Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815-1884) was an abolitionist and advocate of women's rights. She ran the newspapers "The St. Cloud Visitor" and the "St. Cloud Democrat."
Early years in St. Joseph, Minnesota (1863-1880). This sketch of the layout of the first church/school/convent complex in St. Joseph was drawn in 1930 by Sister Paula Bechtold, OSB, from her memory of St. Joseph's Convent where she had lived as a young sister. This complex became the home of the Benedictine sisters when they moved from St. Cloud to St. Joseph in 1863. Gradually a small campus to the west of the complex developed -- consisting of laundry, bakery, summer house, chicken coop, barn, woodshed, and a well. Though the primary purpose of the sisters' coming to St. Joseph was to teach the children of the parish, the site served well as the beginnings of St. Benedict's Convent which continued to flourish in St. Joseph. Varied projects were begun in this simple convent complex: the school (the beginnings of the academy), care of orphans, and the Industrial School for Indian girls. In 1886, the old complex of log church and school was completely destroyed by fire. Although new housing had to be found for the orphans and the Industrial School, a new convent/academy had already been built in 1881-1882. With the completion of that new building, the name was changed from St. Joseph's Convent to St. Benedict's Convent (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, pages 59-62, 70-72, 120-122).
This is a photograph of Nicollet County Civil War veteran Andrew Anderson, who lived in Granby Township, near Swan Lake. Anderson rose to the rank of corporal in Company H of the Fourth Minnesota Regiment, serving for nearly four years.
This is a photograph of Nicollet County Civil War veteran James Magner. He served as a captain in Company I of the 28th Massachusetts Regiment. On May 18, 1864 Magner was killed during the battle of Spotsylvania.
This is a photograph of Nicollet County Civil War veteran James Magner. He served as a captain in Company I of the 28th Massachusetts Regiment. On May 18, 1864 Magner was killed during the battle of Spotsylvania.
Landscape view; address given for photographer is Merchant Block, 22 Washington Avenue, Minneapolis; building is identified as the Pence Opera House located at Hennepin Ave and 2nd Street; verso of card is advertising for a number of Minneapolis businesses.
Contributing Institution:
Hennepin County Library, James K. Hosmer Special Collections Library
Landscape view; address given for photographer is Merchant Block, 22 Washington Avenue, Minneapolis; building may be the Cataract House Hotel on Sixth Ave South; verso of card is advertising for a number of Minneapolis businesses
Contributing Institution:
Hennepin County Library, James K. Hosmer Special Collections Library
Landscape view; address given for photographer is Merchant Block, 22 Washington Avenue, Minneapolis; building is identified as the Nicollet House Hotel located on Hennepin (view may be from 3rd St); awning on building in background says, "Williams Book Store." The verso of the card contains advertising for a number of Minneapolis businesses.
Contributing Institution:
Hennepin County Library, James K. Hosmer Special Collections Library
Students and staff are standing in front of the first school building that was used as a temporary home for the Minnesota Institute for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb. One of the school's founders, Judge Rodney A. Mott, rented Major Fowler's store on what is now the corner of Division and Central Avenue in Faribault, and the school opened in this temporary home on September 9, 1863. This building was used during 1863-1868, and the school's name changed to "Minnesota Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind" during this time.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf Alumni Association Museum
Proceedings of the city of St. Paul Common Council for 1862-63, including: City Government officers. The book primarily concerns correspondence and city resolutions.
This document, dated May 11th, was sent to Eugene St. Julien Cox of St. Peter, who was the Captain of Company E of the First Mounted Rangers. The document addressed Cox as a major, but various records indicate that his highest rank was that of captain. Cox was ordered to include Sibley County in the sub-district for which he was responsible. He was also informed that a new squad had been organized in New Ulm, and that ""trappers report Indians plenty west of here."" The letter was sent from Mankato by Second Lieutenant and Adjutant George A. Clarke. The document appears to have an 1865 date, but Cox served from December 10, 1862, until November 11, 1863, and Clarke served from December 20, 1861, until December 20, 1864. It therefore appears that the document was sent in 1863.
The Commissary Officer of the First Regiment of the Minnesota Mounted Rangers, First Lieutenant Edward D. Cobb, wrote this note to Captain Eugene St. Julien Cox, Captain of Company E of the Rangers, from Fort Snelling on March 21, 1863, in response to a request for supplies from Cox. Captain Cox had requested a number of items, including horses, tents, jackets, socks, boots, haversacks, canteens, axes, kettles, spades, mess pans, hatchets, and picks. Cobb informed Cox that some of the items were available, but that some items could not be supplied at once. He also said that Cox was to take the lame horses from his company to Fort Ridgely, where they would be inspected and certified as lame. Cox could then submit a requistion for additional horses.
The Record of Plymouth Congregational Church Volume 1 is the first of nine volumes that provide a chronological record of the activities of Plymouth Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Contents include announcements, celebrations and events, membership records, meeting minutes and a few newspaper clippings. The Clerk of the church maintained the Record.
Jacob Dieter wrote this letter while he was at Fort Ridgley, Minnesota. He made his way from Rochester, through Mankato and New Ulm to Fort Ridgley. He is waiting for the pay master and will send money home as soon as possible. He mentions several acquaintances and reports on their health.
Jacob Dieter wrote this letter from Jefferson City, Missouri. He mentions that he has sent twenty dollars home. He has guard duty frequently because most of the companies have moved south.
Street scene; streets are unpaved; can identify the first suspension bridge in background; places of business include a building advertising furniture.
Contributing Institution:
Hennepin County Library, James K. Hosmer Special Collections Library
Collage of studio portraits from Minnesota Company A, Seventh Regiment, Volunteer Infantry, 1862, including 52 oval portraits of Civil War soldiers, some in uniform and some in later years. An eagle, flag, and banners appear at the top.
