Recent content from Curt Brown
St. Paul hospice has helped the dying for 80 years
Our Lady of Peace will commemorate its anniversary with a candle-lighting ceremony Tuesday.
Was Hugo named for a great French writer — or an otherwise forgotten Duluth mayor?
In the research process, a David vs. Goliath clash of Minnesota history buffs emerged — and the underdog won.
A tale of two Minnesota graves that go way, way back
"It is an odd chain of events whereby the War of 1812 would have such a Minnesota connection," Curt Bradford writes.
Remembering fallen Minneapolis firefighter Charlie Birkeli
The father of three was the first Minneapolis firefighter in 17 years killed in the line of duty when he died in 1965.
Minneapolis fighter pilot shattered barriers in WWII
At 97, Harold Haywood Brown is one of just a few surviving Tuskegee Airmen.
Japanese-born vet Edward Yamazaki a rarity at Fort Snelling National Cemetery
Edward Yamazaki owned a north Minneapolis cafe and lived in Linden Hills.
One of Austin's founders was also its first murder victim
Some say George Hormel put Austin, Minn., on the map when he began processing pork along the Cedar River there in 1891.But more than 30…
Finnish white-tailed deer herd started as Minnesota gift
All those Finnish whitetails can trace their roots to that first Minnesota gift in 1934, as well as another six fawns flown over from the Iron Range in 1948.
Vigilante justice descended on dark night in Glencoe, 1896
The lynchings made the front page of the New York Times. But no one came forward to identify the vigilantes or push for their arrests.
Bloomington woman's letters describe amazing WWII trek
A new book, "Love, Della," has 193 of the letters from Della Fahley.
Gophers reserves saw WWII duty
KARE-TV reporter Danny Spewak's new book "From the Gridiron to the Battlefield" chronicles the 1941 Gophers.
Minneapolis anti-vaxxer's death in 1903 resonates today
The Minneapolis Anti-Vaccination League was formed 120 years ago this month, opposing mandated inoculations for schoolchildren.
Burned-out University of Minnesota dental student filled hole in heart with secret elopement
University of Minnesota dental student Robert Ostergren was so miserable he couldn't sleep. So he wrote another of his countless letters to Esther Eldora Anderson,…
Minnesota Boat Club still rowing after 151 years
The club is celebrating a COVID-delayed 150th anniversary as the state's oldest athletic organization on Sept. 11 with a day of races and events.
Sculptor climbed from Duluth farm to congressional hall
After her mother died in 1938, Leona Evelyn Raymond carved a remarkable career restart.
Two days in court, 25 years apart, frame Minneapolis mobster Kid Cann's career
As he rose from Prohibition-era bootlegger to Minneapolis crime boss, Isadore "Kid Cann" Blumenfeld regularly spun through the revolving doors of justice — and mostly…
Strangled Minneapolis woman's death remains unsolved 84 years later
Laura Kruse's body was found after she took a streetcar home from a party at her beauty school.
Minneapolis shoeshiner Dorsie Willis waited 66 years for Army apology
His tarnished service record had hurt his hopes for finding a better job.
At 94, retired engineer 'blessed' to have wed identical twins
Gerald Williams recently completed a 10-year project, writing a 241-page memoir for his grandkids. How he ended up marrying twins emerges as the most intriguing subplot.
Dog tag found in Italy returned to Minnesota family 77 years after soldier vanished
The hope was that returning Harlan William Melinsky's dog tag to his Minnesota relatives would "give some consolation to the family."
Towing mogul's rare car collection hits auction block
The auction includes vintage hood ornaments, cash registers, a player piano, tin auto signs and old hubcaps.
Female mapmakers detailed Minnesota's Arrowhead back in 1929
The colorful, meticulously detailed map is packed with stories of Native American lore, French Canadian explorers and some fun facts and sketches.
Dark day at Split Rock: Two keepers drowned in 1910
As Split Rock Lighthouse's first head keeper from 1910 to 1928, Orren "Pete" Young cautioned countless sailors from his cliff-top perch overlooking Lake Superior, 50…
Let's remember the Stark brothers this Memorial Day
The brothers died the same day in 1944 when their B-17 crashed. They were among 9,765 Minnesotans killed in World War II.
Revisiting Hastings' rich Black history, personal toil
On a day in May 1875, a few dozen Black residents of Hastings celebrated passage of a new federal civil rights law allowing African Americans…
Twists and turns for Minnesota's oldest human bones
The discovery dubbed Browns Valley Man was judged to be roughly 10,000-year-old bones, some of the oldest, best-preserved prehistoric human remains ever found in North America.
The larger-than-life story of Finnish immigrant Matt Reed
For more than 30 years, up until his death in 1971 at 79, he barnstormed across the country as a lay preacher.
New book recounts history through Ojibwe missionary's eyes
As winter was about to descend in 1850, about 4,000 Lake Superior Ojibwe were forced to travel to Minnesota Territory to collect money and goods…
Civil rights pioneer left Anoka, Hamline to make her mark
Anna Arnold Hedgeman rubbed elbows with and influenced many of the civil rights movement's greats
Speedskater Robert Fitzgerald penned unparalleled comeback story
Embarrassed by the far-from-the-battlefield nature of the injury while in the Army, he didn't talk about his amazing comeback until later in life.
St. Paul gangster's kidnapping trial came to dramatic end
The defendant stood with his arms behind his back, so the federal judge in St. Paul couldn't see his left hand. But courtroom witnesses caught…
Minnesota nurse looks back on a long career with humor
On a 20-below-zero night in 1965, nurse Caroline Rosdahl explained to a patient that he couldn't legally leave Hennepin County General Hospital because he was…
Marine from Morris, Minn., re-emerges in new WWII book
In the 1940s and '50s, Sgt. William Knuppel Jr. served in Iceland, New Zealand, World War II battles and in the Korean War. During his…
From different backgrounds, pair launched first skyways
As the pandemic casts doubt about workaday downtowns, it's fitting to flash back to this pair of downtown boosters.
Calls to preserve abandoned Black cemetery in Aitkin County
Lynda Baker's quest to track her family's roots became stymied in an out-of-the-way place: the woodsy north shore of Lake Mille Lacs, 120 miles from…
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.
