Sherburne History Center Blog

An interesting collection in the Archives of the Sherburne History Center consists, in part, of letters from Clarence McNeil to his wife Laura Keasling, the third daughter of George Keasling.  Clarence McNeil grew up in Livonia Township in the 1870s and 1880s.  He was born in Lake City, Minnesota.  His family moved to Sherburne County when he was only 15 months.  He was an intelligent young man, after his education in the public schools, he trained to be a civil engineer.  All of this led up to his travel to Alaska in 1898.  McNeil found himself in the midst of the Klondike Gold Rush.  Some of his letters describe the excitement and hard work in Alaska. On March 7, 1898, he wrote to his wife both exciting news and details of struggle and hard work.  “…by the way I am no ordinary Engineer anymore.  I am now Chief Eng. Of the Chilcoot Railway and Transportation Co.  What do you think of that(?) …Herb and Lester are hauling fre...

If anyone is out there, I realize it has been almost three years since I last posted.  Well, I have made it a goal to publish more in the coming year, 2015.  So stay tuned.  I hope to post information at least once a week in the coming year.  In the meantime, here is a photo from our collection.  I am sending it because the baseball season is about to start and that makes life more complete!  This photo of the Big Lake Baseball team is dated around 1915.