Knute Nelson
Senator Knute Nelson
U.S. Senator from Minnesota
In office March 4, 1895 – April 28, 1923
Preceded by	William D. Washburn
Succeeded by	Magnus Johnson
12th Governor of Minnesota
In office January 4, 1893 – January 31, 1895
Lieutenant	David Marston Clough
Preceded by	William Rush Merriam
Succeeded by	David Marston Clough
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota's 5th District
In office March 4, 1883 – March 4, 1889
Preceded by	District Created
Succeeded by	Solomon Comstock
Personal details
Born	(1843-02-02)February 2, 1843 Voss, Norway
Died	April 28, 1923(1923-04-28) (aged 80) Timonium, Maryland
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Nicolinæ Jacobson
Alma mater	Albion College
Profession	lawyer
Religion	Lutheran[1]
Military service
Service/branch	Wisconsin Militia United States Army Union Army
Rank	Corporal
Unit	Black Hawk Rifles of Racine 4th Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment
Battles/wars	American Civil War

Knute Nelson, also known as Knud Evanger (February 2, 1843 – April 28, 1923) was a Norwegian-American attorney and politician active in both Wisconsin and Minnesota. A Republican, he served in state and national positions: he was elected to the Wisconsin and Minnesota legislatures, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the US Senate from Minnesota, and he served as the 12th Governor of Minnesota.

He is known for promoting the Nelson Act of 1889 to consolidate the Ojibwe/Chippewa in Minnesota on a western reservation in the state, and require the breakup of communal land by allotting it to individual households, with sales of the remainder to anyone. This was similar to the Dawes Act of 1887, which had applied to Native American lands in the Indian Territory.

Early life and education[link]

Knute Nelson was born out of wedlock in Voss, Norway to Ingebjørg Haldorsdatter Kvilekval, who named him Knud Evanger. He was baptized by his uncle on their farm of Kvilekval, who recorded his father as Helge Knudsen Styve. This is unconfirmed. Various theories persist about Knud's paternity, including one involving Gjest Baardsen, a famous outlaw.^[2]

In 1843, Ingebjørg's brother Jon Haldorsson sold the farm where she and Knud lived, as he could not make a living, and emigrated to Chicago. Ingebjørg took her boy with her to Bergen, where she took work as a domestic servant. Having borrowed money for the passage, she and Knud emigrated to the United States, arriving in Castle Garden in New York City on July 4, 1849. The holiday fireworks made a lasting impression on the seven-year-old Knud, who was listed in immigration records as Knud Helgeson Kvilekval. Ingebjørg Haldorsdatter claimed to be a widow (a story she held until 1923). She and Knud traveled by river to Albany, New York, and then via the Erie Canal to Buffalo, and the Great Lakes to Chicago. There her brother Jon, now working as a carpenter, took them in.^[3] While with him, Haldorsdatter worked as a domestic servant and paid off her debt for passage in less than a year.

Knud also worked, first as a house servant, then as a paper boy for the Chicago Free Press, which gave him an early education, both because he read the paper and because he learned street profanity.

Knute Nelson, age 12, and his mother Ingebjørg Haldorsdatter Grotland, c. 1855.

In the fall of 1850, Ingebjørg married Nils Olson Grotland, also from Voss. The family of three moved to Skoponong, a Norwegian settlement in Palmyra, Wisconsin. Knud was given the surname Nelson after his stepfather, which eliminated the stigma of being fatherless.

By then 17 years old, Nelson was street-smart and rebellious, with a proclivity toward profanity. He was accepted to the school held by Mary Blackwell Dillon, an Irish immigrant with linguistic talents. Nelson proved himself an apt student although undisciplined; he later recalled being whipped as many as three times a day.

Still in his teens, Nelson joined the Democratic Party out of admiration for Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. The family moved to the Koshkonong settlement, which by 1850 had more than half of the Norwegian population of 5,000 in the state.^[4] Nils Olson had bad luck with land purchases and became sickly. Nelson picked up most of the work of the farm, but maintained his commitment to education. His stepfather was not supportive and Nelson often had to scrounge to find money for schoolbooks.

Nelson's academic interests led him to enroll in Albion Academy in Albion in Dane County, Wisconsin, in the fall of 1858. The school was founded by the Seventh-day Adventist Church to provide for education to children who could not afford private school, and Nelson was deemed "very deserving." To earn his keep he did various odd, but hard, jobs around the school.

After two years, Nelson took a job as a country teacher in Pleasant Springs near Stoughton. Teaching mostly other Norwegian immigrants, he was an agent of Americanization.

Military service[link]

Civil war photograph of Nelson

Nelson returned to Albion in the spring of 1861, when the American Civil War had started. By then, he had developed his position as a "low-tariff, anti-slavery, pro-Union Democrat," but was in the minority in a pro-Abraham Lincoln region. In May 1861, he and eighteen other Albion students enlisted in a state militia company, known as the Black Hawk Rifles of Racine, to fight with the Union Army in the war. Appalled by the debauchery of this company, the young men refused to be sworn into the army under this militia, and eventually succeeded in being transferred to the Fourth Wisconsin Volunteers. (This was an "all-American" regiment, made up generally of native born men.

