Recent content from Curt Brown
Remembering a pilot's 1985 disaster-avoiding heroism
Carl Simmons, who maneuvered a crippled Boeing 727 to safety, died in January after he was hit by a car.
Architect Cass Gilbert, and a blueprint for love
Passionate courtship letters had lit up the love between the then-emerging architect in St. Paul and his wife-to-be in Milwaukee.
New book alleges Minnesotan might have killed his two wives
When it came to antiquing, Clarence and Jean Larson made a good husband-and-wife team in southwestern Minnesota in 1980. He could fix just about anything…
Former slave, Civil War vet lived final decades in Minneapolis
Grave No. 384 in Section A-3 commemorates one of the more remarkable lives among the 240,000 military people and family members buried at Fort Snelling…
This history buff embraces family's past with gusto
Some history buffs dig into genealogy websites to mine ancestors' records. Some send in saliva for DNA scrutiny. Others comb through photo albums and mildewed…
Mary Gibbs stared down lumbermen in 1903 Itasca clash
It became one of Minnesota's first clashes between conservationists and industry.
Northfield mourns burned Archer hotel that reached back 143 years
"It really was the heart of the community," said Northfield historian Susan Hvistendahl.
Mystery still swirls around fatal hit-and-run crash in 1957
It was Oct. 5, 1957, an idyllic autumn Saturday in Foley, an east-central Minnesota town of 1,100 people, and Roger Vaillancourt, 17, was goofing around…
Lois Gildemeister was the can-do woman of Grand Rapids
Lois Gildemeister played the organ at the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Grand Rapids, Minn., for decades of Sundays starting in the early 1930s. The…
From Brainerd to Bataan: At 101, veteran recalls the horrors
Walt Straka was a 22-year-old shoemaker's son and one of 64 Minnesota National Guard troops from Brainerd belonging to Company A of the Army's 194th Tank Battalion.
Minnesota's past proves that every vote matters
If you think your vote really doesn’t matter this week, talk to 99-year-old Tom Swain. Born on the Fourth of July, Swain graduated from Washburn…
St. Paul woman left 'sheafs of remembrance' of Minnesota's settler days
Rebecca Marshall Cathcart was said to be the oldest Minnesotan when she died in her St. Paul home in 1925 at age 95.
Flour packer's brutal 1912 Minneapolis murder still unsolved
Veteran cops at the time considered it the most brutal crime Minneapolis had seen in the city's 45 years.
Thank-you letters from 1915 point back to unlikely hero
U.S. humanitarian aid had poured into Belgium — including tons of wheat milled in Minnesota — before the United States joined World War I.
Minnesota WWII co-pilot, 98, bailed out over Berlin as he became a dad
When Ken Micko's daughter was being born in 1945, he was parachuting out of his flaming B-24 over Berlin.
St. Paul librarian opened eyes with 1930s community theater
Donald Singerman made his community theater group, the Grotto Players, into a force.
Abigail Hunt Snelling Chaplin was more than a helpmate at the early years of the fort bearing her name
A look at the pioneer woman, who arrived at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers 200 years ago.
Game warden shot fisherman, walked in 1900 murder case
Two unemployed telegraph linemen looking for work on St. Paul’s East Side happened upon a deadly confrontation on the Mississippi River on Sept. 19, 1900.…
Japanese-American nurses traded WWII camps for Rochester
St. Marys School of Nursing won military approval to train nurses of Japanese heritage living in internment camps.
Two Minnesota brothers, side by side, gave all in WWII
The bleeding heart plant, with its pink heart-shaped flowers, was first grown by Elizabeth Style Sullivan's grandmother. Liz's mother, Mary Style, subsequently transplanted some in…
Pioneering St. Paul police lieutenant took down crooks, gender walls
During a 36-year career, Carolen Bailey served as a homicide investigator and vice squad commander before working with the state.
Remembering the Dakota warrior who took the first shot
Almost immediately, Tawasuota regretted killing an unarmed man, according to an account published 45 years later.
White Earth to World Series: Charles Bender's bittersweet baseball story
The swirl of world events threw a few knuckleballs into major league baseball in 1918 — namely a deadly flu pandemic and World War I.At…
Nettie Hayes Sherman stood at intersection of booze, voting 100 years ago
She steals in the show in "A Brief History of Women in Bars: A Minnesota Story in Three Rounds," even being in it just in the final minutes.
