Ramsey County History – Fall 1987: “The Great Horse Market Years at Prior and University”

The Great Horse Market Years at Prior and University
Author: John S. Sonnen

In the late nineteenth century, horsepower moved the city. In the early 1890s the street railway alone employed 800 equines. Where did the horses come from? The Minnesota Transfer Railway. Located in the Midway, it hauled thousands of them, shuttling them between railroads, so a horse market developed there. From that market arose its most successful and compelling figure, Moses Zimmerman. From 1896 into the early 1920s, he had a vast network, “buying and selling more horses than any other man in the Northwest,” according to the author. Thousands of horses were needed during the first World War. The business expanded into real estate and army surplus. Zimmerman changed with the times, eventually even buying a car.

PDF of Sonnen article