On This Date in Minnesota History (St. Paul, Duluth: 2015, how much, homes)

[2x3x29x41]

November 28, 1905

One of the more notorious storms in Superior's stormy history ravaged the lake, with numerous boats being grounded, broken up on rocks, or sinking in deep water. Dozens of mariners lost their lives. The southwestern area of the lake around Duluth was hit particularly hard. The bulk carrier Mataafa ran aground and broke in two just outside of Duluth's harbor. Though just a couple hundred yards off offshore, it might well have been a hundred miles. The fifteen of the crew who found themselves in the stern hunkered down and survived the night, rescued the following day in an operation witnessed by thousands on shore. But nine sailors were trapped on the stern, which settled in the water; they had nowhere to go beyond the deck. All died of exposure during the night. Because of the saga of the rescue playing out before an audience of onlookers, the weather event became widely known as the Mataafa Storm.

Partly in response to the gales of that November, Split Rock lighthouse was built. It became operational in 1910.

https://www.twincities.com/2015/11/2...ck-lighthouse/

[2x3x29x41]

December 15, 1864

The Battle of Nashville begins. The next day, Union troops routed Confederate forces in the attack on Shy's Hill. Spearheading the attack were the Minnesota 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th Infantry Regiments. The 87 Minnesotans who were killed in the battle represent the most to die in any battle of the Civil War, and more than 20% of the Union dead in one of the last major battles of the war and which destroyed the Army of Tennessee.

To put Minnesota's contribution into perspective, it is worth noting that during the war Minnesota was a new state (as of 1858) with relatively few people (172,000 per the census of 1860); well under 1% of the Union population alone resided in the state. Approximately 24,000 Minnesotans would serve in the Civil War, a substantial proportion of the adult male population.

The noted illustrator Howard Pyle's Battle of Nashville, painted in the early 20th century and depicting the 5th and 9th Minnesota Regiments, hangs in the State Capitol in St. Paul:


The Minnesota Monument in Nashville National Cemetery, where many of the battle's dead are interred:

[Glenfield]

These are well done. Thank you. I hope you keep them up from time to time.

[2x3x29x41]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

These are well done. Thank you. I hope you keep them up from time to time.

I will.

Back to the Battle of Nashville, it always sounds strange to me hearing of battles with American locations in their titles. For the past century and a half the United States has fought its battles abroad, the only real exceptions being in Hawaii and Alaska during World War II - and those were in far-flung non-states - and various engagements of the Indian Wars, though those were so one-sided that their ultimate outcomes were never in doubt.

It's a sobering thought, realizing how much of the world has been so much more intimately familiar with the ravages of war during this time.

[2x3x29x41]

January 7, 1873

A three-day blizzard hits the plains of what we now call the upper Midwest. It commences in the afternoon after a relatively balmy (for January) morning. The temperature dropped precipitously, the snow and wind came, and over 70 people in Minnesota alone were dead before it was over. Some bodies where not recovered until the spring snowmelt.

It is a reminder of how much our modern technology - forecasting, communications, clothing - mitigates some of the common dangers of the world.

This historical marker stands in Kandiyohi County:

The morning of January 7, 1873, was mild and pleasant enough to encourage many farmers to make trips to town or to work in their woodlots. Shortly after 2 p.m. a howling blizzard of snow, driven by a 70-mph northwest wind broke the calm. The storm, which lasted for several days, was so intense that drivers were unable to see the oxen or teams pulling their sleds. John, Charles and Stephen O'Neill and Thomas and Michael Holden, en route from Olivia to Willmar, were at this spot when they were forced to stop, because of the blinding blizzard. Only Michael Holden survived. Claud and Jorgen Strand perished in Whitefield Township, while returning to their home with a load of wood. Lars Nelson died later, a victim of exposure. The bodies of Ole K. Spau, Margaret Soland and Heige Stengrimson were all found in Norway Lake Township, where they died trying to make their way to their homes. William C. Crump died in Roseville Township after he had become lost during the storm. Twelve persons perished in Kandiyohi County during the blizzard of 1873. This marker stands where John, Charles and Stephen O'Neill and Thomas Holden died.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=79353

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by 2x3x29x41

January 7, 1873

A three-day blizzard hits the plains of what we now call the upper Midwest. It commences in the afternoon after a relatively balmy (for January) morning. The temperature dropped precipitously, the snow and wind came, and over 70 people in Minnesota alone were dead before it was over. Some bodies where not recovered until the spring snowmelt.

