Saturday, January 20, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: January 20

January 20, 1905 – Word was received in St. Paul this evening of the sudden death of William Nettleton, founder of Duluth and West Superior, and a pioneer of St. Paul. According to dispatches Nettleton, who was 83 years old, was walking across the Great Northern Bridge at Spokane, Wash., shortly before noon today and suffered an epileptic attack, falling from the bridge into the river. His body was recovered about 200 yards below the bridge. He is survived by a son and two daughters and his widow, Spokane.  Nettleton was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1822.

In 1853 he and his two brothers went to the headwaters of Lake Superior in a little sailing sloop and established there the townsite of the cities of Duluth and Superior. The following spring he built the first buildings ever erected in Duluth and succeeded in getting the old St. Paul & Duluth railroad to build a terminal there. Nettleton ran a trading store in Duluth for a number of years and had many thrilling experiences with the Indians.



Illustration of William’s brother George Nettleton’s log cabin on
Minnesota Point
1


For 20 years Nettleton made his home in that section. It is stated he gave to all railroads land where they now have their terminals and was largely instrumental in the upbuilding of both cities.


1871 Illustration of Minnesota Point in “Harper’s Bazaar” 2


In 1871 he came to St. Paul, where he ran a dairy farm for many years. He owned an enormous amount of property in the early days, but disposed of it before he went to Spokane in 1893.


Nettleton was twice Minn. State Senator from St. Louis County, but never held other public positions. He bought 200 acres of land and platted Nettleton’s addition to Spokane.

In 1898 Nettleton returned to St. Paul, but he was the only remaining one of the old pioneers and did not care to stay.

The Saint Paul Globe; “A Pioneer Stricken. William Nettleton, Founder of Duluth, Killed in Spokane”; Jan. 21, 1905; p. 2.

1https://chequamegonhistory.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/1852-george-nettleton-cabin.jpg

2http://zenithcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Duluth_MNPoint_1871_Harpers_ZCP.jpg

               __________________________________________________________

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 MNHS records. Both short searches and family history reports available.

                                                         


Discover your roots, and watch the branches of your family tree begin to grow.


Website:  TheMemoryQuilt.com > click on Family History

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Friday, January 19, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: January 19

January 19, 2012 – Susan Allen assumed office in the Minn. House of Representatives on this date. She is the first Native American woman to serve in the Minnesota Legislature and the first openly lesbian Native American to win election to a state legislature. Allen represents District 62B, a southside district encompassing the Powderhorn and Bryant neighborhoods of Minneapolis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Allen


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Allen

               __________________________________________________________

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 MNHS records. Both short searches and family history reports available.

                                                         


Discover your roots, and watch the branches of your family tree begin to grow.


Website:  TheMemoryQuilt.com > click on Family History

Contact me at:
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Thursday, January 18, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: January 18

January 18, 1913 – By piecing together fragments of a letter, detectives today frustrated a plot to blackmail the owners of a Minneapolis hotel. They arrested a woman, who said her name was Mrs. Clara Goodwin, and believe that in her arrest they have broken up a gang of blackmailers, which have been preying on hotel keepers of the West.

Mrs. Goodwin, confronted by the carefully pieced letter, confessed the scheme and is now held in jail on a minor charge of vagrancy while the police are seeking two men she named as members of the gang. They are also endeavoring to establish the identity of the woman.
The letter was taken from the woman after she had torn it into bits and was attempting to swallow the pieces. It was pasted together under a magnifying glass. Then the woman told police how she and other members of the gang expected to blackmail the owners of The Williston Hotel, 500 Tenth Ave. S. (across the street from what is now U. S. Bank Stadium).


*



From her statements, the police gleaned the following:

Friday afternoon she went to police headquarters and told Chief Martinson that she had been sent to The Williston Hotel by an Omaha employment agency. She said she went to work at the hotel Tuesday night, was kidnapped an hour later, carried to a room on the first floor and imprisoned there until 3 a.m. Friday when she was rescued by one of the men sent to annoy her, who had taken pity on her.

She said she had been subjected to brutal and indecent attacks while a prisoner in the room, but had finally been liberated when one of her tormentors returned early Friday, broke open the windows to her room and carried her, sick and weak, to the La Mar Hotel, 719 Third St. S., where she regained her strength.

Today Detectives and Irving were sent to investigate the truth of the story. She persisted in the story before employees of the Williston Hotel. The detectives were suspicious and Broderick found a letter in her handbag. In an instant, she seized it, tore it in strips, stuffed it into her mouth and began to chew it. The detectives grabbed her by the throat and regained the torn fragments.

The letter was to a man in a North Dakota city, and told of the success of an attempt to blackmail a hotel keeper in Omaha.

