Minnesota Politics and Irish Identity Carolyn J

Minnesota Politics RAMSEY COUNTY and Irish Identity: Five Sons of Erin at the State Capitol HıstoryA Publication of the Ramsey County Historical Society John W. Milton —Page 3 Spring 2009 Volume 44, Number 1

Five Sons of Erin at the Minnesota State Capitol (clockwise from Minnesota Historical Society); Governor Andrew Ryan McGill, 1889 the upper right): Senator Nicholas D. Coleman (bronze bust by (oil portrait by Carl Gutherz; courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Paul T. Granlund, 1983; photo by Robert W. Larson, 2009); Ignatius Society); and General James Shields, about 1860 (oil portrait by Donnelly, 1891 (oil portrait by Nicholas Richard Brewer; courtesy Henry W. Carling; courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society). In of the Minnesota Historical Society); Archbishop John Ireland, the background is a postcard of the Minnesota State Capitol from about 1910 (pastel portrait by an anonymous artist; courtesy of the about 1907 (postcard 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 44, Number 1 Spring 2009 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: J. Scott Hutton The Ramsey County Historical Society inspires current and future generations Past President Thomas H. Boyd to learn from and value their history by engaging in a diverse program President of presenting, publishing and preserving. Paul A. Verret First Vice President Joan Higinbotham Second Vice President C O N T E N T S Julie Brady Secretary 3 Minnesota Politics and Irish Identity Carolyn J. Brusseau Five Sons of Erin at the State Capitol Treasurer John W. Milton Norlin Boyum, Anne Cowie, Nancy Randall Dana, Cheryl Dickson, Charlton xx St. Paul Underground Dietz, Joanne A. Englund, William Frels, Howard Guthmann, John Holman, Elizabeth History and Geology at Carver’s Cave Kiernat, Judith Frost Lewis, Rev. Kevin M. Greg A. Brick McDonough, Laurie M. Murphy, Richard H. Nichol­son, Marla Ordway, Marvin J. Pertzik, xx A 4-H Trailblazer Jay Pfaender, Ralph Thrane, Richard Wilhoit. Clara Oberg and Ramsey County 4-H Directors Emeriti W. Andrew Boss Harlan Stoehr and Helen Hammersten George A. Mairs Richard T. Murphy Sr. 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, John Milton, Debra Mitts-Smith, Laurie M. Murphy, Paul D. Nelson, Richard H. Nicholson, Jay Please note that the following gifts were accidentally omitted from the 2008 Pfaender, David Riehle, G. Richard Slade, Donor Recognition Roll in the Winter 2009 issue of Ramsey County History. We Steve Trimble, Mary Lethert Wingerd. apologize for these mistakes and are grateful for the support they represent. HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD Tributes William Fallon, William Finney, Robert S. Mrs. Myrna J. Weyer in memory of Anne Sloan Jaglowski Hess, George Latimer, Joseph S. Micallef, Marvin J. Pertzik, James Reagan, Dr. James Wall in memory of Robert Mirick Rosalie E. Wahl. Julie Goldstein in honor of David L. Wood Daniel Lindley in honor of John Lindley RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Commissioner Jan Parker, chair Membership Commissioner Tony Bennett Commissioner Toni Carter Richard and Nancy Nicholson are Guarantor members of the Society. Commissioner Jim McDonough Commissioner Rafael Ortega Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt A Message from the Editorial Board Commissioner Janice Rettman his spring, we invite you to take an armchair walk with us to some familiar sites with a new perspec- Julie Kleinschmidt, manager, Ramsey County Ttive. John Milton illuminates the diversity of Irish heritage in St. Paul by depicting the stories of five prominent Ramsey County men who have been honored within the halls of the Minnesota Capitol. Ramsey County History is published quarterly Among them is former Senate Majority Leader Nick Coleman, whose son, Chris Coleman, serves as by the Ramsey County Historical Society, St. Paul’s current mayor. Another of Milton’s subjects, Ignatius Donnelly, is famous for dreaming up a 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. failed city, Nininger, in the 1850s, and later helping to establish the national People’s Party. In the sec- Paul, MN 55102 (651-222-0701). Printed in ond article, Greg Brick, a local geological expert who obtained permission to view Carver’s Cave, gives U.S.A. Copy­right © 2009, Ram­sey County us the real “inside story” of the cave, including historic and current maps and photographs. And the third Historical­ Society.­ ISSN Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. No part of this publica- article draws on Ramsey County’s heritage as an agricultural community, which we honor at our own tion may be reprinted or otherwise repro- Gibbs Museum in Falcon Heights. Harlan Stoehr and Helen Hammersten tell the wonderful story of duced without written permission from the Clara Oberg, a strong woman who developed the Ramsey County 4-H program into a vital community publisher. The Society assumes no respon- resource from 1928 to 1953. Thanks to Oberg’s vigorous leadership, the 4-H sponsored such various sibility for state­ments made by contributors. programs as Victory Gardens, athletic teams, and even community orchestras! Fax 651-223-8539; ­e-mail address: admin@ Anne Cowie, Chair, Editorial Board rchs.com; web site address: www.rchs.com

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Minnesota Politics and Irish Identity: Five Sons of Erin at the State Capitol

John W. Milton tour of Minnesota’s Capitol often begins south of the building, in the Just five, and if visitors to the Capitol main driveway that is perched like a riverboat landing above the Mall were to blink as they passed them by, and St. Paul’s downtown. they’d more likely recall an ethnic mix A that is distinctly British, Germanic, and From the driveway, most visitors climb the forty broad steps cut from grey Scandinavian. Surely, not Irish. Minnesota granite, and enter the Capitol’s vestibule through one of the tall, One might wonder: why so few in the windowed brass doors. Tours begin where the vestibule opens up into the cen- middle of this “Irish town” that, during its 151 years as Minnesota’s capital city, tral rotunda, a crossroads for the steady stream of players and spectators in the remains one of the three or four principal complex game of government, especially when the Legislature is in session. centers of Irish heritage, culture, and po- Minnesota’s Capitol, designed by local architect Cass Gilbert in the popu- litical clout in the entire USA? Is it sim- lar beaux-arts classic style of his time, evokes the sixteenth-century Italian ply that the Irish influence, so imbedded Renaissance, and, on high, the dome of Michelangelo at St. Peter’s in Rome. It in St. Paul, the seat of government and rivals, even as it takes inspiration from, the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Minnesota’s second largest in population, does in fact vanish at the bridges that Throughout the building are paintings influenced the city so deeply that St. Paul cross westward over the Mississippi? and sculpture that reflect the ethnic ori- came to be known as an ‘Irish town.’ ”1 Who are these five sons of Erin, sur- gins of the major nationalities that settled Wingerd documents how “a combination rounded by rank after rank of Anglos, the state: British, German, Scandinavian, of social, political, and economic posi- Germans, Swedes, and Norwegians? Since French, and Irish. On the walls of the tioning gave a particular currency to Irish, there are so few, with such diverse life corridors on the first and ground floors Catholic, and Democratic affiliations in St. stories, it seems likely they were honored are portraits of all thirty-seven gover- Paul that disappeared when one crossed the for their accomplishments rather than for nors elected since statehood in 1858, river to Minneapolis.” In the realm of in- their ethnicity. and eleven large paintings that depict the dustry and commerce, the city’s Irish were early history of the state and the promi- favored by empire builder James J. Hill, The Senator: nent role of Minnesotans in major battles whose own roots were in Northern Ireland, Nicholas David Coleman (1925–1981) of the American Civil War. The Capitol’s and who married the Irish-Catholic Mary Born and bred in St. Paul, Nick Coleman alcoves are occupied by seventeen sculp- Mehegan. And, according to Wingerd, is honored for his service to Minnesota tured busts and statues of political lumi- the city’s “politics and patronage served by a bronze bust placed at the bottom of naries, war heroes, and other icons of the up abundant benefits for the Irish . . . they the grand staircase that leads up to the state’s history. were consistently over represented in civil Senate Chamber, where he became the Cass Gilbert’s masterpiece, com- service jobs, and the most typical avenue first Democrat in 114 years to be elected pleted in 1905, was the third capitol built for Irish advancement was through poli- Majority Leader.3 Coleman, marked as a since statehood, all of them in a city tics and the law.” That said, the politics of “comer” from his first session in 1963, that is renowned for its cultural and re- the capital city “differed from classic Irish served in the Senate for eighteen years. ligious origins in Ireland. As described political machines in that while the Irish His cadre of progressive first-termers also by Minnesota historian Mary Lethert were highly visible as party brokers, they included Wendell Anderson and Rudy Wingerd in Claiming the City, an exem- were not the dominant voting constitu- Perpich. Both Anderson and Perpich later plary analysis of “the power of place,” ency. Opponents decried ‘Irish control’ of became governor, an office that was de- St. Paul’s Irish were outnumbered by St. Paul politics, but in fact the city’s politi- nied to Coleman. His campaign for the German and Scandinavian immigrants in cos played a delicate balancing game.”2 Democratic Farmer Labor endorsement the late nineteenth century. Yet “a small Curiously, then, of the many promi- in 1970 fell short, and a brief try at the cohort carved a niche of power and influ- nent Minnesotans who’ve been honored U.S. Senate seat in 1978 also failed. Yet ence that, in time, against all odds, turned at the Capitol—in paintings, clay, and for nearly a decade Coleman was a prin- Irish identity itself into a capital asset and bronze—only five have any Irish roots. cipal conductor (and often the soloist) in

