p. 61-120

File — Box: 1, Folder: 12

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection: The Fred Rutledge Papers consists of three series: correspondence, manuscripts and subject files. In the Correspondence Series correspondence are numerous letters from Mr. Rutledge to Leonard Sackett of the Institute with many recollections, also several letters from Lilla Harrison Hilpert and others to Mr. Rutledge with information on pioneer days in Dakota Territory. In the Manuscripts Series is A Christmas Vacation in Virginia, descriptive of historic scenes. There are family histories of the Rutledges, Dickisons, Wheelocks, Canfields, Beckers and Hudsons. Also included is the 243 page typed manuscript, -Reminiscences of Fred Rutledge covering his youth and days as lumberjack, hobo, railroad man, thresher and farmer in Minnesota and North Dakota. There is a notebook covering early days (1882-1902) in Dakota Territory, later North Dakota, homesteading, threshing, teaching, and hobo life, with histories of the Harrisons and Lindells. Another notebook has experiences in North Dakota and Minnesota, railroading, lumberjacking, farming, milling grain, and a variety of other subjects, (1880's to 1930's). In the Subject Files Series are a set of diagrams including an 1880 Doty Handpower washing machine, a leach for catching lye, a lumberjack's clothes rack, a logging "gethrow", a Michigan dray or "Godevil", an eggbeater, the grasshopper seat for a wagon box, threshing boilers and a map of the homesteaders of Dundee Township, Walsh County. There are several articles on artist, Ed Quigley, old songs, clippings, and obituaries. (Note: other works by Mr. Rutledge are in South Dakota Dept. of History, Minnesota Historical Society, and the historical Societies of Pope, Olmstead, Fillmore, and Winona Counties of Minnesota.)