RAMSEY COUNTY Fall, 1991 Volume 26, Number 3

A Publication of the Ramsey County Historical Society Special Issue: 150th Anniversary of the Naming of St. Paul

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St. Paul in 1857. This is one of nine panoramic views shot that year by B. F. Upton from the roof of the Ramsey County Court­ house at Fourth and Wabasha streets. In this view to the north, the building with the pillars and the dome is the territorial capitol at Tenth and Wabasha streets. The articles beginning on page 4 are published in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the naming of St. Paul and trace the early history of the settlement on the Mississippi that once was known as Pig’s Eye. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Daniel J. Hoisington Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Volume 26, Number 3 Fall, 1991 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Gregory K. Page Chairman o f the Board CONTENTS William S. Fallon President 3 Letters Joanne Englund 4 150th Anniversary o f the Naming of St. Paul; First Vice President Rush to Settlement —1840 to 1880 Anne Cowie Wilson Second Vice President Virginia Brainard Kunz Robert O. Straughn 17 Who WAS “Pig’s Eye” Parrant, Anyway? Secretary Ronald M. Hubbs James P. Wicker Treasurer 19 Forgotten Pioneer: Abraham Perry and His Flock Thomas Boyd, John Costello, Deborah Patrick H. Martin Gelbach, Joan Grzywinski, Lorraine Hammerly, Liz Johnson, John M. Lindley, 22 What’s Historic About This Site? Frank Marzitelli, Dr. Thomas B. Mega, Highland Park’s Davern and Colvin Homes Laurie Murphy, Richard T. Murphy, Sr., Marvin Pertzik, Mark Stein, Laurie Zenner. Robert J. Couser EDITORIAL BOARD 29 A Matter o f Time John M. Lindley, chairman; Thomas H. Boyd, Thomas C. Buckley, Charlton Dietz, 31 Books, Etc. Thomas J. Kelley, Arthur McWatt, Dr. Daniel John Hoisington Thomas B. Mega. RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Publication of Ramsey County History is supported Commissioner Hal Norgard, chairman in part by a gift from Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen Commissioner Diane Ahrens in memory of Henry H. Cowie, Jr. Commissioner John Finley Commissioner Ruby Hunt Commissioner Duane McCarty Commissioner Don Salverda Commissioner Warren Schaber A Message from the Editorial Board Terry Schütten, executive director, Ramsey County Ramsey County History is published quarterly our members of the Society’s Board of Directors and Editorial by the Ramsey County Historical Society, Board have had the good fortune to serve on the St. Paul History 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, F St. Paul, Minn. 55102. Printed in U.S.A. Sub-committee for the writing of Saint Paul—The First 150 Years. Copyright, 1991, Ramsey County Historical The sub-committee came together under the auspices of The Saint Society. ISSN Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be Paul Foundation to assist the book’s author, Virginia Brainard Kunz, reprinted or otherwise reproduced without with comment and criticism of her manuscript that celebrates the his­ written permission from the publisher. tory and cultural diversity of the people of St. Paul. The opinions of On the Cover: St. Paul was the capital of the Territory of Minnesota, when this view was the committee members were as varied as their ethnicity. The group photographed by B. F. Upton from the roof included representatives from the Native American, Southeast Asian, of the Ramsey County Courthouse in 1857. See articles on St. Paul’s early years African American and Mexican American communities of Ramsey beginning on page 4. County, as well as those of European ancestry. Acknowledgements: The photograph on The book that Virginia Kunz wrote reflects the experiences of their page 3 is from the Ramsey County Historical Society’s photo collection. The map on page people and their vision for St. Paul and its cultural richness. Featured 10 was created by the design firm of in this issue of Ramsey County History is a section of the book along Rummel, Dubs and Hill. Photographs of the Davem house in 1990 on page 23, the with special articles on “Pig’s Eye” Parrant, Abraham Perry’s family Daverns on page 24, Dr. Colvin on page 27 and the Davern house, an early farm house set within an Irish com­ and the Colvin house on page 28 are from the author’s collection. The Fuller family munity in what is now Highland Park. Together they all contribute to photograph on page 25 is from the H. B. the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the naming of St. Paul. Fuller Company. All other photographs in this issue are from the audio-visual collections of the Minnesota Historical —John M. Lindley, chairman, Editorial Board Society.

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY What’s Historic About This Site?

