Thursday 3rd September 2009 - Changing a Library Book

The venerated book on Minnesota place names is Upham's "Minnesota Geographic Names". It's the one that says Glasgow Township got its name "...there being several Scotchmen in the town, and the first settler being a Scotchman". Upham was a geologist for various state organisations, and also held several positions in the Minnesota Historical Society. The society produced a new edition (virtually unchanged) of his book in 1969. In it, the then Librarian described him as a "pedantic precisionist and formalist, of infinite old-world courtesy".
Upham got his information, apparently, on his geologing travels, simply by talking to people. I can confirm that that is a very pleasant way of doing things. And shows what people remembered when Upham was doing his stuff.
But the "scotchman" (the Scots object to that, by the way, I'm not sure why) was actually one Hugh McGowan, born in Glasgow in 1813, and emigrating to Nova Scotia in 1830, just when Glasgow was descending into a public health nightmare. By fits and starts, he made his way to southern Minnesota, ending up as the first white settler, in 1855, in what became Glasgow Township. This is asserted in his obituary, which appeared in the Wabasha Herald of February 13th 1896, when these events would still have been in living memory.
So this Glasgow, which I nearly missed, and has no physical or institutional existence, really was named after Glasgow Scotland, by an emigrant.

Wabasha hosts the National Eagle Centre. If you want to sit up close to a real, live eagle while it crunches through a baby chicken, this is the place for you. They have several Bald Eagles (which aren't bald) and a Golden Eagle. They are awesome birds.
It is common, out in the country here, to see big birds floating in circles on the thermals.

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People refer to them as "TVs", Turkey Vultures. The Centre had a big wall chart showing all the birds of prey: "Why", I asked one of the Keepers, "is the Turkey Vutlure not here?" "Well", he said, "it's not a bird of prey". Yeuch!
The Centre is right on the Mississippi. There is a viewing platform, for watching out for wild eagles. As I stood out on it, a 'tow' came by. I'd heard a lot about them, but this was the first one I'd seen. It was immense. Twelve huge barges lashed together, with a tug at the back, pushing them (despite their name). It must have been 50-60 feet wide, and several hundred feet long. I expect it was the maximum size the minimum lock would hold. I forgot about the eagles.

While I was spinning through the reels of Wabasha Herald editions, I somehow managed to stop at February 22nd 1893. It recorded, in a very short paragraph, "The decline in Reading Railroad stock has caused a commotion on Wall Street". This 'commotion' turned into the great panic of 1893, which put paid, it is said. to the prospects of Glasgow, Virginia, becomong the great railroad town of the south.
Glasgow VA is where I am going next week.