Manuscripts Collection
Charles Waldron Jerome, the son of Charles T. and Ida Waldron Jerome, was born November 15, 1868, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He attended Minneapolis public schools, but ill-health interrupted his education before he finished his course work at the University of Minnesota. He later returned to the university, took an art course, and in 1902 began work as a photographer, first in Brookings, South Dakota, and later in Owatonna, Minnesota.
He continued in this work until 1909, when he was appointed Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue. After working a short time in St. Paul, he was transferred to Duluth, where he stayed until the government terminated his job in 1915. He then returned to Minneapolis and became custodian of safety deposit vaults of the Scandinavian (later the Midland) National Bank. He remained in this position until 1926, when he became ill and entered a sanatorium.
Charles W. Jerome married Eva Rossing Sardeson on August 7, 1907, in Minneapolis. She was born September 13, 1875, in Argyle, Wisconsin, the daughter of Joseph and Petra Rossing Sardeson. She moved with her parents to Minneapolis in 1886, and was graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1899. She taught school in Minneapolis until her marriage. The Jeromes had three children: Bourne Jerome, Ida Petra Jerome (Mrs. John G. Davies), and Murray Jerome (Mrs. Russell Lewis).
Charles W. Jerome died on March 23, 1927. Eva Jerome resumed her teaching career after his death, and later became a social worker for the Children's Home Society of Minneapolis. She retired in 1938 but continued her active interest in public affairs until her death on September 3, 1966.
Biographical information was taken from the collection.
These documents are organized into the following sections:
Photographs by Charles W. Jerome are in the Minnesota Historical Society sound and visual collections.
Includes photocopies of originals loaned by Russell Lewis, St. Paul, Minn.
Copyright of transcribed materials is reserved by Richard Jerome Sommer. Further reproduction requires written permission. Contact the reference staff for more information.
Accession number: 2236; 10,680; 13,782; 14,262
Processed by: Anne Levin, October 2002
Catalog ID number: 09-00026964
Includes letters to Eva Sardeson Jerome from her parents, her brothers and sisters, and many of her friends, and correspondence between Charles and Eva Jerome both before and after their marriage. Also included are letters to Charles Jerome from his mother's sister, Dr. Martha Watson, and letters between other members of the Jerome family. The earliest letter, dated 1855, is from Ida Waldron Jerome to her mother.
Eva S. Jerome's correspondence after Charles Jerome's death in 1927 continues to consist largely of letters from relatives and friends. Some mention politics and Mrs. Jerome's social welfare activities. Letters of special interest include some in Spanish from a young friend, Juan Leija Ceron, and others from Perry O. Hanson, a Methodist missionary on China. Hanson was graduated from the University of Minnesota in the same class as Eva Jerome; there are letters concerning class reunions in 1939 and 1964.
Other items of interest include a handwritten copy of an article for the Minneapolis Times, titled "Letters from Lake Minnetonka, Elec and other Matters," and signed by Harvey Young Russell (1856); a letter to Jerome in Brookings, South Dakota, from William Jennings Bryan (February 25, 1907), arranging for a portrait sitting; a letter to Dr. Bourne Jerome from Walter H. Judd, September 11, 1951, regarding creation of a National Citizens Advisory Board to study radio and television programs; Christmas cards with notes from Hubert H. Humphrey and family (1958-1959); and a letter to Eva Jerome from Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday Review, (March 22, 1961).
A scrapbook kept by Charles W. Jerome containing newspaper clippings, including poems and articles by Charles W. Jerome. Also included are articles by Charles T. Jerome: "The Death Penalty," from Potter's American Monthly (February 1882); "A Trip up the St. Croix Valley in the Autumn of 1868," written by Charles T. and Ida W. Jerome for the Taylors Falls Reporter (February 1869); and "National Justice the Supreme National Expediency," an oration delivered at Medina (July 4, 1866). Includes articles and pictures of the First Minneapolis Harvest Festival (September 1891) and scenes and views of Minneapolis and of Mardi Gras floats (1892).
Primarily letters written to Charles T. Jerome, father of Charles W., from many distant relatives, relating to the Waldron and Jerome families. There are also letters and reports concerning the Harlem Commons Syndicate, a company formed to obtain from the United States government a settlement for a tract of land on Manhattan Island, the title to which claimed the Syndicate, had never legally passed from the six original grantees, one of whom was a Waldron.
Compiled by Charles W. Jerome. Contains data on the Jerome, Sardeson, Rossing and related families.
Correspondence and other papers relating to the many political and social service organizations in which Eva Jerome took an active interest. Includes information on the following: First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis (Eva. S. Jerome joined in 1893); Children's Home Society of Minneapolis; Congress of Racial Equality; American Missionary Association. Race Relations Department; Civil Liberties Union; Minneapolis Urban League; Joint Committee for Employment Opportunity, Minneapolis; League of Women Voters of Minneapolis; Minneapolis. Fair Employment Practices Commission; Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; and organizations involved in Minnesota's state mental health program.
The subjects dealt with include racial discrimination in employment and housing, equal opportunity in employment, religious prejudice, Minnesota politics and the state election campaign of 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy, international relations, the Vietnamese Conflict, apartheid in South Africa, and mental health.
Includes a printed copy of "The Temptation" by Charles W. Jerome (1897) and other poems, both printed and manuscript copies, by Charles W. Jerome; a reprint of one of Jerome's photographs from Wilson's Photographic Magazine; and a cover to the Minneapolis Newsletter with pen and ink detail by Jerome. Also includes a pamphlet entitled "En sikker vei til velstand," by T. [U?] Rossing, an uncle of Eva S. Jerome.
Reports and essays written by Eva S. Jerome as a schoolgirl and later in life; and her diary of October 1901 to October 1902, with a final entry made in 1952.
Typewritten copies of two manuscripts by Gottfried Hult, a
cousin of Charles W. Jerome:
Transcriptions of writings by the Jeromes, made by Richard Jerome Sommer, a grandson of Charles W. and Eva S. Jerome.
Most of the entries are from 1890 to 1895 and describe Eva's school and social activities; her family and home in Minneapolis; and her selection as valedictorian of North High School in Minneapolis.
Scattered entries. Entries from 1893 have some repetitions from the previous diary. The period 1910-1920 concerns her children and their activities and sayings. From 1931 to 1965 Eva writes of her activities after the death of her husband, Charles; her return to school and teaching; and her grandchildren's births and activities. There are more entries for later years.
Courtship letters of Eva Sardeson and Charles Jerome, compiled by Richard Jerome Sommer. Eva was teaching in Long Prairie, Minnesota, and Charles was working as a studio photographer in Minneapolis and as an itinerant photographer throughout the area.
Letters exchanged between Eva and Charles while she was teaching in Minneapolis and while she was in Europe (Summer 1904), and while Charles was working as a photographer in Litchfield (Minnesota) and Viroqua (Wisconsin). They discuss her graduate work and future plans. The letters were compiled by Richard Jerome Sommer.
"Vital Experiences of My Youth" and "Eva, Awake: Memoirs and Early Diaries, Eva Sardeson Jerome", edited by Richard Jerome Sommer. These reminiscences, written for her son Bourne, describe Eva's early childhood; her home and early schooling; her father's family; her family's move to Minneapolis; and her subsequent life there.
Richard Jerome Sommer's transcription of "The Temptation". A copy of the 1897 publication of this poem is in the folder for Literary Manuscripts, Miscellaneous, above.