Whither the Passenger Train? St. Paul Union Depot: Decline and Rebirth John W. Diers —Page 12

Summer 2013 Volume 48, Number 2 For the Masses or the Classes? Fine Art Exhibits at the State Fair 1885–1914 Leo J. Harris Page 3

This is an oil painting of an Irish wolfhound named “Lion,” painted in 1841 by Charles Deas (1818–1867), an early Minnesota artist. The painting was a first prize winner in the 1860 Minnesota State Fair. In the article beginning on page 3, Leo J. Harris provides the background on this painting and considers fine art exhibitions at the Minnesota State Fair later in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY RAMSEY COUNTY President Chad Roberts Founding Editor (1964–2006) Virginia Brainard Kunz Editor Hıstory John M. Lindley Volume 48, Number 2 Summer 2013 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 Chair The Ramsey County Historical Society inspires current and future generations Cheryl Dickson to learn from and value their history by engaging in a diverse program First Vice Chair of presenting, publishing and preserving. William Frels Second Vice Chair Julie Brady Secretary C O N T E N T S Carolyn J. Brusseau Treasurer Thomas H. Boyd 3 For the Masses or for the Classes? Immediate Past Chair Fine Arts Exhibits at the Minnesota State Fair, 1885–1914 Anne Cowie, Joanne A. Englund, Thomas Fabel, Howard Guthmann, Leo J. Harris Douglas Heidenreich, Richard B. Heydinger, Jr., John Holman, Kenneth H. Johnson, 12 Whither the Passenger Train? Elizabeth M. Kiernat, David Kristal, Carl Kuhrmeyer, Father Kevin M. McDonough, St. Paul Union Depot: Decline and Rebirth Nancy W. McKillips, Susan McNeely, James Miller, Robert Muschewske, John W. Diers Richard H. Nicholson, Jeffrey Slack, Ralph Thrane, Jerry Woefel. 24 Book Reviews Director Emeritus W. Andrew Boss Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from EDITORIAL BOARD Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Cowie Jr. Anne Cowie, chair, James B. Bell, and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon Thomas H. Boyd, John Diers, Douglas Heidenreich, James Miller, John Milton, Laurie M. Murphy, Paul D. Nelson, Richard H. Nicholson, Jay Pfaender, David Riehle, Chad Roberts, Steve Trimble, Paul A. Verret, A Message from the Editorial Board Mary Lethert Wingerd. HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD s the St. Paul Union Depot reopens with fanfare and hope for a revitalized William Fallon, William Finney, George Latimer, Joseph S. Micallef, Marvin J. Pertzik, Afuture, John Diers takes us on a tour of its past—not just the romanticized James Reagan. version, but with a clear-eyed view of its strengths and weaknesses. After its RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS completion in 1926, the Depot was managed by nine railroads and anchored by Commissioner Rafael Ortega, chair Commissioner Toni Carter a massive postal operation. But already, the availability and use of automobiles Commissioner Blake Huffman was making inroads in rail passenger service, and soon air travel would do the Commissioner Jim McDonough Commissioner Mary Jo McGuire same. The fascinating business story of the Depot over its working life has not Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt often been told, and Diers does a great job. Leo Harris also shares with us the Commissioner Janice Rettman Julie Kleinschmidt, manager, eclectic history of the fine arts exhibit at the Minnesota State Fair, which began Ramsey County as a tribute to European artists before the rise of local museums. Later, it evolved Ramsey County History is published quarterly as a display of home-grown talent, reflecting popular Victorian pastimes—think by the Ramsey County Historical Society, 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Paul, MN china painting—as well as paintings by Minnesota artists. Finally, check out 55102 (651-222-0701). Printed in U.S.A. Copy- our book reviews for tales of two murders, 130 years apart, and John Milton’s right © 2013, Ram sey County His torical So ciety. ISSN Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. complete examination of the life and times of Nick Coleman, former Minnesota No part of this publication may be reprinted Senate majority leader. Take this issue to the cabin or the beach and enjoy. or otherwise reproduced without written permission from the publisher. The Society assumes no responsibility for state ments made by Anne Cowie, contributors. Fax 651-223-8539; e-mail address: [email protected]; web site address: www.rchs.com Chair, Editorial Board

