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27 Crocus Place: William J. Sleppy House/Joseph A. A. Burnquist House; Built in 1922 (1902 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Queen Anne in style; J. M. Carlson, architect. The structure is a two story, 4142 square foot, six bedroom, three bathroom, one half-bathroom, frame house, with one attached garage and one detached garage. This structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the historic Hill District. Minnesota Historical Society records indicate that William J. Sleppy resided at this address from 1907 to 1919. Oakland Cemetery Association records indicate that Mary Stees Sleepy (1831-1916,) the wife of William J. Sleppy, who was born in Pennsylvania to parents born in the United States and who died of valvular heart disease, resided at this address in 1915. In 1916, Kathrene Stees Sleppy was a member of the Minnesota Historical Society and resided at this address. The 1918 city directory indicates that Miss Katherine S. Sleppy, Miss Mabel Ford, and Miss Dora C. Jett all resided at this address. The 1920 city directory indicates that Hon. Joseph A. A. Burnquist, the Governor of the State of Minnesota, resided at this address. The 1923 city directory indicates that Mr. and Mrs. J. A. A. Burnquist and W. H. Steffen all resided at this address. The 1930 city directory indicates that Albert L. Haman, the president of the A. L. Haman Company, wholesale jewelers, and his wife, Katherine M. Haman, resided at this address. The 1950 St. Paul Academy Alumni Directory indicates that Donald P. Gaver, Jr. (1926- ,) who attended the school from 1937 until 1944, who served in the U. S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II, and who attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, resided at this address. William J. Sleppy (1843-1916,) the son of Christian Sleepy and Catherine Vandermark Sleppy, was born in Wilkes Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, was educated in the Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, public schools, was a member of the 52nd Pennsylvania Regiment and the 199th Pennsylvania Regiment during the American Civil War, married Mary A. Stees, the daughter of Benjamin Stees and Lydia A. Stees, in Philadelphia in 1865, was employed in Pennsylvania and in Minnesota in the railroad business, was a station agent and telegraph operator employed by the Lackawanna & Bloomsburg RailRoad in Pennsylvania in 1868, then was an agent and telegraph operator in Ottawa, Minnesota, for one year, was an agent and telegraph operator in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, from 1869 until 1871, moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1870 and worked in the drug business, moved to Minnesota in 1871, settled in St. Paul, was associated with Stees Brothers, was chairman of the St. Paul Decoration Day celebration in 1884, was in the furniture business, Quimby & Abbott's, furniture dealers and funeral directors, located at Third Street and Minnesota Street, until 1894, then became a self-employed undertaker with a funeral parlor at 495-497 Selby Avenue in 1894, was a member of the Summit Lodge Number 163 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, was a member and the president of the Acker Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, was a member of the St. Paul Commercial Club, was a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, was a member of the the Modern Woodmen of America, was a Mason, resided at 515 Dayton Avenue in 1907, and officed at 495 Selby Avenue in 1907. In 1896, William J. Sleppy was a junior warden of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. William J. Sleppy and Mary A. Stees Sleppy were the parents of one daughter, Katherine Stees Sleppy. In 1909, Katherine Sleppy lectured on Missions in the Summer Schools at the Minnetonka, Minnesota, Summer School of Missions and, in 1917, Katherine S. Sleppy taught storytelling at the Merriam Park Summer School in St. Paul. Joseph Alfred Arner Burnquist (1879-1961) was the Lieutenant Governor and became Governor in 1915 upon the death of Governor Winfield S. Hammond. Burnquist was born in Dayton, Webster County, Iowa, and married Mary Louise Cross in 1906. After graduating from Carlton College in 1902 and playing football there and after gaining a law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1905, Burnquist practiced law briefly in St. Paul before entering politics as a state legislator in 1908. As Governor, at the same time as U. S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer was conducting raids on alleged subversives, Burnquist created the Minnesota Public Safety Commission in 1917 to monitor public sentiment toward World War I, quashed pacifist