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RAMSEY COUNTY Minnesota’s German Forty-eighter Albert Wolff: Brilliant Career, Tragic Death LaVern J. Rippley A Publication of the Ramsey County Historical Society Hıstory —Page 12 Spring 2016 Volume 51, Number 1

“Brighter and Better for Every Person”: Building the New Salvation Army Rescue Home of St. Paul, 1913 Kim Heikkila, page 3

“Children of the Home.” This large portrait of twelve children is from the Salvation Army Rescue Home and Maternity Hospital annual report for the year ending September 30, 1916. The home, located on Como Avenue in St. Paul, cared for 207 children that year, 109 of whom had been born in the home. The inset photo is Adjutant True Earle, superintendent of the Home from 1913 to 1918. Photo courtesy of The Salvation Army USA Central Territory Historical Museum. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY RAMSEY COUNTY President Chad Roberts Founding Editor (1964–2006) Virginia Brainard Kunz Editor Hıstory John M. Lindley Volume 51, Number 1 Spring 2016 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY the mission statement of the ramsey county historical society BOARD OF DIRECTORS adopted by the board of directors on January 25, 2016: James Miller Preserving our past, informing our present, inspiring our future Chair Jo Anne Driscoll First Vice Chair Carl Kuhrmeyer C O N T E N T S Second Vice Chair Susan McNeely 3 “Brighter and Better for Every Person”: Secretary Building the New Salvation Army Rescue Home Kenneth H. Johnson Kim Heikkila Treasurer William B. Frels 12 Minnesota’s German Forty-eighter Immediate Past Chair Albert Wolff: Brilliant Career, Tragic Death Julie Brady, Anne Cowie, Cheryl Dickson, Mari Oyanagi Eggum, Thomas Fabel, LaVern J. Rippley Martin Fallon, John Guthmann, Richard B. Heydinger, Jr., Sandy Kiernat, Judy Kishel, 18 Carl Florin, Ray Florén, David Kristal, Father Kevin M. McDonough, and Eleven Houses near Hamline University Nancy W. McKillips, Lisa Dickinson Michaux, Jonathan H. Morgan, Robert Muschewske, Barbro Sollbe and Ann Thorson Walton Chad Roberts, James A. Stolpestad, Ralph Thrane, Susan Vento, Jerry Woefel. 24 Book Reviews EDITORIAL BOARD Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from Anne Cowie, chair, James B. Bell, Thomas H. Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Cowie Jr. Boyd, John Diers, Martin Fallon, John Guthmann, and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon James Miller, John Milton, Laurie M. Murphy, Robert Muschewske, Paul D. Nelson, Jay Pfaender, David Riehle, Chad Roberts, Steve Trimble, Mary Lethert Wingerd. A Message from the Editorial Board HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD William Fallon, William Finney, George Latimer, Joseph S. Micallef, Marvin J. Pertzik, uildings often tell stories. Historian Kim Heikkila shares the story behind the James Reagan. Bdrive to build the Salvation Army Rescue Home on Como Avenue, which was RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS led by Adjutant True Earle and businessmen Joseph and William Elsinger. Designed Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt, chair by Clarence Johnston, the Home served many young women and their newborn chil- Commissioner Toni Carter Commissioner Blake Huffman dren as part of the Salvation Army’s outreach programs. Not far away from Como Commissioner Jim McDonough Avenue, near Hamline University, sit eleven houses constructed by a Swedish contrac- Commissioner Mary Jo McGuire Commissioner Rafael Ortega tor, Carl Florin, or his brothers, John and Gustav, all of whom lived in St. Paul in the Commissioner Janice Rettman early 1900s. Authors Barbro Sollbe and Ann Thorson Walton give us a rare look into Julie Kleinschmidt, manager, the family who constructed middle-class homes of that era in the popular bungalow Ramsey County style. Records from the St. Paul Building Permits Collection, available in the RCHS Ramsey County History is published quarterly by the Ramsey County Historical Society, 323 Research Center, helped with this article. This issue also contains a biographical profile Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Paul, MN of Albert Wolff, a journalist with training in theology who came to St. Paul to escape 55102 (651-222-0701). Printed in U.S.A. Copy- right © 2016, Ram sey County His torical So ciety. the strife of 1848 in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. According to author LaVern ISSN Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. Rippley, Wolff founded German-language newspapers in New Ulm, Chaska, and St. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written Paul, encouraged emigrants to move to Minnesota for new lives in our invigorating permission from the publisher. The Society climate, and supported ’s Union. assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors. Fax 651-223-8539; e-mail address: Anne Cowie [email protected]; web site address: www.rchs.com Chair, Editorial Board

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Minnesota’s German Forty-eighter Albert Wolff: Brilliant Career, Tragic Death