Nelson's parents opposed his volunteering , but he saw it as a patriotic duty. He sent half his soldier's pay to his parents to help retire the debt on the farm. He seems to have enjoyed army life, noting that the food was better than at home. He shared the frustration of his fellow soldiers over not being put into battle soon enough. His unit moved from Racine to Camp Dix near Baltimore, Maryland. From there they moved to combat operations in Louisiana.

On May 27, 1863, after the 4th Wisconsin had become a cavalry unit, Nelson was wounded in the Battle of Port Hudson, captured and made a prisoner of war. He was released when the siege ended. He served as an adjutant, was promoted to corporal, and briefly considered applying for a lieutenant's commission.

Military service sharpened Nelson's identity as an American and his patriotism. He was deeply concerned about what he considered the ambivalent attitude among Norwegian-American Lutheran clergy toward slavery, and thought that too few of his fellow Norwegian Americans from Koshkonong had volunteered. He read the Norwegian translation of Esaias Tegnér's Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna and found it enthralling. He found it a synthesis of his Norwegian heritage and American home through its unsentimental depiction of character and virtue.

Within two years after he mustered out, Nelson acquired his United States citizenship. His disdain for the Copperheads contributed to his becoming a Republican after the war.

Political career[link]

Local politics in Wisconsin[link]

Nelson returned to Albion and completed his studies as one of the oldest students, where he graduated at the top of his class. He gave his first campaign speech of record on behalf of Abraham Lincoln, and drew praise from the faculty.

Deciding to become a lawyer, he moved to Madison where he "read law" at the law offices of William F. Vilas, one of the few academically trained attorneys in the area. In the spring of 1867, he was admitted to the Wisconsin bar by judge Philip L. Spooner.

Nelson opened his law practice in Madison, where he appealed to the Norwegian immigrant community, advertising in the Norwegian language newspaper Emigranten. He also became the unofficial representative of the Norwegian community within the Madison community. With the help of Eli A. Spencer, he successfully ran for Dane County's seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly, starting its session on January 8, 1868.^[5]

He was reelected for a second term with the Wisconsin Assembly, as he had quickly learned how to get things done in politics. He got involved in a divisive debate about public and parochial schools in Norwegian communities, taking the "liberal" side that promoted public, non-sectarian schools rather than those run by Lutheran clergy. After his second term in the Wisconsin Assembly, Nelson decided not to run for reelection.

Marriage and family[link]

After being elected the first time, Nelson married Nicholina Jacobsen, originally from Toten, Norway. She was five months' pregnant by the time of their marriage and, because of Nelson's poor relations with the local Lutheran clergy, they were married by the Justice of the Peace Lars Erdall in a private home.

A national recession limited the couple's financial success. While Nelson slept in his office in Madison to carry out his legislative and professional career, Nicholina and the newborn Ida stayed with her family in Koshkonong.

Minnesota frontier[link]

1882 print of Nelson

Nelson was already interested in moving further west when in 1870 he was invited by Lars K. Aaker to set up a practice in Alexandria, Minnesota, in Douglas County, part of the state's "Upper Country." Nelson was attracted by the possibilities afforded by the opening frontier, especially the prospect of the railroad. After also visiting Fergus Falls, he moved his wife and newborn son Henry to Alexandria in August 1871.

He was admitted to the Minnesota bar in October and set up a legal practice primarily around land cases referred to him by Aaker, the land agent. He also bought a 120-acre (0.49 km²) homestead in Alexandria, a claim that was contested but which he won. He also became an accomplished trial lawyer, was elected the Douglas County attorney, and acted as the county attorney for Pope County. As was typically the case at that time, Nelson's legal work on land issues got him involved in political issues. He became a champion for the economic development of the Upper Country through the introduction of the railroad.

Minnesota state senator[link]

The so-called "Aaker faction" within the Upper County Republican party found in Nelson a capable politician, with connections to the immigrant community, experience in land-office issues, and political background in Wisconsin. He was put forward as a Republican candidate for the Minnesota Senate in 1874, running against banker Francis Bennett Van Hoesen, who was aligned with the Grange movement and state Anti-Monopoly Party. Though Nelson did not get unanimous support from his Norwegian-American constituency, he carried 59 percent of the vote and four out of five counties in his constituency.

Nelson's first challenge in the state senate - whether to re-elect Alexander Ramsey to the United States Senate for a third term, was contentious, as it was against the wishes of governor Cushman Davis. Nelson was caught between his allegiance to the Douglas County Republicans, who were staunch Davis supporters; and his land office constituency, who favored the incumbent. Nelson voted for Ramsey, the dark-horse candidate William D. Washburn, and finally for the victor, Samuel J. R. McMillan.

