CHARLES A. LINDBERGH AND FAMILY:

An Inventory of Their Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society

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BIOGRAPHY OF AUGUST LINDBERGH

Ola Månsson was born in Sweden on May 12, 1808. His first wife was Ingar [or Ingred] Jönsdottir, with whom he had seven children: Jons, Mons, Pehr [Perry], August, Nels, Ingred, and Hannah. Månsson was the farmer-landowner of Gårdlösa, a farm outside the parish of Smedstorp, Sweden. Månsson was also a prominent member of the Farmer's Estate of the Swedish Parliament, a loan officer of a regional bank, and secretary (1847-1858) to King Carl XV of Sweden. In 1858 Månsson was tried in the Swedish court on accusations of embezzlement of money from the bank at which he was a loan officer. After the trial, Ola Månsson, Lovisa Galen [transcribed variously as Louisa or Louise and Carlin, Carleen, or Carline], and her infant son Carl immigrated to the United States. When they immigrated, Ola Månsson changed his name to August Lindbergh and changed the family surname to Lindbergh as well. The infant's name was changed to Charles August Lindbergh. Two of Månsson's sons by his first marriage, Mons and Pehr, who stayed in Sweden attending the University of Lund, also changed their surname to Lindbergh. About 1862 sons Mons, Pehr, and August immigrated to the United States. Ingar Jönsdottir remained in Smedstorp; she died in 1864. August and Louise came to the Sauk Valley (Stearns County, Minnesota) in 1859, settling in Melrose, and were married in St. Cloud on September 15, 1885. August and Louise had seven children: Charles August,Victor Eugene, Louisa Ellen, Lillian May, Juno [later recorded as June], Pauline, Linda, and Frank Albert; all except Charles were born in Minnesota. August Lindbergh died in Little Falls, Minnesota on October 14, 1893; Louise Lindbergh died on April 22, 1921.

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BIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES AUGUST LINDBERGH

Charles August Lindbergh was born in Stockholm, Sweden on January 20, 1859, the eldest of the seven children of August and Louise Lindbergh. Charles Lindbergh graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1883. Following his graduation he practiced law in Little Falls, Minnesota until 1909 when he was elected to Congress from the sixth congressional district. He held this seat through 1916. Lindbergh was elected on the Republican ticket and soon became one of the leaders of the progressive Republicans in Congress. His activities as a member of this group included the attempt to unseat Joseph Cannon as Speaker of the House; the investigation of the "money trust"; opposition to the reciprocal trade policies of the Taft administration; and opposition to the Wilson adminstration's attempts to aid the allies during the first years of World War I. Lindbergh's main concern, however, was the monetary policies of both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Lindbergh ran, and was defeated, in several subsequent elections: 1916 (United States Senate), 1918 (governor of Minnesota), 1920 (Congress), 1923 (special United States Senate election), and 1924 (governor of Minnesota) during which campaign he died. In the 1910s and 1920s, Lindbergh began a number of political magazines and newspapers, all of which failed. One paper of note was called the Lindbergh National Farmer. Books and pamphlets written by Lindbergh, which were widely distributed, include Why Is Your Country at War?, The Econonic Pinch, and Who and What Caused the Panic? His anti-war writings and speeches during World War I caused him to be branded as a traitor and affected the outcome of the 1918 gubernatorial election. At the time, Lindbergh was prevented from speaking in many parts of the state and was opposed by many powerful public opinion forming agencies in the state.

Following his congressional career, Lindbergh maintained law offices in Little Falls and Minneapolis, Minnesota but much of his time was devoted to politics, to writing, and to real estate ventures in Florida and Minnesota. Lindbergh represented a number of individuals living in the eastern United States who owned real estate in Minnesota. He made real estate invenstments of his own in Florida.

In 1887 Charles A. Lindbergh married Mary LaFond, daughter of Moses LaFond, a prominent man in Little Falls. Together they had two daughters, Lillian and Eva. Mary LaFond Lindbergh died in 1898. In 1901 Charles married Evangeline Lodge Land, daughter of C. H. Land of Detroit, Michigan. Charles Augustus Lindbergh was their only child. Charles August Lindbergh died in Crookston, Minnesota on May 24, 1924; Evangeline Lodge Land Lindbergh died in 1954.

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BIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES AUGUSTUS LINDBERGH

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1902 to Charles August and Evangeline Lodge Land Lindbergh. He grew up in Little Falls, Minnesota where he graduated from high school in 1918. Lindbergh attended the University of Wisconsin's school of mechanical engineering (1920-1922) and the Lincoln, Nebraska flying school (1922). He enlisted in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) (1921) and served as a cadet in the United States Army Air Service (1924-1925). During the period preceeding his historic 1927 flight across the Atlantic Ocean, he was an airmail pilot flying the route between St. Louis and Chicago.

On May 20-21, 1927, he made the historic nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris. Following that event he was a recipient of many honors from the United States and many foreign governments and was hailed worldwide as a hero. He was made a director of Pan American World Airways and would become a colonel in the Missouri National Guard. During one of his many goodwill tours to popularize air travel he met Anne Spencer Morrow, the daughter of industrialist and United States ambassador to Mexico, Dwight Morrow. Charles and Anne were married in 1929. Together they had six children: Charles Augustus, Jon, Land, Anne, Scott, and Reeve. Their first child, Charles, was kidnapped and murdered in 1932. In 1935 Charles and Anne Lindbergh left the United States; living in England, France, and Switzerland. The family returned in 1939, moving first to Michigan, then New York, and eventually settling in Connecticut.

