Hiawatha Golf Course Property Owners
Esther Osmer
Esther Osmer (nee Green) owned the eastern end of the Hiawatha Golf Course. Her property of 30 acres was bounded approximately by E. 42nd Street and E. 44th Street, and 24th Avenue South and 27th Avenue South. Today, the portion north of E. 43rd Street contains homes, and the portion south of E. 43rd Street belongs to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB). The MPRB portion includes the eastern half of Hiawatha Golf Course (holes 2, 3, and 4) and the park containing the ball fields and tennis courts. The subdivision containing the homes is named the "Estate of Esther Osmer" in the Minneapolis city plat maps.
Esther, her husband Datus Osmer, and most of of their immediate family, moved from Watertown, N. Y. to Minnesota in 1867.
The History and Compendium of Minneapolis and Hennepin County 1 says about Esther Osmer and the move to Minneapolis:
"The coming of this family was due to the keenness of Mrs. Osmer, who overheard remarks which led her to believe this city was destined to become large and important. She possessed a strong mentality and remarkable business sagacity. She bought property on her own account with full faith in the future of the city, and lived to realize handsomely on her investments. She and husband were the parents of eight children, and six being in Minneapolis. Thomas Osmer, is a builder of homes. Jane is the widow of the late David Howland, a farmer at Medicine Lake. Cornelia is the widow of the late dairyman Egbert Monroe. Antoinette is the wife of Harry Bady, a machinist, and Ida married Albert Rhunke, late president of the Minneapolis Milk company." Melissa married Suell J. Baldwin on May 25, 1881.
"Mr. Osmer was a cattle dealer, and soon after his arrival bought ten acres of the Nathan Roberts homestead, where he and his wife died, she in her seventy-fourth year (born about 1815, died about 1889) and he in his eighty-eighth [born about 1810, died December 23, 1898]. A part of this place is the present home of Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin" 1 , their daughter and son-in-law.
The 1884-5 Minneapolis City Directory 2 lists the following:
Datus Osmer dairyman residence 36th St. and 21st ave S
Suell J Osmer dairyman residence 21st ave S between 36th and 37th
In the business section 2 under Dairies the family business is listed:
Baldwin S J. 21st av S between 36th and 37th.
Osmer D. 36th cor 21st av S.
The exact address for daughter and son-in-law, Melissa and Suell Baldwin, is listed as 3616 21st Ave. S. in the 1900 Minneapolis City Directory 3. This house no longer exists; that city block now contains Folwell Middle School.
Esther and Datus were cattle and dairy farmers. Old plat maps show a barn erected on the Hiawatha Golf Course property about where the 3rd green now sits. Bernette Powers, a resident on the north side of E. 43rd Street across from the 3rd green had a painting showing a pastoral scene. She said it was of cows that used to be on the golf course property across the street from her home. Therefore, it seems very likely that the Osmer and Baldwin families used this property as pasture land for their livestock, and that the barns (shown in old aerial photos from the 1920's) were erected and used by them for their dairy business.
Esther's daughter, Melissa H. (Osmer) Baldwin, followed in her mother's footsteps.
"Mrs. Baldwin ably illustrated the value of excellent parentage, the business traits that distinguished her mother being prominent in her own life. It was she who turned the meagre rill of income from the old style of home butter-making into abundant stream fed by the modern dairying operation. She despite the warnings of the mere conservative sought customers for milk and finding such disposition of milk more satisfying, continues till they had ready sale for the product of twenty-five cows. Her example led others, including Mr. Rhunke, to set their boat out on the same stream to the end that hundreds of people are now receiving benefits from this determination of this woman to find a more satisfactory way than to merely follow the path so long tried by others. For 15 years she also has been actively and successfully engaged in building homes and operating in real estate. She has either erected new or rebuilt about a dozen homes in that part of the city where they live, and is recognized as a capable manager, an agreeable neighbor and a loyal friend." 1
Regarding Suell Baldwin, the following is said of him in 1914, "For seven years before previously he operated a dairy at his present home at Twenty-first avenue south and Thirty-sixth street, and on return resumed this industry continuing it three years longer. He helped organize the Minneapolis Milk company some twenty years ago, and served long as its vice president and secretary. When it was reorganized in 1913 as the Metropolitan Milk company he was elected president." 1
The 1900 Minneapolis City Directory 3 has the following listing for the Minneapolis Milk Company: The Minneapolis Milk Company, Albert R Ruhnke, Pres; Suell J Baldwin, Vice-Pres; Edward D Ayers, Sec and Treas, Creamery 1208-1210 s 4th, tel N W Main 2255.
Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin had one daughter, Marion B., wife of James Wilder, who also had a daughter, Dorothy Carlson Wilder.
Esther and Datus' son, Thomas D. Osmer, lived at 1911 E. 36th Street in Minneapolis and was a building contractor. Plat maps show that he owned property on the west side of Rice Lake (Lake Hiawatha).
Thomas D. Osmer married Francis S. and had 2 sons, Francis D. and Louis G., and 2 daughters, Mrs. W. Kittell and Mrs. A. Dypwick.
(1) Compendium of History and Biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County (1914), by Return Ira Holcombe, William H. Bingham, p. 461
(2) Minneapolis City Directory for 1884-1885, C. Wright Davison, publisher, 1884
(3) Davison's Minneapolis City Directory, Vol. XXVIII, 1900, Minneapolis Directory Company, publishers
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