Knute Nelson

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Knute Nelson
Knute Nelson
12^th Governor of Minnesota
In office January 4, 1893 – January 31, 1895
Lieutenant(s)	David Marston Clough
Preceded by	William Rush Merriam
Succeeded by	David Marston Clough

Born	February 2, 1843 Voss, Norway
Died	April 28, 1923 Timonium, Maryland
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Nicolinæ Jacobson
Profession	lawyer

Knute Nelson (February 2, 1843 – April 28, 1923) was an American politician who served in the Wisconsin and Minnesota legislature, in the U.S. House of Representatives, as governor of Minnesota, and as a U.S. Senator.

1 Early life
2 Military service
3 Political career
4 References

[edit] Early life

He was born out of wedlock to Ingebjørg Haldorsdatter Kvilekval in Voss, Norway, and was initially given the name Knud Evanger. Baptized by his own uncle on the farm of Kvilekval, baptismal records list his father as Helge Knudsen Styve, who may in fact have been the father, but this is unconfirmed. Various theories persist about Knute's paternity, including one involving Gjest Baardsen, a famous outlaw.

In 1843, Ingebjørg's brother Jon sold the farm where she and Knute lived to emigrate to Chicago. Ingebjørg and Knute then moved to Bergen, where she took work as a domestic servant. Having borrowed money for the passage, she and Knute emigrated to the United States, arriving in Castle Garden on July 4, 1849, where the fireworks made a lasting impression on seven-year old Knute, who immigrated under the name Knud Helgeson Kvilekval. Passing herself off as a widow — a myth that stuck until 1923 - she made her way, probably over water to Albany, New York, and then via Buffalo to Chicago, where Jon, who worked as a carpenter, took them in. Knut and his mother stayed there for some time, then took other work as a domestic servant in Chicago, paying off her debt in less than a year.

Knute also worked, first as a servant, then as a paper boy for the Chicago Free Press. This job provided him with this first education, both because he read the paper and because he learned street profanity.

In the fall of 1850, Nils Olson Grotland, also from Voss, married Ingebjørg, and the family of three moved to Skoponong, a Norwegian settlement in Palmyra, Wisconsin. Knute took the name "Nelson" at this point, having eliminated the stigma of fatherlessness.

Knute arrived in Skoponong a street-smart, rebellious boy with a proclivity toward profanity. He was accepted to the school held by Mary Blackwell Dillon, an Irish immigrant with linguistic talents. Knute proved himself an apt student with lax discipline, and he later recalled he was whipped as many as three times a day.

Knute joined the Democratic party in his teens out of admiration for Stephen A. Douglas. The family moved to the famed Koshkonong settlement, where Knute's stepfather had bad luck with land purchases and became sickly. Knute picked up most of the work of the farm, but maintained his commitment to education. His stepfather was unsupportive, and Knute often had to scrounge to find money for schoolbooks.

Knute's academic interests led him to enroll in Albion Academy in Albion in Dane County, Wisconsin, in the fall of 1858. The school was founded by the Seventh-day Adventist Church on the premise that poverty should not prevent anyone from getting a good education, and Knute was deemed "very deserving." Nevertheless, Knute sought to earn his keep by doing various odd, but hard, jobs around the school.

After two years he took a job as a country teacher in Pleasant Springs near Stoughton, teaching mostly Norwegian immigrants, where he became a credible agent of Americanization.

[edit] Military service

Civil war photograph of Nelson

He returned to Albion in the spring of 1861. By then, he had developed his position as a "low-tariff, anti-slavery, pro-Union Democrat," but finding himself in a minority against the popularity of Abraham Lincoln in the region. In May of 1861, he and other eighteen Albion students enlisted in a state militia company, known as the Black Hawk Rifles of Racine to fight with the Federal Army in the American Civil War. Appalled by the debauchery of this company, they refused to be sworn into the United States Army with this militia, and eventually succeeded in being transferred to the Fourth Wisconsin Volunteers. (This was an "all-American" regiment, unlike the "all-Scandinavian" 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment, where he most likely would have ended up if he hadn't volunteered through Albion).

Nelson's parents were opposed to his volunteering to military service, but he himself saw it as a patriotic duty. He sent half his soldier's pay to his parents to help retire the debt on the farm. He seems to have enjoyed army life, noting that the food was better than at home. He shared the frustration of his fellow soldiers over not being put into battle soon enough. His unit moved from Racine, Wisconsin to Camp Dix near Baltimore, Maryland. From there they moved to combat operations in Louisiana.

On May 27th, 1863, after the 4th Wisconsin had become a cavalry unit, Nelson was wounded in the Battle of Port Hudson, captured and made a prisoner of war, and then released when the siege ended. He served as an adjutant, was promoted to corporal, and briefly considered applying for a lieutenant's commission.

The most important effect of Nelson's military service was to more sharply his sense of identity and patriotism. He was deeply concerned about what he considered an ambivalent attitude among Norwegian-American Lutheran clergy toward slavery, and thought that too few of his fellow Norwegian-Americans in Koshkonong had volunteered. He read the Norwegian translation of Esaias Tegnér's Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna and found it enthralling, apparently finding it a synthesis of his Norwegian heritage and American home through its unsentimental depiction of character and virtue.

Within two years after he mustered out, he acquired his American citizenship. His naked disdain for the Copperheads also contributed to his becoming a Republican after the war.

[edit] Political career

[edit] Local politics in Wisconsin

Nelson returned to Albion and completed his studies there, one of the oldest students, graduating at the top of his class. There he gave his first campaign speech on record on behalf of Abraham Lincoln, drawing praise from the faculty. He decided to become a lawyer and moved to Madison where he started to "read law" at the law office offices of William F. Vilas, one of the few academically trained attorneys in the area. In the spring of 1867 he was admitted to the Wisconsin bar by judge Philip L. Spooner.

He opened his own law practice in Madison, targeting the Norwegian immigrant community, advertising in the Norwegian language newspaper Emigranten. He also became the unofficial representative of the Norwegian community in the Madison legislature. With the help of Eli A. Spencer, he successfully ran for Dane County's seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly, starting its session on January 8, 1868. During his tenure in the assembly, he married Nicholina Jacobsen, originally from Toten in Norway - she was already five months' pregnant when they married, and because Nelson had poor relations with the local Lutheran clergy they were married by the Justice of the Peace Lars Erdall in a private home.

A recession limited the couple's financial success, and while Nelson slept in his office in Madison for his legislative and professional career, Nicholina and the newborn Ida stayed in Koshkonong. He was reelected for the Wisconsin Assembly, having learned quickly how to get things done in politics. He got involved in a divisive debate about public and parochial schools in Norwegian communities, taking the "liberal" side that promoted public, non-sectarian schools. After his second term in the Wisconsin assembly, he decided not to run for reelection.

[edit] The Minnesota frontier

1882 print of Nelson

Nelson had for some time been interested in moving further west when he in 1870 was invited by Lars K. Aaker to set up a practice in Alexandria, Minnesota, in Douglas County, part of the state's "Upper Country." Nelson was attracted by the possibilities afforded by the opening frontier, especially the prospect of the railroad. After also visiting Fergus Falls, he moved his wife and newborn son Henry to Alexandria in August of 1871. He was admitted to the Minnesota bar in October and set up a legal practice primarily around land cases referred to him by Aaker, the land agent. He also bought a 120-acre homestead in Alexandria, a claim that was contested but which he won. He also became am accomplished trial lawyer, was elected the Douglas County attorney, and acted as the county attorney for Pope County.

As was typically the case at that time, Nelson's legal work on land issues got him involved in political issues. He became a champion for the economic development of the Upper Country through the introduction of the railroad.

[edit] Minnesota state senator

The so-called "Aaker faction" within the Upper County Republican party found in Nelson a capable politician, what with connections to the immigrant community, experience in land-office issues, and political background in Wisconsin. He was put forward as a Republican candidate for the Minnesota Senate in 1874, running against banker Francis Bennett Van Hoesen, who was aligned with the Grange movement and state Anti-Monopoly Party. Though Nelson did not get unanimous support from his Norwegian-American constituency, he still carried 59 percent of the vote and four out of five counties in his constituency.

Nelson's first challenge in the state senate was a contentious issue, whether to re-elect Alexander Ramsey to the United States Senate for a third term, against the wishes of governor Cushman Davis. This proved to be a balancing act for Nelson, who was caught between his allegiance to the Douglas county Republicans, who were staunch Davis supporters; and his land office constituency, who favored the incumbent. Nelson voted for Ramsey, dark-horse candidate William D. Washburn, and finally for the victor, Samuel J. R. McMillan.

Nelson then turned his attention from what he called the "Senatorial game of chance" to the issue of extending the railroad infrastructure into the Upper Country. His constituents elected him in large part to resolve the gridlock that prevented the completion of the railroad extension from St. Cloud west to Alexandria and beyond. The railroad company, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (SP&P), had run out of funds to complete the so-called St. Vincent extension, and the bondholders were unwilling to invest further. The Minnesota legislature agreed on the need for the railroad but were not in a position to pay for its completion.

In 1875, Nelson introduced a bill - the Upper Country bill - that gave SP&P added incentives in the form of land to complete the line, but also imposed a deadline after which the rights to build the railroad were forfeited, presumably in favor of Northern Pacific, whose plans would bypass Alexandria. The bill met with controversy from both sides of the issue and was ultimately amended to the point that Nelson first sought to table it, and then abstained from voting on it himself. Still, the bill was enacted and was considered a success in its time, with most of the credit going to Nelson.

It took several years for the various financial and political matters to be sorted out, and Nelson played an active role throughout, both as an elected official, attorney, and businessman. He secured rights-of-way for virtually the entire line Alexandria to Fergus Falls, negotiating with many stakeholders for every tract of land. This proved to be an all-consuming effort for several years, though he did run unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of Minnesota in 1879.

In May of 1877, he was overcome with personal tragedy: three of his five children died during a diphtheria epidemic, leaving him with his oldest, Ida, and Henry.

In November of 1878, the train finally reached Alexandria, thanks in large part to Nelson's close working relationship with James J. Hill. Several towns in Minnesota were founded as a result of these efforts, including Nelson and Ashby.

[edit] Aspirations of national politics

Nelson was invited to deliver the "oration of the day" at the United States Centennial on July 4th, 1876, in Alexandria, exactly 27 years after he had immigrated to the United States. The "unimpassioned" speech sought to reinforce an American identity and made no mention of his immigrant roots. It also coincided with his campaign to become U.S. representative from Minnesota's third district in Congress.

By then, Nelson had developed the strategy of orchestrating a "bottoms-up" campaign in which he would quietly enlist supporters to publicly encourage him to run, only to appear reluctant about the candidacy. His constituency in the frontierlands in the Upper Country put him at a disadvantage with respect to the rivaling Twin Cities. After having flexed his political muscle by "bolting" from the campaign for a few weeks, he put his support behind the Republican nomination of Jacob Stewart, a medical doctor from St. Paul, who won the election against the Democrat William McNair. This endorsement did not get backed by the Norwegian-American community, however, who both were concerned about the perceived Know-Nothingness of Stewart, and the notion that a ruling class was emerging.

[edit] The battle for the "Bloody Fifth"

As a result of the 1880 census, the United States Congress decided to allocate one new congressional seat to the Upper Country, creating the Fifth Minnesota District. This appeared to be the perfect launching pad for Nelson's career in national politics. As before, he entered the race quietly, first securing for himself a seat on the Board of Regents at the University of Minnesota, where he also managed to establish a department of Scandinavian studies.

The campaign opened in 1882 and quickly devolved into one of the most contentious elections in history at that point. The contest between Nelson and Charles F. Kindred for the "Bloody Fifth," as it became known, involved graft, intimidation, and election fraud at every turn. The Republican convention on July 12th in Detroit Lakes was compared to the Battle of the Boyne. 150 delegates fought over 80 seats, and after a scuffle in the main conference center, the Kindred and Nelson campaigns nominated each of their candidates.^[1]

The rivalry between Kindred and Nelson centered to a large extent on the two competing railroads in the Upper Country, the Northern Pacific in Kindred's corner and the Great Northern in Nelson's. Kindred ended up spending between $150,000 and $200,000, but Nelson won handily, overcoming massive election fraud in Northern Pacific counties.

[edit] U.S. House of Representatives, 1883 – 1889

A statue of Nelson stands in front of the Minnesota State Capitol

In keeping with practices of the Gilded Age, Nelson's first agenda item in Congress was to ensure patronage for his supporters in Minnesota. There weren't that many federal appointments to go around, and most were made through Paul C. Sletten, the Receiver of the U.S. Land Office in Crookston. In addition to rewarding political support, he also was obliged to flex political muscle by replacing pro-Kindred appointees in the forested counties around the Northern Pacific Railroad, the so-called "Pineries." Particularly publicized was the firing of Søren Listoe as the Register of the U.S. Land Office in Fergus Falls.

1895 portrait of Nelson

Nelson was frustrated by what he perceived as the lack of effectiveness in the House. He got involved in long debates about pension issues for Civil War veterans, but his most notable legacy as a representative was in passing the 1889 Nelson Act, which effectively created the White Earth Indian Reservation, which freed up significant land for immigrants, at the expense of Native Americans.

He was a U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator and Governor of Minnesota. Nelson also served in the US Army during the American Civil War. He also had been a member of the Wisconsin assembly and Minnesota State Senate. He served in the United States House of Representatives from March 3, 1883 to March 3, 1889 in the 48th, 49th, and 50th congresses.

[edit] Governor of Minnesota, 1893 – 1895

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[edit] United States Senator, 1895 - 1923

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He was elected the 12th Governor of Minnesota in 1892 and reelected in 1894, and served until January 31, 1895, when he resigned, preparatory to becoming Senator. He was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1895. While in the Senate, he was involved in the creation of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and the passage of the Nelson Bankruptcy Act in 1898. He served in the Senate until his death in 1923 enroute by train from Washington DC to his hometown of Alexandria, Minnesota, where he was buried. He served in the senate in the 54th, 55th, 56th, 57th, 58th, 59th, 60th, 61st, 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 65th, 66th, and 67th congresses.

While debating the Treaty of Paris (1898) on the senate floor, Nelson said: "Providence has given the United States the duty of extending Christian civilization. We come as ministering angels, not despots."

Preceded by William Rush Merriam	12th Governor of Minnesota 1893 – 1895	Succeeded by David Marston Clough
Preceded by William D. Washburn	United States Senator (Class 2) from Minnesota 1896 – 1923 Served alongside: Cushman Davis, Charles A. Towne, Moses E. Clapp, Frank B. Kellogg, Henrik Shipstead	Succeeded by Magnus Johnson
Preceded by —	U.S. Representative from Minnesota's 5th congressional district 1883 – 1889	Succeeded by Solomon Comstock

[edit] References

^ Martin, Lawrence (2003-07-15). Thursday Night Hikes: Capitol Hill/Cathedral Hill Hike Architecture Notes, Part 2. Retrieved on February 27, 2007.

Millard L Gieske and Steven J Keillor: Norwegian Yankee: Knute Nelson and the Failure of American Politics, 1860-1923. 1995: Norwegian-American Historical Association, Northfield Minnesota. ISBN 0-87732-083-7

Governors of Minnesota