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March of the Governors #25: Harold Stassen

Paul Nelson with Ken Peterson

March of the Governors Harold Stassen, Governor #25 March of the Governors Podcast #27 Harold Stassen, Minnesota’s twenty-fifth governor, is among our most intriguing. He sprang to national attention as the state’s “Boy Governor,” elected in 1938 at…

March of the Governors, Governor #19 Joseph AA Burnquist

Paul Nelson and Fred Johnson

March 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 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…

History Revealed: Scottie Primus Davis

Mary K. Boyd, Chester C. Owens Jr. and Steve Trimble

Scottie Primus Davis: A Story Forgotten to Time With Mary K. Boyd, Chester C. Owens Jr. and Steve Trimble Moderated by Meredith Cummings, RCHS Editor History Revealed Series Program Date: Thursday, February 17, 2022 Video on YouTube In partnership with the East Side…

Minnesota’s Geologist: The Life of Newton Horace Winchell

Reviewer: Paul Nelson

Minnesota’s Geologist: The Life of Newton Horace Winchell Sue Leaf Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2020 280 pages; hardcover, 30 b&w plates, $29.95 Newton Horace Winchell deserves to be remembered. He was probably Minnesota’s greatest nineteenth-century scientist, a giant in not only geology but paleontology and…

A Life on the Middle West’s Never-Ending Frontier

Reviewer: Meredith Cummings

A Life on the Middle West’s Never-Ending Frontier Willard L. “Sandy” Boyd Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2019 394 pages; hard cover; 22 b&w photos; $35 A Life on the Middle West’s Never Ending Frontier is a well-written and sometimes humorous and self-deprecating memoir by St. Paul native…

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 – Summer 2008: “Growing Up In Saint Paul: Love in Bloom”

John L. Relf

Growing Up In Saint Paul: Love in Bloom Author: John L. Relf This is an excerpt from the author’s book My Story,  published in 2007. John Relf was born in 1927 and first lived on Portland Avenue near Fairview. He graduated from Central High School, entered the army and later…

Ramsey County History – Fall 2005: “Ramsey County’s Distinguished Agriculturist: Willet M. Hayes, the Scientist Who Saw ‘Shakespeares’ among His Plants”

Harlan Stoehr and Forrest Troyer

Ramsey County’s Distinguished Agriculturist: Willet M. Hayes, the Scientist Who Saw ‘Shakespeares’ among His Plants Authors: Harlan Stoehr and Forrest Troyer Willet M. Hays (1859–1928), the first head of agronomic research at the University of Minnesota, is arguably the greatest all-time contributor to the advancement of agriculture in Minnesota.