‘Tales from Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery’ Archives
Harry Hurlburt: A Tale of Kindness and Compassion
241st edition of Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery By SUE HUNTER WEIR Every now and then it’s good to be reminded that there are kind and compassionate people in the world. This seems like one of those times. An earlier version of this story has appeared in the alley before. We have received more comments about this story than any of the many cemetery tales that the alley has published over the past 25 or so years. It is a story about kindness and generosity, qualities that sometimes seem to be in short supply. Thanks to Tim McCall for providing additional information about Mr. Howard’s military service and for his many contributions to preserving the cemetery’s stories. Photo Collage: Tim McCall The story of Captain Samuel J. Howard’s death was front page news on December 20, 1908. The story of his death was a human-interest story—a holiday story about kindness and generosity, and a story about friendship between two strangers. Because of that [...]
Louis Solberg, Humorous, Heroic, Helpful
Policeman Who Sang and Did So Much More 240th in the series Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery... By SUE HUNTER WEIR Louis Solberg quickly became one of the most respected Minneapolitans; he was an early Norwegian immigrant at age 33 in 1868. He died thirty-nine years later.He was buried in a gravenext to his infant son.Their graves have no markers.However, he was described as“one of our most gentlemanly policemen…having an excellent record for abilityand honesty.” In 1872 he was one of the first ten patrol officers appointed after Minneapolis and St. Anthony merged. George Brackett, elected mayor in 1873, charged the Police Force with cleaning up the City. Solberg and colleagues spent much of their time on stakeouts and patrolling of saloons in the City’s Red-Light District and “cleaning the City of early-day crooks.” Louis Solberg was born in Christiana (Oslo) Norway on June 6, 1835. He arrived in Minneapolis in 1868, appointed to the [...]
Every Life is a Unique Story Worth Telling
239th in the series Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery See Events to find details for Alex Weston’s tour, “Grave Matters: The Story of a City as Told Through its Cemetery” on October 5th. By ALEX WESTON Alex Weston Fleeting glimpses of a vanished worldOver 22,000 people are buried in Minneapolis’ Pioneer & Soldiers Memorial Cemetery, but there are only 1,820 grave markers. The privileged are more likely to havetheir stories preserved. This works as a metaphor for history itself. History is not “what happened in the past,” but rather a web of stories we tell about the past. Like the grave markers at Pioneer & Soldiers Memorial Cemetery—which represent only around 8% of the individuals buried there—the evidence from which we construct these stories is fragmentary. We get only fleeting glimpses of a vanished world. Some stories get passed on, while most are forgotten. Generally, the privileged are more likely to have their [...]
