Swedish Folk Figure

                        The Laughing Swede!

You have heard about Paul Bunyan, his blue ox Babe, Pecos Bill, and other folk tales.

However, you may have yet to hear of Ola Varmlanning, a Swedish folk character who lived in Minnesota.

Ola may have been a real person, however the stories about him were told and retold and could be concocted in the Swedish imagination.Ola was tall and slender, and to tell the truth, his hair was like a small unkept bright yellow haystack under his cap. When he smiled, it covered the entire lower section of his face. His muscle strength, equal to several men, served him well.

He loved whiskey and practical jokes. He spent a good deal of his time at Pig's Eye Landing (which you will remember from a previous blog). 

Ola was originally from Varmland, Sweden, or so the story says. (An aside: my Swedish ancestors were also from Varmland). Of course, he was fluent in Swedish, but he quickly learned English which he used to his advantage in his pranks. 

On a fine day, he was in St.Paul, imbibing his favorite drink when the train pulled in, and a group of Swedish immigrants got off. Ola walked up to the men and explained he was an alderman of the fine city of St.Paul and welcomed the new folks. 

"I know you must all be looking for work in this land of opportunity, and our fair city wants to employ you right away. We need Seventh Street dug up so we can make improvements. Would you like to hire on?"Ola asked. His bright smile covered his face from ear to ear.

All the men replied, "Ja sure."

Ola told the men to wait. He then sprinted off to the nearest hardware store and snatched all the shovels and pick axes on the sidewalk display. He returned to the men and handed out the tools as he guided them to Seventh Street. 

The Swedish immigrants swung the pick axes and shovels with zeal. Jobs the first day in St. Paul. What a wonderful place America was.

Soon the road was torn and ruined; no one could walk or drive a wagon. 

To the workers' dismay, the police arrived and assured the men they had destroyed public property. No pay and going to jail. 

Where was Ola? He hid behind a building watching the goings on and laughing until he thought his sides would split. Then he ran off to the cave in Pig's Eye Landing to regal the other patrons with his story so they would buy him a swallow or two of his favorite libation. 

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Another story about Ola is somewhat like this:

A tale in a 1900 printed volume was titled "How Ola Made the Policeman Carry the Pig."

This is my version of the story.

The police in St. Paul knew Ola quite well, as he was often arrested as he enjoyed his whiskey to the point of being a nuisance to the public.

One day Ola noticed the owner of a butcher shop stepping across the street to the local grogery.  Hanging on a hook in front of the shop window was a pig's carcass. Ola saw a policeman walking by the shop. 

 Ola said, "I have taken on the job of moving some of the butcher's wares for him, and I would be mighty grateful for your assistance."

"Aye, there, Ola. You have been a customer of the police department many a time, so I have no problem giving you some help. It is good to hear you have a job."

Ola loaded the pig on the policeman's broad shoulder and pointed in the direction the officer should go. The helpful constable  started to march off in the direction Ola indicated. 

The butcher had consumed his beer, and as he was walking across the street, he noticed the pig was not hanging from the hook.

"Hey, Ola, what happened to my pig that was hanging here by my shop?"

Ola's serious face looked at the butcher and then pointed down the street where the policeman was still staggering under the weight of the pig.

The butcher ran down the street as fast as his legs could go and accosted the policeman, demanding to know why he had the pig.  The police officer looked back to where he had left Ola, but Ola was nowhere to be seen.

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Ola was not only renowned for his pranks but also for his strength.

He was often arrested, and he usually complied with the authorities. But one day, a policeman, new to the job, tried to arrest Ola for some unknown offense. Ola felt he was not being respected and treated with consideration, so he took the officer's badge, club, and revolver, picked up the man, and carried him under his arm to a call box the size of a telephone booth and locked the officer in.

Ola then trotted off to the station and handed over the policeman's tools, and requested that thereafter he should be arrested in a dignified and civil fashion.

 Swedish immigrants loved to tell tall tales of Ola Varmlanning. 

Information for this blog is from A Swedish Immigrant Folk Figure: Ola Varmlanning by Roy Swanson Published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.

