‘Tales from Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery’ Archives
Alice”'s murder exploited by vagaries of politicos and publishers
Roosevelt, Taft, politicos, prostitution, Titanic dominate headlines by Sue Hunter Weir Alice Mathews led a rather ordinary life except for one thing: she was murdered. On Saturday, March 23, 1912, the night that she was murdered, Alice was twenty years old. She worked as a packer at the Pillsbury C Mill and lived with her father, stepmother and four siblings in South Minneapolis. Alice had spent the evening downtown going to a movie and having a late supper with two of her girlfriends. At 11:06, Alice caught the Cedar Avenue streetcar. She got off on 34th Street and Cedar Avenue, the end of the line, and started to walk home, a distance of about seven blocks. When Alice was within a few houses of her own home, someone attempted to rape her. Failing that, her attacker strangled her. The story of Alice”'s murder was front-page news for the next three weeks. Except for those who were interested in the battle between Theodore Roosevelt and Howard Taft for the Republican [...]
Daughters of the War of 1812 , The Second War of Independence, will Honor Sergeant James Nettle
By Sue Hunter Weir The Daughters of the War of 1812 will rededicate the marker of Sergeant James Nettle Glover, one of three confirmed War of 1812 veterans buried in Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery. The other two veterans, Asa Clark Brown and Walter P. Carpenter, will be honored in 2011 and 2012 respectively. 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 be buried in Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery. All of these veterans were interesting men, perhaps none more so than James Nettle Glover. Mr. Glover was born in Fort Tobacco, Maryland, in 1793. When the War of 1812 began, Mr. Glover enlisted; he was eventually promoted to sergeant. Following the war, Mr. Glover and all of his siblings, moved to St. Louis, Missouri. It was there that he met and married Elizabeth Dozier. One of the [...]
Endorsements of Minnesota as “Exceedingly Bracing” and “ An Asylum for Invalids,” Inspired Hopes to Cure Tuberculosis
By Sue Hunter Weir Now that winter is almost over and it”'s still a little too soon for us to start worrying about mosquitoes and humidity, we can take a short break from complaining about the weather. Complaining about the weather is part and parcel of living in Minnesota, but that wasn”'t always the case. There was a time when Minnesota”'s weather was considered one of the state”'s major attractions. After visiting Fort Snelling in the 1820s, President Zachary Taylor, endorsed our “exceedingly bracing” weather and wrote that the area was “probably the healthiest in the nation.” Four decades later, civic boosters wrote pamphlets encouraging people from the East Coast and Europe to move here because of our invigorating weather. Minnesota was, they claimed, an “asylum for invalids,” the perfect place to recover from tuberculosis. Cemetery”'s first burial was due to death from tuberculosis: a disease without cure [...]
