Manuscripts Collection
Christian Rosenmeier was born in Denmark in 1874. At the age of 14 he emigrated with his father to the United States, where they settled in Kandiyohi county Minnesota. Until the age of 21, Rosenmeier worked on the farm and herding cows, helping to earn the money to bring his mother and sister over from Denmark. During the winter months, he attended school at Willmar Academy. In 1895 he passed the exam for county school teachers and went on to teach in rural schools for several years. In 1901 Rosenmeier graduated from Mankato Normal School (now Mankato State University) and went on to become principal of Dundee (Nobles County, Minn.) schools.
Seeing better prospects in a legal than in a teaching career, Rosenmeier entered the University of Minnesota Law School, graduating as president of his class in 1906. He moved to Royalton, Minnesota in the summer of 1906 to practice law and married primary school teacher Linda Bakken in August of that year. He was Morrison County Attorney for six years preceding his election to state Senate in 1922, representing Minnesota's 53rd district. In the Senate Rosenmeier served as chairman of the Rules Committee and eventually became majority leader. He was responsible for the legislation that created Charles A. Lindbergh State Park (1931) and for the establishment of a National Guard camp at Fort Ripley in Morrison county (1928-1929).
Christian Rosenmeier was a member of numerous service and civic organizations, including the Shriners and the Elks. He and his wife had three children: Gordon, Margaret, and Donald. Rosenmeier died June 3, 1932.
The oldest of three children born to Christian and Linda Rosenmeier, Gordon Rosenmeier was born on July 1, 1907 in Royalton, Minnesota, just south of Little Falls. After earning a B.S. from the University of Minnesota in 1928, he went on to Leland Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, graduating from the Law School there in 1932.
Rosenmeier returned to Minnesota to join his father's legal practice only one month before Christian Rosenmeier's death in 1932. Encouraged by his father's supporters, he ran in the 1932 election to take his father's place in the state Senate, but was defeated. His second attempt in 1940 was successful and began what was to be a thirty-year career as a state senator representing Minnesota's 53rd district. A formidable debater, Rosenmeier has been described as one of the most powerful figures in Minnesota legislative history. He gradually gained influence, eventually holding as many as ten committee assignments at once. Although never elected majority leader, he and his close associates dominated many of the important committees. Rosenmeier served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, the State Departments subcommittee of the Senate Civil Administration committee, the Education subcommittee of the Senate Finance committee, and the Committee on Committees.
Though allied with the Senate's Conservative Bloc, Rosenmeier once described himself as a "flaming liberal" and ran with the support of his district's DFL majority in most elections. He sponsored most of the state's watershed, pollution control, and reapportionment legislation. He was the chief sponsor of the bill creating the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in 1967, and helped create Brainerd State Hospital and Brainerd Community College. He had a hand in creating regional development commissions, the State Planning Agency, the county court system, anti-discrimination agencies, and human rights laws. He also drafted legislation to save the old Federal Courts Building in St. Paul, now the Landmark Center. His defeat in 1970 by Winston Borden is said to have hinged on Rosenmeier's support of modest liberalization of the abortion laws.
In addition to his political career, Rosenmeier was also active as a member of the Minnesota Press Council, and on the boards of several organizations including the Minnesota Historical Society, the Minnesota Zoological Garden Foundation, and the Charles A. Lindbergh Fund.
Throughout his career in the Senate, Rosenmeier continued to practice law, first in private practice (1932-1961) and later in partnership with John E. Simonett (1961-1989). In addition to his legal practice, which he continued into his final years, he maintained two cabins near Little Falls and Leech Lake where he pursued his hobbies of hunting and fishing. Gordon Rosenmeier died of a heart attack on January 17th, 1989 in the hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he had been battling pneumonia.
The records are divided into the following two subsections:
An oral history interview with Gordon Rosenmeier (1988) about the Capitol building and Capitol complex is separately cataloged as part of the Minnesota Historical Society State Archives collection.
An audio tape of the Gordon Rosenmeier memorial service, held January 21st, 1989 in Little Falls, Minnesota, is separately cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society audio-visual collections.
Several examples of Gordon Rosenmeier's campaign publicity materials, including bumper stickers, pamphlets, and posters are separately cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society museum collections.
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
Accession numbers: 11,590; 15,206; 16,405
Processed by: Lara D. Friedman-Shedlov, May 1998.
Additions by: David B. Peterson, August 2007; Duane Swanson, November 2009.
