Sherburne History Center Blog

  Minnesota Artist Anton Gag (1859-1908), self portrait This past week, at the Sherburne History Center, the annual Sherburne Area Visual Arts Showcase exhibited work from several local artists.   With art history playing around in my mind, I wanted to take a moment and give mention to a couple of Minnesota visual artists.   I want to acknowledge there is a force within the state that inspires painters, illustrators, photographers, and other visual artists.   Here are four artists born or lived in Minnesota and played a significant impact on the national art world. Sarah Louise Judd (1802-1881) born in Farmington, Connecticut.   She came to Stillwater, Minnesota in 1845 as an educator.   She also produced daguerreotypes and later, other portrait images.   She is regarded as the first photographer in the state of Minnesota. Perhaps the best known of all Minnesota visual artists, Wanda Gag (1893-1946) trained under the tutelage of her father, artist ...

  WAAC recruitment poster, 1943 During World War Two, young men receive a significant amount of attention in joining the service or being drafted to serve.   Rightly, we need to recognize their service to the country.   Yet, many young women also served in the military.   Their service also warrants recognition. There were a few opportunities for young women to serve the country during the war.   The government called upon women flyers to ferry aircraft to Britain that had been manufactured in the United States.   Nurses served an equally important role in the military.   And a multitude of administrative duties put the efforts of women enlistees to the task. The first of the women branches of service, other than nurses, organized as the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.   Beginning in 1942, the Army recruited 150,000 women to serve in administrative duties and still later as mechanics stationed around the United States.   In February 1943, C...

  With the coming holiday weekend, we need to stretch outside of Sherburne County History to explore the origins of Labor Day.   Beginning in the late 1800s and continuing to the declaration of a national holiday, the day to celebrate workers remains important.   Quarry workers in west Sherburne County The commemoration of labor and working often associated with May 1, May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day.   In the United States, in the late 1880s, May Day became more closely associated with radical philosophies often associated with socialism, anarchy, and communism.   A variety of more conservative labor unions and activists started promoting the first weekend in September as an alternative; a new Labor Day.   The Haymarket Massacre, on 4 May 1886, further solidified May Day as a celebration of radicalism.   In 1887, Oregon became the first state to recognize the Labor Day holiday in September.   Within 7 years, thirty stat...

  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...

Recent discussions of early settlement presented an individual to consider as a pioneer serving a significant, yet unheralded, role in the settlement of Sherburne County.   We need to look at the life and times of Joseph F. Bean of Livonia Township.   Joseph Bean spent his childhood and early days in New Hampshire.   He made his way to Sherburne County, stopping first in Wisconsin before landing in Elk River.   Finally, in 1856, he and his new bride, Betsy, settled in an area of Livonia Township. The Bean homestead located on the stagecoach road between Elk River and Princeton.   In addition to farming, Bean also provided rest to travelers along the road.   He also served the role of Postmaster, the mail for area farmers being delivered by stage and later by the early morning trains.   In addition, both Bean and his wife Betsy emphasized education.   Both worked as teachers before settling in Livonia Township.   Evidence suggests the Bean...

  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 ...