In my previous post, “Frank Smith & Grace Ledbeter”, I explained how the criminal trials of Frank Smith and Grace Ledbeter are connected to the movie “You’ve Got Mail”. Would you be surprised to know that that isn’t the only famous trial from Minnesota with a link to the movie?

THE SAULPAUGH HOTEL

The Saulpaugh Hotel was built in Mankato, Minnesota in 1889 by Thomas Saulpaugh (SAWL-paw) and was the finest hotel in the city of Mankato. At four stories, it was the largest building in Southern Minnesota at the time. When Thomas Saulpaugh died in 1892 (and his wife in 1893), their son, Clarence H. Saulpaugh, inherited their hotel and fortune. In 1893, Saulpaugh married Roma Allen. Marriage announcements introduced her as the daughter of a wealthy businessman from Pennsylvania. It seemed like the perfect match for the young tycoon.

SHE MEANS BUSINESS

A few months later, headlines reported that Clarence was being sued by a Miss Victoria Stein for breach of promise and was requesting damages to the tune of $50,000. That’s over $1,500,000 today if you account for inflation!

Before the trial began, Victoria was dismissed as just a young woman disappointed that her crush had run off and married another woman. But when the trial began and Victoria presented her case, people started take her much more seriously. She testified that Clarence had helped her obtain a divorce from her first husband. It was his invitation that brought her to work at the hotel in Mankato as a housekeeper. He had told her that they could not marry because his parents would protest - but when they had both passed, she expected that they would finally be together. He had given her an engagement ring. He started sending her on trips to New York and California, telling her it was to kill time until they could be together.

Victoria also produced hundreds of letters to back up her story. The letters were on Saulpaugh Hotel stationery. He called Stein "Toots" and referred to himself as "Pops". Filled with romance, plans for the future, and terms of endearment - the court gallery was in stitches and the embarrassing letters were read aloud. Clarence was even more humiliated when the letters were published in the newspapers.

GLASS HOUSES

On cross examination, it was revealed that Victoria had met Clarence when she was living in a brothel and worked under the name Alice Booth. The defense forced out every detail of her time as a prostitute, scandalizing the jury and court. Victoria protested that since meeting Saulpaugh, though, she had moved to Chicago and was a legitimate businesswoman. Besides, Victoria proved that Roma Allen wasn’t who she said she was either - revealing that instead of a wealthy heiress, Roma Allen was actually Roma Miller, a haymaker and wife of a locomotive engineer.

CLARENCE TAKES THE STAND

When Clarence took the stand in his own defense, he had every excuse in the book.

He claimed that all of the professions of love, promises of marriage, and talk of children were "just jokes". He said that SHE proposed to HIM. That she was bleeding him for money. He only gave her a ring to wear because it made her happy, it's not an engagement ring.

The defense also produced nearly a dozen men to testify to Stein's history of public drunkenness, frequenting saloons and "wine rooms", and knowledge of her being a prostitute or in the company of prostitutes.

THE VERDICT

The jury was torn. Clarence had to have known about Victoria’s profession and background - that’s how they met after all. He had to know that she was a “working girl” because everyone else certainly did. In the end, the jury unanimously believed that Clarence HAD made a promise of marriage and had strung Stein along and they found him GUILTY of breach of promise. BUT! They also believed that Victoria was a drunk and a prostitute, which somehow made her less deserving of damages.

They awarded her $1. (Clarence was also ordered to pay all legal costs and court fees.)

But Victoria wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. Her lawyers filed a motion to reconsider the amount of damages awarded and she won - sort of.

The award for damages was raised to $100.

AFTER THE TRIAL

Victoria Stein took her $100 and went back to Chicago where she was running a boarding house.

Clarence and Roma Saulpaugh actually lived happily ever after. The settled into rooms at the Saulpaugh Hotel. Clarence turned over management of the hotel to a leasing company - which freed him up to follow his passions.

In 1897, Clarence became an owner of the Minneapolis Millers (of the Western League) and for a time, held the lease on Nicollet Park - a wooden baseball stadium in Minneapolis. As the leagues shifted and reformed, Clarence was eventually pushed out in 1902 and he was done with baseball.

Clarence and Roma were so well-known in Minnesota that they became the inspiration for characters in Maud Hart Lovelace’s book, Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown. A part of the “Betsy-Tacy” series, the book is set in Deep Valley, Minnesota - modeled after Mankato. The friends, Betsy and Tacy (real name Anastacia), befriend Mr. and Mrs. Poppy. They are the owners of the Poppy Hotel, based on the Saulpaugh Hotel. Mrs. Poppy is the wealthiest woman in town, but she is lonely, and the girls become her friends. In return, Mrs. Poppy invites them to parties at the hotel and Mr. Poppy takes them for a ride in his automobile.

Clarence’s automobile trips were so notorious that they were reported on in the newspapers. He set speed records, which both irritated and inspired his neighbors. He also once used his Cadillac to tow a stove out of a home destroyed by a tornado. The stove held the family’s savings and without it they would have been destitute.

Clarence passed in 1917 and Roma in 1923. Both were laid to rest in Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis. The Saulpaugh Hotel, in Mankato, closed in 1964. It briefly served as a dormitory for a technical school, but was demolished in 1974.