Bücher der Reihe People of Minnesota

Although never more than a small percentage of Minnesota's population, Jewish people have made remarkable contributions to the state in business, politics, and education. Jewish people from Germany arriving in St. Paul in the 1850s helped build the new territory. Immigrants from eastern Europe joined them in the 1880s, many of them driven from their homelands due to religious, cultural, political, and economic persecution. Taking advantage of opportunities in their new home, they established retail businesses in the Twin Cities and elsewhere. Many settled in small towns or walked the roads as peddlers. Some found homes in the Iron Range towns of Virginia and Hibbing, but the majority lived in Minneapolis and St. Paul. As they clustered in neighborhoods, founded synagogues, schools, and community organizations, and sought to create Jewish homes, they also sponsored a variety of philanthropic venture and gained local and national political offices. A hundred years later, the process was repeated when immigrants from Russia arrived to build on these traditions.In addition to illuminating the experiences of everyday citizens, authors Hyman Berman and Linda Mack Schloff discuss community leaders such as activist Fanny Brin, rabbi and newspaper editor Samuel Deinard, and educator Dr. George J. Gordon in the context of local and international challenges to the Jewish community.

A concise history of Irish in Minnesota including farming, politics, and community organization.Irish immigrants to Minnesota performed two surprising feats. Contradicting the stereotype of Irishmen as bad farmers, they built some of the country's most successful and enduring Irish farming communities, including near Belle Plaine, Le Centre, St. Peter, and Winona and in the Red River Valley. In St. Paul, despite being outnumbered by German immigrants, they left a lasting legacy, and today most Minnesotans think of the city as an Irish town. Author Ann Regan examines the history of these surprising contradictions, telling the diverse stories of the Irish in Minnesota. A personal account relates one woman's immigration experience, from her Atlantic crossing to her connections with family already in Minnesota to settling in and finding work as a domestic?a storyline that played out for many Irish Americans on their way to establishing their own households. As farmers and laborers, policemen and politicians, maids and seamstresses, their hard work helped to build the state. Wherever they settled, the Irish founded churches and community organizations, became active in politics, and held St. Patrick's Day parades, inviting all Minnesotans to become a little bit Irish.

African Americans have had a profound influence on the history and culture of Minnesota from its earliest days to the present. Author David Vassar Taylor chronicles this rich story, using first-person accounts, newspaper articles, and a careful analysis of census records. During the territorial and early statehood periods, Blacks developed communities in St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Duluth, as well as rural areas, and established churches, businesses, and social organizations. Taylor recounts the triumphs and struggles of African Americans over the last two hundred years in a clear and concise narrative. He also introduces influential and notable people including George Bonga, the first African American born in the region during the fur trade era; Harriet and Dred Scott, whose two-year residence at Fort Snelling in the 1830s later led to a famous, though unsuccessful, legal challenge to the institution of slavery; John Quincy Adams, publisher of the state's first Black newspaper; Fredrick L. McGhee, the state's first Black lawyer; social workers Gertrude Brown and I. Myrtle Cardin; labor activist Nellie Stone Johnson; inventor Frederick McKinley Jones; community leaders, politicians, and civil servants including James Griffin, Sharon Sayles Belton, Alan Page, Jean Harris, and Dr. Richard Green; and nationally influential artists including August Wilson, Lou Bellamy, Prince, Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis.

A concise history of Swedes in Minnesota including immigration patterns, cultural and social organizations, businesses, politics, education, and family life.

Polish Americans have been part of Minnesota history since before the state's founding. Taking up farms along newly laid rail networks, Polish immigrants fanned across the countryside in small but important concentrations. In cities like Winona and St. Paul, Northeast Minneapolis and Duluth, as well as on the Iron Range, Polish American workers helped drive a growing industrial and agricultural economy--and established their own cultural identity within the state. Polish Americans, many of them political refugees created and sustained a wide range of community institutions from churches and schools to cultural groups and social clubs in Minnesota. They developed a significant literary tradition, published newspapers, and adorned the landscape with their distinctive churches. Author John Radzilowski tells the stories of individuals like Stan Wasie, a Polish immigrant boy who grew up to become a pioneer in the trucking industry, founding Merchants Motor Freight in Northeast Minneapolis in 1927. By the 1950s the successful company had 800 vehicles and its own terminals.

An insightful and succinct history of the Mexican community in Minnesota.

This succinct yet comprehensive volume outlines the contributions and culture of Minnesota's Finnish Americans, perhaps best known for their cooperative ventures, their political involvement, and, of course, their saunas.Minnesota's first Finnish immigrants settled in the south-central area of the state shortly after arriving in 1864; they were the vanguard for thousands who eventually and resolutely placed Minnesota second among the states in terms of Finnish population. Today we may recognize Minnesota's "Finnishness" in the popular sauna, in the characteristic tenacity known as sisu, or in place names and cultural markers that link to homeland.Finns in Minnesota traces the Finns' migration to the state, their log construction techniques, and their ethnic organizations, from religious to political to fraternal. Colorful sidebars enliven the narrative, highlighting such topics as "Finglish," New World legends, and the 1920s Olympic competitors in track and field known as the "Flying Finns." A separate thread tells the story of the Finland Swedes?"the minority within a minority"?whose members were born in Finland but spoke Swedish and thus straddled two ethnic groups, belonging fully to neither. The book concludes with a personal narrative of Fred Torma (1888?1979), a miner and carpenter from Nashwauk, who describes establishing a Socialist hall, involvement in the 1907 Mesabi strike, and founding a cooperative boardinghouse and store. His is just one engaging example of the vibrant lives and legacy of Finnish Americans in Minnesota.