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 3 ­orchestrating the most extensive transfor- Donnelly also plunged into Dakota mation of Minnesota’s legislative branch, County politics and ran as a Republican for elevating it to coequal status with the exec- the Territorial Legislature in 1857. He lost, utive. With leadership from Coleman and but tried again the following year when House Speaker Martin Sabo, Minnesota Minnesota attained statehood. Running this was on the cutting edge of this reforma- time as a candidate for the State Senate, he tion that swept countrywide from the late lost again. In 1859, at last, he was elected 1960s to the early 1980s. And with Nick lieutenant governor, and served two terms Coleman’s persistent leadership, the before winning one of the state’s first seats Legislature established a wide-ranging in the U.S. House of Representatives, record of getting things done for people, where he served three terms.7 especially those less advantaged.4 After his defeat for reelection in 1868, he In his last years, Coleman’s lifestyle returned to the state political arena and won changed. He enjoyed wine with meals, two terms in the State Senate and two in the European-style, and learned to cook. He House as an Independent and candidate of discovered such things as rugs from what the People’s Party. In 1884, between terms was then called “The Orient.” To the sur- in the Legislature, he ran for Congress as a prise of most friends and colleagues, the Democrat, and lost. Donnelly was a major urbane Nick Coleman became an ardent From his desk in the back of the Senate force in the organization of various progres- hiker, canoer, camper and backpacker, chamber, Nick Coleman, the former Navy sive groups under the banner of the national mostly on trips to the Boundary Waters in signalman, could survey activities on the floor People’s Party in 1892, but after a few short northern Minnesota and the Grand Tetons and keep track of his DFL members. When he rose to speak, as seen in this photo from years as a third party, most of its platform in Wyoming. At the close of the legisla- about 1975, he would tower over his seated was rejected or co-opted by Democrats tive session, he’d have everything packed colleagues, physically and oratorically. Photo such as William Jennings Bryan, and even and waiting so he’d waste no time head- courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. by some Republicans. In his last campaign ing out for the wilderness lakes and trails. for public office in 1900, he was the candi- “Nick didn’t develop interests; he devel- date of the People’s Party for vice president, tors elected in the 1960s. “Before our oped passions,” says his second wife, another losing effort. He died a year later.8 Deborah Howell, a journalist now living time,” says Flahaven, “there was much Donnelly is buried in Calvary, the oldest in Washington, D.C. “Wine, Oriental less turnover, and it seemed that senators 6 Catholic cemetery in St. Paul. rugs, food, camping and backpacking, all stayed on for years and years.” Blessed, and perhaps also cursed, with 5 that was an important part of his life.” Twenty-eight years have passed since indefatigable energy, Donnelly was a Clearly, he was looking forward to a life the death of Nick Coleman. For many successful lecturer on a variety of topics away from the political arena. years thereafter, flowers were sent on and author of nine books, ranging from On March 5, 1981—two months after Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day by his fiction to fantasy to popular science. His retiring from the Senate—Nick Coleman late sister, Rosemary Coleman, for place- best known work was Caesar’s Column died of a rare form of acute myeloid ment around Coleman’s bust. Howell (1891), but the most controversial was leukemia. Following a funeral Mass at continues to do the same in remembrance The Great Cryptogram (1888), an effort the Cathedral of St. Paul, he was buried of his birthday, their wedding day, and to prove that the English philosopher in the Fort Snelling National Cemetery. the day he died. Sir Francis Bacon was the true author of A surge of gratitude by colleagues and William Shakespeare’s plays. friends resulted in a bust being commis- The Populist: In 1981, eighty years after his death, sioned, and the work by Paul T. Granlund Ignatius Donnelly (1831–1901) a bronze bust was made to celebrate the was unveiled in a public ceremony on sesquicentennial of Donnelly’s birth, from April 27, 1983—remarkably soon after Donnelly was born and raised in Phila­ his passing. At the ceremony, Secretary of delphia, Pennsylvania, moving to Minne­ an original plaster casting done in 1901 by sota in 1856. He settled southeast of St. sculptor John Karl Daniels, and was placed the Senate Patrick Flahaven, who served 9 for thirty-six years in that position and Paul in Nininger City, a place named for his on the first floor of the north corridor. real estate partner, who shared Donnelly’s retired this January, wanted to provide The Archbishop: special seating to those active senators dreams of building a prosperous com- who had served with Coleman. Flahaven munity there. The project was a colossal John Ireland (1838–1918) was surprised to learn that just two years failure. When the boomlet ran its course, Ireland arrived in St. Paul with his family and three months after Coleman’s last the Donnelly home became the only re- in 1852, having emigrated from County term ended, only twenty-four out of the maining residence in Nininger. Empty for Kilkenny. After being chosen by Bishop sixty-seven senators had ever served with many years and fallen into disrepair, the Joseph Cretin to study at a seminary in him. One alone remained from the sena- house finally was razed in 1949. Meximieux, France, he completed his

4 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY preparation for the priesthood and ­returned endary career as priest and bishop; his to be ordained, in 1861.10 It was just in time sponsorship of settling thousands of Irish to serve as chaplain of the Fifth Minnesota immigrants in villages and farming com- Regiment in the Civil War. After his ser- munities; and the broad boulevard bear- vice, he rose through the church hier- ing his name that connects the Capitol archy and became the first Archbishop and the Cathedral. of St. Paul and Minneapolis. In a region Less well known is his place of honor where Catholicism spread with the arrival within Minnesota’s seat of government, of hordes of German and Irish immigrants, placed there by no less than its architect, John Ireland used his position to promote Cass Gilbert. In the reception area of the several causes: colonization of Minnesota’s governor’s office is an enormous paint- countryside by Irish families from the East ing by Edwin H. Blashfield, The Fifth Coast and the mother country; education Minnesota at Corinth, and seen in back of from early childhood to college; and—in the Union line repulsing the Confederates what served as a prelude to legislation by is a pale, clean-shaven young man. It be- Minnesota Congressman Andrew Volstead longs to Father John Ireland, regimental to enact Prohibition—a crusade for total chaplain to the Fifth Minnesotans, who abstinence.11 went with the soldiers into that key battle Ireland’s energetic campaign to estab- at Corinth, Mississippi, in October 1862. lish Irish colonies in the area southwest of The young priest, Fr. John Ireland, as Ireland not only provided for the warriors’ the Twin Cities was resisted by powerful chaplain to the Fifth Minnesota Regiment spiritual needs; he reportedly distributed leaders in the church, notably Archbishop in the Civil War. He gave last rites to dying ammunition to them during the battle.16 John Hughes of New York. Yet he moved Minnesotans during the Mississippi Valley Cass Gilbert arranged for Blashfield to ahead, creating thirteen colonies in campaign (1862). A. Larson photo. Photo paint the scene and also to place it so that courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. the 1870s, all offering Mass by priests if the young priest’s gaze could be imag- 12 ­recruited and placed by Ireland. Having ined to look through the main reception their own mostly Irish priests, he thought, Hill, a Bourbon Democrat, Ireland’s in- room and out the south windows of the would allay fears of being “beyond the Capitol, he’d see the Cathedral. (Gilbert reach of church and priest.” Among these fluence was pretty well unstoppable. He died in 1918, leaving a stunning legacy: was notorious for paying attention to the settlements were Derrynane Township, tiniest detail, so it’s unlikely that the fu- Erin Township, Kilkenny Township (after the Cathedral of St. Paul and the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis; St. Paul ture archbishop’s place in Minnesota’s his home county), Avoca (named by house of government was left to chance.) Ireland from a river in County Wicklow), Seminary; most of the Twin Cities’ pa- rochial grade schools and high schools; and Clontarf Township. The Governor: Catholic churches dotting the landscape John Ireland didn’t take the smooth Andrew Ryan McGill (1840–1905) pathway, in fact his strong advocacy of southwest and west of the Twin Cities; the an American Catholic church—versus colleges of St. Catherine and St. Thomas, Born and raised in Pennsylvania, the one divided along ethnic lines—led to as well as the first electric streetcar on future governor was descended from an criticism that he was not sufficiently Grand Avenue connecting downtown Irish immigrant who came from Antrim Catholic, especially from French and and the Cathedral with the College of County in the late eighteenth century. German church leaders. In this, however, St. Thomas.14 McGill arrived in Minnesota to teach Ireland enjoyed the support of Pope Leo Perhaps most of all, in his long ten- school just as the Civil War began. He en- XIII.13 In addition, he was an outspoken ure as a prime mover in St. Paul, he was listed in the Ninth Minnesota Volunteers champion of racial equality, a stand that both spiritual leader and inspiration for the and served for two years until discharged made him unpopular with other church city’s Irish, many of whom arrived penni- for a disability. He settled in Nicollet leaders. He preached full civil rights for less from their native land, and who had County, where he was superintendent of African Americans, though he did not in- gained, at the time of his death, a domi- public schools and owner-editor of the clude full equality for either women, or nant presence in the culture, economy, and St. Peter Tribune. After election to clerk for American Indians, whom he consid- politics of St. Paul. Ireland’s funeral was of the county’s district court, McGill ered wards of the government. concelebrated by eight archbishops, thirty studied law under Judge Horace Austin On matters of public policy, Ireland’s bishops, twelve monsignors, seven hundred and was admitted to the bar. Austin was flexible interpretation of the separation of priests, and two hundred seminarians.15 He elected governor of Minnesota in 1870 church and state allowed him to combine is buried in St. Paul’s Calvary Cemetery, and took McGill with him to the Capitol forces with politicians of all party affilia- established by his mentor, Bishop Cretin. as his private secretary. In 1873, Austin tions, though he was more sympathetic to John Ireland’s most evident legacies appointed his former student to be the Republicans. When aligned with James J. are the Cathedral, capstone of his leg- state’s commissioner of insurance, where