She confessed to the detectives then that she had come to Minneapolis to play the same game on the owners of The Williston Hotel. She said that the story she had told Chief Martinson was untrue and that she had left the hotel after staying there a day to lay the foundation for the rest of the plot that was to have been carried out by her two male companions. She said that the plan was that when she had sworn out a warrant against the keepers of the hotel, her companions would make an offer to the keeper to have prosecution against him dropped if he would pay them a sum of money. Then they and the woman would leave the city.

She told the detectives they had worked the scheme successfully in Fargo, N. D.; Aberdeen, S. D.; Omaha and Fremont, Neb.; Helena, Mont. and in other northwestern cities, which she could not recall. She later denied the truth of her confession, then denied that she had denied the story.

She is about 24 years old, said she had been married, told the detectives that Goodwin was not her real name and defied them to learn her identity.

The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “Torn Letter Spoils a Blackmail Attempt.  Police Seize Fragments From Woman and Patch Them for Evidence. Mrs. Clara Goodwin Then tells of Plot Against Hotelkeepers. Asserts Scheme Worked in a Number of Western Cities.”; Jan. 19, 1913; p. 7.

*https://cdn.vectorstock.com/i/thumb-large/04/26/background-with-pieces-of-torn-paper-vector-900426.jpg
               __________________________________________________________

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 MNHS records. Both short searches and family history reports available.

                                                         


Discover your roots, and watch the branches of your family tree begin to grow.


Website:  TheMemoryQuilt.com > click on Family History

Contact me at:
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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: January 17

January 17, 1917 – Angus Chisholm, a 48-year-old farmer who was shot Nov. 27 by supposedly St. Paul deer hunters near Blackduck, died in a Bemidji hospital today.

Mistaken for a deer−Chisholm was carrying the carcass of a deer swung over his shoulder−he received the charges from seven shotguns, and had been paralyzed ever since the shooting.

Relatives said no manslaughter charges will be brought as the hunters have arranged to support his widow.

The Bemidji Daily Pioneer; “Mistaken for Deer, Wounded Man Dies”; Jan. 17, 1917; p. 1.

The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “Man Mistaken for Deer Dies from Wounds’; Jan. 18, 1917; p. 1.



https://s3.amazonaws.com/gs-waymarking-images/3b206010-a578-4ecc-83cc-ec4f9ef2b5ee.jpg

               __________________________________________________________

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 MNHS records. Both short searches and family history reports available.

                                                         


Discover your roots, and watch the branches of your family tree begin to grow.


Website:  TheMemoryQuilt.com > click on Family History

Contact me at:
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Tuesday, January 16, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: January 16

January 16, 1903 – After drugging his wife and placing her in a hospital while she was unconscious, Ernest B. Rollins, a druggist at Vesta, Minn., Redwood County, locked his drug store and came to St. Paul Sunday night. He was arrested on Third Street this morning, the warrant for his arrest being sworn out by his wife, who came to St. Paul in search of him as she recovered consciousness.

Rollins was too drunk to be given his freedom today, and upon the suggestion of City Prosecutor Keller, he was placed in the county jail to remain overnight, and will be allowed to return to Vesta with his wife tomorrow morning. Mrs. Rollins refused to prosecute her husband for having drugged her, preferring to have him punished for drunkenness.

Rollins was at one time a well-known and prosperous druggist in St. Paul. Some time ago he entered into the drug business in Vesta, where he and his wife were living happily until the present affair. Mrs. Rollins said her husband until the present affair. Mrs. Rollins said her husband came home Sunday night and offered her a drug to relieve a headache she had complained of. After taking it, she lapsed into unconsciousness and knew nothing more until she found herself in the hospital the following day. When she went to the drug store, she found the place locked and her husband gone. An investigation revealed the fact that he had taken with him all the money at his command, leaving his business to care for itself.

1


Mrs. Rollins came to St. Paul in search of her husband, and today had a warrant sworn out for his arrest, Rollins having been located in a disreputable resort on Third Street.

Upon refusal of the wife to prosecute the charge of drugging, which is an assault in the second degree and punishable by confinement in the penitentiary, City Prosecutor Keller granted the request of the woman that she be allowed to take her husband home that he might attend to his drug business, the store having been closed since Rollins’ departure. Keller agreed to allow Rollins to return home with his wife, upon a promise that he would stop drinking and would remain away from St. Paul one year.

Rollins was given to understand that if he returned to St. Paul within a year he would be sent to the workhouse.


The Saint Paul Globe; “Drugs His Wife and Starts Out on Jamboree. E. B. Rollins, of Vesta, Is Charged by His Spouse With Drugging and Sending Her to Hospital While He Came to St. Paul—She Forgives Him.”; Jan. 17, 1903; p. 2.

1http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/58367938.jpg
               __________________________________________________________

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 MNHS records. Both short searches and family history reports available.

                                                         


Discover your roots, and watch the branches of your family tree begin to grow.


Website:  TheMemoryQuilt.com > click on Family History

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Monday, January 15, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: January 15

January 15, 1904 – Minnesota’s Lieut. Gov. Ray W. Jones returned to Minneapolis from Kansas today nursing a pair of broken ribs. He denies the stories circulated by his enemies that he went to the Sunflower State in order to secure political pointers from Carrie Nation, and he asserts that his ribs were not broken because he came in contact with the joint raider’s famous hatchet.

