Steve Trimble, Marking Minnesota’S Sesquicentennial: Four New Books Mary Lethert Wingerd
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Growing Up in St. Paul Random Recollections of Grace Flandrau Page 12 Fall 2008 Volume 43, Number 3 Pith, Heart, and Nerve Truman M. Smith: From Banker to Market Gardener Barry L. and Joan Miller Cotter —Page 3 An engraved portrait of Truman M. Smith from about 1857 by the Rawdon, Wright & Hatch Company. Engraving courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY RAMSEY COUNTY Executive Director Priscilla Farnham Founding Editor (1964–2006) Virginia Brainard Kunz Editor Hıstory John M. Lindley Volume 43, Number 3 Fall 2008 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: W. Andrew Boss The Ramsey County Historical Society inspires current and future generations Past President J. Scott Hutton to learn from and value their history by engaging in a diverse program President of presenting, publishing and preserving. Thomas H. Boyd First Vice President Paul A. Verret Second Vice President C O N T E N T S Joan Higinbotham Secretary 3 Pith, Heart,and Nerve Carolyn J. Brusseau Truman M. Smith: From Banker to Market Gardener Treasurer Norlin Boyum, Julie Brady, Anne Cowie, Barry L. and Joan Miller Cotter Nancy Randall Dana, Charlton Dietz, Joanne A. Englund, William Frels, Howard 12 Growing Up in St. Paul Guthmann, John Holman, Judith Frost Lewis, Laurie Murphy, Richard H. Nichol son, Marla Random Recollections of Grace Flandrau Ordway, Marvin J. Pertzik, Jay Pfaender, Horace Blair Flandrau Klein Ralph Thrane, Richard Wilhoit. George A. Mairs 16 “Mr. Livingston . Had the Tenth” Richard T. Murphy Sr. Directors Emeriti An Episode in Minnesota Railroad Building EDITORIAL BOARD John M. Lindley Anne Cowie, chair, James B. Bell, John Diers, Thomas H. Boyd, Laurie Murphy, Richard H. 24 Minnesota at 150 Nicholson, Paul D. Nelson, Jay Pfaender, David Riehle, G. Richard Slade, Steve Trimble, Marking Minnesota’s Sesquicentennial: Four New Books Mary Lethert Wingerd. Steve Trimble HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD Olivia I. Dodge, William Fallon, William Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from Finney, Robert S. Hess, George Latimer, Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Cowie Jr. Joseph S. Micallef, Marvin J. Pertzik, James Reagan, Rosalie E. Wahl. and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Commissioner Jan Parker, chair Commissioner Tony Bennett Commissioner Toni Carter A Message from the Editorial Board Commissioner Jim McDonough Commissioner Rafael Ortega Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt oday’s headlines blare news of bank failures and foreclosure notices. But in October 1857, Commissioner Janice Rettman Twhen New York banks failed, there were no federal bailouts and no financial “safety nets”: Patrick H. O’Connor, interim manager, eighty percent of St. Paul businesses went under. Truman Smith, who had pinned his hopes on Ramsey County fervent land speculation in the young frontier town, lost his bank and later, his house. In this issue, Barry L. and Joan Miller Cotter tell Smith’s harrowing story. But stay tuned for a future Ramsey County History is published quarterly by the Ramsey County Historical Society, issue of our magazine, in which Smith “reinvents” his career. And check out Minnesota Public 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Radio’s website at mpr.org, where the archives (search “Truman Smith”) contain Dan Olson’s Paul, Minn. 55102 (651-222-0701). Printed in July 2008 report on the Panic of 1857, based in part on the Cotters’s research. U.S.A. Copy right © 2008, Ram sey County Also in this issue: John Lindley’s look at Crawford Livingston’s role in railroad financing in His torical So ciety. ISSN Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. No part of this publica- the 1880s; a personal story of Blair Klein’s 1950s road trip with his aunt, writer Grace Flandrau, tion may be reprinted or otherwise repro- in her green Packard sedan; and Steve Trimble’s review of four books celebrating 150 years of duced without written permission from the Minnesota statehood. publisher. The Society assumes no respon- sibility for state ments made by contributors. Fax 651-223-8539; e-mail address admin@ Anne Cowie, rchs.com.; web site address www.rchs.com Chair, Editorial Board 2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Minnesota at 150 Marking Minnesota’s Sesquicentennial: Four New Books Steve Trimble ou might expect that people living in the capital of Minnesota Territory Atkins clearly does some experiment- in 1858 would have been in a celebratory mood when they heard that the ing with those sources and their presen- state had officially been admitted to the Union. After all, in early 1858 tation of information. For instance, she Y tells the story of the 