Courtesy of Bob Perry

Charles Gibson discovered Lake Minnetonka while seeking relief from the steamy summers of St. Louis.

Charles Gibson’s Lake Minnetonka Summers

by Barbara McHenry Sykora he beginning of the tourism in- Gibson in dustry at Lake Minnetonka can Charles Gibson first traveled to the Falls be traced directly to the growth of St. Anthony and in 1854 Tand economic climate of Minnesota. for a few days’ visit. He wrote later, “We In 1849, President Zachery Taylor ap- stopped at a frame tavern kept by Mr. pointed Alexander Ramsey governor of Bushnell, opposite the Island and in the the new Minnesota Territory. The total village of St. Anthony. Minneapolis was population of the area was 4,780, and the then a part of the Military Reservation of first public school opened in Hennepin Fort Snelling. The officers allowed parties County that year. Western Hennepin to stake off claims, but there was no law County did not receive regular postal for it. Not a biscuit in Minnesota but was Gibson service until 1850. Settlers were depen- made out of St. Louis flour, brought up the dent upon supplies brought from great river on steamboats. In the evening there distances. In the biggest town, St. An- was quite a discussion among the guests as discovered thony, the population was less than 300. to whether wheat could be raised that far The only way to reach Minneapolis was north. One man said he had seen potatoes Lake by riverboat, then stagecoach. In 1851, growing forty miles north of this place. He Gov. Alexander Ramsey negotiated two was considered a blatherskite.”3 treaties with the Sioux and secured 2 mil- Many of Gibson’s close friends and Minnetonka’s lion acres of land west of the Mississippi business associates from St. Louis also River, including the Lake Minnetonka made a trip to Minnesota, one known more area. The lake was first surveyed by Min- as the Grand Excursion. The Rock Is- nesota Territory in 1854. The survey team land Railroad Company invited 1,200 wrote that the area was heavily timbered, citizens from the east and middle states moderate the water clear and deep with a great va- to celebrate the completion of the first riety of fish.1 railroad to reach the Mississippi River. summer Lake Minnetonka “pioneer” Charles The group of travelers included writers, Gibson played many roles, including business leaders, and politicians includ- those of husband, father of eight, lawyer, ing Millard Fillmore, the 13th president climate. and landholder. He was a businessman, of the United States. The trip, at the rail- hotelier, and man interested in politics. road’s expense, began on June 5, 1854, in As he once said in an interview, the only Chicago by train to Rock Island, Illinois, way to do anything in this world was to and continued by steamboat on the Mis- be ready “when the spirit troubles the sissippi River to St. Paul and St. Anthony. waters.” In other words, when the current The guests arrived in St. Paul on June 8, is going your way, take advantage of it. 1854. Minnesota’s Territorial governor A 19th-century opportunist, Gibson Willis A. Gorman held a ball in honor of turned his self-interests to advantage. the president. Gorman spoke to Fillmore In an effort to escape the summer heat about the soil, climate, the advantages of of St. Louis, he discovered Lake Min- Minnesota and the railroad connection netonka’s more moderate summer climate that would bring settlers and tourists to and subsequently made an annual journey Minnesota. With a powerful and influen- to Minnesota for almost 50 years. He tial audience listening to Gorman’s speech loved his summers at the lake, and he that evening, he felt many would go home used his wealth and enterprise to improve with “enlarged ideas of the future great- the area.2 ness of Minnesota.”4

HENNEPIN 19 HISTORY Gibson spent several summers in Wis- consin and one in Colorado, but Minne- sota became his favorite place for escaping the hot, humid summers of St. Louis. He was not afraid of travel. Born in Christans- burg, Virginia, in 1825, Charles was the youngest of five, and in 1836, when he was 11, his family moved west to central Missouri, bringing with them a family of Africans to work on his parents’ farm. He left his family at 18 to study for the bar under Josiah Spalding and Edward Bates in St. Louis, and he passed the exam in 1846. He met Virginia C. Gamble at Ed- ward Bates’s home in 1849; they married in May 1851 and raised their family in St. Louis. A successful land-contract at- torney, Charles was influential in keeping Missouri in the Union during the Civil War, and Abraham Lincoln appointed mittee in 1870, traveling to Florida and him solicitor of the United States for the Louisiana to witness ballot counts in Court of Claims (solicitor general) in both states. He also traveled to Wash- Washington, D.C., in 1861. ington, hoping to be chosen ambassador Always interested in politics, he rep- to Germany during both for President resented the Democratic National Com- Grover Cleveland’s administrations, only

Photos this page courtesy of Western Historical Manuscripts Collection, University of Missouri Charles Gibson married Vic- tor C. Gamble (above) in May 1851. The Gibsons lived in the home (right) in St. Louis.

