Saturday, November 14, 2015

On This Date in Minnesota History: November 14

November 14, 1914 – Leaming Sharpless was stabbed to death this evening in his apartment on Yale Place in Minneapolis by a ceremonial sword of a fraternal order.

His wife Charlotte says she was reading an entertainment magazine in another room, when she heard her husband groaning from the couch in the living room. She rushed out, only to find her husband dead.

Mrs. Sharpless ran downstairs to the apartment of Fred Crisman, the janitor of the apartment building. Mrs. Crisman was sick in bed, but she ran upstairs to the Sharpness apartment. She then made a call to Dr. H. Jones from Eitel Hospital and notified the police.

When the police arrived, Mrs. Sharpless had on a clean nightgown. She told them that when  she heard her husband groaning from the other room, she’d rushed out and saw him fall from the couch on which he was lying, then picked him up and laid him on the couch, then ran to get her neighbor.

Mrs. Sharpless said that she had heard no noise until she was attracted by her husband’s groans, even though her couch in the next room was only six feet from where her husband lay. While she was telling her story to the police, a suit of bloody underclothes was found on the street, apparently having been thrown out of a window. A second later, a woman’s nightdress, a woman’s combination suite and pillowcases, all blood-stained, were found concealed behind other clothes in a closet adjoining the room Mrs. Sharpless said she had occupied.

The sword was found in one corner of the room about 10 feet from the couch. It was out of the scabbard and was covered with blood and several fingerprints.


In the right hand picture panel is shown the lodge ceremonial sword with which Leaming Sharpless was slain in his rooms at the Lowenhaupt Apartments Saturday night. Finger prints of the person who yielded it, impressed in blood, can be seen near the hilt. As a background there is some of the clothing worn by Mrs. Sharpless, the police say, when she was arrested. No. 1 shows a part of the living room where Sharpless was found, and the couch upon which he was asleep when stabbed to death. The sword stood in the corner behind the couch when the police arrived. No. 3 is Mrs. Charlotte Sharpless and No. 2 is that of her slain husband.1


Mrs. Sharpless was taken to the Police Station, where she remained emotionless and firm in her statements that she knew nothing about what had happened to her husband. However, when taken to the morgue and the sheet over her husband’s body drawn away, her emotions went into high gear. She shrieked and then threw her arms around the corpse. Sobbing, she was led back to the Police Station, where she was arrested. Acting Chief Galvin said he would charge her with murder, and was hoping to get a confession.


Louis Sharpless, the victim’s brother, told the police that he did not know of any trouble that had ever come between his brother and wife. However, the downstairs neighbor Crisman said that there had been a few quarrels between them, but he did not think they were serious.

Sharpless, 49-years-old, was an engineer on the Omaha Road, working for that company for nearly 25 years. His wife is 34 years old. They had been married for 11 years.

Sharpless’ wound indicated that the sword entered the back on the left side under his arm, coming out through the right chest. The body was unclothed and Sharpless may have been asleep when he was attacked.

Coroner Gilbert Seashore announced that he would hold an autopsy tomorrow and an inquest Monday morning.

The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “Man Slain with a Lodge Sword; Wife Arrested. Leaming Shartless Stabbed to Death in Lowenhaupt Apartments. Mrs. Charlotte Shartless (sic) Is Questioned by the Police. She Says She Was in Next Room—Knew Nothing of Killing. Blood-Stained Clothing Is Found in Street and Hidden in Closet. Telltale Finger Prints on Ceremonial Fraternal Weapon.”; Nov. 15, 1914; p. 1.

1The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; Nov. 16, 1914; p. 1.

Blood-stained imprint of fingers on the sword that killed Leaming Sharpless may be the principal means of determining the murderer; see Nov. 15, 2015.


Mrs. Sharpless indicted by the Hennepin County Grand Jury for murder in the first degree in the killing of her husband; see Nov. 17, 2015 blog.
               __________________________________________________________

If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

Website: 
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Contact me at:
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Friday, November 13, 2015

On This Date in Minnesota History: November 13

November 13, 1966“The Soudan Mine on the Vermilion Range is the oldest and deepest iron mine in Minnesota. Its opening in 1884 set the stage for Minnesota’s reign as the country’s leading iron ore producer. In the late 1800s, prospectors searching for gold in northern Minnesota had discovered extremely rich veins of hematite at this site, often containing more than 65% iron.”1

Off highway I/169, Tower Soudan State Park, Breitung Township, the Soudan Mine was named a National Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places on this date.2


1http://miningartifacts.homestead.com/SoudanUndergroundStatePark.html
2http://www.thehistorypeople.com/data/docs/timeline-part3.pdf



The Soudan Mine 1890
http://miningartifacts.homestead.com/SoudanUndergroundStatePark.html

               __________________________________________________________

If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

Website: 
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Thursday, November 12, 2015

On This Date in Minnesota History: November 12

November 12, 1913 – Mrs. William Force Scott of New York, vice president of the Guidon Club, an organization opposed to woman suffrage, spoke in St. Paul today before a group of women who desire to form a Minnesota body similar to the club in which Mrs. Scott is an officer.



