Alexander Ramsey House
Background
Anna Jenks was visiting her father, Rep. Michael Jenks, at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., when she first met Alexander Ramsey, an up-and-coming congressman from Pennsylvania. The couple married in 1845 and lived in Washington and Pennsylvania until Ramsey was appointed Minnesota's first territorial governor by President Zachary Taylor. With his wife, three-year-old son, brother and servant, Alexander Ramsey arrived in Minnesota territory in 1849. Daughter Marion, born in 1853, was the only one of the three children who survived to adulthood. Although Mrs. Ramsey complained she "would never want to winter again in St. Paul," the Ramseys spent most of their lives in Minnesota.
Alexander Ramsey held numerous offices throughout his political career - territorial governor, mayor of St. Paul, second state governor, U.S. Senator, and secretary of war under President Hayes. He was also a shrewd businessman, and made a sizeable fortune in real estate.
While Ramsey served in the Senate, he and Anna lived in Washington, D.C., and Marion attended boarding school in Philadelphia. Mrs. Ramsey wrote to her daughter in 1866, "Papa and myself rode over to Georgetown. I was astonished to see so many beautiful fine grounds. Papa made the sensible remark: he wished he owned such a home; how he would enjoy it: I wonder if we all would not also." Six months later, they contacted St. Paul builders Leonard & Sheire.
St. Paul's fashionable Irvine Park neighborhood was selected as the location for the new mansion, and construction began in 1868. Architect Monroe Sheire submitted designs, and contractor John Summers supervised the construction. The new home was equipped with the latest technology - hot and cold running water, gas lighting and hot water radiators.
As construction neared completion, Anna Ramsey visited the A.T. Stewart department store in New York City to buy new furnishings for their home. Her purchases almost filled two boxcars. Mr. And Mrs. Ramsey and 19-year-old Marion moved into the new house in September 1872.
The elegant home was the site for numerous social gatherings, including the 1875 wedding of Marion to Charles E. Furness of Philadelphia. The young couple moved to Philadelphia and had four children - Anita, Alexander, Charles (who died in infancy) and Laura. After her husband Charles Runess was hospitalized indefinitely due to mental illness, Marion and the children moved back to St. Paul to live with her parents.
Anita, Ramsey and Laura Furness grew up in their grandparents' home with Alexander Ramsey as their father figure (Anna Ramsey died in 1884.) The busy household also included several servants who lived and worked at the home. Many of these were immigrant women, including longtime cook Annie Robertson, and five Carlson sisters, who worked on and off for the Ramsey family for 30 years.
Grandson Ramsey Furness eventually moved to Missouri and married, but died at age 39 without any children. Neither Laura nor Anita married, and they remained in the home throughout their lives. In their wills, the sisters left the property to the Minnesota Historical Society, along with family letters, numerous photographs and more than 14,000 original furnishings. The Ramsey House is now open as a historic house museum, interpreting the Ramsey household and domestic life in 19th-century St. Paul.
The Minnesota Historical Society is a private, non-profit educational and cultural institution established in 1849 to preserve and share Minnesota history. The Society collects, preserves and tells the story of Minnesota's past through interactive and engaging museum exhibits, extensive libraries and collections, 25 historic sites, educational programs and book publishing. Visit www.mnhs.org for more information.
