RAMSEY COUNTY A Roof Over Their Heads: The Ramsey County Home A Publication of the Ramsey County Historical Society Page 13 Summer, 2000 Volume 35, Number 2 Dilettante, Renaissance Man, Intelligence Officer Jerome Hill and His ‘Dearest Mother’ Letters —Page 4 Jam es J. Hill, Il (Jerome HUI) in Air Corps uniform, photographed around 1942, probably at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. See article beginning on Page 4. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Priscilla Farnham Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz RAMSEY COUNTY Volume 35, Number 2 Summer, 2000 HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Laurie A. Zenner CONTENTS Chair Howard M. Guthmann 3 Letters President James Russell 4 Dilettante, Renaissance Man, Intelligence Officer First Vice President Jerome Hill and His World War II Letters from Anne Cowie Wilson Second Vice President France to His ‘Dearest Mother’ Richard A. Wilhoit G. Richard Slade Secretary Ronald J. Zweber 13 A Roof Over Their Heads Treasurer The History of the Old Ramsey County ‘Poor Farm’ W. Andrew Boss, Peter K. Butler, Charlotte H. Drake, Mark G. Eisenschenk, Joanne A. Englund, Pete Boulay Robert F. Garland, John M. Harens, Judith Frost Lewis, John M. Lindley, George A. Mairs, Mar­ 20 Plans for Preserving ‘Potters’ Field’— Heritage of the lene Marschall, Richard T. Murphy, Sr., Linda Owen, Marvin J. Pertzik, Vicenta D. Scarlett, Public Welfare System Glenn Wiessner. Robert C. Vogel EDITORIAL BOARD 22 Recounting the 1962 Recount John M. Lindley, chair; James B. Bell, Thomas H. Boyd, Thomas C. Buckley, Pat Hart, Virginia The Closest Race for Governor in Minnesota’s History Brainard Kunz, Thomas J. Kelley, Tom Mega, Laurie Murphy, Vicenta Scarlett, G. Richard Thomas J. Kelley Slade, Laurie Zenner. 24 Growing Up in St. Paul HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD After Fifty Years, You Can Go Home Again Elmer L. Andersen, Olivia I. Dodge, Charlton Dietz, William Finney, William Fallon, Otis Penny Payte McLeaish Godfrey, Jr., Robert S. Hess, D. W. “Don” Larson, George Latimer, Frank Marzitelli, 26 Books, Etc. Joseph S. Micallef, Robert Mirick, Samuel Morgan, Marvin J. Pertzik, J. Jerome Plunkett, James Reagan, Rosalie E. Wahl, Donald D. Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from Wozniak. Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H.Cowie, Jr. and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISIONERS Commissioner Rafael Ortega, chairman Commissioner Susan Haigh Commissioner Tony Bennett Commissioner Dino Guerin Message from the Editorial Board Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt Commissioner Janice Rettman ecause the more recent issues of Ramsey County History have concentrated on the mid­ Commissioner Jan Wiessner Bnineteenth century and the area’s pioneer heritage, this issue shifts to the mid-twentieth Paul Kirkwold, manager, Ramsey County century with the wartime experiences of Jerome Hill, grandson and namesake of the Empire Builder, James J. Hill. Historian and author G. Richard Slade uses Jerome Hill’s letters to Ramsey County History is published quar­ his mother while Hill was serving as an Army Air Forces intelligence officer in France in terly by the Ramsey County Historical the summer of 1944 as a window on southern France and Paris immediately following lib­ Society, 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Paul, Minn. 55102 (651-222- eration by the Allies. Jerome Hill’s reports of what he saw allow the reader to glimpse Paris 0701). Printed in U.S.A. Copyright, 2000, through the eyes of an observer who knew it well before the German army overran it in Ramsey County Historical Society. ISSN 1940. We then turn to a subject close at hand—the story of the Ramsey County “Poor Farm” Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. No and its adjacent cemetery in Maplewood. Authors Pete Boulay and Robert C. Vogel both part of this publication may be reprinted make a strong case for the value and usefulness of local history in current policy-making or otherwise reproduced without written decisions. Rounding out this issue is Tom Kelley’s account of the 1962 gubernatorial elec­ permission from the publisher. The Soci­ ety assumes no responsibility for statements tion recount. Although the recount itself is a familiar story in Minnesota politics, Kelley made by contributors. Fax 651-223-8539; provides the perspective of an insider who participated in the process as the state’s first e-mail address [email protected].; web site Election Procedures Advisor. His reminiscences remind us that balloting in elections is a address www.rchs.com serious business that is sometimes overlooked in the heat of a campaign. John M. Lindley, Chair, Editorial Board 2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Dilettante, Renaissance