An interesting tidbit for those of you interested in Minnesota church history:

AVAILABLE: All or part of a 1901 rural Methodist church in Renville County. Churchill is a ghost town near Hector. Its only building, a church built in 1901, as the Methodist Episcopal Church in Brookfield Township, will meet the wrecking ball soon if no interest is shown in the white clapboard structure.

For more information, contact Jill Wohnoutka, director of the Renville County Historical Society, which has owned the building since 1979.

After leaving our July Researcher’s meeting, I found this series of letters, which are pertinent to the discussion of money matters during the Panic of 1857 and following years. Linda Bryan

All of these are from: M391, Roll 1, American Missionary Association, Minnesota Files, 1847-1882, Minnesota Historical Society Library. Fisk University assigned a number to each document and they are on the microfilm in numerical order by that document number.

Document #70848:
Saint Paul
May 4th 1858

My dear Brother [George] Whipple [honcho of Am. Miss. Assoc.]

…I made my purchases in Galena. I found, as I anticipated, that I could not use your drafts payable in three Months, without too great a sacrifice. Consequently I was obliged to limit My purchases to about half the amount I wanted to take up. My purchases amounted to near $500. which exceeded my Means of paying $200. I expect to draw some funds from _gov’t_ here, with which I shall be enabled to pay it. But the transportation from here to the Mission is a great item, which is yet to be provided for…

Document #70849:
Saint Paul May 7th 1858
Rev. Geo. Whipple

My dear Bro

[deleting here a discussion of trying to find a workaround for $500 which is due from Indian Agency but not yet arrived]…“It is no use for Me to try to collect any thing here. This place is now feeling the pressure of hard times. More than ever before, & I think they have not found bottom yet, by considerable. The country is now doing business mainly upon _State & City Scrip,_ & they have recently voted to loan the credit of the State for $5.000.000 & have thus hung a Millstone around their Neck, which they will doubtless have to bear for any years to come…

Yours Truly

J.P. Bardwell
Agt of A.M.A.

Document #70850:
Belle Prairie May 15th, 1858
Rev. Geo. Whipple,

My dear Brother

I arrived here on the 13th …. I shall return to St. Paul as soon as I learn that the Supt of Ind. Affairs has arrived, & if he does not arrive in a few days, I shall be obliged to raise some money on my Drafts at whatever sacrifice it costs, but giving three percent per Month for money is a hard way to carry on a Mission, 7 I shall void it if possible, but if I am compelled to Borrow Money, I have no expectation of obtaining it for less than that & I don’t know that it can be got in St. Paul, even at that….

Yours truly, J. P. Bardwell, agt. of A.M.A.

A new MHS e-newsletter launched today. The Library & Archives News will be a bi-monthly e-newsletter with information on the library, archives, and collections’ blogs and podcasts, new acquisitions, new resources, the latest display in the library lobby, a research tip of the month, and anything else we can think of to add.

Want to subscribe? Go to the e-newsletter subscription page to sign-up.

It is too late to get the June issue delivered to your email in-box, but you will be able to find that issue online shortly.

Got ideas you would like to see in the e-newsletter, or a tip of the month to suggest? Send your comments to Kathie.

Two Minnesota Historical Society Press authors — and members of the researchers group — earned top honors from the American Association for State and Local History:

1. Annette Atkins for the book Creating Minnesota: A History from the Inside Out (WOW Award, Award of Merit),
2. Bruce White for the book We Are At Home: Pictures of the Ojibwe People (Award of Merit).

Congratulations!

Jeff brought this to the attention of the group at the May monthly meeting.

The Pond-Dakota Mission Park, on the site of the 1840s Oak Grove Mission, recently got nine new interpretive signs throughout the park to tell the story of the area’s history. The new signage was dedicated by Mayor Gene Winstead on 27 April 2008.

The fruit of almost two years of research and editing, the signs allow visitors to enjoy a self-guided tour any day of the year. The signs include a large number of historic photographs, commissioned illustrations, and reproductions of Seth Eastman artwork.

Signs include:

• Dakota Missions on the Minnesota Froniter
• Missionaries to the Dakotas
• Pond Family Heritage Timeline
• Changing Landscapes
• Gideo and Agnes Pond House
• Oak Grove Mission
• Dakota Life, and
• Minnesota River Valley.

The City of Bloomington website has a picture of one of the signs.

Upcoming programs at the Pond-Dakota Mission include:

U.S.-Dakota War Documentary, by Sydney Beane, Sunday May 18 at 2 p.m. Syd Beane will talk about his upcoming U.S.-Dakota War Documentary, which he is negotiating to have aired on a national TV network. Syd is a descendant of Chief Cloud Man, Seth Eastman and his wife Stands Sacred (daughter of Cloud Man), Mary Nancy Eastman, who married Many Lightnings (Jacob Eastman) and Rev. John Eastman.

Working with Horn, by David Vavreck, Sunday June 1, drop-in program from 2-4 p.m. Meet one of America’s few remaining horn workers, see a wide variety of horn products, and even try using horner’s hand tools. Until the invention of synthetics in the later 19th cnetury, animal horn was used all over the world as a raw material in the manufacture of thousands of products such as combs, spoons, powder horns, and more.

House tours from 1:30-4 p.m. both days.