LaVern J. Rippley lbert Wolff, an immigrant Forty-eighter and the founder and editor of viduals he studied. The highest count were various German-language newspapers in and around St. Paul, had a sur- journalists 74; followed by soldier 67; prising career. Born in Braunschweig, Germany on September 26, 1825, physician 37; teacher 25; turner 25; law- A yer 22; businessman 21; author 16; farmer Wolff died in St. Paul on Saturday November 25, 1893 of his own volition. 12; diplomat 11; and musician 11. Among What’s a Forty-eighter? , among the Czechs, and athwart them there was only one woman, Mathilda the southern Slavs where the spirit of Giesler-Anneke in Milwaukee, who con- There are a few salient features that make sidered herself a suffragist. One third of up the definition of a Forty-eighter.1 nationalism worked centrifugally rather than formatively.4 Having tried but mis- the 300 took part in the Civil War, at least Refugees from revolution, the 1848ers 50 percent would eventually publish verse, include liberals, radicals, and congenital carried in making Germany democratic, the Forty-eighters emigrated—often to and nine identified themselves as pastors, strategists for democracy. From our long a figure that would jump substantially if historical perspective, they proved to be avoid the consequences of what was le- gally treasonous under their autocratic speakers for the freie Gemeinden had been the cultural leaven—the yeast that liter- included. A number eventually achieved forms of government—just as often be- ally raised the entire German element in positions as university professors among cause their sentences were commuted the from a peasant-type them Karl Bayrhoffer at Marburg who from prison to emigration. More fre- citizenry to a group of distinguished, later was a farmer in Wisconsin, Karl quently they found the atmosphere in vitalizing champions for equality in a Follen at Harvard, and others. A large the German states too oppressive and racially troubled nation. Coincidentally, number did prison time, many boasting they arrived during America’s zenith of the economic conditions too uncertain, of their escape, which could mean they Nativism, the name given to the anti- resolving instead to dedicate their lives were resourceful and daring or perhaps immigrant temperament that dominated to a republic across the sea. that the general populace was sympathetic our pre-Civil War nation.2 Few Forty-eighters arrived in the 5 to the revolution, as well might have been Tempered by the March 1848 revo- United States in 1848. Rather, they tar- the prison guards. lutions that began in France as the so- ried in France, , England, Docking in America after 1852 with called pre-March uprisings, the revolu- Belgium, and neighboring nations, some the strength annually of over 150,000 tions of 1848 swept not only Germany in the belief that democracy would yet co-immigrants from Germany, the Forty- but also much of Europe. Mostly, these win out in Germany, others that they eighters entered a turbulent American were university-trained men of high so- could go home and further the liberal society beefed up by some four million cial standing—physicians, inventors, cause. A. E. Zucker in his book offers new immigrants, roughly 30% of the total jurists, and especially journalists who biographies of some 272 prominent non-slave population in 1840. It was an were romantic and popular, if at times, Forty-eighters, among them Albert Wolff. influx of immigrants that on a percent- impractical reformers. They numbered no Most were very young. Over 60 percent age basis would never again be reached doubt less than 10,000 in all, and neces- were born in or after 1820, 1827 being in the nation’s history. Of this influx, sarily included plain folk, workers, farm- the birth-year of the largest number with fully three-quarters of all arrivals were ers, clerks, and small businessmen whose only nine born before 1820. Nothing in from either Ireland or Germany, giving names were never recorded anywhere.3 America at the time presaged their com- rise to the xenophobia that “darkened” In German-speaking Europe, the ing. No seedbed in the United States the 1850s. This general dislike of for- 1848 revolution engrossed three main awaited their “fertilization.” However, eigners was fortified by a turgid holdover regions: with , America did offer hope in 1848 inasmuch from the past, the institution of with Vienna, and southwest Germany as she was the only nation to send greet- in the South. Because the typi- notably the Grand Duchy of Baden, ings and constitutional textual models for cally settled in the industrial heartland of which lay close to France where lib- the delegates pondering a constitution in the United States, cities like , St. eralism and radical ideas drifted eas- the Frankfurt Paulskirche. Louis, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Cincinnati, ily across the German-French border. In Zucker’s analysis there is a break- Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Buffalo became Parallel movements erupted in Hungary, down of the professions for the 300 indi- roughly half-German. Farmers and small-

