Floyd B. Olson

This depression era Governor is regarded by some as Minnesota's most beloved leader. Others see him as a political opportunist who sold out his political ideals, while others brand him as a dangerous socialist and demagogue.

Tall and handsome, his intelligence and charm made him a fine speaker and a charismatic populist. Olson was the first Minnesota politician to rely on the directness of the radio airwaves rather than the partisan written press. When he died suddenly of pancreatic cancer at 44 in 1936, a multitude of Minnesotans openly mourned their fallen leader. A rising national political star, many saw him a natural to one day occupy the White House.

Olson, a product of a mixed marriage, his father was Norwegian and his mother Swedish, was born on Minneapolis' heavily Jewish north side. While his childhood was not as hardscrabble as he may have let on, he grew up appreciating the difficulties suffered by the poorest members of society. Friendly with all, young Olson spoke Yiddish and was sensitive to the anti-semitism that Minneapolis was then famous for.

Olson dropped out of the University of Minnesota where he got in trouble for his defiance. His two main infractions were his bristling at mandatory military drills and for wearing a derby hat. He traveled throughout the midwest and pacific northwest, working as a farm hand, miner, and stevedore. In Seattle he joined the I.W.W..

Returning to Minnesota he became a law clerk and took night classes at St. Paul's Northwestern law school (William Mitchell), commuting by bicycle. By 1920 he was working for the Hennepin County attorney and shortly assumed that position when the counties lead attorney was finished by scandal.

Olson distinguished himself as a competent and fearless prosecutor. He took on corrupt Minneapolis politicians, crooked businessmen and the Ku Klux Klan, A Democrat, he supported Robert LaFollete for president. He joined the Farmer Labor party and lost his bid for the Governorship in 1924.

He was eventually elected in 1930 and began his 6 year run in Minnesota's highest office. At the time of his election one in four Minnesotans were out of work, farmers were struggling, many losing their farms to foreclosure, banks were failing, the state coffers were broke, and violent forces, such as the Citizens Alliance, were using strong arm tactics to suppress the rising labor movement.

During his tenure his enacted an array of bold legislative measures. He instituted a state income tax to save failing schools districts, he ordered a bank holiday, created an old age pension program, enacted legislation to limit child labor, passed laws to encourage business cooperatives, instituted a moratorium on farm foreclosures, brought measures of relief to the unemployed, created 13 state parks, and set aside some of the land that became the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. He helped settle two major strikes, the Hormel workers strike of 1933, and the Teamsters strike of 1934.

He was not beloved by all. Conservatives and business leaders saw him as a communist, others saw him as dictator, unafraid to use martial law. And while he encouraged workers to organize and strike, labor leaders thought he was slow to act in their favor when Teamster strike turned bloody. Others thought his connections to organized crime compromised his message of fairness. He liked to drink, and his womanizing was a poorly kept secret.

Still, he remains a hero to progressives. His compassion for others was genuine. He is remembered by these words from the 1934 Farmer Labor convention:"

I am not a liberal. I am what I want to be — a radical."

Charles A. Lindbergh Sr.

Most famous for his more famous son, Charles Lindbergh Sr. was an influential Minnesota political figure, unafraid to take an unpopular stand.

Charles was born into controversy. His mother was a young, pretty waitress in Sweden named Lovisa Carlen. Young Lovisa fell in love with Ola Mansson, a married politician, bank official, and one time farmer. Lovisa became pregnant with a boy she named Carl. Compounding their problems Ola was charged with bribery and embezzlement. The three left Stockholm for a new start in the new world.

Changing the family name to Lindbergh, they settled on a farm in Melrose, Minnesota. Charles eventually became a lawyer and politician. He served as a congressman beginning in 1906. Originally a Republican he became a member of the Farmer Labor party. He strongly opposed the formation of the Federal Reserve, writing a book on the subject.

"This Act (the Federal Reserve Act, Dec. 23rd 1913) establishes the
most gigantic trust on earth. When the President (Woodrow Wilson) signs
the Bill, the invisible government of the Monetary Power will be
legalised... The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated
by this banking and currency Bill."

Lindbergh was a strong opponent of US entry into WWI. In his campaign for Governor in 1918 he was accused of being pro-German. Violence and vandalism followed him around the state, and he was often hung in effigy. Homes of his supporters were painted yellow. He traveled with muckraking journalist and fellow Farmer Labor member Walter Liggett. Liggett recorded the many attacks.

Lindbergh lost his bid for Minnesota's highest office amidst accusations of voter fraud in Farmer Labor strongholds. He ran again in 1924, but succombed to brain cancer during the campaign. His ashes were spread over the Sauk River near Melrose.

A.C. Townley

A.C. Townley is best known as the man behind the Nonpartisan league.

