Search results for: , 1920

On this day across the bay in 1914, a brand new elementary school was named in honor of former mayor Martin Pattison, who had died two years earlier. The school had actually opened the day before and was known simply as the Twenty-first Street School for its location at 1016 North Twenty-first Street.  The announcement…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, the city announced plans for the construction of Congdon Boulevard from 60th Avenue East to Stoney Point along the Lake Superior Shoreline. The road would cost the city $397,600 and construction would include a bridge over the Lester River, connecting the new boulevard to London Road. The road,…

On this day in Duluth, St. Paul, and Hastings in 1920, police rounded up three suspects suspected of operating “one of the most thoroughly organized systems of wholesale automobile thievery that has ever come to their attention.” While Tom Mulany (St. Paul), Joseph Wasser (Hastings), and Duluth’s Donald Birchen were arrested, police said they were…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, police discovered “the largest still and greatest quantities of moonshine ever confiscated in a raid” in the Zenith City since Prohibition became law earlier that year. The still was found at 4331 Lombard Street, the “imposing residence” of Mr. and Mrs. Harry and Ann Papove, along with 300…

On this day in Duluth in 1920 Duluth’s new chief of police, Warren E. Pugh, fired 18 of his patrolman as part of a restructuring of the entire department. Public Safety Commissioner William Murnian had appointed Pugh Chief of Police earlier in the month. Pugh had joined the force as a patrolman in 1917 and…

On this day in 1920, suspects in a Superior bank robbery were captured in Omaha, Nebraska. The alleged bandits were suspected of holding up the Superior State Bank on November 16, making off with $7,070—but it could have been much more if it weren’t for quick-witted bookkeeper Nell Mulligan. Mulligan, 22, had defied the robbers…

On this day in 1920, Duluth resident John Maur asked St. Louis County Sheriff Frank Magee for a letter of reference to prevent him from once again being mistaken for a murder suspect and thrown into jail. Three days earlier, Mauer had been arrested in Virginia, Minnesota, for the murder of Duluth taxi driver Johnny…

On this day on Lake Superior in 1920, the crew of the 416-foot steam freighter Francis J. Widlar fought a November gale on her way from Duluth to Cleveland that drove the 16-year-old vessel onto the Pancake Shoals near Whitefish Point. William Rorke, captain of the steamer John Ericson, reported the foundering vessel when he…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, America’s “March King” John Philip Sousa celebrated his sixty-sixth birthday with two performances at Duluth’s 1915 Armory. The first show was a matinee and the seats were filled by 5,000 Duluth school children, including residents of St. James Orphanage who presented him with a huge birthday cake. (Sousa…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, gunplay ended a meeting of the Minnesota Fire Sufferer’s Association taking place at Cobb Public School meeting. Former MFSA vice president Phil Waggoner had been explaining how he had been unfairly removed from the organization by its current president, George Schlect, for misusing funds while on a trip…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, it was discovered that nearly 90 bottles of Canadian whiskey—evidence in the smuggling trial of Duluth Police Chief John Murphy—had been stolen from police headquarters. That summer Murphy had been arrested by federal agents and charged with smuggling whiskey over the Canadian border. Eventually eleven men, including Murphy,…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, private detective Roy E. Hays was jailed for falsely arresting 23-year-old Blanch Krawczyk on the charge of murdering Roy D. Harth in Knoxville, Tennessee, more than a year earlier. Hayes, who suspected Krawczyk was actually a woman named Maude Moore, was after a $500 reward for Moore’s capture.…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, Robert S. Burke, an 18-year veteran of Duluth’s post office, was arraigned in federal court, accused of throwing over 1,000 pieces of mail into the Sixth Avenue West slip along the St. Louis Bay—where the Great Lakes Aquarium stands today. He was suspended from his job and charged…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, the first Bethany Children’s home at 4000 West Ninth Street was completely destroyed by fire. The structure was originally built as the home of Alfred Merritt and his wife Jane. Alfred Merritt was a member of the Merritt family who settled the town of Oneota, now part of…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, the Duluth News Tribune reported on the discovery of a fake city ordinance written in 1910 to mock a city alderman. Tracy Holmberg, secretary to City Clerk Fred C. Ash, came across the document by accident among other city records. It was apparently written to mock the efforts…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, St. Louis County Attorney William E. Greene ordered the trials of twenty men who had been arrested on charges including rioting, inciting to riot, and first degree murder for the June 15 lynching of three falsely accused black circus workers in Duluth. The trials would take place simultaneously…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, nearly seven months after Prohibition became law, the Duluth News Tribune featured three stories about individuals running afoul with the law due to their interactions with alcohol. In Duluth, the ironically named Lawrence Law faced the option of a $100 fine or sixty days in the workhouse for “driving…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, the trial of Duluth police Chief John Murphy began. Appointed chief earlier that year, Murphy had no experience in law enforcement—he had been a yard manager for the Northern Pacific Railroad and a railroad inspector. Murphy, his chauffeur Earl Eckhard, former deputy U.S. marshal Frank Bradley, and eight…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, the Duluth city council ordered acting police chief Anthony Fiskett to “clean up vice” in the wake of the dismissal of police chief Murphy, who mishandled the June 15 lynch mob and was arrested for smuggling Canadian whiskey into Duluth. Fiskett, 57 years old at the time, was…

