RAMSEY COUNTY Spring, 1991 istor Volume 26, Number 1 of the Ramsey County Historical Society | Frederick McGhee and his family on the porch of their home at 665 University Avenue, St. Paul, around 1918. He was among the African-American business and professional men and women who helped nurture, within a gracious community, several generations of achievers. See article beginning on page 4. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Daniel J. Hoisington Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Gregory K. Page Chairman o f the Board CONTENTS William S. Fallon 3 L etters President Joanne Englund 4 St. Paul’s Resourceful African-American Community First Vice President Arthur C. McWatt Anne Cowie Wilson Second Vice President 16 A National Tragedy—Homeless and Jobless in the 1930s Robert O. Straughn Virginia Brainard Kunz Secretary James P. Wicker 24 A Minnesotan Abroad—Alexander Wilkin and the Queen Treasurer Ronald M. Hubbs Thomas Boyd, John Costello, Deborah Gelbach, Joan Grzywinski, Lorraine 26 Books, Etc. Hammerly, Liz Johnson, John M. Lindley, Daniel John Hoisington Frank Marzitelli, Dr. Thomas B. Mega, Laurie Murphy, Richard T. Murphy, Sr., 27 A Matter of Time Marvin Pertzik, Mark Stein, Laurie Zenner. What’s Historic About This Site? EDITORIAL BOARD 30 The Woodland Park Historic District John M. Lindley, chairman; Thomas H. Boyd, Thomas C. Buckley, Charlton Dietz, David V. Taylor Thomas J. Kelley, Arthur McWatt, Dr. Thomas B. Mega. Publication of Ramsey County History is supported RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS in part by a grant from the Grotto Foundation and a gift from Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen Commissioner Hal Norgard, chairman Commissioner Diane Ahrens in memory of Henry H. Cowie, Jr. Commissioner John Finley Commissioner Ruby Hunt Commissioner Duane McCarty Commissioner Don Salverda Commissioner Warren Schaber A Message from the Editorial Board Terry Schütten, executive director, Ramsey County Ramsey County History is published quarterly an Hoisington, the Society’s executive director, is fond of saying: by the Ramsey County Historical Society, “We’re all historians.” Nowhere is this more evident than when 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, D St. Paul, Minn. 55102. Printed in U.S.A. we go through family letters, diaries or old photos seeking to recon­ Copyright, 1991, Ramsey County Historical struct some family history. The theme of the Society’s current “Have Society. ISSN Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be Lunch With an Historian” weekly lecture series is “Memories, Diaries reprinted or otherwise reproduced without and Letters.” written permission from the publisher. In conjunction with this, the Editorial Board of Ramsey County On the Cover: The first black criminal lawyer west of the Mississippi, Frederick H istory invites readers who would like to share an especially mean­ McGhee, shown with his home and family, ingful letter, diary, photo or artifact dealing with the history of Ram­ was a prominent Democrat and Catholic in St. Paul in the early 1900s. sey County to contact our office at 222-0701. We’ll help you deter­ Acknowledgements: Photographs on pages mine what bit of history your letter or photo contains. 5, 7 (James K. Hilyard), 8 (J. Frank Wheaton), 10 (Owen Howell), 11 (W. T. Francis’ house), 13 (the Vass house), and 14 We’re also interested in your comments on articles we’ve pub­ (the Adams house) are reprinted from the lished in Ramsey County History. We’re inviting you to bring a September 12, 1910, Quarto-Centennial celebration edition of The Appeal. The bag lunch and participate in a new discussion series based on photograph on page 17 is from A. A. these articles. The first is set for 12-1 p.m. April 20 in Court­ Heckman’s private files. The photograph on page 30 of the Bishop house as it appeared in room 408, Landmark Center. We’ll invite some of our writers to 1980 is from the Ramsey County Historical attend. Society collections. All other photographs are from fite audio-visual collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. —John M. Lindley, chairman, Editorial Board 2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Small and Cohesive St. Paul’s Resourceful African-American Arthur C. McWatt his article is an attempt to chronicle the lives of some of St. Paul’s 1900-1910 African-American* business and professional achievers during the period between 1900 and 1943. Throughout this period, these men By the first decade of the 20th century, T the black population of St. Paul was fairly and women were the leaders of the city’s small but cohesive African- well established. A quarter of them were American community. The community they nurtured lay, roughly, be­ native-born Minnesotans, and