Posts

The Baldwin Boys: Baldwin’s Civil War Veterans

By
Image
Submitted Article by: Rebecca Rittenour In the 1970s, I spent a lot of time playing in the Baldwin Cemetery as did many kids from the area. It was a convenient meet-up point, at the nexus of two county roads, and a pile of bikes at the gate was a common sight. Resting between games of tag or statue, we would sprawl among the gravestones and share our young observations on life, the world, and the afterworld. Sitting under the lilacs that were once scattered between headstones, my brother Jay once remarked, “Imagine what it was like way back then during Civil War times, and you’re a farmer with a kid at war. You’re working in the yard or in the field, and you hear the clopping of horses and wagon wheels on gravel coming down the road.” He pointed south, and we peered down County Road 19, seeing it as it was a hundred years earlier, dirt and dust kicking up around the hooves and wheels. “You don’t recognize the horses or the wagon, and as it gets closer, you can tell there’s a long wood...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hospitality Industry in Early Sherburne County

By Anonymous
Image
  In reviewing the history of Sherburne County, significant attention is given to the agriculture industry, or to transportation, specifically the railroads. An area of the economy in Sherburne County that receives very little attention, an area that warrants greater attention, is the hospitality industry. From the beginning of the county to today, hotels and hospitality played a significant role in the county.   Starting with Brown’s Hotel in Big Lake and continuing with the Riverside House and the Blanchett Hotel in Elk River.   Also, we need to note the inn at Bailey Station in the 1870s.   All of these establishments played a significant role in the economic history of Sherburne County.               Brown’s Hotel in Big Lake marks the beginning of hospitality industry.   Before the county was created, Joseph Brown advertised in the Sauk Rapids newspaper, promoting Big Lake as a stopping off point...
Post a Comment
Read more

School Architecture in Sherburne county

By Anonymous
Image
  While researching a general topic of education in Sherburne County, a greater understanding of the architecture of schoolhouses emerged.   By this I suggest that searching for details of the large, brick, near-monumental schools in Sherburne County reveals an interesting pattern.   The best known of the large schools in Sherburne County resides in Elk River.   In 1883, fire destroyed the Elk River school.   A fire resistant, brick building replaced the destroyed structure.   A two-story edifice, a school for all grades opened its doors.   This building is the first of the large, semi-permanent edifices that pre-dates education reform and expands the possibilities for education in Sherburne County.   First brick schoolhouse in Elk River pre-1900 The first graduating class of this new Elk River school matriculated in 1888.   Eleven years later, in 1899 the state of Minnesota advanced education in Sherburne County.   That year, the Sc...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Bit of Cemetery Symbolism

By Anonymous
Image
  Halloween arrives in just a few days.   It seems appropriate to explore the symbolism in death.   Cemeteries contain an abundance of symbols in the grave markers, plants, and architecture.   Understanding the meaning of a few of these symbols might give us a greater appreciation of the planning and design of cemeteries and the communities surrounding these resting places. Entryway of Becker Cemetery, Becker, MN.   Look closely, hidden by the evergreens, is  the arched entryway to the cemetery It seems as though everything in a cemetery contains some symbolic meaning.   The shape of the entryways to many burial grounds represent the gates of heaven.   Many cemeteries have pine trees and other evergreens to remind us of the concept of eternal life.   And the headstones often resemble bed stands to suggest eternal rest.   We haven’t even looked at the headstones, yet the cemeteries overflow with symbolism and, seeming, prayers f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Remembering the Halloween Blizzard

By Anonymous
Image
This week marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Halloween Blizzard of 1991.   Memorable to the history of Minnesota and, to a lesser degree, Sherburne County.   We have witnessed Mother Nature and her ability to inflict significant turmoil in our lives, with blizzards, flooding, tornadoes, and other catastrophic events.   Transportation by any means possible during the  1991 Halloween Blizzard.  photo courtesy of Elk  River Star News collection The Halloween Blizzard is one of these events that inflicted significant challenges into the lives of Minnesotans.   Like the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940, the Halloween Blizzard started as an innocent snowstorm.   Suddenly it erupted into something so much greater.   Record snow fell in 1991.   In a 24-hour period, Duluth recorded more than 24 inches of snow.   Sherburne County recorded an estimated 16 inches.   The Elk River Star News also reported snow drifts as high as fifteen f...
Post a Comment
Read more

More Letters From Somewhere in France: Describing the Y

By Anonymous
Image
The letters from George Bostrom to his sister document the events of World War One in interesting detail. Only after the war is over, he writes about seeing action in the Argonne Forest. More importantly, in the chronolo0gical order of his letters, he describes his seven days of leave in December 1918. He provides an interesting contrast between life on the front lines versus the luxury hotel he stays in Chambray, France.  I am having just a dandy time at present , he wrote. Have been over here long enough to be granted a seven day pass and here I am at Chambray to enjoy it. And I sure am enjoying it. After being in the lines for nearly a month of real hardships. Laying in shell holes and digin’s, what we call them, lots of times wet thru and thru and cold and then sent to a place like this with every comfort you can think of.    He went on to describe the luxuries of the ever-present Y.M.C.A. The Y.M.C.A I must tell you about. There’s a Y. here in a very large bu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Women's Basketball in Elk River

By Anonymous
Image
  Recently, it occurred to me, this blog heaped a great deal of attention on athletics in Elk River.   Unfortunately, the attention focused on men’s sports, specifically football and basketball.   It is time to shift the focus and give attention to women in sports in Sherburne County. Elk River Women's team, 1921 As early as 1921, several schools in and around Elk River offered Women’s Basketball to the female students.   Based upon the writing in the Elk River yearbook the women of Elk River presented a relatively new sport to the student body. The description of the Elk River team noted “inexperienced” players for the team.   In addition, the yearbooks writers reported “a lack of a suitable place in which to practice.”   In spite of these shortcomings, the Elk River team posted a 2 and 3 record, facing Anoka, Princeton, Buffalo, and Monticello.   The women of Elk River continued to build on their experience.   Women’s Basketball became a reg...
Post a Comment
Read more