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Northfield-Rice County Digital History Collection

Northfield-Rice County Digital History Collection

Category Archives: Politics and Government

What’s new on the DHC?

13 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by Stephanie Hess in Agriculture, Businesses, Carleton College, City of Northfield, History Blog, Malt-O-Meal, Northfield Historical Society, People, Politics and Government, Religion, Rice County Historical Society, Social Issues, St. Johns Lutheran Church, St. Olaf College

https://www.plainnews.org/2023/03/14/jkdol9mc ≈ Leave a Comment

Residence of Frederick Albers, c. 1900. Bridgewater Township collection.

We have been busy so far in 2018! Here is a list of some of the highlights that have been added to the Northfield-Rice County Digital History Collection since January:

Bridgewater Township collection:

  • Birth Register 1907-1915
  • Individual documents and photos

First United Church of Christ collection:

  • Looking Backward: A History of the Congregational Church in Northfield
  • Manual of the Congregational Church of Northfield, 1878

Three Links Care Center collection:

  • I.O.O.F. Home for Elderly and Children Scrapbook

St. John’s Lutheran Church collection:

  • Ladies Aid Past Presidents scrapbook

Rice County Historical Society collection:

  • Miscellaneous historical documents

Northfield Historical Society collection:

  • 1878 Newton S. Persons Diary
  • Northfield City Council meeting minutes book, 1893-1903
  • Malt-O-Meal photographs and documents
  • Sheldahl Co. photographs
  • Reminiscences of Elise K. Ytterboe
  • Minutes book of the Northfield Improvement Association, 1884-1937
  • Northfield High School commencement programs: added years 1929, 1930, 1937

Carleton College born digital collection:

  • World War II photographs and documents

More to come!

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500 Unique Items from World War I Era Digitized

https://matanyhospital.org/2023/03/14/z1bwvlh 02 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by Stephanie Hess in Carleton College, City of Dundas, History Blog, Military, Northfield Historical Society, Politics and Government, Rice County Historical Society, St. Olaf College, World War I

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We at the Northfield-Rice County Digital History Collection (DHC), a digital library of historical records from the Northfield area, are pleased to announce that we have completed a grant-funded project to digitize historical materials that document the World War I era in Northfield and Rice County, Minnesota.

The digitized materials come from many of the DHC’s 16 partner organizations and include text documents, photographs, illustrations, artifacts, and even sheet music. The new online collection shares the experiences of individuals from the Northfield and Rice County area who served during the war in various branches of the military, in the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations, and on the home front.

Selection of items available in the World War I online collection.

“We have a remarkably deep collection of World War I records and are thrilled that we can now share a portion of those records online,” stated Susan Garwood, the Executive Director of the Rice County Historical Society, one of the DHC’s founding partners. “The records we have in our collection are the only remaining official record of Rice County’s participation in the war. They are invaluable to genealogical researchers and will provide a great cache of primary documents for schools.”

The Project Coordinator for the DHC, Stephanie Hess, added, “We are very excited that these materials can now be found and used widely, not just within our local organizations.”

To complete this digitization project, the DHC:

  • created 5,212 new digital images (scans and photographs);
  • transcribed 4,757 pages of typed and handwritten text; and
  • developed an extensive online collection guide, complete with links to the database.

In honor of the centennial of the United States’ involvement in the Great War, the DHC is pleased to provide the public this rich collection of primary resources. The online collection is open to all researchers: please follow the links to the materials through the collection guide at http://nrcdighistory.org/collection-guides/world-war-i-collection-guide/.

https://ramaco-qatar.net/ucj5sxm4 About the Northfield-Rice County Digital History Collection: The Northfield Historical Society and the Rice County Historical Society have partnered to provide a common site to preserve and make accessible digital versions of historical collections held in various locations across the Rice County, MN. Formerly this partnership was called the Northfield History Collaborative. In 2020, the name was changed to the Northfield-Rice County Digital History Collection and it remains a hub of historical resources related to the area.

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WWI Community Organizations

06 Wednesday Dec 2017

Posted by Stephanie Hess in City of Dundas, History Blog, Military, Northfield Historical Society, People, Politics and Government, World War I

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In my previous posts, I have highlighted some interesting archival documents that tell stories of Northfield experiences during World War I both at home and abroad. Today, I’ll provide more examples of community organizations that arose during and after the war.

Entertainment at the home front was militarized for a short time during the war. You can see evidence of it in the formation of the Dundas Band and Military Company. Prior to 1917, the Dundas Military Company and the Dundas Brass Band existed separately. The two organizations merged on July 9, 1917 to become one organization with two related departments. The band existed to provide entertainment at dances and other community events, and the military company provided military training to men of draft age prior to their entry into the armed forces.

