I have one more day to stalk FD Jones, the guy who built my house in 1901, through the Star-Trib archives. I think he graduated from the U in 1888, had a son in 1902 (just six months after he got the building permit) & may have been a physics professor
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I am almost certain at this point that he built this place as a duplex since rental ads were going up for the upstairs at least as far back as 1906.
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If this is the same dude, he took the engineers and janitors from the U out for a day on Lake Minnetonka the same summer he got the building permit on this house
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Further back in archives, there’s (I think a different) F.D. Jones who shows up a bunch. Specifically, he seems to be a dude on a business trip from Chicago who several Trib reporters liked well enough to quote extensively on topics ranging from the economy to boxing. For a week.
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I really kinda love this other FD Jones because it’s just so obvious that a couple Trib reporters met him while drinking and then used him to phone in “man on the street” and “expert on out of town politics” quotes for the rest of the time he was in town.
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Some prime FD Jones of Chicago material. These stories are from Sept, November and December of 1893. Apparently he was back and forth on the regular for a while. Note the December issue where the reporters are like “he just got back in town!”
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The guy who built my house was a mason and a drunk. Beautiful stonework, but nothing else and one wall was insulated with his empties.
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I know this pain. My previous house was owned by a DIY enthusiast who was also an alcoholic and developing dementia during a good chunk of his renovation work. He about broke me. Now thanks to Star Trib archives I can see Charlie’s grade school skating competitions. Oy.
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My great-uncle in Superior made the Minneapolis paper because he took over his Teamsters local and was accused of embezzling $30K in 1956. Jimmy Hoffa got involved, my only great-uncle was thrown down a flight of stairs, normalcy returned.
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