available  

Winter 1996 Volume 31 Number 4
Rats, Politicians, Librarians -The Untold Stories Of The Old St. Francis Hotel
And The Rich Historical Legacy Of Seventh Place
Author Paul R. Gold

Growing Up In St Paul - Everyone Knew The Rules For The Rites Of Passage And The Transportation Was Mainly On Foot
Author Branda Raudenbush

When Euphoria Dimmed: X-Rays' First Victim –
William Henslin And His Missing Gold Crown
Author George McDonald

What's Historic About This Site? The St. Paul Building And Its 108-Year History
Author Deanne Zibel Weber

Books, Etc.
No back issues available  

Fall 1996 Volume 31 Number 3
Fires, Hurricanes, Diamonds, Elephants –
The Colorful History Of St. Paul Companies - Minnesota's Oldest Business Corporation
Author Virginia Brainard Kunz

Books, Etc.

Summer 1996 Volume 31 Number 2
From 'Part-Time Pick-Up' To Renowned Ensemble –
The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra And Its First Ten Years - 1959 To 1970
Author Glenn Perachio

Minnesota's First Brewery: Yoerg's Final Years, 1933-1952
Author James B. Bell

Growing Up In St Paul - Grandfather Joel Larson - Swedish Immigrant - That 'Mysterious Stranger In Our Midst'
Author John W Larson

Spring 1996 Volume 31 Number 1
A Pioneer Child On Minnesota's Frontier –
Jane Gibbs, The 'Little Bird That Was Caught,' And Her Dakota Friends
Author Deanne Zibell Weber

Digging Into The Past: The Excavating Of The Claims Shanty Of Jane & Heman Gibbs
Author Thomond R. O'Brien

Growing Up In St Paul - Sam's Cash-And-Carry, The Tiger Store - Payne Avenue And The 1930's Depression
Author Ray Brown

Books, Etc.

Winter 1996 Volume 30 Number 4
Bonspiels, Skips, Rinks, Brooms, And Heavy Ice –
The St. Paul Curling Club And Its Colorful Century Old History
Author Jane McClure

The Bungalows Of The Twin Cities,
With A Look At The Craze That Created Them In St. Paul
Author Brain McMahon

Growing Up In St Paul - Down St. Albans Hill In A Wooden Coasterwagon
Author Arthur C. McWatt

Books, Etc.

Fall 1995 Volume 30 Number 3

After 108 Years, A Transformation -
Norwest Bank St. Paul And Its Heritage Of More Then A Century
Author James B. Bell

Banking In Minnesota's Unfetted Frontier –
When Barter Was The Only Name Of The Game In Town
Author James B. Bell

"Cheery, Refined And Comfortable" Episcopal Church Home Begins Its Second Century With Its 'Caring Services 'That Help The Elderly'
Author Maria Fotsch

Growing Up In St Paul - A Boyhood Resting On The City's Seven Hills –
But Once Upon A Time There Were Eight
Author John S Sonnen

Books, Etc.

What's Historic About This Site? The Blair Flats - Once The Old Angus –
High Victorian On Cathedral Hill
No back issues available  

Winter 1995 Volume 29 Number 4
St. Paul Underground – What Happened to Fountain Cave? 
Greg Brick 
Described as "a marble temple," issuing water so pure it resembled "a shower of diamonds," Fountain Cave was once one of St. Paul’s tourist attractions. In this meticulously researched article the author tells both the geological and human story of the cave – how it was formed, how people described it, used it, and abused it. Pierre Parrant used the water from the creek that ran through it to brew his popular moonshine, and at the creek’s mouth he built the first known residence in what became St. Paul, in 1838. The Omaha railroad turned it into a cesspit beneath its Omaha shops in 1880, and gradually the cave faded from public consciousness. The construction of Shepard Road in 1960 sealed the mouth of the cave forever. This footnoted piece includes five photographs, three maps, and three drawings or paintings, including the cover.

The Obscure Plaque on the Wall – Who Were the Boys from the Adams School? 
Paul D. Nelson 
A plaque at St. Paul’s Adams School is dedicated to "the Boys from The Adams School Who Sacrificed Their Lives" in World War I. Who were they and what happened to them? There were three, Enoch Spence, Theo Peterson, Jr., and Leon Machovec. All died of disease and only one, Machovec, saw combat. Their stories, and how their stories were uncovered, are told.

Money – And How They Fared When There Wasn’t Any Out There on Minnesota’s Frontier
Ronald M. Hubbs
A rumination on the commodities used for money in pioneer days, the depreciation of the 1850s and Panic of 1857, gold and the Dakota Conflict, and early banking.

 Growing Up in St. Paul – ‘Grandfather Durkee Was a Crusty Gentleman
Reuel D. Harmon 
Memories of Grandfather Durkee, growing up in St. Anthony Park, family lore of meteorites and the Dakota Conflict, performances at the old Metropolitan Opera House, and a letter of recommendation from Pierce Butler, Jr.

What’s Historic About This Site? B. P. Durkee’s French Empire House
A companion piece to the previous article. Grandfather Durkee’s house, still standing, is an 1870s French Empire mansion atop the West Side bluffs overlooking the flats and Mississippi River.

Book reviews
Raaen, Aagot, Grass of the Earth (St.Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press), 1994.
Douglas, Marjorie Myers, Eggs in the Coffee, Sheep in the Corn (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press), 1994.

Summer 1995 Volume 30 Number 2
Vision, Vigor, Earthbound Practicality –
The Friends Of The Library - A Powerhouse After Fifty Years
Author Virginia L. Martin

Growing Up In St Paul - Flexible Flyers, Trolleys To Wildwood
And The Wondrous Tree House On Grand Hill
Author Samuel Morgan

Books, Etc.

Spring 1995 Volume 30 Number 1

From Iceboxes To Freezers: The Story Behind The Seeger Refrigerator Company
Author James B. Bell

The Great Railroad Excursion Of 1854 - "The Most Notable Event Of The Year"
Author Virginia Brainard Kunz

Who Was Millard Fillmore? And What Was He Doing In St. Paul?
Author Virginia Brainard Kunz

Growing Up In St Paul - Gas Stoves, Gas Jets, Gas Lamps & Coal - Through An Open Chute In The Cellar
Author Freida Claussen

What's Historic About This Site?
The Benjamin Brunson House And The East Side's Railroad Island

Winter 1995 Volume 29 Number 4
St. Paul Underground- What Happened To The Fountain Cave –
The Real Birthplace Of The City
Author Greg Brick

The Obscure Plaque On The Wall - Who Were Boys Of The Adams School?
Author Paul D Nelson

Money - And How They Fared When There Wasn't Any Out On Minnesota's Frontier
Author Ronald M. Hubbs

Growing Up In St Paul - 'Grandfather Durkee Was A Crusty Gentleman
Author Reuel D Harmon

Books, Etc.

Fall 1994 Volume 29 Number 3
The Midway Chamber And Its Community –
The Colorful History Of An 'Unparalleled Feature' Of St. Paul
Author Jane McClure

Spill-Over: The Midway And The 'Farm' Campus

Growing Up In St Paul - Remembering: 'Towns Within' And Their People
Author Joanne Englund

Books, Etc.