Today in the Twin Ports in 1920, the cities of Duluth and Superior began reacting to the tragic events of the night before, when an angry mob stormed Duluth’s Police Headquarters and Jail and lynched Black circus workers Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie, who were among a group of men falsely accused of…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and  Isaac McGhie—African-Americans who worked for the John Robinson Show Circus—were lynched by a mob of Duluthians. The three had been arrested along with several other circus workers after they were falsely accused of raping a girl from West Duluth. By 8:40 p.m. a…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, mayor Clarence R. Magney filed to run for district court judge, which forced him to resign as mayor on September 15 of the same year. Former Duluth mayor Trevanion Hugo was appointed to serve out Magney’s term as mayor. Duluthians elected Magney, an attorney, as their mayor in…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, Victor Anneke became president of Fitger’s Brewing Company. Born in 1892,  Anneke had gone to work for his father Percy and August Fitger in 1918 after completing college. Percy Anneke suffered a stroke on the last day of 1923, and August Fitger was busy in California, where he…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, Mary L. Sarff was appointed as Duluth’s—and indeed Minnesota’s—first female letter carrier. Sarff, who lived at 907 Fourth Avenue east with her husband and two children, had been working as a substitute mail carrier for over a year (World War I created a shortage of working men), working…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, after nearly 32 years on the bench, 87-year-old Judge Josiah D. Ensign announced his resignation. He first came to Duluth in 1870 and was almost immediately elected as the St. Louis County Attorney. In that capacity, Ensign was instrumental in the legal fight with Wisconsin concerning the Duluth…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, “hundreds” of Duluthians lined up outside the Palladio Building at 401–403 West Superior Street to look at alleged bullet holes thought to have been made by bullets fired at Dr. Carl Hoppman, who had been shot to death in front of the building two days earlier. According to…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, former president William H. Taft spoke at Duluth’s First Methodist Church. The event was sponsored by the David Wisted American Legion Post as one of 100 speaking engagements Taft would make that winter. The legion committee that brought Taft to the Zenith City included F. Rodney Paine, son…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff performed at the National Guard Armory at 14th Avenue East and London Road. Rachmaninoff’s program in Duluth included Mozart’s “Variations,” Mendelssohn’s “Rondo Cappriccioso,” Chopin’s “Scherzo,” and his own “Valse, Opus 10” and “Prelude in C-Sharp Minor.” The News Tribune described his “Prelude” as…

On this day in Duluth in 1920—at the stroke of midnight—members of the Duluth Police Department dumped $30,000 worth of confiscated liquor “into the sewer of the garage repair shop under the Duluth police station” (essentially the building’s subbasement, below the Michigan Street level). While the DPD tried to keep the event a secret—only Police…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, Marion Fitger—the youngest child of brewer August Fitger and his wife Clara—died suddenly at the family home at 629 East Sixth Street, where she had been born in 1893. She had been ill for just a few days, suffering from tubercular meningitis. Marion Fitger, according to the Duluth…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, federal officials arrested West Duluth resident Carl Haglund on charges that he was an active Communist. Haglund had emigrated from Sweden in 1912 and first took out papers to file for citizenship in 1916, but he never completed the process. Haglund told officials he was not only a…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, future author and diplomat Richard Nolte was born in the Zenith City. Nolte attended public schools in Duluth until 1934, when his family moved to Wayzata, Minnesota. According to biographer David Ouse, Nolte “worked for the Institute of Current World Affairs in the 1950s, taught at Dartmouth College,…

