RAMSEY COUNTY For the Good of the Order: The Ad Man Becomes the “Senator from Ramsey” John Watson Milton A Publication of the Ramsey County Historical Society —page 13

Spring 2011 Volume 46, Number 1

“A Gentle, Kind Spirit Whose Life Was Art” Jean Sanborn Gross: Artist, Painter, and Printmaker Eileen R. McCormack, page 3

In February 1943 St. Paul artist and printmaker Jean Sanborn made the drypoint print Moto Perpetuo. The scene is the intersection of Selby and Western avenues in St. Paul. When she exhibited it later that year, it won a prize and is her most acclaimed print. Photo courtesy of Jennifer H. Gross. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Priscilla Fam ham Founding Editor (1964-2006) Virginia Brainard Kunz Editor John M. Lindley Volume 46, Number 1 Spring 2011 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY THE MISSION STATEMENT OF THE RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS ON DECEMBER 20, 2007: Paul A. Verret The Ramsey County Historical Society inspires current and future generations President Cheryl Dickson to learn from and value their history by engaging in a diverse program First Vice President of presenting, publishing and preserving. W illiam Frels Second Vice President Julie Brady Secretary CONTENTS Carolyn J. Brusseau Treasurer 3 “A Gentle, Kind Spirit Whose Life Was Art” Thomas H. Boyd Immediate Past President Jean Sanborn Gross: Artist, Painter, and Printmaker Norlin Boyum, Anne Cowie, Nancy Randall Eileen R. McCormack Dana, Cheryl Dickson, Charlton Dietz, Joanne A. Englund, , Howard Guthmann, Richard Heydinger, John Holman, Kenneth R. 13 For the Good of the Order Johnson, Elizabeth M. Kiemat, Rev. Kevin M. The Ad Man Becomes the “Senator from Ramsey” McDonough, Nancy McKillips, Susan McNeely, Debra Mitts-Smith, Laurie M. Murphy, Richard H. John Watson Milton Nicholson, M arla Ordway, Jay Pfaender, Jeffrey Slack, Ralph Thrane, Richard Wilhoit. 27 Book Reviews Directors Emeriti W. Andrew Boss Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from Richard T. M urphy Sr. Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Cowie Jr. EDITORIAL BOARD and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon Anne Cowie, chair, James B. Bell, Thomas H. Boyd, John Diers, John Milton, Debra Mitts-Smith, Laurie M. Murphy, Paul D. Nelson, Richard H. Nicholson, Jay Pfaender, David Riehle, G. Richard A Message from the Editorial Board Slade, Steve Trimble, Paul A. Verret, Mary Lethert Wingerd. rom etchings to booya, this issue showcases two Ramsey county residents who HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD Fenriched our community in different ways—one privately, and one in a very pub­ William Fallon, William Finney, George lic manner. Jean Sanborn Gross, the daughter of Helen and Judge John B. Sanborn Latimer, Joseph S. Micallef, Marvin J. Pertzik, Jam es Reagan, Rosalie E. Wahl. Jr., grew up with an aesthetic perspective that she nurtured by attending the St. Paul

RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Gallery and School of Art, where she studied drawing and printmaking. Although her Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt, chair work was shown in other locations, her carefully-etched portraits of St. Paul show a Commissioner Tony Bennett sensitivity and awareness of the local world that she passed on to her children and Commissioner Toni Carter friends. Eileen McCormack’s portrait of Gross includes a description of her preferred Commissioner Jim McDonough Commissioner Rafael Ortega medium: drypoint etching. On the other hand, Nick Coleman, the former Commissioner Jan Parker State Senate majority leader, enjoyed a long public career, starting with his first elec­ Commissioner Janice Rettman tion to the senate in 1962. His family and friends jumped in to produce an effec­ Julie Kleinschmidt, manager, tive grassroots campaign that included phone banks and lawn signs, which helped Ramsey County Coleman defeat another longtime, Irish-Catholic senator. John Milton’s article on Ramsey County History is published quarterly by the Ramsey County Historical Society, 323 Coleman furnishes a recipe for a time-honored political fundraising meal—booya! Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, S t Paul, MN Enjoy the stories. 55102 (651-222-0701). Printed in U.S.A. Copy­ Anne Cowie, right© 201 1, Ramsey County Historical Society. ISSN Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. Chair, Editorial Board No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission from the publisher. The Society The exhibit, programming, and article on Jean Sanborn Gross are supported by the assumes no responsibility for statements made by generous support of Jennifer H. Gross, with assistance from her brothers, John and contributors. Fax 651-223-8539; e-mail address: [email protected]; web site address: www.rchs.com Richard Gross.