Nelson spent more time on the issue of extending the railroad infrastructure into the Upper Country. His constituents elected him in large part to resolve the gridlock that prevented the completion of the railroad extension from St. Cloud west to Alexandria and beyond. The railroad company, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (SP&P), had run out of funds to complete the St. Vincent extension, and the bondholders were unwilling to invest further. The Minnesota legislature agreed on the need for the railroad but were not in a position to pay for its completion.

In 1875, Nelson introduced a bill – the Upper Country bill – that gave SP&P added incentives in the form of land to complete the line, but also imposed a deadline after which the rights to build the railroad were forfeited, presumably in favor of Northern Pacific, whose plans would bypass Alexandria. The bill met with controversy from both sides of the issue and was ultimately amended to the point that Nelson first sought to table it, and then abstained from voting on it. The bill was enacted and was considered a success in its time, with most of the credit going to Nelson.

It took several years for the various financial and political matters to be sorted out for the railroad, and Nelson played an active role throughout, both as an elected official, attorney, and businessman. He secured rights-of-way for virtually the entire line from Alexandria to Fergus Falls, negotiating with many stakeholders for every tract of land. This proved to be an all-consuming effort for several years, though he did run unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of Minnesota in 1879.

In May 1877, he was overcome with personal tragedy: three of his five children died during a diphtheria epidemic. The two oldest children, Ida and Henry, survived.

In November 1878, the train finally reached Alexandria, thanks in large part to Nelson's close working relationship with James J. Hill. Several towns in Minnesota were founded as a result of these efforts, including Nelson and Ashby.

National politics[link]

Nelson was invited to deliver the "oration of the day" at the United States Centennial on July 4, 1876, in Alexandria, exactly 27 years after he had immigrated to the United States. The "unimpassioned" speech sought to reinforce an American identity and made no mention of his immigrant roots. It coincided with his campaign for U.S. representative from Minnesota's third district in Congress.

By then, Nelson had developed the strategy of orchestrating a "bottoms-up" campaign in which he would quietly enlist supporters to publicly encourage him to run, only to appear reluctant about the candidacy. His constituency in the frontier in the Upper Country put him at a disadvantage with respect to the rivaling Twin Cities. After having flexed his political muscle by "bolting" from the campaign for a few weeks, he put his support behind the Republican nomination of Jacob Stewart, a medical doctor from St. Paul, who won the election against the Democrat William McNair. This endorsement did not get backed by the Norwegian-American community. They were concerned about Stewart's association with the Know Nothing Party and the apparent rise of a ruling class in society.

The battle for the "Bloody Fifth"[link]

As a result of the 1880 census, the United States Congress decided to allocate one new congressional seat to the Upper Country, creating the Fifth Minnesota District. Nelson entered the race for this seat quietly, first securing a seat on the Board of Regents at the University of Minnesota, where he also managed to establish a Department of Scandinavian Atudies.

The campaign opened in 1882 and quickly devolved into one of the most contentious elections in history at that point. The contest between Nelson and Charles F. Kindred for the "Bloody Fifth," as it became known, involved graft, intimidation, and election fraud at every turn. The Republican convention on July 12 in Detroit Lakes was compared to the Battle of the Boyne in Northern Ireland. 150 delegates fought over 80 seats, and after a scuffle in the main conference center, the Kindred and Nelson campaigns nominated each of their candidates.^[6]

The rivalry between Kindred and Nelson centered to a large extent on the two competing railroads in the Upper Country, the Northern Pacific in Kindred's corner and the Great Northern in Nelson's. Kindred ended up spending between $150,000 and $200,000, but Nelson won handily, overcoming massive election fraud in Northern Pacific counties.

U.S. House of Representatives, 1883–1889[link]

A statue of Nelson stands in front of the Minnesota State Capitol

Nelson served in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1883 to March 4, 1889 in the 48th, 49th, and 50th congresses. In keeping with practices of the Gilded Age, Nelson's first agenda item in Congress was to ensure patronage for his supporters in Minnesota by doling out the limited number of federal appointments available. Most were made through Paul C. Sletten, the Receiver of the U.S. Land Office in Crookston. In addition to rewarding political support, he replaced pro-Kindred appointees in the forested counties around the Northern Pacific Railroad, the so-called "Pineries." Particularly publicized was the firing of Søren Listoe as the Register of the U.S. Land Office in Fergus Falls.

Nelson was frustrated by what he perceived as the lack of effectiveness in the House. He got involved in long debates about pension issues for Civil War veterans, but his most notable legacy as a representative was in passing the 1889 Nelson Act. It created the White Earth Indian Reservation as a place to consolidate Native Americans from other reservations in the state, which opened up thousands of acres of land for sale to immigrants, at the expense of Native Americans.

Considering his time in the House a "personal failure," Nelson decided not to seek reelection in 1888. Some suspect that his narrow escape from a drowning accident on October 11, 1886 also played a role in increasing his ambition.

Governor of Minnesota, 1893–1895[link]

Though Nelson claimed to retire from politics, he remained an active insider in Minnesota Republican politics. In 1890 he started showing interest in a gubernatorial candidacy. Meanwhile, he resumed an active law practice from Alexandria, continued running his farm, and opened a hardware store.

