Manuscripts Collection
Jefferson Highway Transportation Company began operations in September 1919, and was formally organized in 1920. Edgar F. Zelle, operator of the competing Red Bus Line, purchased the company on June 30, 1925. The name of the firm was shortened to Jefferson Transportation Company in 1929. In 1968 Jefferson's bus operations were merged with the Crown Coach Company and a new firm, known as Jefferson Lines, Inc., was established. Jefferson Transportation Company remained the principal owner.
Jefferson Transportation Company changed its name in the early 1970s to The Jefferson Company, and initiated two new operating units: Jeffco, Inc., a distributor of electric power generating equipment, and Jefferson Tours (a division of MTS Company), a retailer of travel services and wholesaler of package bus tours. The corporate structure then had The Jefferson Company, as the parent of Jefferson Lines, Inc., and its subsidiaries; Jeffco, Inc.; and MTS Company, through which it conducted its Minneapolis property development activities. By 1983 the business was organized into a Transportation Group and a Real Estate Group of companies under the umbrella of The Jefferson Company.
In July 1992, after emerging from a 1990 Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Jefferson Lines defaulted on $7 million of secured debt, and was foreclosed upon by Jefferson Partners L.P., who continued to operate the business. Jefferson Partners described itself as an inter-city bus transporter that also offered charters, domestic and international tours, package express, bus-maintenance services, and daily scheduled bus service from Minnesota to Texas.
Edgar Frederick Zelle was born in Havana, Illinois, on August 16, 1890. He moved with his parents to New Ulm, Minnesota, with his parents in 1895, graduated from New Ulm High School in 1907, and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota in 1913. He served as secretary of the Wilcox Motor Company, Minneapolis (1913-1915), and founded and served as president of the Motor Truck Service Company, Minneapolis (1915-1950), a firm that owned and leased motor trucks to Twin Cities wholesale and manufacturing companies. Zelle was president of Jefferson Highway Transportation Company/Jefferson Transportation Company from 1925 to 1950. He was a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (1952-1956); chairman of the First National Bank of Minneapolis (1951-1955); president (1954-1960) of the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company; director of the Soo Line Railroad Company; a trustee of Farmers & Mechanics Savings Bank, Minneapolis (1943-1966); president of the University of Minnesota General Alumni Association (1926-1929); and a member and moderator of Plymouth Congregational Church (Minneapolis). During World War II he served in Washington, D.C. as an associate director of the Office of Defense Transportation (April 1943-April 1944).
Edgar Zelle married Lillian Nippert on June 5, 1913. The Zelles had two children: Mary Susan and Louis Nippert Zelle. Louis Zelle became president of Jefferson Transportation Company ca.1964. Edgar Zelle died in August 1978.
The collection includes correspondence, subject files, minute books, financial records, tax returns, photographs, audio tapes, videocassettes, clippings, timetables, scrapbooks, and three rolls of microfilm.
Transportation Group records follow the development of Jefferson's bus business, the acquisition of other bus companies, the firm's brief foray into commercial aviation, and its charter and tour business.
Real Estate Records document the firm's rehabilitation of several historic buildings on the Minneapolis riverfront into the Saint Anthony Main shopping complex and the renovation of the St. Paul and the Lowry hotels in Saint Paul, all under the leadership of Louis N. Zelle.
Zelle's personal papers relate to his various other (non-bus) business involvements and activities, and include various publications of the Rotary Club of Minneapolis and Plymouth Congregational Church. There are letters in German from relatives in Germany (1930s-1940s), many of which relate to the relatives' lives in the aftermath of World War II and to Zelle's sending of C.A.R.E. packages to them.
Audio-visual materials include audio and videocassettes, most of which seem to be radio and television commercial spots. There are also some boxes of photographs that include photos of buses, bus depots, passengers, and drivers and other employees; the St. Anthony Main retail complex before, during, and after its renovation; and Edgar F. Zelle and other members of the Zelle family.
These documents are organized into the following sections:
A collection of Jefferson Lines and Jefferson Highway Transportation Company bus schedules and timetables is cataloged separately in the Minnesota Historical Society library collection.
Access to records less than 25 years old requires written permission.
