RAMSEY COUNTY Digging Into the Past The Gibbs

A Publication o f the Ramsey County Historical Society Claim Shanty Page 17 Spring, 1996 Volume 31, Number l Childhood Among the Dakota Jane Gibbs: ‘Little Bird That Was Caught

Jane DeBow Gibbs (Zitkadan UsawinJ, an undated portrait by C. A. DeLong, Sunbeam Gallery, St. Anthony, Minnesota, dating from the 1880s. Ram sey County Historical Society archives. See article beginning on page 4. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Priscilla Famham Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz

RAMSEY COUNTY Volume 31, Number 1 Spring, 1996 HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Joanne A. Englund Chairman of the Board John M. Lindley CONTENTS President Laurie Zenner 3 Letters First Vice President Judge Margaret M. Marrinan 4 ‘Little Bird That Was Caught’ and Her Dakota Friends Second Vice President Deanne Zibell Weber Richard A. Wilhoit Secretary James Russell 17 Digging Into the Past: The Excavating of Treasurer The Claim Shanty of Heman and Jane Gibbs Arthur Baumeister, Jr., Alexandra Bjorklund, ThomondR. O’Brien Mary Bigelow McMillan, Andrew Boss, Thomas Boyd, Mark Eisenschenk, Howard Guthmann, John Harens, Marshall Hatfield, 21 Growing Up in St. Paul Liz Johnson, George A. Mairs, Mary Bigelow Sam’s Cash-and-Carry, the Tiger Store— McMillan, Laurie Murphy, Richard T. Murphy, Sr., Thomond O’Brien, Robert Olsen, Vicenta Payne Avenue and the 1930s Depression Scarlett, Evangeline Schroeder, Charles Ray Barton Williams, Jr., Anne Cowie Wilson.

EDITORIAL BOARD 24 Books, Etc. John M. Lindley, chairman; Thomas H. A Painted Herbarium: The Life and Art of Emily Boyd, Thomas C. Buckley, Pat Hart, Laurie M. Murphy, Dr. Thomas B. Mega. Hitchcock Terry (1838-1921) Reviewed by Betty Cowie HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD Elmer L. Andersen, Olivia I. Dodge, Dillinger Slept Here Charlton Dietz, William Finney, Clarence Frame, Otis Godfrey, Jr., Ronald Hachey, Reviewed by Charlton Dietz Robert S. Hess, Ronald M. Hubbs, Fred T. Lanners, Jr., Don Larson, George Latimer, 26 1995 Donor Recognition David Marsden, Robert B. Mirick, Samuel H. Morgan, Marvin J. Pertzik, J. Jerome Plunkett, James Reagan, Solly Robins. Ros­ alie E. Wahl, Donald D. Wozniak.

RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISIONERS A Message from the Editorial Board Commissioner Hal Norgard, chairman Commissioner Susan Haigh his issue of Ramsey County History features the remarkable story of Jane Commissioner John Finley DeBow Gibbs and her family on the Minnesota frontier. Deanne Weber’s Commissioner Rafael Ortega T Commissioner Richard O’Connor research on Jane Gibbs and her struggle to make a life for her family, along with Commissioner Brenda Thomas Commissioner Richard Wedell Thomond O’Brien’s report on the archeological dig for the Gibbs’s sod shanty that the Ramsey County Historical Society undertook at the Gibbs Farm Mu­ Terry Schutten, manager, Ramsey County seum last summer, have awakened new interest in Jane Gibbs, an otherwise or­ Ramsey County History is published quarterly dinary woman of her times who displayed extraordinary strength of character in by the Ramsey County Historical Society, 323 the face of substantial hardships. For the Society, this new research has Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Paul, Minn. 55102 (612-222-0706). Printed in prompted a total re-examination and reinterpretation of the Gibbs Farm Mu­ U.S.A. Copyright, 1996, Ramsey County His­ seum. For members of the Society and friends of Ramsey County history, we torical Society. ISSN Number 0485-9758. All hope this issue of our magazine will be the beginning of their own reassessment rights reserved. No p a rt o f this publication m ay be rep rin ted o r otherw ise reproduced of what life was like for Minnesotans in the middle of the nineteenth century. without written permission from the pub­ lisher. The Society assumes no responsibility John M. Lindley, chairman, Editorial Board for statements made by contributors.

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Books, Etc.