Summer 1994 Volume 29 Number 2
Once Upon A Time- 'Tasteful, Elegant'
Lafayette Park And The Vanished Homes Of St. Paul's Elite
Author Marshall R. Hatfield

Growing Up In St Paul - Harriet Island And The 'Fearless' Popper
Author William D. Bowells, Sr.

How Good Were The 'Good Old Days' When Women's Work Was Rarely Done?
Author Tamara C. Truer

Books, Etc.

Spring 1994 Volume 29 Number 1
The Last Shots Of Two Wars The 'Fighting Saint' –
The U.S.S St Paul And Its Minnesota Connection
Author Tom Bolan

The Greatest Waterborne Invasion In History –
D-Day Remembered By Seven Who Were There

The Harlem Renaissance - 'An Age Of Miracles, Excess, Satire'
Author John S. Wright

Growing Up In St Paul - Yankeedom: Goal Of The 19th Century Immigrant
Author John W. Larson

Books, Etc.
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Winter 1994 Volume 28 Number 4

A Ninety Year Run - Giesen's: Costumer To St. Paul's Families And Festivals - 1872-1970
Author Virginia L. Martin

Growing Up In St Paul - A Grandchild's Journey Into A Swedish Past
Author John W. Larson

What's Historic About This Site? The House That Pedar Foss Built - New Brighton, 1896

Books, Etc.

Fall 1993 Volume 28 Number 3
A Case History Of Government In Action –
The Newly Restored, Newly Renovated City Hall & Courthouse
Author Thomas J. Kelley

What Is Art Deco?

A Short And Happy History Of Ramsey County And Its Two Earlier Courthouses
Author Dane Smith

Growing Up In St Paul - The Return Of The Cotters: A Family's Story
Author Dorothy Cotter Chaput

Summer 1993 Volume 28 Number 2

Old Fort Snelling: Its Birth, Death And Reincarnation
And The Story Of Fort Snelling State Park
Author Samuel Morgan

Colorful, Sometimes Contentious - St. Paul's 100 Year Old Neighborhood Press
Author Jane McClure

Growing Up In St Paul - Albert Fuller And The Family Business
Author Albert Fuller

Books, Etc.

Spring 1993 Volume 28 Number 1
…'And A Sprinkling Of Jews' Work And Faith And Minnesota's Jewish Merchants
Author Marilyn Chiat

Romance, Melodrama, Murder, Mayhem - The Novelist In Not So Fictional St Paul
Author Frances Sontag

Growing Up In St. Paul - Looking Back At The Black Community Part II
Author David V. Taylor

Books, Etc.

What's Historic About This Site? The Highland Park Water Tower And Its Architect Clarence Wiggington
No back issues available  

Winter 1992 Volume 27 Number 4

Henry Bosse's Priceless Photographs And The Mississippi's Passage Into The Age Of Industry
Author John O. Anfinson

Draughtsman, Photographer, Artist - Who Was The Mysterious Henry Bosse?
Author William Roba

Growing Up In St. Paul - Looking Back At The Black Community
Author Eula T. Murphy With David Taylor

Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve - Daughter Of Frontier Regiment - 1819
Author Ronald M. Hubbs

Jonas King - First Volunteer For The Union
Author Robert J. Strumm

 Matter Of Time - 1853, 1893, 1918, 1943. 1968

Books, Etc.

What's Historic About This Site? The George Luckert House –
The Oldest Still Standing On St. Anthony Hill

Fall 1992 Volume 27 Number 3
A Story O Change, Pride, Perseverance –
The Mexican Americans And Their Roots In St Paul's Past
Author Jane McClure

Whistles, Crowds And Free Silver - St Paul's Election Night In 1896
Author Thomas C. Buckley

Postcards: A Full Blown Love Affair
Author Robert J. Strumm

Growing Up In St. Paul - Polish Sausage And Trips On The Streetcar
Author Deanne Cherry

A Matter Of Time - 1852, 1892, 1917

Books, Etc.

Fall 1992 Volume 27 Number 3
What's Historic About This Site? St. Casmir's Church And Its 100 Year Journey Of Faith

Summer 1992 Volume 27 Number 2
The Junior League's First 75 Years –
Follies, 'Friendly Visiting' And Women's Changing Roles
Author Garneth O. Peterson

Hope Chests And Honeymoons - Marriages In America Still Wedded To Tradition
Author Tamara Truer

Growing Up In St. Paul - Father Begged Feed For His Animals
Author Margaret Manship

A Matter Of Time - 1852, 1892, 1917, 1942

Books, Etc.

What's Historic About This Site? The Cyrus B Cobb House In White Bear Lake

Spring 1992 Volume 27 Number 1
A Nationwide Sense Of Crisis - 1922 Shopmen's Strike In St Paul And The Northwest
Author W Thomas White

Fifty Years Later - A Survivor's Memories Of The Battaan Death March
Author Philips S. Brain, Jr.

Growing Up In St. Paul - Years Of Depression, Gangsters, Good Schools
Author Willard L. (Sandy) Boyd

Rediscovering St. Paul's Fish Hatchery - A 'Pretty Little Valley' With Idyllic Charm
Author Robert J. Strumm

The Earl Of Selkirk And His Utopian Dream
Author Ronald M Hubbs

A Matter Of Time - 1852, 1892, 1917, 1942, 1967

Books, Etc.

What's Historic About This Site? The St. Anthony Branch Library

Winter 1991 Volume 26 Number 4
St, Paul's First Shot Veterans –
The Crew Of The U.S.S. Ward And The Attack At Pearl Harbor
Author Jane McClure
The U.S.S. Ward, a destroyer, served in combat for precisely three years, December 7, 1941 to December 6, 1944. Manned by naval reservists from St. Paul, the Ward saw combat at Pearl Harbor ("We thought it was the end of the world."), Guadal canal, and the Philippines, losing only one crewman along the way. Disabled by a kamikaze attack, the ship had to be scuttled in the Pacific. Crewmen from the Ward fired the first shots in the war with Japan, sinking a mini-submarine an hour before the air attack on December 7. After the war, most of the St. Paul crewmen returned home to long and productive lives. With five illustrations and a bibliography.

Help, Housing 'Almost Impossible To Find' A Single Mother And World War II
Author Hilda Rachey
The trials of a young, single, working mother of two in St. Paul during World War II. She had to scramble time and again to find housing and child care (both often inadequate), deal with a temporary transfer, travel by foot and streetcar, and endure wartime shortages. "Our ration coupons allowed one pair of shoes a year for each person. No allowance was made for the fact that children’s feet grow . . . ." Only after the war did their conditions improve. Still, "If I could have my way, I would gladly go back and relive those days when the children were small and I had them with me." This is a well-written and rare memoir of the home front: with six photographs.

100 Years Of Helping People - Family Service And Its Legacy Of Leadership
Author Tom Kelley
The social service agency Family Service, Inc., began in St. Paul in 1892 and has lasted one hundred years. It began as Associated Charities, an information clearinghouse for the coordination of private charity for the "worthy poor;" in the 1910s it moved into relief and social work, with an emphasis on "the preservation of family life." The agency survived several wars, the Depression, periodic financial crises, and demographic changes to become and remain a full-service, private, secular social service provider. Strong leaders – notably James Jackson, Charles Stillman, A. E. Heckman, Dawson Bradshaw, and Ron Reed – have been very important. Once the mission became established, they stuck with the core mission while changing with the times. Thus Family Service has regularly added new services while discarding others, merged with other agencies, developed new sources of money, and grown in size and scope. The article is a condensation of the agency’s self-published history, A Legacy of Leadership and Service. With ten photographs.

