Culturology 12-23: Copper Art and Sordid MN Christmas History

Dan and Frances Hedbloom make art from copper in a unique process created by Dan's stepmother.  Justin Cook talked with Dan at the recent Gifts Worth Giving event in Grand Rapids.  Though these Hedblooms don't have a website yet, they suggest that the general idea of their work can be seen at Dan's parents' website.


This week in Minnesota history:

12-23-1846 A bill is introduced in Congress to create a territory called "Minasota." Although the bill fails, this is the first legislative use of the name.

12-20-1902 Clearwater County is established, named for Clearwater Lake and River.

12-21-1998 Television's original Betty Crocker, Adelaide Hawley Cumming, dies in Seattle. Cumming starred in the Betty Crocker Show beginning in 1949 and remained General Mills' advertising icon until 1964.

12-25-1842 The first U.S. flag in St. Paul is raised on a pole in front of Richard Mortimer's house. Born in England, Mortimer had served successively in both the British and American armies and served at Fort Snelling before settling in upper St. Paul. The flag flies briefly and then is cut down by "some wicked scamp" from the rival Lowertown neighborhood.

12-25-1866 Two Mankato fur traders are lynched in New Ulm after they kill a citizen in a bar fight. The following day, 300 angry residents of Mankato, along with a company of militia, march to New Ulm to investigate the lynching. Liscomb and Campbell's mutilated bodies are found stuffed under the ice of the Minnesota River. A subsequent investigation names many members of the lynch mob, but no indictments are ever made.

12-25-1874 On Christmas morning, firemen at St. Paul's No. 3 engine house brawl with each other in "a very disgraceful fight" that leaves two seriously injured, several badly bruised, and five arrested on a charge of assault with intent to do great bodily harm. The fight is apparently caused by an "unpleasant feeling" between the principal parties, an insulting remark about a piece of equipment not working properly, and a cigar stump thrown at one of the men.