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 5 he served for thirteen years. McGill won Illinois, served in that state’s House, as Kernstown, where Shields was wounded the Republican nomination for gover- a state Supreme Court Justice and State on the first day. Despite this, he directed nor in 1886 and was elected to a two- Auditor. In 1842, a dispute over letters the brigade from his cot. Shields’ stand- year term. But in 1888, a schism in his to the editor of the Springfield Journal in, Colonel Nathan Kimball, later re- party resulted in an unorthodox selection that were critical of Shields, written by ported that he’d “carried out his general’s of the party’s candidate for governor. Abraham Lincoln’s fiancée Mary Todd, plans and followed his directions, until Instead of supporting their incumbent re- resulted in Shields’ challenging Lincoln the field was won.”23 The Confederate former, party leaders dumped McGill for to a duel.19 After Lincoln had selected leader who withdrew his troops was Major William R. Merriam, a St. Paul banker the weapons (broadswords), they were General Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” and speaker of the Minnesota House. both talked out of it and became friends. Jackson and the defeat at Kernstown was During his brief tenure, McGill was Four years later, Shields was chosen to recorded as the only one ever suffered by credited with revision of the transportation be brigadier general of Illinois volunteers Jackson, Robert E. Lee’s most successful laws for agricultural products, simplifica- in the Mexican-American War under general. As a result of his service in the tion of the tax laws, abolition of contract General Zachary Taylor. He was wounded Shenandoah, Lincoln promoted Shields prison labor, establishment of a soldiers’ twice, in the battles of Churubusco and to major general of volunteers, and it was home, and creation of a bureau of labor Chapultepec. After that war, he was ap- rumored that he was offered command statistics. Though unable to win a second pointed by President James Polk and con- of the Army of the Potomac. Shields, ac- term as governor, McGill remained active firmed by the U.S. Senate to be governor cording to his biographer Henry A. Castle, in politics. He lived in a Queen Anne-style of the Oregon Territory, but decided not declined the offer and resigned, reportedly home on a hill in the St. Anthony Park to accept it. In 1848, he ran as a Democrat because of strained relations with Secretary neighborhood of St. Paul that remains to and was elected to the U.S. Senate from of War Edwin Stanton. He then returned this day. He continued to practice law, was Illinois. He served one term and was de- to California, and moved again within elected to the State Senate, and in 1900 feated for re-election in 1854.20 two years to Missouri, where he was once was appointed postmaster of St. Paul. Once he had moved to Minnesota, again elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming McGill was serving in the State Senate Shields purchased property in Faribault, the first (and probably last) person to serve when the new Capitol was opened. selected parcels of land in what became in that body from three different states. Upon his death later in 1905, former the townships of Shieldsville and Erin, When Shields died, in 1879, he was Attorney General Henry W. Childs said: initially brought seven Irishmen from living in the small town of Carrollton, “Governor McGill represented the best St. Paul to settle there, and promoted this Missouri; he is buried there, at St. Mary’s ideals of civic life. He fulfilled, in a marked area for settlement by families escaping Catholic Cemetery. A larger than life-sized degree, the obligations of a citizen. In all the slums of the East Coast and the di- statue of Major General Shields, by sculp- 21 his relations with his fellow men, whether sastrous famine back in the homeland. tor Frederick C. Hibbard, stands in the in public or in private station, he was al- (Some of the first settlers were Irish southeast corner of the Capitol rotunda, on ways the courteous gentleman and useful immigrants who had served with him the second floor. When it was unveiled, on citizen.”17 Perhaps, in view of his political in the Mexican War.) By the following October 20, 1914, Archbishop Ireland eu- defeat in 1888, not ruthless enough. year, St. Patrick’s Church was erected in logized Shields with the hope that “coming McGill is buried in Oakland, a nonde- Shieldsville for the nearly 500 Irish-born generations may know him, and, knowing Catholics living there.22 nominational cemetery in St. Paul, where him, emulate in the service of humanity When Minnesota became a state in Governors Austin, Gorman, Marshall, and of country his deeds of noble and dis- 1858, the Legislature chose Henry Rice and Ramsey, and Sibley are also interred. interested patriotism and valor.” Ireland Shields as the state’s first U.S. Senators. Along with the other thirty-six governors also praised him for bringing so many of Shields got the shorter term, which expired of Minnesota since statehood, Andrew his fellow Irishmen to find “peace and after one year, and when he ran for reelec- 24 McGill’s portrait, by Charles (Carl) prosperity” in Minnesota. tion, the Republicans had taken control of Gutherz in 1889, hangs in the west wing the Legislature and he was not reelected. • • • of the Capitol, a few paces down the hall After retiring from the Senate, Shields from the painting that includes Ireland and moved to California; soon his life was in- All Sons of Erin, But Diverse the bust of Nick Coleman, and around the Though these five Irishmen shared the 18 terrupted by the Civil War. He offered his corner from that of Ignatius Donnelly. services to Lincoln, the old friend from country of their ancestors, an interest in politics, and a legacy of benefits to The General: Springfield who was now the sixteenth U.S. president, and was appointed briga- the people of Minnesota, they followed James J. Shields (1810–1879) dier general of volunteers. He was sent divergent pathways to be honored at Shields came over from Ireland’s County to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, the Minnesota’s Capitol. Tyrone in 1826, aged sixteen, but did not scene of much action in the war’s first arrive in Minnesota until 1855. During year. In March 1862, the rival armies were Lifespan those three decades, he practiced law in engaged near Winchester and in nearby Their combined lifespan was 171 years,

