Sherburne History Center Blog

News reports published in the Sherburne County Star News on May 5, 1901 noted the sale of the Merchants Hotel in Elk River.  Mrs. V. S. Rubeck sold the property to M. Blanchett for approximately $10,000.  A quick search of the internet for conversion charts, suggested the hotel sold for $269,000 in 2015 money.       Not a bad price for the time, but that led me to question: What was life like, what was the state of the economy in 1901?  What were the average wages in the United States?  I came to the conclusion that poverty was rampant and life was pretty miserable.   Research presented at the 1901 Pan American Exposition held in Buffalo, New York, revealed the average annual income was $449.80.  Most workers put in 9 hour work days, six days each week.  Doing some quick math, workers put in 2808 per year on the job.  That averages 16 cents per hour!  In the factories, there were no health benefits.  There w...

Coming out of Blue Hill Township gossip columns in the Sherburne County Star News , the correspondent outdid themselves in writing this creative birth announcement:  A very young man arrived at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Kahlier last week.  He will remain indefinitely, presumably until he is twenty one years of age should he live.  Published in the March 7, 1901 issue of the newspaper, this announcement covers the full range of emotions.  From birth to death, from joy to sorrow, this brief message suggests so many possibilities in a young man’s life.

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....