‘Tales from Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery’ Archives
Small Newspapers Help Tell the Vaders’ Story
from Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery By SUE HUNTER WEIR 223rd in a Series Work on the pillars of the Cemetery’s fence has begun. Built in 1928, the fence has been in need of substantial repairs for at least a decade. Some of the soft limestone blocks and the mortar that held them together for almost 100 years need to be replaced. The restoration will take several months and is expected to be completed by fall. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, an estimated 30% of children did not live to see their fifth birthdays. Of those, the majority did not reach their first birthdays. Cemetery records, census information, and death records tell part of the story, but other sources, especially newspapers, help fill in some of the blanks. Around that time, there were two newspapers, The Appeal and the Twin Cities Star, that served Minneapolis’ early African-American community. Although their stories were often brief, they help bring us closer to [...]
Catherine and Jerry
No. 222 from the series Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery By SUE HUNTER WEIR In October 1892, Catherine Bruce applied for a mother’s pension based on her deceased son’s service in the Civil War. She was 91 years old and “decrepit, in poor health, and poverty-stricken.”Catherine’s son, Jerry Bruce, died on February 1, 1877, from an epileptic seizure. Jerry had enlisted in Company G 42nd U. S. Colored Troops on September 3, 1864, and within a matter of months began experiencing seizures on an almost daily basis. He was deemed unfit for duty for 58 days of his enlistment; the captain of his military unit said that his seizures “ him completely helpless.” He was discharged for disability in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on May 31, 1865. Catherine had previously applied for this pension in 1878. A man close to the Bruce family, David Lewis, testified for Catherine that Jerry had been a “sound man, in good health,” until his service, and that if Jerry had [...]
Hamilton and Lee
from the series Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery, No. 221 By SUE HUNTER WEIR The Department of the Interior rejected his wife’s claim for a military pension in 1924 but the Department of Veterans Affairs has since acknowledged that Clenis Washington Lee served in Company D of the 30th U.S. Colored Infantry. One hundred and thirteen years after he died, Mr. Lee received his military markers. PHOTO: Tim McCall In August 1905, within a matter of days, Minneapolis’s African-American community lost two of its best-known and well-respected members: Emanuel Hamilton and Clenis Washington Lee. Emanuel Hamilton, affectionately known as “Ham”, died on August 12, 1905. Three days earlier, he became ill at work and rushed to the City Hospital. The city was in the middle of a heat wave and it was initially thought that he was suffering from heat exhaustion, but doctors later determined that he had suffered a stroke. He remained hospitalized, semi-conscious and [...]