6 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY from the birth of Shields to the death of Northern Ireland Archbishop Ireland, of course, lived Coleman, or from roughly half a century his entire life within the Catholic Church. Derry before Minnesota became a state to the Donegal Had he not been so prominent, his younger celebration of its 125th birthday. Coleman Antrim sister Ellen might have been the family’s Tyrone was born in 1925 and was youngest when claim to fame. While John Ireland was Fermanagh Armagh he died in 1981 at the age of 56. Donnelly Down studying for the priesthood, Ellen “took Sligo Monaghan was born in 1831 and lived 70 years. Leitrim the habit of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Mayo Cavan Louth Ireland, born in 1838, lived the longest; Roscommon Carondelet and the name Sister Seraphine. he died in 1918, at age 80. McGill was Longford Meath There was never much doubt that she was Westmeath Dublin born in 1840 and died in 1905 at 65. And Galway cut from the cloth of leadership. For a Offaly Shields, born in 1810, lived to be 69. Kildare period of thirty-nine years beginning in Laois Wicklow Clare 1882, she served as Mother Superior of Generation Tipperary Carlow Kilkenny the sisters’ St. Paul Province (Minnesota, Limerick North Dakota, and South Dakota).”26 Ireland and Shields were born in Ireland Wexford and came over as teenagers. Donnelly Kerry During a lifetime of service, her order was second-generation American, and Cork Waterford opened more than thirty schools and five McGill third-generation. Coleman was Republic of Ireland hospitals, and she was the prime mover in fourth-generation on his father’s side, and founding the College of St. Catherine, the second-generation on his mother’s. All state’s first college for women. but Coleman were contemporaries, and to Where they came from . . . Andrew McGill’s ancestors were Pro­ Nick Coleman, Cork and Kerry testants from Northern Ireland and the some extent knew each other in the 1850s Ignatius Donnelly, Tyrone through the 1870s. Despite the passage of John Ireland, Kilkenny Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; in the years, Coleman learned from his mother Andrew McGill, Antrim archive of the Minnesota Historical about the famine and other factors in the James Shields, Tyrone Society, he is listed as a member of the great wave of emigration from Ireland, Methodist church. as well as about battles for Irish indepen- Shields was born and remained a life- orating with Archbishop Ireland, a son of long Catholic. The archbishop of St. Louis dence in the twentieth century. With en- County Kilkenny in the south. Still, it’s couragement from his mother and great- attended his funeral, and Shields is buried not uncommon, even in the twenty-first in the Catholic cemetery of St. Mary’s uncle, Father Nicholas J. Finn, Coleman century, for descendants from the south Church. travelled to his country of origin, particu- of Ireland to slight those whose ancestors larly to the counties of Kerry and Cork, lived up north as “not truly Irish.” home of the Finns and Colemans. Political Party Religion Coleman was never anything but a North and South Democrat (DFL Party in Minnesota). He Coleman was born and raised Catholic. Coleman and Ireland were descendants Educated from first grade through college would quip that until the age of majority from the southern Irish counties of Kerry, in Catholic schools, he married his first he thought that IrishCatholicDemocrat Cork, and Kilkenny that are in today’s wife, also Irish Catholic, at St. Mary’s was only one word. Donnelly ran under Republic of Ireland. The families of of the Lake, in White Bear Lake, where no less than four political banners: Donnelly and Shields were from County his great-uncle was pastor. His six chil- Republican, Independent, Democrat, and Tyrone, and the McGills were from dren were raised as Catholics, and though People’s parties. Ireland was officially Antrim, both belonging today to Northern Coleman did not always adhere to the nonpartisan, a requirement of his job, but Ireland, that area retained as a sepa- rules laid down by the church hierarchy except when arm-in-arm with his close rate region within the United Kingdom in Rome, his funeral mass was celebrated friend James J. Hill, he more often sided after Ireland won its independence in at the Cathedral of St. Paul. with Republican interests. McGill was 1922. Despite an uneasy and often con- Donnelly was born Catholic, but along always identified with the Republican tentious coexistence between northern with his father he drifted from the church, Party, as governor and later as a state sen- and southern Irish, there is a common restlessly seeking spiritual meaning in ator. Shields was a Democrat each time heritage, including the Gaelic language. a variety of places. When he died on he held public office, and might have Irish-Americans from both north and the first day of the twentieth century, been less peripatetic if he hadn’t been south share an ethnic identity, though the Father Ambrose McNulty of St. Luke’s ousted by Republican majorities in the population in the south is predominantly Church in St. Paul came to the home legislatures of Illinois and Minnesota. Catholic and that of the north mostly of Donnelly's son and “conducted the Protestant. Shields, from Tyrone in the religious service,” though omitting the Elective Office north, was an energetic force in setting up homily.25 Donnelly is buried in Calvary, Coleman was elected to only one public of- Irish colonies in rural Minnesota, collab- St. Paul’s largest Catholic cemetery. fice, state senator, and served ­continuously

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 7 for eighteen years. He lost the DFL endorse- His subsequent returns to the Senate were fire was still to come. In early October, ment for governor to Wendell Anderson in short-lived. In Minnesota, despite his hav- the Confederates launched a fierce attack 1970, and bowed out of a brief run for the ing lived in the state for only four years, to regain Corinth, and for two days the U.S. Senate in 1978. Donnelly, as is well his military record in the Mexican War cer- ­battle was joined. At last, the Fifth Min- known, ran for nearly every public office, tainly enhanced his profile, as well as his nesota was able to drive them back and from state representative to vice president. having been a senator from Illinois. And in save the town.30 According to Ireland’s bi- His longest tenure in office was three terms Missouri, where he was appointed to fill a ographer, Marvin O’Connell, if the break as a U.S. Congressman. Ireland was cho- vacancy in the Senate, he was known as a in the Union line had not been closed, sen for advancement to higher office within Civil War hero, wounded again, promoted “the Confederates could have seized the the Catholic Church, and that involved the by Lincoln to major general, with a repu- Federal entrenchments from the rear, and complex politics of any bureaucracy, but in tation brightened by defeating Stonewall Corinth would be lost, if not (General the end he needed to win only the support Jackson. In addition to being elected to William) Rosecrans’ entire army.”31 of an electorate of one, the Pope. the U.S. Senate from three states, Shields The remainder of Ireland’s service to was elected to the Missouri House of the Fifth Minnesota was, according to Representatives in 1874 and served two O’Connell, “something of an anticlimax,” terms, the only position that required him and he returned to Minnesota in the spring to win the popular vote. of 1863. But after Corinth, in which he gave comfort and last rites to countless Military Service fallen comrades, “he took pride, and un- All served in the military except for derstandably so, in having been tested in Donnelly, though he sought, unsuccess- that uniquely masculine world, an army fully, an appointment to lead a Minnesota on campaign.”32 And James P. Shannon, regiment at the outset of the Civil War.28 writing for a Catholic history magazine, Coleman enlisted in the U.S. Navy after recalled that “despite the brevity of his graduation from Cretin High School in Civil War career, Ireland savored all his 1942, and was honorably discharged when life the taste of action he had had at the the war ended.29 The other three were vet- Battle of Corinth, and he always main- erans of the Civil War. tained close bonds with other veterans of Young Father Ireland was ordained the Grand Army of the Republic.”33 on December 22, 1861, three days after McGill served with the Ninth Minne- the Fifth Minnesota Regiment was or- sota Volunteer Infantry Regiment for two Congressman Ignatius Donnelly, in this 1865 ganized. For most of its deployment, years, and his unit was posted in St. Peter, portrait by famed Civil War photographer the Fifth was commanded by Lieutenant Minnesota, to defend the territory against Matthew B. Brady. Photo courtesy of the Colonel Lucius F. Hubbard, later a gover- the Sioux Indians. He was discharged hon- Minnesota Historical Society. nor of Minnesota. Ireland’s first assign- orably for what was described as a serious ment as a priest was offering spiritual disability incurred during his service.34 counsel to the soldiers of his regiment in Shields seems to have been a natural McGill ran for one two-year term as time of hardship and giving the last rites warrior. According to his admiring biog- governor, and was admired as a reformer. to those who were dying. Along with rapher, Henry Castle, he was appointed He was elected governor in 1886, and the men in blue uniforms, Ireland would by President James K. Polk to be briga- received congratulatory letters from no- grow up fast. The Fifth Minnesota came dier general of volunteers shortly after tables such as Ignatius Donnelly and under fire for the first time against the the outbreak of the Mexican War. His Archbishop John Ireland.27 But in 1888, Confederates in May 1862 in the Missis- first engagement was the successful siege his party nominated someone else for sippi Valley campaign. Corinth, Missis- of the port city of Vera Cruz, in March, governor. Ten years later, McGill was sippi, was a rail center that was essential 1847, where “General Shields distin- elected to the State Senate from St. Paul. to the Confederacy because it was where guished himself, and gave good promise In this age of popular election of sena- both the north-south and east-west rail- of other valiant service. This promise tors, the fact that the legislators of three roads crossed. Control of Corinth would was amply fulfilled at the battle of Cerro different states would choose James pave the way to the Union’s eventual vic- Gordo and at the storming of Chapulte- Shields to represent them in the U.S. tory at Vicksburg, and that, along with pec. At the former battle his deeds of Senate is curious. In his first election to the ­Gettysburg, would be a major setback for valor seem like those of Roland at Ronc- Senate from Illinois, where he was well the rebels. esvalles.”35 Castle describes how Shields established, he served the full six-year Corinth fell to the Yankees on May 25 was severely wounded at Cerro Gordo, term (1849–1855), and was a colleague of when Confederate General Pierre G.T. “was carried from the battlefield appar- Stephen Douglas, Daniel Webster, Henry Beauregard, finding himself surrounded, ently lifeless,” and for his gallantry in Clay, John Calhoun, and Jefferson Davis. pulled his troops out. The real trial by action was promoted to major general.