Highland Park’s Reminder of Its Past: The Davem and Colvin Homes

Editor’s Note: This is the seventh in a series of articles on Ramsey County’s historic sites. Robert J. Couser

t. Paul’s Highland Park neighbor­ hood, although the site of some of the city’s first settlements near Fort SSnelling, was one of the last residential areas of the city to become heavily settled. The present-day character of the neighbor­ hood, which is bounded on the north by Randolph Avenue, on the east by Interstate 35E and on the south and west by the Mis­ sissippi River, has evolved largely from the architecture of homes and buildings constructed after the 1940s. However, Highland Park’s Davem Hill retains, in the William and Catherine Davern farm house and the Alexander and Sarah Colvin house, structures that represent not only some of the first permanent settlements of built their home adjacent to the Davem proud and accomplished family. The the St. Paul area in the mid-1850s, but farm house on land that was part of original Gaelic family name was O’Duibh- also, the city’s early expansion into what is Davem’s original homestead. At that time, dabhoireann, which means ’’the dark fea­ today the Highland Park neighborhood. both houses were beyond the fringes of the tured man of the rock (dubh= dark, d’a= of William Quin Davem was an Irish im­ expanding St. Paul metropolis. Today they the, boireann=a large rock).” The name migrant who claimed land and established serve as unique and historical reminders of referred to the large rock at Ballynalackin a farm on the military reservation north of earlier times. on the seashore near Lisdoonvama, in Fort Snelling in about 1849, the year Min­ Both the Davem and Colvin families County Clare, where stand the remains of nesota became a territory. Davem and oth­ were leaders and contributors to their com­ the once strong castle of the ”Davoren” er pioneering settlers initially called their munities. During the latter half of the nine­ family. In the 1700s, the family name was organized community ”Niven” in honor of teenth century, William Quin Davem be­ Anglicized to O’Davoren and then Davo- William Niven, one of the community’s came one of Reserve Township’s most ren. The O’Davorens had a strong family early leaders. In 1858, the area was or­ prominent citizens. Alexander R. Colvin history of higher education. From about ganized as Reserve Township and now is was a well-known St. Paul surgeon, while the early sixteenth century to the early part of Highland Park. Sarah T. Colvin was one of Minnesota’s seventeenth century, the O’Davorens Davem began construction of his fam­ most noted women as nurse, suffragist and operated a law school in a stone fort in ily home in about 1862 on a bluff overlook­ political activist from 1915 through the Bhoireann, Ireland. This was said to be ing the Mississippi River. The William 1940s. medieval Ireland’s most famous school of and Catherine Davem farm house remains Brehon law, the old Gaelic code of justice one of the oldest farm houses still standing THE DAVERN FAMILY abolished under James I of England. in Ramsey County. William Quin Davem was born on June William was the youngest of the seven In 1909, Alexander and Sarah Colvin 24, 1829 in County Clare, Ireland, into a children of Austin Davoren and Ellen

22 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY were circulated in the territory’s news­ papers to give public notice to outsiders that their bids would not be tolerated. The auction of 4,503.89 acres of Fort Snelling reservation land took place in Stillwater on September 11, 1854. Davern and other claimants had met before the auction and decided that there would be only one bid per piece of property, in effect preventing any competitive bidding from outsiders. On the day appointed for the sale, ac­ cording to the Minnesota Democrat:

A thousand people were on the ground at Stillwater, ready to act decisively, had occa- . sion required. The claimants dressed in red shirts, all armed, and having clubs in their hands, were arranged in a circle so large as almost to prevent outsiders from being heard, even if disposed to bid. One outsider only made an attempt to bid, and he was soon disposed of. The sale commenced at nine a.m ., and was finished in three- quarters o f an hour with great efficiency by the autioneer, Frank Collins. The re­ mainder of the day was consumed in making out the papers for the purchasers, who were congratulated on being released from their long suspense, and getting lands so valuable Cooney. While other members of his fam­ built their homes, cultivated the land and to them and the territory, at the government ily pursued a college education in Ireland, invested their capital. price of $ 1.25 per acre, without disturbance William chose to seek a new life by In 1854, the United States government or violence of any kind. emigrating to the United States with his ol­ announced that the military reservation dest brother, Dominick. Dominck was land on which Davern and the others had Some of the other buyers at the auction forty-two years old and William was just settled would be offered for sale by public included William Finn, John K. Ayd, Wil­ seventeen when they sailed on the ship auction. In order to protect their new liam Marshall, William Brimhall and Clarence from Galway, Ireland, arriving homesteads from outside speculators, Friedrich R. Knapheide. This land was in New York in 1846. At this time, Wil­ Davern and the other settlers formed a purchased by the claimants for a total of liam changed the spelling of his name from Claim Association. A notable resolution of $5,629.86. Davoren to Davern. He and Dominick ini­ the association read as follows: On March 28, 1855, J. Ross Brown, a tially settled in Springfield, Massachusetts special investigator appointed by the fed­ Resolved that we repair to the land sale en and later made their way west along the eral government, reported that the clai­ masse, to protect our homes from the bids of Ohio River by steamboat to St. Louis, Mis­ mants’ intimidation had defrauded the fed­ wealthy and sordid speculators, the homes souri. In May, 1849, the Davems traveled eral government of as much as $300,000. and improvements which have cost so many north on the Mississippi to Minnesota Ter­ An ensuing government investigation of of us long years of toil and labor, and the ex­ ritory. That first summer, William found the disputed auction lasted for more than a penditure of all our means, the homes which work in the lumber mills of St. Anthony. year, but the auction was allowed to stand shelter our wives and little ones, the homes The following spring, William settled unchanged. OnJanuary2,1857,160 acres doubly endeared to us by the privations, on and made claim without title to 160 were deeded by the United States govern­ cares and anxieties which we have all ex­ acres of unoccupied land in the military ment to William Quin Davern as the SE 1/4 perienced in their security, the only spot in reservation that surrounded Fort Snelling, of section 16, township 28 and range 23. fact which we can justly call our home, upon the United States army outpost which had Today the original Davern acreage is this fairest portion of God’s footstool, and been established in 1820 at the junction of bounded by Snelling Avenue to the east, which we will protect from the ruthless the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. At Fairview Avenue to the west, Montreal hands of those who would eagerly tear them the same time, other settlers made similar Avenue to the north and about St. Paul Av­ from our possession. unauthorized claims on reservation land, enue to the south. where over the next several years, they The Claim Association’s resolutions When Davern had first settled his land

