Charles Eugene Flandrau

Charles Eugene Flandrau. . , The colorful frontiersman credited with giving Minnesota the nickname of the Gopher State was born in 1828 in New York City of French Huguenot and Irish ancestry. As a young lawyer he moved to Minnesota in 1853. After exploring the Minnesota River Valley for two years, he settled at Traverse des Sioux until 1864 and became known as the Defender of New Ulm in the Dakota War of 1862. , A lifelong Democrat, Flandrau rose rapidly in the frontier hierarchy. He became territorial legislator, Indian Agent, delegate to Minnesota’s constitutional convention, and member of the territorial and state supreme courts (1857 - 1864). Like many of the state’s male pioneers, he was an active member of the Minnesota Historical Society’s executive council. He took his duties there seriously, drawing on personal experience to establish a considerable reputation as a historian of the young state. Flandrau authored numerous published speeches as well as such hefty tomes as Encyclopedia of Biography of Minnesota and The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier, both published in 1900. Flandrau’s published works earned him a piece of Minnesota immortality. , He was also known far and wide as a raconteur. When he died in St. Paul in 1903, one eulogy declared, “Minnesota owned Flandrau. They called upon him for addresses upon all sorts of occasions, whether to act as toastmaster or make a speech at a banquet, to celebrate an important historical event, to grace a reception, to make a memorial address, to preside at a convention, or to open a fair.