8 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Back in action for the battle of Churu- busco, his army inflicted horrendous casualties onto the Mexicans. In the en- gagement at Chapultepec, his horse was shot from under him, and Shields “fought on foot, bareheaded and in shirt sleeves, leading his brigade, sword in hand.” He was among the first to plant the flag at the storied halls of Montezuma, receiv- ing another severe wound but refusing to quit the action, remaining with his men until the battle was won. Among his col- leagues were future generals U.S. Grant, Joseph E. Johnston, Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, George Pickett, and Stone- wall Jackson. When the war was over, he returned to practicing law in Illinois until his election to the U.S. Senate. After the outbreak of the Civil War, Shields resumed his military career and soon was appointed to brigadier general by Lincoln, and at Kernstown confronted Stonewall Jack- son’s forces, forcing the Confederates to retreat up the Shenandoah Valley.36

City Kids and Country Boys To be sure, America in the heyday of Donnelly, Ireland, McGill, and Shields Architect Cass Gilbert, designer of Minnesota's third capitol, surveying construction from the was largely a rural society, its economy top of his work (1901). No detail was too small for this master builder. Photo courtesy of the primarily based on agriculture. Minnesota Historical Society. Nick Coleman, on the other hand, spent his entire life in St. Paul, except Ireland was born in the small village stint as a sailor, he settled in Kaskaskia, in for two years in the Navy and two years of Burnchurch in County Kilkenny and southwestern Illinois, a onetime territorial teaching history in the small southwestern within a year of his arrival in St. Paul, capital (and boomtown for immigrants Minnesota town of Tyler. The Colemans he was sent by Bishop Joseph Cretin to until a disastrous flood in 1844). Shields were the only Irish in that town except for study in the seminary of Meximieux, a studied and practiced law for ten years be- the school janitor.37 (Tyler’s annual cel- commune in the Ain department in east- fore he was elected to the Illinois House ebration of Aebleskiver Days reflects its ern France. Back in St. Paul, he was or- of Representatives in 1836. Once in largely Danish heritage, though there was dained in 1861, and, except for his years Springfield, his political career took off. a small Catholic church, St. Dionysius.) as chaplain in the Civil War, he remained His life from the time of the Mexican War Coleman was a city kid who never forgot a resident of Minnesota’s capital. until his death took him to several states the needs of the hardworking people with McGill was born and raised in (­Illinois, Minnesota, California, Wis- whom he had grown up. ­Saegertown, a small town in northeast- consin, and Missouri), and he was never Donnelly, whose family came over from ern Pennsylvania. When he was nine- so deeply rooted that he would pass up the village of Fintona, County ­Tyrone, teen, he moved to rural Kentucky to teach what seemed a good ­opportunity.38 grew up and was educated in the public school, and after his two years with the schools of Philadelphia, then one of this Ninth Minnesota Volunteers, he settled in Descendants country’s largest cities. Shortly after com- St. Peter. He moved to St. Paul with Gov- ing to Minnesota, he built his home in the Five of Coleman’s six surviving children ernor Austin in 1870 and remained in the area he called Nininger City, about as rural live in Minnesota (a daughter, Maureen, city until his death. a place as one can imagine. He was, briefly, died of childhood leukemia). Four of Shields was born and grew up in the a would-be farmer and, not so briefly, an them live in St. Paul: his oldest, Nicholas small and isolated hamlet of Altmore, indefatigable community booster. Except Joseph, who has been a columnist of the County Tyrone. He left home in his mid- for his six years in the Congress, Nininger St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minneapolis teens and, after an accident-prone and brief remained his home. Star Tribune for 35 years; Patrick, the son

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 9 who taught his father all about canoeing inger City an important river city on and camping out, and is an acquisitions the Mississippi fell far short; he and his librarian for the Minnesota Historical family stayed on long after most of the Society; Emmett, his youngest, who other settlers had moved away. As for his works for a national telecommunications career as a writer, though he published company; and Christopher (Chris), who often and his books were widely read, is the current mayor of St. Paul. Daughter his work was not received with the criti- Megan (Micki) Coleman, is a doc- cal acclaim he had sought. On a brighter tor of chiropractic in Mankato, and son note, the legacy of his last battles in Brendan lives in Prague, Czech Republic, politics with the People’s Party was the where he and his wife founded a school achievement—though several years after and program of choir music. his death—of many populist proposals Ignatius Loyola Donnelly’s oldest son, once considered beyond reach: direct Ignatius C., was a physician and his sec- election of U.S. Senators, graduated ond born, Stanislaus James (Stan), was an income tax, managed federal currency, attorney in whose home, on Portland Ave- initiative and referendum, active gov- nue in St. Paul, his father’s funeral service ernment intervention in the economy, took place. (Stan died in the influenza strengthened regulatory commissions, epidemic of 1918.) Donnelly’s grandson, and an eight-hour day for workers. Stanislaus Dillon (also Stan) was an at- John Ireland’s many years of service to torney in St. Paul who in 1923 became his church and archdiocese seem, in ret- partner in the law firm that would bear his rospect, to have been a long series of ac- name, Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly. Governor Andrew McGill's portrait hangs in complishments. (Since all of his personal Two of the great grandsons of Ignatius his Queen Anne-style St. Anthony Park home papers were burned by the family after his Loyola Donnelly were also attorneys with in St. Paul, now on the National Register of death, much of his own sense of success long careers at the firm.39 Historic Places (about 1930). Photo courtesy or failure remains a mystery.) O’Connell Andrew McGill was married twice, of the Minnesota Historical Society. cites Ireland’s strong advocacy of “Ameri- and widowed once. With his first wife, canism” in the U.S. Catholic church, his Eliza Bryant of St. Peter, he had three nephews James and Lytton J. Shields, conflict with the Jesuits over the establish- children: Charles, Robert, and Lida. Eliza were longtime residents of St. Paul.41 ment of Catholic University, and his inde- died in 1877, when they lived in St. Paul. pendent advocacy of other causes for giv- With his second wife, Mary E. Wilson Ambitions and Dreams ing him a high profile that might not have of Edinboro, Pennsylvania, he had two endeared him to the Vatican hierarchy in children: Wilson and Thomas. McGill’s Coleman, according to his widow, Rome. For years there were rumors that oldest son Charles served one term in the Deborah Howell, ranked his failure to Ireland would be the next archbishop to Minnesota House of Representatives, and win the DFL endorsement for governor become a cardinal, and he was reportedly then was engaged in the publishing and in 1970 as a major setback. And his only “cultivating” Pope Leo XIII for this dur- printing business in St. Paul. Governor other chance to rise in the political arena ing the early 1890s, but the red hat he may McGill built the Queen Anne-style home came and went away in 1978. According have sought never materialized. The laby- in St. Anthony Park at 2203 Scudder Av- to friends and colleagues, he was angered rinth of Vatican politics was too complex enue, designed by architect W.A. Hunt, and felt a sense of betrayal when Governor and too well entrenched, and for Ireland now listed on the National Register of Rudy Perpich, his old friend and col- this must have been a disappointment.43 Historic Places.40 league, decided not to appoint Coleman Andrew McGill’s failure to win his Shields left Minnesota in 1859 and lived but chose instead Muriel Humphrey, the party’s nomination for a second term was in several other states. He died during a widow of Hubert H. Humphrey, to fill the surely a major disappointment in his life. visit to Ottumwa, Iowa, and is buried in U.S. Senate seat when her husband died He had, from all sources, served well and Carrollton, Missouri. After leaving Min- in early 1978.42 there were no scandals of any kind to taint nesota, he settled in California and mar- Donnelly, from the hyperactive life his record. But he was up against the irre- ried Mary Carr, born in County Armagh he led, seemed driven by a series of dis- sistible force of William Rush ­Merriam, a in Northern Ireland. They had two sons appointments. His decision to run for prominent banker from St. Paul, who had and a daughter and raised them in Carrol- the Congress deprived him of the chance been elected speaker of the Minnesota ton, Missouri. One of their sons, Dr. Dan- to become governor of Minnesota. For House after just one term in the legisla- iel F. Shields, lived and practiced in New decades, switching from party to party, ture. Merriam, who followed his one-term York City. Although none of Shields’s he battled against those who constituted father, John L., in the speaker’s chair, direct descendants lived in Minnesota, the powerful “establishment.” And he was heavily involved in banking and his nephew, Lytton E. Shields, and grand seldom won. His dream of making Nin- railroads throughout the 1880s. After he

