(00:00:24) Good afternoon. Welcome back to midday and Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Gary eichten. Glad you could join us all this year on Minnesota Public Radio. We've been looking back at life in the state 100 years ago. It was a time when primitive automobiles coexisted with horses and Buggies women didn't have the right to vote, but they were beginning to make their voices heard on farms. And in factories. One-room School houses were the norm the Mayo brothers were building a medical practice in that Frontier Town of Rochester deramus our midday will bring you a sampling of those stories. We're going to start off with a story from the Iron Range in the late 1880s three brothers from Duluth set out to prove a rumor that the Mesabi District in northern Minnesota was rich with iron or just a few months the Merit Brothers discovered the tip of what turned out to be the most valuable ore deposit in the United States, but instead of getting rich the brothers lost all their money and Rendered every one of their valuable mines to an Eastern oil. Tycoon named John D Rockefeller. Here's Minnesota public radio's Lorna Benson. (00:01:38) Alfred lawn and Cassius Merit were all expert lumbermen well acquainted with the woods and swamps of Northeastern Minnesota their family, including three other brothers migrated from Pennsylvania to the area surrounding Lake Superior in the Years just before Minnesota became a state when the timber industry was just taking hold in 1887. Cassius was assessing Timber not far from where the town of mountain iron is today walking along with his head tipped back to observe the quality of the mighty Pines. He tripped and fell headfirst onto the ground Andres Merit followed his brothers progress on the Range and wrote a book describing their Adventure called the story of the Mesabi (00:02:21) being an observant man. His fall brought to light a piece of iron ore about as big as his two fists. He started in his pack and had it assayed when he returned to Duluth. It turned out to be high-grade ore. (00:02:37) One year later the brothers began sending out small surveying parties to map out the rough boundaries of the or that was hiding just beneath the surface of the ground. Again Andres Merit. (00:02:49) The men would go out with 100 pound packs on their backs containing a 30 day supply of food. The rule was to carry them throughout the day and move the camp forward from night tonight. This is such exacting labor that only those whose muscles have been inured to Toil and Spirit strengthened by Abundant hardships are able to hold their (00:03:09) course the surveyors walked slowly through the forest holding a dip needle that looked like a compass but reacted when the Men passed over the magnetic walls surrounding the or the merits soon realized they're fine was much bigger than any of them had imagined they began buying up large sections of land on the Range a crew started testing for the best place to build a mine in 1890. They found a spot on the side of a hill. That was soon called Mountain Iron. They started working (00:03:38) feverishly to dig the or out they decided that they could do it with steam shovels, which had never been done (00:03:44) before Grant Merit is Alfred merits grandson and the family historian. He lives in the Twin Cities suburb of New Hope today (00:03:52) Marvin Lampa historian from the Iron Range said, well a marriage weren't going to mine iron or they're going to farm it and it's about what they did. They went into huge strip mining operations. (00:04:04) Unlike the solid chunks of or on the Vermilion range just north of Mesabi this new form of iron was soft and powdery. It was also cheap to produce. It only cost three cents a ton to scrape. Massabi or from the ground compared to 1 dollar at unto mine or at Vermillion. But even though the iron ore was plentiful and cheap the merits had a hard time convincing potential investors that it was worth something. Years later lawn Merit describe the Mesabi critics all (00:04:40) sorts of experts were sent to look it over and report on it. Most of them said it was no good one geologist with a Countrywide reputation visited us looked over the property and reported that there was no or but if a geologist is a bad man to find a mine, he's a good man to help you sell one. He has a reputation and people with money rely on him (00:05:02) the merits had or but it was stranded deep in the North Woods. They needed to haul it from Mountain Iron to Lake Superior nearly 70 miles away where it could be shipped to steel mills in the East for that. They needed both a railroad and in or dock where ships could receive the iron the merits couldn't get any of the existing railroads to build a line from Mountain Iron to the port to Duluth. So they began building their own track Grant (00:05:28) Merit and seven months. They built the railroad from Stony Brook Junction 26 miles into Duluth. And the rdoc as well as several hundred or cars and they both the or dock in about five months, which I find rather incredible because at our dock was 2,300 feet long and had 385 pockets for the are and they started the dock in the winter brought in Timbers from Oregon or Washington, you know thousand-foot Timbers and they put them down through the ice in order to get it (00:06:06) done even 100 years ago the risk they were taking by pushing their project so quickly was enormous but the merits drive to develop the massabi sparked an iron Rush on the Range by 1893 more than 100 entrepreneurs had mines on the Mesabi, but the country soon plunged into the worst economic depression in its history and investors were scarce the merits finally approached John D. Her for help. He agreed