1848 frontier Minne- the St. Paul newspapers had been publishing lengthy columns containing the sota in the form of a play with imagined congressional debates over the bill to make Minnesota the thirty-second state. dialogue. Her play includes scenes set at Oddly, when President James Buchanan signed the statehood bill into law, there Henry Sibley’s house at Mendota, a St. were only brief mentions in the local journals. Historian J. Fletcher Williams, Paul tavern, the kitchen of the house be- the gregarious chronicler of early St. Paul history, noted just how matter-of-fact longing to John and Ann North on Nicol- residents were when he wrote that “on May 14 the papers announced that the let Island, and the camp of Dakota leader Ta-o-ya-te-du-ta (Little Crow) and others state was admitted, but no demonstrations were made over the event.” in Mendota. Another chapter takes a look at the Campbells, a mixed-blood family One hundred and fifty years later, there whose experiences illustrate differ- seems to be a greater interest in the state’s ent world views during the frontier era. official origin. There are numerous local Later on in the book, Αtkins examines celebrations and exhibits acknowledging how individual Campbell descendants, Minnesota’s 150th anniversary of state- in the wake of the 1862 Dakota Conflict, hood and local publishers have supplied made different choices of self-definition us with plenty of reading material. At by presenting themselves as either white least four new books covering the history or Indian. of the state mark the sesquicentennial. In a chapter titled “The Look of the Each has its own approach and is primar- 1920s,” Atkins once again takes an un- ily written for different audiences. This usual approach. Instead of a traditional review introduces each book, explains its narrative, she presents thirty images from stated goals, and assesses the individual that decade and discusses the art of pho- strengths and weaknesses of each of the tography as it displayed the men behind sesquicentennial books. the lens as well as the people, places, and content that can be seen in each of these Annette Atkins, Creating Minnesota: A photographs. History from the Inside Out (St. Paul: The book includes ample discussion Minnesota Historical Society Press, of how historians work. Atkins’s ap- 2007; $27.95). proach is to take a look at some tiny item, failures— ‘from the inside out.’” In doing such as oranges appearing in a Christ- Creating Minnesota recently received the so, Atkins does not presume that “the im- mas photo from 1898, and then exam- top award from the American Associa- portant things” happened elsewhere, “but ine how railroads linked Minnesota to tion for State and Local History. It also that important things happen here, in this national consumer markets. Her method received a Minnesota Book Award. An- place and this time and to and through of moving from a St. Paul family’s holi- nette Atkins, its author, is a social histo- the agency of these people.” In short, her day cele bration seen in this photo to the rian who teaches at St. John’s University book seeks to “identify who holds the much larger world of consumers’ demand and the College of St Benedict. In the story-making power in the state at any across the nation for fresh fruit even in the preface, she states that the book’s goal given time,” primarily those who got the winter works very well. The book lacks, is “to understand the nature of people’s attention and often appeared on center however, an in-depth look at how the rail- lives and choices, their opportunities stage. Consequently in each chapter she roads affected Minnesota in other ways. and limitations, their pubic and secret asks “What’s the story here?” and “What Consequently this vignette is one of the lives, their roles, their safety nets, their are the best sources for telling it?” few times Atkins addresses the impact 24 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY of transportation on our state. A third ex- considerable detail on politics, particu- ample of this micro-macro technique ap- larly in the twentieth century, and how pears in Atkins’s last chapter. Here she different groups and parties had a moral uses the creation of a walleye quesadilla view behind their attitudes and actions. at a north woods restaurant as a means for Throughout the book there is an empha- a thoughtful discussion of the increasing sis on the changes in the political climate diversity of the population of the North and the values that affected Minnesotans’ Star state. attitudes and actions. Keillor’s emphasis Creating Minnesota is a strong, well- on politics and morality to the exclu- researched book that makes readers do a sion of other possible explanations of lot of thinking about Minnesota history what forces, conditions, or factors have and how it is best uncovered.