Quotation or publication, beyond the fair use provisions of the copyright law, from records less than 25 years old requires written permission.
Accession number: 15,547
Processed by: David B. Peterson, July 2000
Catalog ID number: 09-00322123
Corporate record books, financial and accounting records, and subject files of the main bus operating companies: Jefferson Highway Transportation Company, Jefferson Transportation Company, and Jefferson Lines, Inc., and The Jefferson Company holding company. There are also records of a number of related and subsidiary bus companies.
Include articles of incorporation, bylaws, directors and stockholders minutes, option agreements, and similar documents.
Jefferson Highway Transportation Company.
Jefferson Highway Transportation Company/Jefferson Transportation Company.
Jefferson Transportation Company.
Jefferson Transportation Company.
Jefferson Transportation Company.
Jefferson Transportation Company/Jefferson Company.
Includes monthly general balance sheets (assets and liabilities) and operating statements for Jefferson Highway Transportation Company (1924-1929) and Jefferson Transportation Company (1930-1961).
Zelle and Reed families; includes some corporate organization information.
Includes data on Jefferson Lines, The Jefferson Company, and Winslow House.
See Real Estate Records, below, for additional appraisal reports.
Includes Jefferson Highway Transportation Company, The Jefferson Company, and Jefferson Lines, Inc. There are also some pertinent directors' resolutions and minutes.
Includes a colored pencil drawing of the motel/depot sign.
Announces promotion whereby senior citizens were able to receive a free return bus trip, Jan. 5-March 18, 1982, with the purchase of a one-way ticket.
Includes site plans.
Includes advertisements and other papers relating to repair services offered by Jefferson to other carriers and bus owners.
Probably 1920s-1950s. Include business cards of bus, trucking, railroad, and airline officials; automobile dealers; insurance agents; newspaper advertising officials; retailers; state and federal officials; securities brokers; and detective agencies. Many have penciled notes and other information on them. Most are from persons in Minneapolis and St. Paul. There are two of Edgar F. Zelle's own business cards as well.
This train evidently competed with Jefferson for passenger traffic in southern Minnesota.
Newspaper clippings from Iowa and southern Minnesota papers. Stories relate to Jefferson and to other carriers, and to the bus industry as a whole. Includes stories about bus accidents, competition with railroads and airlines, service additions and abandonments, road construction and improvement, station openings and relocations, bus line ownership changes, strikes, and wartime conservation measures. There are also stories about controversial Iowa "Bus Queen" Helen Brewer.
Includes newspaper articles about, and advertisements for, Jefferson Highway Transportation Company, Motor Truck Service Company (operators of Duplex Limited Bus Lines), Red Bus Lines, and Yellow Bus Line (operated by Northwestern Transportation Company).
One oversize folder.
An employee newsletter published by the personnel department, Minneapolis; issues wanting.
Jefferson Partners L.P.
Relates to the company's real estate operations, particularly the St. Anthony Main development.
Zelle was apparently representing the American Bus Association.
Includes notices of stockholders meetings, an address to
securities analysts by president Gerald H. Trautman (1967), copies of
Includes clippings and summary histories of Jefferson Lines, Greyhound Lines, and biographical information about Edgar F. Zelle and other members of the Zelle family. A folder of "historical photos" is included with other audio-visual material.
Relates to Crown Coach Company's opposition to United Parcel Service as a common carrier in Arkansas and Missouri. ICC Docket No. MC 115495.
To operate as a common carrier transporting general commodities, Missouri and Arkansas included.
United Parcel Service to operate as a common carrier, intrastate, between all points in Arkansas. Arkansas Docket No. M-5254.
Regulations governing fees for services performed in connection with licensing and related activities; effective August 19, 1971.
Partial cancellation of certificate No. 900, 1953-1972.
Eliminate Siloam Springs to Van Buren and Ozark routes.
Proposed abandonment of route between Siloam Springs and Van Buren, 1961-1971.
Revised and consolidated certificate No. 900, 1956.
Transfer of certificate No. 900 from Crown to Jefferson, 1956, 1969-1970.
Transfer of certificate No. 900 to Vernon Cornette, 1969-1970.
