Forster Building

Forster Building. , Frederick Forster came to the United States in 1850 and taught school in New York. He moved to New Ulm in 1858, where he continued teaching, becoming the city's postmaster in 1861. , In 1860, Forster purchased this lot and the following year, with his partner, Friedrich Gommel, a Cincinnati potter, opened New Ulm's first pottery, selling "all sorts of fine and ordinary dishes." , During the Dakota Conflict, this building, located just outside the barricades, became an important defense outpost. On August 23, 1862, Henry Swift, a future Governor of Minnesota, and about twenty men were assigned to defend this structure. Charles Flandrau wrote, "A number of our men took possession of the brick Post Office . . . and loopholed it in all stories and through the roof, thus protecting quite a range of the rear of the town." After the Dakota withdrew, the town was evacuated. Upon his return, Forster wrote that he "found all the buildings that hadn't been burned had all been broken into, with chests and crates opened and their contents stolen." The pottery closed shortly after the Civil War. Gommel served several terms as New Ulm's constable while Forster returned to his work as postmaster and teacher. , It remained a private home until 1925 when A. J. Stoltenberg bought the property to expand his Broadway Tire Company. This is one of few buildings in the city dating from the time of the Dakota Conflict.