Americans and Their St. Paul's Past Growing up on the East Side
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RAMSEY COUNTY Whistles, Crowds, Free Silver Election Night - 1896 A Publication of the Ramsey County Historical Society Page 13 Volume 27, Number 3 - g lexican- Americans and their St. Paul’s Past Page 4 Growing Up on The East Side Mexican women attending a class in English presented by the St. Paul WPA’s adult Page 22 education department—April 23, 1936. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Priscilla Famham E ditor Virginia Brainard Kunz RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS William S. Fallon Chairman o f the Board CONTENTS Joanne Englund P resident 3 Letters John M . Lindley First Vice President 4 The Mexican-Americans and Their Roots in St. Paul’s Past Anne Cowie Wilson Jane McClure Second Vice President Robert O. Straughn 13 Whistles, Crowds and Free Silver—The Election of 1896 Secretary Thomas C. Buckley James Russell Treasurer 18 Postcards: A Full-blown Love Affair Thomas Boyd, Joan Grzywinski, Lorraine Robert J. Stumm Hammerly, John Harens, Liz Johnson, Don Larson, Judge Margaret M. Marrinan, 22 Growing Up in St. Paul: Polish Sausage and Dr. Thomas B. Mega, Laurie Murphy, Trips by Streetcar Richard T. Murphy, Sr., Eileen Roberts, DeAnne M. Cherry Darrell Rooney, Mark Stein, Richard A. Wilhoit and Laurie Zenner. 24 A Matter of Time: St. Peter Claver Church EDITORIAL BOARD And Its 100th Anniversary John M. Lindley, chairman; Thomas H. Boyd, Thomas C. Buckley, Charlton Dietz, 26 Books, Etc. Thomas J. Kelley, Arthur McWatt, Laurie M. Murphy, Dr. Thomas B. Mega. 27 What’s Historic About This Site? St. Casimir’s Church on the East Side RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Commissioner Hal Norgard, chairman Commissioner Diane Ahrens Publication of Ramsey County History is supported Commissioner John Finley in part by a gift from Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen Commissioner Ruby Hunt in memory of Henry H. Cowie, Jr., by a contribution Commissioner Duane McCarty Commissioner Don Salverda from Reuel D. Harmon and by grants from The Saint Paul Commissioner Warren Schaber and F. R. Bigelow Foundations. Terry Schütten, executive director, Ramsey County. Ramsey County History is published quarterly by the Ramsey County Historical Society, 323 A Message from the Editorial Board Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Paul, Minn. 55102. Printed in U.S.A. Copyright, 1992, Ramsey County Historical Society. ISSN his issue of Ramsey County History matches in diversity the varie Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise Tgated fall colors we now see all around us. Jane McClure writes reproduced without written permission from the publisher. in fascinating detail about the history of our Mexican American neigh bors on the West Side of St. Paul. Tom Buckley reminds us that the Ramsey County History is sent free of charge to members of the Ramsey County Historical presidential election of 1896, matching Republican McKinley with Society. Individual copies may be purchased in Democrat Bryan, involved in its day as much hoopla, politics and sus the Society’s office. For information on how to become a member, please see the membership pense as the election of 1992 appears to have so far. insert. Two of our regular features—Growing Up in St. Paul and the Acknowledgements: The photographs on the Historic Site essay-highlight the colorful East Side neighborhood. front cover and on pages 4, 5, 7, 8, 16 and 24 are from the audio-visual and newspaper And finally we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of St. collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. Peter Claver Catholic Church and its century of service to St. Paul’s The photographs on page 11 are from Thomasa Castillo. The photograph on page 15 is courtesy African American community in A Matter of Time for 1892. The of the Canal Park Marine Museum, Duluth, Editorial Board hopes you will enjoy the richness of Ramsey County’s Minnesota. The postcards reproduced on pages 18-21 and the back cover are from the author’s history found in this issue. collection. The snapshots on pages 22-23 are from the author and the photograph on page 27 is from the Ramsey County Historical Society. —John M. Lindley, chairman, Editorial Board 2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Whistles, Crowds and Free Silver St. Paul’s Noisy Election Night in 1896 Thomas C. Buckley s we move toward the close of the the Civil War. Above downtown, in his etc. Their principal difference was over the twentieth century in this presi Summit Avenue mansion, disgruntled tariff, with Democrats seeking reduction dential election year, much is be Democrat and railroader James J. Hill and Republicans supporting protection, as Aing said about the absence of clear planswaited to to hear the outcome of the