HENNEPIN 20 HISTORY Courtesy of Bob Perry

An early view of Northome: note the child on the lawn. to be disappointed twice. He also trav- ing the heated term which annually blisters eled to Europe, once to accept knight- [St. Louis].”6 hood from the King of Prussia after he Charles and his wife, Virginia, brought successfully represented members of the their eight children—Louisa, Victor, Ar- German court. He was proud of the rela- chie, Preston, Charles T., Lizzie, Gerolt, tionships he built with the German and and Easton—to camp on their heavily Austrian royalty.5 timbered property. In August 1876, Gib- Prairie chickens and pheasants were son had a landing built at which the boat plentiful within what are now the city Mary could pick up his workmen. A large limits of Minneapolis. In 1860 and 1861, cabin was built for shelter; underbrush Gibson visited Minneapolis again, stay- was cleaned from the site, which they ing at the Hotel Nicollet. He said he was reached via a winding walk through the taken with the city and that if he were not trees. He wrote: “No occupation was more so solidly tied to St. Louis he would move pleasing than to cut out the finest views permanently to Minneapolis. He loved of lake and forest from dense masses of Cedar, Calhoun, and Harriet Lakes as they timber, as a sculptor chisels his state from were always full of fish. After several visits, crude marble.” the Gibson family decided to purchase Above the front door of the Gibsons’ land and build a summer home. In 1870 new summer home, its name, Northome, Gibson bought 140 acres on Lake Min- appeared in stained glass. “It has always netonka between Carson’s and Robinson’s been a matter of surprise to me that in giv- Bay as “a refuge for himself and family dur- ing names to their places no one has ever

HENNEPIN 21 HISTORY Courtesy of Bob Perry

The Gibson children before the youngest was born (l-r): Victor, Preston, Charles, baby Gerolt, Louisa, Archie, and Elizabeth

called it a home. They call it ‘Sweetwater attic, and verandas on two floors. Cauvet Cottage’ or ‘Clover Dale’ or some such and Company furnished plans for the romantic name as that, but this is the only plumbing. A local builder from Excelsior, country seat within my knowledge that is R. B. McGrath, and 12 carpenters built called, as it properly should be, a home,” the house at a cost of $3,000. It had all Charles wrote. He considered himself a pi- the conveniences of the time including a oneer in building one of the first great and nearby icehouse. The house was spacious, beautiful homes on Lake Minnetonka.7 with high, airy rooms and broad verandas. From the front door of the Gibson The Gibsons had one of the loveliest spots cottage, one could look straight into the on Lake Minnetonka; its lawns adjoined mouth of Crystal Bay, five miles across the the Hotel Saint Louis. In 1884, Charles lake. From the window at the side of the rehired R. B. McGrath to add bay win- front parlor one could see Wayzata Bay, dows to the home. On May 18, 1884, while the window on the left gave a full Northwestern Tourist listed it as the most view of Carson Bay. The construction was expensive home on Lake Minnetonka, finished in 1877 from plans made by well- at $10,000.8 known Minneapolis architects Long & Charles Gibson enjoyed life on the lake. Haglin. The completed plan was a gothic He loved to entertain, and he loved being house 40 by 70 feet, with two stories, an first. His family spent many summers at

HENNEPIN 22 HISTORY Northome and enjoyed entertaining there. boats. A naphtha launch gave the wealthy The society pages of local newspapers of- a way to zip around the lake without hiring ten noted the Gibsons as attending a party, an operator. The June 29, 1889, Minne- visiting a friend (usually someone socially apolis Tribune predicted that the naphtha or politically important), or entertaining launch would revolutionize navigation at the Hotel Saint Louis (after 1879). Gib- on the lake. Gibson’s launch, which cost son was the first to build a great hotel on $1,100, was 21 feet long, 5 feet, 10 inches Lake Minnetonka, and he claimed he was wide, and could carry 15 passengers com- first to have a naphtha launch—developed fortably. He christened the boat Tatu, as because regularly used steam engines had suggested by his grandson.9 a reputation for blowing up—on the lake. In 1878, Gibson gathered leaders of The U.S. Coast Guard required licensing commerce and industry from both Minne- even of experienced operators, precluding apolis and St. Louis at his summer home. the use of engines by the owners of small Local business and political leaders of the

Courtesy of Bob Perry Gibson family and friends at Northome in a stereoptic view, some time after 1884

HENNEPIN 23 HISTORY Courtesy of Bob Perry

Gibson family on May 13, 1871, location unknown. Eliz- abeth Gibson Perry (far right) was the great??-grandmother of Bob Perry, source of many family photos.