to loan the brothers $500,000 and pool some of his mining interests with the merits Holdings on the Mesabi Rockefeller believed really not very much in competition. He believed in (00:06:47) consolidation that it is more efficient to have one large company like Standard Oil. And so he did the same thing here. He forced them into what was called the Lake Superior Consolidated Trust Company and to which the mayor's put all their properties and Rockefeller put three (00:07:04) Minds then the merits (00:07:07) took stock in the company and control the company Rockefeller loaned the company money and took (00:07:14) bonds with Rockefellers money the merits quickly finished their Railroad. In July of 1893 the first train car of or shipped entirely over there track arrived at their new or docks in Duluth lawn. Merit was still in New York working out the final details of their deal with Rockefeller his wife Elizabeth wrote him a letter describing the trains arrival away of the Hill through the smoke and Haze. We could see a (00:07:40) black line that looked like a caterpillar creeping slowly along soon. It came onto the Trestle work and then onto the dock where we all stood waiting for it. It moved out until the or cars were over the pockets and then stop to unload. Nobody made a sound not a her are anything while they came on the dock. I will send you a little of the or from the cars that came down today so that you will realize that they really have begun to ship the or (00:08:07) even with Rockefellers money. The merits were still unable to pay their creditors railroad debt was piling up at a rate of 10 thousand dollars per day the workers began appearing at the Duluth off. It's demanding payment with shotguns in hand on top of this the merits were still unable to sell the or because the Eastern blast furnaces that made steel still hadn't been adapted to process this new powdery form of or in his Memoir John D. Rockefeller wrote that he was reluctant to provide more cash, but he saw no choice. (00:08:42) Although we were minority holders of stock. It seemed to be up to us to keep the Enterprise alive through the harrowing Panic days. I had to loan my personal Securities to raise money. Finally. We were compelled to supply a great deal of actual cash to get it. So we were obliged to go into the then greatly upset money market and buy currency at a high premium to ship West by Express to pay the laborers on the railroad to keep them alive. (00:09:08) The merits were nearly bankrupt in January 1890 for Rockefeller agreed to bail them out, but also to let them regain control of Consolidated mining. At a later date meanwhile an earlier deal between the merits and Rockefeller went sour and the brothers accused Rockefeller of trying to Swindle them out of their share in the company Andres (00:09:31) Merit in retrospect. It seems clear that almost from the first. Mr. Rockefeller laid his plans to get us because of this vast potential wealth in our hands. He didn't intend to Rob us of all our possessions. No, but to use us to further his own plans and place himself in a position of commanding power in the economic world where his desire to bind Men by chains of gold would be satisfied (00:09:59) in 1895. The merits sued Rockefeller for fraud and the court awarded the family almost a million dollars, but that decision was overturned 15 months later on appeal in the end Rockefeller agreed to pay nearly a million dollars to settle the merits debt, but the family lost all of their Holdings on the Including the giant or doc the railroad and three iron ore mines when us steel formed six years later Rockefeller sold his interests on the Mesabi Range four eighty million dollars Grant Merit says the entire state of Minnesota lost out when Rockefeller took hold of his family's Mesabi Minds a (00:10:41) lot of the money that was sucked out to Pittsburgh and New York would have stayed here in Minnesota. I mean a marriage would have had a big piece of it. They wouldn't have had it. All Rockefeller would have had plenty but a lot of that money would have stayed here and would have benefited, Minnesota and Northeastern, Minnesota. For these in suing a hundred years. (00:11:09) Alfred Merit stayed in mining for the rest of his life. He went West to California and later you talk where he managed lead silver and zinc mines his brother-in-law on became the commissioner of Finance for the city of Duluth Cassius died in 1893 of a heart attack while the brothers were still deeply in debt the merits believe he died of a broken heart the family still owns mineral rights on more than 100 acres in northern Minnesota and Grandson Grant Merit hopes the family can start drilling soon for new deposits of or You're listening to a Minnesota Century Especial, Minnesota Public Radio broadcast. Looking back at life in the state 100 years ago. Americans often remember the battle at Wounded Knee South Dakota in 1890 as the last armed conflict between the US Army and American Indians but a forgotten battle that took place on Minnesota's Leech Lake Indian Reservation eight years later actually holds that place in history in the late 19th century relations between the Leech Lake Ojibwe and the US government were deteriorating because of conflicts over Timber sales on the reservation the Indians at Leech Lake subsisted mainly on the sale of the reservations Timber, but Timber companies were exploiting a loophole in the law that allowed them to take dead Pine from the reservation and pay the tribe just a fraction of what it was worth loggers set brush fires two acres of reservation land to Scorch trees make them appear dead and harvest the wood inside frustrated Indian leaders at Leech Lake pleaded with the