About a month ago I was watching the History Channel on the local cable television system when I happened to hear a name with a rather interesting connection with a street here in Albert Lea.

Friday, March 16, 2001

About a month ago I was watching the History Channel on the local cable television system when I happened to hear a name with a rather interesting connection with a street here in Albert Lea. Then, a few days later, the program was repeated and I could verify for sure I’d heard it right the first time. That name happened to be Minnie Maddern Fiske.

We’ll explain later how her name became involved with the television program, &uot;History’s Lost and Found.&uot; But, first, let’s explain how hearing this name revived memories of one of my first Tribune columns.

Here’s what I wrote on June 13, 1986, about this lady and how her professional stage name came to be used to designate a short street across from the Freeborn County Museum’s entry on North Bridge Avenue:

&uot;Judy Mullen of the Albert Lea Public Library staff has solved the minor mystery regarding the true identity of Minnie Maddern, the lady who has her name on an Albert Lea street. The ‘Oxford Companion To the Theatre (Fourth Edition, 1983)’ says on page 283 that this lady’s original name was Maria Augusta Davey. Her stage name was Minnie Maddern, and this was based on her mother’s maiden name. She lived from 1865 to 1932 and was an actress on both the stage and in some early films, a stage director, and involved with theater management. Minnie married Harrison Grey Fiske in 1890 and he lived from 1861 to 1942. She may have made several trips through Albert Lea with traveling theater troupes. Anyway, John E. Ransom knew who she was and named a street in her honor in a newly platted subdivision in 1936.&uot;

Judy Mullen was a local library staff member back in 1986 and is now the librarian for the Hormel Institute in Austin.

John E. Ransom was a member of a pioneer family, a lawyer, insurance and real estate agent, and associated with the Enderes Tool firm. He died in 1942.

Now, let’s shift the focus of this column to Minnie Maddern and why her name became a part of a national television program. And her connection with &uot;History’s Lost and Found&uot; is based on a 138-year-old piece of wedding cake.

Phineas Taylor (P. T.) Barnum (1810-1891) was once the nation’s premier showman and publicity expert. Sometime prior to the Civil War he discovered a young man named Charles S. Stratton who was what some folks call a midget. (I prefer the term little person.) Anyway, Barnum changed his name to General Tom Thumb and created a show business sensation for a few years.

As a publicity stunt a few years later, and to revive the general’s popularity, Barnum arranged a marriage between Tom and a tiny lady named Lavina Warren in 1863.

This wedding featured a really large cake, likely German chocolate. A custom in those days was to give each guest a piece of the wedding cake in a fancy box. Lavina also kept a piece of this boxed cake as a personal memento.

General Tom Thumb died in 1888. Lavina continued on as a part of the entertainment world until her death in 1919.

Sometime during those years Lavina and Minnie became friends. The small box with the piece of old wedding cake plus some other items were given to Minnie when Lavina died. And upon the death of Minnie Maddern Fiske in 1932, the box with the wedding cake segment and some papers were donated to the Library of Congress. Thus, today, the piece of 138-year-old wedding cake is filed away as Exhibit 20693 in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

To conclude this column, I would like to issue a request for some information.

The recent finding of a photo of &uot;Freeborn’s Fighting Fury&uot; at the courthouse has revived interest in this subject. This B17G bomber was purchased as the result of a local bond drive during World War II. I tried to research the wartime history of this aircraft in 1987 and didn’t have too much luck.

Now, can anyone furnish the number of the squadron or wing this plane served with, or even its specific serial number?

Feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears Fridays in the Tribune.