This week in state history

Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week.

July 3

1863 Minnesota’s first railroad fatality: a train strikes a wagon driven by Captain Abraham Bennett and his son at the Como Road crossing in St. Paul. There had been talk of building a bridge at the site but, ironically, Bennett himself had opposed it. His son recovered.

1941 Charles Haralson dies in Excelsior at the age of 78. The first resident superintendent of the University of Minnesota’s Fruit Breeding Farm (now the Horticultural Research Center) at Excelsior, the Swedish-born Haralson served as superintendent from 1908 to 1925, an especially creative period during which several outstanding hardy trees and fruits were developed and introduced, including his namesake Haralson apple (1922), a tart, long-keeping, winter variety that remains popular with both home and commercial growers.

July 4

1868 Dr. Thomas Foster, editor of the Minnesotian, nicknamed Duluth the

“Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas” during a rousing Independence Day speech at Minnesota Point. Foster helped spread use of the name of the city from two words, “Du Luth,” to today’s single word.

1999 A giant windstorm causes heavy damage to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The 100-mile-per-hour winds blow down trees on a 12-mile front for a stretch of 30 miles. One person is killed. The windfall would later fuel historic fires in the area.

July 6

1863 Mule cars begin carrying passengers on Superior Street in Duluth.

1889 Three people are killed in a confrontation between striking Duluth workers and the police. Laborers building Duluth’s streets tried to get a raise, from $1.50 to $2 a day. There was more work in the city at the time than the workforce could handle, and laborers expected economics to come into play with higher wages. On July 1, sewer workers went on strike. Other workers followed and all street work in Duluth was stopped. The city contractor offered $1.75 to resume work on a West End project. Strikers marched to the area twice to protest. The second march was met with a police, who challenged the strikers. Rocks were thrown and then guns were fired. The strike led to the organizing of immigrants, and pro-labor candidates filled city offices in the 1890s. It was the first labor strike in northeastern Minnesota.

July 8

1939 The final day of operation for Duluth’s streetcars, which are replaced by trolley buses.

1980 Architect Ed Schafer reports that there are “major construction faults” in the new Carlton County jail. Construction workers had complained that the work on the jail didn’t look right. Schafer said a lack of proper wall reinforcements could lead to an escape. Contractors promise to make fixes and the county board orders that parts of the outside walls be redone. The 28-bed jail opened in 1981 and was almost immediately overcrowded, with cots in day rooms to accommodate prisoners.

This column is derived from MNopedia.org and developed by the Minnesota Historical Society.