Sherburne History Center Blog

A recent facebook post from the Stearns County History Center noted a variety of explanations for round barn architecture.   Although I am not too thoughtful, the article caused me to wonder the different why’s of barn construction.   Why are they round?   Why paint a barn red, or white?   What are the motives of a house barn?   According to the Stearns County post, folklore suggested round barns were built so the devil could not hide in the corners.   More practically, round barns better withstood high winds, tornadoes, and other natural disasters.   In the end, technology eroded the popularity of round barns.   Loading silos and feeding cattle in a round barn proved more difficult than using a rectangular barn.   And, the expense of construction also discouraged the unique architecture of a round barn.   Round barn located on the Perry Garner farm, near Elk River, circa 1916 Economics also determined the color of a bar...

The cliché tells us that “truth is often stranger than fiction.”  In the case of the Becker Post Office robbery of 1931, the truth reads like fiction.  Here is a story of a woman betrayed and a group of cold hearted men plotting for the promise of easy money.   The story begins with Mr. Berga Glisson.  A resident of St. Cloud, in 1931 he had been spending time with the post mistress of Becker, Miss Gertrude Dyson.  For two years the couple had been together.  In December 1931, according to the Sherburne County Star News Glisson and three cohorts schemed to rob the safe of the Becker Post Office.  Glisson’s part in the crime was to duplicate a house key to the residential portion of the Post Office and deliver it to another of his co-conspirators.   The evening of December 6, 1931, using the key provided by Glisson, three men burst into the home of Miss Dyson.  They took Dyson and Glisson hostage and forced the postmistress to o...