Sherburne History Center Blog

  Section of a letter written by H. C. Byson to his daughter Dawn with exciting details about POWs sighted in Elk River. Prisoners of War in Minnesota during World War Two often worked the lumber mills and the farms in the northern and central parts of the state.   Although not often seen in Sherburne County, POWs worked the potato harvest in Princeton in 1943, and possibly again in 1944.   At times, residents of Elk River and eastern Sherburne County witnessed these POWs being transported or working the potato fields. The casual sighting of POWs in Elk River, like other small towns in Minnesota, generated a certain amount of excitement witnessed in family letters such as the letter from H. C. Byson to his daughter Dawn Byson (later Moyer), in the summer of 1944.   Byson wrote to his daughter: Bruce came home this morning from downtown with those expressive eyes of his telling us an exciting story.   He and several other people watched German prisoners eat ...

View of Fox House in its original condition With May being National Historic Preservation Month, it seems appropriate to talk about one of the five National Register sites in Sherburne County.   The most obscure and underappreciated of the sites must be the Herbert Maximillian Fox House.   So, we need to look at this structure to appreciate the impact and influence the site provides.     The original owner and builder of the Fox House remains unknown.   Before Herbert Fox, Ole Martinson purchased an 80-acre parcel along the St Francis River.   He later sold the parcel to Samuel P. Glidden, who in turn sold it to Fox.   With these transactions, the farm site grew to 160 acres.   Sometime before Fox purchased the property, Glidden or Martinson built the house. The house construction makes the site unique.   All of the original slates on the house were vertical, and load bearing.   There remains very little horizontal construction in th...

More than a bit of folklore suggests Sinclair Lewis spent some time in Sherburne County, visiting family and, more importantly, writing.   So, we have to sit, contemplate this lore, and consider any impact Lewis may have had on the area.   The first book published by Lewis, under the pseudonym Tom Graham, Hike and the Aeroplane marked the beginning of a significant career.   Part of the folklore maintains that after the publication of his book Main Street he was ostracized.   He never set foot in Sauk Centre again.   However, family members owned property and lived in west Sherburne County.     In addition to Main Street, he went on to publish Babbitt, Elmer Gantry, and a host of other works.   He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930.   The first writer in the United States to win the award.   Perhaps most insightful, his 1935 publication of It Can’t Happen Here explores events after a fascist wins the Presidential electio...

  During Women’s History Month we recognized several women impacting community and culture in Sherburne County.   We also need to note at least one of the many community organizations, led by women, that worked to impact and improve life in Sherburne County.   The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (the WCTU) remains one of the more important of these groups. 1911 Star News headline reporting vote results on alcohol sales.  Nationally the WCTU organized in 1874 urging abstinence from alcohol.   Beginning in 1878, under the leadership of Francis Willard, the group also advocated for prison reform, labor laws, and suffrage.   Many regarded the group as one of the largest and most influential of reform societies in the United States during the 1800s. In Sherburne County, the WCTU organized late.   In 1895, the Elk River Star News reported meetings at the Elk River Methodist Church.   Not until 1910 did the WCTU formally organize in Becker.  ...

  Conservationist, 4-H advocate, and educator of children and adults; all terms that describe Ella Kringlund in Elk River.   An early promoter of Sherburne County and their natural resources, Ella Kringlund enthusiastically worked to boost conservation.   In the midst of Women’s History Month, it seems appropriate to make record of her life and her mission in Sherburne County. Ella Kringlund is long remembered for her work restoring the land that is today Sand Dunes State Forest.   Her memoirs record her efforts to plant a variety of pine trees in the area.   When her project began in the mid-1940s (and continuing until 1965) each season she organized a tree planting as a 4-H project.   In time, Ella Kringlund and her volunteers planted an estimate seven million trees.   Her efforts proved so successful, a Christmas tree thinning project also developed. By conservation standards in 2000, the trees she planted may not fit the accepted norms.   Ye...

  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...

  A new exhibit on the Sherburne History Center web page explores postcards and their popularity as a means of communication.   An equally interesting development in Sherburne County history is the adoption and use of the telephone.   Beginning in the early 1890s and continuing through the 1920s several small telephone companies organized in Sherburne County to offer this unique method of communication.   Delving into the early history of companies such as the Meadowvale Rural Telephone Company and the Haven Telephone Company, and the efforts of anonymous companies in Elk River provide an interesting appreciation of a rising telephone technology in the county.   Drawing of candlestick style telephone common in 1900 As early as 1893, the opportunity to reach out to friends in distant communities arrived in Elk River.   The Elk River Star News reported a telephone company installed a “hello line” at the Merchant Hotel.   A telephone at the hotel allowe...