Books, Etc.
Green, Anne Bosanko, One Woman’s War: Letters Home from the Women’s Army Corps (St. Paul: MHS Press, 1989.)
Litoff, Jody Barret, David C. Smith, Barbara Woodall Taylor, and Charles E. Taylor, eds., Miss You: The World War II Letters of Barbara Woodall Taylor and Charles E. Taylor (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1990.)

What's Historic About This Site? St. Paul's Union Depot
It opened, in 1923, after the railroad age had peaked. The last passenger train stopped there in 1970. It has been searching for a purpose ever since. It is very fine nevertheless, "a simple, rather severe example of the Neo-classical style of architecture often used in public buildings during the first half of the twentieth century."

Fall 1991 Volume 26 Number 3
The 150th Anniversary Of The Naming Of The City –
St. Paul And The Rush To Settlement 1840 To 1880
Author Virgina Brainard Kunz
St. Paul’s earliest years recounted by the dean of Ramsey County-St. Paul historians. "As 1840 dawned, nine cabins were strewn along the bluffs that rose above the Mississippi . . . ." The essential information and vital characters are all here: Father Galtier, the chapel and the name, Phelan and Hays, Perry and Gervais; Louis Robert, Joe Brown, and Henry Jackson; the creation of Minnesota Territory; Harriet Bishop and Matilda Rumsey, et al. The demographics of settlement are covered, from the ousting of the Dakota through the arrivals of the Germans and Irish, among others; and St. Paul’s growth from swampy hamlet to genuine city, not forgetting the Swedish and Jewish and African-American contributions. We have the great builders, John Ireland and James J. Hill, statehood and Alexander Ramsey, St. Paul in the Civil War, the beginnings of the great local railroad industry. An excellent map places the early landmarks in the current landscape. With thirteen illustrations, this is a primer for anyone desiring an introduction to (or review of) St. Paul’s origins.

Who Was Pigs Eye Parrant, Anyway?
Everything that is known about St. Paul’s first settler – in less than two full pages. He was an illiterate, intemperate, ill-mannered and itinerant fur trader and whiskey seller who hung around Fort Snelling for a few years in the mid- to late 1830s. Exiled from the fort in 1838, he occupied two successive claims in what became St. Paul, and gave it its first informal name. By 1845 he was gone.

Forgotten Pioneer - Abraham Perry And The Story Of His Flock
Author Patrick R. Martin
The story of early settler Abraham Perry, written by a great-great-great-great grandson. Perry (born Perret) was lured from Switzerland to the Selkirk Colony in Manitoba in 1820. When that failed he and family came to Fort Snelling. A dozen years later the Perrys and others were expelled from fort surroundings and moved downriver near Fountain Cave. They were forcibly moved again in 1840. Perry died in 1849. Son Charles later settled near Lake Johanna in Arden Hills, raised a large family, and lived to 1904. His son William ran a "blind pig" that turned into a legitimate resort known as Perry’s Beach on Lake Johanna in 1898. It was famous for its popcorn fritters. "Through the three Perry men, the Perry name has become part of Ramsey County’s heritage."

What's Historic About This Site?
Highland Park's Reminder Of Its Past: The Davern And Colvin Homes
Author Robert J. Couser
Neighboring houses built by distinguished St. Paul families. William Davern came to St. Paul from Ireland in 1849. He farmed, became a citizen, served in the legislature, owned Pike Island for a while, and generally prospered. Son William and grandson Joseph became prominent citizens also. The article traces the ownership of and alterations to their 1862 farmhouse.
Alexander Colvin came from Canada to St. Paul in 1897. He was chief of surgery at Ancker Hospital from 1919 until his death in 1948. Sarah Tarleton Colvin was a nurse, suffragist, political activist, and member of the state board of education. The Colvins built two houses at 1175 Davern in 1909. "Today the homes of these early citizens serve as distinctive reminders of Highland Park’s past."

A Matter Of Time - 1851, 1891, 1916, 1941, 1966

Books, Etc.
Adams, Noah, Saint Croix Notes: River Mornings, Radio Nights (New York: Norton, 1990.)
Borchert, John R., America’s Northern Heartland: An Economic and Historical Geography of the Upper Midwest (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987.)
Rangitsch, Monica, producer, Good Living Among Good People: A History of North St. Paul (North St. Paul Historical Society, 1991.)

Summer 1991 Volume 26 Number 2

Simpler Times, Obvious Virtues –
The Story Of The Little White School House On The Prairie
Author Harlan Seyfer
In 1966 the Ramsey County Historical Society acquired a one-room schoolhouse for its Gibbs Farm Museum. It was built in 1882 in rural Chippewa County and used until January of 1965.

Dog Sled To Private Car: Peregrinating Hills
Author Thomas C Buckley
The James J. Hill fortune was based on transportation. Not surprisingly, the family used some of the money to travel by every means at hand. This article recounts many of their travels, by dogsled, rail, yacht and steamship, automobile, and even on foot, for business and for pleasure. "Even in today’s era of massive long distance travel by jet and auto, few can match the peregrinating Hills of the early twentieth century." With eight photos including the back cover, and a list of sources.

Walter Sanborn And The Eighth Circuit Court
Author Thomas Boyd
A six-page biography of one of Minnesota’s most distinguished lawyers. He came to St. Paul in 1870 to join his uncle’s law practice. He succeeded in private practice, served on the city council, and was appointed to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1892. There he made his greatest mark in anti-trust law, voting to break up James J. Hill’s and J. P. Morgan’s Northern Securities Trust, then writing the opinion that ordered the dismantling of Standard Oil. "The Standard Oil decision was the first meaningful application of the Sherman [Antitrust] Act and Judge Sanborn’s opinion was widely hailed as a milestone that ushered in a new era." He died in 1928. His nephew, John Sanborn, followed him to the Eighth Circuit in 1932 and served until 1964. With four photographs.

A Matter Of Time - 1851, 1891, 1916, 1941, 1966

Books, Etc.
Hunter, Dianna, Hard Ground: The Stories of Minnesota Farm Advocates (Duluth: Holy Cow Press, 1990.)
Oakland Cemetery (St. Paul: Oakland Cemetery Association.)
Bruckner, Sharon, project coordinator, Oakland Cemetery Records: Saint Paul, Minnesota (St. Paul: Minnesota Genealogical Society, 1991.)
Hancock, Jane, Sheila ffolliott, and Thomas O’Sullivan, Homecoming: The Art Collection of James J. Hill (St. Paul: MHS Press, 1991.)

What's Historic About This Site? First National Bank Of White Bear Lake
Built in 1921 in the Beaux Arts tradition, "this delightful classically-inspired building is an excellent example of how the older buildings which have added so much character to the downtowns of Minnesota communities can be adapted to new uses."

