Sherburne History Center Blog

This past week Independent School District 728, the district encompassing Elk River, commemorated the 85 anniversary of the opening of the Elk River High School.  Rather than honor the building and its years of service, I thought it more important to explore the life of one truly dedicated and interesting educator: Robert Handke.             Hired as superintendent of the Elk River Schools in 1925, Robert Handke served for 30 some years as the leader of Elk River education.  Under his watch, Elk River High School, the current Handke Center housing community education, was built.  The brick monument of today replaced a smaller school described by the Elk River Star News as “a 50 year old frame building pitifully overcrowded and already waiting for fire and safety inspectors to declare it unsafe.” Elkhi Stadium, the location for the first organized hockey in Elk River, along with baseball and football were buil...

Newspapers serve as the first recorders of history.  Their content provides invaluable information.  A truly unique collection of newspapers published by the Becker Schools reside in the collections of the Sherburne History Center Library and Archives.  These papers provide unique insight into the community and the activities of the area.  Known simply as The Beacon , the collection of newspapers ranges from 1942 to 1944.  Publishing in the midst of the war, the reporters for the school paper took a very serious tone while they provided news of the schools and of the community.  An example of the serious tone of the paper, the front pages of the December 10, 1942 The Beacon reported the details of the draft registration scheduled for the week of December 18 to December 24, 1942.  The paper also reported on the scheduled blackout test on December 14.  “In Becker the fire bell will be rung at intervals of 5 seconds as a signal that the bla...

Recently, drinking with friends, the topic of wolves in Sherburne County came up for discussion.  Someone had seen two wolves running through their cut fields in recent weeks (this would have been in the middle of December, 2015).  It inspired me to seek a few details about the wolf population in the County.  Reading the newspapers of 1900, particularly the Sherburne County Star News , there appears to be a very large population of wolves in the county.  The spring of 1900 the newspapers reported some success for the wolf hunters of Sherburne County.  In Blue Hill Township on May 10, 1900 the paper reported, “the wolf hunters are camped near Almond Thompson’s house and are doing good work.  Up to Saturday night they had secured 14 wolves.”  In the same newspaper, reporting outside of Elk River, “Eben and Elmer Ingersoll caught four young wolves one day last week.”  Clearly a large population of wolves lived in Sherburne County.  Unfo...

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline was a recent topic of the Sherburne History Center Book Club.  As the conversation evolved several questions came up: Were there many orphan train children in Sherburne County?  Were there other sources in Minnesota for families wanting to adopt or bring children into their families?  (Yes, I know, if you read the book, I am phrasing this very delicately). Well, I can’t answer the first question.  But an announcement in the Sherburne County Star News from March 1, 1900 helps answer the second question.  The announcement read: Mr Lewis of the state school, Owatonna, came into town last week, bringing with him a school girl for Mrs. Colbeck.  As we peruse the columns of the county newspapers, we are finding similar announcements.  It appears the state school in Owatonna served as a source for children.  The official name for the orphanage was: The Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Ne...

John Putnam deserves sainthood.   Okay, that may be an overstatement, yet, here is a man that devoted his entire life to the development and improvement of Sherburne County.  His contributions to Sherburne County need to be recognized.  Born 10 November 1826, he moved to Big Lake, Sherburne County in 1855 where he lived until his death on 3 October 1899.   Putnam was one of the first settlers around Humboldt, the community known today as Big Lake.   In the forty four years he lived in Big Lake he held just about every possible elected office and public servant station in the county.  He was county clerk, Register of Deeds, County Auditor, first Clerk of the Court, Probate Judge, and County Commissioner.  He also served in a variety of offices in the City of Big Lake and for the local School District.  As a staunch supporter of the Republican Party, he was appointed Postmaster in 1861 and held the job almost continuously until 1898....

We recently wrote about the devastating fire in Elk River in 1898.  We also mentioned the efforts towards fire prevention with brick construction in the business district.  The Star News on August 3, 1899 reported a new, advanced, method of fire suppression: The Houlton Block building installed a “system water works” running through the building with the help of a “hydraulic ram.”  Added benefits to this new system, the Riverside Hotel connected to the system to provide water to the rooms, and “free watering trough” in front of the hotel would also be fed by this system.   The Elk River fire of 1898 devastated the city.  Like a phoenix rising out of the ashes, Elk River in the post fire days emerged greater and stronger than ever.  Just a few years later, another fire in the city inspired the creation of public utilities and construction of the first Elk River water tower.  Lessons learned from these tragedies were quickly applied to the ...

An interesting statement published in the Sherburne County Star News  on 3 December 1896: Cheap tooth brushes are responsible for many obscure throat, stomach and intestinal ailments. The bristles are only glued o and come off by the half dozens when wet and come into contact with the teeth.   Yet, another healthful tip from the industrious reporters and editors in Sherburne County.