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 23 in 1850, it was hilly and rough. He culti­ vated the land for farming and cleared three trails which later became St. Paul city streets: Davem Street and Words­ worth and Sheridan avenues, the latter two having been named by Davem after his fa­ vorite authors. Davem became a United States citizen on February 5, 1855. Not only did he be­ come a successful farmer, but he also ac­ tively participated in civic affairs. On Oc­ tober 13,1857, he was elected to Minneso­ ta’s first state legislature where, as a Democrat, he represented the Second Dis­ trict in the House of Representatives. While a member of the legislature, Davern played an important role in establishing Fort Road, a long straight tract of passage along today’s West Seventh Street from Seven Comers in downtown St. Paul to Fort Snelling. He was instrumental in William Quinn Davern and Catherine Theresa Ryan Davern on the porch of their farm naming Reserve Township. Davern house, around 1900. served as a county commissioner from 1858-59 and he was elected the first chair­ man of the board of Reserve Township, the original cabin. The first four Davern land from the Dakota bands in 1805, con­ serving from May 11 to October 2, 1858. children, all boys, were bom in the origi­ sisted of 162 acres at the junction of the He was also the first chairman and director nal cabin. Mary Ellen (Nellie) Davem, the Mississippi and the Minnesota rivers. Pike of School District No. 8. eldest daughter, was the first Davern Island was the first place in the Northwest On July 20, 1856, Davem married offspring to be born in the new farm house territory where the United States flag was Anne Maroney, also a native of County where the family eventually grew to thir­ flown. Clare, at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in teen children. William’s brother, Domi­ William Davern’s success as a farmer Stillwater. They lived in a small cabin nick, who became blind shortly after they continued, and by June, 1880, he owned which Davem had built on his land just emigrated to the United States, also lived 290 acres of land which annually produced northeast of the present intersection of with William and his family for a number 600 bushels of wheat, 400 bushels of pota­ Davem and Morgan streets. In 1857, Anne of years. Later, Dominick lived with his toes, 200 tons of hay, seventy-five cords of died in the birth of their only child and their niece, Jane Murphy, in Janesville, Wis­ wood, 1,000 pounds of butter, and 400 child died a year later. On November 30, consin. dozen eggs. Estimated cash value of his 1862, Davern married eighteen-year-old As the Davern family increased in num­ farm and livestock at that time was Catherine Theresa Ryan of New Bruns­ ber, so did the farm’s prosperity. By Sep­ $14,675. Later records indicate that in wick, Canada, at the Catholic church of St. tember, 1870, the estimated total cash val­ 1883 the Davern farm had five horses, Anthony of Padua in St. Anthony. Cather­ ue of William Quin Davern’s farm, imple­ fifteen cows, four steers, and six calves ine’s parents, Michael and Catherine, had ments and livestock was $11,300. That grazing on eighty acres of fenced pasture emigrated to Canada from Kilkenny, Ire­ year his farm produced 1,200 bushels of land. There were twelve hogs in a pig pen land, in 1840. Catherine’s older sister, wheat, 500 bushels of oats, 2,500 bushels at the back of the house and sixty-five Elizabeth, married John Smith in 1850 and of barley, 400 bushels of potatoes and thir­ chickens in the barnyard. There were thir­ then moved to the St. Paul area where the ty tons of hay, for a total production value ty acres planted in wheat, six acres planted Smiths laid out the beginning of their forty- of $5,400. The Davems sold most of their in potatoes and 115 acres of hardwood acre homestead near Montreal and Fort barley to a local brewery. Other buildings forest. Road. At the age of eight, Catherine on the Davern farm included a wooden William and Catherine Davern were ar­ moved to the St. Paul area to live first with barn with a limestone foundation, quarters dent Roman Catholics. In 1887, sixty to the Smiths, then at Fort Snelling as a ser­ for hired hands, a machine shed, a black­ 100 families, mostly of Irish decent who vant of an officer’s family until her mar­ smith shop, a granary and a chicken coop. lived in the Reserve area and attended ser­ riage to William Davem. In 1873, Davern acquired a strip of land vices at the old cathedral in downtown St. In the first year of his marriage to known as Pike Island from Franklin Paul, founded St. James Catholic Church, Catherine, Davem began building a new Steele. The island, named after the ex­ with the support of Archbishop John Ire­ home on the highest hill on his land west of plorer, Zebulon Pike, who purchased this land. William and Catherine Davern