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY

RCHS_toc_2.indd 2 8/9/13 9:02 AM Book Reviews

Minnesota’s Oldest Brueggemann combines these with his Murder Mystery: own matchless knowledge of St. Paul’s earliest days to reconstruct the case. The Case of Edward Phalen; He takes a patient, measured approach, St. Paul’s Unsaintly Saint starting with Phalen’s dubious version Gary J. Brueggemann of events and testing it against compet- : Beaver’s Pond Press, ing narratives. To do this requires going 2012 over the evidence again and again. It 328 pages; paperback; $19.95. could have been tedious, but the repeti- Reviewed by Paul Nelson tion in fact serves to clarify. Phelan insisted that a calf belonging t. Paul, like Rome, was built on to Hays had gone missing; that Hays Sseven hills (supposedly). Beyond suspected local Dakotas; that Phelan had that, similarities between the cities get paddled him across the Mississippi so skimpy. Rome’s founding story, for ex- he could search for the culprit; and that ample, stars the semi-divine Romulus Phelan never saw him alive again. One and Remus, sons of the war god Mars. by one Brueggemann introduces us to St. Paul’s founding story features Pig’s the other witnesses, gives us their testi- Eye Parrant, the Selkirk Colony refu- mony, and tests what they said against gees, and Edward Phelan (or Phalen). lous Irishman, had killed Hays. In due Phelan’s account and the other discern- Phelan’s name lives on more con- course he was arrested, jailed in Prairie ible facts of the case. As we readers go spicuously than that of any other early du Chien, tried and—surprise!—ac- through the events again and again, from settler: Lake Phalen, Phalen Creek, quitted. He came back to St. Paul and different perspectives, we become surro- Phalen Boulevard, the Phalen Corridor, took up living again in the cabin he and gate jurors, trying to construct a coherent the Payne-Phalen neighborhood. But Hays had shared. truth from lies and fragments. he was a man of low achievement, low Not guilty: but that did not mean he Along the way we meet many of taste, low education—and he may have didn’t do it. The suspicion never left the original settlers—the Gervais and been a murderer. So, for that matter, Phelan and the controversy persists to Perry families (Selkirk refugees), the was Romulus (he killed Remus), but this day. In Minnesota’s Oldest Murder ex-slave James Thompson, fur trader Romulus went on to found Rome. Ed Mystery, Gary Brueggemann sets out to and magistrate Joseph R. Brown, Henry Phelan went on to . . . well, read the resolve the doubts 170 years later. The Sibley, Dr. John Emerson (the man who book. author, who teaches history at Century brought Dred Scott to Minnesota), Vetal Phelan and John Hays, soldiers from and Inver Hills Community Colleges, Guerin—the motley assemblage who Fort Snelling, in 1838 staked side-by- makes no claim to be a detective or an comprised the true founders of our city. side claims in what became downtown attorney. Bruggemann brings them to life. St. Paul and lived together in a little The book is a remarkable achieve- One of the marvelous things about cabin near where the Science Museum ment in research (against long odds), this book is how clearly author Bruegge- stands today. On September 6 of that mastery of the facts, and that es- mann portrays the early geography of year Hays went missing. His body, dis- sential element of all good history, St. Paul. Have you not wondered where, figured by devastating head wounds, imagination. exactly, the first settlers lived? It’s all turned up in the Mississippi River near Only fragments of evidence remain; here, woven into the story of the killing, Carver’s Cave three weeks later. Pretty chiefly the notes of the magistrate who the investigation, and the trial (and with much everybody in the tiny settlement presided at the trial and memories of maps). This is without question the best figured Phelan, an unpopular, bibu- witnesses recorded decades later. Author recreation of St. Paul in its infancy.