On this day in 1920, World War II flying ace (and namesake of the Bong Bridge) Richard Ira Bong was born in Poplar, Wisconsin. Many people think Bong, who shot down forty Japanese planes while flying his beloved P-38 (nicknamed “Marge” for his wife), flew his plane between the top span and road span of…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, 38-year-old West Duluth truck driver Louis Dondino was sentenced to prison for his role in the lynchings of three black circus workers. On June, 1920, word was spreading that a group of black circus workers had raped a local girl from West Duluth. Dondino, who operated a transfer…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, former Duluth mayor Trevanion Hugo was appointed as the city’s chief executive to replace outgoing mayor Clarence R. Magney. Magney, a lawyer, had an opportunity to become a district court judge, so he resigned the mayorship to run for that office. Magney not only won the election but…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, Assistant Chief Charles W. Wilson, 51, was killed and firefighter Otto Kalkbrenner was injured in a tragic accident on the way to a fire. According to Duluth Fired Department historian Jarry Keppers, Wilson, 51, was “driving about 30 or 40 miles per hour to a fire at the…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, physicist Dr. James E. McDonald was born right here in the Zenith City. During World War II McDonald worked as a cryptologist. After the war he completed a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Iowa before moving on to the University of Arizona, where he establish a…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, fifteen current and former Duluth police officers were exonerated of charges of drinking while on duty less than a month after Prohibition became the law of the land. Those accused included detectives J. L. Bradley, John Roberg, and A. V. Youngblood; Sergeant E. J. LeBeau; patrolmen Gilbert Gringer,…

On this day in 1920, Henry Helm—Duluth’s first park superintendent—died on his fruit farm in Forest Grove, Oregon where he had gone to retire. Helm was born in 1844 in Logansport, Indiana, and was living in Monticello, Minnesota, when the Civil War began. He rose to the rank of sergeant with the 8th Minnesota Volunteer…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, the oldest portion of the Fitger’s Brewery—the original 1881 Lake Superior Brewery building constructed by then owner Mike Fink—was destroyed by fire. The old structure stood between the brew house and the office/bottling facility—two massive stone and brick buildings that were left unharmed by the flames. The building’s…

On this day in 1871, George P. Tweed was born in Warsaw, Minnesota, the oldest son of eleven children born to Norwegian immigrants Evan and Anna Tweed. According to one biographer, Tweed “came to Duluth when about sixteen years of age…. At the age of eighteen, after leaving school, he entered the real estate and…

On this day in Duluth in 1921, the Duluth News Tribune reported that Chicago landscape architect Edward H. Bennett said that “A visitor’s first impression as he nears the city is depressing…because of the marked contrast with the beauty of the residential area.” Bennet said the problem could be fixed with “more orderly development in…

On this day in Duluth in 1917, attorney Clarence Magney was elected mayor. Magney was born the son of Swedish immigrants in Trenton, Wisconsin. He came to Duluth in 1908 after finishing Harvard law school and was quickly recognized for his sharp legal mind, which propelled him into the mayor’s office as the U.S. entered…

On this day in Duluth in 1878, the Duluth Minnesotian reported that brewer Mike Fink lost 180 kegs of beer in Brewery Creek: “The addition containing the beer cooler of Mr. Fink, in which was about 180 kegs of beer, was undermined by Brewery Creek, and on Wednesday night fell down, spilling the beer into…

On this day in 1950, Beatrice Marguerite De La Motte died in San Francisco. De La Motte was a silent film star in the 1920s, working with Douglas Fairbanks in such classics as The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Three Musketeers (1921), and The Iron Mask (1929). De La Motte went on to appear in…

On this day in Duluth in 1947, eighty-year-old optician and author Dr. Thomas Shastid, once called “America’s forgotten historian of ophthalmology,” died at St. Luke’s Hospital. Shastid grew up in Pittsfield, Illinois, where his grandfather was friends with Abraham Lincoln. By the time he arrived in Duluth in 1908, he had graduated Harvard Medical School…

On this day in Duluth in 1891, officials dedicated the new First Presbyterian Church at 300 East Second Street, a masterpiece of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture faced in Lake Superior brownstone and designed by Oliver Traphagen and his new partner, Francis Fitzpatrick. Organized June 1, 1869, First Presbyterian was Duluth’s first established church. In 1870 the…

On this day across the bay in 1910, census officials announced that Superior had retained its status as the second largest city in Wisconsin—only Milwaukee had a larger population. With a recorded 40,384 citizens, Superior topped other Wisconsin communities vying to be the state’s Second City, including Racine (38,002), Oshkosh (33,063), La Crosse (30,417), Madison…