day, such as Minneapolis’s Mayor A. C. on the attributes of Minneapolis and Lake Rand, W. D. Washburn, and Prof. William Minnetonka. Bringing the men of the Folwell of the , south to Minneapolis demonstrated a helped Gibson welcome the delegates common interest in improving the Mis- from St. Louis and from Cedar Rapids, sissippi from the Falls of Saint Anthony Iowa. The managers of the Minneapolis to the Gulf of Mexico, in providing faster and St. Louis Railroad wished to show mail service from the Minneapolis and St. their guest the grandeur of Lake Min- Louis Railroad, and in promoting Lake netonka, Minnesota’s great agricultural Minnetonka as the natural resort for those district, and the thriving city of Minne- from the south.10 apolis. About 150 men and women toured As early as 1883, local and summer all the large manufacturing plants, the visitors organized yacht and rowing races. Falls of Saint Anthony, and the lakes of TheMinneapolis Tribune of July 12, 1885, the region. They spent a day at Lake Min- mentioned that Charles Gibson and L. netonka, the men having dinner outdoors B. Stenson had challenged each other to under the trees at Northome while the a rowing race to determine the amateur women ate inside. Both heard speeches champion of the lake. The two men raced

HENNEPIN 24 HISTORY for a half-mile, and Stenson won by two All the rooms were to have large fireplaces. boat lengths in four minutes and 30 sec- At the tip of the island would be a light- onds. TheSt. Paul Daily Globe of July 7, house 50 feet high with a revolving electric 1889, claimed that Charles Gibson and light illuminated the bay in various col- “others” would build a beautiful clubhouse ors. The cost was projected at more than on an island for the Minnetonka Yacht $10,000, but the actual building came in Club on Saint Louis Bay. The proposed at $6,400. The club held its first regatta site was a sandbar standing several feet on July 1, 1890, with formal opening of above the water; Gibson was to turn the the clubhouse on July 18. A live band en- site into a one-acre island at the entrance tertained 263 members of the yacht club, to the bay. On January 25, 1890, he pre- and according to a report of the St. Paul sented the club with “Lighthouse Island” Globe the next day: “After the program of and subscribed $3,000 towards the new dancing, an elaborate luncheon was served clubhouse. Plans prepared architect Harry under the direction of assistant manager Wild Jones called for an assembly room 50 Howe, of the Hotel Saint Louis.”11 feet long and 20 feet wide, and “ladies’” Charles Gibson was also involved in and “gentlemen’s parlors and bathrooms. Lake Minnetonka politics. The October 5,

Courtesy of Bob Perry Charles Gibson in his mid-fifties

HENNEPIN 25 HISTORY 1886, St. Paul Globe mentions an October days to walk to Lake Minnetonka, and 4 meeting of the Hennepin County Com- 400 participated in extensive field practice missioners called by Gibson on behalf of and skirmish once they arrived. In the citizens interested in improving navigation evenings, the wives of the officers accom- on the lake. He often entertained local panied Virginia Gibson to the Hotel Saint Democrats at dinner parties under a tent Louis for a reception at which they was on the lawn at his home. Always one to get serenaded by the regiment band.13 himself in the newspapers, in 1889, Gibson On Friday, October 20, 1895, at about allowed the St. Paul Daily Globe, which 5:30 pm, a fire in a defective flue fanned called him a modest and unassuming man, by a brisk wind made quick work of the to name him one of the wealthiest men in Gibson summer home—only the brick the state (worth between $2 million and chimney remained. Two of Gibson’s sons, $6 million) and to say that as one of the at home at the time of the fire, survived. greatest railroad attorneys, he had once Valued at between $15,000 and $20,000, received a single fee of $275,000.12 the house was insured for only $10,000, This schematic of the Hotel In 1892, Gibson invited the 3rd U.S. and a couple of days later, Gibson of- Saint Louis property appears Infantry from Fort Snelling to Lake Min- fered to sell all of Northome to Hennepin in a Rascher Insurance map in netonka. From Club House Point to Sun- County for use as a public park. A Min- the Atlas of Minneapolis & set Point on Robinson’s Bay, white tents neapolis Tribune editorial suggested Sir Suburbs, 1892. covered the land. The troops took two Charles give the property to Hennepin County. Ironically, Gibson had suggested Courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society in an interview ten years earlier that the legislature authorize the purchase of a park on Lake Minnetonka. He thought it was a go, but at the last minute the county commissioners decided not to purchase land and instead use the funds to dredge the lake.14 A report in the May 10, 1896, issue of the Minneapolis Tribune mentioned that Charles Gibson was to build a handsome dwelling on the site of his burned-out home at Northome and that the new building would feature rough-log framing. Gibson did not rebuild his home.15

