Butter was a staple for the early settlers of southeast Minnesota. Before cooking oil, there was lard and butter for cooking and baking. Butter was on every dinner table for use with many foods. However, butter did not become a major commercial enterprise until dairying became a major agricultural pursuit in the 1880s. Raising hogs was the first large-scale livestock operation … [Read more...]

Second of a series Referred to as vagrants, bums or tramps, these men on the move often moved through southeastern Minnesota during the early years of settlement in the mid-to-late 1800s. Some were heavy drinkers, disheveled in appearance and possibly ill mannered. Even some who were obviously well bred and highly educated preferred an existence through charity rather than … [Read more...]

Fifth of a series “Fox and Geese” or “Crack the Whip” or “Pom-pom-pullaway“ or even a hockey game might break out. It was all impromptu as Spring Grove youngsters organized games on outdoor ice during the 1950s and ‘60s. Nature provided ice skating locations in lower elevations with rivers, lakes and sloughs. Farm youth, after shoveling off snow, could skate on frozen ponds, … [Read more...]

It was a Christmas never to be forgotten by those who experienced it or heard about it from older family members. The temperature was teens below zero, but stationed on every nearby roof to the southeast, people guarded against airborne embers. It was about 10:30 Friday night, December 19, 1924, when on his way home, Owen Onsgard smelled smoke. Several hours after the start of … [Read more...]

Fourth of a winter series A century ago, young and somewhat older residents of southeast Minnesota did not always pass personal time indoors during long winters. When work was completed, recreation thrived outdoors in January as well as in July. In the first half of the 1900s, ice skating was a given on a large lake in Hokah, the Big Slough in Houston, the Mississippi River … [Read more...]

Third of a winter series There was plenty of action and competition in the 1870s and 1880s, even before the advent of school-sponsored sports. W. J. Langen (1869-1960) like many other boys, ice skated near Hokah on a 30-acre lake, which at the slightest spell of cold weather, would provide fine skating ice. Boys would gather evenings, often for a game of “shinny.” A block of … [Read more...]