Increasing pressure on the Minnesotan agricultural economy gave rise to the Farmers' Alliance, which became a formidable political force within both parties, but especially the Republican party. In 1890, the alliance voted to run its own candidates, and suggested nominating Nelson. In the Minnesota alliance convention in July 1890, Nelson did not acknowledge interest from the delegates, which ended up nominating Sidney M. Owen as their candidate. But after the Alliance made a strong showing in the 1890 legislative election, Nelson was perceived by Republicans as a strong alternative to the Alliance in the Upper Country.

Nelson worked to strengthen his candidacy for governor, though historians suggest that his ultimate goal was the U.S. Senate. He arranged to be drafted as a candidate rather than actively pursuing office. Appointed officeholder fearing the loss of patronage to Alliance political victories were glad to support him. Appealing to the Republican need for unity at the convention, he maneuvered to gain the support of rivals such as Davis and Washburn, or at least avoid their opposition. He was unanimously nominated by 709 delegates as the Republican candidate for governor on July 28, 1892 in the St. Paul People's Church. His acceptance speech was a libertarian broadside against both Democrats and Populists; it emboldened the delegates for the election campaign.^[7]

The ensuing campaign against the Democratic nominee Daniel Lawler and Populist Ignatius Donnelly centered on allegations of undue influence by railroad interests, tariffs, and ethnicity and patriotism. When Nelson took the campaign to northwestern Minnesota, he had a minor physical altercation with Tobias Sawby, a local populist. After a grueling campaign, he carried 51 of 80 counties with 42.6% (109,220) of the votes against Lawler's 37% and Donnelly's 15.6%. He gave a short victory speech in Alexandria, saying "I go in without having made any promises to any combine, corporation, or person, and shall endeavor to do right, because it is right, and I endeavor to give an administration for the people, for the people, and by the people."

As governor, Nelson had significant limitations on his ability to pursue his outlined policy. The balance of power in Minnesota was shared among five independently elected officials, the state legislature, and the governor. In his inaugural speech on January 4, 1893, he presented himself as a fiscal conservative with an affinity for education and he dwelled on statistics related to various state services and for solutions.

Nelson used his governorship as a bully pulpit for modest Republican reforms intended to provide more moderate alternatives to the radical Populist actions. He promoted the "Governor's Grain Bill" as a way to regulate trade in grain, specifically by giving the Railroad and Warehouse Commission the authority to license, inspect, and regulate country grain elevators. The Republican members of the legislature supported it as well, going so far as making it a party measure. Opposition to the bill from Democrats and Populists were based on suspicion against the railroad commission. The bill went through two rounds of voting with considerable horse trading but in the end won narrowly, giving Nelson credibility as a political force.

Nelson also ended up cooperating with his former adversary, Ignatius Donnelly, on the "timber ring" investigation; it sought to put an end to land claim fraud in lumber areas. Nelson convened an interstate Anti-Trust Conference in Chicago on June 5, 1893, where he spoke against the lumber trust and in favor of strengthening the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890.

The Panic of 1893 created a crisis for the railroad companies. After a series of wage cuts by the Great Northern, the American Railway Union went on strike on April 13. Nelson sought to suggest the parties engage in arbitration while demanding law and order from the strikers. He left enforcement to Federal marshals and the arbitration to private business leaders. The strike was resolved largely in favor of the workers, and Nelson survived untarnished.

He was renominated handily for the 1894 campaign, when he ran against the Populist Sidney Owen and Democrat George Becker. He projected the image of a systematic and scientific reformer compared to such populist speakers as Mary Ellen Lease and Jerry Simpson. He demonstrated hands-on leadership in the dry summer of 1894, when the Great Hinckley Fire spread across east-central Minnesota on September 1. Although the state did not have the financial means to provide direct support, Nelson used his office to encourage private relief efforts. He won the election with 60,000 votes more than Owen.^[8]

United States Senator, 1895–1923[link]

Nelson vs. Washburn[link]

Sketch portrait of Nelson as Senator-elect

Nelson's campaign for election to the United States Senate was reported to have begun early in 1894. It was conducted quietly and behind the scenes, to avoid the appearance that his bid for governorship was less than genuine, and also to avoid an internal Republican feud with the incumbent US senator William D. Washburn. Before the 17th Amendment went into effect in 1914, U.S. senators were elected by their state legislatures. Nelson's campaign for Minnesota's second Senate seat was a "still hunt," consisting of building support among incoming legislators while letting Washburn think that he was running unopposed for the Republican nomination.

Sensing Nelson's rising star in the Republican establishment, Washburn tried on the one hand to obtain unequivocal assurance from Nelson that he was not in the race for the Senate; while solidifying his standing as the Minneapolis candidate. On September 21, 1894, the two candidates met at the Freeborn county fair in Albert Lea, where Nelson was asked directly whether he supported Washburn's candidacy or had his own designs for the Senate seat. He reportedly advised the state legislature to "...elect your Republican legislative ticket, so as to send my friend Washburn back the United States senate, or if you do not like him, send some other good Republican."