The Hotel Saint Louis As Minnesota and Minneapolis grew in population, Charles Gibson, with his vast experience as a land title attorney with hotels, recognized great opportunity on Lake Minnetonka. In one of his first hotel projects, Gibson had been involved with the Southern Hotel built in downtown to satisfy those who wanted a large, luxurious lodging place. He was able to puzzle out

HENNEPIN 26 HISTORY From Platbook 15, Hennepin County Government Center

Deephave Park: Lot A (upper left) was the site of the Hotel Saint Louis. the land title, drew up a charter for the one year from the closing, and the balance hotel, and organize a company to build of $813.75 to be paid the following year. the hotel, which was finished in 1865. This land became the site of one of the first At Lake Minnetonka, on October 26, grand lake hotels on Lake Minnetonka.16 1878, his oldest son, Victor R. Gibson, In 1878 Gibson and his investors sold purchased 108.55 acres from Elijah and the 108.55 acres to Thomas Eginton, Mariah Carson. It was legally described Thomas A. Harrow, and George M. Jack- as “the west half of the northwest quarter son of Winchester, Kentucky. The hotel of section nineteen, township 117, range was built on high ground with command- 22 and lot two in section 24 in township ing views of St. Louis Bay and Carson’s 117, range 23, containing 108.55 acres of Bay. The design was simple: Many of the land.” Total cost for the 108.55 acres was rooms faced the lake to catch the view and $2,713.75 with $1,150 to be paid to the the breezes off the lake. The austere build- Carsons upon purchase, $800 to be paid ing was painted gray with green trim; its

HENNEPIN 27 HISTORY Courtesy of Hennepin County Library, Digital Collection

The Hotel Saint Louis as it was being torn down in 1907

galleries extended along the front of all so Gibson bought the hotel and property three stories. The three-story wood build- and paid off its debt, becoming full owner. ing was 215 feet long, facing the lake. The The hotel business in decline, Gibson Harrow House, after one of its investors, wasted no time, and in 1887, he and his opened to the public on June 10, 1879. In wife platted its 108.55 acres as lots to be 1879, Thomas A. Eginton died suddenly sold as summer homes.18 at the hotel. Upon his death, the other On March 1, 1888, Charles and Vir- stockholders, Jackson and Harrow, had ginia Gibson incorporated the Bay of St. a falling out, and both fought for control Louis Syndicate in Ramsey County. The of the hotel. Eventually, attorney Charles purpose of the syndicate was to “buy, Eginton and his wife, Sarah (parents of the own, improve, plat and sub-divide, sell late Thomas Eginton), assumed control. and deal with land tenements and real Under Charles Eginton, the hotel became mixed and personal estate and property.” the Hotel Saint Louis de Minnetonka. In And it assumed a $95,000 mortgage with 1880, improvements included the addi- an interest rate of 6 percent on the larger tion of wings to each end of the main sec- property—to be paid in five years as the tion of the hotel and expansion of the din- lots sold. The first 20 percent of the profits ing room. In 1882, the hotel landed back was to go to the syndicate with 50 percent in Gibson’s (and his investors’) lap because going to the Gibsons overall. Those who of improvements that the Egintons did purchased lots were to build “suitable” not care to provide. Gibson became re- homes. The lots ran in price from $600 to sponsible for a third of its mortgage.17 $2,500 for lakefront.19 The season of 1885 was not successful. In 1888, Gibson looked into the decline The hotel owed the bank $2261.58 and of Lake Minnetonka as a resort destination Gibson $968.44. It operated at a loss and for southerners. He concluded that the thus had no means to pay its debts and ex- railroads leaving the south were unfairly penses. Eginton could not procure a loan, charging higher rates to go north than to

HENNEPIN 28 HISTORY go east or west. He found out that in 1892, the hotel and furniture under of a writ of while more than 50,000 residents of St. replevin issued by the U.S. Court, claiming Louis left their city on railroads for vaca- Charles Gibson was in wrongful posses- tions, not more than 500 came to Minne- sion. In November 1889 Gibson filed a sota. Gibson found that the railroad rates bond of $2,000 and took back the furni- were increasing and travel to the north, ture. He and his family spent the summer decreasing. He noted that 20 years earlier at the Hotel Saint Louis instead of at until recent years Minnesota had been the Northome. He claimed he did so because favorite resort of residents of St. Louis and his housekeeper had sprained her arm, and other southern cities. Lake Minnetonka his wife, Virginia, was too weak to care for was competing with Florida, California, the house.22 and other winter-resort states.20 Gibson was not about to give up his Gibson and public parks share of the tourist trade. In 1889, he No matter where Charles Gibson lived, he made 30 acres of wooded land into a pic- felt the city government should purchase nic grove—Roswell Park, in honor of open land for future public parks. True to Roswell Miller, president of the Chicago, his word, he helped unite his neighbor- Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. Fronted hood around improvements for Lafayette on St. Louis Bay, the park claimed one of Park in St. Louis. He helped to settle the the finest groves on the lake.21 title, and in 1853 he tried to extend the Not all ran smoothly at the hotel. In park, though the issue was voted down. 1889, James H. Barnard took possession of Nevertheless, the park and surround-

Courtesy of Hennepin County Library, Digital Collection Charles and Victoria Gib- son platted the 108.55 acres of the Hotel Saint Louis property as lots to be sold for summer homes.