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Books

My Flag Grew Stars: December 1944. The cities of Sopron World War II Refugees ’ and Gyor, the homes of Olga Wagner My Flag and Tibor Zoltai, respectively, were and Journey to America Grew Stars are minor industrial towns in western Kitty Gogins , less than fifty miles apart.4 As BookSurge Publishing almost daily bombings of Sopron con­ [www.booksurge.com], 2009 tinued for months, “thousands of people 304 pages; $18.99 died in the bombing raids, and more and Reviewed by David Riehle more of the city was destroyed” (page 5). “A half year before the bombing ccording to movie-industry lore, raids began, the horrors of the war Afamed film director Otto Prem­ shifted from a tangential impact of inger, while attending a Hollywood Olga’s young life. . . .” On March 19, party, joined a conversation among a 1944, the occupied Hungary group of fellow Hungarian movie fig­ and began deporting to Auschwitz. ures such as, perhaps, Peter Lorre, Leaving her apartment on a summer Michael Curtiz, Paul Lukas, or George day, Olga was startled to see “German Cukor.1 Finding them speaking anima­ soldiers, armed with whips, shepherd a tedly in their mother tongue, Preminger line of bedraggled shuffling prisoners. told them reprovingly: “Come on . . . The prisoners each wore a yellow cloth we’re in America. So talk German.” star identifying them as Jews.. . . ” One Preminger’s point, if he had one, in March 1944.2 The Hungarian gov­ of them “she recognized as her favorite was perhaps the otherness of the ernment, an ally of Nazi , had secondary school teacher... .A German Magyar people, speaking a non-Indo- been secretly discussing an armistice soldier near her teacher cracked his European language in Central Europe with the Allies, prompting the German whip. . . . Biting leather ripped the surrounded by Slavic, Germanic, and invasion. But by September 1944, the teacher’s clothes and skin. The teacher Romance languages, cultures, and Soviet Red Army had crossed the bor­ edged back into line without even rais­ empires. And many, if not most of the ing her eyes. She trudged woodenly on der of Hungary, driving the Nazis back myriad European émigrés populating to the railroad station. Never to be seen toward . In December British Hollywood in mid-twentieth century again” (pages 13-15). and American warplanes began carpet- had worked for a time in German cin­ Between May 14 and July 8, 1944, bombing Hungarian cities. This Allied ema at Berlin’s giant UFA studios prior 437,402 Hungarian Jewish men, strategy targeted industrial centers in to the Nazi takeover in 1933. women, and children were transported After European boundaries had been order to destroy as many homes as to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz- sliced and diced at Versailles following possible. Working-class housing areas Birkenau. It took 148 trains to carry World War I, the new Hungarian state were to be targeted because they had them. More than 90% of the Jews were emerged deprived of nearly two thirds a higher density and firestorms were gassed immediately upon arrival. Hitler, of its prewar territory and 30% of its more likely.3 having learned that Horthy planned to Magyar speakers. Following the extir­ In the midst of this juncture of delib­ sue for a separate peace with the Allies, pation of the five-month-old revolution­ erate and random catastrophe and installed the native Hungarian fascist ary Hungarian Soviet Republic by the murder the story of Ramsey County resi­ party, known as the Arrow Cross, in Romanian Army in 1919, the country dent, Kitty Gogins’ Hungarian-American power, with its leader, Ferenc Szalasi, came under the dictatorship of Admiral family story opens as her teenaged as prime minister. During this period, Miklos Hórthy, a regime lasting until the parents-to-be seek shelter from American Jews were terrorized by bands of Arrow occupation of Hungary by the Germans carpet-bombing in their native cities in Cross thugs who roamed Hungarian cit-

