mnhist040608

MN150: A Sunday ride

Handout, Star Tribune

Last update: April 5, 2008 - 10:11 PM

This horse and buggy traveling in the country comes from a collection of family photos of Neta Mample's and shows her grandmother and grandfather off for a Sunday ride in 1895.

Nels Elsberg and Christine Alm came to this country from Sweden when they were in their teens, they met and were married in 1885. Nels distinguished himself as a Railroad contractor, establishing the Duluth and Ironrange Railroad from Two Harbors to Tower Junction and eventually Ely. His accomplishments played an integral part in the first cars of iron ore which were shipped over the Duluth and Ironrange line on July 31, 1884, a red-letter day in the history of the Vermillion range.

His work took him through the Hinckley area, and his untimely death in 1897 was ultimately related to the smoke inhalation he suffered at the time of the famous Hinckley fire of 1894 that killed hundreds.