June 20, 1884: Formation of Duluth’s National Guard

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 organization became Company E of Minnesota’s Second Regiment, first commanded by Col. Joseph Bobleter. Its first officers included E. C. Chandler, captain; C. C. Hartman, first lieutenant, and D. H. Moore, second lieutenant. The organization also elected a president, F. W. Collins; a vice-president, W. T. Rorbach; a treasurer, A. P. Sutherland, and a secretary, the same Dwight E. Woodbridge who penned the colorful quotation above. These, according to Woodbridge, “were the principal actors in the work of Duluth’s first military organization.” They set up quarters in the Hunter Block, drilled, and practiced handling their Enfield rifles. In 1889, the regiment was first called out to quell a riot among 2,000 laborers working on the water and light systems in West Duluth. The next year the company moved into a large roller skating rink at First Street and Third Avenue East and put down a riot of lumber mill workers in Cloquet. In 1892 Company E was sent to Tower, Minnesota, to suppress rioting miners; they took 31 prisoners. That same year the Minnesota National Guard reorganized, and Company E of the Second Regiment became Company A of the Third Regiment, and Companies G and H were formed in West Duluth. After the regiment’s Company C was formed in 1894, Duluth became serious about building a proper Armory for the new group and Company A to share that could also serve as a performance space and public marketplace. You can read about Duluth’s Third Regiment Armory—later known as Duluth’s Shrine Auditorium, here, and about the National Guard Armory that replaced it in 1915 here.

Duluth’s Company A of the Minnesota National Guard’s Third Regiment at camp in the 1890s. (Image: Duluth Public Library)