24 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Once Brueggemann has taken you Senate majority leader Nick Coleman life. All of these images were inter- through the various possible explana- and of Minnesota politics during his twined in defining Minnesota’s identity, tions of Hays’s death, he embarks on era. Milton paints a picture, as the title one that lived on beyond these person- his own fictional, or semi-fictional, to his book indicates, of the heyday of alities. Equally important, perhaps, was reconstruction of the crime. I was du- Minnesota liberalism and the reasons another name, Nick Coleman’s, which bious. I thought at first that the author for its genesis as well as its legacy. But needs to be added to those that defined wrote non-fiction better than fiction, the book also prompts questions: why Minnesota’s liberalism. but little by little his account drew me the forces that created that era ended Milton’s book traces Coleman’s in, and in the end I found it both plau- and what has happened to the political life back to where it started—his sible and entertaining. If you just want leadership that once defined the liberal- Irish-Catholic roots. He tells the story the facts, though, you can skip this of Coleman’s ancestors coming to (clearly marked) part. America and settling in St. Paul. It So, was our founder, like Romulus, is a story of many in St Paul: poor, a killer? Gary Brueggemann believes Irish, and a loyalty to the family, he knows, but you won’t get the answer faith, and public service. Milton tells in this review. Buy the book, read the of Coleman’s early education, his book, judge the evidence for yourself. family moving from one residence to As you do, you’ll be rewarded with not another with each defined by its local only a good yarn, but also an expert parish. Nick served in World War II, portrait of our city as a muddy hamlet and then attended St. Thomas College ringed, I suppose, by seven hills. (now the University of St. Thomas) Post-script. A reviewer often feels where he came to know an instructor compelled to point out errors and defects named Eugene McCarthy. He along in a book, to show how carefully he has with many of his classmates volun- read and—sometimes—how he knows teered on McCarthy’s 1948 run for the subject better than the author. This Congress. It was the same year Hubert reviewer will resist the temptation. The Humphrey gave his famous speech at publisher is Beaver’s Pond Press, a small the Democratic National Convention publishing establishment. This means urging support for civil rights, and the that the author likely edited himself, an year that the modern DFL was forged. impossible task. So there are a few clunk- Working on McCarthy’s congressional ers and errors (the entrance to Carver’s campaign and later John Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign devel- Cave has NOT disappeared), but they do ism and greatness of Minnesota? not detract from the achievement. oped the connections and honed the The 1970s were a heady time for political skills that paved the way Paul Nelson is a member of the RCHS Minnesota politics, both nationally and for Coleman’s 1962 election to the Editorial Board and has published sev- within the state. At the center of those Minnesota Senate. eral articles in this magazine. times were many political giants, at least The 1960s were a tough time for the for some in comparison to today’s lead- DFL in the legislature. Still officially a ers. Prior to Garrison Keillor and The non-partisan body, the House and Senate For the Good of the Order: Prairie Home Companion, three images caucused as Liberals and Conservatives Nick Coleman and the High defined Minnesota’s identity across the during that time, with Conservatives country in the 1960s and 1970s. First Tide of Liberal Politics holding the balance of power. This there were the personalities. The faces was true in part because apportion- in Minnesota, 1971–1981. of Minnesota were , ment of districts based on their popula- John Watson Milton Eugene McCarthy, Orville Freeman, tion was badly skewed and out-of-date, St. Paul: Ramsey County Historical , Wendell Anderson, which gave rural Minnesota a political Society, 2012. Don Frazier, and Martin Sabo. All of edge and helped keep Conservatives 688 pages; cloth ($36.95), paper them shared the DFL label and they rep- in power. Moreover, events such as the ($24.95), and ebook ($9.95). resented a second image of Minnesota— Vietnam War and splits in the party over Reviewed by David A. Schultz its political liberalism. The third was support for Humphrey or McCarthy in the iconic 1973 picture of Governor the 1968 presidential campaign prima- ohn Milton, a former DFL State Anderson holding a big fish gracing the ries taxed Democratic loyalties. Milton Jsenator during the 1970s, has written cover of Time with the proclamation is terrific in describing the personalities the definitive biography of former State that Minnesota is the state of the good and conflicts, but also adept in noting