Man, Intelligence Officer Jerome Hill and Hi s World War II Letters from France to His ‘Dearest Mother’ G. Richard Slade ames Jerome Hill II was—in the most correct use of the word—a dilet­ ation, learning and understanding. tante, although his drive to perfection in his work and his patience in con­ Writing Home tinuing a challenging project extend the limits of that description. Third J Jerome had a personal discipline that was child of Louis Warren Hill and Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill, Jerome was not unusual in the aeons preceding cell bom in St. Paul on March 2, 1905, not only with a silver spoon in his mouth, phones, e-mail, copying machines, and but also carrying a collection of genes which combined to form him as a man fax; that meant he wrote his mother of vast and educated interests, a multi-faceted artist and a facile story teller. weekly about his life and goings-on. The letters were not always consequential,1 His heritage included, in addition to mural of a nude (towel draped by school and generally focused on Jerome’s exten­ the wealth created by his grandfather and administration request) Archimedes run­ sive social life: who was in town, with namesake and extended by his father, the ning down a classical street shouting whom he had dined (and where), what sense of family values and good manners “Eureka” upon his discovery of the dis­ sort of physical activity was on the held by his mother; the energy and de­ placement of volume in his bath. agenda, the movies he had seen and en­ After St. Paul Academy, a day school termination of the original James Jerome joyed, and a bit of scheduling. Jerome’s where the students wore uniforms and Hill; and the broadly diverse fascination life extended well beyond St. Paul. Al­ of his father with the technologies and es­ underwent a modest training in military though he and his siblings had built a thetics of the twentieth century. Jerome’s drill, and an experience which Jerome chalet-style retreat at North Oaks, Jerome family was quite close, with the four enjoyed and which he believed gave him no longer lived in Minnesota. Cortie and siblings being bom in a four-year span. a boost in his later army days, he went Maud had moved west and based their Young Jerome was particularly fond of east to school and graduated from Yale in separate lives around Los Angeles (Cor­ his slightly older sister Maud, and also 1926, just before the depression. For the tie) and San Francisco (Maud). Older enjoyed the company of older brother next dozen years, Jerome built a full life brother Louis stayed in St. Paul and took Louis and younger brother Cortlandt. around those activities that he enjoyed, Jerome was exposed to the fine arts and refined his esthetic senses of cre- care of family business. Father, Louis, from earliest childhood; the Louis Hills Sr., and mother Maud had noncompatible lived next door to Grandfather James J’s life styles and lived in separate houses Summit Avenue mansion, and were fre­ three blocks apart in St. Paul for two quent visitors to the big house and its decades. gallery of first-rate Barbizon paintings. Mother Maud was Jerome’s corre­ Father Louis was an early tinkerer with spondent of choice—she was doting (to motion picture making, and enjoyed using the extent of, among other things, arrang­ the vast scenery of Glacier Park as a setting ing for a weekly box of Dean’s peanut for films featuring members of his young brittle to be sent to Jerome well into his and active family. Louis would take his fa­ army career); she was titillated by gossip vorite touring automobile on a special rail about the famous names that Jerome was car that traveled behind Great Northern able to drop easily; and she always an­ trains to be sure that his family could get swered his letters promptly. Despite one about despite a paucity of real roads. or two visits that she would arrange each Young Jerome showed an early inter­ year to visit Jerome and the handful of est in making art, and his bedroom in their stops that Jerome would make in St. Paul, Summit Avenue home was fitted out with usually on his way somewhere else, the special drawers and tables to accommo­ correspondence flowed smoothly and date his drawing. A second-floor class­ endlessly. Jerome would pick up station­ ery wherever he might be, from hotels, room at St. Paul Academy was (and still An informal Jerome Hill in 1907 when he is) graced by a 1922 Jerome Hill-painted was around two years old. railroad trains, transatlantic liners, or, 4 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Jam es J. Hill with his wife, Mary, two of his grandchildren and many of his Great Northern Railroad employees at Glacier Park, Montana, in 1913. Jam es J. Hill, II, (Jerome) is the boy on the left, standing next to his brother, Cortlandt.