Ellen Kimball

Ellen Kimball's signature, 1869 (SCSU Archives)

Ellen “Nellie” Miranda Kimball was born in Maine in 1854 to Fry M. and Ellen P. Kimball and was the oldest of two children. Fry, who was born in Massachusetts in 1824, worked as a paper maker until the family came to Minnesota in 1856. They settled in Maine Prairie, where Fry was elected one of the town’s first constables and farmed a land claim. While attending the Third State Normal School from 1869 to 1871, Nellie boarded with W.O. and J.A. Thomas in St. Cloud.

After graduating with the school’s first class on June 30, 1871, Nellie moved back with her parents in Maine Prairie, where she may have been a teacher. By 1880, she had moved to Anoka, Minnesota, and taught school there. By 1885, Neillie had married William Kilbourne, and the two moved to Minneapolis. Her parents moved to Minneapolis in 1884, and their houses were next door to each other. William had passed away by 1905, and Nellie moved in with her cousin, Albert Wells, living there until her death on January 26, 1928. She is buried in Minneapolis’s Lakewood cemetery at section 15, lot 329, grave 3.

Sources

1860 U.S. census, Stearns County, Minnesota, population schedule, Marysville, p. 941, dwelling 1068, family 878; NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 574, accessed July 21, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1870 U.S. census, Stearns County, Minnesota, population schedule, St. Cloud Ward 1, p. 132B, dwelling 85, family 85; NARA microfilm publication T132, roll 716, accessed July 22, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1875 Minnesota census, Stearns County, Maine Prairie, p. 726, family 107; Minnesota Historical Society microfilm publication MNSC_16, accessed July 22, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1880 U.S. census, Anoka County, Minnesota, population schedule, Anoka, enumeration district 041, p. 17A, dwelling 156, family 170; NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 615, accessed July 22, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1885 Minnesota census, Hennepin County, Minneapolis, p. 17, family 149; Minnesota Historical Society microfilm publication MNSC_27, accessed July 22, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1905 Minnesota census, Hennepin County, Minneapolis, p. 19, family 17; Minnesota Historical Society microfilm publication MNSC_124, accessed July 22, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1910 U.S. census, Hennepin County, Minnesota, population schedule, Minneapolis Ward 9, enumeration district 0170, p. 3B, dwelling 47, family 61; NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 704, accessed July 22, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1920 U.S. census, Hennepin County, Minnesota, population schedule, Minneapolis Ward 7, enumeration district 127, p. 5A, dwelling 84, family 108; NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 835, accessed July 22, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

Memorial page for Nellie M. Kilbourn (1854–26 Jan 1928), Find A Grave Memorial no. 124535819, citing Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA; maintained by Steve Carlson (contributor 47330162); accessed July 22, 2019.

Minnesota Department of Health, Nellie Miranda Kilbourn death record, 1928, Minnesota Death Index, 1908-2017, accessed July 1922 2019 on Ancestry.com.

“Normal School Examination: Exercises of the Graduating Class,” The St. Cloud Journal, July 6, 1871, http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub (accessed July 16, 2019).

“Opening of the Normal School,” The St. Cloud Journal, September 23, 1869, http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub (accessed July 16, 2019).

State Normal School at St. Cloud, “Catalogue and Circular of the State Normal School at St. Cloud, Minnesota,” 1884-1885, p. 5, series 1, box 1, folder 1, St. Cloud State University Undergraduate Catalogs, 1869-2012+, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.

State Normal School at St. Cloud, “Alumni Directory of the State Normal School,” 1908, p. 1, series 6, box 10, folder 1, Records of the St. Cloud State Alumni Association, 1874-2006, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.

State Normal School at St. Cloud, “Record Book” 1869-1885, box 1, folder 1, Admission and Records Records, 1869-1939, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.

St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections, transcript index, https://www.stcloudstate.edu/library/archives/histories/transcript-index.aspx (accessed July 16, 2019).

Works Progress Administration, “Fry M. Kimball Biography,” 1937, box 4, folder 7, WPA Stearns County Biographies, 1936-1939, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.