HENNEPIN 29 HISTORY ing homes were a civic showplace before one in the city, its 17 acres seemed to be the Civil War. For many years Gibson enough for the city for all time. It seemed was a commissioner for Lafayette Park, an immerse area for trees and grass in the and he had placed there a bronze copy of midst of a city. But St. Louis has since ex- Houdon’s statue of George Washington pended $2,000,000 in acquiring parks, and in 1869.23 In 1874 Gibson helped create its people would not give them up today a 1300-acre park, at the time outside the for $10,000,000! city limits of St. Louis; it contained a hip- “When Forest Park was acquired, the podrome, horseracing track, and wood people of St. Louis nearly cursed me for bandstand. Today Forest Park is the crown saddling such a big burden upon the city. jewel of the city’s park system.24 My best friends came to me and com- In an 1885 interview, Gibson pre- miserated my part in the transaction, but dicted that Minneapolis’s population they have since have come to the other Gibson would nearly double in the next gen- way of thinking. Parks are a good mor- eration and urged the acquisition of land alizing influence in a community. This around Lake Minnetonka for a great park. is not a generalization that cannot be urged In 1890, Congressman Samuel Prather (S. demonstrated. A park system is one of the P.) Snider introduced a bill offering Lake cheapest investments ever made by a mu- the acquisition Minnetonka to the City of Minneapolis to nicipality. It means good citizens and that the tune of much public criticism from the is one of the highest objects to be attained commissioners of Hennepin County. In a by government. of land letter to the Minneapolis Tribune on May “But parks should be parks and not 11, 1890, Charles Gibson revealed that boulevards. The boulevards are for the around he was the author of the bill that Snider rich man in his carriage. It may be the had introduced. Gibson, who had long beautiful drive of Kenwood or that skirt- felt the lake was the “great Central Park ing Lakes Calhoun and Harriet, but the Lake Minnetonka of Minneapolis” and thought the City of poor can only look on and wish. The poor Minneapolis would do a better job than man wants the park where he and every for the county commissioners in caring for other man walks; where there is something the lake because the city could afford more nearer a level. costly improvements than the county. “Minneapolis will be spared that ex- a great park. Gibson also felt it should be under direct pense of buying a park like Forest Park of control of a body that could make and St. Louis; they have Lake Minnetonka to enforce laws.25 fall back on. All over the country, among In 1892 the Minneapolis Tribune inter- people who have traveled you hear the viewed Gibson on the subject of compar- remark that Minneapolis is a big town and ing him with Charles M. Loring, Minne- St. Paul is a little city. The fact is this is near apolis’s own park planner and visionary. the truth than one would like to admit. Gibson spoke again of the need for Min- Minneapolis lacks the dash, the hauteur, neapolis and the State of Minnesota to the style and the display of a first class city. purchase land for parks, predicting that “It is a great place but it is too modest. Minneapolis would grow to 2 million It ought to assume that it is to be the one people in the next century: great city of the Northwest. It should act “Take the experience of St. Louis; I upon this hypothesis and start with the have lived opposite Lafayette Park for the parks and acquire ownership of Lake Min- past 30 years. When the park was the only netonka and Cedar Lake, as well as Lakes

HENNEPIN 30 HISTORY Library of Congress Digital Newspaper Collection

This ad apperaed in the Minneapolis Journal on May 13, 1905.