Nelson's strategy was to prevent Washburn from gaining a straightforward majority in either the nomination or the election in the Republican caucus, and to appear as a unifying choice for the Republicans. He had to strike a fine balance between appealing to Scandinavian ethnic pride on the one hand and showing himself a true American on the other; between the appearance of treachery against Washburn and maintaining an honest impression.

The campaign came to a head in the so-called "Three Week War," or "Hotel Campaign" that was in full force by January 5, 1895. The confrontations, lobbying, cajoling, and alleged bribery centered around the Windsor and Merchants hotels in St. Paul. Legislators were unnerved by the campaign, and the outcome remained uncertain. Return visits to their constituencies in mid-January did little to clarify public opinion. Public meetings with "wirepullers" had similarly little effect.

Nelson's strength became apparent but was not yet decisive on January 18 when the Republicans caucused. Washburn fell well short of reaching the necessary 72 votes to nominate, and a number of erstwhile supporters fell to Nelson on the second ballot. By the time the election went to the full legislature, it was clear that Washburn had lost. On January 23 Nelson was elected to the United States Senate, the first Scandinavian-born American to reach this post. Exhausted from the campaign, Washburn called for direct, popular elections of senators. It is remembered as one of the bitterest elections in Minnesota political history.

Washburn was perceived as a wealthy, urban, aristocratic native Yankee from Maine compared to Nelson as the hard-working immigrant from the Upper Country. Nelson's victory reinforced the growing influence of Minnesota outside the Twin Cities, and it strengthened political awareness by ethnic Scandinavians in the region. Nelson decided early to make this image his platform, asking his constituency to call him Uncle Knute.

First Senate term[link]

The 54th United States Congress did not convene until December 1895, and though Nelson was impatient about getting to work, he spent the recess traveling and working on his farm. He also translated the Constitution of Norway to English and studied the Free Silver issue. This was the subject of his first Senate speech, on December 31, 1895, when he advocated a paper currency.

Nelson maintained – as he would throughout his career – a strong anti-Populist, though pragmatic profile. His most important first term accomplishment is probably the Nelson Bankruptcy Law intended to give farmers the means to enter into voluntary, as opposed to forced bankruptcy by creditors. He positioned this as an alternative to the Judiciary Committee that was much harsher to debtors. Although he championed the bill for its own merits, it also gave him an opportunity to disassociate himself from his background as an attorney, and also build favor with his agricultural constituency. After 18 months of painstaking negotiations, Nelson managed to get the bill passed by Congress on June 24, 1898. Filing bankruptcy would be known for some time afterwards as "taking the Nelson cure."

If Nelson had shown his independent instincts in the bankruptcy law, he toed the party line in his position on the Spanish-American War, where he enthusiastically supported the war effort. He got embroiled in a bitter debate on the Senate floor on the issue of annexing the Philippines and Hawaii. He and one of the authors of the treaty, senior Minnesota senator, Cushman Davis, voted with the majority in ratifying the Treaty of Paris, and is often quoted for saying that:

"Providence has given the United States the duty of extending Christian civilization. We come as ministering angels, not despots."

Return to Norway[link]

Nelson in Voss, Norway.

Nelson always took care in public to define himself first and foremost as an American, with no conflicted loyalty to his birth country. But in the background he had supported Norway in various ways, and notably in inviting Norwegian officers to observe and learn from American tactics in Cuba. He had been planning a trip to Norway for some time, but made sure he would visit Sweden and Denmark, emphasizing his Scandinavian-American background.

He traveled alone and made his home town of Evanger one of the first stops. He arrived at the village in a horse-drawn buggy with only his luggage and was received as an honored guest. He spoke in his native dialect of Vossemål, slipping only into Riksmål only when he felt it necessary to make an important political point. His hosts quickly started addressing him in the familiar "du Knut," which he appeared to enjoy.

From his birth town of Evanger, Nelson traveled on to Kristiania, where he refused official honors, and to Stockholm, where he made even less fuss. He spent a week in Copenhagen, visiting with his own patronage appointees Laurits Swenson, U.S. ambassador to Denmark and Søren Listoe, consul to Rotterdam. He had an audience with King Christian IX and a formal dinner hosted by Swenson. He traveled through the contentious area of Schleswig-Holstein and the site of the Battle of Waterloo.

He traveled home via England and happened to be in the visitors' gallery in the British parliament on October 17 when Queen Victoria had convened an extraordinary session to debate the Second Boer War.

The 1900–1902 reelection campaign[link]

Owing, once again, to his being elected by the state legislature, Nelson's campaign for reelection in 1902 actually started with the election for the Minnesota state legislature in 1900. His strategy was to align himself with celebrated national leaders, especially Theodore Roosevelt and Robert M. LaFollette as they swung through the state campaigning for William McKinley. Nelson was known more for thoroughness than charisma in his campaigns, but contributed significantly to the Republican success that year. As it turned out, Nelson's son Henry Knute Nelson was elected to the Minnesota state legislature that year. Nelson's reelection to a second U.S. Senate term was assured for all practical purposes. The campaign continued into 1902, when Nelson made a name for himself by commandeering a handcar when his train broke down east of Hibbing, Minnesota, making his own way to Wolf Junction, Minnesota at a brisk pace.

