His family's little house made history

Ed Martin, whose 150-year-old ancestral cottage, the Dahl House, escaped the wrecking ball in St. Paul nearly 10 years ago, died Dec. 9 at his Woodbury home.

He was 96.

In 2000, when the home was uprooted and moved from its site near the Minnesota Department of Revenue building, he told the Star Tribune, "It's a relief that they just didn't wreck it."

"The important thing is it will live on, but it's a shame that an awful lot of history will be lost by changing its position," said Martin.

The Dahl House was built by Martin's great-grandparents for $300 in 1858 just as Minnesota became a state. It is the last of 1,500 small, working-class homes that sprung up around what is now the State Capitol mall.

The cottage was renovated for use as a single-family home at 508 Jefferson Av., St. Paul.

After the state Revenue Department building went up in 1997, the Dahl House was a flashpoint between state bureaucrats and preservationists.

It hadn't been used as a family home since the mid-1960s.

Jim Sazevich of St. Paul, a preservationist, recalled Martin's help in saving the house.

"He had a really deep-seated pride that reached back to the early days of Minnesota," Sazevich said. "I think his presence was absolutely instrumental in saving the house."

Martin's great-grandmother, Catherine Dahl, was pregnant with his grandmother, Mary Anne, when she moved into the house in 1858 with her husband.

William Dahl, Martin's great-grandfather, came to the Minnesota Territory in 1849 and worked as a clerk, census-taker, shopkeeper and member of the Pioneer Guard. But he died of tuberculosis within a few months of moving into the house.

"My father was born in that old house in 1886, and I'm just glad they didn't tear it down," Martin said.

Ed Martin was an electronics repair teacher for the old Northwest Electronics Institute, now part of Minneapolis' Dunwoody College of Technology.

He was a 1928 graduate of St. Paul's Cretin High School and studied engineering at the University of Minnesota in the early 1930s.

During World War II, he worked on radar, both in England with the British Civilian Technical Corps, and later as a member of the U.S. military in the Pacific Theater.

Martin and his wife of 64 years, Evelyn of Woodbury, whom he met while working in England, raised nine children of their own, and took in three dozen foster kids for Catholic charities.

He retired from the Army Reserves as a major in 1960, and from teaching in 1978. He enjoyed genealogy and computers.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughters, Therese Schoen of Ottawa Lakes, Mich., Christine Martin of St. Paul, Susan Toth of Cottage Grove, Patricia Thraen of Marine on Croix and Stephanie Anderson of Glenwood, Iowa; sons, Raymond of Schofield, Wis., Thomas of Woodbury, David of St. Paul and Andrew of Apple Valley; sister, Geraldine Tierney of Roseville; 30 grandchildren; three step-grandchildren; 28 great-grandchildren and three step great-grandchildren.

Services have been held.