demonstrations, and initiated legislation that improved the state highways, disaster assistance programs, labor relations, and the welfare of children. Burnquist also used the Minnesota Home Guard in the surveillance of alleged subversive activities, in focusing opposition to labor unions and strikes, in locating draft evaders, in imposing a curfew on saloons and restaurants, in discouraging the use of non-English languages in schools, and in registering and monitoring aliens. In 1917, Minnesota's German-Americans formed the state's largest ethnic group and 70 percent of the state's residents were immigrants or first-generation Americans when Minnesota's seven-member Commission on Public Safety was formed by the state,with its members appointed by Governor J. A. A. Burnquist. Having no public accountability,it immediately suspended civil rights, set up an armed militia and created a network of spies. They hired Pinkerton detectives to attend German-American meetings and events, and even though the agents reported back that the worries about treason or violent protests were exaggerated, the commission members,using their subpoena power to question people,accused three elected New Ulm officials of lacking patriotism, because,while they supported the draft, they suggested that German-Americans serve in non-combatant capacities. The Commission immediately suspended the New Ulm officials on grounds of disloyalty. Also in 1917, Governor J. A. A. Burnquist directed that the State Capitol basement restaurant, with a German beer hall theme, be painted over and it was repainted. Between 1855 and 1915, Germans in America lived not in an American culture, but rather in a German-American culture. All that changed with the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915. Minnesota participated enthusiastically in the anti-German mood, most vehemently through the Commission of Public Safety and its quasi-military arm, the Home Guard. The Commission, led by Governor J. A. A. Burnquist, was given vast powers to stop strikes and labor organizing, to regulate liquor traffic, to require the registration of aliens, and to investigate people for a wide variety of activities, including 682 complaints of sedition. A virtual spy system took over the state, focused on Germans. A 1917 Commission circular declared that "anyone who talks and acts against the government in time of war, regardless of the 'constitutional right of free speech,' is a traitor and deserves the most drastic punishment." The Commission’s activities were supplemented by those of a national organization that operated also in Minnesota, the American Protective League. The League conducted raids in both St. Paul and Minneapolis, detaining hundreds of German men, almost all of them innocent, on suspicion of draft evasion. The Non-Partisan League also fell afoul of the Commission of Public Safety, which hounded and attacked it as disloyal. J. A. A. Burnquist accused the Nonpartisan League's leadership of being connected with "lawless I. W. W. red socialists, and pacifists." The Commission waged war on German language and culture in Minnesota. It forbade the use of German as a language of instruction in schools, discouraged the performance of German music, banned some German-language books, and had the publisher of the newspaper Volkzeitung interned for refusing to stop publishing in German. The heavy-handed reign of the Commission of Public Safety became a powerful political symbol, helping to build the left-leaning Farmer Labor Party in Minnesota. The early Farmer Labor Party electoral success owed much to German-American Minnesotans, a mostly conservative population who were estranged from the major parties for years after the Burnquist loyalty campaign. The Commission of Public Safety's own lead lawyer, Ambrose Tighe (1859-1928,) provided the agency's best epitaph, observing that the Commission provided lasting evidence of how dangerous it is to vest even good men with arbitrary power. In October, 1918, forest fires ravaged portions of North Central and Northeastern Minnesota. The Minnesota towns of Arnold, Automba, Brookston, Cloquet, Kalevala, Kettle River, Lawler, Lester Park, Moose Lake, and Woodland were burned to the ground. A half-dozen other communities were 50 percent destroyed and 10 more suffered severe damage. A total of 1500 square miles were burned, and more than 50,000 people were displaced. Scores of people were severely burned, and 453 people were killed outright. More than 4,000 houses were consumed, and another 6,000 barns were burned, with livestock dead in the tens of thousands. Huddled in shelters in Duluth and Superior, thousands of victims sat shivering in shock and dismay. The Minnesota Home Guard was mobilized to handle necessary duties within the state