Small And Cohesive - St. Paul's Resourceful African American Community
Author Arthur C. McWatt
Notable people, organizations, businesses, trends, and accomplishments in St. Paul’s African-American community, 1910-1943.
1900-1910. Major institutions, such as Pilgrim Baptist and St. James AME churches and the Appeal newspaper (J. Q. Adams, editor) are well-established. Blacks have achieved entry into the police and fire departments, the legislature (J. Frank Wheaton), law (Fredrick McGhee), medicine (Valdo Turner and Thomas Cook), teaching (the Farr sisters). Business and community leaders also include T.H. Lyles, James Loomis, James Hilyard, and Harry Shepherd. The population in 1910 is 3144.
1911-1920. Population growth is slow. Employment prospects remain limited but are somewhat improved in meat packing and railroads. Rising figures include William and Nellie Francis, Clarence Wigington, Father Stephen Theobald, J. Louis Ervin. Important new institutions include the Sterling Club and the Afro-American Industrial League.
1921-1930. Growth continues to be slow, but more economic progress is made. The Pullman Porters Industrial Association and St. Paul Urban League are founded. J.Q. Adams is succeeded by Roy Wilkins as a strong editorial voice. Owen Howell creates the St. Paul Negro Business League. Despite progress, at decade’s end the median black family income is only 76% of poverty level.
1931-1943. The Depression takes a terrible toll. Cecil Newman and his St. Paul Recorder emerge as major figures. Despite hard times, "By the mid-1930s St. Paul had a substantial black business community made up of small stores, shops, restaurants, bars and barbershops." World War II helps a great deal, with jobs and later the GI Bill. "It was truly a take-off period in St. Paul’s economic history which few would soon forget."
With twenty photographs, including the cover, and a bibliography.

A Period Of National Tragedy - The Homeless And The Jobless In The 1930s
Author Virgina Brainard Kunz
The Great Depression in Ramsey County, seen in part through the experiences and words of A. E. Heckman. Heckman came to St. Paul in 1931 to lead the United Charities. In 1932, when the Depression finally took full effect in St. Paul, he headed a unique public-private partnership, running the county welfare board while being paid by United Charities. Government, private charity, and leading citizens and businesses worked together to provide relief. Heckman also directed WPA projects in the area (Kellogg Boulevard, the nine-foot river channel, the Harriet Island pavilion, among others) and initiated the "thrift gardens" program. Heckman returned to United Charities in 1935. Despite all the efforts, the county in 1936 paid out more in relief than it collected in taxes, and the Depression began to lift only in 1940.

A Minnesota Abroad - Alexander Wilkin And The 'Dumpy' Queen
Author Ronald Hubbs
Wilkin, a major early citizen, went to Europe three times, 1855-1858, and wrote letters home. Mostly he griped, though he did like Florence and big events involving dressing up: "I wore my uniform which was much admired . . . ." He met Queen Victoria, whom he found "short and dumpy with bad complexion and not in the least pretty."

Book Review
Marling, Karal Ann, Blue Ribbon: A Social and Pictorial History of the Minnesota State Fair (St. Paul: MHS Press, 1990.)
Eaton, Leonard K., Gateway Cities and Other Essays (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1989.)

A Matter Of Time - 1851, 1891, 1916, 1941, 1966

What's Historic About This Site? Woodland Park Historic District
A brief summary of the rise, decline, and revival of the neighborhood bounded by Marshall, Selby, Dale, and Kent streets. During its rise, 1880-1924, prominent citizens such as Judson Bishop, D. W. Lawler, and William Marshall built houses there.

Winter 1990 Volume 25 Number 4
Fire On The Frontier - Tradesmen, Merchants: The Men Who Ran With The Machine
Author Thomas J. Kelley
St. Paul’s first recorded fire occurred in 1838 – somebody torched Pierre Parrant’s lean-to. In 1850 the first Protestant church in the city, brand new, burned to the ground. Several fires later, in 1854, a formal fire company was organized. This article is the story of the creation and early years of what became the St. Paul Fire Department. For decades all fire companies were volunteer, semi-exclusive clubs that charged dues and held social events. They got their own uniforms, chose their names, and showed off. Little by little the city council was induced to buy more and better equipment. Still, in a city mostly made of wood, disastrous fires continued to occur and to spur improvements in fire protection. Cisterns were built, better fire engines purchased.
"At about the same time that new machines were being developed to stop fires, a dangerous new product for starting fires, kerosene, was becoming popular [1866]." The frequent lack of available water at fire sites led to agitation for a city water works. Population growth, catastrophic fires (several of them arson), improvements in equipment, and the expansion of the volunteer fire force all continued apace. By 1877 the city council, for so long so laggard in fire protection, decided to create a professional fire department. It ordered the volunteer companies disbanded. With twelve illustrations and a bibliography.

Christmas Myths, Memories And Our Pagan Past
The author reminds as that our Christmas traditions have varied origins, some pagan, some English, some commercial. "White Christmas" comes from an English custom of wrapping gifts for the poor in white. Thanksgiving marked the beginning of Christmas shopping season more than a century ago. "At this time of year, when tradition and memory hold us in such thrall, it is interesting to note how much a part of the past the present is."

The Mystery Of The Leaking Lake: Phalen Park And Its Almost - 100 Years Of History
Author Tim Koran
Phalen Park opened in 1899. Its history since then has been constant re-engineering and rebuilding, most of it having to do with controlling all that water. There has been dredging and damming; beaches have been closed and new beaches created; docks have been built, destroyed and replaced. Bathhouses, walkways, diving platforms, golf courses (the city’s first) have been rebuilt, moved, renovated. And then there was the leak. Until 1913 Lake Phalen supplied city water; then the water pipe was sealed. Forty years later the lake began to leak; only heroic efforts finally stopped the depletion. Pollution threatened the lake in the early 1970s, prompting still another round of drastic changes. This article tells the whole story of lake and park, from geological creation through the 1980s. With fourteen photographs and a bibliography.

A Matter Of Time - 1850, 1890, 1915, 1940, 1965

Book Reviews
Davies, Kenneth Maitland, To the Last Man: The Chronicle of the 135^th Infantry Regiment of Minnesota (St. Paul: Ramsey County Historical Society, 1982.)

What's Historic About This Site? The West Side's Riverview Carnegie Branch Library
Endowed by Andrew Carnegie, built in 1916, and renovated in 1958.

Summer 1990 Volume 25 Number 3
An Excess Of Zeal And Boosters - Few Holds Barredin Twin Cities Rivalries
Author Virginia Brainard Kunz
A summary of the major struggles for dominance between Minneapolis and St. Paul: the Census War of 1890 (won by Minneapolis, but only after arrests, threats, extravagant cheating, and a recount); the 14-year battle for the State Fair; the baseball rivalry between the Saints and Millers, brought to an end only by the coming of major league baseball; water vs. rail – Minneapolis had its falls and St. Paul had the rapids that kept shipping from reaching Minneapolis. Then came the railroads – call it a draw; the competing stockyards, the competing airports, the fight for the Ford plant, downtown redevelopment. The hatchet has been buried, but it keeps escaping.

The Mississippi As St. Paul - Playground On The City's Door Step
Author Thomas B. Mega
This article reviews the pleasure uses of the river in St. Paul from Pig’s Eye’s 1838 grog shop through the RiverFest music events of 1988. From very early days there were pleasure cruises. There were camp meetings at Red Rock. The Minnesota Boat Club and Minnesota Yacht Club put on races, regattas, and picnics. Harriet Island, with its "public baths," zoo, and playgrounds was a huge attraction for many years, and other parks were built to take advantage of river views. There have been decades of decline, brought on by pollution, neglect, and the Corps of Engineers. Recreational renewal began in the 1970s, spurred by the cruise boat Jonathan Padelford and revitalization of the rowing and boating clubs. Riverfront Days, inaugurated in 1982, revived Harriet Island as a music venue. "The Mississippi riverfront, then, is enjoying a renaissance as a center for recreation in St. Paul." With ten photographs.