Collective bargaining agreement between Jefferson Transportation Company and Division 1319 of the Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America.
Includes undated list of officers and directors of all transportation group and real estate group companies.
Jefferson Lines, Joplin, Missouri. Docket No. M-23043. Includes 3 rolls of 16mm negative microfilm depicting bus tickets and bills that were used as exhibits in the case.
Includes correspondence, revenue and expense figures, etc.
Relates to surcharges sought and imposed to recoup increased fuel expenses.
Includes
Information about corporate sponsorships of and the providing of transportation for olympic and professional sports teams, including American volleyball teams and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Includes correspondence with International Management Group (San Mateo, Calif.).
Tariffs are passenger fares between various points.
"Interline Revenue Division Sheets" issued/published by the National Bus Traffic Association, Inc., Chicago, Ill.
Includes Jefferson Lines, K. G. Lines, MK & O Coach Lines, Oklahoma Transportation Company, Jefferson Charters and Tours, Inc.
Scrapbook into which is pasted
All Jefferson Transportation Company timetables.
Includes minutes of directors and stockholders meetings, certificate of incorporation (Missouri), articles of association, and bylaws.
Concerns Crown's installation of an air conditioning system in the main waiting room of the bus station at Ft. Smith (a building not owned by the company).
Jefferson Lines, Inc. purchase (portion) - Jefferson Transportation Co., and control of Crown Coach Company; ICC docket MC-F-9562.
Cement Shop/International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO.
Cases B-12-153 and B-7865.
18" x 24" poster.
The company was formerly known as Jefferson School Bus Charter Service, Inc., and originally as Jefferson School Bus Service, Inc.
Includes amendments to articles of incorporation; certificate of incorporation (State of Missouri); and articles of incorporation.
Listings of parts and equipment. Includes quantities and dollar value. Most of the data seems to pertain to engine parts.
Jefferson Services and Midland Lines.
The company was known until 1972 as Southern Kansas Greyhound Lines, Inc.
Southern Kansas Greyhound Lines, Inc.
Includes corporation income tax returns for Missouri Kansas and Oklahoma Coach Lines (1984) and H. W. Allen Company (Tulsa, Okla.) (1985).
Includes related correspondence.
Minnetonka Corporation in 1962 became C.C. Dunnavan & Co., Inc. Motor Truck Service Company was merged into C. C. Dunnavan & Co., Inc., in 1963, and the name of the combined company became MTS Company. MTS Company had operations in both the Transportation Group and the Real Estate Group: in the Transportation Group it did business as Jefferson Tours and Travel Service; in the Real Estate Group it did business as St. Anthony Main Company. See also Real Estate Group Records, below.
Minnetonka Corporation, 1958-1962; C.C. Dunnavan & Co., Inc., 1962.
MTS Company.
MTS Company and Jefferson Tour and Travel Service combined financial statement.
This was the company owned by Helen M. Brewer, the "Iowa Bus Queen."
The primary focus of the MTS Company was the St. Anthony Main retail complex, which was located in several historic buildings which Jefferson owned and rehabilitated on the east bank of the Mississippi River opposite downtown Minneapolis.
Jefferson president Louis Zelle purchased three deteriorating buildings on Main Street in the early 1970s. In 1974 the company purchased a complex of four buildings dating from 1879 to 1906 and known as the Salisbury Mattress Company. Phases I and II opened in December 1977, Phase III was completed in the Fall of 1981, and Phase IV was to be completed in April 1986. Phase IV included the restoration of Minneapolis' three oldest buildings: The Upton Building, the Martin-Morrison Building, and the Union Ironworks. St. Anthony Main in 1986 boasted 64 specialty shops, 7 restaurants, and a 5-screen movie theater. It contained 156,000 square feet of leaseable retail space.
See also Related and Subsidiary Companies Records, above.
Includes 1985 Advertising/Promotion Plan.
Includes appraisals of depot and other properties located in Austin, Faribault, Owatonna, and Rochester, Minn., and in various cities in Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas.
Includes appraisal reports, maps and surveys, miscellaneous correspondence, etc.