24 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY played a major role in establishing the The estimated cost of the construction was church, located near View Street and Ran­ $600-800. The house, a two-story Italian- dolph Avenue. The Davems’ second child, ate style wood-frame structure, was built Edward, was the second person to be mar­ on a foundation of limestone which had ried there. been hauled up the hill from Pike Island. In the late nineteenth and early twen­ The original house was smaller than it tieth centuries, farm productivity dimin­ is today. Photographs of the early farm ished and most of the Davem children had house show three large windows on the left the family farm. Davem began selling front facade on the main and second floors. portions of his land to decrease his proper­ There was a front porch supported by four ty taxes. He sold Pike Island to the govern­ pillars with a small ornate railing on its ment in 1879 for the reported price of roof. The front entrance was a double leaf $72,000 in gold coin, and local legend has door without windows. There were five it that Davem buried the gold somewhere chimney stacks. The cornice was decorat­ on his property. ed with dentils and large brackets. The city of St. Paul annexed the last The southern half of the main floor con­ portion of Reserve Township on February Three generations of Fullers in 1923: Har­ sisted of a front parlor and a rear sitting 8, 1887. Samuel M. Magoffin, a descen­ vey Benjamin Fuller, left, founder of the room. The back portion of the house, H. B. Fuller Company; his son, Harvey d ed of a wealthy and powerful family in which was built first, accommodated the Fuller, Jr., right, and grandson, Harvey B. Kentucky, acquired significant acreage in Fuller, III, lived in the Davern house from kitchen, a pantry and the Daverns’ bed­ the future Highland Park area for residen­ 1919 to 1929. room on the main floor. On the back por­ tial development. A large portion of Mag­ tion’s upstairs there were three bedrooms offin’s land was purchased directly from occupied by three Davern daughters. The Davern. George Phelps purchased ap­ tin Davern, worked as a contractor in St. remainder of the second floor held three to proximately forty acres of Davem’s land Paul for ten years. William A. was respon­ four bedrooms. for $8,000 in 1890, and obtained addition­ sible for grading a large number of streets, The floors throughout the house were al parcels from Davem in 1893 and 1904. including many near Hamline University pine. The original staircase, which was lo­ In the early 1900s Davem still kept milk in 1885 and others on the western edge of cated along the northern side wall, was cows on his dwindling farm, selling the the city near the Mississippi River. Later, damaged by fire as a result of Davern’s milk to the St. Paul Milk Company. Dr. William A. and his wife operated a grocery careless smoking habits. According to Alexander R. Colvin, a prominent St. Paul located near West Seventh Street and family legend, the fire started when he physician, purchased portions of Davern’s Smith Avenue until 1910, when he was hung his jacket, with a lighted pipe in the land in 1909 and 1912. Around the time of hired by the city as a grading and sewer in­ pocket, over a rack adjacent to the stair­ Davern’s death in 1913, much of the re­ spector. William A. was a close friend of case. The current staircase, with its newel maining farm land in old Reserve Town­ Archbishop John Ireland and was a witness post that supports an elaborate handrail, ship had begun the conversion to residen­ to the deed that transferred a portion of the was built over the scorched remains of the tial use. property that belonged to William Finn, original staircase. William Quin Davern died on June 30, the earliest settler of the Reserve area, to In 1917, the Daverns’ oldest daughter, 1913, at the age of eighty-four in the the archbishop. Much of this property later Nellie, sold the house to Harvey B. Fuller, Davern farm house. He had suffered two developed into the Macalester-Groveland Jr., of 941 Goodrich Avenue for approxi­ strokes, which left him comatose. Accord­ neighborhood and the College of St. Tho­ mately $4,500. Fuller was the third son of ing to his published obituary, “Five of Mr. mas (now the University of St. Thomas) Harvey Benjamin Fuller, founder of the Davem’s children and Mrs. Davem were campus. Joseph Davern, the third son of H.B. Fuller Company. Catherine and Nel­ at his bedside when he died. His demise William and Catherine, was a steel and lie Davem continued to live in the house had been expected for several days. ” Three iron subcontractor for the city. He per­ until the Fuller family took up residence in of the Davem children, Francis, Austin sonally placed the fourteen-foot steel cru­ 1919. and Agnes, also died in the family resi­ cifix on the new St. Paul Cathedral on May While the Fuller family lived in the dence. Catherine Davem deeded the home 18, 1914. He and his crew also installed house, the front porch was removed and to her daughter, Nellie Davem, in 1915. the Golden Horses on the state capital the parlor and rear sitting rooms were en­ Catherine and Nellie later moved to 47 dome and erected the first High Bridge larged into a single room. The wooden Garfield, St. Paul, in 1919. Catherine across the Mississipi River in St. Paul. floors were covered with rugs and a large Davern died on Sept. 13,1928, at the age furnace was installed in the basement, with of eighty-four. Both William Quin and DAVERN FARM HOUSE floor registers providing heat throughout Catherine Davem are buried in Calvary William Davern began building his the house. Dozens of apple trees were Cemetery at 753 Front Street, St. Paul. farm house in 1862 and completed it ap­ standing south of the house and the re­ The Davem’s eldest son, William Aus- proximately seven years later, in 1869. mains of the old barn could still be seen in

