CHARLES L. GILMAN AND FAMILY:

Charles Lewis Gilman was a nationally recognized outdoors writer, poet, editor, outdoorsman, and firearms expert. The son of Samuel C. and Harriet Frances (Clark) Gilman, Charles was born June 22, 1882, in St. Cloud, Minnesota. He worked at the campus newspaper The Minnesota Daily while studying law at the University of Minnesota, graduating in 1905. Afterward he worked for a variety of Minneapolis-area publications, including the Minneapolis Evening Tribune, reporting on firearms and outdoors-related topics. He married musician Wilma H. Anderson in June 1907. In 1909 he became publisher-editor of The Open, a publication aimed at sportsmen of the Northwest. Suffering from health problems, he retreated to the northern woods in 1912, building a cabin on Sand Point Lake about 30 miles northeast of Orr, Minnesota. Gilman, his wife, and their daughter, Frances, and son, Clark, spent much of their time at the cabin prior to World War I. During this time his reputation as a writer grew as he wrote poems and articles on outdoors themes. His work included a column, “Forest, Stream and Target,” that first ran in The Minneapolis Daily News, then in The Minneapolis Star from 1912 to 1929 at least. He served in the army (1917-1920) with the rank of captain, winning his superiors’ praise as an instructor in machine gunnery at Camp Dodge, Iowa, and Fort Benning, Georgia. With failing mental health following the war, he spent much of his time at his northern Minnesota cabin, continuing to write for a variety of publications while also working in the Minnesota Department of Forestry. His family maintained a home in Minneapolis and came for visits with him periodically throughout the year. He died in a fire that destroyed his northern Minnesota cabin on December 10, 1930.

Wilma Hortense (Anderson) Gilman, was born July 9, 1881, in Burr Oak, Iowa, to Andrew E. and Lavina (Nichols) Anderson. In her youth, she studied piano in Brussels, Belgium, before returning to the United States to tour and perform. After marrying Charles Gilman in 1907, she made her home in Minneapolis. She became a piano and music instructor, teaching for the Minneapolis public school system, the McPhail School of Music, and the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan. She also adopted her husband’s interests, publishing articles about the outdoors in her own right. She died September 12, 1971.

Frances Wilma Gilman was born May 17, 1914, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Charles and Wilma Gilman. She spent much of her childhood outdoors with her family. Already practiced on the oboe, Frances began taking harp lessons in summer 1931 at her mother’s insistence. She attended the University of Minnesota, studying botany, zoology, and chemistry, and graduated in 1936. On August 21, 1937, after a nearly three-year courtship, she married George Dabney Gray Miller, Jr. (1911?-1945), of St. Paul. Following the marriage, Frances moved to California, where Miller was stationed with the Navy at the time. Eventually rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, Miller served in the Naval Air Transport Service during World War II. Exiting the service in October 1945, Miller worked as a pilot for Northwest Airlines. Miller died on December 8, 1945 during a snowstorm outside Billings, Montana when the transport plane he was piloting experienced mechanical failure. After her husband’s death, Frances refocused her attentions on the harp. She enjoyed an accomplished career as both instructor and performer (known professionally as Frances Miller). She married Grieg Aspnes (1912-2004) in 1950.

Samuel Charles Gilman was born to Lieutenant Governor Charles Andrew (1833-1927) and Hester (Cronk) Gilman (1838-1910) on January 31, 1859, in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. He attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Afterward, he helped lay out the Great Northern Railway and was recognized for this work when the town of Gilman, Montana, was named for him. He was married to Harriet F. Clark, either in 1880 or 1881. He died on January 10, 1896.

Harriet “Hattie” Frances Clark was born to Lewis and Harriet Ann (Corbett) Clark in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on May 27, 1860. She received her early education at Minneapolis’s Baldwin Seminary. She was married to Samuel C. Gilman, either in 1880 or 1881. Upon her husband’s death in 1896, she became involved in the Home and Foreign Missionary Societies of St. Cloud’s Presbyterian Church. She died on August 8, 1907, after an operation to remove a tumor.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Charles L. Gilman and Family Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 16,135

Processing Information:

Processed by: John Knauss, November 2007, and Christopher Welter, October 2008.

Catalog ID number: 990067092690104294

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Material covers Frances's first marriage, to George Miller, and includes his personal papers.

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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:

Journalism, Outdoor -- Minnesota.

Music -- Instruction and study.

Persons:

Aspnes, Frances Gilman Miller, 1914-

Gilman, Harriet Frances Clark.

Gilman, Samuel C.

Gilman, Wilma Anderson, 1881-1971.

Miller, George D., 1911?-1945.

Document Types:

Photographs.

Audiocassettes.

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