ORIGINAL RAMSEY COUNTY RAMSEY 1849 ( ) COUNTY HISTORY O R ~ pij<ap<© ,ijam and the ,ijl. p^^TrY" IkjjCM fS he», R>6MTS OF, m . I wonder if d re a ms come true. &M%m Fall ¥ 2. I’m a detective. ' 3. Laughing Song. I 4. Walking Telephone. 5. Ihi now a Millionaire. 1968 6 . Cobbler^ Song & Chorus. 7. Happy Rhymes. 8. Papa& pants will soon fit' Willie Volum e 5 N um ber 2 Ramsey County History Published by the RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Editor: Virginia Brainard Kunz Contents... Theater in Old St. Paul Page 3 Frank M. Whiting Fall Charley Pitts’ Wandering Skeleton Page 12 1968 Bernheimer Block Memories Linger Page 13 Volume 5 Kohlman’s Hotel and the Resort Era Page 16 Number 2 Jerome 0. Schueler Forgotten Pioneers . VI Page 19 Silver Lake Childhood — Revisited Page 20 A Pioneer Family’s Sunday Page 21 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY is published semi­ ON THE COVER: “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” annually and copyrighted, 1968, by the Ramsey County was one of the musical extravaganzas of the late Nine­ Historical Society, 2097 Larpenteur Avenue West, St. teenth Century which often depended upon feminine Paul, Minn. Membership in the Society carries with it charm for their appeal. Reproduced is a portion of the a subscription to Ramsey County History. Single issues cover for one of the musical numbers. From the private sell for $1.00. Correspondence concerning contributions collection of Kenneth Carley, editor of Minnesota should be addressed to the editor. The Society assumes History. no responsibility for statements made by contributors. Manuscripts and other editorial material are welcomed ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Unless otherwise indicated, but, since the Society is an eleemosynary institution, pictures in this issue are from the Picture Department no payment can be made for contributions. All articles of the Minnesota Historical Society. The editor is in­ and other editorial material submitted will be carefully debted to Eugene Becker, picture curator, and his read and published, if accepted, as space permits. assistant, Dorothy Gimmestad, for their help. This was the St. Paul of 1857 to which Henry Van Liew came with his dream of a year-round theater. His People's Theatre is the long build­ ing not yet roofed over, standing behind the Theater In First Presbyterian Church on the corner of Old St. Paul Third Street and St. Peter. Extravaganzas, Melodramas BY FRANK M. WHITING CCORDING to old-time theatrical with a population of 10,000, was supporting A troopers, there were three bad weeks in three professional theatrical companies, a show business: Christmas week, Holy Week, minstrel show, a circus, a professional tent and St. Paul. Although such a reputation has show, and an amateur dramatic society. not been entirely unfounded during much of The history of theater in Minnesota Ter­ St. Paul’s history, it was far from true during ritory begins some thirty-six years earlier. the early, booming years before the Civil Chief figure in these early theatrical efforts War, for in the summer of 1857, St. Paul, was that frontier jack-of-all-trades, Joseph R. Brown — fur trader, lumberman, land speculator, legislator, newspaper editor, in­ ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Frank M. Whiting is director of the University Theatre at the University of Minne­ ventor, founder of cities, and the Old Fort sota and "captain" of the University’s Showboat. Winner Snelling Dramatic Club’s first leading lady. of the Evans award at Brigham Young University in Brown, himself, confessed to the latter 1930 as "the most distinguished graduate in dramatics," he received his master’s degree from the University of achievement in an editorial in the Henderson Utah in 1932, and his doctorate from the University of Democrat of June 12, 1856, when he com­ Minnesota in 1941. He is the author of the widely used mented on a professional performance of text, An Introduction to the Theatre. Material for his article was taken largely from his doctoral dissertation Pizarro at Market Hall: and was used in a speech he gave to a dinner meeting “The representation of this tragedy of the Ramsey County Historical Society in January caused our mind to wander back to the o f1968. winters of 1821 and 1822 when a thes- 3 pian corps used to murder Rolla in the “This book belonged to the Post Library Barracks at the mouth of the St. Peters. at Fort Snelling, Minnesota (then Iowa We were one of the performers; we done territory). I joined the Fifth Infantry in Elvira.” 