Mapping Minnesota 1697 To 1857
Reproductions of four historic maps featuring the upper Mississippi.

Lillie & Ida At The Fair
Author Karen Bluhm
Sisters Lillie and Ida Gibbs visited the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and wrote home about it. Lillie’s great-granddaughter reconstructs the event.

Book Reviews
Hansen, Eric C., The Cathedral of St. Paul: An Architectural Biography (St. Paul: The Cathedral of St. Paul, 1990.)
Hammel, Bette Jones, From Bauhuas to Bowties: HGA Celebrates 35 Years (Minneapolis: Hammel Green and Abrahamson, 1989.)
Hebert, Gareth, ed., Little Canada, A Voyageur’s Vision (Stillwater: The Croixside Press, 1989.)

A Matter Of Time - 1850, 1890, 1915, 1940

What's Historic About This Site?
Ramsey County's 'Poor Farm' Barn: Remnant Of A Rural Past
"For the thousands of people who pass the Ramsey County Fairgrounds each year, or call in at the county’s extension service offices, the majestic barn at 2020 White Bear Avenue is a landmark, a reminder of the county’s rural past, and much more."

Fall 1990 Volume 25 Number 2
The St Paul Foundation And Its Past Fifty Years
Author Virgina Brainard Kunz
The Saint Paul Foundation began in 1940 with nothing. Ten years later very little had changed. Thirty years later it was rich and helping other foundations find their way. How did this happen? This article follows the foundation’s history in detail: the hiring of the right people plus the patient (over a quarter-century) accretion of bequests eventually bore bountiful fruit. Many of the names in this story are little known, despite the big fortunes behind some of them.

Important donors included Annie Paper, Joseph and Lillian Duke, Laura and Ann Furness, Harold Bend, and Ralph Kriesel. Their bequests and others allowed the foundation’s assets to grow to the point where significant gifts could be made. Meanwhile, leadership gained in experience and knowledge. It started part-time with Louis Headley, then Charles Birt; then, in 1975, Paul Verret. It took 40 years for the foundation to reach a level of wealth and expertise where it could undertake significant grant making. At this time too, 1980, it "began providing a full range of services to other foundations and nonprofit corporations."

The foundation’s giving then focused on areas of particular local need – Southeast Asian immigrants, adult literacy, education of minority children and youth, public libraries, Pacific Rim economics, an Emergency Care Fund, battered women, the homeless, a Community Reinvestment Fund, AIDS, renovation of the Landmark Center and construction of the Ordway Center, and a host of others. By 1990 the Saint Paul Foundation had assets of $175 million and ranked in the top ten of community foundations nationwide. With fifteen photographs.

No Cash, No Credit, No Jobs - St. Paul And The Panic Of 1857
Author Ronald Hubbs
The nationwide Panic of 1857 shattered the booming – and enthusiastically speculating – St. Paul. This piece follows the crisis mostly through the pens of newspapermen, chiefly those of the Daily Minnesotian and St. Paul Advertiser. The editors watched and commented as a crash was rumored, then struck Wall Street, then made its way inexorably west. And these fellows could write:

If anything could take canture down from its credulous faith in it own prescience,
it would be the constancy with which the speculations of the philosophers are
contradicted by the eventual facts of human experience. There is no one so positive
as a political economist, and no one so blind.

They could lecture, too: "Every man owes it to the community to set an example of a methodical frugality in his style of living, to contract his expenditures to the smallest possible compass and to pay his debts."

They could also lament: ""Immigration with its vast aggregate hoard has ceased to flow and no longer scatters its golden seed. The future beckons us to its Elysian shore, but a Styx of bankruptcy rolls between." Banks closed, money dried up, businesses went under, great men were ruined, the wharfs went quiet. It took the Civil War to bring full recovery. This article teaches us not only about the Panic, but also about a style of newspaper writing now gone.

"West Against East in the Land of Oz,"
Hoisington, Daniel John, 
The author looks at The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a metaphor for the national east vs. west political struggle: gold vs silver, McKinley vs Bryan. "To Baum, the treacherous gold standard could be remedied only by silver – the heart of William Jennings Bryan’s platform." 
The metaphor is borrowed from writer Henry Littlefield.

Reshaping The River: The Man-Made Mississippi
The author compares the man-made Mississippi of today with the natural river. "If one of the colorful French voyageurs who once paddled the Mississippi could return as a time traveler, it is highly doubtful that he would recognize the river that was his highway."

Book Reviews
Fairbanks, Evelyn, Days of Rondo (St. Paul: MHS Press, 1990.)
Wilkins, Roy, Standing Fast (New York: Viking Press, 1982.)
Parks, Gordon, A Choice of Weapons (St. Paul: MHS Press, 1986.)
A Matter Of Time - 1850, 1890, 1915, 1940, 1965

What's Historic About This Site? Macalester's Old Main And Its First Century
Macalester College’s Old Main has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The author describes the building and the early days of the college.

Spring 1990 Volume 25 Number 1

Railroader As Yachtsman, James. J Hill And The Wacouta Of St. Paul
Author Thomas C. Buckley
In 1900 the meticulous and demanding James J. Hill bought a yacht. Not surprisingly, he chose carefully and had the thing done to the highest standards. He bought it used for less than the asking price and ran it cheaper than the previous owners, and still made it a vessel of stunning luxury and performance. Though the yacht never visited St. Paul and could not have done so, its operations and management were monitored in excruciating detail from Hill headquarters.
This article describes in detail the purchase, operation (including wages, uniforms, and menus), renovations, and voyages of the Wacouta, providing along the way insight into what it must have been to work for Hill (maddening.) Hill ran the ship mainly in the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River for fishing trips, and Atlantic coast excursions. On the fishing trips once the Wacouta had reached its destination "the yacht largely served as a floating packing plant." The Hill family sold the ship after the old man died in 1916. She went on to have an eventful life-after-Hill. See "The Wacouta in Two World Wars" below. With eight photographs and a bibliography.

Eugene V. Debs, James J. Hill And The Great Northern Railway Strike
Author Tamara C. Truer
James J. Hill rarely lost a battle or met an adversary he could not defeat. The 1894 Great Northern strike was an exception. When he tried to impose a third wage cut on his employees in the course of eight months, the men, under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs’s American Railway Union, went on strike. All of Hill’s union-busting tactics failed. "The victory [for labor] was swift and dramatic." Years later Hill said, "Gene Debs is the squarest labor leader I have ever known. He cannot be bought, bribed, or intimidated. . . . I know. I have dealt with him and been well spanked."

1940s Revisited
An eight-photo array.

The Wacouta In Two World Wars
Author Thomas C. Buckley
After James Hill died the family sold the Wacouta. Under three different names, Harvard, Athinai, and Palermo, it served as a World War I patrol boat, a Greek passenger ship, an Italian naval vessel, and a Mediterranean commercial craft. It was sunk twice, the last time in May of 1944.

