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Ramsey County History Fall 2024

John W. Diers, Jim McCartney, Adam Bledsoe

Ramsey County History Fall 2024 Volume 59, No. 4: Fall 2024 John W. Diers, Jim McCartney, Adam Bledsoe Link to download PDF of full Ramsey County History Fall 2024   Articles in this issue: Growing Up on the Empire Builder Author: John W. Diers John W. Diers’…

Growing Up on the Empire Builder

John W. Diers

Photography by Hedrick-Blessing PR By John W. Diers To see this complete magazine article with endnotes and additional images, please view the PDF version. John Diers’ article is reprinted with permission from the publishers of TRAINS magazine, with minimal style adaptations. The original first-person story titled, “A night on…

The Everyday Activism of the North Central Voters League in St. Paul

Adam Bledsoe

North Central Voters League President Raymond Hill did not mince words when it came to addressing disparities in St. Paul’s Black community. The NCVL first met at the Gopher Elks Lodge at 559 Carroll Avenue before moving to a building on Iglehart. Photograph by Dwight Miller, in Minneapolis Star, December…

Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs, and Salvation of Cornbread Harris

Reviewed by Tom Eggum

Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs, and Salvation of Cornbread Harris Andrea Swensson Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2024 200 pages; cloth/jacket, 50 b&w illustrations, $22.95   Andrea Swensson’s Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs, and Salvation of Cornbread Harris is a biography of James Samuel Harris II (Cornbread Harris) and…

The Fraud of the Century

Paul Nelson

St. Paulite Clarence Cochran was convicted of fraud and reported to Leavenworth in 1930. Mugshot courtesy of National Archives of Kansas City, Record Group 129, Records of the Bureau of Prisons, Leavenworth Penitentiary, Inmate Case Files (1895-1952), National Archives Identifier 571125. By Paul Nelson To see this complete magazine…

March of the Governors #27: Luther Youngdahl

Tom Beer, Paul Nelson

March of the Governors Podcast Governor #27: Luther Youngdahl Series Podcast #29 From his youth, Luther Youngdahl (b. 1896) aspired to be a judge, and he succeeded: Minneapolis Municipal Court (1930-1936), Hennepin County District Court (1936-1942), Minnesota Supreme Court…

History Revealed: Nature’s Crossroads

George Vrtis and Christopher W. Wells

Nature’s Crossroads: The Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota: A Wide-Ranging Environmental and Historical Study of the Evolution of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul Area With George Vrtis and Christopher W. Wells History Revealed Series Program Date: Thursday, June 22, 2023 YouTube Video In…

Ramsey County History – Summer 2022: “Bob Brown: ‘Paint What You See'”

Paul Nelson

Bob Brown: “Paint What You See” Author: Paul Nelson This is the story of a solitary St. Paul resident named Bob Brown. Attempting to make a living in the midst of the Great Depression was difficult, to say the least, but Brown took long walks around the…

History Revealed: Closing Time

Bill Lindeke and Andy Sturdevant

Closing Time Bill Lindeke and Andy Sturdevant History Revealed Series Program Date: September 17, 2020 YouTube Video Authors and historians Bill Lindeke and Andy Sturdevant talk about the history of some of the iconic bars that have come and gone in the Twin…