STEWART HORATIO GRAVES AND FAMILY:

Stewart Horatio Graves was born February 2, 1889 in Waseca, Minnesota, the son of Willis Alviro Graves and Emilie (Emily) Carlton (or Carleton). Willis Graves (1856-1920) was born in Pennsylvania, came to Minnesota in about 1875, and married Emilie Carlton (1857-1931) in 1881 in Winona. By the 1890s the family was living in St. Cloud, where Willis worked as a carpenter for the St. Cloud Manufacturing Company, a bobsled manufacturer. In about 1905-1907, after the company closed, they moved to the Rice area and soon purchased the farm near the village of Rice where they raised their children, Ethel (1883-1946), Edgar (1885-1930), Stewart (1889-1971), Irving (1890-1918), and Ruth (1893-1921). After Willis’ death, Edgar operated the farm until shortly before his death of heart disease on November 4, 1930.

Stewart lived much of his life on the family farm. He was graduated from West High School in Minneapolis and served for a time as chef with the Northern Pacific Railway. During World War I he served in France as a sergeant in Company E, 16th Railway Engineers, U.S. Expeditionary Forces. After the war he earned a degree from the William B. Mitchell School of Law in St. Paul (1921); worked as a lawyer in Minneapolis (circa 1922-1923) and for the Northern Pacific in Spokane, Washington and Mandan, North Dakota in 1924-1925; and for 15 years was associated with the State Reformatory, St. Cloud, as a guard and high school instructor. During World War II he served with construction forces in the Aleutian Islands. In his later years his anti-war sentiments were expressed in his writings and as a contributing member of the Peace Committee of the American Humanist Association.

During World War I, Stewart carried on an extensive wartime correspondence with Anne (later spelled Ann) Paulson, a young St. Paul schoolteacher. She was born April 28, 1894 in St. Paul, the daughter of Swedish immigrants Frank and Ingrid (Broberg) Paulson. They married in 1925 and raised three children: Ruth Ann, Irving, and Carlton. Anne was a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the American Association of University Women, and the League of Women Voters. Stewart died on June 1, 1971, in Little Falls, Minnesota, and Anne on February 26, 1985 in Sartell, Minnesota. After their son Carlton died in 1999, the family sold the farm to Benton County for development of a regional park.

Stewart’s brother Irving also served in France during World War I, as a member of the Signal Corps, and died of wounds on November 12, 1918. His sister Ethel Gertrude received a BA at the University of Minnesota and an MA at Colorado State College of Education. She was a faculty member of the St. Cloud Teachers College from 1918 until her retirement in 1945, and was also a member of the American Association of University Women, the League of Women Voters, and the Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom. She never married. Ruth Graves married Charles E. Crosby in November, 1918, moved with him to a farm near Rice, and died on April 28, 1921, apparently of complications from childbirth.

While serving in France, Company E took as its mascot an 8-year-old boy named Charles Monet, who had been frequenting their camp to beg for provisions for his destitute family. Stewart Graves adopted the boy and brought him to the United States, where he lived on the Graves farm for a few years, then in St. Cloud. He married Viola Lucille Mann in 1932 in Kasota, Minnesota, and they raised five children. They farmed for several years, after which he was employed at the St. Regis Paper mill in Sauk Rapids. He died in 1981 and Viola in 1998.

Biographical information was taken from the collection, including family death certificates and obituaries.

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Primarily letters exchanged between Stewart Horatio Graves and Anne Paulson while Graves was serving in France during World War I. In his letters Graves describes camp and army life, France and its people, the regiment's child mascot (Charles Monet), his duties, his attendance at Army candidate school (late 1918 and early 1919), and his concern about his brother Irving (Pat) and reaction to Irving's death (November 1918-1919). Paulson gives St. Paul news and talks of her work as a teacher, her social life, her mother, her responsibilities at home, her other activities, a summer (1918) job at the Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia, and a little about home front war work. They both express their affection and concern for each other, and the ebb and flow of their long-distance relationship. Also included are postwar letters between Stewart and Anne prior to their 1925 marriage; letters of other Graves family members, primarily Stewart's mother, his sisters Ruth and Ethel, and his adopted son Charles Monet Graves; biographical data and photographs; and World War I and other memorabilia.

The collection also includes biographical and family information; letters written while Graves was serving as a chef on the Northern Pacific Railway (1912-1913, 1924-1925); Paulson's diary (1918) and Bible study materials; papers (1914-1945) of Graves' sister Ethel and her friend Arthur E. Morgan, President of Antioch College (1936-1960); and papers (1922-1924) of Charles Monet Graves.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Stewart Horatio Graves and Family Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 11,295 11,159 16,819

Processing Information:

Processed by: David B. Peterson, November 2013

Catalog ID number: 990017131170104294

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The book History of Company E, 16th Engineer Railway can be found in the Minnesota Historical Society reference library. It contains the story of a French orphan, Charles Monet Graves, adopted by Stewart Graves' unit and brought to the United States, who settled in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota.

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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:

International organization.

Pacifists -- Minnesota -- Rice.

Soldiers -- Minnesota.

World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- France.

Persons:

Graves, Ann, 1894-1985, author.

Graves, Irving Lloyd, 1890-1918, author.

Morgan, Arthur E. (Arthur Ernest), 1878-1975, author.

Wilson, Harry Noble, author.

Organizations:

Tuscania (Ship), author.

United States. Army. Engineer Regiment, 16th, Company E.

Places:

Rice (Minn.).

Document Types:

Diaries.

Photographs.

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