Battling goats in Norway put Carrie Kirkeeide Thorson on path to come to U.S.
Nearly 50 years after she died in 1974 at 95, her life story has been captured in a book compiled and published by her grandson.
Grandson's mission keeps World War II letters alive online
Finding Grandpa's letters home can be a moving experience, if not necessarily rare. But what the Burnsville man did with them embraces a new approach.
1890 cyclone twists on in old photo, museum painting
Research connects the dots between the St. Paul photographer and the artist, who was a Minneapolis house painter with higher aspirations.
Two voices spoke up during Minneapolis riots in 1969. They both carried
Molly Ivins' stint in Minneapolis was comparatively short, 1967 to 1970, but memorable.
One kid's lesson of resiliency from hard times of 1952 flood
The radio crackled with an urgent message for the exhausted volunteer rescuers aboard a Red Cross amphibious duck boat."Go to 56 West Fairfield," the dispatcher…
Surgeon storyteller's new book recalls golden era at 'U'
Dr. Henry Buchwald operated on more than 10,000 patients as the longest-serving University of Minnesota surgeon. Now the renowned Edina doctor, teacher and researcher, who…
Lake Harriet neighbors rejected black minister in 1909
Keys in hand, the minister went to check out the bungalow he’d just purchased at 4441 Zenith Av. S., near Lake Harriet in the Linden…
What happened to Millie? Northern Minnesota woman vanished 45 years ago
No one has ever been arrested in what is still an open case. Her daughter and son assume she was murdered.
Letters from earlier pandemic echo with resonance today
Holly Hannah Lewis shaped the letters into a 125-page book for family members.
Volunteer researchers chip in to remember World War II's fallen
An all-volunteer army of history buffs is trying to make sure the servicemen and women we lost aren't forgotten 75 years later.
New film explores St. Paul family's complex roots
The documentary debuts Sunday as part of the virtual Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival.
Minnesotan was among the first wave of U.S. troops to join World War II in Europe
Milburn Henke, a 23-year-old cafe owner's kid from Hutchinson, was the first American combat GI to set foot on European soil in World War II.
Case of only woman executed in Minnesota is clouded with doubt
More than 160 years later, Ann Bilansky's execution remains punctuated with question marks.
Sister Elizabeth Kenny: A 'raging tiger, merciful angel' who challenged the doctors on polio
Her methods largely rebuked in Australia and fell on deaf ears around the U.S., until she got to Minnesota.
Itasca County teacher displayed amazing resiliency in 1916
The glass eye sat in a box on a high kitchen window sill. Olga Dahl King left it there because she found it uncomfortable, preferring…
Crookston's G. Oliver Riggs struck up a band like few others did
In a new book, a great-granddaughter reveals an instrumental character in the Minnesota music scene from 1898 to 1946.
Echoes from an earlier Minnesota outbreak: Polio in 1946
More than 70% of Minnesota's cases and half the state's deaths hit those under 15.
The old painting and the U and the owner of the Thunderbird Hotel
A painting in Burton Hall of the British battleship HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar was donated by the late Rodney Wallace. But where did he get it?
Safecracking gangster turned things around in St. Paul
After spending the first half of his life in crime, including with Al Capone, Morris "Red" Rudensky redefined prison reform during his later years.
St. Patrick's Day plane crash killed group from Minnesota in 1960
Tom Teresi and Mark Kaplan had to be grinning as the sun rose over Minneapolis on March 17, 1960. By nightfall, sorrow would shadow the…
Music lover is unsung hero of Minneapolis
Between her time on the stages of Europe and as a voice instructor at Juilliard in New York, Anna Schoen-René spent 16 years in Minneapolis.
Obscure St. Paul barber took a stand for racial equality
Maurice Jernigan asked early Minnesota legislators to remove just one word from the state Constitution: white.
From Gettysburg to Geronimo, Minnesotan Albert Sieber led a Wild West movie-worthy life
His story arced from his days as an early Minneapolis cop, lumberman, teamster and wounded Civil War soldier to an Army scout in the Arizona Territory of the late 1800s.
St. Olaf College band sailed into history on notable 1906 Norway tour
In the summer of 1906, 48 members of the St. Olaf College band sailed into history. Playing 26 concerts in Norway that July, the all-male…
At Capitol, at home, A.J. Rockne was a Depression-era budget hawk
During a Depression-era summer, a state highway patrolman drove Gov. Floyd B. Olson 55 miles south to Zumbrota, Minn. The socialist-leaning governor wanted to talk…
Dressmaker Eva Bell Neal recounts growing up black in 1890s St. Paul
Minnesota's entire black population stood at one-third of 1 percent in 1890, when Eva was a toddler. Today, St. Paul is home to nearly 50,000.