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 25 the southwest corner of the property. for the National Register of Historic Hospital surgery staff in 1919, a position In 1928, Clifton C. Dailey, Sr., secre­ Places Inventory in December, 1982, and he held without pay for approximately tary of the Drake Marble Company of St. was officially entered on October 6,1983, thirty years, until his death. Colvin was Paul, and his wife, Lucy House Dailey, by the director of the National Park Ser­ honored on January 19, 1948, by the both natives of Vermont, purchased the vice. The St. Paul City Council designated hospital’s surgical staff and other friends house. The Daileys had three children. In the house a Heritage Preservation Site on and associates at a banquet at the Minneso­ 1929, Dailey expanded the house at a cost October 4, 1985. ta Club. On that occasion Colvin said, “I of $7,000, using R.J. Elholm of St. Paul guess no one will accuse me of bragging as the contractor. The two northern bays THE COLVIN FAMILY now, but my chief claim to fame is that I were added to the first and second floors Alexander R. Colvin was born in owned and operated the first x-ray ma­ and a marble fireplace was added in the Teeswater, Ontario, Canada, on February chine in St. Paul.” dining room. According to the original 28, 1867, to an Irish-born father and a Colvin was a member of the American blueprints, the floors of the northern addi­ Scottish-born mother. Following his Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, Min­ tion were to be constructed of maple but graduation from Teeswater high school, nesota Academy of Medicine, American were eventually oak. The two chimneys on he studied pharmacy and then moved to Medical Association, Western Surgical the original northern interior walls were Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. He decided Association, American College of Sur­ removed. to study medicine, and graduated from the geons, St. Paul Surgical Society, Ramsey The original kitchen area was convert­ School of Medicine at McGill University County Medical Society, Minnesota State ed into a knotty-pine paneled library and a in Montreal in 1894 at the age of 27. Col­ Medical Association and the American brick hearth was built around the fireplace. vin spent the next two years completing an Medical Association. He was the author of The kitchen was relocated to the new addi­ internship and surgical residency at Royal twenty-six scientific articles in medical tion in the northwest comer of the house. Victoria Hospital in Montreal where he journals, mainly in the area of orthopedic The southwest porch was enlarged to its met his future wife, an operating room surgery. He died on March 22,1948, at his present size and enclosed with eight-foot- nurse named Sarah Tarleton. In 1896, he residence at 1175 Davem Street, and was high screens and mullioned windows. Its settled in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he survived by his wife, Sarah. Colvin Ave­ floor was covered with tile. took over the practice of another McGill nue in Highland Park was named in his Two new bathrooms were centrally lo­ graduate who had left to study abroad. honor in 1951. cated on the expanded second floor east On June 1,1897, Colvin married Sarah Sarah Tarleton Colvin was a spirited and west of the main staircase. Each bath­ Tarleton in Baltimore, Maryland. The champion of women’s issues throughout room had a ceramic tile floor and wains­ Colvins moved to St. Paul that same year her life and was recognized both in Min­ coting. Corridors along the north and and lived on the second floor above nesota and nationally for her contributions south halls provided access to four Conger’s drug store at 349 W. University to the women’s suffrage movement, nurs­ bedrooms, a study, the two bathrooms and Avenue. The back rooms of the apartment ing education and political activism. to the original back portion’s second floor. served as the Colvins’ living quarters while Sarah was born to Robert and Sallie The latter was converted into a playroom the two front rooms were used as an office Tarleton in Green County, Alabama, on and a maid’s room. The Daileys put in a and waiting room for Dr. Colvin’s clinical September 2, 1865, on her maternal clay tennis court west of the house where practice. In 1902 the Colvins left for Eu­ grandfather’s cotton plantation. Robert the Davern’s pig pen had been located. rope where Dr. Colvin underwent further Tarleton graduated from Princeton In 1938, because of financial difficulties post-graduate surgical training in Breslau University in 1859, and was a medical stu­ associated with the depression, the Daileys and Vienna. Returning to St. Paul in 1903, dent in New York when the Civil War in­ exchanged the Davem farm house for the Colvin associated his practice with Dr. terrupted his studies. He joined the Con­ more modest home of Cleon and Gertrude Charles Wheaton, Dr. John Rogers and, federate Army, eventually attaining the Headley at 866 Oseola, as part of a "house later, Dr. Warren A. Dennis. In addition, rank of lieutenent. Just weeks after he es­ swap.” After moving into 1173 Davem, Colvin also resumed what was to become caped capture by Union troops at Fort the Headleys installed a new furnace, a life-long alliance with St. Paul’s City and Morgan, the Tarletons were married in added a new roof, constructed an attic area County Hospital, later renamed Ancker Mobile, Alabama, on November 29, with a walk-in cedar closet, hooked up city Hospital. In 1918, during World War I, he 1864. water, cleared the lower land to the south joined the Army Medical Corps. On July After the war, Tarleton took the family of tangled raspberry patches and removed 11 of that year, while stationed at Fort to Caddo Parish, Louisiana, where he the clay tennis court. In the early 1950s McHenry, Maryland, Colvin was com­ managed one of his father’s plantations and Davem Street, with its steep hill, was missioned a major in the Medical Officers where Sarah’s younger brother, Robert, paved for the first time; previously, as a Reserve Corps, the highest rank at that was bom. Before long, however, the fam­ dirt road, it was unscalable in springtime time. ily moved to Mobile where Tarleton died because of water from underground After the war, he returned to St. Paul in in September of 1868, of war-induced ail­ streams. 1919 to resume his private practice. He ments. Sarah was three years old. Mar­ The Davem farm house was nominated was named chief of the City and County garet, the youngest of the three Tarleton