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 25 how Coleman used his role in the Senate book tells of Coleman’s waning days in of two tragedies. The first rises from the and his work on various campaigns to politics as majority leader, his divorce mystery of the 1970 assassination of build the political skills he later would and remarriage, and his battle with leu- St. Paul police officer James Sackett and draw upon as majority leader. kemia. Coleman died in 1981. its ultimate solution over thirty years But three events changed DFL for- What do readers learn about later. The second is part of the equally tunes in Minnesota. The first was a Coleman and Minnesota politics from tragic struggle of our St. Paul/Ramsey U.S. Supreme Court ruling on reappor- the book? First, For the Good of the County African-American community tionment, which forced “one person, Order describes an era that may never in dealing with freeway construction, one vote” into the law, thereby laying exist again in Minnesota. Coleman was neighborhood disruption, loss of well- the groundwork for a shift in political part of a group of politicians of similar paying railroad jobs, narcotics, and the power from rural Minnesota to the cit- backgrounds who shared a core liberal turmoil over the Vietnam War while ies. This began the liberal and DFL rise outlook to help the disadvantaged. They in Minnesota in the late 1960s. The big believed in government, the power of year for Coleman was 1973 when thir- public authority, and they had the cour- teen new senators took office, putting age of their convictions. For some, the him into the position of Senate ma- current DFL leadership is a faint resem- jority leader along with Martin Sabo blance in stature and commitment com- as speaker of the House and Wendell pared to the party of Coleman. Second, Anderson as governor. With Coleman despite party differences, the 1970s in the Senate and Wendell Anderson was also an era of bipartisanship and as governor, Minnesota’s transforma- shared values about what Minnesota tion into an iconic liberal state emerged. could be—something that seems miss- Milton’s book describes the legisla- ing in the DFL-Republican battles over tion that was passed, highlighted by taxes and social issues that now domi- the great 1971 tax deal that was nego- nant the state. tiated to benefit education. This is the Overall, For the Good of the Order “Minnesota Miracle” and for those who is a hefty but fascinating read. For recently referred to Governor Mark anyone who wants to know about the Dayton’s ill-fated tax proposals as the personalities and policies that defined “Minnesota Miracle II,” they need to modern Minnesota politics, this is read the book to understand how unique the book to read. Those who do will the original tax deal was. come to know Nick Coleman, a leader The second change came in 1974 whose name deserves to be up there when Minnesota abandoned its non-par- also seeking to achieve newly won civil tisan approach for a partisan legislature as one of the architects of this era of Minnesota politics. rights. Black White Blue is worth read- where candidates ran under party labels. ing on both counts. The caucuses were also organized that David A. Schultz is a professor of po- Swanson does a good job recreating way. This strengthened the DFL brand, litical science at Hamline University, the local turmoil resulting from antiwar allowing the party to consolidate its ma- St. Paul, whose area of expertise is Min- and civil-rights protests prior to May jorities and enact other tax reforms along nesota politics. 1970. These were inevitably seen by the with gun, environmental, and other im- white community and the police mostly portant health care legislation. as violent takeovers and riots, especially But as quickly as DFLers took con- Black White Blue: The Assassi- trol of the state, they lost it in 1978 as in the context of the Dayton’s depart- a consequence of a third event. Walter nation of Patrolman Sackett ment store, Burlington Northern, and Mondale’s ascension to the vice presi- William Swanson other bombings. The Dayton’s explo- dency and his subsequent resignation St. Paul: Borealis Books; Minnesota sion, with its much larger unexploded from the U.S. Senate in 1976 led to Historical Society Press, 2012 second bomb, appeared designed to dev- Governor Anderson taking his place in 251 pages; hardcover; $24.95. astate the police and fire first responders. Washington and becoming Reviewed by Bob Garland and Mike Most notable in this book, from the Minnesota’s governor. The brazenness Garland perspective of a reviewer currently of Anderson’s move led to what Milton working in the law enforcement field, calls the DFL “massacre” of 1978 that n Black White Blue author William are the prominent roles Swanson gives soon ended the dominance the DFL had ISwanson simultaneously gives the to emotion and perseverance on the part enjoyed for a few years. Post-1978, the reader well written and riveting accounts of the many police officers and other in-

