Part two, Basket Socials During the previous column, Houston County historian Sumner Sheldon described early 1900s basket socials - opportunities (or socially-accepted excuses) for rural folks to socialize as well as raise funds for the host school or church. But one such event was likely the longest lasting and surely the most memorable because it so drastically differed from … [Read more...]

In what he termed those “dreary days before automobiles,” Houston County historian Sumner Sheldon noted that residents, who even though were “starved for entertainment, amusement and companionship,” desired a reason to party. It was not thought proper to “hold a jollification just for the fun of it.” One excuse for organizing a social gathering was the long-popular, … [Read more...]

It has a name and people live there, but it its not on a map. It was an agricultural community, not a village, which from the early days of settlement became known as Portland Prairie. If you visit historic Portland Prairie Church, you are on a short span of pavement named Portland Prairie Road, part of the dividing line between Wilmington Township and Winnebago Township. The … [Read more...]

One night each year, four young sisters on a Houston County farm helped round up roosters. Twenty roosters perished so that that the girls had $20 to buy school clothes on what was known as Dollar Day Sales each autumn at stores in La Crosse, Wis. A blouse cost 50 cents, wash dresses $1 each. Underwear were four for $1. One sister, Anita Lee (Hartmann) Palmquist, would much … [Read more...]

Part two of a two-part series It was not necessarily how well you could hide but more how motionless you could be. That was the operating conclusion of an accomplished turkey tracker, Sumner Sheldon (born 1910), who even as a Houston County schoolboy possessed the patience to pursue turkey hens to their hidden nests. During egg-laying season, his after-school quest was to … [Read more...]

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...]