26 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY children, was born the day after his death. political rights enjoyed by their male coun­ Sarah grew up during the post-war terparts. reconstruction period in the South. She at­ She was a leader of the Minnesota dele­ tended private schools and was reared by gation of suffragettes who worked nation­ governesses and tutors in Alabama and ally with others to pass the nineteenth Baltimore, Maryland, where the family amendment to the United States Constitu­ moved in 1878 when she was twelve years tion. In 1915, she joined the Congressional old. In October, 1887, Sarah, her mother Union, which later became the National and sister sailed from New York for Eu­ Women’s Party. That year, also, Sarah rope where they traveled for almost two Colvin joined a number of her colleagues years in Italy, Switzerland, France and in a cross-country automobile ride known England, staying in pensions to stretch as the ’’Woman Suffrage Special,” where their financial resources. women from non-suffrage states delivered As Sarah grew older, she began to feel petitions to women from suffrage states somewhat dissatisfied with the ideals of asking for their support. her beloved family, who believed that During World War I, Sarah Colvin women should demonstrate feminine qual­ joined her husband in San Antonio, Texas, ities of submission and never make a nui­ where he was undergoing military orienta­ sance of themselves. She decided to pursue tion. After a few months, they were trans­ a career in nursing. In December, 1890, ferred by the army to Washington, D.C., she was one of twenty-two students to en­ and eventually to Fort McHenry in Balti­ ter the first class of organized nurses train­ more. During this time, President Wood- ing at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Balti­ row Wilson drew the ire of the suffragettes more. According to Sarah, this was because he would not openly support the difficult for her family to accept, since nineteenth amendent, placing the onus on nursing in the South was performed only Congress to pass it and send it on to the by nuns in Catholic hospitals or black states for ratification. Accordingly, the women. National Women’s Party targeted the Following her graduation, she prac­ president for public demonstrations. They ticed private nursing duty in New York organized militant picketing in Washing­ City. In February, 1894, she accepted a ton at the beginning of Wilson’s first term position as an operating room nurse at the to raise the nation’s conscience about Dr. and Mrs. Alexander R. Colvin in 1948. Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, women’s suffrage. Canada, where she met her future hus­ The suffragettes’ leader, Alice Paul, band. After six months she returned to Bal­ was jailed many times, but each incarcera­ timore, where she helped organize the presided over several sessions of the na­ tion was accompanied by a hunger strike, Visiting Nurses Association. She was its tional convention in Chicago in 1911. which resulted in her early release from secretary until her marriage to Alexander She was secretary and, in 1910, presi­ jail. Sarah Colvin was arrested twice dur­ Colvin in 1897, and her move to St. Paul dent of the St. Paul Anti-Tuberculosis So­ ing this rebellious time. She was jailed for with her new husband. ciety and helped raise funds to build and the first time in late January, 1919, for dis­ After the Colvins returned from Europe equip a sanitarium in Ramsey County. In playing a banner in front of the White in 1903, Sarah Colvin became active in the 1930, the Sarah T. Colvin Loan Fund was House, but was released after five days. training and education of nurses in Min­ established in her honor by the Minnesota Her second jailing came just days after the nesota. She was instrumental in merging Nurses Association. The fund provides suffragettes’ most dramatic demonstra­ the Ramsey County and Hennepin County financial aid for nurses seeking advanced tion. She was arrested on February 9, Graduate Nurses Associations into the training. She maintained her membership 1919, and jailed for another five days as Minnesota Graduate Nurses Association, in the state association after she finished one of twenty-four women who picketed known today as the Minnesota Nurses As­ her active nursing career. In addition, she and burned President Woodrow Wilson in sociation, and she served as its first presi­ served as a member of the Ancker Hospital effigy in front of the White House while the dent from 1905 to 1909. She played an im­ Nurses Training School Committee in the president was in Europe. portant role in the passage of the Minneso­ 1930s. The nineteenth amendent was ratified in ta Nurse Practice Act of 1907. That year, During the second decade of the twen­ 1920. Shortly thereafter, the Colvins she was elected second vice president of tieth century, Sarah Colvin became active­ returned to St. Paul. Sarah Colvin discon­ what is now known as the American ly involved in the women’s suffrage move­ tinued her active participation in the Na­ Nurses Association. Later, she served as ment in Minnesota. She thought it absurd tional Women’s Party at that time, but the organization’s first vice president and that women should be denied the legal and throughout the 1930s she still was regard-