Calhoun and Harriet and the Lake of the County, Gibson changed the plan for Isles. This should be secured by the state Northome to make it a private park for by an act of the legislature and then by an the wealthy based on a Tuxedo park. Every act of Congress. The first thing needed is lot sold was to be deeded so that its use a good road to the Minneapolis side of would be governed and the streets remain the lake. There is now one road to within private. The first homes built were for Mr. a half mile of the lake but it has never been and Mrs. (Hellen H. Harrison) Russell completed and one of the things I am here M. Bennett and his mother-in-law, Mrs. to see about now is the building of this (Elizabeth W.) H. G. Harrison.27 road. The railroads ought to cut prices to the lakes.”26 Charles Gibson’s death In 1895, Gibson again urged the Hen- On October 27, 1899, Charles Gibson nepin County Commissioners to purchase died at 8:40 pm at the Hotel Nicollet in Northome for a public park. But the board Minneapolis after an illness of only three claimed it had no funds to secure purchase days. The family had spent the summer of the land for $450,000. An editorial months in Minnesota, staying in the last article in the Minneapolis Tribune on Oc- month at the Hotel Nicollet in Minne- tober 22, 1895, suggested Gibson come apolis. Although he was feeble, Gibson forward and donate the property to Hen- had been taking daily drives about the nepin County. With no sale to Hennepin city. His wife became alarmed at his rapid

HENNEPIN 31 HISTORY decline and contacted their daughter, 1 sofa and settee, 1 armchair, 4 heating Virginia Gibson Conn, and two of their stoves, 1 kitchen stove, 3 washstands, 1 sons—Gerolt and Charles T. Gibson—to writing desk, 1 sideboard, 34 bed sheets, come to Minneapolis. Diagnosed with 10 bedspreads, and some dishes, linens, hemorrhage of the bowels, Charles died and cooking utensils were valued at a total with his family at his side. His relatives of $250.29 said later that his health was not at its Charles Gibson’s left his wife, Virginia, best but his quick death caught family and one third of the property in Minnesota friends off guard. All but his son Easton and their family home in St. Louis. His (serving in the U.S. Army in the Philip- surviving seven children received one- pines) and his son Charles’s wife (home seventh of the remaining two-thirds of the ill in Burlington, Iowa) attended his burial Minnesota property. His foreign awards at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. and gifts were distributed among his chil- Charles and Virginia’s son Archibald, a dren and wife.30 West Point graduate and in lieutenant in With 1895 the tide of southern and the army, had died at age 24 from cerebral eastern tourism flowing elsewhere, the meningitis on January 26, 1881.28 managers of the Hotel Saint Louis contin- Courtesy of Bob Perry ued the struggle to keep it open. In 1901 and 1902, a Mr. Timberlake was the last to try. In 1903 the hotel was employed temporarily as a clubhouse for the Min- netonka Club (formerly the Minnetonka Ice Yacht Club), and in 1904 the hotel closed. In 1905, Charles Gibson’s oldest Library of Congress Digital Newspaper Collection son, Victor, supervised turning the Hotel Saint Louis grounds into a platted village. North of the hotel, between the Milwau- kee & St. Paul Railway and the Minneapo- lis Boulevard (Minnetonka Boulevard), six large blocks were laid out.31 Virginia Gibson, 78, died of heart fail- ure in 1907 at the St. Louis family home at 2046 Lafayette Avenue. Charles Gibson molded Deephaven Park and Northome into what they are today. He loved the Lake Minnetonka area and through his foresight had the area This newspaper clipping of Jan. On March 29, 1901, Virginia Gibson, platted out into the neighborhoods now 27, 1881, informed readers executor at age 69, petitioned the probate known. Though it has been more than of the death of Archie Gib- court of Hennepin County to settle her 100 years since the streets were mapped, son (right). husband’s estate, consisting of $250,000 he would still recognize what he started in personal property. The court valued there. Each summer Lake Minnetonka the hotel and grounds at $19,130. There refreshed Gibson and his family with its was virtually no furniture: 7 pictures, an natural beauty and climate just as it does elk head, parlor table, dining room table, residents and visitors today.32 8 other tables, 8 lamps, 6 rocking chairs, —————