Up until that point, Nelson's political career was largely based on the issues of an unfolding economic frontier, with land development, immigration, and Gilded Age dynamics. With the birth of the Progressive Era, the winds of reform started blowing more from the east than the west, and urban issues came more to the forefront. As a result, Nelson had to reinvent his political strategy.

In the cross-winds of the political movements of the time, he chose a largely "moderate progressive" profile, accepting government intervention on some issues (e.g., anti-trust matters) but opposed anything that smacked of socialism. He eased up on patronage as a political tool and focused instead on helping his constituents in matters small and large, often invoking the image of himself as a "drayhorse" – a hard-working, persistent advocate for the things and people he believed in.

Territories and statehood[link]

This section requires expansion.

While in the Senate, Nelson was involved in the creation of the Department of Commerce and Labor, the passage of the Nelson Bankruptcy Act in 1898, and serving on the Overman Committee from 1918 to 1919. He served in the senate in the 54th, 55th, 56th, 57th, 58th, 59th, 60th, 61st, 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 65th, 66th, and 67th congresses. He served in the Senate until his death in 1923 enroute by train from Washington, D.C. to his hometown of Alexandria, Minnesota, where he was buried.

While debating the Treaty of Paris (1898) on the senate floor, Nelson said: "Providence has given the United States the duty of extending Christian civilization. We come as ministering angels, not despots."

See also[link]

• Knute Nelson Memorial Park

References[link]

• Minnesota Legislators Past and Present
• Biographical information and his gubernatorial records are available for research use at the Minnesota Historical Society.

• Gieske, Millard L; [|Keillor, Steven J.] (1995), Norwegian Yankee: Knute Nelson and the Failure of American Politics 1860–1923, Northfield, Minnesota: The Norwegian-American Historical Association, ISBN 0-87732-083-7 
• Zeidel, Robert F. (2002), "Knute Nelson and the Immigration Question", in Aby, Anne, The North Star State: a Minnesota history reader, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, p. 376, http://shop.mnhs.org/moreinfomhspress.cfm?Product_ID=138 

External links[link]

• Knute Nelson at Minnesota Legislators Past & Present
• Knute Nelson at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

v t e Governors of Minnesota Territorial (1849–1858) Ramsey Gorman Medary State (since 1858) Sibley Ramsey Swift Miller Marshall Austin Davis Pillsbury Hubbard McGill Merriam Nelson Clough Lind Van Sant Johnson Eberhart Hammond Burnquist Preus Christianson Olson Petersen Benson Stassen Thye Youngdahl E. Anderson Freeman Andersen Rolvaag LeVander W. Anderson Perpich Quie Perpich Carlson Ventura Pawlenty Dayton

v t e United States Senators from Minnesota Class 1 Rice Ramsey McMillan Davis Towne Clapp Kellogg Shipstead Thye McCarthy H. Humphrey M. Humphrey Durenberger Grams Dayton Klobuchar Class 2 Shields Wilkinson Norton Windom Stearns Windom Edgerton Windom Sabin Washburn K. Nelson Johnson Schall Benson Howard Lundeen Ball A. Nelson Ball H. Humphrey Mondale Anderson Boschwitz Wellstone Barkley Coleman Franken

v t e Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chase • Crittenden • Burrill • Smith • Van Buren • Berrien • Rowan • Marcy • Wilkins • Clayton • Grundy • Wall • Berrien • Ashley • Butler • Bayard • Trumbull • Edmunds • Thurman • Edmunds • Hoar • Pugh • Hoar • Platt • Clark • Culberson • Nelson • Brandegee • Cummins • Norris • Ashurst • Van Nuys • McCarran • Wiley • McCarran • Langer • Kilgore • Eastland • Kennedy • Thurmond • Biden • Hatch • Leahy • Hatch • Leahy • Hatch • Specter • Leahy

Knute Rockne
Sport(s)	Football
Biographical details
Born	(1888-03-04)March 4, 1888 Voss, Norway
Died	March 31, 1931(1931-03-31) (aged 43) Bazaar, Kansas
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1918–1930	Notre Dame
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1920–1930	Notre Dame
Head coaching record
Overall	105–12–5
Bowls	1–0
Statistics College Football Data Warehouse
Accomplishments and honors
Championships 3 National (1924, 1929–1930)
College Football Hall of Fame Inducted in 1951 (profile)

Knute Kenneth Rockne ( /kəˈnuːt/ kə-NOOT; March 4, 1888 – March 31, 1931) was an American football player and coach, both at the University of Notre Dame. He is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in college football history.^[1] His biography at the College Football Hall of Fame calls him "without question, American football's most-renowned coach." A Norwegian American, he was educated as a chemist at the University of Notre Dame. He popularized the forward pass and made Notre Dame a major factor in collegiate football.