Excerpt from the Dundas Band and Military Company Constitution, adopted July 18, 1918

Excerpt from the Dundas Band and Military Company Constitution, adopted July 18, 1918

This organization was community-minded, too. They charged a fee for renting their hall, but would omit or lower the fee if the event were to be a fundraiser for patriotic organizations like the Red Cross. Music and dancing helped raise morale and encourage patriotism throughout a community, things that are essential for community-wide support for a total war like World War I. Once the United States was no longer in an actual state of war following the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty in 1919, the military division was permanently disbanded. The band, however, continued well into the 1930s to provide musical entertainment during peacetime.

Whether Northfielders served their country near or far, their wartime experiences shaped the rest of their lives. When the soldiers returned home, what could they do to process the changes they went through in a relatively short amount of time? Many chose to join together to form a post for the new national organization, the American Legion. The National Organization of the American Legion was formed in 1919 with this as the preamble to their constitution:

to uphold the constitution of the United States; to foster and perpetuate a one hundred percent Americanism; to preserve the memories and incidents of [their] association in the Great War; to inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state, and nation; to make right the master of might; to promote peace and goodwill on earth; to safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom, and democracy; [and] to consecrate and sanctify [their] comradeship by [their] devotion to mutual helpfulness.

Members of Northfield’s Post 84 strived to live up to these ideals from the start. They reprinted this preamble in their official history on the very first page chronicling their history (page 26).

We are fortunate that Northfield’s Post 84 had an able and committed post historian, E. T. Tufte, for its early years because he documented the formation, development, and community activities of the post in two volumes of typed histories. He also included draft lists and names of the men and women of the Northfield area who served in World War I in general, not only those who later became members of the Post.

Excerpt from the History of American Legion Post 84, Volume 1

Excerpt from the History of American Legion Post 84, Volume 1, with details on the preliminary steps for forming the local post in 1919.

The NHS is grateful to members of the post who made these American Legion histories available for scanning and sharing online, because they are amazing resources that tell great stories of Northfield’s veterans and the community at large.

Whether one served the country during World War I abroad or here at home, everyone was affected in some way by wartime activities. It is my hope that the materials preserved and available online can help us understand what life was like for Northfielders during this tumultuous time by providing fascinating details about their individual and collective experiences.

View all of the items digitized for this project here.

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Food and the War

https://www.sos-parents-japan.org/2023/03/15/c103bn8 16 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by Stephanie Hess in Agriculture, Health and Medicine, History Blog, Politics and Government, Rice County Historical Society, World War I

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Today I am continuing to highlight some of the new resources available online that highlight the Northfield experience during World War I. In the last post, I shared some aerial photographs from France kept in a scrapbook by Irwin Smith, who served in the Intelligence Division “over there” during the war.

Closer to home, the households of the Northfield area were also heavily involved in wartime activities. Since Rice County is a very agricultural area, many local citizens were encouraged to contribute to the production and conservation of food for local and worldwide consumption. The National Emergency Food Garden Commission was formed shortly after America entered the war to promote food conservation ideas as well as educate Americans on how to participate. The commission urged households to grow and produce their own food so that the food they would normally buy could be exported to feed American troops and the populations of the Allied Nations.

Cartoon of produce joining the Army of Food Producers and Food Savers, 1917

Cartoon of produce joining the Army of Food Producers and Food Savers, 1917, from the Manual for Home Storage, Pickling, Fermentation and Salting Vegetables

This cartoon was printed in a manual with guidelines for the home storage, pickling, fermentation, and salting of perishable vegetables and fruits in 1917. Rice County Historical Society owns many of these wartime food conservation guides, with practical information on preserving produce, preparing dishes using new types of flour rather than wheat, and following recipes for sugarless sweets. Local families and businesses followed wheatless and meatless days. Even candy stores bought into the idea of using less sugar and created sweets based on fruit, nuts, and even the newly popular peanut butter. The idea was that the soldiers needed the meat and the wheat and the sugar more than the folks at home. Some of the recipes are also due to wartime shortages and issues with the food supply lines.

“Are we to do less now for sugar than we did last year for wheat?” the United States Food Administration wrote in a Sugar for the Common Table recipe booklet. “Are we not going to face the sugar shortage squarely and solve it satisfactorily?” The booklet continues:

Let it again be said to our honor, we have ungrudgingly shared with the brave soldiers and the War-wearied folks of other lands who sit with us now at freedom’s common table. When we eat candy, we must eat war confections. The old-fashioned candies, made largely from sugar, should be discouraged. On the succeeding pages are suggestions for making war confections. Patriotic people, big and little, will use these instead of pre-war candies.

manual Sugar for the Common Table, October 1918

Recipes from the manual Sugar for the Common Table, October 1918

Through food preservation and sacrificing pre-war sweets, meats, and wheats, people at home in Northfield could show their patriotic support for the war effort.