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 27 ed as the outstanding feminist and pre­ eminent spokesperson for women’s issues in the Midwest. She later rejoined the Na­ tional Women’s Party because of her con­ cerns over other women’s rights issues. She was elected national chairman of the party’s executive council on November 6, 1933, only to resign in frustration a few months later. Sarah Colvin also concerned herself with local and state political issues in the 1930s. A supporter of the Farmer-Labor party, she had joined the Farmer-Labor Woman’s Club by 1932 and served as a member of its governing board. She was appointed to the Minnesota State Board of Education on April 25, 1935, by Farmer- Labor Governor Floyd B. Olson, a man she admired and respected, and she took great pleasure in this important responsi­ bility: the education of Minnesota’s young larger two-and-a-half story house with a offered its enterprising immigrants. It was minds. 30 x 42 foot foundation and a smaller one- Highland Park’s natural beauty that led She had a productive and co-operative and-a-half story house at the rear of the Alexander and Sarah Colvin to build their relationship with Dr. John G. Rockwell, property with a 17 x 31 foot foundation. home in the area in 1909. Today the homes the commissioner of education, but, as Each house had its own separate garage. of these early citizens of Davem Hill serve early as April, 1938, she was telling the Both houses were woodframe structures as distinctive reminders of Highland public that the Minnesota State Board of with sidings of cedar shake clapboards. Park’s past. Education and its commissioner were be­ The main house stands on a cliff overlook­ ing undermined by the partisan politics of ing Fort Snelling. At that time there were Robert J. Couser, M.D. has been a staff Farmer-Labor Governor Elmer Benson no trees in the area and this allowed for a physician, specialized in Pediatrics and and his advisors. According to Sarah Col­ view of the Minnesota River Valley in the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, at Min­ vin, this interference worsened under the distance. The homes were designed by neapolis Children’s Medical Center since administration of Republican Governor Thomas G. Holyoke, architect, and built 1984. He received his postgraduate spe­ Harold Stassen and it finally prompted her by Robert Sinclair, contractor. The main cialty training at the University of Min­ resignation on October 20, 1941. house was built for a cost of $6,500 and the nesota Hospitals following completion of By the 1940s, Sarah Colvin’s life was rear house for $1,500. medical school at the University o f North marked by failing health and diminishing When the Colvins lived at 1175 Dakota in 1978. Dr. Couser and his family eyesight, but she described these times as Davem, electric power was provided by have resided in the Highland Park neigh­ more peaceful in the memoirs her friends the city but water and sewage service were borhood at 1173 Davem Street since encouraged her to write. Her book, A Re­ not, so the Colvins dug their own well. November o f1988. bel in Thought, was described as a Roads were poorly developed so they used philosophic discussion of her life’s ideas. a horse-drawn snowplow to keep their She died in her beloved home at 1175 home accessible during the winter months. Sources Davem on April 22, 1949, at the age of They kept two horses and two cows. A The information in this article was ob­ eighty-three, thirteen months after the small bam with a hayloft, which housed tained from resources at the Minnesota death of her husband. She was survived by the animals, was built onto the rear of the Historical Society Library and Office of her sister, Margaret Winchester of New main garage. The Colvins also had chick­ Archives and Manuscripts, the Ramsey York, and her brother, Robert Tarleton of ens and grew vegetables and fruit on their County Historical Society Library, public Great Neck, Long Island. property. records at city and church offices, the Irish The Highland Park neighborhood con­ Geneological Society Library and from COLVIN HOME tinued to grow during the decades that fol­ personal interviews and records of family When Alexander and Sarah Colvin lowed and, although an important part of descendents. An annotated and footnoted built their home at 1175 Davem Street in the city of St. Paul, remains today a dis­ copy of this manuscript is available in the 1909, their land was undeveloped and lo­ tinct community unto itself. It was here office of the Ramsey County Historical So­ cated on the outskirts of St. Paul. On this that, in 1849, William Quin Davem found ciety, 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth property the Colvins erected two houses, a the freedom and prosperity that America Street, St. Paul, MN 55102.

28 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY The Davern family working in the field north of their farm house, late in the nineteenth century. Today, this field is a residential neighbor­ hood southwest of Montreal and Snelling avenues. See the article page 22 on the families and the homes of the Daverns, who were among the Irish immigrants who settled in what is now Highland Park in 1849, and on the Colvins who followed them.

NON-PROFIT RCoHoi ORGANIZATION U.S. Postage PAID Published by the Ramsey County Historical Society St. Paul MN 323 Landmark Center Permit #3989 75 West Fifth Street Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102