10 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY to him.” In his political career, his good proud of his Irish heritage, but he had no timing seemed to be followed by disap- truck with the IRA at all and constantly pointment, but he picked up and moved argued with young Nick and Pat and his on, perhaps, as Castle concedes, because brother David about it.”48 “he had the Celtic faults—too impatient, Ignatius Donnelly, according to his perhaps, for his own welfare, too much of bio­grapher, Martin Ridge, “became a rover and seeker of new things.”45 fiercely proud of his Irish national origin. ‘If an Irishman is hung for murder,’ Don- Irishness nelly chided critics, ‘his nativity is freely Coleman, Irish from both his paternal and admitted; but if he distinguishes himself his maternal families, grew up in the in an honorable walk of life, then it is dis- mostly Irish parish of St. Columba, was covered that he is Scotch-Irish.’” After re- educated at Cretin High School, run by ceiving a generous advance against royal- the Christian Brothers, and received his ties for The Great Cryptogram, Donnelly higher education at St. Thomas, founded “exploded in a burst of ancestral pride: ‘A by Archbishop Ireland. His wit and charm, good many people believe that the proper deployed against adversaries on the occupation for a person of Irish blood is Major General James Shields in mufti. He Senate floor, was legendary. He strongly digging a ditch or flourishing a shilela was also the only one to serve as a U.S. preferred the rapier over the shillelagh, [sic]. They are presumed to know noth- senator from Illinois, Minnesota, and Missouri an Irish walking cane that by custom was ing about literature & to ultimately lack (1849–1879). Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, Brady-Handy Collection. also used as a cudgel. Coleman’s mother, those qualities of patience and persever- according to her grandson Patrick, re- ance which are held to be the birthright mained very connected to her homeland, of the Anglo-Saxon. I think I have done replaced McGill in the governor’s office, going back to visit relatives and friends, something to dispel that prejudice.’”49 the whiff of scandal relating to the build- participating in the Ancient Order of In the middle of his campaign for gov- ing of the Duluth, Crookston & North- Hibernians, and displaying mementos in ernor of Minnesota as candidate of the ern Railway swirled around ­Merriam.44 her home (including a sample of the Irish People’s Party, Donnelly published The In 1888, when he bested McGill for the sod). And Father Finn, the great-uncle, Golden Bottle, a utopian novel in which Republican nomination, Merriam doubt- was never far away, retelling the Irish America magically falls under the direc- less drew support from his colleagues in stories with his lilting charm, and singing tion of the party. The hero of the novel, the House, who had elected him speaker the Irish ballads, including his favorite, a young man from Kansas, becomes two years before. He also had at hand the “The Rose of Tralee.”46 president of the United States, leads the money that he had amassed through his But Coleman identified himself as an American army to Ireland, and takes it business interests to pay for the many American of Irish heritage. “Being Irish back from the British. Donnelly’s imagi- expenses of campaigning. McGill was was important to Nick, but he saw him- nation was unrestrained: “The people surely disappointed when he failed to self on a much broader scale. He wasn’t rose in Cork and delivered up the city win a second term as governor; never- IRISH; he was Irish-American,” says without a blow . . . Wexford, Kerry, Clare, theless he refused to give up his interest Deborah Howell. “Son of poor immi- Queens, Wicklow, Kildare were ours, and in public life and enjoyed another “hur- grants, classic second generation, first the mountains of Galway were blazing rah” in the State Senate. college graduate (only Uncle Nick had with bonfires and enthusiasm . . . with Shields, according to his biographer, been past grade school), Democrat, busi- a rush we poured into Dublin, and the Henry Castle, lived his last years on a nessman. He was very proud of having American flag was soon flying from the small farm in rural Missouri, and, upon been in the Navy. He was a businessman top of O’Connell’s statue . . . IRELAND his death in 1879, left his wife and chil- long before he became a politician.”47 IS FREE!”50 dren “all that he was able to leave to them Howell elaborates. “He was interested, Archbishop Ireland was a prime mover as the pecuniary result of his many years and knew the [Irish] stories, and Uncle in the resettlement of thousands of Irish of civil and militant office-holding—his Nick had lots of stories to tell. But Nick Catholics in southwestern Minnesota. few acres of farm land, the diamond- Coleman wasn’t a scholar of Irish his- According to Patricia Condon Johnston, studded swords which had been given to tory or literature. [His son] Pat and young Ireland “hoped to better the lot of Irish him, one by the State of South Carolina, Nick would have more of a bent that way. immigrants living in eastern industrial the other by the State of Illinois—and his After reading Year of the French, he be- slums by helping them to obtain their own blessing. . . . Shields was the good man. came more interested, but then he got farms.”51 Even in his crusade for temper- His private life was above reproach . . . sick. He was very proud of the antique ance, arguably, the archbishop was trying rushed from one occupation to another, Irish maps he bought from his hospital to protect the sons of Erin from the rav- from one political office to another, he bed. Being second generation, he was all ages of the bottle. In addition to his efforts was at home, whatever the duties assigned about being an American. Yes, Nick was in colonization and temperance, Ireland

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 11 “unabashedly privileged the training and Shields’s widow and son, Daniel, and was their exceptional accomplishments promotion of Irish diocesan clergy. As nephew Lytton Shields of St. Paul, “and or character that earned them a place in one non-Irish St. Paul priest ruefully re- other relatives.” Minnesota was also rep- the Capitol. called, ‘With Ireland . . . it was all com- resented by J.J. Reagan, national president Of the five, Coleman as Senate Ma- 52 pletely Irish.’” of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.54 jority Leader arguably made the most McGill, whose family was Protestant sustained contribution to civic life and and was often described as a “Scotch- • • • government in Minnesota. Donnelly, Irish,” was perhaps the least likely to have marched in a St. Patrick’s Day parade, Will There Be A Sixth? whose roller-coaster career in politics which during his time was in its festive These five sons of Erin were not honored was surpassed by the legacy of his pop- prime. His Irish identity was surely more simply because of their Irish origins. It ulist agenda, served the state only spo- restrained, yet in an address shortly after McGill’s death in 1905, Minnesota Attor- ney General Henry W. Childs eulogized: “It may not be without profit to trace out to some extent, slight though it must be, the antecedents of our subject . . . what were the strains of blood that coursed in his veins? That bigoted and oppressive English policy which denied Ireland reli- gious liberty under Charles I and ruined her industries under William of Orange, was nowhere more severely felt than in the province of Ulster. Antrim, an Ulster county and the most northeasterly territory of Ireland, was more Scotch than Irish, and more Protestant than Catholic . . . [but] there, during the eighteenth century, large numbers sought relief from the oppression of English misrule . . . among those who forsook old Antrim for the new colony was Patrick McGill, who arrived in 1774.”53 Shields was demonstrably a leader in the colonization effort for Irish families seeking a better life in the mid-nineteenth century. The area around Faribault pro- claimed the origin of the newly arrived Irish-Minnesotans: townships named for places in the old country. Unlike Cole- man, whose electability in St. Paul was enhanced by being Irish, there’s not much evidence that Irish ancestry was an ad- vantage or liability in Shields’s series of careers. Other than his brief stay in San Francisco, with a large Irish population, he seems to have settled into rural com- munities where there was no Celtic con- centration. In 1910, thirty years after his death, the local community and the U.S. Congress funded the erection of a monu- ment on his still unmarked grave in Car- rollton, Missouri. Reportedly, 10,000 Nick Coleman's casket in the rotunda, 1981. Nine months after the onset of his fatal leukemia, people attended the dedication, including the former majority leader lay in state in the building where he had made his mark. Coleman Missouri’s governor, U.S. Senators and led the way in passing a tidal wave of progressive legislation. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Congressmen, the archbishop of St. Louis, Historical Society.

12 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY radically; Ireland, though he stretched the Walter F. Mondale, who also served as made a mark both in his home state and normal range of influence for a man of Minnesota’s attorney general; former in the nation, yet the pathways to being the cloth, remained primarily a spiritual Speaker of the Minnesota House and U.S. honored in Minnesota’s Capitol remain leader for Catholics; McGill, who served Congressman Martin Olav Sabo; and largely uncharted. ably but only briefly as governor and state Coleman’s successor as Senate Majority Clean for Gene? Erin go Bragh! senator, lasted longer as an appointed Leader, Roger Moe, who served longer commissioner of insurance; and Shields, in that position than anyone. All served whose stay in Minnesota was brief and with distinction, and all are of Norwegian John W. Milton is an award-winning public service to the state even briefer, is ancestry. One more possibility is the late writer who lives in Afton, Minn. He is depicted—larger than life—at the Capi- State Senate leader Gordon Rosenmeier, the author of a historical novel, The tol, in his major general’s uniform. who ran the Conservative caucus for Fallen Nightingale, published in 2005, Since the bust of Nick Coleman was nearly three decades. His family came now translated into two European lan- installed two years after his death, the over from Denmark. guages, and a political novel set in Min- process of securing approval for any new Speculation on honoring another nesota, Time to Choose, published in portrait, bust, or statue has been tight- Irish-American might center on the late 2008. He is a former Ramsey County ened up. There’s only so much space in Congressman and U.S. Senator Eugene J. Commissioner and Minnesota State the building, so except for portraits of the ­McCarthy, though bruises still remain Senator. Milton is also writing a bi- governors, future placements will be rare. from his 1968 challenge to the iconic ography of his late colleague, Senator Who else might qualify? Most likely: ­Hubert Humphrey. McCarthy’s 100th Nicholas Coleman, with publication ex- former U.S. Senator and Vice President birthday will occur in 2016. He certainly pected in 2010.

