‘Tales from Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery’ Archives
Asa Clark Brown to be Honored by Daughters of the War of 1812 May 30th 2011 at 9 AM
By Sue Hunter Weir The Daughters of the War of 1812 will place a new marker for Asa Clark Brown, one of three confirmed War of 1812 veterans buried in Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery. The other two veterans, James N. Glover was honored in 2010 and Walter P. Carpenter, will be honored in 2012. John Carpenter, Walter”'s brother, may well turn out to be a War of 1812 veteran as well. If that turns out to be the case, four of the approximately 200 War of 1812 veterans known to have died in Minnesota will have been buried in Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery. Asa Clark Brown, one of the Cemetery”'s War of 1812 veterans, has a new military marker. His old marker was placed on his grave by members of the Minneapolis Cemetery Protective Association in 1932. After almost 80 years of wind and weather, the carving has all but disappeared, and it was time. In the next few weeks, his new marker will be installed, and his old marker will be removed and placed [...]
Geneology Second only to Gardening
by Susan Hunter Weir Genealogy is the second most popular hobby in America (gardening is first). Genealogy is like solving puzzles””finding that one clue that leads you to the maiden name of your great-great-grandmother or locating the name of the town where she was born. Millions of people spend their leisure time searching the internet, digging through trunks in attics and reading obituaries looking for information about long-lost relatives. The cemetery office has records on all of the 21,000 people buried there. The amount and type of information varies a little bit and tends not to be as complete for the earliest burials (the 1850s and 60s) as it is for later ones. Every person has a burial card, and most cards contain information about that person”'s age, place of death and cause of death. Some contain birthdates and birth locations. For those who died after 1876 there are burial permits as well. Grave locations are recorded in a large plat book. The [...]
Squire Borden, Tender of first Bridge Across the Mississippi River
by Susan Hunter Weir Squire Borden was born on the Atlantic Ocean on August 25, 1823. Perhaps that explains his life-long attraction to water. For many years, he worked as the bridge-tender on the first two suspension bridges that spanned the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, and since everyone who crossed the bridge encountered him, his was one of the most familiar faces in the city. In 1854, local entrepreneurs paid for the first bridge in the country to span the Mississippi River. The bridge was made of wood, and the cost of operating it was initially covered by tolls (two cents for a pedestrian and 25 cents for a wagon). Twenty years after it was built, the bridge was in poor condition and too narrow to accommodate the number of wagons that needed to cross it. The City contracted with Thomas M. Griffith, a nationally-known engineer, to build a replacement. The second bridge, 675 feet long and 32 feet wide, was constructed of steel and concrete rather than wood. It was [...]
