‘Tales from Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery’ Archives
Charles Broden: Soldier and Freedom Seeker
from the series Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery... Number 235 in a Series By SUE HUNTER WEIR Charles Broden was one of an unknown number of Black men who served in the Union Army but who never qualified for military benefits because they lacked the necessary documentation. In 1890, he filed for a military pension in which he described the duties that he performed for Union soldiers during the War. According to Mr. Broden, he was attached to Company A of the 38th Iowa Infantry, on December 15, 1862, at New Madrid, Missouri. For two months he worked as a cook and did odd jobs. Then, he was assigned to look after the officers’ horses. He received paychecks, wore a private’s uniform, and ate military rations. He was discharged on September 15, 1863, and was given “quite a lot of money.” He could not read or write and assumed that the papers that he was given were official discharge papers. By the time that he applied for a pension in 1890, he had lost [...]
August and Charlotte Swedenborg Lose Three Children to Contagious Diseases
233rd in the series Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery By SUE HUNTER WEIR “Our need will be the real creator.”*Plato, 380 BC August William Swedenborg was 16 years old when he arrived in America. He was born in Sweden on October 20, 1855. Before moving to Minneapolis, he briefly lived in Chautauqua, New York and Titusville, Pennsylvania. On June 3, 1877, he married Charlotte Scruf. Over the course of the next 17 years, Charlotte gave birth to eleven children. Three of those children died young from highly contagious diseases.Mina Anna Swedenborg (A. M. Swedenborg in the Cemetery’s records) died on March 13, 1881, from diphtheria. She is one of 923 people buried in the Cemetery, most of them children, who died from that disease. And that number includes only those buried in our Cemetery. In the 1800s, one out of every seven deaths was caused by diphtheria. That began to change in 1926 when a vaccine first became available. Annie Elizabeth Swedenborg [...]
Harvey B. Burk
Cyclist, Leader, Businessman, Orator, Lawyer, Advocate of Civil Rights in Jim Crow Era 232nd in a series from Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery By SUE HUNTER WEIR In his Obituary, Harvey B. Burk was described as “a young man who had made his own way in life.” He accomplished more in his 36 years than most people could accomplish in a longer lifetime. He was a civic and social leader, an orator, a lawyer, and an outspoken supporter of civil rights during the Jim Crow era. His life story reflects the resilience of a Community that not only survived but thrived during very difficult times. His prominence in the Black Community did not shield him from racism. CyclistLittle is known about his early life other than that he was born in Ohio on January 11, 1874. His name first appeared in the Minneapolis Tribune in 1896 when, at the age of 21, he was among 100 men selected to participate in the Northwestern Cycle Company’s 15-mile road race around Lake [...]