Catalog ID number: 09-00319999
Personal papers of Christian Rosenmeier are not extensive. They include only a small collection of correspondence, two scrapbooks documenting his political career, and a folder of memorabilia and other miscellaneous personal papers. In addition there are several undated photographs. Of particular interest in the correspondence are letters written to Isabella Boyd, a friend of Rosenmeier's from his days at normal school in Mankato. They include reminiscences, news about mutual friends and social events, and descriptions of Rosenmeier's teaching career and his years in law school at the University of Minnesota.
Includes a series of letters to Isabella Boyd (undated and 1903-1906) given to Gordon Rosenmeier by Boyd in 1949.
News clippings documenting Rosenmeier's election and career in the state senate.
Includes Rosenmeier's obituary.
Includes certificates for the Western Granite Contracting Co. (St. Cloud, nos. 15, 17, 18; in the name of C.C. Dragoo), The Armstrong Implement Co. (Royalton, 1909, no. 7, in the name of A.W. Buckman), the Royalton Co-operative Company (1909, no. 33, in the name of C. Rosenmeier), the Morrill Rural Telephone Co. (Morrill, 1912, no. 187, in the name of C. Rosenmeier), the Royalton Co-operative Creamery Association (Royalton, 1913, no. 54, in the name of Christian Rosenmeier), and the Farmers Co-operative Creamery Association (Little Falls, 1916, no. 25, in the name of C. Rosenmeier).
Papers documenting Rosenmeier's career as an attorney in Royalton, Minnesota consist primarily of correspondence and related papers dating from 1909 through 1928. The correspondence reflects a legal practice focused primarily on issues of land ownership and debt collection, as well as some civil suits. Also included in the legal files are a series of bulletins (1917-1918) from the Minnesota Adjutant General's Office to local legal advisory boards (of which Rosenmeier was presumably a member) concerning the Selective Service.
Rosenmeier's service in the Minnesota state senate is represented by a series of chronologically and alphabetically arranged correspondence and related papers dating from 1925 through 1931, as well as one file of bills, petitions, and other miscellaneous papers. The correspondence includes letters from constituents and organizations concerning various bills intermixed with correspondence and memoranda with colleagues in the legislature and other areas of government regarding legislation and administrative matters.
Correspondence, dating mainly from the 1950s through 1988, comprises the largest series within the personal papers. It includes letters to and from colleagues, family members, and friends, as well as correspondence concerning personal household, business, and financial matters. Also included in personal correspondence are letters concerning legislative matters that were marked "personal."
Files relating to Rosenmeier's service on the boards of the Minnesota Historical Society, the Charles Lindbergh Fund, and the Minnesota Press Council, as well as several other organizations, make up the other major portion of the personal papers. Also in the collection are a smaller group of files including photographs, speeches, financial records, memorabilia, and other miscellaneous personal papers.
Gordon Rosenmeier's legal practice of many years is represented in the collection by only a relatively small and eclectic group of files, including schedules, check registers, a few folders of correspondence, and some trial, deposition, and hearing transcripts.
The provenance of these ledgers is unclear. They may have actually belonged to Christian Rosenmeier and been continued by Gordon Rosenmeier after Christian's death. They were found among Gordon Rosenmeier's legal files.
Files generated throughout Rosenmeier's thirty years as a Minnesota state senator form the largest part of the collection. Papers include correspondence spanning nearly his entire legislative career, committee files, subject files, campaign files, news clippings, and scrapbooks.
Files include memoranda and letters along with related material to and from colleagues, constituents, and interested individuals, businesses, and organizations concerning legislation under consideration, administrative matters, and other topics. Most of the correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent or topic within each year.
Committee files document the work of many of the committees and subcommittees on which Rosenmeier served as a state senator. The files include reports and recommendations, memoranda, correspondence, and minutes.
This series is primarily topical files concerning issues of importance to Rosenmeier in his work as a state senator. Intermixed with these files are folders containing material dated after Rosenmeier's senate career concluded in 1971.
Nine scrapbooks of newspaper clippings relating to Rosenmeier's campaigns and career in the Minnesota State Senate.
Materials from a series of oral history interviews conducted by Minnesota Historical Society research historian Mark Haidet, with the participation at various times of MHS director Russell Fridley, Jan Olsten, and John Valen. The interviews were conducted at Gordon Rosenmeier's law office in Little Falls, Minnesota.