24 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY ies beating, robbing, and killing. Olga’s these antifascist workers was we can areas. Many of them were , doc­ brother, Andy, came across dozens of only conjecture. It is certain that many tors, politicians, army officers, and edu­ dead Jewish bodies in the park near their were sent to the death camps or sum­ cators.5 The Zoltai and Wagner families home in the succeeding months. The marily executed. found a window of opportunity that they troops of the Red Army were not able to And as retreating Hungarian armed quickly seized to emigrate to Canada as liberate Budapest until the January 18, forces continued to battle the Soviet ad­ indentured agricultural workers, already 1945. As the battles raged, Arrow-Cross vance, and American warplanes made linked together by Olga and Tibor who pogromists murdered hundreds of de­ unending sorties over German-occupied had met each other in Austria, and were fenseless Jews every day. Hungary, bombs rained from both sides. married in Alberta in 1950. Swiftly sur­ Tibor Zoltai, age eighteen, lived in On March 28, 1945, as the Russians mounting the anachronistic status of in­ nearby Gyor, the first Hungarian city took their turn in bombing Sopron, the dentured labor, the young couple moved to be carpet-bombed by the Allies, Wagner family and other employees of to Toronto and then to Boston, where on April 13, 1944, when 500 Flying the textile plant departed westward on Tibor acquired degrees in geology and Fortresses and Liberators, escorted by fifteen horse-drawn wagons and one where the author was bom in 1958. In 200 fighters, flying from Foggia, Italy, donkey cart. 1959 Tibor was offered an appointment devastated the city. On July 2, an even Tibor Zoltai, a college student and to the geology faculty at the University larger fleet of 620 heavy bombers, with still a teenager, along with about 750 of Minnesota. The family purchased a fighter escorts, hit an aircraft plant in Gyor youth, was effectively conscripted home in Roseville and at last this review Gyor on their way to other targets in into German military service in January has reached Ramsey County. Budapest. Although the factory in Gyor, 1945. Enrolled in German antiaircraft The Zoltais became a part of the which built the Reggio Hawk, a fighter service and sent initially to Munich, small, but active, Hungarian commu­ plane of Italian design, was the target, they were soon sent into the mountains nity in the Twin Cities, and Olga be­ “most of the deaths from the raid were north of the city, where they were as­ came a leading part of the staff of the not at the airplane factory, because of signed to operate barrage balloons pro­ International Institute in St. Paul where state-of-the-art cement bunkers that tecting a hydroelectric station. Soon the she counseled immigrants, assisting sheltered workers. . . . Most of the group was on the move again, as the them in find employment and adapting deaths were in the city, ordinary citizens Americans closed in during the final to a new life.6 Her work included reset­ who did not have access to bunkers, days of the war in April 1945, fleeing tling the first Vietnamese and Hmong or other potent protection” (page 24). on foot and eventually reaching the families to emigrate to Minnesota in the “That spring, [he and his fifteen-year- German-Czech border, where they were early 1970s. old brother] spent days... digging bod­ captured by American forces. After nine In the late 1940s, Tibor’s father and ies of out the rubble, [helping to bury] months as a POW, Tibor was released, several other relatives had worked for the estimated 2,000 dead” (page 24). in a turn of events that sounds almost a time at an Austrian tile and pipe fac­ The Zoltai and Wagner families, like something taken from a Hardy tory, mixing asbestos, crushed rock and at that point entirely unknown to each Boys adventure. Who should arrive at water. Eventually, every family member other, began making urgent prepara­ the POW camp to say Mass but Tibor’s who had worked in the factory died from tions to leave their homes, and ulti­ old Scoutmaster, a Catholic priest from exposure to the asbestos. In 1975 Tibor mately Hungary itself, as the Red Army his hometown, who persuaded the camp was commissioned by the Minnesota began to roll inexorably across their commander to free Tibor and a dozen Pollution Control Commission to study country. Both families undoubtedly other former Gyor Boy Scouts! the risks of exposure from industrial feared the consequences of Soviet oc­ Tibor’s family had also made a suc­ waste. Tibor became a recognized pio­ cupation, and no doubt memories of the cessful wagon-train exit from Hungary, neer in the study of asbestos, calling short-lived Hungarian Communist gov­ and after much searching he was re­ attention to the