12 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY town dwellers too were disproportionately May 22? 1858).8 Though no issues of German. Into this social milieu, the strug- this paper have survived, the two prin- gle over slavery resulted in the demise of cipals in 1856 joined in publishing the the Whigs, a raw split in the Democrats, Minnesota Thalbote at Chaska and the and the birth of the Republican Party, to a National Demokrat in St. Paul (June 6, weighty degree the outcome of politically 1857?–1859). Wolff then moved to New active Forty-eighters. Ulm where he became editor of the New No one today can track precisely which Ulm Post published by Wolff and Hofer political results the Forty-eighters influ- from February 5, 1864–May 1865, when enced for the United States. Names like Wolff moved to St. Paul to become editor , , Friedrich of the prestigious Minnesota Staatszeitung Kapp, Adolf Douai, , which, according to most sources, suc- Eduard Pelz, , Albert Wolff, ceeded the Minnesota Deutsche Zeitung Leopold Biesele, Hans Reimer Claussen from Carver/Chaska. He served as editor and especially pop up often. from July 28, 1860–February/March 1864 Engineering fellow Germans to vote for when he mysteriously departed for New Abraham Lincoln, Schurz deserves the Ulm but returned as publisher (at times greatest credit. His early ability distin- with Theodor Sander) and editor until guished him for a long career in journal- Carl Schurz (1829–1906) was one of the at least November 1869 and again after ism and American politics, serving not most prominent Forty-eighters who came to 1870–1871 until September 4, 1877.9 only as ambassador to Spain, but also as the United States from Germany (1852). In each newspaper but especially in a general in the Civil War, senator from the latter appeared poems and bits of dog- Missouri, and Secretary of the Interior. that typified the latter half of the nine- gerel concerning local political affairs. In the latter position he became noted for Sections in the Nachlaß (Literary Legacy) teenth century. his sensible policy toward the Indian, the embrace such headings as “Freedom and forests, and the eventual development Albert Wolff in St. Paul Fatherland” which feature primarily the of a national park system. Nor should Civil War and Minnesota’s role in the Journalist first and foremost, Albert Wolff Kapp’s effort as New York Commissioner struggle, other more mundane pieces that was also a politician. Editor and publisher of Immigration be ignored. treat “Love and Marriage” the joys and of many newspapers and journals, Wolff In particular, by joining forces with sorrows, “Ballads” as well as “Varied earlier influential immigrants from the broadly depicts his Forty-eighter self in Poems” “Travel Pictures” “Epigrams” Fatherland, the Forty-eighters in the post- the small book Literarischer Nachlaß and translations from the (Literary Legacy) published just a year Civil War period strongly influenced 6 of short works by Klaus Groth. From American scruples evidenced by the after his death. Unpretentious, the book Ditmarschen in Schleswig Holstein, flourishing ideology of Puritanism. Often includes speeches, poems, and a novel by Groth became a teacher in a girl’s school with such persons as Fritz Anneke and the first 1848er in Minnesota. Educated in in where he had been born then Hans Reimer Claussen, legislation favor- theology at Göttingen University, Wolff studied in but soon retired to the able to equal rights for women was ad- was captured for participating in revolu- Island of Fehmarn where he wrote most vanced, alongside such more mundane ef- tionary street fighting in 1849 in Dresden, of his poems. Why Wolff found these forts as keeping the Sabbath for pleasure sentenced to death (some say to ten years poems worthy of translation from the as well as for church. Of equal importance in prison) but like many other Forty- Plattdüütsch is unclear. were the Forty-eighter efforts on behalf eighters had his punishment commuted On November 2, 1861 Wolff pub- of organized labor. Perhaps most impor- on the condition of going into exile.7 lished his Civil War poem, “Marching tantly for immigrants from Germany after Sailing for the United States in 1852, Song of the Minnesota German the Civil War, the Forty-eighters could Wolff arrived in St. Paul in November of Squadron,” prescribed for singing to the identify their nationality group with the the same year taking employment with a melody of “Zu in Banden.” The Great Emancipator. Forever, they could confectionery run by Franz Anton Renz melody was known in Napoleonic times see themselves as having formed a bul- (born April 23, 1825 in Malsch, Baden) as the Lied, Hofer being wark against the immorality of slavery, and Karcher and soon took a farm claim an innkeeper by trade who became the against the illegality of secession, and not in Carver County. military leader of the Tyrolean rebel- least, against the xenophobia of Nativism. Not suited for nor satisfied with lion against the Napoleonic occupation Indeed they had fought hard if not always farming, Wolff on November 19, 1855 of in 1809. Captured after a losing with distinction for the Union, and as im- with Friedrich Orthwein initiated the battle, Hofer was executed at Mantua migrants had earned the right to partici- first German-language newspaper in in Italy on February 20, 1810 by the pate in the tumultuous years of America’s Minnesota, probably at Carver, the French military on the personal order of industrial growth and economic boom Minnesota Deutsche Zeitung, (1855/6– . Today the song is the official

