On this day in 1977, former Duluthian Marjorie Caldwell received $3,000 for pawning jewelry and then had a hand-written “will” notarized. The will gave her second husband Roger Caldwell her share of her grandfather Chester Congdon’s estate upon the death of his daughter Elisabeth, Marjorie’s adoptive mother—regardless of divorce or her children. It was dated…

On this day in Duluth in 1911, Lincoln Park hosted Duluth’s first Swedish-American Midsummer Festival, which became the park’s signature annual event. According to Duluth historian Nancy Nelson, “all the Swedish societies of the city joined together to create a celebration similar to the traditional Midsummer Fests they knew in Sweden. The News Tribune estimated…

On this day in Duluth in 1893, Philadelphia financier Jay Cooke visited Duluth for the fourth and final time. In the 1860s Cooke’s investments in Duluth spurred its first great population boom and helped turn a scattering of townships into a city—historians would later write that “the lifeless corpse of Duluth…touched by the wand of…

On this day in 1864, Pennsylvania native Robert Miller, namesake of Duluth’s Miller Creek, died in Vicksburg, Tennessee. According to Duluth historian Heidi Bakk-Hansen, Miller was counted in Duluth’s first official census in 1860. He was 42 years old, lived alone, and reported his property—which was between Miller Creek and Coffey Creek—as worth $1,000 (about…

On this day in Duluth in 1884, according to historian Dwight E. Woodbridge and John Pardee, “a number of the younger citizens, devoted to the preservation, protection and defense of their country and state, as well as the manly bearing they would derive from strictly military discipline, met and organized into the Duluth Guards.” The…

On this day in 1971, renowned powerboat racer and native Duluthian Gar Wood died in Florida. He was born Garfield Arthur Wood on December 4, 1880, in Mapleton, Iowa, and moved to Duluth with his parents in 1890 after his father Walter was hired by the Lakeside Land Company, which developed what is today Duluth’s…

On this day in Duluth in 1887, Mark “Fido” Baldwin, a 22-year-old pitcher from Pittsburgh, struck out 18 batters from St. Paul’s team, including 12 in a row. The 1887 Duluth team, nicknamed the “Jayhawks,” was the city’s first professional baseball team and played on a diamond on Rice’s Point that included bleachers that sat…

On this day in Duluth in 1889, F. Rodney Paine was born to Emilie and Frederic W. Paine. The year Rodney was born, Frederic became a member of Duluth’s original Board of Park Commissioners. His uncle, William Sargent, had founded the Village of Lakeside and in 1893 donated Lester Park to the city of Duluth.…

On this day in Duluth 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 1891, the Boulevard—later Roger’s Boulevard and today Skyline Parkway—was “completed” between Lincoln Park along Miller Creek and Garfield Park along Chester Creek. It would turn out that the roadway wasn’t completed at all—and wouldn’t be until 1929—but the original segment of the parkway was only intended to stretch between…