Minneapolis, MN
Special events planned for Minneapolis’ oldest cemetery after Underground Railroad designation
Minneapolis’ oldest cemetery gets designation
Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery tells a pre and post Civil War story about the City of Minneapolis, which includes the final resting place for Black soldiers who fought for the Union Army, a woman who escaped slavery and joined a Minnesota regiment on the battlefield as a cook, and William Goodridge who ran an Underground Railroad through his home in York, Pennsylvania.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery tells a pre and post Civil War story about the City of Minneapolis, which includes the final resting place for Black soldiers who fought for the Union Army, a woman who escaped slavery and joined a Minnesota regiment on the battlefield as a cook, and William Goodridge who ran an Underground Railroad through his home in York, Pennsylvania.
Cemetery gets Underground Railroad Distinction
What we know:
Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Minneapolis, established in 1853. Thousands of the city’s working class immigrants are buried there along with 500 of the city’s first African American citizens.
“These are the everyday people who built Minneapolis who lived in Minneapolis and traditionally haven’t had their stories told widely,” says John Crippen, the Executive Director of the Hennepin History Museum. “The cemetery does a great job of saying here’s how these people shaped the community we live in today,” he adds.
Sue Weir is the president of the Board of Friends of Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery and a longtime historian.
She has researched the stories of the people who captured the attention of the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program.
Why it matters:
The Network to Freedom program honors, preserves, and promotes the history of the resistance to slavery.
She says the founders of the cemetery were very active in the anti-slavery movement.
“Martin and Elizabeth Lehman, the original owners, were very much involved in the anti-slavery movement,” says Weir. “They were Baptist and their church was involved.”
Names that helped with the Designation
- Hester Patterson, Freedom Seeker. Patterson escaped slavery, worked as a cook on the battlefields, befriended a surgeon from Minneapolis who helped her get a train ticket to Minnesota.
- Woodford Anderson, Freedom Seeker, and U.S. Colored Troop soldier.
- Charles Broden, Freedom Seeker who, while was not an official member of the U.S. Colored Troop, performed manual labor duties for the Iowa unit.
- William Goodridge, abolitionist, and conductor on the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania.
The Work Behind the Designation
The backstory:
St. Paul native and genealogist Elyse Hill conducted research on Goodridge, Anderson and Broden and submitted her documentation to the National Park Service. Hill specializes in African American genealogy and has extensive experience researching the histories of formerly enslaved African Americans.
What you can do:
The Hennepin History Museum is planning a series of events over the next few months that will focus on the cemetery and African American genealogy in Minnesota. They are also planning a public event in June for the cemetery’s National Park Service designation. Their event on February 27 is sold out, but it will be recorded and later posted on their YouTube channel. You can check out their schedule the museum’s website.
Dig deeper:
Last year, FOX 9 put a spotlight on William Goodridge’s life as a hero of the Underground Railroad:
MINNEAPOLIS — Residents will gather Saturday in a scenic Minneapolis neighborhood for an annual ritual — the sharpening of a gigantic No. 2 pencil.
The 20-foot-tall (6-meter-tall) pencil was sculpted out of a mammoth oak tree at the home of John and Amy Higgins. The beloved tree was damaged in a storm a few years ago when fierce winds twisted the crown off. Neighbors mourned. A couple even wept. But the Higginses saw it not so much as a loss, but as a chance to give the tree new life.
The sharpening ceremony on their front lawn has evolved into a community spectacle that draws hundreds of people to the leafy neighborhood on Lake of the Isles, complete with music and pageantry. Some people dress as pencils or erasers. Two Swiss alphorn players will provide part of this year’s entertainment. The hosts will commemorate a Minneapolis icon, the late music superstar Prince, by handing out purple pencils on what would have been his 67th birthday.
In the wake of the storm, the Higginses knew they wanted to create a sculpture out of their tree. They envisioned a whimsical piece of pop art that people could recognize, but not a stereotypical chainsaw-carved, north-woods bear. Given the shape and circumference of the log, they came up with the idea of an oversized pencil standing tall in their yard.
“Why a pencil? Everybody uses a pencil,” Amy Higgins said. “Everybody knows a pencil. You see it in school, you see it in people’s work, or drawings, everything. So, it’s just so accessible to everybody, I think, and can easily mean something, and everyone can make what they want of it.”
So they enlisted wood sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad to transform it into a replica of a classic Trusty brand No. 2 pencil.
“People interpret this however they want to. They should. They should come to this and find whatever they want out of it,” Ingvoldstad said. That’s true even if their reaction is negative, he added. “Whatever you want to bring, you know, it’s you at the end of the day. And it’s a good place. It’s good to have pieces that do that for people.”
John Higgins said they wanted the celebration to pull the community together.
“We tell a story about the dull tip, and we’re gonna get sharp,” he said. “There’s a renewal. We can write a new love letter, a thank you note. We can write a math problem, a to-do list. And that chance for renewal, that promise, people really seem to buy into and understand.”
To keep the point pointy, they haul a giant, custom-made pencil sharpener up the scaffolding that’s erected for the event.
Like a real pencil, this one is ephemeral. Every year they sharpen it, it gets a bit shorter. They’ve taken anywhere from 3 to 10 inches (8 to 25 centimeters) off a year. They haven’t decided how much to shave off this year. They’re OK knowing that they could reduce it to a stub one day. The artist said they’ll let time and life dictate its form — that’s part of the magic.
“Like any ritual, you’ve got to sacrifice something,” Ingvoldstad said. “So we’re sacrificing part of the monumentality of the pencil, so that we can give that to the audience that comes, and say, ‘This is our offering to you, and in goodwill to all the things that you’ve done this year.’”
Minneapolis, MN
Jury deliberations to continue into 2nd day in trial of man accused of killing 5 in Minneapolis crash
Jury deliberations will continue Friday in the trial against Derrick Thompson, who is accused of killing five women in a crash in Minneapolis on June 16, 2023. Jurors were given the case around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday.
The women who were killed were identified as Sahra Gesaade, Sabiriin Ali, Salma Abdikadir, Sagal Hersi and Siham Adam.
Thompson faces five counts of criminal vehicular homicide for driving in a grossly negligent manner, five counts of criminal vehicular homicide for causing the crash and then leaving the scene and five counts of third-degree murder. There are three counts relating to each victim’s death.
Jurors will begin deliberations at 11 a.m. Friday. The late start is due to the Eid holiday.
Thompson has already been found guilty on federal charges related to guns and drugs found inside his SUV.
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS will have a crew at the courthouse on Friday and will update this article throughout the day.
CLICK HERE for additional case coverage.
Protestors mobilized and headed to the scene. Videos of protesters yelling “shame” and tussling with law enforcement quickly spread online.
The raids were Minnesota’s first under the umbrella of a new federal Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF).
Witnesses reported seeing a truck from the Department of Homeland Security and masked agents bearing DEA, FBI, ICE and, later, ATF badges along Lake Street. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in St. Paul said its agents came to the scene to assist with the crowd, supplemented by personnel from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and Minneapolis police.
No charges or arrests related to the operation have been made.
Calls to Las Cuatro Milpas went directly to voicemail. Owner Hector Hernandez — who has not been charged in connection with the search — did not respond to a Minnesota Star Tribune reporter’s attempts to reach him at his residence or via email.
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