Book Reviews
Gilman, Rhoda R., Northern Lights: The Story of Minnesota’s Past (St. Paul: MHS Press, 1989).
Roseville, Minnesota, The Story of Its Growth, 1843-1988 (Roseville: Roseville Historical Society, 1988).
Flanagan, John T., Theodore Hamm in Minnesota: His Family and Brewery (Minneapolis: Pogo Press, 1989).

A Matter Of Time - Timeline 1850, 1890, 1915, 1940, 1965

What's Historic About This Site? The Dahl House: The Last Of Old Lowertown
In 1858 Englishman William Dahl built a humble little house in St. Paul. One hundred and thirty-two years later, still humble and tiny, the Dahl House made it to the National Register of Historic Places "as the last surviving residence of the once-residential Lowertown district."
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1989 Volume 24 Number 2
A Pioneer Writes Home - Alexander Wilkin And 1850s St. Paul
Author Ronald M Hubbs
Alexander Wilkin, though tiny in stature, was one of St. Paul’s early giants. Lawyer, speculator, politician, adventurer, like so many he burned for fortune and glory on the frontier.
He got both, plus an early death in battle. Letters that he wrote to family in his home town of Goshen, New York, were recently found and donated to the St. Paul Companies, of which Wilkin had been the first president. They are excerpted here, and the author adds context.
In addition to his other talents, Wilkin also wrote well. Writing of an 1850 expedition along the St. Croix, he recorded that "we cooked some of our provisions and retired – not to sleep – for the mosquitoes constantly whispered in our ears that such a thing was impossible, and not expected of strangers at Wolf Creek." A Whig who had won appointment as Secretary of the Minnesota Territory, he appreciated the uncertainty of office. "I fear our party will be routed next fall. If so, off goes my head . . . ." Writing to his brother at a low point, he concluded, "This is a wicked country and I feel at times that it is necessary for me to be on my guard. If I do not get better I must get worse."
Wiling ran for Congress ("Should I run and be elected . . . that would give me a position that would enable to . . . make a fortune.") He lost, but sought his fortune in many other ventures: insurance (first president of St. Paul Fire and Marine); railroads (incorporator of two railroad companies that went nowhere); newspapers (a minority owner of the Daily Times).
The Panic of 1857 effectively put an end to the go-go ‘50s; Wilkin was wounded ("Money matters are growing worse all the time. I cannot borrow any money."), but got through it better than many. The Civil War gave him his last chance for glory. He commanded Company A of the First Minnesota and died in combat. His letters provide an invaluable insider’s view of St. Paul and Minnesota in the 1850s. With five illustrations.

Boom, Boom, Bust! The' 29 Crash
Author Woodrow Keljik
The author deftly sets the stage for the Crash. "Were the 1920s really prosperous?" In retrospect, signs of trouble abounded. Trouble on the farm, trouble in Europe, reckless speculation everywhere. Those who spoke words of caution or warning were deemed unsound. Another Republican victory in the 1928 elections encouraged the expanding bubble. The tumble began in early October; prices and confidence fell apace. "In St. Paul, for the first time [on October 24], brokerage houses were crowded until long after dark." On October 28, "the plug was pulled and the shares of America’s most prominent corporations went down the drain. . . . But worse was yet to come as the terrible Black Tuesday of October 29 dawned."  
 St. Paul at first held up better than many other places, bolstered by its insurance and government payrolls, "not affected nearly so severely by sharp declines in the demand for manufactured goods." Minneapolis fared worse. St. Paul built its new city hall and courthouse; the builder of the Foshay Tower went to prison, bankrupt. The full force of the Depression struck St. Paul in 1932. Every train brought more destitute men to the city. There were bitter strikes in Austin and Minneapolis. New Deal programs provided some amelioration. With four illustrations and a bibliography.

1989 Volume 24 Number 1
Minnesota' First Art School - St. Agatha's Conservatory And The Pursuit Of Excellence
Author Sister Ann Thomasine Sampson
The first of five pieces by the same author about St. Agatha’s Conservatory. This one concerns mainly the two Ellens, cousins Ellen Ireland and Ella Howard, better known as Mother Seraphine and Mother Celestine of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. They were born the same year, grew up together in Ireland and St. Paul, and joined the Sisters at the same time. Ellen Ireland rose to the position of provincial superior. As Mother Seraphine she appointed her cousin superior of the new St. Agatha convent, a community of teachers in downtown parish schools; Mother Celestine, in turn, persuaded her cousin to let her turn it into a music and arts academy in order to support itself. The academy opened in 1884.

 "Mother Celestine Howard and Her Provincial Mint," pp. 8-9.
A portrait of Mother Celestine, who founded St. Agatha’s and ran it for 31 years. Perhaps only in the Catholic Church of this era could a woman develop and exercise such an array of talents of organization and leadership. The convent and academy got no financial help from the Sisters of St. Joseph or the archdiocese. As superior, Mother Celestine had to run the institution financially, market its art and music classes, oversee the training of its sisters, set and maintain artistic standards, attend to the spiritual and temporal needs of the sisters, maintain the traditions of the Sisters of St. Joseph, and deal with the various parishes the sisters served as teachers. She died in 1915 at the age of 71.

 "Music, Art, Drama, and Dance – The Little Girls Had Long Curls," pp. 9-14.
What the Conservatory did and how it did it. Its peak years were mid-1880s to the late 1920s, when it met a growing demand for arts education for young people. It started in the rented Lick house, moved the larger Judge Palmer House, expanded, expanded, expanded, then finally built its own new building, six stories with a roof garden, which opened in 1910. The taught voice, piano, organ, and many stringed instruments, music theory, elocution, deportment, languages, painting, drawing, and more. For a while a china painting business flourished there. Sisters taught in parish schools by day, at the Academy evenings and Saturdays, a strenuous life of work and work. It was called the "provincial mint" because at its height it made so much money – in the 1920s as much as $1,000 a day. Talented sisters were sent to universities and abroad to improve. Distinguished musicians were brought in as supervisors. It was a full-service arts industry run by women pledged to a life of poverty.

 "A Day in the Life of – Obedience, Poverty and Ice in the Washbasins," pp. 15-18.
Daily life of the sisters at St. Agatha’s. "There was no such thing as a partial commitment." Their days began at 5:00 "to the sound of a large hand bell that was rung nine times," and were busily scheduled and regimented until lights out seventeen hours later. Those who taught only music and expression began their days two hours earlier! "The weekends, far from providing a period of relaxation, seemed to be filled with even more activities." It was work, work, work, but the sisters shared a vocation for which they had been trained. "The advantages were companionship, help from each other, shared experiences, professional guidance, . . . and participation in a center of culture and the arts. These overshadowed the disadvantages of austerity, regimentation, a dark and gloomy atmosphere, lack of finances, insufficient food, absence of comfortable furniture and equipment, and the downtown noise that surrounded the building."

 "Closing the Conservatory," p. 19.
The Conservatory’s heyday ended with the coming of the Great Depression. Then came war, the decline of downtown population, wear and tear on the building, and a host of other forces that combined to make it vestigial. It closed in 1962. "A cultural era in the history of St. Paul had come to an end."