danger of the asbestos­ ernment of 1919 reinforced the fears of united with them in a refugee camp in like substances that were being dumped the adults. Olga’s father was the bour­ Austria in late 1945. Shortly after the into Lake Superior by Iron Range taco- geois manager of a textile mill, who close of the war, there were at least nite operations. In what Time maga­ “had helped to diffuse a few Communist 400,000 so-called displaced persons zine called “the longest environmental sabotage plots in the plant he managed” (DPs) of Hungarian nationality scat­ trial in history,”7 Federal judge Miles (page 86); Tibor’s father was a captain tered throughout Western Europe. Lord’s precedent-setting ruling stopped in Hungarian counter-intelligence, as­ Many of them eventually resettled in the the discharge of taconite tailings from signed to root out industrial saboteurs and Canada. According Reserve Mining’s operation at Silver in local factories, some at least who to one source, the DPs were gener­ Bay, Minnesota, in the mid-1970s. would have been dedicated underground ally from the middle and upper-middle In 1982 the family moved to a some­ Communist workers. What the fate of classes in Hungary and from urban what rundown “mansion” on Summit

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 25 Avenue with six apartments, built rector Michael Curtiz (bom Mano Kertesz Kaminer by lumber baron Chauncey Wright in 1886); actor Paul Lukas (bom Pal Lukcas, Pilgrims to the Griggs in 1883, aspiring to make it a 1891); and director George Cukor (bom Gyorgy Cukor, 1899). Among other places, the Preminger hostel for their extended families. The anecdote is repeated in Kati Marton, The Great Northland. Zoltais worked on restoring the house Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed for six years, their meticulous restora­ the World (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006). tion featured in Historic Preservation 2. The only large body of water in landlocked post- Magazine in 1988. Versailles Hungary was Lake Balaton, but Horthy’s This remarkable family seems to naval service had been prior to World War I in the service of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which op­ have lived happily ever after, adding erated primarily in the Mediterranean but had dis­ their own weave to the texture of this patched warships as far as China. community. Like the relatively small 3. John Terraine, The Right of the Line: The numbers of immigrants who settled Royal Air Force in the European War, 1939-1945 here in the first decades after the war, (London: Hodderand Stoughton, 1985), 262. the Zoltais and Wagners experienced a 4. The village of Kolontar, site of a catastrophic fundamental reshaping of their lives as spill of toxic alumina sludge in October 2010, to­ a consequence of the war and unknow­ gether with Sopron (on the west) and Gyor (on the ingly anticipated the stunning increase east), forms the southern point of an equilateral tri­ angle encompassing much of northwest Hungary. in immigration to the Twin Cities area 5. In February 2011, a lawsuit was filed in Federal in the last thirty years. Court in Chicago against the Hungarian State My Flag Grew Stars is, of course, Railways on behalf of victims of the Hungarian leaders to the Vatican, O’Connell studies presumably a comparison of the tricol­ Holocaust. each transition of church leadership with ored Hungarian flag (red, white, and 6. Cecil D. Eby, Hungary at War: Civilians and thoroughness. In St. Paul today, there are green) to the starry banner under which Soldiers in World War II (University Park, Penna., Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998; 2007). churches, schools, hospitals, and neigh­ the author first saw the light in Boston borhoods that are still defined by their 7. Time, May 6,1974. in 1958, although, of course, that flag Catholic roots and the unyielding faith did grow two more stars in 1959. For of believers. a book which is intentionally family- Pilgrims to the Northland: Both a priest and a historian, Marvin centered, My Flag Grew Stars has rich The Archdiocese of St. Paul, O’Connell is an emeritus professor at the general historical content, viewing first 1840-1962 University of Notre Dame and the au­ hand, personally and at close quarters, thor of numerous books on the history of titanic events in mid-century. Relying Marvin R. O’Connell American Catholicism. He grew up in the on