Elizabeth Barnes

Elizabeth Barnes's signature, 1869 (SCSU Archives)

Wilder plot marker, Memorial Park Cemetery, Grand Forks, North Dakota (Find A Grave)

Lizzie Barnes Wilder headstone, Memorial Park Cemetery, Grand Forks, North Dakota (Find A Grave)

Elizabeth “Lizzie” W. Barnes was the daughter of Nathan Frederick and Mary Pepperell (Sparhawk) Barnes. Her father was among St. Cloud’s most influential figures. Born in Portland, Maine on June 26, 1817, Nathan received an academic education before working as a joiner and serving as a Navy midshipman from 1834 to 1839. In 1840, he began studying law and was admitted to practice in 1843. He practiced while in Conway, New Hampshire, where he and Mary were married on April 25, 1844.

In 1850, Nathan was appointed mail agent on the sea route to California via Panama. He served six years before settling in California around the time of Elizabeth’s birth on October 9, 1856. Two years later, they moved to Alexandria, Minnesota, where Nathan took up farming. He and another person were described as the only residents remaining in their neighborhood to survive the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 - it was likely that Mary had evacuated at an earlier time with their children.

The family moved to St. Cloud in 1865, where Nathan reestablished himself as a lawyer and became editor of the St. Cloud Times, the area's Democratic-leaning and pro-segregation newspaper. He served many years as city clerk and city justice and was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1866 and 1874. His advocacy was instrumental in bringing the Third State Normal School to the city and choosing its site along the Mississippi River. From 1869 to February 1870, he was the school's first resident director with class in session.

Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret, were among the school’s first students. Living at home while focusing on their studies, the two later graduated together with the school’s first class on June 30, 1871. Elizabeth lived at home with her parents and siblings and taught school until the late 1870s, when she married William Leroy Wilder. Wilder worked in insurance in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

In Grand Forks, they raised three children: Percival H. (1880), Inez “Amy” H. (1883), and Mabel “May” B. (1889). When the school celebrated its first 50 graduating classes on May 31, 1921, Elizabeth was the only member of the first graduating class to attend the celebration. After William’s death sometime between 1910 and 1930, Elizabeth and daughter Inez relocated to Grove Park, Minnesota, but moved back to Grand Forks by 1935. There, Inez supported her mother working as a librarian. Elizabeth passed away on December 16, 1945 and is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Grand Forks.