HENNEPIN 32 HISTORY References 1. “Minneapolis Journal Silver Anniversary,” Gibson had the backing of Joseph Pulitzer, Minneapolis Journal, Nov. 26, 1903, p. 12. owner and editor of the St. Louis Dispatch and Isaac Atwater, History of Minneapolis and the New York World, for the ambassadorship Hennepin County, vol. 2 (New York: Munsell, to Germany. “End of Life Is Reached,” Min- 1893), 1452: “In these days, there was not a neapolis Tribune, Oct. 28, 1900, p. 9. Gibson biscuit eaten in the state that was not made of was vice president of the St. Louis Dispatch S. Louis flour.” Secretary of State Land Field and confidential legal advisor to Pulitzer.St. Notes, 1854, 111.J.3.4F, MHC. Paul Daily Globe, Feb. 27, 1890, p. 4. 2. Minneapolis Tribune, Aug. 9, 1895. 6. Minneapolis Tribune, Oct. 28, 1899, p. 9. Lake 3. Gibson’s unpublished autobiography (here- Minnetonka Tourist, Aug. 19, 1876, n.p. Tour- after Autobiography), of which 28 pages ist and Sportsman, July 20, 1887, p. 5. (42–54, several unnumbered pages, 65–68, 7. Helen Hunt Bennett, “Northome,” Hennepin Gibson 80, and 318) survive, p. 63, Gibson Papers, County History (Summer 1961): 18. Tourist Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. A and Sportsman, Aug. 1876, n.p. St. Paul Daily blatherskite is a babbling, foolish person. Globe, July 17, 1887, p. 4. Autobiography, 66. molded 4. Gibson’s close friends from St. Louis—Francis 8. Architect Franklin Long and Charles F. Ha- Blair, attorney and politician who served in glin, builder and engineer, built the first Min- the House of Representatives (1857–62) and neapolis City Hall in 1872 and Central High Deephaven Park U.S. Senate (1871–73), and Edward Bates, School, corner of 11th Street and Fourth former attorney general under Abraham Lin- Avenue South in Minneapolis, in 1878. Larry coln—were on the excursion. Steven J. Keil- Millett, Lost Twin Cities (MHS Press, 1992), and Northome lor, Grand Excursion, Antebellum American 90. “Our Summer Resort Opportunity for Discovers the Upper Mississippi (Afton, MN: Pleasure,” Minneapolis Tribune, Aug. 28, Afton Historical Society Press, 2004), 17. 1876, p. 1. “At the Lake: A Delightful Day’s into Minnesota Pioneer, June 13, 1854. Enjoyment . . . ,” Tourist and Sportsman, July 5. Autobiography, 49. The 1840 U.S. Census 20, 1878, p. 5. Ellen Wilson Meyer, to various listed Charles Gibson’s father, Hugh Gibson’s recipients, Excelsior Historical Society private what family as one of seven free white people and collection. Tourist and Sportsman, May 17, nine slaves. The 1850 slave census showed 1884, p. 4. Charles Gibson with a male slave, 25 years 9. Minneapolis Tribune, June 29, 1889, p. 5. they are old. This person, considered manumitted “Breezes from Tonka,” St. Paul Daily Globe, (released from slavery), was still living with July 7, 1889, p. 10, and “District Court Briefs,” Charles, also age 25. “Hon. Charles Gibson,” July 10, 1888, p. 3. William W. Parker ob- today. World’s Fair Biographical Dictionary (N.c.: tained a judgment against Charles Gibson N.p., 1893), p. 12, Western Historical Manu- for $313.63 for labor performed in repairing scripts Collection, Columbia, University of a boat belonging to the defendant. Naphtha is Missouri. H. R. Gamble to Charles Gibson, a low-grade gasoline, and its vapor is explosive. July 22, 1861, Gibson Papers. Gibson left the It was used in a condensing engine, which solicitor general position in 1864 because of required a lot of flowing water to cool it. Lincoln’s antislavery position. Though Gib- 10. “At the Lake . . . ,” 5. son’s family was not wealthy and came from 11. Virginia Brainard Kunz, Minnetonka Yacht the slave state of Virginia, he was sympathetic Club Centennial, 1882–1982 (Minneapolis: to the interests of pro-Union slave owners Minnetonka Yacht Club Sailing School, in the border state (slave states that did not 1982), 29; “A Brilliant Affair: The Minneton- declare secession from the United States ka Yacht Club’s New Home Is Opened,” St. before 1861: four slave states—Delaware, Paul Globe, July 19, 1890, p. 3. Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri—never 12. “Minnetonka Gush,” St. Paul Globe, Aug. 18, declared secession; four others—Arkansas, 1889, p. 7. “Chit Chat Corner,” St. Paul Daily North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia— Globe, Aug. 26, 1888, p. 2. did not declare so until after the Battle of Fort 13. Minneapolis Tribune, Sept. 25, 1892, p. 7. Sumter in 1861). “Col. Sir Charles Gibson: 14. “Serious Loss by Fire,” Minneapolis Tribune, The Entertaining Story of Missouri’s Knight Oct. 20, 1895, p. 10. “No Tonka Park,” St. . . . ,” New York Times, Apr. 19, 1885, p. 3. Paul Daily Globe, Oct. 22, 1895, p. 3. Auto-

