twin city sidewalks

2020-07-28

Obscure Local History #3: Saint Paul's Pillar of Black Community Killed by University Avenue Driver c. 1922

[John Quincy Adams, the Saint Paul one.]

I am doing research about the history of Saint Paul these days, as part of my book project (see also, 1851 transit fares) and came across this tragic story in African-American historian David Vassar Taylor's dissertation. It talks about the death of John Quincy Adams, a well-known leader of Saint Paul's black community, the editor of an influential newspaper, the Appeal.

Here's a bit about the history of paper, via MNOpedia:

Adams was an influential writer and a staunch Republican, and like other editors of his day, he expressed his opinions through his paper’s editorial page. The Western Appeal even received funding directly from the Republican Party, another common practice for newspapers of the time.

In January 1888, Adams opened a regional office for the paper in Chicago. His brother, Cyrus Field Adams, ran it. This brought the Western Appeal to even more readers. Other regional offices followed: Louisville in August 1888, St. Louis in April 1889, Dallas in August 1892, and Washington, D.C. in March 1901. Each Saturday, each of these offices published an edition of the newspaper. Each edition had the same national news, feature articles, and editorials, but carried its own local and social news. The word “Western” was dropped from the paper’s name in 1889, to reflect its national reach. By this time, Adams owned the Appeal outright and supervised both its business and editorial sides.

According to Taylor, Adams (no relation to the president, AFAIK) and his work grew to a national stature for a few years, penning lots of editorials about racism and working to build his paper into a key weekly that served cities from Louisville to Chicago to Dallas, all from Saint Paul. He became influential in Republican Party politics back in the 1890s.

[A front page from the Appeal, c. May 1902.]

It was hard work, and not lucrative, and the paper lost money and eventually shrunk back to a local weekly. The paper's success was helped, however, when he was killed by a car driver trying to cross the street in 1922.

Here's the story on the crash, according to Taylor:

On Sunday afternoon September 3, 1922, John Adams left his home to attend a gospel revival at the Alliance Gospel Tabernacle located at Fry and Charles streets. Upon leaving the meeting he proceeded to the trolley line on University Avenue. As he boarded the streetcar, an automobile spun out of control and struck the aged editor, knocking him to the pavement. Adams was immediately rendered unconscious sustaining a fractured skull, a broken right arm and internal injuries. Although he was rushed by ambulance to the city hospital, there was little the medical staff could do. John Adams died without regaining consciousness at midnight Sunday at the age of seventy-four.

Funeral services for the departed leader were held September 8, 1922 at Pilgrim Baptist Church. A larger than capacity crowd came to pay its last respects and to hear messages of condolences from throughout the nation for the man who had provided leadership in the community for thirty-seven years.

I guess the point is that drivers on Saint Paul's University Avenue have been deadly and dangerous for almost a hundred years.

2020-07-24

Obscure Local History #2: Twin City Transit Fare Competition, c. 1851

[Saint Paul during the boom years of the 1850s.]

An excerpt from J. Fletcher Williams' 1876 History of Saint Paul, detailing the first fierce competition for transit between the Twin Cities.

In the summer of 1851, WILLOUGHBY & POWERS brought to saint Paul and put on their line the first Concord coach ever ran in Minnesota. It is still in use in the Minnesota Stage Company's stock somewhere. Up to the close of this season, they had no opposition in their business, but, during the fall of 1851, LYMAN L BENSON and a MR. PATTISON, came from Kalamazoo, Michigan, where they had been in the livery business, bringing a large outfit. In the spring of 1852, they put on an opposition line to Saint Anthony, called the "Yellow Line." WILLOUGHBY & POWERS' coaches were red, and it was generally termed the "red Line." A furious opposition sprang up.

WILLOUGHBY & POWERS who had hitherto charged seventy-five cents for fare, reduced their price to a quarter, and, finally, to ten cents, as did also the yellow line, and the latter soon put on an opposition coach to Stillwater also. The war between the red and yellow lines was one of the curious phases of that day. Perhaps some of our readers may remember, when they landed at the levee, how the wordy contest was raged between the rivals. Bishop WILLOUGHBY says the other line had more money than he, but he "always beat them at sassing."

This rivalry, with varying success, continued two seasons or more. In the meantime, WILLOUGHBY & POWERS had increased their rolling stock to eight Concord coaches, and had built up a large livery business besides, at their well-known old stand, corner of Fourth and Robert streets. In 1854, they made a compromise with PATTISON & BENSON, the latter buying off their Saint Anthony line. WILLOUGHBY & POWERS had also, in the meantime, opened, and still ran a line to Shakopee, &c, and also ran the Stillwater branch.

For some context, a quarter in 1850 would be about $8-$10 today,