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 13 anthem of the Austrian State of Tyrol. It the Burnard warning. Hans Mattson, ap- Westphalia, where he found emigrants became very popular in 1848 as a ral- pointed by Governor William Rainey destined for relatives in and lying cry of the Austrians for inclusion Marshall in August 1866 as Minnesota Illinois, a decision Wolff claimed he in the German parliamentary move- special agent for immigration, was also could have averted in such regions if he ment at Frankfurt, aimed especially the immigration agent for various rail- had but a small newspaper-advertising against Italian irredentism. Today the roads writing that “a prominent newspaper budget. Having spent some of his own song remains popular with the German- writer in Kansas accused me of selling my salary to publish material in several key speaking majority in , an country men to a life not much better than newspapers, he vouched for the efficacy Italian province since World War I, slavery in a land of ice, snow and perpet- of newspaper advertising. though rejected as an official anthem ual winter, where, if the poor emigrant did Wolf reports to Governor Austin in by the provincial Landtag (parliament) not soon starve to death, he would surely 1870 that sailing and steamer vessels in 2004.10 perish with cold.”13 In their defense, departing in March or early April left Wolff was much in demand as a lec- Minnesotans flung sharp barbs at southern port with meager consignments of emi- turer at ceremonies and celebrations Midwest states, “the malarious exhala- grants and cargo but toward the end of in the German community, five of his tions from the undrained soil of Indiana, April and in May shippers were depart- orations being reprinted in Nachlaß.11 Illinois, and other states of the Southern ing over-loaded but still losing money He addressed an audience on May 26, Mississippi Valley, yield an annual harvest because they were unable to dispatch all 1860 dedicating the flag for the St. Paul of fevers” whereas Minnesota “enjoys an the waiting emigrants. They lost money Turnverein, at the laying of the founda- almost entire immunity.” The best way to because the boarding houses, according tion for the statue of Hermann in New cure consumption counter pundits argued to contract, demanded full payment for Ulm June 24, 1888 and for the dedica- was to come to Minnesota. room and board when emigrants were tion of the St. Paul German theater, the Wolff’s reports from to delayed. Wolff laments on the one hand Athenaeum, on November 11, 1859, Governor Horace Austin provided the that emigrants arriving in Bremen often which was the centennial of Schiller’s governor with much detail. Writing on know exactly where they were headed in birth. The Nachlaß includes his short his- September 7, 1870, Wolff stated, “Before the United States; still “whole groups of tory of Minnesota Territory from 1859, the close of my first official term I was them, belonging sometimes to the best a small book of Vermischte Gedichte informed that the probability of a reap- class too, were perfectly free yet to go (Assorted Poems) and an article from pointment was great. Relying thereon I where they pleased, having no relatives July 10, 1870 about the Bremen stock ex- was enabled to continue my labors. . . .” or friends in America but having been change where Wolf served as Minnesota Expanding on this point, Wolf went on: induced to emigrate,” in fear of the com- Commissioner of Immigration. “Replying to letters of information seek- ing war (the anticipated Franco-Prussian ers from all parts of Germany; writing battle at Sedan, 1870). “These groups Wolff Promotes Emigration letters of advice to the local agents, with amounted to thousands of well-to-do Early in 1869 the State of Minnesota ship freighters in all the principal cities of peaceful people of all ages, sexes and made the state board of immigration con- Germany, informing them of my presence social classes from pleasant and happy tinuous and permanent with a scheme here and requesting them to divert those homes.” Never before had Wolff beheld that in addition to furnishing informa- who effected with them contracts for sea such crowds of emigrants whose wealth tion about Minnesota, this group would passage, to me for information as to the shone forth in their dress and baggage, devise advertising stratagems that en- best place of settlement in America.” good education, and fine bearing. These couraged newcomers to settle in the In his correspondence Wolff also people were being lodged with board in state. Intending to target farmers from complains that he has to write everything the emigrant houses for about 40 cents a Germany, in March of that year Albert long hand because there is not enough day while hotels cost between two and Wolff was made the Minnesota State money for printed material. He writes