  Newsletter advocating for reactor in Elk River, 1955 A truly unique anniversary passed this week, 57 years ago, on August 24, 1963.   On that date , the Elk River atomic reactor generated the first nuclear power in Minnesota.   After eight years of campaigning and planning, the Elk River nuclear plant opened for business.   Unfortunately, the plant operated for only a brief time.   Yet, it served as a highly informative experiment in nuclear plant operations.   Only ten years after nuclear power proved its strength, the Rural Cooperative Power Association of Elk River developed a campaign to introduce nuclear energy into the upper Midwest.   According to a proposal submitted to the Atomic Energy Commission in June 1955, a nuclear plant in Elk River could reduce electricity production costs by fifty percent in five years.   The Atomic Energy Commission looked favorably on the Elk River proposal.   In 1958, they granted approval to the p...

  The anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan arrived this week. It seems an appropriate time to recognize the impact of the war on Sherburne County. Unfortunately, and tragically, World War Two impacted everyone. Whether through rationing or military service, or a multitude of other means, every individual in Sherburne County, between 1940 and 1945, felt the war.    An oral history collected from Edmund Babcock makes an interesting point of this: “When my high school class had its fiftieth reunion, we invited every class member to get up and take the microphone and tell a little bit about what had happened in their life since graduation from high school. We invited a dear lady who was one of those teachers that everybody in the class knew and liked. She was getting to be an elderly person at that point. Her daughter, who happened to be a medical docto r, drove her out from Minneapolis and stayed with her through the whole evening. We had a reception the ne...

Fishing holds a rich and extended history in Sherburne County.   The first resort in the county, Brown’s Hotel, in 1855 advertised Big Lake as a premier fishing spot. In the last 165 years, fishing remains an important sport and pastime in the county.   Stories abound of landing that great catch, that trophy fish.   Yet, a detail of the sport, not often discussed, concerns the creation of that most personal of items, the fishing outfit.    Walter Gohman, in his memoirs, writes of the fishing kit he devised with hard work and a little creativity.   “I made a fishing outfit by selecting a very special willow pole,” he wrote.   “I skinned the bark from this pole and treated it with oil.   I found a wooden fish line spool and fastened this the side of the pole.   I made a crank handle with a bolt and used screw eyes to guide the line.”   Gohman went on to swear by the effectiveness of his outfit.   “We caught many fish of all ...

With the current discussions of disease and quarantine, the condition of schools and student attendance, I am encouraged to look back in the history of Sherburne County and explore the development of schools in the area.   It quickly becomes obvious; education played an important role in early Sherburne County.   Elk River school, circa 1900   As early as 1869, Elk River witnessed construction of a brick school, with multiple classrooms.   This was not simply the one-room schoolhouse similar to those scattered around the county.   This was a true school with several teachers and separate classes for students based on grade level.   In 1876, the County Commission set aside specific township sections to benefit education in Sherburne County. The idea originates with federal law, mandating sections of land be set aside for education, the actions of the commission, however, reinforce the importance of teaching county children. In 1883, e...

Meeting in the basement of the Big Lake Municipal Liquor Store, September 3, 1941, a group of men and women living in Sherburne County came together and organized the Sherburne County Conservation Club.   For the next forty-one years they met to develop and discuss plans for very necessary projects, to aid conservation in Sherburne County.   Because of drought, over-farming and several natural disasters, land in Sherburne County in the 1930s rapidly deteriorated.   Zimmerman was known as the poison ivy capitol of the world.   Sandstorms were so common, “there were days when Highway 10 was closed,” club member Art Nelson remembered.   An early project for the club called for tree plantings to develop wind breaks and stop the soil erosion.   Over the years, the club estimates millions of trees were planted in Sherburne County as part of the Conservation Club program.  Construction of a cement dam on Mud Lake, circa 1955, by the Sherbu...