far more than anecdotal teenage rec­ Notre Dame, Ind.: Twin Cities, was ordained by Archbishop ollections from her parents, Gogin’s University of Notre Dame Press, 2009 John Gregory Murray in 1956, served for narrative draws on diaries, the impres­ 642 pages; $70.00 a time in a small parish in southwestern sive photographs taken by Tibor on his Reviewed by Carie Essig Minnesota, studied at Notre Dame, and treks through postwar Central Europe, taught at the College of St. Thomas and even an interview with an engineer em­ quick drive through St. Paul, or the St. Paul Seminary. Thus O’Connell is ployed at the Gy or aircraft plant in 1944, a glance from the east side at the A an observer within the church who knew and, not least, a notably comprehensive city’s western skyline, visually cements bibliography. Finally, it is evident that the legacy that dynamic Catholic lead­ and served with several of the archbish­ Gogin’s parents were creative, adaptive, ers and their followers left to Minne­ ops who led the archdiocese in the twen­ and humane people who deserve to be sota’s capital during its first 120 years. tieth century. remembered with appreciation for their Marvin O’Connell’s detailed and com­ O’Connell takes a chronological ap­ contribution to and participation in this prehensive history of the Archdiocese proach to the history of the Archdiocese of community. of St. Paul marries both the ecclesias­ St. Paul. He begins with the early efforts tical politics and the religious history of the to bring its faith to David Riehle is a member of the Society’s that built both Minnesota and St. Paul. the head of navigation on the Mississippi Editorial Board. From the early missionaries looking River (briefly known as Pig’s Eye and re­ Endnotes to serve settlers, many of whom spoke named St. Paul by Father Luden Galtier) French and had emigrated from Canada, and the creation of the Diocese of St. Paul 1. In 1996, the reported that of to priests zealous to convert the Dakota in 1850. First served by Bishops Joseph the 136 Oscar nominations since 1929, Hungarians had won 30 of them. Most of the Hollywood and Ojibwe peoples to Catholicism, to Cretin and Thomas L. Grace, the diocese Hungarians were of Jewish origin, including actor the complicated network of parishes, became the Archdiocese of St. Paul in Peter Lorre (bom László Lówenstein in 1904); di­ and the relationship of local diocesan 1888, shortly after became

26 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY its leader. Following Ireland’s death in the customs and traditions of those for­ question that is not addressed, but might 1918, (1919-1930), mer countries without subjecting these occur to some readers, is what scholar John Gregory Murray (1931-1956), same young people to the perils of old- of the stature of O’Connell will write a and William 0. Brady (1956-1961) led fashioned Protestant proselytizing or an history of the Archdiocese that carries the archdiocese. Minneapolis was not equally dangerous secularism in their the story forward into the twenty-first formally added to the canonical title of new country. century? the Archdiocese of St. Paul until 1966. This book is not for the casual reader. Carie Essig holds a B.A. and M.A. from O’Connell ends his account with the Anyone interested in the complicated the University of Minnesota. She is the death of Archbishop Brady in 1961, on relationship between establishing a com­ Development Manager for the Ramsey the eve of the opening of the Second munity and a political state on the frontier County Historical Society and a long­ Council of the Vatican (1962-1965), will relish the stories of early missionar­ time resident of St. Paul. which would bring profound changes to ies. Academic historians and those inter­ Roman Catholicism around the world. ested in the details of the history of the Also in Print In addition to fascinating details of our Archdiocese will welcome the history of local history, O’Connell’s exhaustively Bishops Cretin, Ireland, and their succes­ Through No Fault of My Own: researched history explores a number of sors, and appreciate the skill with which A Girl's Diary of Life on issues, such as relations with Protestants O’Connell places each of them within a Summit Avenue in the Jazz Age and other religious denominations or broader historical context. This narrative Coco Irvine with an Introduction and the role of the laity within the church, is also a