election. they had done for years. As a result, cam rebuild the economy, lack of feeling for Though for him and thousands of others in paigns since Reconstruction had highlight the unfortunate, the need to maintain tradi Ramsey County, it wasn’t necessary to join ed such issues as the Civil War military tional values, dangerous plans to enlarge the crowd downtown. It was possible to service of the candidates, their lack of pub governmental power, and the failure to get know the trend of the election by listening lic or private rectitude, or the degree to decisive action out of our national leaders. for the blasts of a mighty steam whistle. which the Democratic or Republican Par There has been a call for the candidates of ties were pro- or anti-British. Since both both parties to focus on the two or three vi major parties were supportive of business tal issues, and present the American voters In downtown St. Paul, expansion, business leaders contributed with better programs to lead the nation into citizens by the thousands generously to the campaign funds of both, the new century. and that policy continued into the election As we closed out the nineteenth cen assembled in the public of 1892. Then as now, not all businessmen tury, many similar concerns were voiced. places and around the news were Republicans, but an ominous aspect In 1896, ninety-six years ago, the country paper offices to await the of the 1892 election eventually tipped the was in a depression and an election was business community from Minnesota to held which provided the public with a clear election returns in a contest Maryland decidedly toward the Republi choice between presidential candidates compared in significance to cans. with quite different positions on the vital that which preceded the In 1892, a former Civil War general, issues. Advocates of sound money based James Weaver, was the candidate of the on gold, a protective tariff to safeguard Civil War. new People’s Party of America. The Peo American products and limited govern ple’s Party was better known as the ment regulation of the economy supported Populists, and Weaver received a total of the reliable Republican candidate, Wil The whistle was from the forward stack of 1,027,329 votes for the presidency. In liam McKinley. Those who favored more the large Great Lakes passenger liner, those days it was very impressive for any substantial regulation of business, tariff North West. Although the big ship had third party candidate, let alone the candi reduction and the unlimited coinage of sil been laid up for the winter in Duluth, the date of a new third party, to receive more ver as the way to raise wages and prices whistle, with a fifteen-mile range, was than a million votes. The preamble to the rallied around the charismatic candidate of mounted in downtown St. Paul to an new party’s 1892 platform was written by the Democrats, the Populists and the Silver nounce the returns on perhaps St. Paul’s Minnesota’s perennial reform candidate, Republicans, William Jennings Bryan. noisiest election night. Ignatius Donnelly, and attacked the sham With a smaller electorate, politics was How Hill, a long-time Democrat and battles of the major political parties which taken more seriously in those days, but supporter of President Grover Cleveland, failed to address the real needs of a “plun particularly in 1896. With the Bryan can and how the whistle off the North West dered people.” didacy, the Northeastern Establishment came to contribute to the evening’s cele The platform which followed included had not felt as threatened since 1800 when bration of the McKinley victory provides opposition to subsidies, or national aid, to Jefferson was elected to the presidency. a glimpse on the local level of some of the private corporations, which was probably Election night, November 3, 1896, was things that occurred on a national scale not all that alarming to Mr. Hill. Unlike his one of great apprehension in St. Paul and during that colorful campaign. predecessors in the transcontinental rail around the country. In the period following the Civil War, road business, he was in the process of In downtown St. Paul, citizens by the the transition of the country to a major in completing the Great Northern railway thousands assembled in the public places dustrial society and a national market without federal land grants. However, he and around the newspaper offices to await economy found the two parties very simi could not support Populist proposals to re the election returns in a contest compared lar in their views toward business, eco strict immigration, since he was actively in significance to the one which preceded nomic growth, the role of government, engaged in bringing such people to the RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 13 northwest to settle and use the railroad. enhancement of the regulatory powers of the New York financiers.