Sherburne History Center Blog

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. ...

Summer’s beginning, memories of luxurious heat and the pleasure of cold ice cream springs to mind.   Memories takes us back in time, one constant fixture of summer in Elk River continuously comes to mind: Shadick’s Confectionary. Opening in 1928 and remaining on Main Street until 1954, Ernie Shadick introduced new and unusual treats to the Elk River palate, providing sweet flavored relief from summer heat.   Yet, his early life in Anoka County gave no indication Ernie L. Shadick was destined to operate the sweet treat institution in Elk River.   Born in 1899 to Herbert and Bertha Shadick, he spent his early life in and around St. Francis.   He served in the Army Air Corps during World War One.   Discharged December 1918, after ten years in Minneapolis, he found his way to Main Street, Elk River.   Pineapple, one of the many unique flavors offered up at Shadick's in 1938 Beginning in 1928, Shadick purchased and modernized the Riverside Conf...

Transportation advertising found in the Sherburne County Star News , 1938 Country roads became smooth bands of pavement throughout Minnesota in the 1920s. As gravel and mud disappeared, replaced by sleek, flat thoroughfares, roads generated a new need for speed and power.   Automobiles graduated from the small buggy model-T’s to the V-8 power of Ford and Chevrolet.   Newspapers in the 1930s witnessed a dramatic change in the object of advertising.   No longer the small cars or buggies.   With the completion of the Jefferson Highway through Sherburne County, and roads running north, the Sherburne County Star News began advertising what must have seemed like truly powerful machines of transportation. Deluxe Ford V-8’s “bigger and more luxurious than any previous Ford V-8,” the newspapers advertised.   Delivered for only $802, “why pay more” the ads wondered.   Chevy and Buick also promised greater power in their automobiles.   In addition...

Weather extremes, the newspapers documented in 1936, wreaked havoc in Sherburne County communities.   Floods and high water in April and a ten-week drouth in August the weather played a significant role in life during a bad year in the 1930s economic depression. The headlines of the Sherburne County Star News, in April 1936, reported high water marks on the Elk River.   Camp Cozy suffered the greatest catastrophe.   The newspaper reported flooding and ice flows destroyed footbridges crossing the Elk River.   High water destroyed cabins along the river.   Yet, these reports seemed only a precursor to the weather extremes of later in the year.   In the summer months, heat waves burned crops and killed people in the upper Midwest.   The St Paul newspapers in the summer 1936 reported 100 people dying from heat.   Newspapers noted the heat allowed men to fry eggs on the city pavement.   The heat in Sherburne County seemed lower, yet sti...

World War Adjusted Compensation, billion dollar words that generated 20 years of controversy and bloodshed in the United States.   Although Sherburne witnessed no violent protest, the law passed in 1924 impacted Elk River and the county for a generation.   In 1924, Congress pass legislation awarding veterans of the World War a bonus for their service.   Veterans received promises of bonds to be paid after 20 years maturity.   President Calvin Coolidge opposed the legislation, arguing “patriotism bought and paid for is not patriotism.”   Despite his veto, Congress passed the World War Adjusted Compensation Act, promising veterans money in twenty years.   The arrival of the economic depression in the 1930s, unemployed and homeless veterans asked for their money earlier than promised.   In 1932, Bonus Army protests in Washington, D.C. led to riots and the deaths of two veterans.   In 1936, Congress passed a new legislation promising the ve...

Depression era relief programs required unique enforcement skills in 1935.   This became apparent from newspaper reports in the Sherburne County Star News in the spring of that year. In May 1935 the local newspaper urged local farmers and other county residents to report any relief recipients turning down opportunities to work.   “All clients who refuse work when it is offered are to be taken off relief rolls,” the paper reported.   According to the news reports, county residents remaine3d on the relief rolls while supplementing their income with egg and dairy sales.   “relief is being given only as emergency relief,” the paper reminded.   “As soon as a family’s income is larger than their budget, they will be taken off relief.”   WPA construction crew in Handke Stadium circa 1935 In farming communities throughout Minnesota federal investigators found families willing to receive federal relief and farm income at the same time.   “A concer...

Some interesting advertisements in the Sherburne County Star News in 1934 and 1935 give us a sense of life and times in the county:  With the rising standard of living, it would appear the telephone is becoming more of a necessity and less of a luxury in the daily lives of the people of Sherburne County.