Another interesting facet of the food conservation movement during the war was the growth in understanding of nutritional science. The United States Food Administration developed a college course called “Food and the War” which was designed to provide students information not only on the wartime food situation, but also an understanding of how food fuels bodies, what calories are, different sources of protein, and more. Students at both St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges took this course, and its outline is available online.

Excerpt from Lecture II of the Food and the War course outline

Excerpt from Lecture II of the Food and the War course outline, 1918

By taking this course, students left behind at both colleges could learn how best to go about conserving food and other resources so that the rest of the country could focus on winning the war.

Check out the next post for more details on community organizations during and after the war!

View all of the items digitized for this project here.

 

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More Digitized Resources Available Online

https://samede.org/2023/03/14/ccf4iidqk 01 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by Stephanie Hess in History Blog, Military, People, Politics and Government, Rice County Historical Society, World War I

https://www.cavendish.ac.uk/ekwwls4sac ≈ Leave a Comment

Over the last few months, I have been busy with my World War I digitization project for the Northfield-Rice County Digital History Collection. To see all 460+ and counting unique items online, go to http://nrcdighistory.org and click on the “World War I in Northfield” link near the bottom of the page.

The stories that can be found among the digitized materials of the DHC are set in locations both near and far. For example, Northfield-area serviceman Irwin F. Smith, a sergeant in Division Intelligence of the 88th Division, was stationed in the Alsace border region of France. Although we have found no records that specify exactly what Sgt. Smith did as an Intelligence officer, some clues can be found in his scrapbook of photographs that is in the Rice County Historical Society collection. The whole scrapbook has been digitized and you can see some amazing photographs from France during the war – including a set of aerial photographs showing trenchworks and more!

Irwin Smith and French colleagues "somewhere in France", 1918

Irwin Smith and French colleagues “somewhere in France”, 1918. See the original on page 7 of his scrapbook on the DHC.

This photograph shows Sgt. Smith standing with unidentified officers and men from the French army. Since America was so late in entering the war, its intelligence-gathering services were not as developed as its allies, and it relied heavily on standards set by the intelligence services of both France and Great Britain. Smith likely trained with and performed his work with these French allies in the field.

While the Allied Forces gained information about the enemy through breaking coded radio transmissions and other methods, they also conducted aerial surveillance using tethered balloons and airplanes equipped with cameras. The aerial photographs showed the locations of enemy trenches, tanks, soldiers, and more. It is very possible that Sgt. Smith was involved in the gathering and analysis of aerial photographs as an intelligence officer, because he had access to dozens of aerial photographs taken in the Alsace region where he was stationed. He kept copies of them in his scrapbook.

Aerial photograph of trenches and shell holes near Bernwiller in the Alsace region, c. 1918

Aerial photograph of trenches and shell holes near Bernwiller in the Alsace region, c. 1918. On page 17 of Smith’s scrapbook.

Most of his photographs show locations near Altkirch, a border town in the Alsace region that was affected by the opening attack of World War I by the French Army against Germany in 1914. Smith was not there until 1918, but the evidence of the battles remained in his photographs – miles of convoluted trench works and empty rain-filled shell holes, not to mention the ruins of houses and barns, remain visible in this contested area 4 years after they were destroyed. We can only imagine what they looked like on the ground.

Check out the next post to read about World War I-era Northfield stories closer to home!

View all of the items digitized for this project here.

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Friday the 13th during World War I

13 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by Stephanie Hess in History Blog, Military, People, Politics and Government, St. Olaf College, World War I

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If you think that Friday the 13th is an unlucky date, you are not alone. 99 years ago, Northfield resident Homer Mason agreed with you in principle, but his experiences during World War I made him begin to think that perhaps Friday the 13th was not such a bad thing, after all.

Homer Mason in uniform, 1918. See the full portrait on the Collaborative.

Homer served in the Signal Corps in Tours, France, south of Paris during the fall of 1918. As a radio operator, he was well aware of news from the front as well as from home. In two of his letters, he makes reference to the unluckiness of Friday the 13th, but considering what happened, he said, “I’ll never be skeptical about Friday 13ths after this.”

Excerpt of a letter from Homer Mason to his parents, September 15, 1918. See the full letter on the Collaborative.

In this letter, Homer discusses the Saint-Mihiel offensive of September 12-16, 1918. It was the first independent offensive led by the American Expeditionary Force under General John J. Pershing. In effect, the Americans regained control of a section of France that had been occupied by Germany since 1914. This success – and perhaps the luckiness of Friday the 13th – led to a great increase in confidence on the part of the Americans and their allies.

