Browse Items (2907 total)

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  Knute Nelson papers, 1860-1966

  Biography/History:

  Knute Nelson was born in Vosse Elven, Norway, on February 2, 1843. In 1849 he and his widowed mother emigrated to the United States, settling first in Chicago (1849-1850), then in Dane County, Wisconsin, where he enlisted in the Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment (1861-1864) during the Civil War. Following the war he graduated from the Albion Academy and studied law in a Madison, Wisconsin, law office, being admitted to the bar in 1867 and then serving as a representative in the Wisconsin assembly (1868-1869).

  In 1871 he moved with his family to Alexandria, Minnesota, where he practiced law while farming a homestead tract. He served as Douglas County attorney (1872-1974), Minnesota state senator (1875-1878), presidential elector (1880), University of Minnesota regent (1882-1893), and fifth district representative to Congress (1883-1889). He was elected governor of Minnesota in 1892 and 1894, which post he resigned in 1895 to run successfully for the United States Senate, where he remained until 1923. Nelson was chairman of the Senate judiciary committee and the senate committee on public lands, and was active on the commerce and Indian affairs committees. His most notable legislative measures included the Nelson Bankruptcy Act (1898) and the act creating the Department of Commerce and Labor (1902), and he was also active in the establishment of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Nelson also supported a low tariff, a federal income tax, Prohibition, the Sherman Act, and the League of Nations. He died on April 28, 1923, during his fifth senatorial term.

  The above information was taken from the following sources: Dictionary of American Biography, vol. XIII (1934); Who Was Who in America, vol. I (1968);Minnesota Biographies (1912), Book of Minnesotans (1907), Minnesota Historical Society Collections, vol. XIII (August 1908).

  The Minnesota Historical Society Archives contains a large collection of Knute Nelson. 

  Scope and Content: 

  Papers concerning a Norwegian-born attorney and statesman: Clippings, correspondence, genealogy, transcripts and translations of letters, and speeches. Papers include: Nelson's translation of the Norwegian Constitution (1895, 27 p.); Pedigree chart prepared by Ralph Rolland who shares some of the ancestry; clippings and copies of newspaper articles on observances of the 150th anniversary of Nelson's birthday. "Program ved minnehøgtiti, 14. Aug. 19”; Transcripts of letters written by Nelson's mother to her mother (Dec. 23, 1863) and her niece (Dec. 8, 1868); and letters from Nelson to his cousin Anders Bergo (1899-1923), collected by T.C. Blegen; other copies in the America Letters collection. 

  Nine Civil War letters translated by Nora O. Solum for Dr. Millard L. Gieske, Summer 1965. The letters were edited by Gieske and published in "Norwegian-American Studies," v.23 (1967) pp. 17-50 (along with letters written in English). The originals are in the Nelson Papers, Minnesota Historical Society Correspondence concerning the translation (some with Gerhard B. Naeseth and correspondents in Dane co.) includes considerable detail about the Drosvold/ Drogsvold family, including a questionnaire filled out by Annie Drosvold Norgarn. 

• Oley Nelson papers, 1893-1943

  Papers of a Civil War veteran: pamphlets, speeches, clippings, photographs (including one with F.D. Roosevelt), sketches of Nelson's life, and GAR mementos. Included is a pamphlet titled "The Controversy as to the Responsibility of the Augsburg Board of Trustees to the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America from 1890 to 1893," by Oley Nelson and Ole O. Onstad. "Brief History, 1st Norwegian Settlement, Story and Polk Counties in Iowa, 1855" was compiled by Nelson in 1905, and translated by him in 1930. "A Short History of the First Norwegian Settlement in Story and Polk Counties, Iowa" by Nelson was translated by Jacob Hodnefield. The clippings (1914-1938) are articles about Nelson and a few are by him. Nelson, a Slater, Iowa, farmer, merchant, and legislator, was Commander-in-Chief of the GAR in 1935.
• Nels N. Hersdal letter, 1848

  Letter written in English by Nelsone (mostly known as Nelson Nelson Hersdal) of Norway, La Salle County, Illinois, to Joseph Mann, Orleans County, New York, describing his farming operations and the Mormon and Jansonist activities in the community. Nelsone was a Slooper.
• Knute Neutson papers, 1941-1947

  Papers of a Norwegian-born insurance man and chief promoter of the Minnesota Credit Union Law of 1925: a autobiography, his story of the Jesse James raid in Northfield, and a review of his book "Memoirs of a Pioneer" (1938). The family emigrated from Arendal to Faribault, Minn. See Minn. Historical Society, K. Neutson reminiscences, 1934, P1191. Reminiscences of Life in the Red River Valley in the 1870s. Neutson worked on the steamboats and on the building of the telegraph line, and trapped for furs.
• Hagbarth Nielsen papers, 1899-1952

  Reminiscences from mining days in Alaska and the Yukon (1899-1902) and several poems by a Norwegian-born miner and dairyman. Nielsen emigrated in 1893 and lived in California.
  
  Digital Collections: 
  

  • Settlement in valley [near Dawson City, Northwest Territory?], circa 1900
  • Gold miners climbing over the hillside, 1898
  • Midnight Scene of Dawson, 1899
  • Gold miners in front of their log cabin near Dawson City, Northwest Territory, circa 1900
  • Close-up of log cabins for gold mining camps near Dawson City, Northwest Territory, circa 1900
  • Near Dawson City, Northwest Territory, circa 1900
  • Gold mining camps in valley near Dawson City, Northwest Territory, circa 1900
  • Formal portrait of Hagbarth Nielsen and Chris Jennesen, circa 1900
  • Gold miners (underground) in vicinity of Dawson City, Northwest Territory, circa 1900
  • informal portrait of three men, near Dawson City, circa 1900
• Nissedahle collection, 1928-1992

  Articles and clippings regarding a Norwegian folk museum at Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, established by Isak Dahle, Chicago.
  
  Digital Collection:
  

  • Valley of the Elves, Little Norway, Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, circa 1925-1945
  • Snapshot of Valley of the Elves, Little Norway, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, circa 1925-1945
  • Guides--Little Norway. Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, circa 1925-1945
  • Snapshot of Valley of the Elves, Little Norway, Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, circa 1925-1945
  • Formal portrait of Herman B. Dahle, undated
• Henry J. Peterson papers, 1935-1952

  Includes a biographical sketch (3 p. typescript, 1935) of Aven Nelson (1859-1952), president of the University of Wyoming and professor of botany at the same institution.
• Samuel P. Peterson papers, 1926-1930
  

  Clippings of articles by a Norwegian-born meteorologist in the United States weather bureau at Wichita, Kansas, recounting his experiences at sea for several years during the 1890s.
• Carl Wilhelm Pettersen papers, 1866-1998

  Includes "The Pettersen Family History (1998) by Dave Plette and Plette's "The Guttersen Family History (P539, box 48). Poems (presumably by Pettersen), correspondence, and pages from a general store ledger of a Madelia, Minnesota, bricklayer who emigrated in 1867.
• Physicians and surgeons articles and book, 1912-1957

  Includes book, "The Shaping of a Profession: Physicians in Norway, Past and Present," Øivind Larsen, editor, and Bent Olav Olsen, assoc. editor. (Science History Publications, 1996).