Sunday morning Jones started to drive to the station. The team ran away and he jumped from the wagon and landed in a ditch. He carried a steel spectacle case in his pocket, and hit the ground with such force that two ribs were fractured.

The Saint Paul Globe; “Ray Jones Breaks His Ribs. Lieutenant Governor Is Victim of Runaway in Kansas.”; Jan. 16, 1904; p. 3.



Lieut. Gov. Ray W. Jones

http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/web5/media.php?irn=10225629&width=640&height=640


               __________________________________________________________

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 MNHS records. Both short searches and family history reports available.

                                                         


Discover your roots, and watch the branches of your family tree begin to grow.


Website:  TheMemoryQuilt.com > click on Family History

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Sunday, January 14, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: January 14

January 14, 1920 – Jack Burke, 27 years old, former boxer and St. Paul taxicab driver, who was shot in the head last evening during a pistol battle between the police and a gang of alleged liquor thieves taking whiskey from a boxcar in the Soo yards in St. Paul, died tonight at the St. Paul City Hospital.

Jack Burke1

Eddie Holton, manager of the H & H Taxicab Company and Harry Rabinovitch, Winnipeg merchant, are under arrest following the gun duel with police and Soo watchmen in the Soo railroad yards at lower Seventh Street yesterday, where Burke was killed.

The gun fight resulted from an attempt by railroad agents and police to capture the men as they looted a box car containing 1,595 cases of whiskey consigned to Rabinovitch at Winnipeg.

More than 20 shots were fired at the bandits, with the battle lasting five minutes. The thieves returned the detectives’ fire almost shot for shot.

Burke was shot between the eyes by Special Agent D. L. Webb when the former boxer jumped from the box car and attempted to escape.
The liquor is alleged to have been sold to Charles Couplin, St. Paul jewelry merchant, convicted of robbing the Wicks Fur Company in Minneapolis; W. J. Uber, saloon proprietor; Mike Weisman and Ben and Harry Rosenberg of Minneapolis. Weisman is complaining witness in the trial of H. A. Gulliford, tried in Minneapolis on an extortion charge. They were named in a confession made to the police yesterday, according to Detective Captain George W. Welis.


In a statement issued by C. B. Reinardy, chief special of the Soo railroad, after an hour’s conference with Eddie Holten at police headquarters, he said that there probably would be ten or 15 arrests today.

It is believed that several merchants in St. Paul and Minneapolis and several persons well known in the underworld, who have made up the “liquor running trust” in the Twin Cities, will be implicated, according to Reinardy, who asserted this case may mean breaking up the ring.

Burke is alleged to have paid $700 on the deal; Uber a larger sum, and Twin City merchants still more in the purchase of the entire 1,595 cases, according to Soo officials.

Rabinovitch was arrested at The St. Paul Hotel an hour after the shooting by Detectives Judd Kelly and Hans Fabian, who, with Sergeant Fred McAlpin and Martin Farre, had been called to the yards by Webb when the men were discovered.

The box car carrying the whiskey, valued at $25,000, has been watched since it left Chicago several days ago, according to Chief Special Agent Reinardy. It was consigned to the Soo road for shipment to Winnipeg. But at Minneapolis it was redirected over the Great Northern and transferred to St. Paul where it was hauled to the Soo line loading tracks, according to police.

It is known that $13,000 has been deposited at a St. Paul bank as part payment of the liquor. Police are also investigating the report that the car containing the whiskey was switched to the loading siding with authority.

According to the confession, Rabinovitch met Holton early Tuesday night and went with him to the yards where he pointed out the box car in which the whiskey was held, and then returned to the hotel. Rabinovitch has registered with his wife and child at the Hotel Radisson in Minneapolis, police assert.

Rabinovitch, who denies any connection with the robbery, refused, police say, to open his door at the hotel when the detectives arrived and called several phone numbers, one of which police declare was the number of the Charles Couplin jewelry store.

1The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “Jack Burke Dies Due to Wounds in Liquor Fight. Harry Rabinovitch Is Arraigned on Charge of Conspiracy to Rob Car.”; Jan. 15, 1920; pp 1 & 6.

The Daily People’s Press; “Jack Burke Shot in Raid on Liquor Car. Former Pugilist Dying at City Hospital in St. Paul From Bullet in Head. Two Others Are Held at Jail. Group Caught While Unloading Car of Whiskey in Railway Yards.”; Owatonna, Minn.; Jan. 15, 1920; p. 1.

               __________________________________________________________

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 MNHS records. Both short searches and family history reports available.

                                                         


Discover your roots, and watch the branches of your family tree begin to grow.


Website:  TheMemoryQuilt.com > click on Family History

Contact me at:
pjefamilyresearch@gmail.com