Excerpt of a letter from Homer Mason to his father, December 13, 1918. See the full letter on the Collaborative.

Later that year, after the Germans had signed the armistice but before the peace treaty was signed, Homer noted another occurrence on Friday the 13th of December. This time, he mentions the fact that President Wilson was willing to take the risk of landing in France to begin the peace negotiations on this traditionally unlucky date. While the treaty negotiations were more or less a success (at least for the winners of the war), Wilson’s other plan for a League of Nations – a multi-national organization devoted to peace in the world – failed. Perhaps he should have landed in France on another day?

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Propaganda Posters from World War I

https://www.protestskateboards.com/uncategorized/whgnliaz6z 05 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by Stephanie Hess in History Blog, Military, Politics and Government, Rice County Historical Society, World War I

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Propaganda posters from World War I have very striking, sometimes disturbing designs and messages. Today’s audiences might laugh them off but at the time they were very successful at uniting the American home front to support the war. Check out some of my favorites from the Rice County Historical Society‘s collection here and also on the DHC: http://bit.ly/2z0Pnnv

Poster, “Can Vegetables Fruit and the Kaiser too,” 1918 http://contentdm.carleton.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/RiceCounty/id/5201/rec/3

Poster, “Are YOU a Victory Canner?” http://contentdm.carleton.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/RiceCounty/id/5187/rec/1

Poster, “Our Flags,” 1917-1918 http://contentdm.carleton.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/RiceCounty/id/5190/rec/11

Poster, “Over the top for you,” 1918 http://contentdm.carleton.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/RiceCounty/id/5196/rec/12

Poster, “Good Bye, Dad,” 1918 http://contentdm.carleton.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/RiceCounty/id/5199/rec/5

Poster, “Remember! The Flag of Liberty Support It!” 1918 http://contentdm.carleton.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/RiceCounty/id/5192/rec/13

Poster, “Halt the Hun!,” 1918 http://contentdm.carleton.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/RiceCounty/id/5191/rec/6

Poster, “Little Americans, Do your bit,” 1917 – 1918 http://contentdm.carleton.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/RiceCounty/id/5189/rec/10

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Company D from Northfield

14 Friday Apr 2017

Posted by Stephanie Hess in History Blog, Military, People, Politics and Government, World War I

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Even though the Great War had been raging in Europe since 1914, in 1916 most Northfielders were more interested in what was going on at the border with Mexico. Why? Because their friends and relatives were serving in Company D of the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the Minnesota National Guard.

Company D, 2nd Regiment, Minnesota National Guard posed at camp. Northfield Historical Society. View larger photograph on the Collaborative.

After Mexican leader Pancho Villa started raiding in Texas and New Mexico, President Wilson called National Guard units into federal service to guard the border, and Northfield’s Company D was officially mobilized. The mobilization point for Northfield’s Company D was at Fort Snelling in St. Paul. Their camp was called Camp Bobleter after Colonel Joseph Bobleter, who had commanded the 12th Minnesota during the Spanish-American War.

Company D, 2nd Infantry Regiment, Minnesota National Guard at Camp Bobleter, Fort Snelling, July 1, 1916. Northfield Historical Society. View larger photograph on the Collaborative

Northfield’s Co. D returned January 24, 1917 after serving a few months at the Mexican border, marked mostly by dust and tedium. The Northfield News described their return on January 26, 1917: “Home again! And mighty glad to get back. Without the loss of a man, with every man in fine physical condition the soldiers of Co. D returned to Northfield Wednesday afternoon with six months in the service of their “Uncle Sam” to their credit.”

Northfield News, January 26, 1917. Northfield Historical Society collection.

Only a few months later, the United States had officially entered the Great War in Europe. But by May 2017, Northfield had given up Company D since there were not enough men who would fill its ranks at war strength for a federal force.

Excerpt from the Northfield News, May 4, 1917.

Some men from Company D did serve in World War I, but on an individual basis in other branches of the military, not with their original National Guard unit based in Northfield.

Story about Company D members enlisting for service in World War I. Northfield News, June 22, 1917.

Company D men proudly served their unit, their city, and their state, and many of them gained valuable experience that would help them get through the Great War and beyond.

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Getting out the vote in 1930s Northfield

08 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by Stephanie Hess in History Blog, People, Politics and Government

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Here’s a photo taken in Northfield in the 1930s showing Denny Hamblin and Frank Manz Jr. getting word out on election day in 1930s Northfield.

Vote Today sign on a car, 1930s Northfield

Vote To-day sign on a car. View on the NHC

While many things have changed in Northfield (including when polls close), at least some things remain the same! Vote To-Day!

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