three Thalers a day. Commissioner for Germany, a position editors of periodicals and newspapers An enterprising Wolff had cartoons he held for two years, writing interesting to “concentrate emigration to Minnesota printed for advertising in the boarding commentary back to the governor.12 where Germans were the most likely houses and shipper offices. Of consider- Problems to be overcome by “advertis- to find healthy and congenial climate, able effect were officers of the Bremen ing” swarmed. Eugene Burnard, the first the greatest supply of unoccupied lands Bureau of Information who were obliged Minnesota Commissioner of Emigration and the best chances for investments in to warn emigrants against agents and run- in his annual report of 1856 penned enterprises of industry.” Wolff likewise ners for American corporations, sending “Our high northern latitude particularly, boasts of his ability to disabuse prospec- them to the Minnesota office, which was has, and in many instances, been made a tive emigrants of property speculators called a harbor of honest advice. A nega- bugbear to the emigrant and frightened with swindling land offers, gaining their tive side of this practice was the frequently him from risking his life among the al- faith as a state agent. In addition to his mistaken assumption that Wolff would leged mountains of ice in this Territory.” work in the Bremen office, Wolff made pay for the emigrants’ transportation to Plenty of other commentators confirmed forays into the Prussian provinces of the state he represented. By the converse,

14 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY many times emigrants offered to pay him for his civic amenities, which he al- ways declined. Routinely, Wolff visited the 57 Bremen emigrant houses scattered throughout the city and the 23 emigrant shipper offices located on the main street. In mid-1870, 13,000 Prussian Landwehr soldiers were quartered in Bremen on a temporary basis. These were men between the ages of 24 and 29, who were mostly unmarried. Wolf supplied them with pam- phlets by the thousands to take home to Brandenburg once the war would end.14 Perhaps the most extensive piece in the Nachlaß is his “Otakte, der Vieltödter” (Otakte the Killer of Many) a novel about the Dakota War with the United States in The top portion of page one of the January 6, 1877 edition of the Minnesota Staats-Zeitung, and around New Ulm in 1862. Typical which Wolff edited for a time. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. of all Forty-eighters, Wolff portrays his German passion for the slave and the tinues until September 2, 1941. During It was just 10:30 Engineer Brunson says, Native American. A mulatto who was that three-quarters of a century, the paper when a Chicago-Great Western locomotive, harshly treated by slave owners in New necessarily went through many editors. pulling two cabooses, puffed across the rail- Orleans vows vengeance and flees north Obituaries in 1893 state that Wolff had to join the Dakota tribe in Minnesota, mar- road bridge which spans the Mississippi river been employed by the paper for twenty rying the daughter of a chief. Furnished at the foot of Jackson street and pulled into years and that he had retired from this po- money and arms by an English agent and the union depot yards. . . . When the engine sition on September 3 of the same year. a Confederate spy, he both instigates and was about twenty feet distant Wolff stepped Wittke writes that Wolf was on the staff then leads the 1862 uprising. Ranging from the platform to the side of the track, and of the Minnesota Staatszeitung during from New Orleans to the Red River when the locomotive was within two feet of four decades even though the latter paper Valley in Canada, the story incorporates Wolff the suicide threw himself face down- lasted only from 1858–1877.15 important figures like General Henry wards. . . . The engine which killed Wolff is Albert Wolff came to an unfortu- Sibley, Chief Little Crow (Taoyateduta), No.106 of the Great Western line, and was nate demise as reported by both his own John Otherday (Ampatutokacha), and running about five miles an hour when it Tägliche Volkszeitung on November 25, places like Fort Ridgley, the International struck the unfortunate man. . . . 1893 and the St. Paul Pioneer Press on House in St. Paul, and the Dakota House Deputy Coroner Xanten found that November 26, 1893. In its headline, the in New Ulm. His Forty-eighter biases in Wolff’s legs were crushed and his body had Pioneer Press reads, “One of the leading view throughout, Wolff portrays Indian been horribly mangled. The body was re- German-Americans of St. Paul, for many customs, lore, and traditions with his text moved to Willwerscheid’s undertaking rooms years editor of the Volkszeitung is driven references and abundant notes. The novel on 461 St. Peter street. . . . Mr. Wolff leaves by business troubles to take his own appeared originally in the Literaturblätter behind a wife, who was Miss Sommers be- life—the body of the suicide is terribly of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. fore her marriage. Their married life was an mangled—sketch of the long and useful unusually