While living abroad, Lindbergh made trips to Germany to study German rearmament and received honors from the Nazi government. He was also involved with the French scientist Dr. Alexis Carrel, inventor of an artificial heart. Lindbergh returned to America deeply involved in the conflict between isolationist and interventionist forces. Lindbergh became a spokesman for America First, an organization dedicated to keeping America out of World War II. Following America's entry into the conflict, however, he participated in the war effort, helping develop aircraft engines and flying Pacific Theater combat missions as a civilian consultant.

In the 1960s and 1970s Lindbergh's interests turned to national and global environmental problems, and he traveled extensively in an effort to publicize them. He died of cancer on the island of Maui, Hawaii on August 26, 1974. Anne Morrow Lindbergh published several volumes of memoirs and poems. She died on February 7, 2001 in Vermont.

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BIOGRAPHY OF EVA LINDBERGH CHRISTIE SPAETH

Eva Lindbergh, daughter of Mary LaFond and Charles August Lindbergh, was born in Little Falls in 1892. She graduated from Carleton College in 1914, after which she taught school in Akeley, Minnesota. From 1914 to 1916 she worked in her father's congressional office. In 1916 she married George West Christie and the couple moved to Red Lake Falls, Minnesota where they edited and published the Red Lake Falls Gazette. Together they had two children: George Christie and Lillian Christie Johnson. George Christie, Sr. died in 1956. After his death and until 1968, Eva continued to publish the paper. On June 6, 1970 she married G. Howard Spaeth, who had been the Minnesota commissioner of taxation. Eva died on January 28, 1985.

Biographical information was taken from the papers; from Who Was Who In America, volume VI (1974-1976); from Bruce L. Larson's Lindbergh of Minnesota: A Political Biography (1973); and notes from research done by Grace Lee Nute and Deborah L. Miller.

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SCOPE AND CONTENTS OF THE COLLECTION

Correspondence, campaign literature, reminiscences, family histories, interviews, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, diaries, and other papers documenting the personal activities and public career of Charles August Lindbergh and family. The correspondence files are heaviest for the years 1900 to 1923 and contain some family information, but for the most part they relate to his political activities. There is some information on the deaths of his daughter Lillian (1916) and his mother Louise (1921).

The papers contain information on Lindbergh's political career, particularly his 1906 campaign for Congress and his stand on political issues such as the reciprocal trade agreement with Canada (1911), the Indian liquor tariff (1912), the Progressive Party's campaign in Minnesota (1912), neutrality and preparations for war (1917), the Federal Reserve System (1917), and his postwar political campaigns (1920-1924). Of particular interest in this section are a number of letters from Theodore Roosevelt: November 15, 1908 regarding the Panama Canal; January 15, 1909; and March 11 and April 16, 1912 regarding the Progressive Party's 1912 presidential campaign.

Lindbergh's business correspondence details his interests in Howard P. Bell's investments in Minnesota (1900-1906), the Bell Estate (1921-1928), William Agard's real estate investments in Minnesota (1922-1924), and the Saskatchewan Valley and Alberta Land Company, Ltd. (1903, 1906). It also documents Lindbergh's collaboration with Joseph Seal (1906), William Hatten (1908), M. M. Williams (1908-1909), and Carl Bolander (1906, 1916). There are exchanges with Dorrance and Company, Philadelphia (1921-1924) and other correspondence concerning the publication of Lindbergh's book The Economic Pinch.

The papers of Charles Augustus Lindbergh begin in 1913 with a few items from grammar school. The correspondence begins in 1920 and describes his activities in managing the Lindbergh family farm in Little Falls and property in Florida. The bulk of his papers relates to his life as a student at the University of Wisconsin (1921-1922), his early interest in aviation (1921), a few letters from aviation associates (1922-1925), and correspondence concering his flight across the Atlantic, much of it addressed to his mother. Later correspondence (1928-1973) is sporadic. Some topics addressed in them are: the condition and future status of the Lindbergh home in Little Falls (1928-1932), the establishment of the Lindbergh State Park (1932), and the Minnesota Historical Society's interest in the Lindbergh papers and Lindbergh home (1957-1973).

The collection contains photostats of the proceedings (1848-1858) of the Farmers' Estate of the Swedish Parliament and Swedish courts (1859) documenting charges of embezzlement against Ola Månsson (August Lindbergh) while a member of parliament. The court records are in Swedish and have not been translated.

The manuscript collection contains copies of selected papers from Lindbergh collections at Yale University and the Missouri Historical Society. In addition, the collection incorporates correspondence exchanged with the Lindbergh family and research notes from three researchers on Charles August Lindbergh: Grace Lee Nute, Bruce Llewellyn Larson, and Deborah L. Miller. The papers from Larson include copies of newspaper clippings (1893-1941) pertaining to the Lindbergh family and Lindbergh's political career; a typed copy of a 1964 interview between Bruce Larson and Frank A. Lindbergh (a sibling of Charles August) which contains information on Charles' political activities; and a copy of a 1966 letter from Charles Augustus Lindbergh to Larson containing comments on the elder Lindbergh's temperament. The papers from Nute include interviews with family and community members, voluminous correspondence files, genealogical research, and other materials. Miller's files contain correspondence and research notes which reflect further efforts to locate information on the legal difficulties and family background of Ola Månsson in Sweden and the immigration of the Lindbergh family to Minnesota.

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

Note to Researchers: To request materials, please note both the location and box numbers shown below.

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