Churchwoman, suffragist, organizer, singer: The life of St. Paul’s Nellie Francis
Francis pressed the limits of what an African American woman was permitted to achieve in early twentieth-century Minnesota.
MNopedia
Each week, MinnPost brings you a highlight of our state’s past from MNopedia, an encyclopedia of Minnesota history written by experts and produced by the Minnesota Historical Society.
This content is shared with MinnPost by MNopedia, the digital encyclopedia created by the Minnesota Historical Society and supported by the Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
How there came to be a statue of Leif Erikson on the grounds of the Minnesota Capitol
The memorial was part of the Scandinavian American community’s efforts to credit their ancestors — not Christopher Columbus — with the “discovery” of the Americas.
A brief overview of queer and trans history in Minnesota
There have always been people in Minnesota, as in the rest of the world, who have lived outside perceived norms of gender and sexuality; the words used to name them have changed over time.
New Ulm’s Minnesota Music Hall of Fame museum focuses on mid-20th-century musicians
By midcentury, due to the popularity of 18 professional bands with local roots, New Ulm was referred to as the Polka Capital of the Nation.
When St. Paul’s first High Bridge opened in 1889, it was one of tallest and longest bridges in the U.S.
The finished product — 2,770 feet long, 191 feet tall at its highest point, and made mostly of wrought iron — made the High Bridge a marvel of its time for the combination of height and length.
Was German Minnesota immigrant August Ruther a poisoner or a victim of prejudice?
Despite any direct evidence, a jury convicted Ruther of the murder of his brother-in-law after just eighty minutes of deliberations.
Emily O. Goodridge Grey was an advocate for Twin Cities Black residents
Grey was best known for initiating the effort to free an enslaved woman named Eliza Winston in 1860.
The long political career of Walter Mondale
Mondale was appointed Minnesota attorney general at the age of thirty-two and remained active in politics and public policy for his entire life.
Hastings, 1907: The burning of Brown’s Chapel AME
The church has been established two decades prior to give Hastings’ Black community a place of its own for worship.
Minnesotan Dr. Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa) was reservation doctor at Pine Ridge during the Wounded Knee massacre
Eastman later became a published author and popular lecturer.
In operation for nearly 80 years, Stillwater prison’s twine factory produced over a billion pounds of cordage
The plan to manufacture binder twine within the prison arose from many factors: farmers’ demands for cheap twine, political pressure to make the prison profitable, and reformers’ desire to provide skills to incarcerated people.
The many failed businesses of early Minnesotan William Gates LeDuc
From a bookstore to a flour mill to railroads and more.
New Ulm, Minnesota was once known as the ‘Polka Capital of the Nation’
New Ulm is now home to the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, which honors polka groups and dance orchestras from the state’s past as well as more contemporary musicians.
St. Paul’s Boyd Park commemorates a Black labor leader
Frank Boyd was a celebrated organizer in Minnesota for the country’s most influential African American labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, from 1926 to 1951.
Minnesota advocate Anna Arnold Hedgeman worked at the intersection of Black and women’s rights
Hedgeman was the only woman on the planning committee for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
In the 1940s, Edna Larrabee and Beulah Brunelle escaped from the Shakopee Reformatory for Women five times
Their fourth escape, in 1949, led to eight months of freedom and allowed the two women to live together as a couple while traveling around the United States.
167 years ago, the first rail link from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River was completed
To celebrate the feat, the Rock Island Railroad took a company of journalists and dignitaries on a rail and steamboat journey from the East Coast all the way to St. Paul.
St. Paul’s Harry Shepherd opened Minnesota’s first Black-owned photography studio
Shepherd was also a candidate for St. Paul alderman but did not win the endorsement of his local Republican organization, something he attributed partially to the color of his skin.
The Leech Lake and Mille Lacs reservations were created after the 1855 Treaty of Washington
Not all Ojibwe were happy with the treaty, which had been signed far away by a handful of leaders.
The fur trade in Minnesota shaped the region for two centuries
The North American fur trade knocked on the door of Mni Sota Makoce (Dakota homelands, present-day Minnesota) in 1679 when Sieur du Lhut (Daniel Greysolon), an emissary of the French government, visited the Dakota village at Bde Wakan (Mille Lacs) and watched the Ojibwe renew their alliance with their Dakota trading partners.
