Sherburne History Center Blog

Improving technology significantly impacted Sherburne County in the 1930s.   Increasing access to electricity made life so much easier for local farmers.   The local telephone company promised a telephone in the house could save your life.   Electric refrigerators reduced waste caused by the less functional ice box, the new machines also provided “26 percent more storage space.”   Perhaps the most significant advances in technology allowed farmers more time and greater productivity.   The advertising for new farm equipment seemed magical in the enhanced production the machines provided.   The Allis-Chalmers Sherburne County Star News advertising Allis-Chalmers tractors in March 1938, promised “work just melts away.”   The ad promised “with an air-tired WC you plow up to 5 miles an hour.”   With this speed it was like adding extra equipment to a “slower outfit.”   The Allis-Chalmers ad alluded to other technological improvements. ...

Summer’s beginning, memories of luxurious heat and the pleasure of cold ice cream springs to mind.   Memories takes us back in time, one constant fixture of summer in Elk River continuously comes to mind: Shadick’s Confectionary. Opening in 1928 and remaining on Main Street until 1954, Ernie Shadick introduced new and unusual treats to the Elk River palate, providing sweet flavored relief from summer heat.   Yet, his early life in Anoka County gave no indication Ernie L. Shadick was destined to operate the sweet treat institution in Elk River.   Born in 1899 to Herbert and Bertha Shadick, he spent his early life in and around St. Francis.   He served in the Army Air Corps during World War One.   Discharged December 1918, after ten years in Minneapolis, he found his way to Main Street, Elk River.   Pineapple, one of the many unique flavors offered up at Shadick's in 1938 Beginning in 1928, Shadick purchased and modernized the Riverside Conf...

Transportation advertising found in the Sherburne County Star News , 1938 Country roads became smooth bands of pavement throughout Minnesota in the 1920s. As gravel and mud disappeared, replaced by sleek, flat thoroughfares, roads generated a new need for speed and power.   Automobiles graduated from the small buggy model-T’s to the V-8 power of Ford and Chevrolet.   Newspapers in the 1930s witnessed a dramatic change in the object of advertising.   No longer the small cars or buggies.   With the completion of the Jefferson Highway through Sherburne County, and roads running north, the Sherburne County Star News began advertising what must have seemed like truly powerful machines of transportation. Deluxe Ford V-8’s “bigger and more luxurious than any previous Ford V-8,” the newspapers advertised.   Delivered for only $802, “why pay more” the ads wondered.   Chevy and Buick also promised greater power in their automobiles.   In addition...