‘Tales from Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery’ Archives
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 [...]
“An Intelligent Man, a Good Fellow and a Brave Soldier”
from the series Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery... Number 238 in a Series By SUE HUNTER WEIR This quote from the Leavenworth Daily Times sums up the life of Alonzo J. Brown, a Civil War veteran, and may be why, when his life was upended by illness, friends and colleagues came to his aid. During the Civil War, Alonzo Brown enlisted in Company G in the 1st Kansas Infantry attaining the rank of captain. He was wounded and mustered out in 1863, but re-enlisted in the 22nd Veteran Reserve Corps where he performed light duty until the War’s end. Although he served in those two units for five years, Brown considered himself as having performed ten years of military service. The undocumented five years most likely refer to unofficial service during an attack on his hometown Lawrence, Kansas. In 1856, William Quantrill, leader of a band of lawless Confederate raiders, attacked the town, known as an anti-slavery stronghold. They killed more than 180 men and [...]