And from the Story of Minnesota by Jerry Fearing published by the Minnesota Historical Society. Second printing 1979

I hope you enjoyed the last three blogs on Minnesota. 

If you have a subject you would like to see in my blog, please let me know. 

pstinson23@comcast.net 

Joe Rolette Ran Away with the state capital of Minnesota

 Fur Trader and Legislator Ran Off with the                               Capital of Minnesota!

Yes, he did. How? Read on.

Joe Rolette's father was in the fur trade at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Joe was raised with the Native Americans (they were called Indians in that day). Joe was sent to New York City for an education.

Even back then, New York City was considered a big, bustling modern city. Joe turned heads dressed in Indian buckskin clothes. By 1840 he was in Pembina in the Minnesota Territory and started a trading post, and led some of the first oxcarts from Pembina to the capital city of St. Paul. He was elected to the legislature for six consecutive terms. The congress was in session in the winter months. So, Joe would arrive by dog sled trimmed with bells and ribbons, and he wore his voyageur clothing.

The 1857 session was in bedlam. The territory would soon be a state; many politicians wanted to be first in line for power. Some southern legislators decided it would be in their best interest if the new state's capital moved from St. Paul to St. Peter. The House and the Senate approved the bill, which needed to be signed by the governor.

Joe decided the capital should stay in St. Paul, so before the bill went to the governor, he took it and ran away. Other legislators who agreed with Joe kept the senators in continuous session until Joe was found.

The senators slept at their desks or on cots brought into the Senate for six days. Some senators who wanted St. Peter as the capital put out disinformation and said Joe returned to Pembina, while others said he was killed.

Where was he? He was staying at a St. Paul hotel called the Fuller House, and the bill was in a bank safe. 

The sergeant-at-arms spent his days looking for Joe and his evenings playing poker with him.

One minute before the session ended, Joe walked into the Senate with the bill. The gavel banged, and the session ended. St. Paul was saved.

When Minnesota became a state, Pembina was outside the border. It is in North Dakota, with a population of 512 in the 2020 census. Pembina means highbush cranberry, just in case you are interested. 

St. Paul hasn't any parks or streets bearing Joe Rolette's name. Joe died in Pembina in 1871, penniless and forgotten despite the fact he single handily saved the capital of St.Paul. 

Capital of Minnesota is Pig's Eye

                                           Capital of Minnesota - Pig's Eye

Yes, it's true. The capital of Minnesota was called Pig's Eye. How could that be? Read on to find out.

Pierre Parrant was born near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, around 1777. He became a fur trapper for the McKenzie and Chouteau companies. Then the fur trade dwindled, and he took up whiskey making. He set up his first shop near Fort Stillwater in the Minnesota Territory. The commander of the fort, Major Lawrence Taliaferro, did not like his soldiers having ready access to the whiskey, and he was against selling the alcohol to the Native Americans. The Major ordered Mr. Parrant, also known as Pig's Eye, to leave the Jurisdiction of the Federal fort. Mr. Parrant would not obey the order, so early one morning in 1838,  he was physically picked up and put on a raft with a keg of whiskey and a couple of blankets and told to go. As Pig's Eye was in a drunken stupor, as he liked his product a good deal, he could not resist. When he awoke near dusk, he steered his raft to shore near the foot of what is now Ramsey Street.

The place was to his liking. There was a cave with bubbling spring water. Here at Fountain Cave, Pig's Eye opened his whiskey business. He had plenty of customers besides himself, as the soldiers could still sample his wares, and the steamboat crews and early settlers liked his product. Pig's Eye Landing, shortened to Pig's Eye, was the center of the "town." 

In 1848 The Territory of Wisconsin, which included Minnesota, was made a state. The western section of the Wisconsin Territory was made into the Minnesota Territory, and Pig's Eye was the capital; even the post office recognized it. Mail was sent and received with the person's name and the words Pig's Eye, Minnesota, for the address.

Father Lucien Gaultier, a priest of the Diocese of Dubuque, built the Church of St. Paul. Male church members did not like the Pig's Eye enterprise, so they banned together. They convinced the Post Commandant of Fort Snelling to help them eliminate this evil element. So in May 1840, a squad of soldiers came down to Pig's Eye City and burned down the distillery and Pig's Eye's cabin. He had to leave.

