Saturday, April 14, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: April 14

April 14, 1915 – After an eight-day search extending over the entire Northwest, the police found Grace Fuda, 17-year-old girl from Duluth’s Italian colony, at Brainerd, Minn., this evening.



Reports that a girl answering her description had been in Brainerd were verified over the telephone this afternoon by Chief of Police C. H. Troyer, and at 7:15 p.m. F. Fuda, the father, left for Brainerd. After a short search, aided by the Brainerd authorities, he discovered his daughter in a hotel there, and will return to Duluth with her tomorrow afternoon.

Motives for the girl’s flight from home have not been learned by police, as no reports have been received other than that she had been found.

Grace was well known in New Duluth, being the belle of the Italian colony. She left home about noon on April 7, and after visiting a school nearby, went to the New Duluth public library. She left there about four p.m. and was not seen after that.

At the time of her disappearance she was wearing about $100 worth of jewelry, which encouraged a theory of foul play. She is believed to have pawned some of the jewelry to secure money for railroad fare.

After police verified reports of her presence in Brainerd, they learned from Mrs. Fuda that a Northern Pacific time card, with the name Brainerd written along the margin, had been found in the girl’s room the morning after she disappeared.

Waitresses in a Brainerd hotel were attracted by the unusual amount of jewelry worn by the girl, and when reading newspaper accounts of Grace’s disappearance a day or so after she had worked with them, notified the police.

The Duluth Herald; “Girl Found At Brainerd. Grace Fuda Is Returning to Duluth With Her Father.”; April 15, 1915; p. 11.
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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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Friday, April 13, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: April 13

April 13, 2013 – Louise Erdrich became the first author to win five Minnesota Book Awards on this date. “She was honored in the fiction category for ‘The Round House,’ her National Book Award-winning novel about a teenage boy on a North Dakota reservation who tries to solve the mystery of his mother’s brutal rape.”

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/202879531.html



Louise Erdrich

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/erdrich/erdrich.htm

               __________________________________________________________

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







Thursday, April 12, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: April 12


April 12, 1909 – The body of Mrs. Max (Rose) Elkitz, the New Brighton, Minn., woman who disappeared from her home in December after a quarrel with her spouse, was found by her husband today floating in Round Lake.




At the time of the woman’s disappearance the police were notified but no trace of her could be found. In his desperation, her husband appealed to a fortune teller in the hopes that she could tell him where to look for his wife. The fortune teller told him that the only place to look for his wife was in the lake and for days after that the grief-stricken man chopped holes in the ice in the effort to find his wife.

As spring came on and the ice started to thaw he renewed his hunt for the body of his wife. Today he found her body and his long search was ended. Coroner Miller of Ramsey County was notified and had the body removed to the morgue.

The Minneapolis Tribune; “Finds Wife’s Body; Ends Long Search. Max Elkitz Discovers It In Round Lake as Ice Thaws. Fortune Teller Told Him to Chop Through Ice over Lake.”; April 13, 1909; p. 6.
               __________________________________________________________

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, April 11, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: April 11

*April 11, 1916 – Lester L. Spalding, formerly employed at Gilbert, Minn., as a cashier for the Republic Iron & Steel Company, and who is the only American who ever received the coveted Distinguished Conduct Medal for bravery on the battlefield by the personal designation of King George V of England, was in Duluth today.




Spalding enlisted with the Ninetieth Winnipeg Rifles in August 1914. The young man went from Duluth to the Western Canadian metropolis and was engaged in the real estate business when war was declared.

Last April, the Ninetieth Winnipeg Rifles, known as the “Little Black Devils,” went into action in the first line of trenches at St. Julien, which is just outside Ypres (West Flanders, Belgium). For two days the attacking Germans rained a terrible fire of shells on the exposed trenches where the Canadian soldiers lay. Shrapnel was literally falling on their positions. Suddenly Spalding discovered that the members of his machine gun crew, which was on the extreme left of the line, had been killed. Instead of retreating or joining another company, the young American boy stood by his gun and single-handed worked it against the charging lines of Germans. Alone he discharged 21,000 rounds, mowing down the charging lines of soldiers.

Wounded in both legs, his arm hanging helpless by his side, suffering from the poisonous gas fumes, and lying under his overturned machine gun, the Minnesota fighting man was discovered by a British captain, his face scarred with powder, his pants stained with his own blood.

It was the British captain who mentioned the remarkable feat to bravery in his dispatches from the front. The distinguished service of the young man was brought to the attention of King George V, and last Saturday evening in Winnipeg, before 8,000 soldiers and citizens of that city, he was adorned with the Distinguished Conduct Medal by Gen. Hughes, Inspector of Western Canadian troops.


1


For his bravery Spalding has been promoted from the rank of private to that of lieutenant. He is currently on furlough; his condition is bad as the result of his wounds and the terrible ordeal he suffered from the poisonous gases. Canadian friends are planning to send him to Banff (Alberta, Canada) to recuperate. After he recovers it is believed Spalding will be engaged in recruiting work.

