ANDREW GRINDELAND:
An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society
Manuscripts Collection
OVERVIEW
| Creator: | Grindeland, Andrew, 1856-1932. | |
| Title: | Law office correspondence. | |
| Dates: | 1885-1932 (bulk 1895-1928). | |
| Language: | Materials in English and Norwegian. | |
| Abstract: | Correspondence and letterpress books of a Warren, Minnesota, attorney, land dealer, and state district court judge, relating especially to his law practice (1882-), judgeship (1903-1930), and real estate business in the Red River Valley. Includes some personal and family correspondence, and letters concerned with Republican Party politics and Norwegian-American Lutheran church affairs. | |
| Quantity: | 4.2 cubic feet (5 boxes). | |
| Location: | See Detailed Description section for shelf locations. |
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Andrew Grindeland was born Nov. 20, 1856 in Highlandville, Iowa. He was the son of Ingebright and Lucie (Hattlestad) Grindeland, immigrants from Norway. Andrew attended Decorah (Iowa) Institute (1874-1876), taught school (1877), and earned a law degree from the State University of Iowa, Iowa City (1882).
He moved to Warren, Minnesota in July 1882, where he established a law practice specializing in collection, probate work, and real estate matters, and engaged in the sale of real estate. By 1902 he was joined in his practice by attorney Julius J. Olson. He was also at that time in the real estate and farm loan business with C. J. Forsberg under the name of Grindeland & Forsberg.
Grindeland was elected to the Minnesota state senate, where he represented Minnesota's 63rd district (1899-1903). He ran unsuccessfully in 1902 for the Republican nomination in the race for the 9th district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. On March 24, 1903 he was appointed a judge in Minnesota's 14th judicial district, joining judge William Watts of Crookston, Minnesota on the bench. He was elected to a six-year term in 1904, and was re-elected several times, continuing in the office until retiring in 1930 because of poor health. The 14th district was at that time composed of Polk, Norman, Red Lake, Marshall, Kittson, and Roseau counties.
Grindeland was a member of the Warren city council; president of the Warren school board (1897); judge of probate in Marshall County (1899-1890); and a member of the State Normal School Board (1895-1898). He was a director of the State Bank of Warren, Grand Forks College, the Warren Hospital Association, and the Marshall County Agricultural Association; president of the Warren Commercial Club (1907); and a member of the executive committtee of the Marshall County Good Roads Association. He was a member of the Minnesota Republican State Central Committee (1900), and president of the Seventh Congressional District affiliate of the State Republican League of Minnesota (1900). Church-related activities included memberships on the boards of trustees of the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (1926), St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minn.), and Luther College (Decorah, Iowa).
Andrew Grindeland married Inger (or Ingrid) Forde (d.1947) on October 5, 1882. They had several children, including daughters Clarice, Louise, and Synneva, and son Ingolf.
Grindeland died at Warren of a heart attack on October 28, 1932.
SCOPE AND CONTENTS
The collection is perhaps most valuable for the extent to which it illustrates the workings of a small-town law practice in the Red River Valley between about 1895 and 1910. The material was received by the Minnesota Historical Society in total disarray, and the chronological and topical organizational scheme that now exists was created by the cataloger. Correspondence for the early years of Grindeland's practice is completely lacking.
The bulk of the material (3.7 cubic feet) consists of Grindeland's law office correspondence ("Legal Correspondence"), most of it incoming letters dealing with debt collection, land deals, probate, divorces, and other legal casework. Intermingled with it from 1903 on is correspondence related to his judgeship; Grindeland's law practice and/or land business apparently continued after his appointment to the 14th district bench in early 1903. The lettters give little specific information about individual cases.
There is one box (0.8 cubic feet) of personal and family ("Other") correspondence, and correspondence related to some of Grindeland's political, civic, business, and church-related interests and activities, including four folders (0.2 cubic feet) of untranslated letters in the Norwegian language. There are some additional personal and family letters to be found among the legal correspondence.
ARRANGEMENT
These documents are organized into the following sections:
| Legal correspondence. | ||
| Other correspondence. |
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Availability:
The collection is open for research use.
