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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’…

Communist Clarence Hathaway and His Powerful Impact on Minnesota Politics

Jim McCartney

The Communist Party played an influential role in Farmer-Labor Party politics in the 1930s and early ’40s, thanks, in part, to relationships that Minnesota-born Clarence Hathaway developed with Gov. Floyd B. Olson and Gov. Elmer Benson. Hathaway image in Minneapolis Newspaper Photograph Collection, courtesy of Hennepin County Library; Olson/Benson images…

Rise to the Challenge: A Memoir of Politics, Leadership, and Love

Reviewed by Anne Cowie

Rise to the Challenge: A Memoir of Politics, Leadership, and Love Marlene M. Johnson Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2024 248 pages; cloth/jacket, 15 b&w plates, $24.95   Marlene Johnson came to leadership early. When she was just thirty-seven, she became Minnesota’s first woman lieutenant governor, assuming that position…

Decisions, Destiny, and Dreams: Plympton’s Reserve, St. Paul’s Founding, and Desnoyer’s New Bridge Square

Drew M. Ross

The Desnoyer Halfway House located on the St. Anthony Falls-St. Paul Road attracted soldiers from Fort Snelling, residents from growing villages along the Mississippi, and tourists traveling to the area to glimpse the cascading St. Anthony Falls. Courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society. By Drew M. Ross To see this…

Ramsey County History Spring 2023

Frank M. White, Matt Goff, Johannes R. Allert

Volume 58, Number 1: Spring 2023 Link to download PDF of RCHS Spring 2023 Magazine Articles in this Issue: From a Star on the Baseball Diamond to a Star at the Minnesota State Capitol: Billy Williams Author: Frank M. White A Slow…

Ramsey County History Spring 2023 – Billy Williams – Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums 2024 History Award Winner

Frank White

Volume 58, Number 1: Spring 2023 From a Star on the Ball Diamond to a Star at the Minnesota State Capitol Billy Williams Author: Frank M. White Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums 2024 History Award Winner In 1904, Billy Williams would have been happy making…

Ramsey County History Spring 2023 – People Mover

Matt Goff

Volume 58, Number 1: Spring 2023 A Slow Track to Nowhere St. Paul’s Downtown People Mover Author: Matt Goff In 1976, the federal government selected St. Paul as one of four US demonstration cities, along with Cleveland, Houston, and Los Angeles, to receive funding for a…

Our Minnesota State Capitol: From Groundbreaking through Restoration

Reviewer: Alan K. Lathrop

Our Minnesota State Capitol: From Groundbreaking through Restoration Author: Denis P. Gardner Foreword by Former Governor Mark Dayton St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2017 104 pages; softcover; 70 color and b&w illustrations; $19.95 With the brilliant restoration of the State Capitol building in St.

Ramsey County History – Spring 2009: “Minnesota Politics and Irish Identity: Five Sons of Erin at the State Capitol”

John W. Milton

Minnesota Politics and Irish Identity: Five Sons of Erin at the State Capitol Author: John W. Milton The author, a former state senator, researched the five men of Irish extraction who are honored in the State Capitol. The first is “The Senator: Nicholas David Coleman (1925–1981),” a St. Paulite…