NHS Annual Meeting

316 Washington St,Northfield MN 55057

12 February, 2022

Description

The Northfield Historical Society Board of Directors and Staff will recap 2021 and offer a peek at what's coming in 2022. Join the Northfield Historical Society Board of Directors and Staff as they recap 2021. There will be a brief business meeting and dinner followed by the keynote speaker. Longtime Northfielder Ariel Emery Butler will speak about the 1918 murder conviction of August Ruther, the topic of her 2020-21 research fellowship with the Minnesota Historical Society. During World War I, a Rice County jury convicted Ruther, a German citizen, of poisoning his brother-in-law in Bridgewater Township despite a lack of evidence. Newspapers at the time called it " one of the most interesting and sensational trials that has come up in the Rice County court for many years." Butler is a former coordinator of the Northfield-Rice County Digital History Collection and former editor of the Scriver Scribbler.