Ramsey County History – Summer 2016: “Helen Marks, Dressmaker, the 1903 Summer Carnival, and the Unions”

Helen Marks, Dressmaker, the 1903 Summer Carnival, and the Unions
Author: David Riehle

In late July and early August of 1903, St. Paul held its only Summer Carnival. One of the principal events in this festival that lasted nearly two weeks was the popular election of a queen. Men and women could pay 10¢ a vote. They could cast as many ballots as they wanted because the money raised went to pay for the operation of the Free Public Baths on Harriet Island in the Mississippi River opposite the downtown. The baths were the creation of Dr. Justus Ohage, a reformer who had purchased the land on the island and built the bathhouses at his own expense in 1901. Helen A. Marks, a dressmaker whose candidacy was heavily supported by organized labor, won over eight other candidates, and although her reign was brief, the baths remained until the 1930s.
PDF of Riehle article