Women in Neb. protesting women’s suffrage1

A majority of the women at the session, which was held at the St. Paul Hotel, were from Minneapolis, with numerous St. Paul representatives. After Mrs. Scott made a short talk and before the scheduled address, those in sympathy with women’s suffrage and newspaper reporters were asked to leave. Later Mrs. Scott gave a short speech for their special benefit.

“The anti-suffrage movement is the most progressive movement of the day,” said Mrs. Scott. “We are fighting for a sane government, founded on the welfare of the majority. The suffragists, on the other hand, want an individualistic and anarchistic situation wherein everybody votes regardless of training and instincts. They want an unrestrained democracy, which means mob rule. We are working for a restrained democracy and the prosperity of the nation as a whole.”


Anti-suffrage Poster2

“In our battle we must set aside petty arguments and look at the question in its broadest respect. Set aside the emotional war cries of the suffragists about white slavery and minimum wage. We lost California by their morbid stories of the sufferings of the women and children in the glassworks. I don’t hesitate to say that these stories were not true. Go yourselves and investigate if you want to know the truth.

“The suffragists are making any sort of decent political life impossible. Every statesman is constantly heckled with the throats of the suffragists. It is they with their threatening letters who made our chief executive, President Wilson, break the law of his own country and let in Mrs. Pankhurst.*

“We must learn how to raise money,” she said. “I am only too glad to give all my money towards the movement, but we can have no real strength without capital. It is difficult for us to get money because it goes against our best feelings to ask for it, and we all hope that we will never have to earn it.”

Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “Woman Suffrage Opponent Speaks; Advocates Barred. Mrs. William Force Scott Talks to Women on the Anti-Movement. Local Club Organized in St. Paul—Mrs. J. H. Straight, President.”; Nov. 13,1913; p.1.


 
*Emmeline Pankhurst was a well-known British suffragist who was detained at Ellis Island in Oct.1913; officials would not allow her to enter the U. S. once she admitted she’d been in prison for protesting. President Wilson intervened, allowing Mrs. Pankhurst to enter New York, much to the excitement of the general public.

https://books.google.com/books?id=OIOECqUkUCsC&pg=PT477&lpg=PT477&dq=mrs.+pankhurst+and+president+wilson&source=bl&ots=ThG8NiMx2t&sig=CPgzqlYJ1vvoTi4d8bIFHw7oP10&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDkQ6AEwCGoVChMIqZfAu5LmyAIVyXM-Ch21vQZW#v=onepage&q=mrs.%20pankhurst%20and%20president%20wilson&f=false
               __________________________________________________________

If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

Website: 
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Wednesday, November 11, 2015

On This Date in Minnesota History: November 11

November 11, 1865 - Little Six (Sakpedan) was the grandson of Shakopee, who, in 1819, was among the chiefs who sold the land that would become Fort Snelling. Little Six's father was also named Shakopee, and he was a leader of the Mdewakanton band of Dakota, who lived near present-day Shakopee, Minn.

Medicine Bottle was the nephew of Chief Medicine Bottle. Both Little Six and Medicine Bottle fled to Canada after the Sioux Uprising of 1862, where Major Edwin Hatch drugged and kidnapped them in January of 1864. They were both brought back to Fort Snelling, where they were tried, convicted of war crimes, and hung at on this date.

“A local newspaper reported that as they climbed the scaffold, a steam train whistle blew in the distance, prompting Little Six to say, ‘As the white man comes in, the Indian goes out.’”^

http://lib.mnsu.edu/archives/fa/smhc/smhc165.html

^http://www.historicfortsnelling.org/history/us-dakota-war




Little Six, left, and Medicine Bottle, right

http://www.usdakotawar.org/sites/default/files/media-room/Little%20Six%20and%20Medicine%20Bottle.jpg



Plaque from Minnesota History Center Civil War Exhibit; March 2–Sept. 8, 2013
               __________________________________________________________


If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

On This Date in Minnesota History: November 10

November 10, 1913 – Mrs. George E. Vincent, wife of President Vincent of the University of Minnesota, is hunting big game in the northern woods of the state today. Mrs. Vincent has taken out a hunting license and reached Beaver Bay today. Her party will travel 18 miles from this point to a logging camp that will be headquarters for the party until Saturday.

Mrs. Vincent will be aided in her hunt for moose by R. P. Essweinn of the agricultural college, who is said to be an expert guide. In the party also are two friends of Mr. Essweinn and their wives who live at Finland. Mrs. Vincent will return in time to see the Minnesota-Chicago football game Saturday.


Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “Mrs. Vincent, Wife of the ‘U’ President in Big Moose Hunt”; Nov. 11, 1913; p. 1.




http://www.bestplaces.net/images/city/2704456_mn_beaver_bay.png

               __________________________________________________________

If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

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Monday, November 9, 2015

On This Date in Minnesota History: November 9

November 9, 1905 – Mrs. Stella Brenna, accused of murdering three of her four stepchildren, was indicted today by the coroner’s jury of the murder of Elizabeth (Lizzie) Brennan, her oldest stepdaughter. For brevity’s sake, this inquest dealt only with Lizzie’s death, the first child to die of her wounds.