A.C. Townley was born on the second to last day of 1880 on a farm in Browns Valley, Minnesota. After he graduated from high school he and his brother headed to western North Dakota.

By 1912 Townley was known as the "Flax King of the Northwest". His short lived kingdom would come crashing down with an August snow storm in 1913. That and fluxuations in the flax market ruined him. After a brief trial as a socialist, Townley borrowed a Model T Ford and approached North Dakota farmers looking for allies in his new Nonpartisan League.

Townley's pitch to his fellow farmers was a five point program. State ownership of grain terminals, state inspection of grain and grading, state hail insurance, rural credit banks, and tax exemption for farm improvements. Radical measures for 1915.

His proposals were a hit with many struggling upper midwestern farmers. It gave them leverage against the Minneapolis grain merchants. His organization spread throughout the region all the way to the Pacific northwest and into Canada.

An agricultural drought following WWI along with other social and market forces damaged the strength of the party. In Minnesota the Farmer Labor party was formed by former NPL leaders. Ironically, subsequent prosperity in the 1920's cooled farmer populism in North Dakota.

The North Dakotan's fortunes went south following the war. He was arrested for his anti war activities in Jackson County Minnesota. Convicted by a stacked jury, he served 90 days in jail.

He ran for the Governor of Minnesota in 1934 and lost. Throughout the remaining years of his life, he worked as a traveling salesman, lectured on the evils of communism, became involved in faith healing, and eventually became an insurance salesman. He was killed when his car was struck by a truck in 1959.

The NPL merged with the North Dakota Democratic Party in the 1950's. Townley was out of the picture by then.

The old mascot of the NPL was a goat whose motto was "the goat that couldn't be got." A fitting slogan for Townley as well.

Walter Liggett

Walter Liggett was a journalist, who died infamously in a hail of bullets in front of his wife and child, while he clutched a bag of groceries. This was no random 1935 drive-by. Not only was the alleged trigger-man Minneapolis' most famous gangster, Liggett's widow was convinced that this was a hit directed by the popular Governor Floyd B. Olson.

Liggett was born on the prairie in Benson Minnesota in 1886. The son of a "scientific" stock farmer and a mother who was active in various community and progressive causes. The tall and striking Liggett dropped out of college and began his career as a muckraking journalist. Working on papers all over Minnesota, North Dakota, and Washington State he wrote and reported on the plight of farmers, and workers, and rallied against the forces of corruption and the interwoven tentacles of business and government.

He was instrumental in the rise of the Nonpartisan League, a group started by radical North Dakota farmers.

A friend of Charles Lindbergh Sr., the central Minnesota father of the famous aviator, Liggett and Lindbergh canvassed the state in Lindbergh's unsuccessful bid for the Governors' seat in 1918. Both stood in opposition to US involvement in WWI, a war that was not supported by 4 of Minnesota's 10 congressional representatives.

After the War Liggett took his act to the nations capital. Liggett was a committed progressive who was unafraid to tell the truth, even when it reflected poorly on the very causes he endorsed. He was one of the first progressive American journalists to attack the Soviets for their lack of freedoms. Among his accomplishments in the 1920's was exposing the corruption between the State department and US oil interests with designs on Mexican oil fields. Some credit Liggett's work with preventing a war with Mexico.

By the 1930's Liggett was back in Minneapolis running his own paper. In the time before his death Liggett was gathering information linking progressive Governor Floyd B. Olson and gangster Kid Cann, both products of notorious North Minneapolis. Olson was a former political ally of Liggett, both were involved in the formation of the Farmer Labor Party that rose out of the ashes of the Nonpartisan League. Liggett was convinced that Olson was corrupt and had abandoned his progressive ideals.

Liggett obviously touched a nerve. He was framed for sexually assaulting two teen-aged girls. After he was acquitted he was beaten by Cann and his thugs. Undeterred Liggett continued his work. This decision cost him his life.

He was with his wife Edith and his 10 year old daughter Marda, in an alley behind their Minneapolis home. Liggett had exited his vehicle when a car with two men came barreling down the alley. To the horror of his wife and child, Liggett was shot down in a hail of Tommy gun rounds. Edith identified the trigger man as Kid Cann, and Cann and an associate were later arrested.

Corruption and incompetence led to Cann beating the rap (pictured here). Olson's popularity was enhanced as he suffered from pancreatic cancer. Olson would be dead in less than a year, and sympathetic public had trouble connecting the dying leader with such brutality.

Liggett's daughter, Marda Liggett Woodbury, spent much of her life trying to preserve her fathers memory as a martyred hero. This culminated in her book Stopping the Presses.

Liggett was idealist his entire life. His ability to make enemies of every political stripe, and his unseemly death at the hands of the underworld, sullied his reputation. His many enemies revised his contributions in the wake of his death. For all of his accomplishments, and ultimate sacrifice, he is largely forgotten instead as being lauded as the supreme crusader he was.