Early life[link]

Knute Rockne was born Knut Larsen Rokne in Voss, Norway to the smith and wagonmaker Lars Knutson Rokne (1858–1912) and his wife Martha Pedersdatter Gjermo (1859–1944). He emigrated with his parents at five years old to Chicago.^[2] He grew up in the Logan Square area of Chicago, on the northwest side of the city. Rockne learned to play football in his neighborhood and later played end in a local group called the Logan Square Tigers. He attended North West Division High School in Chicago playing football and also running track.

After Rockne graduated from high school, he took a job as a mail dispatcher with the Chicago Post Office for four years. When he was 22, he had saved enough money to continue his education. He headed to Notre Dame in Indiana to finish his schooling. Rockne excelled as a football end while at the university, winning All-American honors in 1913. He also helped to transform the collegiate game in a single contest. On November 1, 1913, the Notre Dame squad stunned the highly-regarded Army team 35–13 in a game played at West Point. Led by quarterback Charlie "Gus" Dorais and Rockne, the Notre Dame team attacked the Cadets with an offense that featured both the expected powerful running game but also long and accurate downfield forward passes from Dorais to Rockne. This game was not the "invention" of the forward pass but it was the first major contest in which a team used the forward pass regularly throughout the game.

He graduated from Notre Dame in 1914 with a degree in pharmacy. After graduating he was the laboratory assistant to noted polymer chemist Julius Arthur Nieuwland at Notre Dame and helped out with the football team, but rejected further work in chemistry after receiving an offer to coach football.

Notre Dame coach[link]

Portions of this section are adapted from Murray Sperber's book Shake Down The Thunder: The Creation of Notre Dame Football

During 13 years as head coach, Rockne led his "Fighting Irish" to 105 victories, 12 losses, five ties, and three national championships, including five undefeated seasons without a tie. Rockne posted the highest all-time winning percentage (.881) for an American football coach, college or professional. His players included George 'Gipper' Gipp, the "Four Horsemen" (Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden), Frank Thomas, Frank Leahy, Curly Lambeau, Jack Chevigny, and Johnny O'Brien.

Rockne introduced the "shift", with the backfield lining up in a T formation and then quickly shifting into a box to the left or right just as the ball was snapped. Rockne was also shrewd enough to recognize that intercollegiate sports had a show-business aspect. Thus he worked hard promoting Notre Dame football so as to make it financially successful. He used his considerable charm to court favor from the media, which then consisted of newspapers, wire services and radio stations and networks, to obtain free advertising for Notre Dame football. He was very successful as an advertising pitchman, for South Bend-based Studebaker and other products.

For all his success, Rockne also made what an Associated Press writer called "one of the greatest coaching blunders in history."^[3] Instead of coaching his 1926 team against Carnegie Tech, Rockne traveled to Chicago for the Army–Navy Game to "write newspaper articles about it, as well as select an All-America football team."^[3] Carnegie Tech used the coach's absence as motivation for a 19–0 win; the upset likely cost the Irish a chance for a national title.^[3]

On November 10, 1928, when the "Fighting Irish" team was losing to undefeated Army 6-0 at the end of the half, Rockne entered the locker room and told the team the words he heard on Gipp's deathbed in 1920: "I've got to go, Rock. It's all right. I'm not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are going wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock. But I'll know about it, and I'll be happy." This inspired the team, who tied Army 6-6 in the third quarter with senior Jack Chevigny's, "that's one for the Gipper" touchdown and sophomore Johnny "one play" O'brien's 12-6 game winning touchdown with three minutes left to play. Obrien would be killed in an auto accident in 1937 and Chevigny would be killed in action on Iwo Jima in 1945.

Plane crash[link]

Rockne died in a plane crash in Kansas on March 31, 1931, while en route to participate in the production of the film The Spirit of Notre Dame. Shortly after taking off from Kansas City, where he had stopped to visit his two sons, Bill and Knute Jr., who were in boarding school there at the Pembroke-Country Day School, one of the Fokker Trimotor aircraft's wings separated in flight. The plane crashed into a wheat field near Bazaar, Kansas, killing Rockne and seven others.^[4] President Herbert Hoover called Rockne's death "a national loss."^[5] A personal envoy represented King Haakon VII of Norway at Rockne's funeral.

On the spot where the plane crashed, a memorial dedicated to the victims stands surrounded by a wire fence with wooden posts; it was maintained for many years by James Easter Heathman, who, at age thirteen in 1931, was one of the first people to arrive at the site of the tragedy.^[5]

Rockne was buried in Highland Cemetery in South Bend.

Legacy[link]

Knute Rockne bronze sculpture in Voss, Norway.

