Indian Artifact Exhibit Re-Design

Hello, I am Bridgette Reuvers-Slinger, a student from Hamline University, majoring in Anthropology and minoring in Sociology. I have been interning at the Rice County Historical Society for about two and a half weeks now. Sue Garwood has asked me to help out with a display that they have that she feels is not up to speed. This has become my daily project.

The collection at hand is a set of archaic stone tools that were donated in the 1930s that were not cataloged and very little was known about the tools. I am in the process of cleaning old museum wax off of the tools, putting new accession numbers on each tool, measuring and documenting them, and writing descriptions about each individual tool. The descriptions that I have been writing include things such as potential names and how they were made. I have also spent a lot of time reading and researching not only the time periods but also the material of the tools.

One of the neat things that I have encountered thus far is one of the tools that I had initially thought was used for animal hide scraping. I had thought this because of the shape of the tool and the way that it compared to the other tools. After some more investigating and research I realized that the tool was not only categorized in the wrong time period but that it was not a scraping tool at all. After my research, I determined it to be a knife from an earlier time period. Thus far I have found three more tools that were incorrectly categorized as far as time periods. I have been using the physical evidence of the tools to try and decipher the time period. There are many books that are available that have visual representations of the tools that I have used for comparisons. 

My end goal is to have the exhibit completely re-designed by the end of the month. One of the modifications includes a new way to display the tools in the collection. Perhaps instead of setting it up chronologically it would be more visually appealing to display the tools by the function. With some volunteer and staff assistance, I have already taken the background fabric off of the display and replaced it with new clean fabric. Soon I will start to write draft exhibit labels that will accompany the display.  

Dalby Database Search Tips

Here is a list of search tips for using our most valuable resource for Southern Minnesota history research, www.dalbydata.com. These tips come directly from the the man behind the website, John Dalby himself.

Cemeteries

All Dodge, Goodhue, Le Sueur, Rice,  Steele and Waseca County Cemeteries are coded.

Some cemeteries are coded in the following counties

Blue Earth, Carver, Dakota, Grant, Lac Qui Parle, McLeod, Morrison, Ramsey, Scott and Sibley, Lyon and many more

Click on Complete Cemetery Code List,  Scroll down to find name of the cemetery you wish to search or click on COUNTY to sort and scroll down to see all in the County. The code for the cemetery is after the cemetery name.  Go back to the main screen and enter the code in the Section box and click search. 

Farm Burials Code

Goodhue County – GCFB

Rice County – RCFB

Steele County - SCFB

Enter the code into the SECTION box and click search.  If more than 1000

enter the first letter of the last name in the LAST NAME box 

With the code in the SECTION box enter one of the following in the NOTES box, Vet..,Accident, Drown, Killed, Fire, a surname, a date in the BIRTH or DEATH box, etc.  

Maple Lawn Cemetery - To see all in section M, search MEN M  To see all in lot 15, search MEN M-15. 

The Cemetery File has over 900,000 records.  You can search any field.  If not sure of spelling  (example) type  R in last name field and R in first name field and click on search. 

In the notes field search DROWN.  In the death date field search OCT/2007 it will show all that died in that month.  In the Notes Field search for Hinckley and you will find all known that died in the Hinckley fire in 1894.  Search HOLLOW TREE in the notes field for a interesting story.

Census

Search household number to find everyone in that household.  Over 48,000 entries.

Owatonna Orphanage Kids.  Over 1200 entries. 1900-10-20-30. Search 10482 in the Household Field.

Church Records

Dakota County - East Christiana

Goodhue County - Aspelund - Gol - Hauge - Holden

Rice County - Christdala, Eklund, Faribault Mengihet - First English - Fox Lake - Immanuel - Markers - Zion.

Steele County - Moland - Sacred Heart, Owatonna

City Directory

In the date field type 1865 in the city field type FARIBAULT, in the address field type MAIN and then click search.  This will show everyone on Main Street in Faribault in 1865.

Type 1018 in the address field and Faribault in the city field, click search.  This shows everybody living at that address in those years listed.  Also in this file is a business directory showing all businesses in every town in Minnesota and the Dakota territory in 1880 and 1865.

The 1880 directory is a business directory of the State of Minnesota and the Dakota Territory.  Search Hennepin County in the City Field, search Yankton in the City Field for all in Yankton, South Dakota.  Search Saloon in the Occupation Field and 1880 in the Date Field, search NUTTING in occupation field and 1957 in date field to see all working at Nutting Truck & Castor in 1957.

Civil War

Civil War File contains 26,000 names & data of Civil War veterans who mustered in the State of Mn. Enter RICE in the County Box and click search to see all that mustered in Rice County.

Churches

Search “Newspaper Articles” for “Church” in the Last Name field

County/Township Histories Individual Biographies

Search “Newspaper Articles” by Last Name.

Faribault History

Search “Newspaper Articles” for “Faribault” in the “Last Name” field, and in the “First Name” field search: City Of, Industries, Churches, State Institutions, Organizations, Early Milling

Lygin Studio Negatives

Search “People in Books” by name, or search “Historical” in the book field or “Lygin” in the Township field.

Military

The “Military” book refers to the book compiled by John Dalby titled “Rice County Military Personnel, Volume I: War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I” (355.3 JD)

Mills

Search “Newspaper Articles” for “Grist Mill, Flour Mill, etc” in the “Data” field.

Search “Newspaper Articles” for the township or village in the “Last Name” field.

Newspaper Articles

Search Cheese Factory in the data field.  These are headlines to articles from Rice County Newspapers and also some articles.  

Search the name of a county, township or village in the Last Name Field and read their history.

Northfield Bank Raid

Search “Newspaper Articles” for “James” in the “Land Name” field.

Obituaries

Obits starting in 1858,   Search the Date Field for 1875 to see all obits in that year.  

Type MAPLE LAWN in the Notes Field and click search to read 1000 obits on interments in Maple Lawn Cemetery.  Type A in the last name field along with Maple Lawn in the notes field and search and continue with B, C, etc

The OBITUARIES FILE also contains biographies of early settlers throughout the state of Minnesota.  In the notes field search RAMSEY COUNTY to see all in that County.  We add to this file daily.

Owatonna Orphanage Orphanage Census

Search “Census” for “10482” in the “Household” field. Years available are 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930.

People in Books

Search CANNON CITY in the NOTES FIELD and 1895 in the YEAR FIELD.  This will show everyone in Cannon City Township in 1895.

Search CANNON CITY in the TOWNSHIP FIELD and 21 in the SECTION FIELD.  This will show everyone living in section 21 in Cannon City Township from the different books we have entered.

Population Lists

Search “People in Books” for the township in the “Notes” field and the year in the year field. Also enter section number, and it will show you everyone living in the section of the township.

Rural Schools

Search “People in Books” for “Dist. XX” or “No. XX” in the “Page” field to see the students in the years mentioned.

Search “Newspaper Articles” for “District No. XX” in the “Notes” field.

Sioux Massacre

Search the Last Name Field in the Newspaper Articles File for INDIAN.

Who’s Who in Rice County

Entered in “Obituaries”; search “Mea Who’s Who” in the notes field.

Yearbooks

You can now search the following schools and years for students, etc in the People In Books File.

Example - Enter Faribault in the Book Field, 1950 in the Date Field and click search.  Search only the first name in the Book Field like Shattuck, Northfield, etc.

With the name of a selected school in the Book Field and a selected date in the Date Field and any of the following in the Township Field,  Student, Teacher, Staff, Faculty, 7, 8 Freshmen, Sophmore, Senior, School Board or School Bus Driver (Northfield Only)  and click search.