Boats, Boaters And Boat Clubs - Slips Cost 10 Cents A Foot
Author Thomas J. Kelley
Two short pieces in one, centered around Navy Island: The history of the Minnesota Yacht Club and memories of the Minnesota Boat Club. The Yacht Club began in 1912 as the St. Paul Motor Boat Club to serve the needs of city pleasure-craft owners. A key function was to supply slips, but it was a social club too. Over time the slips moved from Navy (a.k.a. Raspberry) Island to the Holman Field area, to Harriet Island, and finally to the harbor north of Harriet Island dredged in 1962, where they remain today.
Attorney Thomas C. O’Brien was an early member of the Minnesota Boat Club, a social and athletic organization built around the sport of rowing. He wrote his memories in the 1930s – memories of balls, races, picnics, stunts, shinny games, and straw rides.

1988 Volume 23 Number 2
The Fire And Marine: Facts, Fancies, Legends - The First 100 Years Of Minnesota's Oldest Business Corporation
Author Ronald M. Hubbs
Frontier boom towns are great places to make money but they are also unstable. Businessmen generally prefer stability. Insurance provides stability. Hence the St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company was born in 1853. Its creators were some of the city’s first big-shots – bankers, merchants, politicians, and real estate speculators, among them Alexander Ramsey, Charles Borup, Henry Rice, and Alexander Wilkin. Things started well, but the company went dormant just in time to avoid the speculative Panic of 1857. It awakened after the Civil War. New leadership in the person of transportation magnate James Burbank took over. He led the company through the Chicago Fire of 1871 ($142,000 in claims, equal to almost half the company’s assets, paid in full), expansion into 29 states and Canada, and the building of its first headquarters.
Burbank was succeeded in 1876 by Charles Bigelow; he ran the company until 1911 and his son Frederick until 1938! When the San Francisco earthquake hit in 1906, two company employees saved its records, "making it possible to adjust and pay losses." These losses amounted to $1,267,000, paid in full. In World War I the company insured property in London against losses from zeppelin attacks.
In part through the efforts of C.F. Codere (who started as an errand boy and succeeded Frederick Bigelow as president), Fire and Marine not only survived the Depression, it did so without lowering salaries or laying off employees. When marine losses were catastrophic during World War II, Codere said, "we shall continue writing war risks and if necessary the Fire and Marine will take a larger line."
The company has issued some oddball and seemingly dangerous risks – banks against theft during Dillinger’s heyday, a chicken against death by lion bite, an ostrich rider against falls, elephants against harm at the hands of college students. With 18 photographs and illustrations.

A Record Setting Winter - And The Ice Harvest On Lake Owasso
Author Neill J, O'Neill
As a lad in the mid-1930s the author worked three seasons harvesting ice on Lake Owasso in suburban Ramsey County. He recalls here in detail how the ice harvest worked – the equipment, the procedures, the job hierarchy, and the skills. "No ballet called for better timing as the packers alternately sailed heavy ice blocks smoothly across the icy surface to be packed in place." Pay came only after the harvest was done. "This . . . would usually be spent in the time-honored fashion set by lumberjacks, sailors and cowboys – all in one night. Contrary to popular opinion, none of us felt especially bad about it the next day." A priceless memoir.

Love And Marriage On The Old Frontier
Extracts from an address made by Edward Duffield Neill at Fort Snelling in 1889, about romances born at the fort in olden days. Characters include Zachary Taylor, Seth Eastman, Joseph Plympton, and others less known.

1988 Volume 23 Number 1

The American National Bank And The Bremer Brothers
Author Thomas J. Kelley
St. Paul grew at a reckless pace in the 1880s. There was money to be made in banking and many entered the field. In the Panic and Depression of the 1890s "the entrepreneurial bankers who opened banks with little experience and less capital were eliminated." The founders of the American National Bank, which opened in 1903, were men "indoctrinated . . . with great respect for solvency and liquidity." The founders were John Lockey, Benjamin Baer, Louis Ickler, Harry Humanson, Alice DuBord, and Otto Bremer.
Bremer was the key figure. He was the elected city treasurer and also treasurer of its biggest brewery, the Jacob Schmidt Company. Links between the bank and the brewery were strong and long. Bremer’s brother Adolf was married to Jacob Schmidt’s only daughter and president of the brewery. The two enterprises supported and bolstered one another through good times and hard.
Both bank and brewery had strong ties and interests in the rural hinterlands. The "country banks" there were intensely dependent on the farm economy, and when that economy went into steep decline after World War I those banks were in trouble. Otto Bremer and the American National Bank supported those banks, and by 1933 "he had a large or controlling interest in fifty-five banks in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Montana," though all remained separate from American. The Great Depression forced Otto to spend $2,000,000 to keep the banks afloat, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Brother Adolf had to step in; Otto’s debts were restructured to avoid any threat to American National Bank. In 1936 the brewery became a major investor in the bank. When Adolf died in 1939, Otto became president of the Jacob Schmidt Brewery. He died in 1951.
"Today the American National Bank is the largest commercial bank based in St. Paul with assets of $640 million." With seven photographs.

The Guild Of Catholic Women And Their 'Constant Efforts To Brighten Lives…'
Author Virginia Brainard Kunz
"The 20^th century’s great social movements – suffrage, social service, prohibition and temperance – were reflected in the work of St. Paul’s women, including those in the newly-founded [1906] Guild of Catholic Women." Growing out of a group of thirty at St. Luke’s Parish, the Guild quickly became a busy and city-wide doer of good deeds. It organized a travelers’ aid society, housing for young Catholic working women, and the Catholic Infant Home. Members visited the sick, clothed the poor, found jobs for the jobless and shelter for the homeless. During World War I they sold Liberty Bonds and found graves for those who had died in service. During the Depression the Guild organized Girl Scout troops and orphanages and supported the Community Chest, the Red Cross, the House of the Good Shepherd, and Little Sisters of the Poor. Services changed with the times.
Early leaders included Emily Franklin Logue, Margaret Bischell McFadden, Anne Towey O’Toole, Mary Howard Breen Quinlan, Margaret McManus Walsh, Ellen Donovan Conroy, Mary Handran Hurley, Ellen Kennedy Jones, Margaret Walsh Kelley, Jeanette Robert Lamprey, and Katherine Louise Dunn Slater.

George Trout And The Corner Grocery Store
Author Karl Trout
A memoir from the son of a neighborhood grocer, filled with delightful details: how the commodities were delivered and sold; how customers tasted the butter before buying; "the Henry George 5 cent cigar was the people’s choice"; kids driving the proprietor crazy over a one-penny candy purchase; Uncle Charlie taking the "high-stepping mare Lady" out to call on customers, and on and on. There is neighborhood stuff too, such as how in winter the kids delighted in grabbing onto the farmers’ sleighs for a ride after school and the annual Grocers’ Day picnics.

Pay Days: The Millers And Saints
Author Stew Thornley
A brief summary of the century-long baseball rivalry between St. Paul and Minneapolis, featuring brawls, record-setting feats, famous names and unforgettable characters.