Endnotes 1. Mary Lethert Wingerd, Claiming the City, ment benefits; expanded rights for women and ary deterred him; early in the year he wrote one Politics, Faith, and the Power of Place in St. Paul minorities; bargaining rights for public employ- of his many creditors: ‘I shall be a candidate in (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 2001), 39. ees; enforcement of workplace safety; protection one of the [congressional] Districts and I think, 2. Ibid., 3 and 47. of the environment; state funding of programs in all human probability will be elected. If I am, for affordable housing; handgun control; health I will be able to do something for you.’” From 3. When Minnesota achieved statehood, the care reform and expansion of benefits; nursing Martin Ridge, Ignatius Donnelly, The Portrait President of the Senate was, for six months, home regulation and reform; party designation of a Politician (Chicago: University of Chicago Democratic Senator Richard G. Murphy, for legislative and local government elections; Press, 1962), 62, an excerpt from Donnelly’s let- who turned over the presidency to Lieutenant expanded consumer protection; tenants’ rights; ter (March 5, 1862) to J. Persche, a Philadelphia Governor William Holcombe, as required in assistance for and funding of shelters for bat- financier. the newly ratified state constitution. Lieutenant tered women; and expanded programs for low 8. Sources for Donnelly’s long career as a po- governors served as the presiding officer of the income women and their children. litical candidate for four different parties Senate until a constitutional amendment in 1972 are: Legislators Past and Present, Minnesota authorized the Senate to appoint its own presi- 5. From an interview with Deborah Howell, Legislative Reference Library (St. Paul); three ar- dent. By then, in practice, the real power was December 28, 2007. ticles in American Heritage Magazine by Bernard wielded by the Senate Majority Leader, elected 6. From an interview with Pat Flahaven, January 29, A. Weisberger, Eric F. Goldman, and Humphrey by a majority of the senators. Thus, Coleman 2009. With approval of new commemorative art- Doermann; the biography by Ridge; and various became the first Democrat to serve as majority work having become more restricted, it’s likely articles by John D. Hicks, professor of history leader, and the partisan descendant of Senator that Coleman will remain the only, or one of very at Hamline University and the University of Murphy, whose portrait hung in Coleman’s office few, legislators honored at the Capitol who did Nebraska. Hicks considered the People’s Party during his tenure. Coleman loved to point to the not go on to become governor or U.S. Senator. “perhaps the most outstanding” of the third par- bearded Murphy, and ask: “What horrible things 7. When Donnelly was elected to the Congress ties, one that “forced the existing parties to take could he have done for us to be condemned to in 1862, State Senator Henry Swift inherited his cognizance of issues they had previously tended 114 years in the minority?” position as lieutenant governor and, after serv- to dodge or ignore.” John D. Hicks, “The Birth 4. Among these were: income tax relief for the ing only four months, moved up when Governor of the Populist Party,” Minnesota History 9 working poor, a program that was picked up by Alexander Ramsey was elected to the U.S. (1928): 219. Hicks also credited Donnelly’s per- the U.S. Congress and expanded nationally; shift- Senate. If Donnelly had not run for Congress, suasive talents for the decision to form a national ing the burden of aid to public schools from the he most surely would have become the third party in 1892. Donnelly had concluded that to regressive local property tax to the state income governor of Minnesota instead of Swift. Martin fight for reform through nonpartisan and bipar- tax; increased state aid to local government; Ridge, in his biography of Donnelly, reflects that tisan efforts was fruitless, that the vehicle of a Minnesota’s first minimum wage; rate regulation the lieutenant governor “had two possibilities: national party was required. To do otherwise, he of public utilities; open meetings of all legislative the governorship or a congressional seat. Why once argued, was like making a gun “that will do committees; professionalization of legislative Donnelly did not press for the gubernatorial anything but shoot” (Hicks, 225). staff; increased workers’ comp and unemploy- nomination is unknown, but certainly the low sal- 9. Source for the provenance of this work is Brian

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 13 Szott, Curator of Art at the Minnesota Historical one would know the ethnicity of anyone show- by Archbishop John Hughes of New York, who Society. The sculptor John Karl Daniels, who did ing up for Sunday Mass, the answer was: “They was then, according to Castle, “at the head of the the original bust in the year of Donnelly’s death, knew.” American hierarchy.” Shields persevered, and lived to the age of 103, passing away in 1978. 14. Ireland was also one of the group that suc- his vision was later validated by Minnesota’s 10. Archbishop Cretin literally selected what he ceeded in establishing Catholic University in own archbishop, John Ireland. Regan cites sev- called “two dirty little Irish boys” (Ireland, age Washington, D.C., and for this he incurred op- eral contemporary news sources for the plausi- 14, and Thomas O’Gorman, age 11) to go to position from Georgetown University, a Jesuit ble, but unverified, tale of the Irish stacking the the same place where Cretin had been trained. school that feared the new university would be polls to vote for their candidates. Two years after According to Marvin O’Connell, John Ireland’s a threat to its hegemony in that town. This is the congressional elections of 1858, when 173 biographer and professor of history at Notre most probably why Ireland was unreceptive to votes were cast in Shieldsville, the 1860 cen- Dame University, the two lads were plucked the Jesuits coming into Minnesota. Colleges sus showed only 93 adult males residing there “almost literally from the schoolyard” in April founded here during Ireland’s tenure are, in con- (women had yet to gain suffrage). Republicans 1853. Marvin R. O’Connell, John Ireland and the trast to others like Creighton in Omaha, Loyola claimed that “wagonloads of Irish” crossed the American Catholic Church (St. Paul: Minnesota in Chicago, and Marquette in Milwaukee, free of line from Le Sueur County to make up the differ- Historical Society Press, 1988), 39. Jesuit control. And while admiring the strength ence (Regan, Irish in Minnesota, 15). 11. As retold by Ann Regan in Irish in Minnesota and militancy of the founder of the Jesuit order, 23. Sources include Castle, General James (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, Ignatius de Loyola, Ireland said that nineteenth- Shields, 722–24, and James M. McPherson, 2002), “Archbishop Ireland, objecting to rowdy century Jesuits “had exchanged their founder’s Battle Cry of Freedom (New York: Oxford behavior of participants, stopped the parades” vigor for a mess of the status quo, for that ‘con- University Press, 1988), 425. that had been celebrated on St. Patrick’s Day servatism which, wish[ing] to be ever safe, is 24. From an address by Ireland, archives of the since the 1850s. When enthusiasm and public in- dry-rot’” (O’Connell, page 280, quoting Ireland Minnesota Historical Society. James Shields is ebriety peaked in 1901, the archbishop called it in 1889). also honored by a statue in the Statuary Hall col- off, referring to what he described as “midnight 15. From James H. Moynihan, The Life of lection in the U.S. Capitol, one of the two nomi- orgies” (page 51). The celebration was revived in Archbishop John Ireland (New York: Arno Press, nees by the State of Illinois. His statue there, 1967 by a group of prominent downtown busi- 1953, 1976) and Johnston, Minnesota’s Irish, 80. located in the Hall of Columns, was done by nessmen, but only after Archbishop Ireland had Leonard W. Volk, and placed in the collection in 16. From a pamphlet, Paintings in the Governor’s been in his grave for forty-nine years. O’Connell 1893. Recently, according to the account of Gerry Reception Room by the Minnesota Historical claims that “nothing during his long life absorbed Regan, producer of TheWildGeese.com (2005), Society, St. Paul. him as much as did the cause of total abstinence,” Shields, a lifelong Democrat, “may go another and, expanding on this, he asserts that Ireland 17. Memorial address from volume XIII of round with GOP in a fight for his 112-year- was even harshly critical of his own countrymen the Minnesota Historical Society’s Historical old perch in Washington, D.C.” It seems that who drank in moderation, lamenting that except Collections, written soon after McGill’s death an Illinois Republican, State Representative for drunkenness “Ireland might still be free and and published with the formal installation of the Robert Pritchard, introduced a resolution to re- an honored member of the sisterhood of nations” governor’s portrait. move Shields’ statute and replace it with one of (pages 107–08). The author is also indebted to 18. Sources for the life and career of McGill are Illinois-born President Ronald Reagan. To date, these for excerpts from the life of Archbishop Governors of Minnesota, Minnesota Historical Shields has not lost his perch. Ireland: Patricia Condon Johnston, Minnesota’s Society, and the Society’s archives on McGill. 25. From news accounts of January 1–2, 1901, in Irish (Afton, Minn.: Johnston Publishing, 1984) 19. From Abraham Lincoln’s Stories and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. and Wingerd, Claiming the City. Speeches, published by Rhodes & McClure 26. Johnston, Minnesota’s Irish, 51. 12. O’Connell, 138–41 and 143. For two years, Publishing Company, 1897. the Catholic Colonization Bureau created by John 27. From Henry W. Childs, National Tribune, 20. At that time, U.S. Senators were elected by Ireland was the sole agent for the St. Paul and March 15, 1906, in the McGill Collection at MHS. the legislatures of their states. Shields’ first elec- Pacific Railroad in the area of Le Sueur, earning a 28. Ridge, Ignatius Donnelly, 58, and Minnesota- tion was voided because he had not been a citizen commission for the sale of homesteaded property. born Richard Moe, The Last Full Measure: The of the U.S. for nine years. He became eligible 13. From T. T. McAvoy, “Americanism, Fact Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers later in 1849, ran in a special election to replace (New York: Henry Holt, 1993), 19. Moe’s history and Fiction,” American Catholic Historical himself, and finally, after winning, was seated. Review 31 (1945) and from O’Connell’s descrip- of the First Minnesota Volunteers explains that tion of Ireland’s frequent confrontations with 21. Among those settling in the Le Sueur area Governor Ramsey considered Donnelly among elders in the church. On the question of having nearby was John Coleman, who arrived in 1855. others, but under pressure to appoint a military one, multi­ethnic Catholic Church, there was He was a great-grandfather of Nick Coleman. man, he chose instead Willis Gorman of St. Paul, for many years an ethnic divide in the St. Paul 22. Information about Shields from Johnston, second Territorial Governor of Minnesota, who area of Frogtown, near the Cathedral. The Irish Minnesota’s Irish; Regan, Irish in Minnesota; had led regiments during the Mexican War. had their parish churches, St. Vincent de Paul and Henry A. Castle, General James Shields, 29. According to U.S. Department of Defense and St. Columba, and the Germans had theirs, Soldier, Orator, Statesman, read at the monthly records obtained with the help of Coleman’s St. Agnes. This writer was told, by a source that meeting of the Executive Council of the family, he and a select group of U.S. Navy sig- requested anonymity, that as late as the 1960s, Minnesota Historical Society, April 13, 1914. nalmen received special training in early 1945, only the German families of Frogtown were Castle claims that Shields’s colonization suc- at a base near San Diego, as part of the planning welcome at St. Agnes. When queried how any- ceeded despite its being “vigorously opposed” for the expected invasion of Japan. The sudden