On this day in Duluth in 1931, the Duluth News-Tribune announced that Duluth’s Aerial Lift Bridge would become “the nation’s experimental station during the shipping season of 1931 when city commissioners will seek development of a system to warn bridge tenders of approaching ships in a storm or fog.” Various companies were invited to experiment…

On this day in Duluth in 1915, Captain Anthony G. Fiskett celebrated 22 years of service with the Duluth Police Department. Born Antonio Gaetano Fischetti in Italy, Fiskett immigrated to the U.S. in 1882 and changed his name in order to join the Duluth police department on October 29, 1893. He worked as a patrolman and…

On this day in 2007, screenwriter and Duluth native Wellyn Totman died in Los Angeles. According to biographer David Ouse, “Totman was born on August 3, 1903, in Duluth, to Edward and Nellie Totman. They named him Edward Llewellyn Totman after his father and grandfather. Known as Llewellyn, the boy attended Washburn Elementary School and…

On this day across the bay in 1996, Superior, Wisconsin, Mayor Margaret Ciccone designated the restoration of Fairlawn Mansion as the city’s official sesquicentennial project. The Queen Anne Victorian mansion was built in 1891 by Martin and Grace Pattison; Martin Pattison was a lumber baron and mining executive and served three terms as Superior’s mayor.…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, officials at Duluth’s Post Office & Federal Building announced that they had discovered who was responsible for damaged liquor bottles held as evidence—a cat named Cleopatra. The liquor was being held as evidence for upcoming cases of violating the Volstead Act, better known as Prohibition. Harris Bennet, the…

On this day in Duluth in 1895, hundreds of Hoo-Hoo arrived at Duluth’s Union Station on a special train of the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad where they were greeted by the shouts of their fellow Duluth kittens. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine! By the tail of the Great Black Cat,…

On this day in Duluth in 1952, the “Duluth Eskimos” defeated the Green Bay Packers by a score of 34–7 at Duluth’s Public School Stadium. Of course, at the time the Eskimos did not exist, having folded in 1928—but the Packers held training camp in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, during the four years Gene Ronzani coached…

On this day in Duluth in 1921, John Weismuller of the Illinois Athletic Club defeated Norman Ross, the world-record holder in the 100-yard swim, swimming the distance in just 55.2 seconds. Weismuller also won the 50-yard event, in which Ross came in fourth (Ross easily won the 880-yard swim). Swimmers representing the Duluth Boat Club…

On this day in Duluth in 1897, the Duluth Common Council unanimously passed an ordinance banning women from saloons. The ordinance, introduced by alderman Charles E. Shannon, prohibited women from entering saloons. Those violating the ordinance faced a fine of up to $100—worth nearly $3,000 today—or 90 days in jail. The ordinance was installed just…

On this day in 1877, future Duluthian Hugh Cameron was born in Quebec. Born Coral Oscar Hugh Cameron, Cameron and his family moved to Duluth in about 1891, and he went by Coral at that time, working as a clerk at the J. E. Haynie & company dry goods store on the 100 block of…

On this day in Duluth in 1891, brownstone quarryman Alphonse Guerard was found not guilty of assaulting quarry owner Michael Chambers on April 24 during a heated property dispute. That July an arson fire gutted the Chamberses’ mansion, and Guerard was the prime suspect. Months later Guerard’s home was also destroyed by an arson fire.…

On this day in Duluth in 1914, the first residents of Morgan Park—a “model city” (or “company town”) built by U. S. Steel to house some employees at the adjacent Minnesota Steel Plant—moved into their home. According to historian Arne Alanan, those first residents were “steel plant brick works superintendent John McLimans, his Canadian-born wife,…

On this day in Duluth in 1921, W. E. B. DuBois spoke at St. Mark’s A.M.E. Church at 5th Avenue East and Sixth Street before a gathering of Duluth’s fledgling chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which DuBois founded. The Duluth group, 69 members strong, had been established in…

On this day in 1851, future Duluthian and artist Feodor Von Luerzer was born in the Austrian Province of Salzburg. According to biographer David Ouse, Von Luerzer immigrated to the United States about 1886, finding work in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as a panorama painter. In 1889 he moved to Duluth and set up a studio where…

On this day in Duluth in 1911, the Duluth’s City Council unanimous passed a theatrical and moving picture ordinance. Essentially, as originally drafted the ordinance allowed for any two citizens to sign an affidavit stating that they had seen a play or movie and considered it indecent; once the affidavit was filed, a theatre manager…