“Life in the trenches was at times relieved by real touches of comradeship between the contending soldiers,” said Spalding. “The Saxons, for instance, seemed less inclined to savagery than the Prussians and Bavarians. There were nights when the Canadian and Saxon troops declared a truce and hoisted peace signals. We even came out of the trenches and mingled with one another, exchanging stories and repairing the trenches. When the German staff officers discovered this, they speedily put a stop to it.”



Canadian Trenches2

“Sniping is one of their favorite sports. One German shooter had 37 notches on his rifle. It seems hideous even to think about this gloating over murder, but it is true, nevertheless. Some of the trenches are named after the London streets. When soldiers are quartered in trenches for any great length of time, they find a way of fixing them up like city abodes. We had sidewalks and street signs where we were last spring.”

Spalding left Duluth this evening for Aitkin, Minn., where his parents live. He will remain there for several weeks, then return to Duluth. The young man had several serious hemorrhages of the lungs, the result of inhaling poison gas, and will most likely go to the Canadian mountains to recuperate.

The Duluth Herald; “Former Gilbert Boy is Given Medal for Bravery. First American to Be Decorated by King George. Single-Handed, He held Trench Against German Forces. Visits Duluth Friends After Ovation From Winnipeg Citizens.”; April 12, 1916; p. 2.

1https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Distinguished_Conduct_Medal

2https://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/chrono/1914expeditionary_e.shtml

               __________________________________________________________

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





Tuesday, April 10, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: April 10

April 10, 1905 – With her withered hand resting on her little grandson’s head, Mrs. Marie Balho, 80 years old, faced the police judge this afternoon to answer to the charge of larceny. The pair, the aged woman and the four-year-old boy, were accused of stealing a few pieces of coal from the railroad yards this morning.

Mrs. Balho and her grandson live in a small shanty on the upper flats in St. Paul, and are alone in the world. Almost daily the old woman has made her way to the railroad yards and by picking up coal that she sells for a small pittance she has been able to care for herself and the boy.



Children picking up coal in a railway yard1

Today the stock of provisions was almost exhausted and the woman set out for the yards. The boy begged to be allowed to go along and the request was granting. After filling a small basket with coal, picked up along the tracks, the couple were about to depart when suddenly a man stepped out from behind a boxcar, showed a star, and informed the pair that they were under arrest. In vain the old woman begged that her grandson might be spared, but the officer would not listen to her and both offenders were brought into the police court at the afternoon session.

The grandmother was unable to speak English, but the boy had picked up a few words and was able to understand what the judge said to him. In broken lisping English he told the story of the theft and arrest, and on concluding his story, innocently bade the judge goodbye.

“The old woman and her boy are discharged,” said Judge Hine. And hand in hand the pair left the courtroom.

The Saint Paul Globe; “Tot’s Simple Words Move Police Judge. Child Tells of Arrest and With Aged Grandmother Is Discharged”; April 11, 1905; p. 2.

1https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZB7Isj9jZQ4ldvHfO6x51em3ksy8xV8C1PG6lV8yE8AwpplTY_nYeu-3TxwXbtSixlF1aTgOQSyvH8FmaljJwscZQB3H1S3W4FapAyQQS8KdePUvV35vbQQZrFZcG0n6TPUGQ6TUWwdk/s1600/coal+boys.jpg

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Does anyone know if the railroad yards employed someone to pick up coal laying on the ground? If not, how could they charge anyone with stealing? it's not like they were stealing it from the train cars.

               __________________________________________________________

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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Monday, April 9, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: April 9

April 9, 1895 – “The Inver Grove – St. Paul Park Swing Bridge opens as a two–level toll bridge and is used by horses and wagons on the lower level and trains on the upper level. The bridge is built by the Pittsburgh Bridge Company for the South St. Paul Beltline Railroad. The bridge is later bought by the Rock Island Railroad, with the state renting the lower level of the bridge for vehicular traffic.”

http://projects.wchsmn.org/reference/events/opening-inver-grove-st-paul-park-swing-bridge/


               __________________________________________________________

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





Sunday, April 8, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: April 8

April 8, 1909 - A six-week-old baby boy, crying loudly, was discovered in the women’s room of a St. Paul department store this afternoon by the matron. The infant had been there for some time, but it was supposed that the mother was nearby. Finally it was determined that the infant had been deserted and in the folds of its well-made dress was found a letter that explained the cause. The baby was turned over to Patrolman Charles Baer, who, though a bachelor, carried the child gently in his arms and planted a kiss on his forehead.

*

The letter found on the boy read: “Dear friends—Here is a poor little baby I am not able to take care of, and I am sorry to say so. I can’t help it: I am sick all the time. My husband left me and I can’t support my dear little boy. God bless it and take care of myself. I don’t know where I am going to get my supper tonight. I had to beg this bottle of milk for my little baby. Goodbye to you and I thank you if you will place my baby somewhere to be cared for. Goodbye.”

The Minneapolis Tribune; “Starving Woman Deserts Baby. Leaves Pathetic Note With Child Found in Store.”; April 1909; p. 10.

*http://www.bounty.com/baby-0-to-12-months/newborn/the-first-weeks/6-week-old-baby
               __________________________________________________________

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