some fami­ tween Marshall and University, Dale and lies had been St. Paul residents for two Rice Streets. The now vanished Rondo presence of Dred Scott, a slave living in generations. Cultural institutions were in Street ran through its heart. There is little free territory as a servant of Fort Snelling’s place. Pilgrim Baptist and St. James Afri­ physical resemblance today to the neigh­ surgeon, precipitated the Supreme Court’s can Methodist Episcopal churches were borhood St. Paul’s black community knew famed “Dred Scott Decision.” James well established. The Pioneer Lodge of fifty years ago. Much of it was destroyed Thompson, another slave at Fort Snelling, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons had by urban renewal and Highway 94. This served as interpreter for a missionary at been organized by Moses Dixon, Joseph article is an attempt, then, to retrace de­ Kaposia and later settled in St. Paul. Farr,Israel Crosley and Jacob Pritchmen. cade by decade for a new generation the By 1848, thirty-five black men and (Black masonry had arrived in St. Paul in lives of these men and women and their women were living in Minnesota Territo­ 1866.) Negroes had won the right to serve achievements and also to recapture ry, most of them in St. Paul, Thompson as jurors. Church and social leader, T. H. through photographs a vanished part of St. among them. During the last third of the Lyles, had formed a Robert Bank’s Liter­ Paul’s history. 19th century, migration of blacks to Min­ ary Society at Pilgrim Baptist Church. In Tribute should be paid to the important nesota was steady and St. Paul, as the capi­ 1885 Samuel E. Hardy and John T. Bur- role the black press played in communicat­ tal, attracted many of them. gett had founded the Western Appeal, the ing, irritating and motivating the commu­ nity into new levels of awareness and change, and to the black scholars and businessmen who provided both role models and jobs for newly arriving black migrants and for their own young people. Finally, there is the resourcefulness of the black entrepreneurs who managed to sus­ tain their businesses and make them grow, despite difficult economic times, until a wartime economy presented them with new opportunities. The history of blacks in Minnesota and St. Paul dates back to at least 1802 and the birth of George Bonga, the son of a black frontiersman and a Chippewa woman, near what is now Duluth. In the 1830s the *Although the writer prefers “African- American,” other terms, including “Negro,” “Afro-American,” “colored” and “black” will be used as appropriate to vari­ ous time periods. The Rondo Sub-Station, shown here in 1927, at the corner of Rondo and Western. 4 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY immunity black community’s first major newspaper. F. D. Parker was its first editor. In 1886 the paper was sold to J. K. Hilyard and Thomas Lyles, who brought in John Quin­ cy (J.Q.)Adams from Louisville, Ken­ tucky, as associate editor. Parker helped bring the community together. One of the ways he chose to do this was to mount a campaign to hire black firefighters. Parker worked in the office of M. J. Bell, St. Paul’s register of deeds, and this put him in a good position to lobby for his cause. His efforts finally bore fruit. William R. C. P. Tyler and friends in his seven-seat Oldsmobile. Behind them, at 411-415 W. University Avenue, is W. B. Elliots store and residence. Godette was hired as the city’s first black firefighter. Charles H. Brown was ap­ ■■■-■HMMUIU the racist barbs of the Democratic-leaning pointed in 1887, and he was followed by St. Paul Pioneer—later the Pioneer Press. John Benjamin in 1888 and Frederick He not only raised the social consciousness Tobie in 1897. of his black readers but also alerted them All of them were assigned to Chemical to any transgressions against black citizens Company No.4, which was located on the in St. Paul. At its peak in the 1880s, The comer of Front and Auerbach (later Matil­ Appeal was published in Dallas, Washing­ da) Streets. The station was a real source ton, D.C., St. Louis, Louisville, Chicago of pride for the black community, despite and Minneapolis, as well as St. Paul, and the fact that the company (later renamed it had corresponding offices in Denver, Supply Hose Company No. 5) usually Milwaukee and Des Moines. received all the bog and dump fire calls Another event which undoubtedly throughout the city. These were fires that helped to strengthen the will of the com­ often lasted sixteen to eighteen hours be­ munity was the passage in 1898 of a civil fore they were put out, as James S. Griffin rights bill by the state legislature. It was in­ pointed out in his book, Blacks in the St. troduced by Minnesota’s first black Paul Police and Fire Departments, representative, J.