Rockne was not the first coach to use the forward pass, but he helped popularize it nationally. Most football historians agree that a few schools, notably Saint Louis University (under coach Eddie Cochems), Michigan, Carlisle and Minnesota, had passing attacks in place before Rockne arrived at Notre Dame. The great majority of passing attacks, however, consisted solely of short pitches and shovel passes to stationary receivers. Additionally, few of the major eastern teams that constituted the power center of college football at the time used the pass. In the summer of 1913, while he was a lifeguard on the beach at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, Rockne and his college teammate and roommate Gus Dorais worked on passing techniques. These were employed in games by the 1913 Notre Dame squad and subsequent Harper- and Rockne-coached teams and included many features common in modern passing, including having the passer throw the ball overhand and having the receiver run under a football and catch the ball in stride. That fall, Notre Dame upset heavily favored Army, 35-13, at West Point thanks to a barrage of Dorais-to-Rockne long downfield passes. The game played an important role in displaying the potency of the forward pass and "open offense" and convinced many coaches to add pass plays to their play books. The game is dramatized in the movie The Long Gray Line.

Memorials and tributes[link]

Memorial plaque to Knute Rockne in his birth town of Voss, Norway

• Notre Dame memorializes him in the Knute Rockne Memorial Building, an athletic facility built in 1937, as well as the main football stadium.^[6]
• His name appears on streets in South Bend and in Stevensville, Michigan (where Rockne had a summer home) and a travel plaza on the Indiana Toll Road.
• The Matfield Green travel plaza on the Kansas Turnpike, near Bazaar, contains a memorial to him.
• Allentown Central Catholic High School in Allentown, Pennsylvania dedicated its gymnasium, Rockne Hall, to Knute Rockne.
• Taylorville, Illinois, dedicated the street next to the football field as "Knute Rockne Road".
• The town of Rockne, Texas was named to honor him. In 1931 the children of Sacred Heart School were given the opportunity to name their town. A vote was taken, with the children electing to name the town after Rockne, who had died in a plane crash earlier that year. On March 10, 1988, Rockne opened its post office for one day, during which a Knute Rockne twenty-two-cent commemorative stamp was issued. A life size bust of Rockne was unveiled on March 4, 2006.
  

  

  Knute Rockne memorial on the Kansas Turnpike.
• The Studebaker automobile company of South Bend marketed the Rockne automobile between 1931 and 1933. It was a separate product line of Studebaker and priced in the low cost market segment.

• Symphonic composer Ferde Grofe composed a musical suite in Rockne's honor shortly after the coach's death.

• In 1940, actor Pat O'Brien portrayed Rockne in the Warner Brothers film Knute Rockne, All American in which Rockne used the phrase "win one for the Gipper" in reference to the death bed request of George Gipp, played by Ronald Reagan.

• Rockne was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951 as a charter member and in the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.

• In 1988, the United States Postal Service honored Rockne with a 22 cent postage stamp in his honor.^[7] President Ronald Reagan, who played George Gipp in the movie "Knute Rockne, All American", gave an address at the Athletic & Convocation Center at the University of Notre Dame on March 9, 1988, and officially unveiled the Rockne stamp.

• A biographical musical of Rockne's life premiered at the Theatre at the Center in Munster, Indiana, on April 3, 2008. The musical is based on a play and mini-series by Buddy Farmer.^[8]

Personal life[link]

Rockne was married to Bonnie Gwendoline Skiles (December 18, 1891 – June 2, 1956), the daughter of George Skiles and Huldah Dry. They had four children. He converted from the Lutheran to the Roman Catholic faith in 1923.

Head coaching record[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Sherry C. M. Lindquist. "Memorializing Knute Rockne at the University of Notre Dame: Collegiate Gothic Architecture and Institutional Identity," Winterthur Portfolio (Spring 2012), 46#1 pp 1-24. DOI: 10.1086/665045
• Ray Robinson, Rockne of Notre Dame: The Making of a Football Legend (1999)
• Murray Sperber, Shake Down the Thunder: The Creation of Notre Dame Football (1993)
• Norsk Biografisk leksikon (NBL)
• Jeff Walker, "The Last Chalkline: The Life&Times of Jack Chevigny", 2012

External links[link]

	American football portal
	Norway portal
	Biography portal

• The Official Knute Rockne Web Site – Hosted by CMG Worldwide, and endorsed by Rockne grandson Nils Rockne
• Knute Rockne at the College Football Hall of Fame
• Knute Rockne at the College Football Data Warehouse
• Knute Rockne at Find a Grave

Ron Adams is an American basketball coach.

Adams has held coaching positions with Fresno Pacific University, UC Santa Barbara, Fresno State University, UNLV, the San Antonio Spurs, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Chicago Bulls, and the Oklahoma City Thunder.^[1] He has also coached professional basketball in Belgium, consulted and coached with the Canadian national basketball program, in Japan with two clubs, and with the Belgian Basketball Federation.

In late June 2010, Adams left his assistant coaching position with the Thunder to take a similar position with the Chicago Bulls under new coach Tom Thibodeau.^[2]

On September 19, 2011, Adams was inducted into the Fresno Pacific University Athletic Hall of Fame. Adams played basketball at Fresno Pacific (1965-69) and began his coaching career there as well (1969-74).^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

• NBA.com profile
• Ron Adams Joins Bulls Staff

This biographical article relating to a United States basketball coach is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e