Fred S. Rutledge

Fred Rutledge was born on June 12, 1878 at Walnut Grove, Minnesota.  In 1882 his family moved to Grand Forks to join his uncles and in 1883 took a homestead in Dundee Township, Walsh County, Dakota Territory.  In 1902, Mr. Rutledge became an engineer with the Minneapolis Bedding Company of Sauk Center and in 1931 he went to work for the Daisy Mills of Superior, Wisconsin as a watch engineer.

The collection contains correspondence; family histories of Becker, Canfield, Dickison, Harrison, Hudson, Lindell, Rutledge, and Wheelock families; his handwritten manuscript "A Christmas in Virginia" (52 p.), and a typed copy of his manuscript "Reminiscences of Fred Rutledge: (243 p.) covering his youth and days as a lumberjack, hobo, railroadman, thresher and farmer in Minnesota and North Dakota.  Also there are two notebooks containing handwritten reminiscences of life in Minnesota and North Dakota, plus clippings and other miscellanceous historical notes.

Photograph collection  

Frontier and Pioneer Life