HENNEPIN 33 HISTORY Courtesy of Bob Perry

Gerolt and family pet Old Ben

biography, 67. Gibson tells how sad he was Hotel St. Louis De Minnetonka, Eginton, to lose Northome to a fire and that less than Proprietor,” Tourist and Sportsman, Aug. 5, seven months later, on May 27, 1896, he lost 1879, p. 11; hotel name change ads, June 5, his St. Louis home on Lafayette Street to 1880, p. 7, and June 6, 1882, p. 7. a tornado. 18. Also, $20,000 was due on the principle mort- 15. “Real Estate in Minneapolis and the Golden gage, which the St. Louis Hotel Corporation Northwest,” Minneapolis Tribune, Mar. 1, (Gibson was a shareholder) was unable to pay. 1896, p. 24. Deed Book 104, p. 273. 16. L. U. Reavis, St. Louis: The Future Great 19. Plat Book 15, Oct. 18, 1887, p. 14, Office of City of the World: With Biographical Sketches Register of Deeds, HCGC. (St. Louis: By order of the St. Louis Coun- 20. “Cut Off by Rates,”Minneapolis Tribune, Feb. ty Court, 1870), 493. The Charter for the 7, 1893, p. 5. Southern Hotel was enacted by the Southern 21. “Lake Minnetonka: News Gathered from All Hotel Company of St. Louis on Dec. 8, 1855. Quarters of Minnesota’s Beautiful Resorts,” Charles Gibson’s father-in-law, Archibald Minneapolis Tribune, June 29, 1889, p. 5. Gamble, was part of that corporate body. 22. St. Paul Daily Globe, July 13, 1889, p. 3. Charter and By-laws of the Southern Hotel Replevin is a legal remedy for recovering Company of St. Louis, Adopted Aug. 13, goods unlawfully withheld from someone’s 1860 (St. Louis: The City, 1860). 5. Deed possession. St. Paul Daily Globe, Nov. 9, Book 72, p. 305, microfilm deeds, Hennepin 1889, p. 3. County Government Center, Minneapolis 23. Houdon was a prominent French sculptor in (hereafter HCGC). the second half of the 18th century. He was 17. Deed Book 79, p. 73, microfilm, HCGC. commissioned by the Virginia legislature. “Hotel St. Louis, Charles Eginton, Propri- The commonwealth authorized 33 bronze etor,” Tourist and Sportsman (May 24, 1879): and plaster replicas of the sculpture. In 2000, 2, and “Lower Lake” (June 10, 1879): 5. conservation efforts revealed irreparable dam- Hotel Saint Louis drawings, Leroy Buffington age: breaks in the marble, probably caused by Collection, University of Minnesota, North- the plaster-casting process. In 1910 casting west Archives, mB864, Deed Book 104, p. of the sculpture was outlawed so as to save it 424, available on microfilm, HCGC. “The from further damage.

HENNEPIN 34 HISTORY 24. L. U. Reavis, St. Louis, 493. The Charter for “cottage” during the fall. The Gibsons’ sum- the Southern Hotel was enacted by Southern mer residence, Northome, burned in 1895. Hotel Company of St. Louis on Dec. 8, 1855. “End of Life Is Reached,” p. 9. Gibson’s father-in-law, Archibald Gamble, 29. Hennepin County Probate Court Inven- was part of that corporate body. Charter and tory and Appraisement #6547, June 16, By-Laws of the Southern Hotel Company of St. 1900, HCGC. Louis (St. Louis: The company, 1860), 5. 30. Ibid. Will and Final Decree of Distribu- 25. “Congressman Snider Exonerated,” Minneapo- tion on Charles S. Gibson, Docket S2, p. lis Tribune, May 11, 1890, p. 5. 478, HCGC. 26. “Make More Parks: A Visitor’s View about 31. “Lake Minnetonka,” Minneapolis Tribune, Our Park System,” Minneapolis Tribune, Dec. Nov. 27, 1905, p. 4. 16, 1892, p. 2. 32. R. M. Bennett purchased property from the 27. “The Attractions of Lake Minnetonka to Be Gibsons in 1900 and built a Colonial-style Added in a Substantial Way,” Minneapolis Tri- home with a yellow exterior. Including a bune, May 20, 1900, p. 12; first editorial, Oct. stable, coachman’s house, and bathhouse, the 22, 1895, p. 6. The idea was patterned after improvements were to cost about $15,000. Barbara Tuxedo Park, New York City, an exclusive area “Real Estate Notes,” Minneapolis Journal, attracting the city’s upper crust from 1885 Apr. 30, 1901, p. 7. In 1906, T. B. Walker pur- McHenry Sykora into the 1920s. Developed as a hunting and chased 8 acres for $15,000, and J. W. Murphy holds a degree in history fishing preserve with a clubhouse, its beautiful bought 25 acres in the Northome district for from the University of homes were designed and built by prominent about $25,000. “Booming: Some Big Sales,” Minnesota. She has lived architects. Minneapolis Tribune, Jan. 1, 1906, p. 6. with her husband, Bryan, 28. St. Paul Globe, Oct. 28, 1899, p. 3, mentions in Deephaven for 12 years. that the Gibson had been staying at Northome ­—–——

HENNEPIN 35 HISTORY