Gives names of officers, directors, stockholders, bank account numbers, etc. for Jefferson Real Estate Group, Inc., MTS Company, Upton Development Company, Main Street Associates, and Jefferson Lines, Inc.
Floor plan of Salisbury "B" building and a plat map showing much of the St. Anthony Main development.
Includes MTS Company, The Jefferson Company, and Main Street Associates.
Correspondence, reports, grant applications, and other material related to plans to develop a site near St. Anthony Main on the Minneapolis riverfront owned by Coca Cola Midwest into a "residential center" of condominiums, townhouses, and apartments.
Includes photos of the Plank Building.
Illustrated article reprinted from
Includes a few snapshot photos.
Includes
Informational report about the project prepared by Eberhardt for review by potential purchasers of the project from Jefferson.
Include financial statements for MTS Company, Main Street Associates, Upton Association Limited Partnership, and The Jefferson Company.
International Centre was a 16-story office and retail development project proposed for downtown Minneapolis.
Disassembled looseleaf notebook.
Booklet containing guidelines, exhibits, and general information.
Newsletter to merchants of St. Anthony Main.
Depicts The Jefferson Company's Transportation and Real Estate groups and their constituent companies. Includes also a list of the officers and directors of The Jefferson Company and its various constituent companies.
Financial data, including draw, project, and lease reports, document checklists, and information about bond and UDAG amortizations.
Benjamin Thompson & Associates, architects.
Eberhardt Commercial Real Estate.
Disassembled looseleaf notebook.
$4,024,000 permanent financing 9-1/8% 25-year first mortgage note.
Jefferson Real Estate Group, Inc. (seller) and Eberhardt Investments, Inc. (buyer).
"Final Status Report on Riverfront Activities of the Minneapolis '76 Commission."
Newspaper clippings and photographs focusing on rehabilitation of the Salisbury building and the first tenants.
Primarily newspaper clippings. Includes advertising examples, stories about tenants, and programs and flyers.
Clippings, flyers, advertising examples, and other materials focusing largely on events and promotions taking place at St. Anthony Main.
Disassembled scrapbook of newspaper clippings focusing on events and promotions, and on tenants and their wares. There are newspaper and other advertisements, and a few miscellaneous flyers and press releases.
A study prepared by the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities Area.
Includes information about MTS Company vs. Taiga Corporation and Taiga vs. Egbert Souse, et al., and leasing and sub-leasing arrangements. Taiga operated a Chinese restaurant in the St. Anthony Main complex.
Includes information about easements, restrictive convenants, insurance claims, water bills, lien waivers, agreements between the owner and the architect and contractor, arbitration of claims between the general contractor and the construction manager and MTS Company.
An October 18, 1969 letter from Arnold Jolles to Louis Zelle refers to a set of 8 x 10 photographs of the St. Anthony Main properties prior to their restoration. These photographs are located in the Photographs series of this collection.
The name of the corporation was changed to SPJ, Inc., on or about January 5, 1981.
Formerly Exposition Site Development Company (until May 21, 1984). See also MTS Company: Coke Project Records.
Includes partnership/management agreements and board minutes.
Includes Jefferson Foundation (1982) and Main Street Development Consortium and Northeast Securities Development Corporation (1983).
Includes two stock certificates representing 35 shares of Mainplace, Inc. stock owned by MTS Company.
Represents ten shares of Market Street Corporation stock owned by MTS Company.
A study of indicated market demand prepared by Harris, Kerr, Forster & Company, certified public accountants, for St. Paul Hotel Associates. Includes statements of estimated annual operating results.
Paul L. Gaurnier was a Professor of Hotel Management at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration.
Correspondence with relatives living in Germany. Includes
photocopies of four picture post cards featuring Adolf Hitler and
Includes some genealogical information, a map of Germany, and correspondence and papers relating to Zelle's sending of CARE (Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, Inc.) packages to his relatives in Germany after World War II.
Much of the material is in German; there are some translations.
Includes correspondence with family members and business
associates and contemporaries; telegrams; picture post cards; Christmas and
birthday cards; newspaper clippings; political/election circulars and
handbills; Sunday bulletins and copies of the
"Letters to Edgar during his stay in Washington [D.C.], Feb. thru May 1943."