A Painted Herbarium: The Life 1884 Catalogue of the Flora of Min­ history, early women scientists, or his­ torical paintings. and Art of Emily Hitchcock nesota. A few years after her husband’s Terry (1838-1921) death in 1881, Terry returned to Massa­ Betty Cowie is a member of the St. Paul Beatrice Scheer Smith chusetts where she became lady-in­ Garden Club, a supervisor on the Ram­ Minneapolis: University of Minnesota charge at Hubbard House at Smith sey Soil and Water Conservation Dis­ Press, 1992 College. There she continued her botan­ trict Board, and an honorary board izing, but turned away from painting member of the Science Museum of Min­ Reviewed by Betty Cowie and spent her time developing an nesota. herbarium, growing ferns, collecting, he forty-seven plates in this hand­ and even discovering new species. John Dillinger Slept Here Tsome book represent some of the The author has collected material earliest paintings of Minnesota flora. from many sources to produce this Paul Maccabee Beautifully done, the illustrations were well-documented history. The book is St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society copied from nature by a nineteenth cen­ well footnoted, explaining the text and Press, 1995 tury botanist and artist named Emily in many cases adding interesting de­ 362 pages; Hitchcock Terry. tails. I was intrigued by a footnote con­ Bom and brought up in Massachu­ cerning General Custer’s favorite Reviewed by Charlton Dietz setts, Terry came by her scientific and staghound, Cardigan. The Custers had artistic talents naturally. Her father, been friends of the Hitchcocks, and ohn Dillinger Slept Here—in St. Edward Hitchcock, was a well-known after Custer was killed at the Battle of J Paul, along with many other gang­ professor of geology at Amherst Col­ the Little Big Horn, his wife Libby gave land characters as well as the good and lege and her mother had once assem­ the dog to Cassius Terry. When the dog bad of local society which supported bled a small book of her own botanical died, it was stuffed and put on display at and tolerated this underworld. paintings. the University of Minnesota’s zoologi­ Paul Maccabee’s book is literally “A Terry was only in Minnesota for lit­ cal museum, where it remained in a Crook’s Tour of Crime and Corruption tle more than twelve years, from glass case for forty years! in St. Paul, 1920-1936.” In 362 pages, 1871-1884, but during that time she The plates illustrating the flowers including end notes and index, Mac­ added much to the botanical knowledge and grasses are lovely. Especially inter­ cabee chronicles sixteen years of dark, of the young state. Collecting, identify­ esting is the page facing each plate, informative, and fascinating St. Paul ing, and painting, she followed her hus­ where the modem scientific name is history. The book is a must for any local band, Cassius Terry, throughout the listed, followed by Terry’s caption in historian, or any non-historian who is state. A pastor at Plymouth Church, he her own words and the date on which interested in knowing who lived in the suffered from ill health and often went she did the painting. Other intriguing neighborhood during this G-man era. to northern Minnesota to rest and recu­ facts are also included here. For in­ Maccabee’s preface sets the stage to perate. His wife came along with her stance, we find that Terry collected the this gangland guide. While travel paints and recorded the flora of the White Lady Slipper, Cypripedium can- guides direct tourists to the homes of F. region. didum, growing wild near Lake Harriet. Scott Fitzgerald and James J. Hill, “No Cassius Terry’s later employment by Both a scientist and an artist, Emily bronze plaque marks the St. Paul apart­ the Geological and Natural History sur­ Terry has left us a beautiful and at the ment building from which Dillinger vey also led them both afield. Emily same time accurate record of some of machine-gunned his way out of an FBI Hitchcock Terry’s botanizing resulted the plants growing wild in our state trap in March, 1934,” the author points in establishing the northern limits for more than one hundred years ago. This out. “Nor are there any signs identifying some species and her name was lovely book should be an addition to the the West St. Paul home that served as a amoung those mentioned in Upham’s library of anyone interested in botanical hideout for Ma Barker ... other 1930s

