Sherburne History Center Blog

  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...

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. ...