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RAMSEY COUNTY St. Gaudens’ New York Eagle: Rescue and Restoration of a St. Paul Icon A Publication o f the Ramsey County Historical Society Page 12 Fall, 2002 Volume 37, Number 3 Lost Neighborhood Borup’s Addition and the Prosperous African Americans Who Lived There -Page 4 A duplex at 555-561 in one of St. Paul’s Lost Neighborhoods. This and other houses in the long-since razed Borup’s Addition were the homes of pioneer African Americans who came to St. Paul after the Civil War. See article beginning on page 4. Photo by Camera Shop, Minnesota State Archives, Minnesota Historical Society collections. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Priscilla Farnham Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz RAMSEY COUNTY Volume 37, Number 3 Fall, 2002 HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Howard M. Guthmann CONTENTS Chair James Russell 3 Letters President 4 Lost Neighborhood Marlene Marschall First Vice President Borup’s Addition and the Prosperous Pioneer Ronald J. Zweber African Americans Who Owned Homes There Second Vice President David Riehle Richard A. Wilhoit Secretary 11 Who Was the Borup of Borup’s Addition? Peter K. Butler 12 St. Gaudens’ New York Eagle: Rescue and Restoration of Treasurer St. Paul’s First Outdoor Sculpture, Icon of Its Past Charles L. Bathke, W. Andrew Boss, Peter K. Butler, Norbert Conzemius, Anne Cowie, Char­ Christine Podas-Larson lotte H. Drake, Joanne A. Englund, Robert F. 15 Restoring the Eagle Garland, John M. Harens, Joan Higinbotham, Scott Hutton, Judith Frost Lewis, John M. Lind- 16 New Roost for a Century-old Eagle ley, George A. Mairs, Richard T. Murphy, Sr., Richard Nicholson, Marvin J. Pertzik, Glenn 17 Growing Up in St. Paul Wiessner, Laurie Zenner, Ronald J. Zweber. Seeing, Talking to, Calling on Spirits: EDITORIAL BOARD Grandma Minda’s Adventures in Spiritualism John M. Lindley, chair; James B. Bell, Henry Blodgett, Thomas H. Boyd, Thomas C. Buckley, Joanne A. Englund Mark Eisenschenk, Pat Hart, Thomas J. Kelley, 22 Norman Kittson and the Fur Trade Tom Mega, Laurie Murphy, Richard H. Nichol­ son, Paul D. Nelson, G. Richard Slade. 25 Book Reviews HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD Elmer L. Andersen, Olivia I. Dodge, Charlton Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from Dietz, William Finney, William Fallon, Otis Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Cowie, Jr. Godfrey, Jr., Robert S. Hess, D. W. “Don” and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon Larson, George Latimer, Joseph S. Micallef, Robert Mirick, Marvin J. Pertzik, J. Jerome Plunkett, James Reagan, Rosalie E. Wahl, Donald D. Wozniak. A Message from the Editorial Board RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS n February 1998 the Board of Directors of the Ramsey County Historical Society reviewed the Commissioner James McDonough, chairman Society’s Mission Statement and reaffirmed and adopted the following statement: Commissioner Susan Haigh I Commissioner Tony Bennett The Ramsey County Historical Society shall discover, collect, preserve, communicate and interpret Commissioner Rafael Ortega the history of the county for the general public, recreate the historical context in which we live and Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt work, and make available the historical resources of the county .The Society’s major responsibility is Commissioner Janice Rettman Commissioner Jan Wiessner its stewardship of this history. Paul Kirkwold, manager, Ramsey County This issue of our quarterly magazine once again carries out the Society’s goal of discovering and communicating Ramsey County’s past. Historian David Riehle gives us a fascinating look at an­ Ramsey County History is published quar­ other of St. Paul’s “Lost Neighborhoods,” known as “Borup’s Addition” in the late nineteenth terly by the Ramsey County Historical century when this area was home to prosperous African Americans. Next, Christine Podas-Lar­ Society, 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth son describes the construction of the ten-story New York Life Insurance Building, completed in Street, St. Paul, Minn. 55102 (651-222- 0701). Printed in U.S.A. Copyright, 2002, 1889 at Sixth and Minnesota, and the creation of its magnificent sculpture, the New York Eagle, Ramsey County Historical Society. ISSN by the renowned Augustus St. Gaudens and his brother Louis. Although the building was tom Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. No down in 1967, the Eagle has survived and soon will soar again over St. Paul at Summit Overlook part of this publication may be reprinted Park. or otherwise reproduced without written Long-time Society member and family historian Joanne Englund’s “Growing Up in St. Paul” permission from the publisher. The Soci­ essay focuses on her grandmother Minda’s experiences in spiritualism while living in the Mid­ ety assumes no responsibility for statements