[Jeffrey Tate] This is my second grade class at McKinley school.
[Kaomi Lee] Jeffrey Tate stood out among his Fergus Falls classmates.
Not only was he the only African American student in his second grade class, he was also the last of a group of African Americans who called the city home after arriving in the late 1800s.
[Jeffrey Tate] I was born and raised in Fergus Falls.
My mother was born and raised in Fergus Falls, and my father was one of the first 85.
[Kaomi Lee] In 1898, 18 African American families arrived by train from Campbellsville, Kentucky.
What were folks looking for?
[Jeffrey Tate] A better life.
You know, a chance to own property.
[Kaomi Lee] Few were able to farm and realize that dream, but many found jobs as janitors, laborers, and cooks.
[Sylvia Amos] All of them did.
Well.
Now, compared to what you mean by what did well, they took care of their families.
They maintained their households, and they made a living for themselves.
[Kaomi Lee] Many owned homes along Stanton Avenue.
They even formed their own black Central Baptist Church A 1919 Cyclone, Two world wars and the depression changed things.
Amos's relatives relocated to Minneapolis in search of new opportunities.
Others followed suit, but their memories and stories of Fergus Falls never left.
Amos, who grew up in north Minneapolis, has been compiling the history of the first 85.
There was a reunion of descendants a dozen years ago, and more recently, a gathering to celebrate Fergus Falls first black resident, Prince Albert Honeycutt.
[Documentary] In 1896, he ran for mayor of Fergus Falls.
He did not win the election, but he ran a good campaign.
He had a lot of respect.
[Kaomi Lee] He owned a barbershop and was a fireman.
He also helped members of the first 85 to find jobs and resettle.
[Documentary] Prince Albert Honeycutt went from being the only black in Fergus Falls to playing a part in the town's black population, becoming the largest outside the Twin Cities.
[Kaomi Lee] A few years ago, Honeycutt drew the attention of Eric Berg, then a philosophy college professor in Illinois, namely Honeycutt's role in Fergus Falls first semi-pro gloveless baseball team.
[Eric Berg] ItWas extraordinarily unusual to have a mixed team, not only a mixed team.
Prince Honeycutt founded the team with a wonderful name.
They call themselves the North Stars.
[Kaomi Lee] Berg researched Honeycutt at the Otter Tail County Historical Society.
He found copious newspaper coverage about Honeycutt and his striking inroads into area society.
[Eric Berg] Then they played all those little towns around there.
They went as far as Wahpeton, Breckenridge to play in Perham and etc.
would have had, quite a shock on their hands having an African-American player and be team captain.
[Kaomi Lee] Missy Hermes has been a steward of Prince Honeycutt archives for nearly three decades.
She says many of the civic leaders of the time understood and respected how far someone like Honeycutt had come.
[Missy Hermes] They had served in the United States, civil, you know, during the Civil War in the Union Army, and many of them had been in the second Minnesota Volunteer Regiment, which had served a majority of the war in Tennessee and Kentucky.
[Kaomi Lee] When the first 85 arrived, she says something extraordinary happened.
[Missy Hermes] You could not say, well, this is the black neighborhood, so we're going to make you all live here.
That did not happen in Fergus Falls.
This was an integrated city with integrated cemeteries, integrated churches, integrated schools and integrated neighborhoods.
Here he is.
Okay, so there's Prince Nancy, and that's his second wife.
[Kaomi Lee] Honeycutt is joined by other members of the first 85 and their descendants in the cemetery.
Although the living descendants reside elsewhere, their families imprint here remains, as does Honeycutt House.
[Pastor Lynette Higgins-Orr] Moving forward, We want to do a museum to feature Prince Honeycutt and his contribution, which is really vast.
I mean, he did a lot of things across cultural lines.
[Kaomi Lee] Flowing Brook ministries took over the house in 2016.
The ministry is fundraising.
[Pastor Lynette Higgins-Orr] We want to just highlight what he did and the original 85 and and all that they did to bring that community to what it is.
[Documentary] Meet the Tates.
Although they live in urban America now, these are the children of rural Minnesota.
[Kaomi Lee] Now in their 70s.
These first 85 descendants want to keep the history alive.
[Sylvia Amos] To have that house there as a museum and not only have information about Prince Honeycutt and his family, but the rest of the families that came to Fergus Falls and made that their home at that time.