US government to stop the Practice, (00:13:36) we the undersigned Chiefs and headman of the pillared your band of Chippewa Indians of Minnesota respectfully represent that our people are carrying a heavy burden and in order they may not be crushed by it. We humbly petition you to send a commission to investigate the existing troubles here. The Chippewa Indians of Minnesota have always been loyal to the United States and friendly to the whites and they desire this friendship to be Perpetual. We now have only the Pinelands of our reservations for our future subsistence and support but the manner in which we are being defrauded out of these has alarmed us we trust that you will protect us when the truth reaches you (00:14:18) the US government did little to respond to the Ojibwe as concerns. Meanwhile in an unrelated event a US Deputy Marshal arrived on the reservation with orders to arrest two band members for a liquor violation as many as 40 Indians quickly overtook the Marshal and freed the pair the deputy Marshal went back to his base in Walker Minnesota and sent a telegraph to st. Paul asking for military assistance to arrest everyone who helped free the men on the morning of October 5th a company of about 80 mostly in Experience US soldiers eat a breakfast of bacon and eggs, then boarded boats for sugar (00:15:01) points. Nobody anticipated. It was going to turn into a real battle (00:15:05) Cecilia mccaig is writing a book on the battle and is helping to develop a memorial to the (00:15:10) conflict. Yes was more of an adventure in the style of going off to the frontier. There was a lot of laughing a lot of joking by the soldiers. They didn't take it that seriously (00:15:22) when the soldiers arrived at Sugar Point, they spent nearly three hours trying to find the suspects. (00:15:27) The soldiers had specific man in mind that they wanted to serve these warrants to there were Indian man who had weapons. The soldiers saw them did not attempt to arrest them and those Warriors also did not make any effort to take the offensive. So it was a standoff one of the the Indian man approached the soldiers and asked them why they were there and they said they were there for sport. There (00:15:55) for duck hunting the soldiers gathered in a small clearing to have lunch according to newspaper accounts. When a young recruit went to stack his gun it fell out of his hands and fired off a shot as it hit the (00:16:07) ground. And the gun went off the Indian man surrounding the area could not see what happened. They took it as a signal to return fire and that's what happened. And that's when a lot of the casualties happened was because the Indians shot into the clearing and the soldiers didn't have time to even take cover. The Indians were in the underbrush and our little band of 70 soldiers fought stubbornly all day. We lost nine killed including Captain Wilkinson who was in command and 14 severely wounded but we were unable to dislodge the Indians (00:17:00) William brilla st. Paul Pioneer Press reporter followed the troops into battle the Commander in charge felt confident enough about the incident to allow for reporters from the major dailies to witness the action firsthand the officers and reporters took refuge in a log Hut while soldiers slept in the trenches around it. (00:17:21) The log-house the Abode of an old Indian was dirty in the ill-smelling. We carried the bodies of the dead into the house and laid them in one corner. The wounded were placed in another corner and everything possible was done for them. But the lack of medicines and appliances made it impossible to assist them to any great extent. After everything possible had been done to make our position more secure and more comfortable General bacon Lieutenant Ross three newspaperman and an old sergeant who had been in a score of Indian fights held a conference. It was the most serious conference. I ever took part in the result of it was that all came solemnly to the conclusion that our youthfulness either as soldiers or correspondence was at an end. We were evidently greatly outnumbered our men were nearly new recruits. The Indians were well hidden and could not be dislodged and worst of all, our ammunition was almost gone. It was hundreds of miles to the nearest military post and help from there at least help in the time of any use to us was out of the question. While we were discussing the chances of escape a bullet came through the window and after passing through General Bacon's hat embedded itself in the wall. That's settled it. It isn't often that men find themselves in a more desperate position. We could hold out but a few hours longer and when the Indians should make their attack at Daybreak has his their usual custom Escape would be impossible. We didn't talk much after that. There wasn't anything to say. We stretched ourselves on the floor and thought the hot was dark and cold from one corner came the moans of a man shot through the body was dying all too slowly from the woods came the crash of the Winchesters, which was answered by the cracks of our rifles in the trenches. The bullets came like dull thuds against the log walls of the Hut and every few minutes sounded the low weird yell of the Indians a war. Whoop. There is no more hair raising sound made by man or beast. Daylight came at last but there was no firing from the woods. The expected attack did not materialize why none of us have ever been able to discover but that night in the Old Log House and the Ring of those Indian yells will remain in my memory as long as memory lasts. There was we're preparations being made on both sides from much larger conflict. I think what (00:20:09) probably happened in my mind (00:20:11) is