way district. Included is a remarkable photograph of Minda and the other women who worked at made by contributors. Fax 651-223-8539; the Bohn Refrigerator Company about the time of World War I. Finally, Ramsey County History e-mail address [email protected].; web site returns to an earlier era in state and local history with an account of the life and times of the color­ address www.rchs.com ful fur trader and entrepreneur, Norman W. Kittson. John M. Lindley, Chair, Editorial Board 2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Books Old Times on the Upper Merrick enjoyed an idyllic child­ War and the railroads killed the steam­ Mississippi hood, one now inconceivable in the boat industry. He tells us, too, about the United States of America. He and the people and accommodations—the bars, George Byron Merrick other lads of Prescott, from fourteen the food, the music, the racing, and the Minneapolis: University of Minnesota years down to seven, were pretty gener­ decorations. Press, 2001 ally abroad from the opening of the river He wrote amusingly about the pro­ Paper, 253 pages plus appendices and in the spring until its closing in the fall, fessional gamblers. Though smaller- index. hunting, fishing and exploring, going stakes operators than their Lower Mis­ miles away, up or down the river or sissippi counterparts, they displayed a Reviewed by Paul D. Nelson lake, and camping out at night, often host of skills, manual and psychologi­ without previous notice to their mothers. cal. They worked in pairs but pretended Move over, Mark Twain. With a “hunk” of bread in their pockets, not to know each other. They drank con­ For a century Mark Twain has, spicuously but did not get drunk. “While through three books—The Adventures some matches to kindle a fire, a gun and fishlines, they were never in danger of pretending to drink large quantities of of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and very strong liquors, they did in fact Life on the Mississippi—controlled our starvation, although always hungry. The son of a freight agent and mer­ make away with many pint measures of national memory of the great era of the quite innocent river water, tinted with Mississippi riverboat. Now, thanks to chant, Merrick lived on the Prescott levee, a constant and attentive witness the mildest liquid distillation of burned the University of Minnesota Press, we peaches.” They used marked cards, and have the benefit of a writer and remem­ to the sights and sounds of the busy waterfront. He learned to identify a Merrick described how they did it. So berer who could hold his own with the far as he was concerned, their victims master. George Merrick originally pub­ steamboat by the sound of its bell, to prowl the levee at night watching for deserved no particular sympathy. lished Old Times on the Upper Missis­ “I cannot recollect that I had a con­ thieves among the cargo piles, and to sippi in 1909. The University of Min­ science in those days; and if a ‘sucker’ thrill at the sight of fatwood torches lit nesota Press republished it last year as chose to invest his money in draw poker on the steamer decks to illumine night part of its Minnesota Heritage Series. rather than in comer lots, it was none of landings. “The rosin would flare up Merrick and Twain had much in my business. In that respect, indeed, with a fierce flame, followed by thick common. Both grew up on the river with there was little choice between Bill clouds of black smoke, the melted tar no grander ambition than to work on the Mallen on the boat with his marked falling in drops upon the water, to float fabulous steamers that ruled the Missis­ cards and Ingenuous Doemly [Ignatius away, burning and smoking until con­ sippi. Both achieved their dreams. Donnelly] at Nininger, with his city lots sumed . givfing] this night work a Twain, of course, grew up in Hannibal, on paper selling at a thousand dollars Missouri; Merrick in Prescott, Wiscon­ wild and weird setting.” each, which to-day, after half a century, sin, just across from where the St. Croix As a teenager Merrick started work are possibly worth twenty-five dollars and Mississippi merge at Hastings. on the river belowdecks as a cub engi­ an acre as farming land.” Twain turned his youthful memories neer, working his way up both literally To his memory Merrick added re­ first into fiction with Tom Sawyer and figuratively, through most of the search. He gathered as much as he could (1876), then memoir and travelogue in trade’s skilled positions. Writing fifty find about the earliest Mississippi pilots, Life on the Mississippi (1883), then fic­ years later, Merrick recalled the inner going back to the keelboat days. He tion again with Huckleberry Finn workings of the river craft with amazing compiled lists of all the Upper Missis­ (1885). Merrick, an amateur writer, took detail. He described the duties of the sippi steamers from 1823 to 1863, and a different path.

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