and the Minnesota Forest Fires Relief Commission was formed days after the fire by Gov. Joseph Burnquist and was given authority over the relief efforts. Governor J. A. A. Burnquist called a special session of the Minnesota Legislature and, on September 8, 1919, it ratified the 19th Amendment in the House by a vote of 120 to 6 and in the Senate by a vote of 60 to 5. It was during Burnquist's time as governor of Minnesota, on June 15, 1920, that three black men, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie, employed by the railroad-based John Robinson Circus as cooks and "roustabouts," were lynched from a street lamppost by an angry mob estimated between 5,000 and 10,000 people in Duluth, Minnesota, led by Louis Dondino, for the alleged rape on June 14, 1920, of a white woman, Irene Tusken, a 19-year-old stenographer from West Duluth, Minnesota, who had attended the circus with her boyfriend, James Sullivan, an 18-year-old dockworker/boat-spotter and reputed gambler. A St. Louis County grand jury issued 37 indictments for the lynching mob, 25 indictments for rioting, and 12 for murder in the first degree, but only three men, Dondino, Carl John Alfred Hammerberg ( -1924,) and Gilbert Henry Stephensis/Stephenson, were convicted and the convictions were only for rioting. Louis Dondino (1882-1959) was charged with first-degree murder, was convicted on a lesser charge, and spent 13 months in Stillwater State Prison before moving to Washington State. Gilbert Henry Stephensis received a five year prison sentence and was paroled after serving 13 months in Stillwater State Prison. Carl Hammerberg spent 15 months in the Minnesota State Reformatory for Men, St. Cloud, Minnesota, and died while attempting to ride the rails in a refrigerated rail car. J. A. A. Burnquist, as State Attorney General, with Matthias N. Orfield and George W. Markam, represented the State in the Supreme Court case of Minnesota v. National Tea Company et al (1940,) a challenge to a chain store gross sales tax. Burnquist also filed an amicus curiae brief with the U. S. Supreme Court in the case of Phillips Petroleum Company v. Wisconsin, 347 U.S. 672 (1954.) J. A. A. Burnquist married Mary Louise Cross in 1906 and the couple had at least three children, two daughters and one son, Mary L. Burnquist (Mrs. Joseph C.) Beck (1910-2001,) Ruth Burnquist, and Rowland Burnquist. J. A. A. Burnquist was buried at Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis. Alexander Mitchell Palmer (1872-1936) was born in White Haven, Pennsylvania, was educated at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the practice of law in 1893. He was a member of the Democratic Party, served in the House of Representatives from 1909 to 1915 and supported Woodrow Wilson in the presidential campaign in 1912. In 1919, Wilson appointed Palmer as U. S. Attorney General. Although Palmer had previously been associated with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, supporting women's suffrage and trade union rights, as Attorney General, Palmer's views on civil rights changed dramatically, and he became convinced that Communist agents were planning to overthrow the American government. After the discovery of 38 bombs that were sent to leading politicians and after an Italian anarchist, Carlo Valdinoci, blew himself up outside Palmer's Washington home, Palmer recruited John Edgar Hoover as his special assistant and used the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 against radicals and left-wing organizations. On the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution, Palmer had over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists arrested in actions that became known as the "Palmer Raids" as a step to becoming the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in 1920. Palmer failed to win the 1920 nomination and his influence in the Democratic Party then waned. The Stees family burial plot at Oakland Cemetery includes the graves of Charles J. Stees (1834-1897,) who was a Captain in Company G of the Sixth Minnesota Regiment and a Major in the Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment during the Civil War, Mathais Benjamin Stees (1831-1854,) who served in the U. S. Navy, Dia Greenwalt Stees (1799-1886,) Jamin Stees (1798-1869,) Jamin G. Sleppy (1866-1891,) William J. Sleppy (1843-1916,) Mary Stees Sleppy (1836-1915,) Kathrene Stees Sleppy (1870-1929,) John A. Stees (1839-1918,) and Virginia H. Stees (1839-1927.) Charles J. Stees (1834-1897,) the son of Benjamin Moore Stees and Lydia Shaffner Greenawalt Stees (1798- ,) was a relative of Alexander Ramsey by virtue of the Greenawalt family, was born in Dauphin, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, moved to St. Paul in 1851, fought the Daniel's Hotel fire