that after the initial conflict? The the Indian wars did not pursue their advantage, even though the boats left the soldiers on the shore without Provisions without blankets without food without ammunition. There must have been a decision by the indian warriors at the site that they were not going to push. This (00:20:34) Advantage boats came to rescue the troops and most of the Warriors eventually turn themselves in and face trial in Duluth a judge sentenced the men to prison terms ranging from 60 days to 10 months, but no one in the group served out their entire term a missionary from a neighboring tribe negotiated for the men to receive full pardons from President McKinley in early, January of 1899 by 9. No to Congress had passed a law requiring Timber companies to pay for any tree that was taken from the reservation. But the battle did more than just halt destructive Timber practices on the reservation. It marked a relatively quiet and largely forgotten end to almost three centuries of warfare that had decimated Indian populations and forced tribes under smaller and smaller Parcels of land the Battle of Sugar Point with its accidental beginning handed a small victory to a group of American Indian Warriors who had already lost the larger battle to preserve their way of life. (00:21:52) He was different. He passed it and (00:21:57) give us a pass the (00:22:04) spirit of mob rule the prevalence of Lynch law in all parts of our country is such that now it is not only the particular negro who has incurred the bitter displeasure of the white man who becomes the object of the mobs Fury, but any negro who happens to be in the neighborhood becomes the victim of hearts that cry for vengeance (00:22:26) the turn of the century was a troubling violent time for African-Americans in this country just decades after the end of slavery blacks faced widespread discrimination barriers to voting and the terror of lynch. Mobs Frederick McGee is a little-known figure whose Life as a civil rights Advocate set the stage for this Century's most influential black. civil rights organization the NAACP Frederick McGee was born a slave in Mississippi in 1861 freed. When the Civil War ended four years later McGee managed to get an education through local Presbyterian schools in the mid-1880s. He followed his older brother to Chicago where he soon graduated from Law School in 1889 McGee set off for st. Paul where he hoped to make a name for himself as the state's first black attorney arriving in st. Paul McGee was greeted by a growing Metropolis thick with trains and steamboats historian. Paul. Nelson is writing a biography of Frederick McGee. (00:23:41) It would have been a smoky smelly noisy town with a lot of unattached young men coming here to work hundreds and hundreds of saloons. A lot of low-level crime so it would emit a perfect place for someone like McGee was a trial lawyers specialized in criminal defense McGee (00:24:06) plunged right into st. Paul's CD-R side making a career of Defending two-bit hoods prostitutes pimps and convicted rapists in the fall of 1891. He tried a case that helped build his reputation as a great criminal defense lawyer McGee represented three whites accused of trying to sell a young Minneapolis girl into prostitution the sensationalistic Press coverage endeared the public towards the blond blue-eyed girl, but through a thorough cross-examination and a persuasive closing argument McGee was able to get his clients acquitted. (00:24:43) So he was McGee. A southerner who learned his ways in as a lawyer in Black Chicago comes to Minnesota and he has to deal with a completely white world of the courts and such word as was his confidence and were his skills that he was a very effective trial lawyer in criminal cases. Primarily. He had a way of persuading these white Germans in Scandinavians. To see things his (00:25:16) way, even though the state was still overwhelmingly white a campaign by a st. Paul black newspaper to lure African-Americans to the state boosted the black population by 1905 thousand blacks lived in the Twin Cities most worked as day laborers or domestics, but there were also Barbara's a mortician to doctors and six other lawyers. John Wright is an associate professor of African-American studies at the University of Minnesota. (00:25:45) There was a very strong community of African American professionals here in Minnesota who light frigid McGee had migrated to Minnesota from elsewhere in the country in part because this was still a an almost Frontier terrain and one in which some of the harsher laws that prohibited African American free association and political participation. So it's of what hadn't Them formally established here. (00:26:17) But life for blacks in Minnesota wasn't free from discrimination and insult in 1901. St. Paul's black newspaper reported an argument McGee had when JM done another lawyer called him the most derogatory of racial (00:26:32) slurs. The attorneys were arguing over an assessment of costs in a case and the discussion had become quite heated done was very angry at some point raised by McGee and injected into his remark something about doing business with a damn nigger. What's that asked Maggie repeat that expression and stepping forward. He spat twice the extra mint striking done squarely in the face this act startled done and for the next few minutes, he was vigorously engaged in using a handkerchief, but he made no response except to say that he didn't want any trouble. Dunn's refusal to resent the insult seeing to further and rage McGee and he proceeded to tell done what he thought of him. You're a contemptible coward. You are said McGee. I claim to be a gentleman of Honor. If a man spat in my