Tag Archives: minnesota reflections

Pierz Journals Online (1909-1913)

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Mary| Leave a comment

We have exciting news this morning. We knew it was going to happen soon, but we didn’t know when. One of our regular history informants, Larry from the Hesch History blog, sent us an email telling us that the Pierz Journal newspapers we’ve had digitized through the Minnesota Digital Library are now online. Wooooooohoooooooo! It’s happy dance time! (Picture an image of Snoopy doing his Snoopy dance. That’s us!)

The issues that have been digitized run from 1909 through 1913.  They do not appear under the Morrison County Historical Society’s collection, but under the Minnesota Newspapers Collection. You can also do a search for “Pierz Journal” and they should appear.

Have at it, researchers, and let us know what you think. If you like what you see, consider giving us a donation toward the digitization of the volumes through 1923. (See the Save the Pierz Journals link in the right sidebar.)

Posted in archives, artifacts, fundraising, history, mchs, minnesota, morrison county, morrison county historical society, newspaper

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More Plat Books Available Online

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Mary| Leave a comment

We’ve gone through another round of digitization through the Minnesota Digital Library. This time, we chose to have 3 unusual plat books digitized. All three have hardcovers, but appear to have been specially made as scrapbooks, where the maps have been cut from another source and pasted onto the pages of the books.

All came from the collection of John Vertin, who was a land dealer and insurance agent in Little Falls. He was also city treasurer for 40 years. The plat books date 1902, c. 1902-1907, and c. 1912. We know of no other copies of plat books from these dates, so digitizing them was the best way we could find to preserve them while still allowing access to the data within.

The books can be found on Minnesota Reflections under the Morrison County Historical Society’s collections.

Posted in artifacts, books, business, government, history, little falls, maps, mchs, minnesota, morrison county, news, research

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December Map of the Month

Posted on December 3, 2008 by Mary| Leave a comment

For this month’s map, we’ve chosen the earliest map in our collection that shows Morrison County. The map is a leaf from the book the “Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Minnesota” published by A. T. Andreas in 1874. We call it the Andreas atlas. While we have a few copies of the full Andreas atlas in our collections, over the years we’ve also received pages 164 and 165 separate from the book. These pages show Todd, Morrison, and Crow Wing Counties, and portions of Mille Lacs, Aitkin, and Cass.

The map has a number of fascinating features, including the markings for the type of timber found in the area, the locations of the homes of various prominent citizens, the Indian trail running from Mille Lacs Lake to the Skunk River, a Lumberman’s Road, and a scattering of post offices. On the 1874 map, Morrison County has only a few townships: Green Prairie, Culdrum, Swan River, Two Rivers, Little Falls, Belle Prairie, Pierz, and Bellevue. The old Fort Ripley Reservation takes up a sizeable chunk of land on the east side of the Mississippi River.

The Andreas atlas has been digitized as part of the Minnesota Digital Library and can be found online at Minnesota Reflections.  Try this link to get to the document: http://reflections.mndigital.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/mhs&CISOPTR=1192&REC=7.  If you have difficulty with that link, go to the home page of Minnesota Reflections and choose the option to browse by collection. Scroll down to the Minnesota Historical Society and select “view the collection.” The atlas is item number 7 in the collection. Click on either the image or the title to be taken to the digitized version of the book.

Or, stop on in at The Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Memorial Museum to see it in person.

Posted in archives, belle prairie, bellevue, books, camp ripley, culdrum, exhibits, green prairie, history, little falls, maps, mchs, minnesota, mississippi river, morrison county, museum, pierz, research, swan river, two rivers

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