1838. (Company I) The Library was an excellent one and I was its best patron. Records indicate that Brown was a drum­ It contained a large number of plays mer boy at that time and about 14 years old. from which we selected all we needed The rival newspaper, The Weekly Pioneer for representation in the Post theatre. and Democrat, seized upon his confession The company was made up from the with glee: soldiers stationed there. I played the principal female characters. We gave “Our corresponding editor (Joseph R. performances every fortnight. Major Brown) must permit us to indulge in a Plympton commanded the Post. His larf . He measures nearly six feet in daughter loaned me her dresses. I was height and about as much in circum­ there three years, 1838 - 1841. ference . We don’t think that even thirty-five years ago he was very deli­ “From this book I studied Iago to play cately formed or strikingly handsome. with Forrest as Othello — studied The idea of his representing tragedy at Othello to play with Junius Brutus any time of his life, in any character, Booth, the elder, as Iago. I have played strikes us as being sublimely ridiculous, every part in Othello excepting only but to attempt the impersonation of a Brabantio, and including Desdemona female character; to bind himself up and Emilia. Harry Watkins.” into stays and bodices and shroud him­ self in petticoats and other unnamable The record of soldier shows at Fort Snell­ female gear . to try to pass himself ing is incomplete, but enough fragments off as a woman; why, Brown, this was remain to remind us how fundamental the the most graceless, impudent imposture theatrical impulse is. Children on play­ ever perpetrated by you in any charac­ grounds, soldiers in World War II, Korea, ter you ever assumed.” Vietnam instinctively turn to the theater Brown was not the only player who made when they have time on their hands, and it his debut at Old Fort Snelling. In a well- was no different in the early days of Fort worn copy of Othello, Harry Watkins, one Snelling. Except for New Orleans, St. Louis of the prominent professional actors of the and Cincinnati, these soldier shows appear last century, wrote the following: to have been the earliest performances west of the Allegheny Mountains. THE FIRST professional theatrical per­ formance in Minnesota Territory took place in St. Paul, August 12, 1851, when seven players from Placide’s Varieties in New Orleans opened a two-week engagement at Mazurka Hall. The little troupe was under the leadership of one of the outstanding comedians of the day. George Holland, the man under whom Joseph Jefferson received his training. Holland also was the man for whom “The Little Church Around the Cor­ ner” in New York later was named. Jefferson, searching for a church where a funeral service might be conducted for his old friend, was informed that he might try “the little church around the corner.” But in St. Paul in 1851 George Holland was very much alive. In the last piece on the program, “A Day After the Fair,” Holland played six roles, including a French maid. JOSEPH R. BROWN The company was a great success and The 4 Minnesota Pioneer for August 28 reported Mazurka Hall, built in 1850, was the scene of that the house was “crowded to suffocation” the first professional theatrical performance on the last night. in Minnesota, August 12, 1851. That statement was only too true, to summer and this, moreover, was at a time judge by the following undated letter, prob­ when their own winter seasons were closed ably written in 1852 by Sara Fuller of St. Paul: and the players were on vacation. Star of the 1857 season was Sally St. Clair. “There was no windows, excepting in front, and the staging took those off, Young men fell in love with her, critics and all the air there was for the audi­ argued about her, and the public flocked to ence were the skylights overhead. We see her. The adulation heaped upon her had been there about ten minutes when may be seen in this excerpt from a long it commenced raining and they closed article which appeared in the Daily Minne- the skylights, and it was an oppressive sotian on June 22, 1857: warm night and they had been closed about five minutes when I began to grow “This accomplished lady proudly stands faint and Sam went out with me to the upon the very summit of that gorgeous door, and went for a tumbler of water temple of renown, the priestess of its for me and when he came back I had glories, and guardian of its fame . fainted and fell upon the doorstep . The highborn genius of Miss St. Clair My bonnet was completely covered flings a glory upon the drama . To all with mud, (I) lamed one side of my these she adds a perfect physique and face and had to wear a patch for more charming grace — a fine musical voice, than a week.