face, he'd quit walking (00:27:40) McGee spoke out for civil rights as much as he literally fought for them. He led local chapters of the Afro American League and Minnesota civil rights committee and the Afro-American counsel to the horror of McGee and other leaders violence was escalating across the country in 1901. The nation's leading anti-lynching spokeswoman. I to be Wells reported an alarming statistic in the previous two decades over two thousand blacks had been lynched or three people a week professor John, (00:28:13) right? What happened after reconstruction was that the whole edifice of American apartheid that we call Jim Crow was erected between 1880 and 1910 essentially. And the struggles against again that the disfranchisement against the the rise of segregated transportation and housing and all the other public facilities again, because became Central concerns in African-American life north and south and the course of African American intellectual life and the course of the political conventions and organizations is heavily determine Again by a battle over which kinds of strategies to pursue (00:28:54) many intellectual leaders including the nation's most influential black leader Booker T. Washington were willing to accept some of the discriminatory practices of Southern whites in exchange for economic advancement. They were labeled by their critics accommodationist see a growing part of the black leadership saw flaws in this approach. The argument over how to best achieve Civil Rights was intensifying in 1902 when Maggie helped convince the national Afro-American Council to hold its annual meeting in st. Paul McGee himself was an unusual voice in the movement a Democrat at a time when almost all other blacks were Republican, but he strongly felt the 1902 conference needed a unified non partisan agenda and Booker T. Washington was the only man powerful enough to bring the council together. He pleaded with Washington to attend (00:29:59) I have to write to you of are very deep anxiety concerning you're coming to the meeting of the national Afro-American Council in st. Paul next July recognizing how very much you will Aid Us by coming. We want to say that in a much larger way. Your presence will be helpful indeed to the race. Because men who would otherwise be actuated by personal and selfish interest will be deterred in pushing them organization to now more than ever need safe and sound (00:30:29) guidance. But instead of providing safe guidance Washington and his supporters took advantage of a lull in the convention to push through a vote that essentially transformed the national Afro-American counsel from a nonpartisan organization into one sympathetic to the Republican Party historian. Paul Nelson. (00:30:50) One of the things McGee hates about the Booker T Washington takeover of the naac is that in effect. The organization becomes an arm of the national Republican party and this offends McGee for two reasons one. He's a Democrat and he hates the Republican Party second. The NAACP from its founding is explicitly a politically independent organization. And McGee sees as others saw also that if blacks as a political force can simply be assumed to be the property of the Republican party. They will be taken for (00:31:29) granted at the close of the 1902 session McGee moved further from Washington's policies and towards a more militant agenda. He found company with W. EB Du Bois a professor at Atlanta University who shared McGee's contempt for Washington Stranglehold on the black civil rights agenda in June of 1905. Largely at McGee's prodding the Boise convened the first meeting of the Niagara Movement a groundbreaking organization independent of white support that would use the courts and other means necessary to challenge segregation practices in its 1906 National address the Niagara Movement laid out its agenda (00:32:11) in the past year the work of the Negro has flourished in the land. Step by step The Defenders of the rights of American citizens have retreated the work of stealing the black man's ballad has progressed and the 50 and more representatives of stolen votes still sit in the nation's capital discrimination in travel and public accommodations has so spread that some of our weaker Brethren are actually afraid to Thunder against color discrimination as such and are simply Whispering for ordinary decencies against this the Niagara Movement eternally protests. We will not be satisfied to take one jot or tittle less than our full manhood rights, we claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a Freeborn American political civil and social and until we get these rights. We will never cease to protest and a sail the ears of (00:33:07) America like so many other civil rights organizations before it the Niagara Movement was stunted by a lack of funding and internal political. The vision it also struggled against the powerful Booker T. Washington's attempts to crush the group The Niagara Movement stumbled but a new organization Incorporated much of its philosophical policies the National Association for the advancement of colored people in 1912 McGee attended the NAACP conference in Chicago when he returned to the Twin Cities, he helped lay the groundwork for the local chapter of the NAACP. What would be the nation's second oldest branch months before his death McGee considered his legacy at a dinner party held in his (00:33:54) honor when the lips now speaking are laid in the grave. I hope that my brothers will gather themselves as you are gathered tonight and say he lived Tried to be right tried to help the race and trying to be right and trying to help the race he died. Then I would need no Monument. Then I will need no