26 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY vestigators involved. The assassination, of an increasingly adversarial African- the fine arts and that there was far more aftermath, and lengthy thirty-year road American community, on repeated occa- going on in the collecting and display to a criminal prosecution of the two main sions over the course of decades. of fine art in these cities than just the defendants took a toll on many members Swanson’s book, based on his own paintings acquired by Walker and Hill. of the St. Paul Police Department and interviews, archival research, police re- Before the Museums Came is an account those from other agencies with whom ports, court documents, and news ac- of art creation, education, training, and they partnered well into the last decade. counts, serves as an important reminder collecting in the Twin Cities that is Swanson describes their feelings of loss that in early 1970 and for some time after, important and instructive. Although immediately after Sackett’s death with St. Paul was at the center of the struggle there was some art created in the Twin great empathy and the assassination- for civil rights and a city’s interest in Cities before the Civil War, the core style killing with a single rifle bullet was bringing about closure for its people of this book focuses on the years be- taken, understandably, by many officers and the grieving members of its Police tween the opening of the Art Gallery in as a “professional affront.” Department in the aftermath of James the Minneapolis Industrial Exposition An uneasy divide that already existed Sackett’s tragic death. Building in 1886 and the establishment in 1970 between the city’s 3% African- Bob Garland is a former member of the of the first permanent museum in the American population and its police de- Twin Cities, the Minneapolis Institute partment was deepened dramatically by RCHS board of directors and Mike Gar- of Arts, in 1915. the shocking assassination of Sackett land is a Twin Cities police sergeant. Thanks to Harris, we now know and Swanson highlights this with his there were other collectors and collec- observations of the participants he inter- viewed. An officer who worked along- Before the Museums Came: A tions, admittedly not as extensive or as side the murdered cop recalled accom- important as those of Walker and Hill, Social History of the Fine Arts but still worth examining. In addition panying Sackett’s funeral procession and in the Twin Cities being surprised when an elderly African- Harris adroitly explains how art deal- American onlooker on a sidewalk doffed Leo J. Harris ers, critics, architects, academics, pub- his cap and held it over his heart as they London: Versita, 2013 lic libraries, and artists all contributed passed. Swanson revisits Sackett’s sur- 125 pages; 56 illustrations; online (no to a vibrant community interest in the viving partner, Glen Kothe, several times cost) and print on demand ($126.00 fine arts. As a social history of the fine throughout his narrative and describes, paperback). arts, this book succeeds in document- with haunting frankness, the man’s ex- Available at www.versita.com ing the Twin Cities arts community in perience with alcohol abuse, extreme Reviewed by John M. Lindley the years prior to 1915 with depth and family discord, and suicidal thoughts. detail that is unavailable elsewhere. In Mixed emotions extend to the inves- nyone who reads the standard so- addition, the numerous illustrations that tigation itself in this very readable and Acial histories of the Twin Cities of are included in this book aid the reader detailed account, as members of the St. Minneapolis and St. Paul, will come in better understanding how this foun- Paul Police Department deal with a case across the names of Thomas B. Walker dation of activity in the arts prepared that took over three decades to reach fi- of Minneapolis and James J. Hill of St. the way for the establishment of the nality. With no known witnesses from the Paul and learn that these two business Minneapolis Institute of Arts and other start, the extremely slow and methodical titans of the late nineteenth and early art museums, such as the Walker Art pace of the detective work that followed twentieth centuries used their great Museum, in these communities in the Sackett’s assassination is successfully wealth to acquire many fine paintings twentieth century. explained by the author. Ronald Reed and other pieces of art for their private In his concluding chapter, Harris cel- and Larry Clark, who were mentioned collections. These collections, which ebrates all the ways in which the fine as suspects in the months immediately were housed in their residences, were arts flourish today in the Twin Cities. following the shooting, were not charged open to members of the public on a lim- His point, which is worth noting, is with the crime until 2006, and that came ited basis and are generally acknowl- “[t]hese amazing, art-friendly results about only after a return to active inves- edged as the only notable expression of did not spring from nothing.” The roots tigation started three years earlier. In the interest in the fine arts in the two cities of these twenty-first century successes complete absence of common present- at that time. grew out of a strong foundation that day evidence such as DNA samples, cell Fortunately, author Leo J. Harris has emerged from the efforts of the many delved deeper. Using archival, journal, phone data, video surveillance record- individuals who had a passion for the ings, and the like, the several teams of magazine, newspaper, and other docu- fine arts more than a century ago. investigators who worked on the Sackett mentary sources, Harris has found that case were forced to rely almost solely on beginning in the 1830s, Minneapolis John M. Lindley is the editor of Ramsey talking to people, especially members and St. Paul had a growing interest in County History.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 27 NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. Postage PAID Published by the Ramsey County Historical Society Twin Cities, MN Permit No. 3989 323 Landmark Center 75 West Fifth Street Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102

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Railroads spared no expense promoting their postwar streamliners in newspaper and magazine ads, on radio and television, and in colorful timetables such as these from the 1950s and ’60s. All the rail lines represented here served the St. Paul Union Depot. Regrettably, many members of the traveling public found the competing appeals of Chevrolet, Ford, and Northwest Airlines were more persuasive. For more on the St. Paul Union Depot and passenger travel by train, see page 12. Timetables courtesy of John W. Diers.