Witness to History

On this day in 1926, the first transatlantic telephone call was made between London and New York. That same year, Charlotte Farrish, the law office’s namesake, joined the firm and started one of the most celebrated legal careers in the history of Minnesota. First Transatlantic Telephone Call Though France joined to Britain by a telephone cable as far back as 1891, the Atlantic was a far greater challenge. With the state of technology at that time a simple cable link would not work. But the needs of commerce and politics meant that the task would inevitably be mastered. On March... Read More

This week in 1919, Congress passed the act that established the Grand Canyon National Park in the state of Arizona. Also in 1919, Sinclair Lewis, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, befriended and lived with J.W. Schmitt, one the firm’s original attorneys. Lewis completed two books, “Main Street” and “Free Air”, while living in Mankato. Grand Canyon President Woodrow Wilson signed the Grand Canyon National Park Act on February 26, 1919. President Theodore Roosevelt had declared the massive Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona a national monument in 1908. The canyon, Roosevelt said, is “the one great sight which every... Read More

On this day in 1972, President Richard Nixon became the first US President to visit China. This weeklong visit normalized relations between the countries. That same year, Harrison H. Schmitt, the great grandson of H.L. Schmitt, the firm’s founder, walked on the moon. He was one of three crew members of Apollo 17, the final mission of the Apollo program. Richard Nixon’s 1972 Visit to China President Richard Nixon took a dramatic first step normalizing relations with the communist People’s Republic of China by traveling to Beijing for a week of talks. This historic visit began the slow process between... Read More

This month in 1963, an oil spill from the Honeymead Products Company sent millions of gallons of soybean oil into Mankato streets and the Minnesota River, prompting the creation of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. In that same year, Robert J. Sheran, who worked with Farrish Johnson Law Office 1945-1963, was appointed Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court by Governor Elmer L. Andersen*. Honeymead Oil Spill The rupture of a soy oil storage tank sent millions of gallons into Mankato streets and the Minnesota River. At that time the Mankato plant was the largest oil-processing facility in the world.... Read More

This week in 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in for an unprecedented fourth term in office. In 1945, Attorney Henry M. Gallagher returned to the Farrish Johnson Law Office after serving seven years as MN Supreme Court Chief Justice. FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commonly known as FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is often rated by scholars as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Roosevelt was born in 1882. He... Read More

In 1893 Katharine Lee Bates penned the words of a poem that would eventually become the song, “America the Beautiful.” In Mankato that same year, Harrison L. Schmitt opened a legal practice that would eventually become Farrish Johnson Law Office. Katharine Lee Bates In 1893, at the age of 33, Katharine Lee Bates, on a trip to Colorado Springs, penned the words to what is now known as the song “America the Beautiful.”  Bates originally  wrote the words as a poem, “Pike’s Peak,” first published in the Fourth of July edition of the church periodical, The Congregationalist.  The sites on her... Read More