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Andrew Grindeland Law Office Correspondence. Minnesota Historical Society.
See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.
Accession Information:
Accession number: 15,669; 17,453
Processing Information:
Processed by: David B. Peterson, November 2001.
Catalog ID number: 001737299
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
LEGAL CORRESPONDENCE
Consists primarily of letters pertaining to land transactions, the collection of bad debts and loans, and to litigation and cases before the courts. There are also letters relating to local postmaster appointments, parole hearings, divorce cases, judicial ditches, and to political matters. There are no court documents or official records. Correspondents include Grindeland's clients, fellow attorneys and judges, legislators and government officials, real estate brokers, prison officials, convicts and their families, creditors and collection agencies seeking Grindeland's services, small-town newspaper publishers, and friends and political associates.
| Box | |||||||||||||
| 147.G.11.7B | 1 | Correspondence: Law Practice Years: | |||||||||||
| Foldered correspondence consists mainly of incoming letters. | |||||||||||||
| Undated and 1891-1892, 1894-1901. 17 folders. | |||||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||||
| 147.G.11.8F | 2 | 1902. 4 folders. | |||||||||||
| Correspondence: Judgeship Years: | |||||||||||||
| 1903-1909. 16 folders. | |||||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||||
| 147.G.11.9B | 3 | 1910-1914, 1917, 1919. 6 folders. | |||||||||||
| 1925-1928. 9 folders. | |||||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||||
| 147.G.11.10F | 4 | Letterpress Books: | |||||||||||
| Mainly copies of Grindeland's outgoing letters. This is essentially more of the same sort of material as found in foldered correspondence above. | |||||||||||||
| Nov. 11, 1901-Sept. 19, 1902. | |||||||||||||
| June 1, 1904-Feb. 14, 1906. | |||||||||||||
| March 19, 1906-Oct. 30, 1907. | |||||||||||||
| Oct. 31, 1907-Aug. 9, 1910. | |||||||||||||
OTHER CORRESPONDENCE
Mainly incoming letters from Republican politicians and office holders at the state and national levels, Lutheran church officials, officials of the University of Iowa, Inger Grindeland, the Grindelands' children, and various relatives.
| Box | |||||||||||||
| 147.G.12.1B | 5 | Biographical and genealogical information, 1900-1907, 1932. | |||||||||||
| Church-related Correspondence: | |||||||||||||
| Lutheran colleges, 1914-1926. | |||||||||||||
| Lutheran Free Church, 1895, 1927. | |||||||||||||
| Norwegian Lutheran Church of America, 1925-1927. | |||||||||||||
| Miscellaneous correspondence, 1895-1927. | |||||||||||||
| Duluth & North Dakota Railroad Company (Drayton, N.D.), 1895-1897. | |||||||||||||
| Eriksson, Leonard, 1900-1907. | |||||||||||||
| Family Correspondence: | |||||||||||||
| Grindeland, Clarice, undated and 1914-1926. | |||||||||||||
| Andrew Grindeland's daughter. | |||||||||||||
| Grindeland, D. E., 1897-1908. | |||||||||||||
| Andrew Grindeland's brother. | |||||||||||||
| Grindeland, Ida, 1906-1908. | |||||||||||||
| Andrew Grindeland's niece at Highlandville, Iowa. | |||||||||||||
| Grindeland, Inger (Forde), 1895-1914. | |||||||||||||
| Andrew Grindeland's wife. | |||||||||||||
| Grindeland, Ingolf, 1911-1926. | |||||||||||||
| Andrew Grindeland's son. | |||||||||||||
| Grindeland, J. A., 1902-1908. | |||||||||||||
| Andrew Grindeland's cousin at Sherburne, Minnesota. | |||||||||||||
| Grindeland, Louise, undated and 1897-1906. | |||||||||||||
| Andrew Grindeland's daughter. | |||||||||||||
| Grindeland, Synneva, undated and 1897-1904. | |||||||||||||
