author
Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark Van Cleve
1819–1907
Born on her family’s journey to the future Fort Snelling, she grew up alongside Minnesota’s earliest years and became a determined voice for women’s rights, education, and social reform. Her long life also left behind a vivid firsthand memoir of frontier life.
1 Audiobook
'Three Score Years and Ten' Life-Long Memories of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and Other Parts of the West
by Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark Van Cleve
About the author
Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark Van Cleve was born on July 1, 1819, near Prairie du Chien as her family traveled west to help establish Fort Snelling. The daughter of a U.S. Army officer, she spent her early years in military posts on the frontier and later returned to Minnesota, where she became part of the region’s civic and cultural life.
In Minneapolis, she was known as an energetic reformer who worked for women’s suffrage and for the welfare of poor and overlooked people. She was the first woman elected to the Minneapolis School Board, and her public work reflected a strong interest in education, charity, and practical improvements in community life.
Van Cleve is also remembered for her memoir, Three Score Years and Ten: Life-Long Memories of Fort Snelling, which preserves personal memories of early Minnesota and the changing frontier she witnessed over nearly nine decades. She died on April 1, 1907, after seeing the small military outpost of her childhood grow into a major city and state.