‘Tales from Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery’ Archives
Artifacts and Curios (and a Piano)
Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery: 206th in a series By SUE HUNTER WEIR The caretaker’s cottage is a wonderful place. The two front rooms were built in 1871, which means it may well be the oldest existing stone building in South Minneapolis outside of Fort Snelling. The back room was built during the Great Depression by workers employed by the Works Progress Administration, a program designed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to create jobs for displaced workers. But it’s not just the structure that’s interesting. The inside of the building is something of a way-back machine. There are artifacts and relics dating back in some cases to the 1870s. None of the items are of any great monetary value, but they capture a piece of Minneapolis’ history that might otherwise have been lost. The Layman family, the cemetery’s original owners, were prodigious recordkeepers. There are dozens of ledgers in which they recorded the sales of cemetery plots, some for as [...]
Unknown, Perhaps Unwanted
Twenty of the 78 unknowns are buried beneath a marker provided by the University of Minnesota. The marker was dedicated on September 9, 2012. Photo: Tim McCall Tales From Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery 206th in a Series By SUE HUNTER WEIR There are 78 people buried in the cemetery whose last names were recorded simply as “unknown.” They might more accurately have been called “unidentified,” since it’s likely that someone, somewhere must have known them. But no one stepped forward to claim them and most, though not all, were buried at the expense of the county in the cemetery’s paupers’ section, known as Section H. Newspaper coverage of their deaths was spotty: some deaths appeared to be newsworthy, others not. In a few cases the papers printed a description of the person who had died. An unknown man who died in April 1876 was described as being “about five feet six inches in height, with a strong frame and dark complexion.” It was general enough that [...]
Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery: Public Health Policy Saves the Lives of Mothers and Babies
Julia Abram died from complications of childbirth on June 1, 1874. She was 22 years old. Her husband remarried and Isabell, his daughter with his second wife, died on August 22, 1877 from inanition. Photo: Tim McCall By SUE HUNTER WEIR Julia Abrams was just 22 years old when she died after giving birth in 1874. Julia is only one of 110 women buried in Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery who either died during childbirth or shortly afterward from complications caused by their pregnancies. There are undoubtedly more but since doctors used a variety of words to describe the cause of death, it is hard, if not impossible, to say how many. “Peritonitis” might refer to an infection but it might also refer to something like appendicitis.The women’s ages ranged from 16 to 53. Anna Griffin was the youngest of the women; she was barely 16 years old when she died; her baby died from malnutrition 15 days later. Mary Zustiak was 53 when she died in 1915. The majority of [...]