Jay Hormel's amazing (piggy) backstory
Jay Hormel became one of the first Minnesotans to enlist when the U.S. entered the Great War in 1917.
St. Paul's Swede Hollow evolved as an ethnic patchwork
Razed in 1956 and now a public park, Swede Hollow became home to a revolving cast of poor immigrants on St. Paul's lower East Side.
Love letters reveal Minnesota family's old secret
Those letters surfaced in 1975. But the breakthrough that put a face with those words didn't come until 2017.
Hosiah Posey Lyght left racial violence behind for the North Shore
The government was offering a 160-acre parcel near Lutsen, about 100 miles northeast up the shore from Duluth.
St. Paul residents get asked $50 million question in 1899
The more things change, the more the issues stay the same 120 years later.
At Wonderland in Minneapolis, preemies were the main attraction
Part freak show, part pioneering neonatal hospital, the brick structure at 31st Avenue S. and 31st Street is all that's left of the amusement park.
Mankato ensign's reported death at Pearl Harbor turned out to be wrong
Guy Flanagan was among the last sailors off the USS Arizona, making him luckier than more than 1,100 entombed on the bombed battleship.
Did Otter Tail County hang the right man in 1891?
Two hours before he was hanged, Adelbert Goheen penned a statement, still insisting his brother killed Rosetta Bray.
Minneapolis hotel-saloon owner had a big heart, especially around Thanksgiving
John "Tooze" Rogers climbed from cash-strapped hotel bellhop in 1880 to own a series of saloons, theaters and an elegant Nicollet Avenue hotel.
Historian Hy Berman was in the thick of Minnesota politics
The new book, "Professor Berman: The Last Lecture of Minnesota's Greatest Public Historian," is full of his delicious insight.
Suffragist, pioneering obstetrician was never silent to injustice
Martha Rogers Ripley didn't arrive in Minnesota until she was 40, but her 28 frenetic years here were frenetic ones.
Hope helped Jewish POW endure ordeal in WWII
Despite the squalid conditions, Marcus Hertz knew sticking it out as a prisoner of war was his best chance to get home.
Minneapolis-born baseball star was a most colorful character
Elmer Ellsworth Foster, who played in the 19th century, is maybe the best Minnesota baseball player you never heard of,
Pair of Duluth men dropped everything in 1919, hopped a Harley and headed west
At age 21, bookkeeper Henry Carlson got a crazy idea 100 years ago.
New book traces slavery's reach into early Minnesota
It is a complex legacy for a state that prided itself as an anti-slavery bastion and outlawed the practice in its territorial and state constitutions.
Tireless volunteer unravels graveyard mystery in Eden Prairie
Some people play pickleball when they retire. Others knit or play cribbage. Carol Kissner had a different idea. She became a volunteer cemetery sleuth, poking…
Letters from 1927 an echo from lost era of communication
Handwritten during a couple's courtship, the 100-plus letters were laced with their beliefs, passions and dreams.
Low-profile HCMC museum holds medical gems
It’s a museum hiding in plain sight. Take the elevator down from the chaotic lobby to the basement of Hennepin County Medical Center in downtown…
Minnesota state hospital worker used angel's touch to bring reforms
Engla Schey was determined to make life better for 10,000 Minnesotans locked in seven state institutions in the 1940s.
Softball, Sears filled Dorothy Swenson's active, lively life
Until her retirement in 1987, she spent nearly 45 years as a cog in that giant Sears retail machine, taking her frustration out on the field.
Downtown St. Paul pet store is one for the ages
Sonnen's Pet Shop oozes history at 408 St. Peter St. in the Hamm Building.
Trailblazing legislator fought fiercely for equality
Not surprisingly, Myrtle Cain's dark brown hair had gone gray. After all, she'd been waiting 50 years for this moment.Now 78, she sat in the…
Gertrude Ellis Skinner, trailblazing educator and editor, honored by Austin
When her southern Minnesota hometown came calling in 1890, she faced a career quandary rare for women of the era.
World War II Navy veteran survived a kamikaze attack
"I was one of the lucky ones," Clarence Penaz said of the day when 19 sailors died and more than a dozen were injured.