Edgar Zelle's personal correspondence while living in Washington, D.C. at the Wardman Park Hotel. Includes some of Lillian Zelle's correspondence.
"Edgar F. Zelle correspondence while in Washington, D.C." Includes some letters relating to management of Jefferson Transportation Company.
"Correspondence received by Edgar F. Zelle while in Washington, D.C. from Lillian N. Zelle and L. P. Wakefield." Includes some 8 x 10 photos of buses (Feb. 1944) and information about a fatal Jefferson bus crash near Hubbard, Iowa (Jan. 1944).
"N" and "T."
See additional biographical information in Transportation Group Records: Historical File, above.
Emery Mapes Trust under will for the benefit of Lydia E. Mapes and others; Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis, trustee. Edgar F. Zelle was apparently a beneficiary of the trust.
Includes some biographical information on Edgar F. Zelle.
Relates to plans for constructing a new bank building.
Untitled typewritten manuscript by John G. Maclean.
Includes a 1962 annual report of the Prudential Insurance Company of America.
Correspondence and memoranda, reports, government documents, press releases, speeches, clippings, and other material. Correspondents include the National Association of Motor Bus Operators; the Office of Price Administration, the War Production Board and other federal agencies; and bus company executives.
Includes also special orders B-1 through B-53.
Correspondence, bank trust department statements, the Zelles' personal Christmas card lists, and an invitation to a cocktail party.
Includes personal correspondence, clippings, a Chicago Railroad Fair "Participation Award" (1948), and First National Bank publications.
Edgar F. Zelle's individual income tax returns.
Contains information about the merger of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church denominations, and Plymouth Congregational Church's opposition to it.
Looseleaf notebook.
News releases and a few clippings.
News releases, correspondence, and clippings.
Correspondence in connection with Aumni Fund solicitation in the interests of the ADP Society effort to save its fraternity house from foreclosure.
Includes biographical information about Edgar F. Zelle.
Includes lyrics to four "Songs of 1913" on the occasion of
the 50th anniversary of the class (May 22, 1963); a musical score by Lillian
Nippert (Mrs. Edgar F. Zelle) for the Class Song; and a copy of
Includes Edgar and Lillian Zelle?
Includes 1913 class song (music by Lillian Nippert).
Concerns merger of the M.St. P.&S.S.M. (Soo Line), the Wisconsin Central, and the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic railroads.
Minutes of directors' and annual meetings.
Watner was president of the Wisconsin Central.
Handwritten musical scores evidently written/composed by Louis N. Zelle while a student at Amherst College.
Letters to Louis and his wife Ann.
Louis was evidently in the armed forces (the Navy?) at this time.
Includes correspondence, clippings, and a published address by
Ralph Budd entitled
Appear to be mostly radio commercials. Some may be radio news interviews. Many are poorly identified.
Jass was a Twin Cities television personality in the 1960s.
5-inch reels, unless otherwise noted.
7-inch reel.
7-inch reel.
Track 1 - :60 radio w/:22 donut. Tad Ware & Company.
U-Matic format.
U-Matic format.
U-Matic format; may or may not be duplicates.
U-Matic format; Joplin, Ft. Smith, Kansas City, Des Moines.
U-Matic format.
U-Matic format.
U-Matic format; TV-spot (commercial)?
Three 16mm, 7-inch black and white reels and three VHS videocasssettes onto which the movies were transferred.
The label on the third videocassette erroneously says "Jefferson Air Transportation." The videocassette actually consists of moving images of various members of the Zelle family in front of their Minneapolis home.
U-Matic format.
U-Matic format.
U-Matic format.
VHS format; probably 1970s.
Betacam format.
U-Matic format.
U-Matic format.
U-Matic format.
U-Matic format.
U-Matic format.
U-Matic format.
U-Matic format.
Snapshot photos and enlargements of buses, limousines, bus garages and depots, and some bus drivers. There are also some newspaper clippings. Includes photos taken in Joplin and Harrisonville, Mo., and in Rogers, Ark. Black cover.
