Part one of a two-part series Wild turkeys fly better than domestic ones, but his mother’s farm-bred Bourbon Red turkeys could fly well, too, maintained Sumner Sheldon when writing about his early-1900s boyhood in Houston County. His mother Ada Sheldon, who raised turkeys during most of her lifetime, often used broody hens (chickens) as incubators, for her turkey eggs, … [Read more...]

By Lee Epps “They were warm and comfortable as fine a house as anyone needed. Just a dandy place to live,” replied a Houston County man (born in 1855) when asked, “What was it like to live in a log house?” Then his wife chimed in, “They were just wonderful, weren’t they? Small, dark, cramped and crowded with rough walls and floors. And let me tell you, they were especially … [Read more...]

Part two of a two-part series There was a Norwegian immigrant girl who pretended she could not speak Norwegian and a United States Civil War soldier who could only speak and understand Norwegian. One immigrant learned to speak Norwegian again before moving to Wilmington Township. These unusual, 19th century language revelations were preserved through the research and writing … [Read more...]

Part one of a two-part series Four years ago, for the 2021-2022 school year, wrestling for girls became a sanctioned high school sport in Minnesota.  But about 160 years earlier, sometime about 1860, one female took part in possibly the first wrestling tussle in Houston County that included a female, surely the first one recorded in a history book. And that 19th century, … [Read more...]

Cattle drives in Houston County, Minnesota? Yes, but it was nothing the bovines expected or enjoyed. Cattle drives were featured in many western movies, but likely no film depicted cattle drives to La Crosse. In the late 1800s, farmers were their own butchers for family and nearby neighbors. And there was also a commercial market at packing houses, especially for hogs and … [Read more...]

Part two of a two-part series “They’re all drunk. They have the corpse standing up in a corner, and one guy passed out and is in the coffin,” reported Ake Nelson to his wife, explaining why he was back home so soon. He had walked, carrying a lantern in the dark, “only” about two miles from home to pay his respects to a neighboring family after the death of one of the Brady … [Read more...]

Life was challenging and often brief for Houston County pioneers, as early as the 1850s. The two earliest recorded deaths in Jefferson Township, the most southeastern township in the county, occurred in 1856, both accidental. Rev. Leonard Sharp, a Protestant Campbellite, had been preaching in Winnebago valley as early as 1854, perished below a falling tree in January, 1856. In … [Read more...]

Part two of a two-part series When making house calls, Dr. Giles James Sheldon would stay until the crisis was over. The first medical doctor in Houston County, Minnesota, was known to stay at the home of a patient overnight or even several days. In 1861, he remained with one patient from November 22 to December 2. The doctor left a handwritten journal that provides an … [Read more...]

Norwegian immigrants in southeastern Minnesota lived in mostly one-room dwellings “so tight that air is almost excluded.” Light came only through one window. Wrapped in woolen blankets, they kept as warm as possible around a large wood-burning stove. That was the observation of a doctor that made house calls during the 1860s while visiting the Gunderson family in Crystal Valley … [Read more...]

Final part six of a series It’s said that Isadora Duncan, the world-famous dancer, wrote a letter to Bernard Shaw saying, “You and I should have a child who would inherit my beauty and your brains.” The whiskered playwright is reported to have replied. “Miss Duncan, I am flattered, but just suppose the child should inherit your brains and my beauty.” Sister Agnes Hafner … [Read more...]