Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
One of 16 National Register listings published here for Houston County · listed in 1970 · category: Building.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article
The chapter on Brownsville City in History of Houston County, Minnesota, published 1919 names Brownsville. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
The Western Progress. This was a newspaper with a decided literary turn, published by Mrs. Bella French and Richard 0. Thomas. It was a neat, well printed sheet that worked hard in the interest of Brownsville and Southern Minnesota. In April, 1870, Mr. Thomas withdrew and went to La Crosse, and the next month, a more promising field having opened in Spring Valley, Fillmore county, the whole establishment was removed there. Mrs. French afterwards published a magazine, "The Busy West," in St. Paul, and subsequently did some excellent historical work in Wisconsin. She later became a resident of Austin, Tex., and the editor of the "American Sketch book," a pioneer magazine of the "Lone Star" State.
Passage source: History of Houston County, Minnesota, published 1919.
"The old Washington hand press upon which Owen Lovejoy was wont to print his paper was not allowed to sleep in the bed of the Ohio River, however ; it was fished out, taken to Brownsville, and was there used for a few months in the publication of a clientless newspaper. Later it was sold to Dr. A. P. Blakeslee and others of La Crosse, and was the press on which the National Democrat of that city was printed, which later furnished the mechanism through which the famous Mark M. (Brick) Pomeroy made his vigorous assaults upon the administration of Abraham Lincoln, whom he denounced as the 'widow maker,' and declared the war for the preservation of the union to be a failure.
Passage source: History of Houston County, Minnesota, published 1919.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Brownsville City - 1,087 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 41 fires within 5 miles of Church of the Holy Comforter-Episcopal between 1993 and 2020, burning about 242 acres in total. None started naturally. 7 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 19 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 7 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2003 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 16 July 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 8.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 June 2009 | Fireworks | under an acre | LaCrosse District, Upper Mississippi National Wildlife Refuge | WIGWAM SLOUGH |
| 21 June 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 14 June 1994 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | LaCrosse District, Upper Mississippi National Wildlife Refuge | GOOSEIS |
| 7 May 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 May 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 68 |
| 4 May 2004 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Church of the Holy Comforter-Episcopal: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conniff Quarry & Mill | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Zaiger Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Brownsville, the town this property stands in, in 13 storm reports between 1996 and 2020: 6 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 lightning, 1 funnel cloud. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2004 | Hail | Brownsville | $75,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Brownsville | $46,000 | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Lightning | Brownsville | $25,000 | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Brownsville | $10,000 | The tin roof of a barn was blown off. |
| March 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Brownsville | $10,000 | Part of a roof was blown off a barn near Brownsville. |
| July 2004 | Hail | Brownsville | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Brownsville | $5,000 | Numerous trees and some power lines were blown down near Brownsville. |
| September 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Brownsville | $4,000 | Numerous trees and power lines were blown down near Brownsville. |
| August 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Brownsville | $300 | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Funnel Cloud | Brownsville | - | A funnel cloud was sighted just west of Brownsville. |
| June 2015 | Hail | Brownsville | - | Quarter sized hail was reported west of Brownsville. |
| June 2015 | Hail | Brownsville | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Brownsville | - | no account filed |
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hokah Municipal Building | 5.5 miles | 2014 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 70000298 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Houston County | All 16 listed properties in this county. |
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