Catalog
March of the Governors #24: Elmer Benson
Paul Nelson & Tom O'Connell with Steve TrimbleMarch of the Governors, Governor #24 Elmer Austin Benson (Series Podcast #25) We are unlikely to see a politician like Elmer Benson ever again. The small-town, left-wing banker served briefly as a US Senator before becoming governor. He was a genuine political…
March of the Governors #23: Hjalmar Petersen
Paul Nelson and Tyler TaylorMarch of the Governors, Governor #23 Hjalmar Petersen (Series Podcast #24) Hjalmar Petersen (1890-1968) holds many distinctions as a governor of Minnesota: our only Dane, our only Hjalmar, our last immigrant (so far), our only governor from Askov (so far), and the…
March of the Governors #22: Floyd B. Olson
Paul Nelson, Fred Johnson, and Tom BeerMarch of the Governors #22 Floyd Bjornstjerne Olson (Series Podcast #23) By age thirty, Floyd Bjornstjerne Olson (1891-1936) had been a shabbos goy, a college dropout, a stevedore, and a Wobbly. By age forty, he had served ten years as Hennepin County…
March of the Governors #21: Theodore Christianson
Paul Nelson and Matthew WrightMarch of the Governors #21: Theodore Christianson (Series Podcast #22) Theodore Christianson (1883-1948) was a farm boy from Lac Qui Parle County and a progressive Republican who proved eminently successful as a vote-getter and as a government reformer. He was the…
March of the Governors #20: Jacob A. O. Preus
Paul Nelson and Matt WrightMarch of the Governors, Governor #20 Jacob A. O. Preus (Series Podcast #21) By age forty-one, Jacob A. O. Preus had been Minnesota’s insurance commissioner and state auditor and had served two successful terms as governor (1921-1925). On his watch, the Minnesota…
March of the Governors, Governor #19 Joseph AA Burnquist
Paul Nelson and Fred JohnsonMarch of the Governors, Governor #19 Joseph Alfred Arner Burnquist (Series Podcast #20) Joseph Alfred Arner Burnquist (1879-1961), born in Dayton, Iowa, was destined for leadership from an early age. A star student and orator at Carleton, he was in the…
March of the Governors, Governor #18 Winfield Scott Hammond
Paul Nelson and Ken PetersonMarch of the Governors, Governor #18 Winfield Scott Hammond (Series Podcast #19) Winfield Scott Hammond (1863-1915) was Minnesota’s eighteenth governor and the last of only four from the Democratic Party (decades before, by merger, it became the DFL.) He was the…
March of the Governors, Governor #17, Adolph Olson Eberhart
Paul Nelson and Ken PetersonAdolph Eberhart Podcast Link Adolph Eberhart (1870-1944) was a penniless, immigrant child from Varmland, Sweden, who embraced the opportunities the United States offered. Despite minimal schooling, he was named valedictorian of his class at Gustavus Adolphus College. He later became…
March of the Governors, Governor #16, John Albert Johnson
Paul Nelson and Ken PetersonJohn Albert Johnson Podcast Link Minnesota’s sixteenth governor, John Albert Johnson, was our fourth from St. Peter. He had a “rags-to-riches Horatio Alger life.” The son of Swedish immigrants, he quit school at age twelve to support his mother and siblings. Self-educated, he eventually became a newspaper…