Tommy Brennan, the only surviving Brennan child, told the jury what he remembered from that night. His shattered jaw bandaged, he wore a new suit and shoes purchased for him by his stepmother the day before the murders.




Tommy Brennan1

The boy repeated the story he told officers the day of the murder: how Mrs. Brennan stood beside the couch where he’d been sleeping and told him to look out the window for a man standing on the shed roof, and how he was shot through the jaw as soon as he did so.

Upon questioning by Assistant County Attorney Elmer Gray, Tommy admitted that his stepmother was “jealous of all of us, but not as much of me as the others.”

Captain George H. Smith of engine company No. 16, the first man to enter the rooms after the tragedy, told of the horrendous scene that confronted him. Lizzie lay dead in bed between Arthur and Alice, who were still alive but near death. Stella Brennan lay on the bed in the front room beside Tommy and was repeatedly praying “O, God, have mercy on me.”

Captain Smith also stated that when he entered the rooms, they were so full of powder smoke that the dimly burning oil lamp could barely be seen. The odor of the powder was suffocating.

W. G. Farmer, who lives with his wife on the first floor below the Brennans’ rooms, testified that he heard three shots in quick succession and then two more shortly thereafter.

When Detective Edward Helin arrived at the Brennans’ house shortly after the shooting, all the windows were down and locked and the shades were drawn.  The windows were sound and no shot had been fired through any of them.

Mrs. Brennan had told Helin that she looked from the kitchen window and saw a man sitting on the woodshed. However, the woodshed cannot be seen from the kitchen window.

When first questioned by Detective Helin, Mrs. Brennan said she thought it was Mr. Brennan who had done the shooting, but later corrected her statement, saying he would not stoop to such a thing. She next said it might have been Tommy, but again retracted her statement. Finally, she said she said she had seen a man standing at the end of her bed; he was small and had a sallow complexion, and it was he who shot her. She claimed to know nothing more about the case.




Stella Brennan2


At the conclusion of the testimony, the jury retired for five minutes and then returned with their decision to indict.

If her physicians find that Mrs. Brennan is well enough to stand the shock, the jury’s verdict will be communicated to her. The detectives did not tell her the results of the inquest when they took the wounded boy back to the hospital.

Mrs. Brennan’s aged father died last Monday night at the family home in Pullman, Mich., of paralysis. His daughter was not told of his death until Wednesday evening. She seemed to be broken-hearted at the news, and asked if she was well enough to go home to the funeral.

Mrs. Brennan’s mother and other relatives are besieging police headquarters with letters asking for the truth about the case.

The Minneapolis Journal; “Murder Charged to Mrs. Brennan. Coroner’s Jury Sifts Facts Regarding Shocking Tragedy on North Side. Surviving Boy Comes Bandaged to Inquest—What Prompted Verdict.”; Nov. 9, 1905; p. 1 & 2

The Minneapolis Tribune; “Blamed. Coroner’s Jury Brings in Verdict Charging Stella Brennan with Murder. Wounded Boy Tells Story Favoring Mother. Edward Helin Says Faces of Children Were Burned With the Powder.”; Nov. 9, 1905; p. 7.

1Minneapolis Journal; Nov. 20, 1905.

2The Minneapolis Tribune; Dec. 31, 1905.


Murder of three Brennan children while they slept; oldest son and stepmother shot; see Nov. 4, 2015 blog

Stella Brennan indicted by Hennepin County grand jury for murder of her three stepchildren; see Nov. 21, 2015 blog
County Attorney outlines the state’s theory of the Stella Brennan murder case in his opening statement; see Dec. 19, 2015 blog
Stella Brennan spends Christmas in hospital room of the Hennepin County Jail; see Dec. 25, 2015 blog

Stella Brennan Found Guilty;
sentenced to the State penitentiary for life; admits she is in a family way; see Dec. 30, 2015 blog
Daughter is born to Stella Brennan in Stillwater State Prison; see July 26,2016 blog
               __________________________________________________________

If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

Website: 
TheMemoryQuilt.com ®  click on Family History

Contact me at:
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Sunday, November 8, 2015

On This Date in Minnesota History: November 8

November 8, 1889 – “Susan B. Anthony, women's suffrage advocate, gave a lecture at Temple Opera House, in Duluth. Reserved Seats cost 50 cents, general admission 25 cents. November 9, she organized a suffrage circle in Duluth.”

http://www.thehistorypeople.com/data/docs/timeline-part1.pdf




Susan B. Anthony
http://www.google.com/search?q=public+domain+images+of+Susan+B.+Anthony&hl=en&prmd=imvnso&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=AWzST8GOEqmJ6QGuoL2cAw&sqi=2&ved=0CGsQsAQ&biw=1166&bih=565
               __________________________________________________________


If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

Website: 
TheMemoryQuilt.com ®  click on Family History

Contact me at:
pjefamilyresearch@gmail.com