24 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY gambling dens, prohibition speakeasies, the police force. Maccabee’s account Claim Shanty from page 20 brothels, Murder, Inc., assassination sites, gives new meaning to those personal and Dillinger gang safe houses .. recollections. Many readers will be able “Story of a Pioneer Farmer,” Ramsey County This tour takes the reader to familiar to make similar connections. History, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 3. places: Summit and Grand Avenues, Familiar names include William 6. Stewart, op.cit. University and Cleveland, Lincoln and Hamm, Jr., then president of Hamm 7. Stewart, op. cit. Lexington; to the Hotel St. Paul, the Brewing Company, who was kidnapped 8. Blair, p. 14 Lowry and Commodore; to White Bear at Minnehaha and Greenbrier and held 9. Ibid. p. 13 Lake, Bald Eagle, and on to Wisconsin for $100,000 ransom. The price went up 10. Stewart. Interview with Frank Gibbs, and Minneapolis. There are detailed to $200,000 in the abduction of Edward late 1940s. Ramsey County Historical Soci­ maps, a chronology, and a glossary to Bremer at the comer of Lexington and ety archives. Hoyt Avenue is named for assist the reader on the tour. Goodrich as he was driving to work at Lorenzo Hoyt, whose land at one point in­ Maccabee’s research broke new the Commercial State Bank. These cluded the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and ground for historians of this period. He events led to a defining moment in na­ extended to Como Lake. gained access to nearly 100,000 pages tional law enforcement. It was during 11. Charlotte Whitcomb, “A Pioneer of FBI files (after filing more than 200 this period that J. Edgar Hoover demon­ Woman,” St. Paul Dispatch, June 26, 1897. FOIA requests), conducted more than strated the viability of the FBI and pro­ Ramsey County Historical Society archives. 250 interviews of detectives, gangsters’ jected the image as the nation’s number The last sentence was later corrected to read family members, FBI agents, prosecu­ one G-man. “for nearly five years.” tors, judges, and gangster girlfriends, as Maccabee’s research reveals that the 12. Blair, p. 30. well as using other published works. All St. Paul overworld and the underworld 13. Ibid., p. 31 this research has produced an easy- were far more intertwined than has been 14. Welsch, Roger. Sod Walls, The Story flowing compilation of sixty-seven previously acknowledged. The evi­ of The Nebraska Sod House, J & Lee Co., vignettes organized into eleven chapters dence suggests that the local banking, Lincoln, NE, 1991, p. 98 that are more or less in chronological brewery, city government, and restau­ 15. Stewart, op.cit. order. Each vignette is focused on a rant industries had found common 16. Welsch, p. 34 geographic location, so this book can be ground with organized crime through 17. Blair, p. 28. picked up and laid aside without losing the “O’Connor Agreement” which pro­ 18. Welsch, p. 50. any of the central theme—crooks and vided that criminals had a safe harbor in 19. Welsch, pp. 54-88. On page 71 he corruption. St. Paul if they committed no crimes in notes that where planks were not available, a For anyone who is familiar with St. the city limits and paid off police. thatching layer of grass and clay was laid over Paul, or has knowledge of the era, there Why is this historical record worth supporting poles and brush. are nostalgic nuggets to connect with reading? “Because the story of . . . St. 20. Welsch. p. 68-73. the past. For example, your reviewer Paul, like that of any city, is a mingling 21. Ibid, p. 85 discovered that he lived just a few doors of glory and infamy, of people with 22. Blair, p. 34. away from the hideout of the Barker- high integrity and others with low 23. Ibid, p. 8. Karpis gang at 2061 Marshall Avenue morals. St. Paul was built as much on a 24. An 1831 half dime, an 1838 one cent and has driven countless times through legacy of gamblers, scoundrels, and sin­ piece, and another coin, date obscured, simi­ the intersection of Lincoln and Lexing­ ners as on a tradition of philanthropists, lar in design to the 1838 one cent piece. Blair, ton Avenues where Dillinger, the FBI, statesmen and business barons . . . St. p. 54 and Homer Van Meter had a shoot-out Paul’s experiment in accommodating 25. Blair, Appendix C. at the Lincoln Court Apartments. the underworld also provides a lesson in 26. KSTP-TV filmed more than two hours There are other connections to be the consequences of government forg­ of the various stages in the excavation, which made: your reviewer, at one time, ing a partnership with criminals.” it edited into a 10-minute broadcast. The sta­ worked in the shadow of John L. Con­ Get the book. It is enjoyable reading tion generously turned over a copy of these nolly (father of Ramsey County Judge any time. It is a valuable history in any tapes to the RCHS. John S. Connolly), St. Paul corpora­ library. tions counsel in the reform administra­ Thomond O’Brien is a member of the tion of Mayor Mark Gehan (grandfather Charlton Dietz is the retired senior vice Ramsey County Historical Society’s of St. Paul attorney Mark Gehan, Jr.) president, 3M Legal Affairs and a mem­ board of directors. A strong supporter of Connolly engrossed his colleagues with ber of the Ramsey County Historical the archeological dig, he also was an en­ his experiences in transcribing pamo- Society’s Development Committee. thusiastic volunteer at the site, spending graph records of wire taps of the St. many days there last summer with trowel Paul police department that produced in hand as the early evidences of the the real evidence of corruption within Gibbses’ life there was uncovered.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 25 Payne Avenue, as it looked in 1931. This view looks south on Payne from its intersection with Jessamine. See “Growing Up in St. Paul” on page 21. Minnesota Historical Society photograph.

NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION

RAMSEY • COUNTY • HISTORICAL • SOCIETY 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

k