Ozzie Simmons

Ozzie "the Ebony Eel" Simmons was the Iowa Hawkeye running back who was the central figure in the Iowa, Minnesota football game that spawned Floyd of Rosedale.

For those not in the know, Floyd of Rosedale is a statue of a pig that is rewarded to the winner of the annual Iowa vs. Minnesota football game. What seems today as a corny trophy, in a friendly rivalry between adjacent states, actually speaks to a much deeper conflict.

Ozzie Simmons grew up in Texas where he was a high school football star. College sports opportunities were limited for a black athletes in the 1930's so Ozzie and his brother hopped a train for Iowa City where they heard they may have a shot at the University of Iowa.

In 1934, Simmon's sophomore season, he made second team All American. The back garnered his nickname with his effective and elusive running style.

Not that 1934 was without it's setbacks. When Simmons and his Hawkeyes faced the Minnesota Gophers he was treated to attack of violence that went far beyond the boundaries of fair play. He was knocked out of the game three times by injuries suffered on cheap shots and late hits. None of these flagrant acts were penalized, infuriating not only the Iowas partisans, but proponents of fair play everywhere.

When the teams met the next year in Iowa City none of this was forgotten. The Governor of Iowa, Clyde Herring, told the fans that if Minnesota tried any of the tactics they employed the year before that they should take matters into their own hands. This only threw gasoline on what was already a tense situation. Minnesota threatened to break off athletic relations, accusations of thuggery abounded.

Compounding the tension was the fact that in 1922 Iowa State had a black player, Jack Trice, literally trampled to death by Gophers in a game in Minneapolis. Although the Gophers denied intentionally trying to maim Trice, the brutal act left a bitter taste.

As tempers mounted Minnesota Governor Floyd B. Olson offered a wager that was designed to lighten the darkening mood. Olson bet a prize Minnesota hog verses a prize Iowa hog. Herring accepted and the gesture seemed to work.

Minnesota prevailed without targeting Simmons. Fair play appeared to rule the day and Herring made good on the wager by presenting Olson a pig from Iowa's Rosedale farm. Herring named the pig Floyd after Olson and a ritual began.

Simmons went on to be regarded as one of the Hawkeyes all time backs. Simmons played briefly with black leagues since at that time the NFL decided they no longer needed african-american players. He had a long career in Chicago as a physical education instructor. The Eel died in 2001.

Wrinked Meat

Wrinkled Meat, aka Wrinkle Meat, Wrinkle Face, Ka-be-nah-gwey-wence, or John Smith (likely story) allegedly lived to be in his middle 130's, although he doesn't look a day older than 120 here.

If this is true he was born some time in the 1700's, before George Washington took the oath of office. When he died in 1922 he was listed at 137 years old.

WM liked to wander, whether on foot or via canoe. He lived near Cass Lake, a member of the Chippewa tribe, and paddled all over the upper Mississippi. After Minnesota was settled by whites, he sold postcards of himself at train stations all over Northern Minnesota. He became quite famous and he would ride the trains and visit places like Brainerd and Duluth. This clever self promoter traded his fame for free train rides and hotel rooms. Think of Tila Tequila as a latter day Wrinkle Meat.

He enjoyed drinking Indian whiskey, which was a watered down version of White man's whiskey. You could find him kicking back with a wet one with the loggers in the saloons of Grand Rapids. I'm sure he could bend an ear.

Regardless of his actual age, his life spanned an awesome span of history. He really did see it all.

Kid Cann

Kid Cann

Kid Cann was Minnesota's best known gangster. Born Isadore Blumenfeld, in Romania, his family settled in Minnesota when he was a toddler. His career began hustling on the mean streets of North Minneapolis. A Jew, young Isadore, was subject to the rampant anti-Semitism that defined life for Jews in Minneapolis.

A bootlegger, he used his connections to Mob up the 'legit' liquor industry after the repeal of the Volstead Act. He was connected all the way up to Governor Floyd B. Olson, the Yiddish speaking Scandinavian political giant, who also hailed from the North Side.

Or so claimed journalist Walter Ligget before he was beaten, framed for rape, and eventually shot down in front of his family. The Kid was indicted, but beat the rap do to a shoddy prosecution.

He was involved in a number of rackets, murders, and other crimes, but the law couldn't get him. Among his accomplishments was the dismantling of the Minneapolis' mass transit system in the 1950's.

Eventually he did do time for his involvement in prostitution. After release he moved to Miami with his pal Meyer Lansky. The two involved themselves in respectable crimes like: money laundering, stock market fraud, and real estate.

He got his name because it was said anytime there was a fight the Kid could be found hiding in the can. It is said that he preferred to be called Fergie. He died in 1981.