happy one. . . . Mr. Wolff’s tragic The Death of Wolff career of a Journalist.” The newspaper death was paramount yesterday in the minds then gave this profile of Wolff: The role that Albert Wolff played at of everyone connected with the Volkszeitung the Minnesota Tägliche Volkszeitung Yesterday (Saturday) forenoon at 10:30 office and many silent tears fell on copy, (People’s Daily) is unclear. Published Albert Wolff sixty-eight years of age, a case and ledger. . . . He had been in the em- in St. Paul, this German daily stretched prominent German-American resident of St. ploy of that paper for twenty years, and all from October 7, 1866 when volume 5 Paul, and for more than eighteen years edi- had learned to love and revere the quiet old announces on page one that “we are tor in chief of the Volkszeitung, sought a fear- man. In speaking of the deceased, Mr. C. H. here for the first time as a daily German- ful death beneath the wheels of a locomotive Lienau, proprietor of the Volkszeitung, who language paper.” The paper’s irregular in the Union Depot yards. . . . The railroad was acquainted with him long before Mr. issuance is because the paper began as a men at work about the yards noticed Wolff Wolff entered his employ, said: “After being weekly in November 1861. Then instead . . . when he was seen to step in front of a connected with several papers in this state, of continuing the sequencing, in the fol- moving train, the Omaha Transfer, which Mr. Wolff became editor of the Volkszeitung lowing October 1867 issue, the paper connects the East St. Paul tracks with the in 1877, and when in 1878 I took charge re-numbers itself as Volume 2 and con- western division . . . the engineer stopped. . . . of the paper he remained as its editor. He

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 15 remained with the paper until September 23 of the Minnesota Democrat. He next when he decided he needed a vacation, and went to New Ulm, where he published accordingly resigned, and I took charge of the a German paper. About this time he be- editorial column. He had been away from the came emigration agent for Germany with paper but a short time when he concluded that headquarters at Bremen. He held this of- it was better for him to be engaged in some fice for two years. Before this he was work . . . and through friends applied for a for a time part owner of the Minnesota department position in Washington, which he Staats Zeitung, published in St. Paul. failed to obtain. He became more despondent When the Staats Zeitung and Democrat than ever though . . . he had no cause to be were consolidated as the Volkszeitung, for he has a nice home worth about $7,500 he became its editor. [the first house he built was at 318 Goodhue “Mr. Wolff often told me about his Street, just off West 7th Street in St. Paul, early life in Germany and it was, to say built by Wolff in 1887 in Queen Anne-style; the least, very interesting to listen to him. at the time of his death, Wolff owned a house He first studied theology. Before his theo- at 220 Prescott Street]. . . . About a week logical studies were hardly completed he ago he went to the office of the German Life became involved in the revolution of 1848 Insurance Company with which he carried a in Dresden. He became a political pris- life policy, and asked of the company’s rep- oner and the death sentence was passed resentative whether if he should die in some upon him. This sentence was commuted unnatural manner the money would be paid and for three years he was a prisoner, fi- to his heirs. Receiving an affirmative reply, nally obtaining his release on a promise he appeared to feel relieved. He was a very to leave the country. He was a very intel- intelligent man and a very faithful worker, ligent man and a forcible speaker, and, never missing a day from the office. He was although of a retiring nature, was consid- a forcible and ready writer and an excellent ered by his friends very companionable. all-round newspaper man. During the sum- He was, however, at all times subject to 16 mer when so many banks were failing [in the fits of melancholy.” financial crisis known as the Panic of 1893] Albert Scheffer (1844–1905), a St. Paul Mr. Wolff became fearful that he would lose banker and businessman with ties to his money and accordingly withdrew it from Die Volkszeitung, and a Union veteran a bank where it had been for some time and of the Civil War who had been born in in one week successively deposited and with- Prussia and would later suffer great fi- drew it from four banks. nancial losses in the ongoing economic depression, remembered his old friend: One of Wolff’s closest friends and “After leaving the college of theology, early employer, F.A. Renz whose con- Wolff joined with the forces of Siegel, fectionary was on Third Street (now Schurz, Hecker, Anneke and other patri- Kellogg Boulevard) but who lived at ots in the revolutions of 1848. He soon On October 1, 1893 the headline “An Able 1034 Summit Avenue, spoke about the found himself behind prison bars and Journalist” announced the Wolff’s retirement fallen editor: “In the year 1853 while was condemned to die, but from this on page 7 of the St. Paul Daily