flowers for I will have built in your hearts and memories a monument more lasting than any monument in gold or bronze and brass or stone could be to have you tell your children even as you have told me that my life was worth its living and my day has been spent in service of others as well as myself the flowers. I want as I lay on death bed or these words that I deserved well of my fellow man. (00:34:53) In 1912 Frederick McGee died of pneumonia. He was 50 years old apart from a few local historians and NAACP activists. McGee is forgotten to history. But the idea is he helped articulate in the Niagara Movement would help defeat legalized segregation more than four decades after his death. You're listening to a special Minnesota Century broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio at the end of the 19th century. One of the few occupations open to young women was teaching in one of the one-room schoolhouses that dotted the landscape of rural Minnesota alone on the Prairie and often away from their families for the first time many teachers struggled to last through the grueling months of loneliness discouragement exhaustion and the persistent problem of finding and keeping a teaching position Rhoda Emery is a young woman who thought she would never make it as a school teacher, but she ended up dedicating 50 years to the profession. The first day of school is over and I for one am not sorry. I feel as lame as an old plow horse tonight. My back has ached all day and I've been dreadfully cross. I don't know if I shall ever like School teaching. 15 students showed up for Rhoda Emery's first day as a school teacher in mazeppa Township north of Rochester. It was late October 1889. And Rhoda was only 17. Some of her students may have been just a year younger at the time rural teachers were only required to complete eighth grade and pass a state examination wrote his parents lived on a farm in the next Township over but her school was far enough away that she was only able to travel home on the weekends during her first year Rota was fighting off homesickness as she pleaded with her students to learn their lessons. She described the daily struggle in her diary, October 29. I am just about as tired as I could be tonight. Everything has gone wrong today. I have felt nervous and cross the scholars have missed some lessons and I was obliged to punish them by making them stand in front of a class. It made Cora cry. I was very sorry for her, but did not relent. She took all her books home tonight and declared that she wouldn't miss any more lessons school days were divided into 15 minute intervals during which groups of students recited their lessons for the teacher until she was satisfied that they had memorized the material students who didn't Master their lessons faced scoldings public humiliation or in the worst cases a whipping Rhoda though usually opted for a more gentle approach to discipline November 21st. Today has been a pretty hard one. I guess I am just finding out what precious raw metal. I have to work with I made Henry spend most of his noon in the schoolhouse, but throwing a snowball into the (00:37:54) schoolroom (00:38:00) December 4th. I have been constantly on the lookout to keep George and Henry from fight. I don't know what the trouble was, but they have begun twice and I've had to stop them and give all the boys a talking to this morning. I was so tired and discouraged and blue this knew that I couldn't eat a bit of dinner and I don't feel much better now. December 5th, as soon as I got to school this morning those boys began to quarrel. I told them that I had said three times before there should be no fighting and three times they had broken that rule and if they attempted such a thing again, they should both take their books and go but I felt pretty shaky concerning my power to do such a thing about the middle of the forenoon. There was a rap at the outside door and fearful visions of the superintendent passed through my mind. I found instead a rather oldish farmer who said he had heard that the large boys expected to have a fight that day. He told me to be on my guard and if I had any trouble he gave me to understand that the school board would support me. I felt jubilant been at noon. I kept good watch of the two parties and soon saw them sneak off to the brook by different directions. So I hurried down there from the place where the boys were it was impossible to see the path so they did not know I was near until I stood right before them, but I could hear them disputing and During long before I came into sight. I enquired into the cause of the trouble and they did not want to tell me at last George said Charlie had told him that Henry said he could knock the stuffing all out of him. Then I asked what the original problem was in both confessed that it was nothing at all. Thereupon George Drew from his coat along Club about a half inch in diameter and threw it as far as he could. So peace was declared on the last day of the winter term several of the local villagers, encouraged Rhoda to apply to teach at their school again, although she was offered the position and promised to let the school board know within a week for some Untold reason the district hired a different teacher the day after she left for home disappointed, but in need of another teaching job wrote a began moving from one teaching position to another like many other rural School teachers at the turn of the century April 15th. Well here I am at Fifield School I went over in February and got a contract for $24 a month. I think I shall like it here. There are some things about my pupils that are truly admirable one is their kindness for one another. I don't believe