On this day in Duluth in 1919, Edward C. Congdon, second eldest son of Chester and Clara Congdon, was discharged from military service. According to historian Walter Van Brunt, Edward (known to friends and family as “Ned”), “was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry on November 6, 1916, in the newly authorized Officers Reserve Corps,…

On this day in in 1883, future Duluth mayor Clarence R. Magney was born to Swedish immigrants in Trenton, Wisconsin. According to historian Walter Van Brunt, Magney’s father, Rev. Jonas Magney, was “brought to America in 1858 by his parents, who located at Center City, Minnesota, on a farm. Jonas Magney prepared himself for the…

On this day in 1982, longtime-Duluthian and novelist Margaret Culkin Banning died in her home in Tyron, North Carolina. She was 90 years old. Banning was born March 8, 1891, in Buffalo, Minnesota. In 1897 her father was appointed by President McKinley to the post of Register of the Land Office in Duluth, and the…

On this day south of Duluth in 1919, the opening of the Esko Store was announced, setting off events that eventually lead to a new community name. The announcement read, “Fritz Esko, one of the sons of Alex Esko, of the Town of Thomson, has opened up a general store at the junction of the…

On this day in Duluth in 1941, Lieutenant Oscar G. Olson of the Duluth Police Department was shot and killed during a gun battle with John Handris, who may have been experiencing a psychotic episode. Olson, along with sergeants Robert Johnson and Walter C. Johnston, had been summoned to a house at 2212 West First…

On this day in Duluth in 1906, local newspapers reported that a new brewery would be constructed in West Duluth. The People’s Brewery was established by Duluthians Patrick Doran (president), Frank G. Sanstedt (vice president), J. B. Dunphy (secretary), Martin Smith (treasurer) and directors C. F. W. Korth, Mike Gleason, Thomas Doyle, and Charles M.…

On this day in Duluth in 1890, the Zenith City’s first electrified streetcars made their first test runs. The cars left the Duluth Street Railway Company’s East End car barns and travelled down Bench Street (today’s Superior Street between 9th and 21st Avenues East) “at a rate of about eight miles an hour”—much faster than…

On this day in Duluth in 1905, officials dedicated Washburn Elementary School at 201 West St. Andrews Street in Hunter’s Park. The school, designed by Duluth architects Frederick German and Anton Lignell, was named for prominent Duluth Jed Washburn, a resident of Hunters Park. Other official were also lived in the neighborhood, including community founder…

On this day in Duluth in 1919, police officers set out to enforce Chief John Murphy’s ban on dancing the Shimmy,” but found no violators. The chief had announced the plan two days earlier, setting down some rules: 1. Dancers must keep moving, and not stand still on the floor and “shake and shimmy.” 2.…

On this day in Duluth in 1931, three members of what would later be dubbed the “Holden-Keating Gang” robbed bank messengers in downtown Duluth and made off with $58,500—$8,500 in cash and $50,000 in “negotiable bonds and coupons.” It was a daring, daylight robbery, occurring at 5:45 in the afternoon on West First Street between…

On this day in Duluth in 1961, 79-year-old Edward H. Hatch—former mayor of both Duluth (1941–1945) and Eveleth (1918–1920)—died at his home at 4218 Robinson Street in Duluth. A native of Truro, Devonshire, England, Hatch came to the U.S. with his family when he was five years old. An education as a chemist brought him…

On this day in Duluth in 1916, Minnesota novelist Sinclair Lewis and his wife Grace Livingston Hegger, an editor for Vogue magazine, pulled into town in an automobile and stayed for two weeks. They had left Lewis’s hometown of Sauk Center, Minnesota, the day before, and came to Duluth after first touring some Iron Range…

On this day in Duluth in 1939, Crowned Prince Olaf and Princess Martha of Norway helped dedicate Duluth’s Enger Memorial Tower. The tower was built in memory of Bert Enger, a Norwegian native and Duluth businessman who operated a West End furniture business with Emil Olson. In the 1920s, Enger donated money used to purchase…

On this day in 1949 Father William Powers, pastor of the Sacred Heart Cathedral at 201 West Fourth Street, passed away. A powerful man and former athlete, Powers was well-liked and considered a great orator. On June 15, 1920, Powers saw the unruly mob that attacked police headquarters and abducted three young black men falsely…

On this day in 1891, future Duluth novelist Margaret Culkin Banning was born in Buffalo, Minnesota. Her family moved to Duluth in 1897 after her father became the Register of the Land Office in Duluth and the family moved to 2328 Woodland Avenue in Hunter’s Park. Banning graduated Duluth Central High School in 1907 and…