Globe. Photo in Galena Illinois, I was requested by fate he was spared, coming to this coun- courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. several gentlemen of that city who had try as an exile. . . . He was sent to the become interested in Wolff then a young legislature by Carver county [and] . . . the newspaper world he took the high- man and a recent arrival from Germany, had a thorough education and . . . was est rank, and, although he received many to take him with me to St. Paul. He especially well versed in German clas- flattering offers from papers in St. Louis, came with me and for two years was sic literature. He was also a Greek and Chicago, Toledo, Baltimore, Milwaukee, in my employ. He then went to Carver Latin student . . . and was copied by County and took a claim. He remained German papers throughout the world. . . . Cincinnati and other cities, he refused there for about two years when he re- twenty-six years ago he married a Miss them all and remained loyal to St Paul. turned to St. Paul and became editor of Sommers but their union was never He was very popular with the Germans of the Minnesota Zeitung which position he blessed with children. Socially, although St. Paul and the state.”17 occupied for a little over a year, when he he was somewhat diffident, he was of a Maurice Auerbach (1835–1915), an- returned to Carver County this time to very pleasant disposition, and, while he other prominent St. Paul businessman, publish a paper, the Minnesota Thalbote. shunned society, he was very warm in who was a founder of the Merchants Returning to St. Paul he became editor his intercourse with his old friends. In National Bank and an officer of the

16 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Union Bank, said of Wolff: “I have Niemand ahnte, daß er, dessen Geist Germany west of the Elbe River.19 Some known Mr. Wolff since 1857 and have selbst die Gefängnißmauer 1848 umga- were extreme reformers like Weitling, entertained the highest regard for him. ben, die Beschwerden des Pionier- Sorge, Weydemeyer and others who ad- He was very popular with the Germans Lebens im Urwald nicht zu brechen ver- vocated social revolution according to of all classes. . . . I saw him a day or mochten, wirklich selbst Hand an sich two ago. He was low-spirited then, but I legen würde. . . . Das gnaze Deutschtum the gospel of . In America, never dreamed of his committing this act. Minnesotas für welches er in den 40 the Forty-eighters met anew the “des- He had an idea that if he lived any length Jahren seines journalistischen Thätigkeit potism of the plantation,” not unlike the of time, he would come to want.” so manche Lanze gebrochen, wird mit uns Junker Gutshäuser against which many Louis Stern, associated with Wolff bedauern daß ein Mann von so glänzen- of them had struggled in the Old Country. some nine years at the Volkszeitung and den Geistesgabe, so voll hoher und edler Enthusiastically, the Forty-eighters sup- who was on the eve of his departure to Gedanken, so enden sollte. (No one had a serve a consul in Germany, could not clue that a man whose spirit the very prison ported the cause of the North, join- speak without tears: “We all held Mr. walls of 1848 engrossed, and which the tri- ing Lincoln’s army in the Civil War to Wolff in the highest esteem and his death als of pioneer life in the virgin forest were fight against the monopoly of land and has caused profound sorrow to us all. I be- unable to breach, would ever lay a hand privilege they had encountered in the lieve now however, that he has been con- on his own self. . . . The entire German Fatherland. Others belonged to the for- templating this rash act for some time for community of the state of Minnesota, for gotten thousands whose lives blended when I last saw him a day or two ago, he whom he fractured many a spear during talked as if he must soon part, and there his 40 years of journalistic endeavor, will with the American stream. Some just was a very noticeable current of sadness mourn with us that a man of such titanic disappeared completely from sight after in his conversation. I cannot imagine what mind full of high and noble ideas should a struggle to make a livelihood in a new induced him to do what he has done.”18 finish this way.) land. Somewhere between the known and The Volkszeitung headlined: “Albert the forgotten stands Albert Wolff. Wolff nicht mehr. Er sucht den Tod Nevertheless, Minnesota’s distin- und findet ihn unter den Rädern eines guished Forty-eighter belongs in their LaVern J. Rippley has been a member of Eisenbahnzuges. —Ein braver Deutscher imaginary hall of fame. the German Department at St. Olaf Col- weniger! Allgemeine Trauer.” (“Albert German Forty-eighters included men lege for many years and has published Wolff no longer. He sought his own death and women of many political persua- and found it under the wheels of a loco- sions from diverse economic and social frequently on German culture in the Upper motive. One fewer of our great Germans. groups. During the two years follow- Midwest, recently The Chemnitzer Con- Wide-spread sorrow everywhere.”) ing 1848, 978 out of 1,000 came from certina: A History and an Accolade.