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1987 Volume 22 Number 2
Cattleman And Capitalists - And The Founding Of New Brighton
Author Gene Skiba
Two stories in one article: the founding of New Brighton and memories from the Beisswenger family, early settlers.
The town, in northwest Ramsey County, was the creation of Twin Cities businessmen hoping to make money in the cattle business. Seeing that others, including James J. Hill, intended to profit from the shipping and slaughtering of cattle in South St. Paul, these entrepreneurs, in alliance with the Soo Line Railroad, ventured to do the same nearer Minneapolis. The chose a location on the southern end of Long Lake, set up their stock yards and rail connections, organ-ized a town (1889) and named it New Brighton. The town existed before anyone (except the handful of area farmers) lived there. But people soon came and, as Americans did in those days, created their civic and social institutions – clubs, debating societies, town bands, and the like.
One of the pre-existing families was the Beisswingers, among the first to come (1883) and the first to stay permanently. Jacob and Caroline Beisswenger came from Germany to farm, and did so for many years, selling mostly vegetables to the people of nearby Minneapolis. They also raised five children and took in several more. Daughter Rose preserved many memories of life in the young village – of school, social life ("the dances were about the extent of entertainment"), local characters such as Mrs. Putzke, who "smoked a pipe carved out of stone," the Johnson family grocery store, and Mrs. Beisswenger’s Salve, made from pine resin, beeswax, and sheep tallow. With four photographs.

The Great Horse Market Years At Prior And University
Author John S Sonnen
In the late 19^th century flesh-and-blood horsepower moved the city. In the early 1890s the street railway alone employed 800 equines. "From when, thence, came all the horses?" The Minnesota Transfer Railway, located in the Midway, hauled thousands of them, shuttling them between railroads, so a horse market developed there. And from that market arose its most successful and compelling figure, Moses Zimmerman. From 1896 into the early 1920s he built and ran a vast network, "buying and selling more horses than any other man in the Northwest." The business expanded eventually into real estate and army surplus. Zimmerman changed with the times, eventually even buying a car. "Yeah, I bought a car, but I never really liked it. Now, you take a horse – well, you get to know a horse." Annotated, with one photograph.

Boxing In Minnesota In The Postwar Era - The Fighting Flanagans
Author Scott Wright
Glen and Del Flanagan were the most successful local professional boxers of their time, hence probably of all time. This article traces their careers. Glen began his professional career in 1946, Del in 1947, and by 1948 both were fighting in main events and often. Del won his first 52 bouts. Glen retired in 1956 with a record of 80-23-12.
Del, who began as a lightweight, moved up to welterweight and had a fine career. He rose to 7^th ranking worldwide in 1955 and missed a title fight with Carmen Basilio in 1957 because of a disorderly conduct conviction. In 1958 he beat welterweight champion Virgil Atkins in a non-title match, and would have had a chance at the title had Atkins not lost it to Joey Giardello. From then on, it was downhill. He fought often, but with less and less success. He retired in 1964 with a record of 104-22-2.

1987 Volume 22 Number 1
Diphtheria, Typhoid, Tuberculosis –
Roots Of Ramsey's Health Care Trace Back To Anker Hospital
Author Mary Alice Czerwonka
"St. Paul’s tradition of excellence in health care can be traced to an old stone mansion at the foot of Richmond Street that opened as the city’s first hospital more than a century ago." This article describes the history of Ramsey County’s public hospitals, 1873-1987. The star is Dr. Arthur Ancker, who took over the ‘old stone mansion" in 1883, and over the next forty years created a dynamic and much-admired institution. Dr. Ancker got a new hospital built in 1887, then presided over endless expansions and modifications – a nursing school, 1891; pathology lab, 1911, motor ambulance service (with the ambulance designed by Ancker himself), 1912; tuberculosis ward, 1914; and at least six expansions in space. The hospital for crippled children, later called Gillette Hospital, spun off from the there. From the City and County Hospital, later renamed for him, Ancker led public health battles against influenza, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and tuberculosis and other ailments and pressed constantly for higher standards of care. He died in his office in 1923.
Though there were stumbles along the way, especially having to do with political control of the hospital, Dr. Ancker’s legacy remained powerful. The hospital, especially under Dr. Thomas Broadie, who led it 1936-1967, continued to expand and improve. It added a diabetes clinic in 1935, heart surgery in the early 1950s, poison control in 1959, psychiatry in 1961, and a burn unit in 1963.
By 1954 it was clear that Ancker Hospital had become physically obsolete and too small. County leaders eventually chose a site near the new interstate highway for a brand new medical center, St. Paul-Ramsey County Medical Center, later Regions Hospital. It opened in 1965. There the traditions of public health and innovation continued – in burns, emergency medicine (a helipad opened in 1969), pediatrics, and research. There were also innovations in management, with the establishment of an independent hospital board of directors and physicians organized in Ramsey Clinic. With 34 illustrations, including front and back covers, but no annotations, unfortunately.

1986 Volume 21 Number 1
The Mississippi And St. Paul - Change Is Constant For River And The City That Shaped It
Author Paul Hesterman
"Today’s river is different from the mid-19^th century’s river in virtually every way, from the contours of its banks to the chemical composition of its water to the variety of species which inhabit it. Within St. Paul, the Mississippi is an urban river, reshaped by the city that stretches along it."

This article looks at the river in eight sections.

The Changing River. The Mississippi as it was in its natural state and the many changes made by the hand of man in the last 150 years – filling, damming, building, and polluting.

The Working River. The river and the human economies that have used it, from the Dakota to the present.

• Frontier to 1850. Development in what became downtown St. Paul made it, rather than Mendota, the center of the regional economy.
• 1850-1870: Steamboat and Iron Horse. The golden age of the steamboats. "St.Paul’s image of itself as a river town and the head of navigation on the Mississippi, stemmed from this relatively brief period." By 1873 the railroads had taken over and the river’s economic significance nearly disappeared.
• Rail City, 1875-1920. "Between 1875 and 1920, St. Paul was a railroad town. Riverfront development was driven by the location of railroad lines and by industry oriented towards those lines. … Within the downtown district, the riverfront that had once been the vibrant commercial heart of the city had become the back alley of rail depots and rail-oriented industries."
• Redevelopment, 1920-1965. Government becomes the major player, mainly through damming and construction of the nine-foot channel. The Mississippi becomes a barge highway for bulk commodities.
• 1965 to the Present. "Since the mid-1960s, … people have increasingly seen the river valley as a place for recreation and retreat than as a potential industrial site."

Government and the Riverfront. The role of local government in riverfront development and transformation. "Most riverfront development, then, has been in part the result of the use of government to further economic development."

Diversity of Economic Uses. "[T]he river and its valley have been economic resources in a bewildering variety" of ways in addition to transportation. These have included logging, waste disposal, electrical power, and brewing.

Working on the River. "The experiences of people working on or near the river have been as diverse as the economic uses of the river and the river valley."

Neighborhood River. "As people have built the city and its neighborhoods, the river and its valley have played a peculiar double role in defining the nature of St. Paul’s neighborhoods." The wealthy progressively moved away from the river, while the poor congregated near it.

• The Upper Levee. Otherwise known as Little Italy, a small neighborhood that "began life as a series of squatters’ shacks along the public levee occupied by Irish and Poles."
• The West Side. Though romanticized, "the lower West Side was one of the least favored neighborhoods in St. Paul, a place to live until you could accumulate the means to live elsewhere."

The Recreational River. "The river valley’s role as a recreational resource . . . has been as complex and shifting as its economic role." From whiskey selling to religious revivals to rowing to fishing to beer brewing and drinking to cross country skiing. Pollution severely reduced recreational use; cleanup, park building, and changing attitudes have increased such use again.

Annotated, with 16 photographs including the cover.