I shall have any fights here. April 16th today went off very well. I think my pupils like me and I like them too this morning. My fire was built when I got here. I went out to carry in some wood and one of the larger boys dropped his ball and brought in the wood himself. He said you needn't bring in no would just speak to us Fellers when you want some and we'll bring it not elegant but I thought him very gentlemanly for all that many young women taught school for only a few years then married and raised families, but Rhoda never married despite the attentions of a lifelong souter when she was still a young woman her mother scribbled her fears about her daughter's line of work across the back of an undated photograph. (00:41:21) I've heard some simpleton say there was no real work in teaching but I have been there and I know it is most discouraging drudgery and I hope my fair daughter shall stop. She is a good honest woman, but her dear face looks tired and old and I think she shall give up the wear and tear of school teaching if Talk with her once more (00:41:41) Rhoda. However, seemed to sense the course of her life better than her mother did in 1894. She wrote The Following February 1st. Only one more day of school. I am glad that I do not have to trudge over here with my dinner basket and little clock, but once more I shall not be sorry to leave though. I wonder where I will teach next winter for I suppose I shall always teach throughout the 20th century the era of one-room schoolhouses withered away as Tiny rural school districts merged with one another when Rota began teaching there were over 8,000 school districts in Minnesota the majority of which consisted of a single one-room schoolhouse, but when she retired from her position as a st. Paul School principal in 1940 new forms of transportation were putting these rural schools out of business by the early 1970s the last one-room School houses in Minnesota had disappeared altogether You're listening to a Minnesota Century a special broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio long before radio TV and the internet people got their news from the daily papers breaking stories clattered across the wires to newspaper offices around the country in Minneapolis. And st. Paul two pennies bought you one of four daily papers what stories made the Twin Cities papers 100 years ago this month grab your slippers find a comfortable chair and your favorite coffee mug for our final edition of the Minnesota Century series news of the anglo-boer war dominated headlines of the local papers in December of 1899. The war broke out on October 11th of that year after the Dutch farmers who occupied two independent republics within South Africa refused to allow. British to mine the Region's Newfound wealth in Gold (00:43:51) December 27th Minneapolis Tribune War situation in South Africa at a glance British troops are now halted in the north. Would March in South Africa by overwhelming hordes of bores and apparently must await large reinforcements before they can again take the aggressive in the East General Butler has fallen back from the together River and there's no more than 20 miles from his objective point of Ladysmith having made practically. No progress (00:44:18) the War lasted another two and a half years, but the British who outnumbered the Dutch more than 521 eventually overtook more troops the Treaty of Pretoria in May 1902 transferred both Boer Republic's to British rule in the United States the last decade of the 19th century brought a tide of new immigrants more than 4 million arrived in America often encountering a deep intolerance hostility toward African-Americans. Ken's escalated as Jim Crow and Lynch Mob Terror pervaded the South the newspapers chronicled their experiences. Although not always sympathetically (00:44:58) the Minneapolis Journal barbarous Maysville, Kentucky Dick Coleman, the Negro murder of mrs. Lashbrooke was taken from the jail by a mob of 1,000 men and burned at the stake the mob led by the husband of the Negroes victim drag the shrieking criminal through the principal streets of the Town bound him to a small tree Set Fire To Brush heaped about him and stood guard until he was dead the Rope had torn and terribly lacerated his neck and his face was beaten up his death was slow and writhing in terrible Agony. He was hooted and glared at by the thousands of people standing on the edge of the pit. The Pioneer Press undesirable immigrants. The treasury Department is disturbed by the constant inflow to the country of undesirable immigrants during the past two months. It's more than 600,000 immigrants arrived in the country and the greater percentage has come from the slavonic countries of southern Europe the Minneapolis Journal cut his whiskers when mr. Stein landed at the barge office from Europe. He had one of the longest and thickest beards that had ever passed through the Sandy Hook immigration office a customs house man searched the beard for smuggled property and then passed it along to health authorities. Mr. Stein was led off to the Long Island College Hospital where authorities said take off his whiskers and shave his head then give him a bath said. Mr. Stein free. This country is not free even in my own land. They would not have done this to me if there is Justice in America. I will get it but I fear there is none. (00:46:36) One of the things that hasn't changed much in the past 100 years is the amount of space newspapers devote to advertisements. Usually they fade into the background, but occasionally an entertaining slogan gives you a chuckle or offers some sound advice. Don't step on a rat to kill him when you want to rid your home of all kinds of household