Snapshot photos and enlargements of buses, limousines, bus stations, and drivers and other employees. Includes photos taken in Joplin, Missouri and in Arkansas. There are also some clippings. Maroon cover.
Disassembled album in a gray box. 8 x 10 black-and-white photos. Includes photos of buses (exteriors and interiors), bus garage and shop interiors, depot interiors and exteriors, highway snow plowing, and company-owned limousines. Includes photos taken in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Farmington, Faribault, Owatonna, and Rochester, Minn.; Mason City, Iowa; at Carleton College (Northfield, Minn.); and outside of South High School (Minneapolis). There are also photos of what appear to be national guardsmen en route to camp on Jefferson buses. Most of the Minnesota photos were taken by Norton & Peel (Minneapolis). Album has a black cover.
Disassembled album in an archival folder. Snapshot photos of buses and drivers, bus accidents and wrecks, bus depots, and Jefferson Airways, Inc. pilots and airplanes. Includes photos taken at Minneapolis and St. Paul; Preston, Westcott, and Owatonna, Minn.; Kansas City; and at Mason City, Janesville, and Ruthuen, Iowa. Album has a green cover.
Plywood covered album in a gray box. Snapshot photos of buses and depots, drivers, shop and office employees, and company-owned limousines. Photos were taken at Minneapolis and St. Paul; Rochester, Owatonna, and Stewartville, Minn.; and at Ames and Oelwein, Iowa.
Album of post card-size photos showing the company's Minneapolis plant, plant machinery, delivery trucks being loaded, and mattresses and pillows manufactured by the company. The company's building was redeveloped in the 1970s as part of the St. Anthony Main shopping complex.
Interior and exterior views. Includes Mason City, Iowa and Rochester, Minn.
Disassembled albums. Mainly 8 x 10 black and white photos of the exteriors of buses. A few shots include drivers and/or assembled groups of passengers. There are some photos of bus interiors, depots, and company executives. Photos mainly taken in Missouri and Arkansas. There are also some black-and-white and color snapshots, a few letters, and some newspaper clippings.
Mostly unidentified. Includes many groups of men in suits.
Appear to be photos of dinners catered by the Lowry Hotel and/or The Saint Paul Hotel. Many of these apparently took place at the St. Paul Auditorium.
Interior and exterior views. Includes photos taken during construction.
Include photos taken at the future site of the Lowry Hotel decades before the building was constructed.
Probably either Lowry Hotel or Hotel Saint Paul. Mainly restaurant and food service/preparation.
Photos appear to date from the 1920s and feature exterior and interior views of the company's building.
Mainly snapshot-size black-and-white photos and negatives of crews engaged in road construction and paving. Includes photos of dump trucks, steam shovels, and other heavy equipment. Many of these images, which are primarily unidentified, may have been taken in Wisconsin. Includes exterior views of the company's building in Minneapolis.
Include aerial photos of the St. Anthony Falls area of Minneapolis.
Presumably includes Edgar and Lillian Zelle.
Mainly informal photos. Include photographs of what is probably the Zelle home in Minneapolis, and a group photograph of the 50-year reunion of the New Ulm High School graduating class.
Includes 2 portraits; group picture of the National Council of YMCAs [?] 1965; Farmers & Mechanics Bank Board of Trustees,1946, 1962; group picture of past presidents of the Minneapolis Rotary Club, 1959; group picture of former presidents of M.St.P. & S.S.M. Railroad (G. Allen MacNamara), the D.S.S. & A. Railroad (Leonard H. Murray), and the Wisconsin Central Railroad (Edgar F. Zelle), 1960; and the First National Bank of Minneapolis building (razed ca.1913 for construction of the First National-Soo Line Building), pre-1913.
One photo includes Louis Zelle's son Charles Zelle.
Includes photos of Edgar F. Zelle, and other family members at home and at a cabin. There are also some pictures of Louis F. Zelle in a sailor suit, and photos of sailors marching at what appears to be a college or university campus.
Include photos and negatives of family members, the family home in Minneapolis, a hunting trip, photos taken in New York City, and a variety of other subjects.
Includes photos of soldiers or national guard troops disembarking from buses (1929), and photos of what appears to be an oil well in Williams County, North Dakota.