14 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY end of the war in August of that year spared 38. From archives at the Minnesota Historical November–December 2008. “Uncle Nick” was Coleman a first-hand taste of battle. He would Society; Architect’s Office at the U.S. Capitol; Coleman’s great-uncle, Father Nicholas J. Finn, later claim, according to Deborah Howell, that Regan; TheWildGeese.com; and Castle, General after whom the senator was named. Born in not seeing combat in World War II was one of James Shields. Castlegregory, County Kerry, Finn was one of the his deepest regrets [from interviews with Howell 39. Donnelly dropped his middle name, Loyola, many young students recruited by Archbishop in 2007–08]. reportedly because of its ultra-religious origin Ireland for the parish churches being built in 30. The ferocity of this encounter is depicted in (Ridge, Ignatius Donnelly, 5). The history of the the communities settled by Irish families. A Edwin Blashfield’s painting of the battle at the Donnelly descendants is from Virginia Martin, year after his ordination in 1919, Father Finn re- Capitol and described by James McPherson in “The View from the 17th Floor: Oppenheimer turned to Castlegregory and in effect rescued his his Battle Cry of Freedom, which is the main Wolff & Donnelly and its 111-Year History,” source for the account of the Mississippi Valley Ramsey County History 32 (Spring 1997): 4–8. favorite niece, Hannah Kennedy, from violence being suffered by the civilian population dur- campaign (pages 522–23). 40. In the McGill archives of the Minnesota 31. O’Connell, 81. Historical Society, there are many bills, receipts, ing Ireland’s fight for independence. He brought Hannah Kennedy to St. Paul, where she met and 32. Ibid, 74 and 83. and other household accounts from the period 1888–1905, for expenditures relating to the married David R. Coleman; they were parents 33. James P. Shannon, ed., “Archbishop Ireland’s construction of the McGill home in St. Anthony of the future Senator Coleman. Sources for Fr. Experiences as a Civil War Chaplain,” American Park. A. R. McGill and Family: An Inventory of Finn’s history are: obituaries from the Catholic Catholic Historical Review 39 (1953): 298–305. Their Papers at the MHS. Bulletin, October 26, 1986; St. Paul Pioneer 34. A old comrade in arms, General J. H. Baker, 41. Castle, General James Shields, 711 and 729. Press, October 16, 1986; and records from Finn’s writing for the Minnesota Historical Society in personnel file in the archives of the Chancery, 1906 and 1907, recalled more details of McGill’s 42. From interviews with Deborah Howell in military service: “The tocsin of war roused 2007–08, this writer concludes that Perpich had Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. made verbal commitments to Coleman prior to his patriotic heart, and we find him deserting 48. Year of the French: A Novel (New York: Humphrey’s death. Betty Wilson, for many years the school room and enlisting as a private in Holt, Rinehart & Winston), by third-generation, a Capitol beat reporter for the Star and Tribune, Captain Asgrim K. Skar’s Company ‘D’ of the Irish-American writer Thomas Flanagan, was Ninth Minnesota Regiment, August 19, 1862, wrote in her biography of Perpich that “Nick Coleman was deeply disappointed when Perpich published in 1979. It’s the tale of Irishmen who, at the age of twenty-two. He was elected first passed over him for the U.S. Senate appointment. with a unit of French troops, invaded one of the sergeant. His service was on the frontier against He felt that the governor had promised it to him western counties of Ireland, County Mayo, in the Sioux Indians in their memorable outbreak. and was indebted to him because Coleman had He was posted at St. Peter and was present as a 1798. The insurgency was defeated in a devas- helped Perpich secure the lieutenant-governor guard at the hanging of the condemned Sioux at tating counterattack by British forces. During spot on the DFL ticket in 1970.” Wilson also Mankato, December 26, 1862, where the writer, the time of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland confirms, from her interviews with Howell, that who was in command at that most extraordinary in the late 1960s and early 1970s, St. Paul was Perpich had promised Coleman the appointment execution, first knew young McGill. He served one of the “Irish towns” in the U.S. where the to the expected vacancy. Betty Wilson, Rudy! with fidelity for one year and was discharged The People’s Governor (Minneapolis: Nodin Irish Republican Army (IRA) was able to find for serious disability August 18, 1863, and none Press, 2005). moral support and financial aid for its cause. too soon, for only nursing and care for weeks Among the Irish in the U.S., because of the vio- and months brought him back to health, but not 43. O’Connell, 348–52. lent nature of the Troubles, Flanagan’s novel was to a degree to make it advisable for him to re- 44. Source for this is an excerpt from John C. a hot topic. enlist, which was to him then, and afterwards, Luecke, The Northern Pacific in Minnesota a great regret” [excerpted from the Lives of the (St. Paul: Grenadier Publications, 2005), 150– 49. From Ridge, Ignatius Donnelly, 232. The Governors of Minnesota]. 51. The original reporting was published by quotation is taken from Donnelly’s scrapbook, 35. Castle, General James Shields, 715–16. the Crookston Times in November 1890. The originally the galley proof of a speech delivered fact that both Merriams, father and son, were 36. McPherson, the Civil War scholar whose his- at Red Wing, Minn., on July 4, 1871. elected to be speaker of the House despite such tory of the conflict won a Pulitzer Prize, says that short length of service suggests that the “Citizen 50. Ignatius Donnelly, The Golden Bottle (New Jackson underestimated the size of the Union Legislature” of that era was primarily a collec- York and St. Paul: D.D. Merrill Co., 1892; with a forces and his unit was “badly mauled.” But tion of prominent bankers, farmers, and busi- new introduction by David W. Noble, New York: McPherson concludes that this “tactical defeat at nessmen, the stakeholders who were willing to Johnson Reprint Corp., 1968), 210. Kernstown – yet another Confederate reverse in spend a few weeks every other year to watch this dismal spring – suddenly turned into an im- 51. Johnston, Minnesota’s Irish, 20. over and protect their stakeholdings. portant strategic victory” when President Lincoln, 52. Wingerd, Claiming the City, 58, from an in- 45. Castle, General James Shields, pages 733-35. overestimating the size of Jackson’s command, terview with Fr. Joseph Guillamette. held back a division of Union troops that would 46. From interviews with Patrick K. Coleman have permitted the northerners to finish the job. in 2007–08, the obituary for Hannah Kennedy 53. From the memorial address by Attorney McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 425 and 455. Coleman in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and this General Henry W. Childs, vol. XIII of the 37. From an interview with Coleman’s first wife, author’s personal memories of Father Finn. Minnesota Historical Society's Collections. Bridget Finnegan Coleman, October 10, 2007. 47. From interviews with Deborah Howell, 54. Castle, General James Shields, 729–33.

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The Minnesota State Capitol, where five sons of Erin have been honored, is just to the north of the Cathedral of St. Paul. Photo by Robert W. Larson (2008). For more on Minnesota politics and Irish identity, see John W. Milton’s article on page 3.