| Andrew Grindeland's daughter. | |||||||||||||
| Miscellaneous correspondence, 1891-1914. | |||||||||||||
| Grand Forks College, 1906-1908. | |||||||||||||
| Hjort, Jacob L., 1900-1905. | |||||||||||||
| Tenor Hjort, of Minneapolis, was apparently a professional singer and voice teacher. He also taught "voice culture" at the Lutheran Ladies Seminary, Red Wing, Minnesota. | |||||||||||||
| Luther College Concert Band and Chorus, 1914. | |||||||||||||
| Minnesota Senate, 1899-1903. | |||||||||||||
| Correspondence related to Grindland's two terms in the Minnesota State Senate. | |||||||||||||
| Nelson, Knute, 1895-1914, 1926. | |||||||||||||
| Norwegian language letters (untranslated), 1885, 1894-1914, 1921, 1926. 4 folders. | |||||||||||||
| In Norwegian. | |||||||||||||
| Includes some legal correspondence, family letters, and correspondence with pastors and Lutheran church officials. These are nearly all letters from Norwegian-Americans in Minnesota and other midwestern states. | |||||||||||||
| Political Correspondence: | |||||||||||||
| Bixby, Tams, 1896, 1900. | |||||||||||||
| Eddy, Frank M., 1896-1901. | |||||||||||||
| Melgaard, H. L., 1896-1906. | |||||||||||||
| Republican State Central Committee, 1896-1914. | |||||||||||||
| Miscellaneous correspondence, 1896-1914. | |||||||||||||
| Quammen, Rev. A. G., 1900-1928. | |||||||||||||
| Red River Tidende Norwegian-language weekly newspaper (Crookston, Minn.), 1897. | |||||||||||||
| Society for the Friendless: Minnesota Division, 1912-1927. | |||||||||||||
| An organization established to care for, assist, and rehabilitate prisoners, and for the prevention and cure of crime. Grindeland was on the board of directors of the Minnesota division. | |||||||||||||
| State normal schools, 1895-1900. | |||||||||||||
| State University of Iowa, 1906-1926. | |||||||||||||
| Warren (Minn.) public schools, 1895-1906. | |||||||||||||
| Miscellaneous correspondence, 1895-1909, 1914, 1925-1927. 3 folders. | |||||||||||||
RELATED MATERIALS
CATALOG HEADINGS
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
- Topics:
- Agricultural credit -- Minnesota.
- Collecting of accounts.
- Elections -- Minnesota.
- Law offices -- Minnesota -- Warren.
- Legislators -- Minnesota.
- Litigation -- Minnesota.
- Lutherans, Norwegian -- Minnesota.
- Norwegian Americans -- Iowa.
- Norwegian Americans -- Minnesota.
- Political campaigns -- Minnesota.
- Practice of law -- Minnesota -- Warren.
- Real estate business -- Minnesota.
- State courts -- Minnesota.
- Places:
- Grand Forks (N.D.).
- Kittson County (Minn.).
- Marshall County (Minn.).
- Minnesota -- Politics and government -- 1898-1918.
- Minnesota -- Politics and government -- 1918-1945.
- Norman County (Minn.).
- Polk County (Minn.).
- Red Lake County (Minn.).
- Red River Valley (Minn. and N.D.-Man.).
- Roseau County (Minn.).
- Warren (Minn.).
- Persons:
- Eddy, Frank M. (Frank Marion), 1856-1929.
- Engstad, John E., 1858-1937.
- Forde family.
- Grindeland family.
- Hjort, Jacob L.
- Nelson, Knute, 1843-1923.
- Olson, Julius J., 1875-1955.
- Quammen, A. G.
- Watts, William, 1850-.
- Organizations:
- A. Grindeland (Firm : Warren, Minn.).
- Duluth & North Dakota Railroad Company (Drayton, N.D.).
- Grand Forks College (Grand Forks, N.D.).
- Grindeland & Forsberg (Firm : Warren, Minn.).
- Minnesota. District Court (14th Judicial District).
- Minnesota. Legislature. Senate.
- Norwegian Lutheran Church of America. Board of Trustees.
- Republican Party (Minn.). State Central Committee.
- Types of Documents:
- Letterpress copybooks.
- Occupations:
- Judges -- Minnesota.
- Lawyers -- Minnesota.
- Real estate agents -- Minnesota.
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