Morgan May's handwritten farm journal from February 9, 1861, through April 14, 1871. Morgan May, a farmer from England, was the first settler in the part of Washington County, Minnesota, now known as May Township. His journal provides a detailed record of the day-to-day operation of a large commerical farm including entries about the weather, crops, livestock, farm hands, implement and household purchases, barn construction, wages, travel and visitors as well as personal comments.
R.B. McLean came to Superior, Wisconsin, in June of 1854 on the schooner "Algonquin." McLean recollects several trips along Lake Superior's North Shore, both before and after the 1854 Treaty of LaPointe, searching for veins of copper. He discusses early settlers on the North Shore, the first election in St. Louis County in 1855, the first mail route from Superior to Grand Portage (which McLean delivered), and the first cabins built in Duluth in the winter of 1854-55.
Publication detailing the establishment, evolution, and expansion of the state university system and all of its schools. The minutes detail the growth of the schools, campuses, hiring and the resignations of faculty, staff, and school presidents, finances of the systems and schools, curriculum, purchase and expansion of physical campus, including property and buildings, and the establishment of the St. Cloud Normal School, Mankato Normal School, Winona Normal School, Moorhead Normal School, and the Duluth Normal School.
Signatures of attorneys registered to practice law in the State of Minnesota. Names were verified and biographical data obtained from Minnesota Biographies (MHS 1912), Legislators Past and Present (website), State Board of Law Examiners register (1891-1921), Minnesota birth and death certificates indexes, Minnesota court system websites, published alumni directories of the University of Minnesota law school and the St. Paul College of Law, Minnesota Legal History Project (website), the Minnesota Historical Society's online catalog (PALS), and a variety of miscellaneous sources.
Small handbill listing seven requirements and four prohibitions of the Baldwin school. There is a space for a signature, showing the student "assents to the above requirements and prohibitions."
The first volume of Randolph M. Probstfield’s personal journals, which he wrote in a ledger book. Probstfield began writing this volume in the 186? when he lived in Georgetown, Minnesota, and worked as a Hudson’s Bay Company Agent. Probstfield mixed his accounting records with information on daily events. The first few pages of this volume contain undated ledger accounts of trade at the Georgetown post. The 1875 date first occurs when Probstfield inserted information on the daily activities of the family farm near Moorhead, Minnesota. These accounts discuss weather, agriculture, visitors, household expenses and many other details of family life.
Ashley C. Riggs kept a ledger book journal from 1852-1873. The earliest entries are from Cold Spring (Stearns County), Minnesota and Watab (Benton County), Minnesota. The ledger's earliest entries record his activiites as an Indian Agent for the Winnnebago Indians for the years 1852-1853. The second portion of the ledger is Riggs' diary which documents his activities in and around Monticello, Minnesota for the years 1864-1873. Riggs was a key figure in the development of the Minnesota Territory and early Monticello, Minnesota community when he laid claim in 1854 to a piece of land on the Mississippi River. He built othe first ferry to shuttle people across the River. In 1861 he enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Mrs. Alexander Ross (M. J. Ross) wrote this undated letter from Kingston to her cousin. She mentions her family and their health. The top portion of this letter is missing.
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.
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.
St. Ansgar's Academy, Board of Trusstees (Carver County, Minnesota)
Date Created:
1863 - 1875
Description:
St. Ansgar's Academy was opened in 1863 at East Union, Carver County, Minnesota, where it remained until 1876. It continued a parochial school founded in 1862 at Red Wing by Rev. Eric Norelius and served primarily as a preparatory secondary school for those wishing to enter teaching or the ministry in immigrant Swedish communities and congregations. It was owned and largely controlled by the Minnesota Conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod, which nominated members of its board of trustees for approval by the Synod, received annual reports from its principal and its board president, provided financial backing, and had a say in its operation. During its thirteen years at East Union, St. Ansgar's Academy was also known variously as Minnesota Elementar Skola, St. Ansgarii Skola, Minnesota Preparatory School, and sometimes simply as "Swede School". In 1876, the school moved to St. Peter, where it was renamed Gustavus Adolphus College. Written mostly in Swedish, with some entries in Norwegian or a mix of the two languages, by various appointed secretaries, the minutes constitute a single bound volume covering the period in Carver County, August 1863 to May 1875, with the exception of 1865, for which no minutes were entered. It opens with the school's Constitution, which had been adopted at the Augustana Synod meeting in Chicago on June 23, 1863. The minutes include committee reports and reports regarding the Bevens Creek Mill, which operated to support the school. Edi Thorstensson, Librarian and Lutheran Church Archivist, Gustavus Adolphus College, transcribed and translated the minutes in July 2006 for the Minnesota Digital Library.
This photograph shows Civil War Capt. Asgrim K. Skaro, who was killed in the battle of Nashville in 1864. Skaro served in the Second and the Ninth Minnesota Infantry Regiments. He was one of the founders of St. Peter in Nicollet County in 1853.
This is a photograph of Rev. Aaron H. Kerr, a Presbyterian minister in St. Peter, who became the chaplain of Minnesota's Ninth Regiment of Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War.
Lieutenant Thomas van Etten wrote to his schoolmate, William H. Seward of Chester, New Jersey, in this 1863 letter from St. Peter, Minnesota. Van Etten was stationed at Fort Ridgely, near the western end of Nicollet County, and was serving as the fort's quartermaster. He wrote about his military duties and experiences and about people he knew in New Jersey. William H. Seward was a son of President Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward, Sr.
This is a photograph of Col. William Crooks in his army uniform. Crooks was the commander of Minnesota's Sixth Regiment of Volunteer Infantry until October 28, 1864.