Moses Sherburne (1808-1868) A recent search of the index to this blog revealed a significant failure on my part: at no time in the past eight years, since beginning this blog, has an article regarding the county namesake been produced.   So, I will correct that oversight today. Presenting Moses Sherburne:  Through a combination of politics and legal acumen, Moses Sherburne received a unique honor of having a county named in his honor, while still alive.   To quote a biographer of Sherburne, he “was a conspicuous figure in the early days of Minnesota and was largely instrumental in guiding the Territory into statehood.”   His political livelihood, as well as his law practice, shed an interesting light on one of the early settlers of Minnesota and Sherburne County.  Born in 1808, Moses Sherburne spent the first 45 years of his life in Maine.   He studied the law and received admission to the Maine bar in 1831.   While practicing law, his fi...

With all of the commentary about pandemics and COVID-19, research revealed the serious amnesia Americans develop regarding the multitude of diseases and infections ravaging the world.   It seemed a good idea to explore these epidemics and the impact upon Sherburne County.   Unfortunately, very little evidence exists about the pandemics and epidemics in Sherburne County.  In the twentieth century, at least six epidemics can be documented in Sherburne County.   Influenza raced through the county in 1918, 1957, and 1968. Lest we all forget, the most recent Influenza Epidemic lasted from April of 2009 until April of 2010.   In the twelve months, there were 60 million cases reported in the United States.   Over 12,000 people died, 67 of them in Minnesota.   Polio, another epidemic, seemed to attack the young children of the United States each year.   Until the late 1950s polio epidemics seriously threatened the population of Minnesota at leas...

A goal with this blog is to review the history of Sherburne County and try to create some perspective on the events in the past.   With the current COVID-19 pandemic hitting the world, it seemed a good time to review a pandemic from 100 years ago: In rural Minnesota, during the late 1800s, death by disease seemed accepted as part of life.   Families experienced high mortality rates on infants and the aged.   Individuals living past five years old promised a better chance of experiencing old age.   This all changed with the Influenza Epidemic of 1918 to 1920.   For almost two years, waves of influenza circled the world, infecting an estimated 500 million people and killing anywhere between 17 and 50 million.   On the local level, the disease took hold, yet in actual numbers, the death rate seems quite small.   The county leaders took quick action to prevent the spread of influenza and this way prevented a higher death toll.   Samples of ...

It has been a few months, but with the new year, I am resolved to post more information about the history of Sherburne County.   So, here goes:   With the anniversary of World War Two, we have all heard about the scrap drives and rationing programs.   Yet, exploring the scrap drives in more detail may enlighten us about the true value of this particular program.   Sherburne county promoted its first scrap drive in the summer of 1942.   Elk River Mayor M. C. Tesch provided some perspective on the value of scrap metal to the war effort.   He noted fifty pounds of scrap metal would help make artillery shells.   Cartridge cases originated from discarded doorknobs. And, 25 tons of steel made a tank.   In this first scrap dive, the city of Elk River urged the citizens to deliver 30,000 pounds of scrap for the war effort.   Although J. D. Flaherty, the chairman of the scrap drive committee, felt the city would surpass the goal, disa...

Victory Gardens seemed forever present beginning in 1942 and continuing into 1946 as World War Two impacted the civilian population of the United States. As a federal campaign declaring “food is fighting” the war, residents throughout Sherburne County took up the appeal to grow more food, and preserve more food, to help the war effort. Pamphlets distributed by private companies and the Federal govt. promoted the victory garden program  “Every member of a well-fed farm family consumes $25 to $30 worth of vegetables and fruits every year,” Department of Agriculture agents claimed.   “A half to three-quarter acre garden will supply the needs of a family of six.”   The remaining produce grown on farms and small gardens throughout the county, and throughout the country, could be used in large cities and communities lacking the acreage to garden. The surplus garden produce allowed the federal government to utilize commercially grown and canned vegetables for th...

Citizens may celebrate the birthday of Sherburne County, 163 years strong, on Monday 25 February.   Looking back on the original promotion and emigrant recruitment for the county reveals a very proud group of settlers.    The Saint Paul Pioneer Press newspaper published an unsigned letter from an early settler of Sherburne County.   Pierre Bottineau's cabin, one of the first structures built in Sherburne County. In later years the cabin abutted the  Riverside Hotel “At Elk River Station,” an 1868 letter writer suggested, “prosperity is at this time manifest.   A steam saw mill with the usual attachments for furnishing building material, is being built and will soon be in operation.   A new school house to cost two thousand dollars, is to be erected the present season.”   The letter went on to describe a “people free from all bigotry and have no great partiality for any particular sect.”   The residents of Sherburne County suppor...

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...