Vermin. Why not do it in the easiest surest cleanest and cheapest way by (00:47:08) using Stearns Electric bog and roach (00:47:10) paste rats eat the paste which consumes them and dries up all of the Rat but the Skin and Bones, so there's nothing left to smell. What an awful strain on the nerves continued menstrual suffering is now the awful enervating drains of the falling of the womb and the acute pains in the head back and lower limbs have been completely banished by wind of car Dewey. Thousands of women are suffering. They are silent sufferers heroines in the cause of modesty to try one of car Dewey is to be cured by it. Local news was filled with stories about industrial growth petty crime and fashion many papers included a society page recounting the previous day's most important social engagements 1 December edition of the Pioneer Press includes an article about an informal Yuletide dancing party that gives a detailed account of how the rooms were decorated but the news was serious too on December 27th, the st. Paul Dispatch recounted an effort to clean up the city's Police Department (00:48:31) St. Paul Dispatch. Nice kettle of fish detective Meyer was before st. Paul Maher kefir today for alleged intoxication and conduct Unbecoming a member of the police department Meyer has been a member of the force but a few days having been chosen by the mayor as a man on whom he could depend to a system in purifying the department the detective retaliated accusing three well-known members of the police department with Hood and conspiracy the Minneapolis Tribune. He lost three turkeys. There was not a happier man in Minneapolis than Edward Barry last week. His wife had asked for one turkey for Christmas dinner and he had bought one but going to his home on the east side. He saw an alluring light and a crowd of man making Merry and indulging in the pernicious turkey raffle. He wandered in by the time. Mr. Barry was wandering Homeward three long turkey necks were dragging behind him on the dusty sidewalk Charmed with his success and happy with jovial companions. He consented to go in and have one small drink to celebrate success. And that was the reason he had no turkey for dinner Christmas day. He laid down his turkeys on a table had his drink and when he turned around his turkeys were gone (00:49:46) weather reporting at the turn of the century focused mainly on what had happened instead of predicting. What was (00:49:52) ahead the atmosphere in the vicinity of Minneapolis at President is of the invigorating kind the city yesterday for the first time this season saw the thermometer go below the zero mark But the Mercury fell but one degree Below in the morning, the weather was cloudy and in the afternoon the sun appeared for a Time (00:50:13) despite some objections. Most of the world will be celebrating the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the third millennium this New Year's Eve, but 100 years ago local newspapers held off the festivities one more year until a true mathematical Century had passed to clear up any confusion the Minneapolis Journal offered this explanation. This does settle it what is a century a hundred things of the same kind for example, a hundred years. Does it take 100 full years to make a century. It certainly does can one century begin before another Century ends not without lapping and that's against the rules. Of the game will this Century the 19th century? Go right to the last second of 1900 before it's rounded out its full 100 Years, of course it will but what about the pope saying the 20th century would begin just after midnight January 1st, 1908 the pope didn't say it. He merely stated the year 1900 would usher in the 20th (00:51:20) century. (00:51:30) That's the news for the month of December 1899. These few reports are of course just a small sample of what minnesotans were reading 100 years ago. If you'd like to learn more all for turn-of-the-century Twin Cities dailies are archived on microfilm at the Minnesota History Center to see some of the Articles we used plus the advertisements and Graphics visit our website at mptv.org will also find oops, audio and pictures for all 12 pieces in our Minnesota Century series (00:52:06) Our Minnesota Century series was hosted by Lorna Benson edited by Stephen Smith produced by any fight with help from Sasha aslanian and researched by Dan gornstein Kate Coon Rosemary esper and Nancy Blake Blake Stone. And so to Century project an MPR is supported by Sarah Kinney professional Real Estate Services matching people with property for 21 years Coldwell Banker Burnet Crocus Hill office. By the way, if you missed today's special broadcast will be rebroadcasting this program at nine o'clock tonight and an invitation to join us tomorrow on midday education commissioner. Christine. Jack's will be stopping by. (00:53:01) Public affairs programming on NPR is supported by the Minneapolis office of Sandwich International a public relations firm dedicated to helping clients. Tell their stories through local National and international Services (00:53:14) news is next and then Talk of the Nation here on Minnesota Public Radio. (00:53:18) NPR listeners know the importance of investing wisely make a wise investment for your company invest in NPR listeners as your customers become an MP our program sponsor call Sheree Davis at 6512901496. (00:53:35) You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. We have a sunny Sky 47 degrees at Kinder wfm 91.1 Minneapolis. And st. Paul sunny skies the rest of this afternoon. It might even get a degree or two warmer as we set a new record increasing cloudiness with freezing drizzle possible tonight with a low around 25 tomorrow High near 35.