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Ramsey County History Winter 2023: Children’s Preventorium

Paul Nelson

Volume 57, Number 4: Winter 2023 The Children’s Preventorium of Ramsey County Author: Paul Nelson History is challenging to piece together, but author Paul Nelson got lucky as he profiled the Children’s Preventorium of Ramsey County at Lake Owasso. Thanks to elders who once lived there as…

March of the Governors, Governor #18 Winfield Scott Hammond

Paul Nelson and Ken Peterson

March 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…

Massacre in Minnesota: The Dakota War of 1862, the Most Violent Ethnic Conflict in American History

Reviewer: Mary Lethert Wingerd

Massacre in Minnesota: The Dakota War of 1862, the Most Violent Ethnic Conflict in American History Gary Clayton Anderson Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019 384 pages; hardcover, 42 b&w illustrations, 2 maps, $32.95 Did we really need another book about the Dakota War? My response…

Diesel Heart: An Autobiography

Reviewer: Mary Lethert Wingerd

Diesel Heart: An Autobiography Author: Melvin Whitfield Carter, Jr. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2019 256 pages; soft cover; 27 b&w photos; $17.95 Melvin Carter and I both grew up in Saint Paul in the 1950s and ’60s. But Carter’s hometown was a world away…

The Crusade for Forgotten Souls: Reforming Minnesota’s Mental Institutions, 1946–1954

Reviewer: Gary Gleason

The Crusade for Forgotten Souls: Reforming Minnesota’s Mental Institutions, 1946–1954 Susan Bartlett Foote Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2018 312 pages; soft cover; photos; $22.95 Susan Bartlett Foote has written an impressive book that combines a great story and exhaustive research about the early years of social…

Ramsey County History – Fall 2009: “St. Paul’s Biggest Party: The Grand Army of the Republic’s 1896 National Encampment”

Moira F. Harris and Leo J. Harris

St. Paul’s Biggest Party: The Grand Army of the Republic’s 1896 National Encampment Authors: Moira F. Harris and Leo J. Harris After the Civil War there had been annual Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) national conventions or “encampments” in many different cities. Between August 3 and September 4,…

Ramsey County History – Fall 2008: “Pith Heart & Nerve, Truman M. Smith: From Banker to Market Gardener”

Barry L. & Joan Miller Cotter

Pith Heart & Nerve, Truman M. Smith: From Banker to Market Gardener Authors: Barry L. & Joan Miller Cotter According to the authors, Truman Smith did not give up in the face of a major economic collapse in 1857; instead he showed resilience and used “pith, heart, and nerve”…

Ramsey County History – Summer 2008: “Our Courage and Cowards: The Controversy Surrounding Macalester College’s Neutrality and Peace Association, 1917”

Emily Skidmore

Our Courage and Cowards: The Controversy Surrounding Macalester College’s Neutrality and Peace Association, 1917 Author: Emily Skidmore When eighty students sent a petition to Woodrow Wilson in support of neutrality from the World War, Macalester College found itself enmeshed in what became a national controversy. The students formed a…

Ramsey County History – Spring 2008: “A Whirlwind of Crimes: The Crimes and Times of Wonnigkeit and Ermisch”

Janice R. Quick

A Whirlwind of Crimes: The Crimes and Times of Wonnigkeit and Ermisch Author: Janice R. Quick The story of two friends who ran around together and ran afoul of the law together. Both were of German ancestry. They were first arrested for burglary in 1892 and were sentenced to…