resource for scholars and stu­ Afterword by Peg Meier dents of history. Spanning over a century which sometimes produced agreement Minneapolis: University of Minnesota and, at other times, discord within the during which St. Paul went from noth­ Press, 2011 ing more than a few buildings upon the Archdiocese—both among church lead­ 104 pages; $12.95 ers and between the leadership and its river bluff to Minnesota’s capital and a many congregations. bustling center of commerce and govern­ n 1926 Clotilde Irvine (1914-1975), Of particular interest to readers who ment, O’Connell’s narrative also places Iwho was named after her mother but are not familiar with parish life are the the Archdiocese within the context of its known as “Coco,” received a blank diary stories of German, Irish, Polish, Italian, ecclesiastical relations with the Vatican. as a Christmas gift. Coco’s father was Czech, and other ethnic groups who There were times when these relations a wealthy lumberman, Horace Irvine, settled in St. Paul in the late nineteenth were not always the most cordial because and the family lived in a great mansion and early twentieth centuries. Each es­ American Catholic leaders chaffed under on St. Paul’s Summit Avenue. Over the tablished a community within the city Vatican strictures that may have made next twelve months, Coco recorded her and “national” parishes within the de­ sense for Catholics in European countries adventures, problems, and romances in nomination, which typically were served but not in the United States. that diary. Her musings in this very per­ by priests who spoke the native tongue. Already a long and comprehensive ac­ sonal keepsake express Coco’s natural Reverend O’Connell tells a rich story of count, there is one aspect of the history talent as a writer and a young person’s people bound by their common faith and of the Archdiocese that deserved more energy, joy, and, sometimes, regret yet separated by language and cultural extensive treatment in Pilgrims to the when she tells her side of what went on differences^ Northland: the role that women religious in her life. Frequently, her entries begin Although these stories of churches played in the schools, hospitals, and other with, “I’m in deep trouble through no that were so closely tied to the cus­ institutions founded and operated by the fault of my own,” as she explained her toms and traditions of the Old Country church. Women religious, such as the most recent escapade or scrape with her are not unique to St. Paul, what sets Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet who parents, school authorities, or friends. O’Connell’s account apart is his careful founded St. Joseph’s Hospital in St. Paul Coco and her sister, Olivia Irvine analysis of the role that Archbishop John in 1854 and the College (now University) Dodge, subsequently grew up and went Ireland played in the larger debate within of St. Catherine (founded in 1905), are on to have much more substantial lives American Catholicism over the question present in this history, but their service than the diary foretells. As adults, Coco of Americanization. Archbishop Ireland to the church and the broader community and Olivia donated their family home to was an ardent patriot. He had served for of St. Paul deserves more than the few the state of Minnesota, and since 1966 it a brief time as a chaplain in the Union pages that O’Connell devotes to them. has served as the governor’s official resi­ Army and had seen the horrors of war Pilgrims to the Northland addresses dence. Peg Meier’s sprightly Introduction and knew first-hand the cost of maintain­ all of the fundamental questions (who, sets the stage for Coco’s diary and her ing the Union. Yet Ireland also perceived when, how, why, and so forth) a reader Afterword briefly recounts how Coco’s the dilemma of how to wean the chil­ might have concerning the Archdiocese life changed dramatically following her dren of immigrant Catholics away from between its founding and 1962. The one fashionable marriage in 1936.

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St. Paul artist Jean Sanborn painted this self-portrait in 1942. Photo courtesy of Jennifer H. Gross. The oil on canvas painting, known as Self Portrait (Jean Sanborn), is p a rt o f an exhibit of Jean Sanborn’s paintings and prints in the Ramsey County Historical Society’s exhibit space in Landmark Center. For more on Jean Sanborn Gross, see page 3.