ELWYN B. ROBINSON DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
CHESTER FRITZ LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA 58202
COLLECTION: OGL #1223
DATES: 1880- 1992
SIZE: .25 linear feet
ACQUISITION: The Emil Metelmann Papers were deposited in the Orin G. Libby Manuscript Collection by Carol Hanson, Langdon, North Dakota on January 19, 1991 (Acc.# 91-1740).
ACCESS: Available for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Department of Special Collections.
Emil Metelmann was born August 8, 1855 in Mecklenburg, Germany. He spent his youth and received his education in Mecklenburg and then moved to France where he worked in the public parks of Paris and London. In 1880, he moved to Epsom, England and worked as a horticulturalist and met Mary Wood whom he would later marry. In April of 1882, Metelmann arrived in the United States, settling near Bathgate in North Dakota where he purchased 160 acres of land and started a tree nursery. Metelmann went back to England between 1884 and 1885 and during that time rented out his land. The next year he moved back to the United States to farm at a new location two miles out of Walhalla, North Dakota. On November 5, 1886, Emil Metelmann and Mary Wood were married.
Metelmann was one of the first pioneers in Pembina County and was always interested in its development. He was a member of the German Lutheran Church.
Mary (Wood) Metelmann passed away in May 1927 and Emil Metelmann passed away November 25, 1933 in Walhalla, North Dakota. They had seven children.
The Emil Metelmann Papers consist of photocopied correspondence written by Metelmann while in England and Pembina County to his mother in Boldebuck, Germany. These letters date between 1880-1886. The letters, which were originally written in German, were translated into English in the early 1930's by Metelmann's nephew Ernst Metelmann, a journalist in Leipzig, Germany. Ernst Metelmann photocopied the translations and sent the copies to Metelmann's children.
Also included in the collection are photocopied translations of the reported agenda from the Metelmann family reunion, which took place in 1937 at Arendsee, Germany, sent by Ernst Metelmann. There are also copies of land documents including the Bathgate Township plat map showing Emil Metelmann's homestead, the Receivers Receipt he obtained from the land office in Grand Forks, and a homestead certificate. Arranged last in the collection is a newspaper article from the Grand Forks Herald written about Metelmann and his letters.
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