in 1851, was engaged in the furniture business on Minnesota Street, was an undertaker, returned to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1853 and learned the jewelry business, went South to Raleigh, North Carolina, in the jewelry business until the eve of the American Civil War, returned to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, initially joined a Pennsylvania infantry regiment, returned to Minnesota and served in the Ninth Minnesota Regiment and the Sixth Minnesota Regiment during the American Civil War, fought in the 1862 Dakota Uprising, was part of the Sibley expedition to the Dakota Territory against the Dakota Indians after the American Civil War, married, settled down engaging in the furniture business with his brother, Washington Stees, sold Stees Brothers Furniture to Quinby & Abbott, was engaged in the real estate business, was the registrar of the Minnesota Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, was a member of the executive council of the Minnesota Historical Society, was post commander of the Acker post of the Grand Army of the Republic, moved to California, resided in California for 12 years, then returned to Minnesota, and died in San Francisco, California. According to Minnesota Adjutant General records, Charles J. Stees was mustered into the Sixth Minnesota Regiment in 1862, from Ramsey County, and was mustered out in 1865. Charles J. Stees provided an appendix document concerning Lieutenant Colonel Marshall's raid into Dakota Territory in 1862 to a regimental history of the Sixth Minnesota Regiment, Company E, that was authored by Alfred James Hill (1833-1895.) Cytheria A. Jones was the wife of Charles J. Stees and their divorce was handled by Richard L. Gorman, the son of Willlis A. Gorman, a Minnesota Territorial Governor and a Civil War General. Charles Stees, the son of John Alfred Stees and Virginia Hollins Stees, the grandson of Benjamin Greenawalt and Lydia Shafner Greenawalt, and great grandson of John Philip Greenawalt and Catharine Shafner Greenawalt, who married Helen Cratsenberg, was a member of the Minnesota Society of the Sons of the American Revolution by virtue of great grandfather Philip Lorentz Greenawalt, a Colonel in the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Militia during the Revolutionary War. Charles J. Stees, the son of Benjamin Moore Greenawalt and Lydia Shafner Greenawalt and the grandson of John Philip Greenawalt and Catharine Shafner Greenawalt, was a member of the Minnesota Society of the Sons of the American Revolution by virtue of great grandfather Philip Lorentz Greenawalt, a Colonel in the First Battalion of the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Militia during the Revolutionary War. John A. Stees (1839- ) was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, moved to St. Paul in 1856, and was engaged in the real estate business after 1883. Washington M. Stees (1826- ) was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, moved to St. Paul in 1850, and operated a furniture business. Mary Stees Sleepy was a daughter of Benjamin Moore Stees and Lydia Shaffner Greenawalt Stees and married William J. Sleppy. Mary Stees Sleepy ( -1915,) Ambrose Tighe ( -1928,) Kathrene S. Sleppy ( -1929,) Mabel Myrtle Ford ( -1934,) Albert Louis Haman ( -1935,) and Mary Beck ( -1940) all died in Ramsey County. Joseph Alfred A. Burnquist (1879-1961) was born outside of Minnesota, had a mother with a maiden name of Johnson, and died in Hennepin County. Mary Louise Burnquist (1880-1966) was born in Minnesota, had a mother with a maiden name of Weeks, and died in Hennepin County. Katherine M. Haman (1869-1958) was born outside of Minnesota, had a mother with a maiden name of Truell, and died in Ramsey County. The current owners of record of the property are Linda L. Hedemark and Marc R. Pritzker. Marc R. Pritzker graduated from Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, went to Medical School at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, did his residency in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, completed a fellowship in cardiology at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and in electrophysiology/pacing at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, has certifications in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases by the American Board of Internal Medicine, and is a cardiologist at Minneapolis Cardiology Associates, Minneapolis Heart Institute, Minneapolis. Linda L. Hedemark also is a doctor and published the article "Somali Refugee Health Screening in Hennepin County" with Mary Jo Fritz, M.S., R.N., in Minnesota Medicine in 1998. [See note for Ambrose Tighe for the former 505 Summit Avenue.] [See note for Richard L. Gorman for 11 Alice Court.]