On November 1, 1849, a legislative act named St. Paul as the capital. The city had eighteen houses, a church, a log cabin, a city hall, and a census of 840 people. The historical remembrance of Pig's Eye Landing is a marker alongside Shepard Road and 1/4 mile Southwest of the intersection of Randolph and Shepard Road.

What happened to Pig's Eye? Stories differ on that. One account is he decided to go back to Sault Ste. Marie, but he died on the way. Another tale has him going to Winnipeg, Canada, where he married and had three children, and then to North Dakota, where he married a Native American woman and died. No record of his burial is known. 

Why was Pierre Parrant called Pig's Eye? He had one eye with a white ring around the pupil, giving it a piggish look. Some reports are he had a peculiar squint after he, under the influence of his whiskey product, had a fight with fellow drunkards.

Where is the cave? It was a tourist attraction from 1850-1880. Then sewage and stormwater from a railroad company entered the cave. Residential development affected the hydrology, so the cave's entrance was buried during the construction of Shepard Road in 1960.

What do you think? What if the news reports today were as follows: "Good evening. This breaking news is from Pig's Eye, the capital of Minnesota." The name would rival all the other names of state capitols in interest. Nothing about Minnesota is dull.

Picture of Cass Gilbert and the state capitol building. 

The first capitol was built by the year 1847. It was located on Wabasha between Tenth and Exchange. It burned in 1881, and the second capitol was built two years later at the same spot. It was soon overcrowded. So the legislature appropriated $4,500,000 to construct a new building. And the construction started in 1896. Cass Gilbert was a young architect. He was born in St. Paul. He later became the nation's best-known architect. The building was finished in 1905. It is still standing as Minnesota's capitol.

What would the building look like if the name of Pig's Eye stuck as the capital city? What would Cass Gilbert designed? 

Part of Minnesota is a mistake

                               A Contentious Mistake in Minnesota

In my blogs for July in past years, I posted history on the Statue of Liberty, the American flag, and other patriotic themes.

Every state in our union has an exciting history, but I will focus on Minnesota this July.

If we look at a map of Minnesota, we see the northern border has an odd shape. There is a chimney at the top. It is named the Northwest Angle. This bizarre shape of land has caused many arguments and treaties.

The contentious aspect of the land began after the Revolutionary War and the treaty between the new United States and England.

Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams represented the U. S. at the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

The northern border was decided to follow the waters traveled by voyageurs from Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods and then west to the Mississippi River. They thought the Lake of the Woods was the source of the Mississippi River. Which, we now know, is false. 

Then President Jefferson bought what is called the Louisiana Purchase. In 1818, the French and the U.S. agreed the northern border would go from the northwestern point of Lake of the Woods to the 49th parallel and follow the parallel to the west. So the Northwest Angle was born.

However, this caused another problem. Which country, the United States or Canada,  owned the little islands and lakes along the border. 

In 1842 the Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, had the land surveyed. Then, President Grant had it surveyed in 1876.

In 1732, the land we now call the Northwest Angle had a fort called Fort St. Charles, where the Native Americans came to trade their furs. The fort was built by La Verendrye, a French explorer.

In 1763 the regiment was controlled by the English, and it was closed. 

Then in the 1800s, the Angle got busy again. It became part of the Dawson Route, a series of corduroy roads (see information below) and waterways that carried people to the western parts of Canada. Steamships transported people and goods from Fort William on Lake Superior to the Angle then the travel was by wagon to Winnipeg. 

After the railroads made the trip more accessible and faster, the Dawson route ended.

 The Northwest Angle caused many arguments but is part of the state's rich history and is still enjoyed today by many vacationers. 

 The land is surrounded by water (part of the United States) and Canada. Today about 120 people live in the Angle. Visitors can get to it by a chartered plane, a boat, or by car. If traveling by car, the tourists need a passport to drive through part of Canada. The area has wildlife, fish, and birds. 

A corduroy road is a series of poles laid together over a marsh, swampy or soft soil. 

 Some of the information for this post is from The Story of Minnesota, published by the Minnesota Historical Society.