Sherburne History Center Blog

  Union Church Bell currently housed at the  Sherburne History Center As we explore communication devices in Sherburne County, attention to the telephone and the telegraph remain important considerations.   Yet, before the telephone and telegraph, the county needed some technology to sound fire alarms and arouse the citizenry in the middle of the night.   Every small community wrestled with the question of how to sound an alarm.   Some communities used steam whistles from factories.   Others used the ever-present church bell. The leaders of Big Lake chose to utilize local church bells.   An example of the church bell warning system remains in the collections of the Sherburne History Center.   The church bell from the Union Church served for many years as part of the warning system for Big lake.   Some residents remember, “you could hear that bell for miles.”   With every fire, or other catastrophe, the Union Church bell rang out. Ins...

  With the end of the 2020 elections, an interesting letter in the archival collections of the Sherburne History Center warrants some discussion. As background information, the 19 th amendment granting women the right to vote in national elections passed in August 1920.   Prior to the approval of the 19 th Amendment, in Minnesota, women voted in some local elections.   Of particular interest, women voted in elections concerning local school boards.   This makes sense when we realize a responsibility of all women concerned the education of children.   This belief extends back into the 1800s. In a letter sent to concerned citizens of Clear Lake, Sherburne County, Assistant Attorney General Montreville J. Brown reaffirmed the right of women to vote in local school board issues.   His only caveat to this voting right being that women must be residents of the district in question and “they are of the age twenty-one years and upward and possess the qualific...

  As a follow-up to the recent report documenting the development of telephone technology in Sherburne County, a collection of documents highlighting the day-to-day operations of the telephone companies came to light.   The by-laws and expectations of users of the telephone company provide interesting insight.   The rules and bylaws from the Meadowvale Rural Telephone Company, and the Haven Rural Telephone Company provide details of construction as well as telephone etiquette for the 1910s and 1920s.   these documents provide some enlightening insight into early Sherburne County. The Meadowvale Rural Telephone Company organized in 1905 with a strict set of bylaws and rules of etiquette.   Article 2 of the bylaws set down strict penalties for failure to follow the rules of the company: “Should any members of this company neglect to keep their phone in order or willfully disobey the rules or bylaws or do anything to hinder the harmonious working of such lines, t...