Portrait photograph of J. A. Kiester. Kiester was an early settler-lawyer, member of the Minnesota House of Representatives and Minnesota State Senate. He was also an Episcopalian, Freemason and Faribault County historian.
The exterior of the Center Block Building in Gateway Park which was the location of the first Minneapolis Young Men's Christian Association rooms as of 1866.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Kautz Family YMCA Archives
Schools in St. Cloud (1869-1909). By 1860, St. Cloud had expanded from its four homes in 1854 to 1,651 citizens. The 1856 church/school/convent was no longer adequate. In 1864, St. Mary's parishioners built a new church on the shores of Lake George. The large Gothic-style church served the parish for almost 60 years . When it was destroyed by fire, another church, the present St. Mary's Cathedral, was built. St. Mary's Parish eventually solved the school controversy by building its own parochial school. The first one in 1887 was a one-story frame building to accommodate 180 pupils. In 1896, a large parochial school, still in use today, was built next to St. Mary's Church (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives ; Witte, pages 10-11, 17; Dominik, John, J. pages 12-14, 20).
Exterior view of Stearns House with men and women standing on the balcony and in front of the building. The Stearns House, a former hotel purchased by the state, served as a St. Cloud State's first and only building when the school was established in 1869.
Eight Benedictine Sisters in rounded habits stand in front of a Queen Anne-style convent. They are all facing the same direction, but their gaze is cast slightly downwards. They are all holding their rosaries. The house has 10 steps leading from street level to porch. There are lace curtains in the window. A tall industrial building looms in the background. They were once presumed to be sisters of Notre Dame.
Early view of Minneapolis as a lumber town; shows the Rail Tub lumber mill along with other mills along the Mississippi River. Spirit Island is in the foreground.
The Bradley House (built in 1855 by Albert Stevens) was sold to J. T. Bradley in 1861. This stagecoach stop, located at the east end, facing north, of the then College Street (now 4th Street) bridge, a block east of Broadway was on the Old Dubuque Trail. A fancy coach met all trains and transported customers and their baggage to the Bradley House.
Several Rochester landmarks are pictured in this early street scene. Some of the buildings visible are: Olmsted County Court House, Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church, Congregational Church, Old Central School and the Universalist Church.
Lumber was rafted downstream from Stillwater. Boards were arranged in cribs or heavy crates, each 16 feet wide and 32 feet long. A lumber raft might contain as many as 200 cribs.
At the boom, floating timbers chained between piers caught and contained logs for sorting and measuring and rigging into rafts. At one time, the Stillwater boom extended a distance of 9 miles and employed 400 men to sort, scale and raft timber.
Logs were shipped by rail from northern Minnesota to Stillwater and made into rafts. They were then floated down the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers. The rafts usually consisted of 8 to 10 strings of logs fastened side by side, each string measuring 16 across and about 400 feet long. Some of these enormous rafts stretched 4 or 5 acres in size.
This photograph shows the Land Office building in St. Peter. The Land Office was located in St. Peter from 1858 until 1870 in several locations. The building shown in this photograph appears to be on the east side of Minnesota Avenue.
This is a photograph of Governor Henry Swift from St. Peter, Minnesota. Swift was the third Governor of Minnesota and served from July 10, 1863 to January 11, 1864.
This stereo photo shows an early view of the steamboat landing and a warehouse next to it in St. Peter. The area shown in the photo is located on the west bank of the Minnesota river, near Broadway.