Endnotes 1. See LaVern J. Rippley, “The 1848ers: Germany’s Gift to Press, 1952; reprint edition Westport CT: Greenwood Press, (2) His hands on his back, the innkeeper Hofer strode, with America,” German Life (February-March 1998): 64. Editorial. 1970), p.118. calm and firm steps, death meant little to him, Death which 2. Peter Schrag, Not Fit for Our Society: Nativism and 8. Karl J. R. Arndt and May E. Olson, German-American he had himself sent sometimes, from Iselberg into the valley Immigration (Berkeley: University of California Press, Newspapers and Periodicals 1732–1955, History and :: In the holy land Tyrol, in the holy land Tyrol [major cities in 210); Bruce Levine, “Conservatism, Nativism, and Slavery: Bibliography (: Quelle & Meyer, 1961), 220 ff. for South Tyrol, Brixen, Meran, Bozen]. Thomas R. Whitney and the Origins of the Know-Nothing a rather complete listing of Minnesota German newspapers. 11. Downs, 328. Party,” Journal of American History, 88:2 (September 2001): For early details see John Massmann, “Friedrich Orthwein: 12. Harold F. Peterson, “Early Minnesota Railroads and the 455–488 and others. Minnesota’s First German Editor,” American-German Review Quest for Settlers,” Minnesota History, 13:1 (March 1932), (April–May, 1960), 16–17, 38. See also Edward D. Neill, 3. See in general, Ernest Bruncken, “German Political 25–44, p. 28. Theodore C. Blegen, “Minnesota’s Campaign for History of the Minnesota Valley: Including the Explorers and Refugees in the United States during the Period from 1815– Immigrants: Illustrative Documents,” Yearbook of the Swedish Pioneers of Minnesota (Minneapolis: North Star Publishing, 1860,” Deutsch-Amerikanische Geschichtsblätter, Vols. 3 Historical Society of America, 11 (1936), 29–83. 1882), 504. and 4 (1903–1904), 33–48, 59. 13. Reminiscences, the Story of an Emigrant (St. Paul, 1892), 9. Serving as editor of the Staatszeitung from 1858–1860 p. 101 quoted in Blegen, 6. 4. See in general, Justine Davis Randers-Pehrson, Germans was the Radical Republican Samuel Ludvigh, famous for and the Revolution of 1848–1849 (New York: Peter Lang, 14. Here and above, the Reports printed in the files of his diatribes against American slavery and other social ills of 1999). Governor Austin and published in Blegen, 55–64. the times. See for example, Reden und Vorlesungen und pro- 15. Wittke, 269. 5. A. E. Zucker, ed., The Forty-eighters: Political Refugees saische Aufsätze, im Gebiete der Religion, Philosophie und 16. St. Paul Pioneer Press, November 26, 1893. of the German Revolution of 1848 (New York: Columbia Geschichte (Baltimore: self-published, 1854). University Press, 1950). 17. Ibid. 10. The words in English translation are: (1) At 6. Lynwood G. Downs, “The Writings of Albert Wolff,” Mantua captivated, the loyal Hofer was. At Mantua into 18. Ibid. Minnesota History, 27:4 (December 1946): 327–29. death, his enemies him led. With bleeding hearts his 19. Marcus L. Hansen, “The Revolutions of 1848 and German 7. Carl Wittke, Refugees of Revolution. The German Forty- brother were, all of Germany dishonored and in pain, Emigration,” Journal of Economic and Business History, 2 Eighters in America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania :: And with its land Tyrol, and with its land Tyrol. (August 1930): 630–658, here 633.

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This portrait of Albert Wolff was reproduced as the frontispiece in his posthumously published Literarischer Nachlaß. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

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