It is a reminder of how much our modern technology - forecasting, communications, clothing - mitigates some of the common dangers of the world.

This historical marker stands in Kandiyohi County:




https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=79353

Central heat. I remember the story from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books about the winter in DeSmit, SD when they ran out of coal and had to spend the winter twisting grass to burn in order to keep from freezing to death. It’s a wonder to me that people actually settled up here in those times.

[2x3x29x41]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

Central heat. I remember the story from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books about the winter in DeSmit, SD when they ran out of coal and had to spend the winter twisting grass to burn in order to keep from freezing to death. It’s a wonder to me that people actually settled up here in those times.

I've always thought that that speaks volumes about just how bad conditions where back home -- wherever that was. And land was a powerful inducement.

Then there's the Native Americans. For all the technology we have today over the settlers of a century and a half ago, they had technology far surpassing the natives. Winter must have been positively miserable in ways that we simply cannot even imagine.

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by 2x3x29x41

I've always thought that that speaks volumes about just how bad conditions where back home -- wherever that was. And land was a powerful inducement.

Then there's the Native Americans. For all the technology we have today over the settlers of a century and a half ago, they had technology far surpassing the natives. Winter must have been positively miserable in ways that we simply cannot even imagine.

could not find the Lakota translation for; "It's not that cold"

however...

Lay he huh nee keyn oh snee = It’s cold this morning

[MsBall]

Originally Posted by Ghengis

could not find the Lakota translation for; "It's not that cold"

however...

Lay he huh nee keyn oh snee = It’s cold this morning

.....if it wasn’t for the wind”

[2x3x29x41]

January 13, 1885

Schuyler Colfax, former Vice President of the United States, dies in Mankato.

That morning, a 61-year-old man was trying to make a train connection. Walking through streets in temperatures nearly 30 degrees below zero, he finally reached his destination, sat down, and died of a heart attack. It was only upon investigation of the man's effects that identifying papers on his person revealed that the deceased was Ulysses S. Grant's first Vice President.

In the presidential election of 1868, the Grant-Colfax ticket won an easy victory, carrying Minnesota by 22 percentage points. But Colfax's botched political machinations to succeed Grant in 1872 (Grant surprised Colfax by running for reelection) led to Colfax being defeated in that year's nomination for Vice President. A political scandal then put the final nail in his electoral coffin. He made a subsequent career for himself in both business and as a lecturer; when he died, he was en route to Iowa where he was to give a speech.

A digression is worthwhile here, on Minnesota and presidential politics. From 1860 thru 1908, Minnesota voted Republican in its first thirteen presidential elections after statehood, never failing to support the GOP ticket by at least 12 points. The Republican Party was nationally dominant during this time. Of course, the politics of the respective parties were very different from today.

The first time Minnesota failed to vote Republican was in 1912 - sort of. That year, former president and erstwhile Republican Teddy Roosevelt ran a third-party campaign under the Bull Moose Party banner, carrying six states - including Minnesota - with mostly pluralities (only in South Dakota did Roosevelt top 50% of the vote). But Roosevelt and GOP nominee (and incumbent President) Taft together garnered 57% of Minnesota's electorate, consistent with its history. But this race portended changes to come. In 1916 Minnesota supported the Republican challenger to incumbent Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, but by a margin of less than 400 votes out of more than a third of a million cast in the state. Minnesota fell back in line as the Republicans swept all three presidential races of the 1920s, but then swung massively toward FDR in 1932 as he carried Minnesota by 24 points.

This would begin a period of bellwether status for the state, supporting the national winner for nine consecutive elections, the trend being broken only when the state voted for native son and sitting Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 1068 while Richard Nixon was winning the presidency. Minnesota would vote Republican once more, in Nixon's reelection landslide, but it was Nixon's narrowest win of the 49 states he carried - another hint at changing Minnesota politics. Minnesota has now voted Democratic 11 times in a row in Presidential elections.

Interestingly, Minnesota is one of only nine eight states where two or more Vice Presidents have died (the other being Humphrey). Several also have passed away in the District of Columbia, which is of course not a state.

The 17th Vice President of the United States: