A Brief History of Early St. Paul

19th century St. Paul: commercial boomtown

Downtown St. Paul, 1898

The High Bridge (Smith Avenue), approximately 1900.

For thousands of years, the area we know as St. Paul was inhabited by Native Americans: the Dakota People and the Hopewell Mound Builders. They were gradually forced off the land during the 18th and 19th century as the region changed hands among European colonial powers, although some integrated with the early colonial settlements. St. Paul began to grow in the early 19th century as a fur trading post for French-speaking farmers, refugees, and traders, many of whom were mixed-race European and Native American. It was originally called “Pig’s Eye,” after a French-Canadian bootlegger who sold whiskey to local Dakota and nearby Fort Snelling. As American commerce expanded into the Midwest throughout the early and mid 19th century, St. Paul grew into a bustling Mississippi River port. As commerce (especially the fur trade) continued to grow and prosper, it drew in wealthy American elites and Irish, German, and Scandanavian immigrants. In its early years as a boomtown, drinking, gambling, prostitution, and general criminal activity flourished (1).

The Catholic Church

The Cathedral of Saint Paul, built by the Catholic Church in 1915. It continues to be a defining feature of the city's skyline today.

While the elites relied on immigrants for labor, widespread social disorder prevented business from operating efficiently. A method of social control was needed, which was found with the Catholic church. Most of St. Paul’s immigrants were Catholic, so the church provided them with a familiar community. The Church also provided social services, including schools and programs for the poor. St. Paul’s strong Catholic presence set it apart from most other American cities at the time, where Protestant denominations often dominated religious life (2).

Early Black St. Paul

The first African American in St. Paul was James Thompsen, a slave from the South who was purchased and subsequently released by a missionary at Fort Snelling in 1827. He then married a Dakota woman and learned to translate the Dakota languange for military officials (3). He was kicked out of Fort Snelling for illegally trading liquor, but relocated to St. Paul (then the budding Pig’s Eye) and continued bootlegging. His economic success highlights an important feature of early St. Paul: its lack of a distinct racial hierarchy. In the 1830s, many of St. Paul’s residents were mixed European-Native American, and the social hierarchy of the settlement was based on reputation and brute strength, not the color of your skin (4).

Throughout the mid-19th century, the black population in St. Paul grew only slightly; records indicate that just 70 African-Americans were living there in 1860. These people arrived on riverboats as deckhands and fugitive escaped slaves. A few important institutions were developed in black St. Paul in the 1860s. Robert Hickman, an amateur minister from the from the South, founded Pilgrim Baptist Church in 1866, and St. James A.M.E. was founded in 1869. Both have been pillars in the black community and still exist today. A black Masonic Lodge was also founded in 1866 (5).

The black community expanded substantially in the 1870s and 80s, in large part because of Minnesota’s relatively inclusive political environment. In 1864 Minnesota ratified the 14th amendment, guaranteeing citizenship rights for black Americans. Also, Minnesota law did not sanction segregation (6). In the 1870s a small class of black professionals emerged, who served as community leaders and linked St. Paul into the national network of upper/middle class African Americans, drawing more black people to the city (7). During the 1870s and ‘80s black people also began to settle in what would become the Rondo neighborhood (8).

Although a functioning middle class existed, most black St. Paulites worked as unskilled labor. Men often found work as cooks, janitors, and porters, while women worked as domestic servants, seamstresses, and laundresses (9). There was also a surplus of men in the community, many of whom rented space within other households. This led to a proliferation of saloons and prostitution (10).

Black St. Paul in the 1890s

A view of Rondo Avenue around 1900. Rondo Ave. was the main thoroughfare of St. Paul's black community.

John Quincy Adams, editor of The Appeal

St. Paul’s black citizens, especially its professional class, became increasingly active in the 1890s as the community grew and developed more institutions. St. Paul's first black newspaper, The Appeal, was founded in 1885. John Quincy Adams was its editor, and in the 1890s he expanded its circulation to Chicago, Milwaukee, and other major cities in the Midwest (11).

J.Q. Adams also was responsible for drawing many other African Americans to the city. Physician Val Do Turner and lawyer Fredrick McGhee both came to St. Paul in the late 1880s, after corresponding with Adams. Both would become major figures in St. Paul’s black community, and would participate in “Cuba.” McGhee and Turner were followed by prominent lawyers William R. Morris and J. Frank Wheaton, both of whom were pillars the community in the 1890s. Wheaton went on to become the first African American to serve in the Minnesota state legislature (12).

During the 1890s, St. Paul’s black women were also engaged in social and political activity. Two women’s clubs, The Minnesota Woman’s Loyal Union and the Adelphai Club, were the centers of their activity. The Minnesota Woman’s Loyal Union was an organization dedicated to improving the condition of African Americans, while the Adelphai Club served as a more conservative literary and philanthropic organization (13).