“In those days, the kids went barefoot, so occasionally, we’d step on a nail,” recalled Ray Fruechte about his early 1900s boyhood in rural Portland Prairie, northwest of Eitzen. “... we would take a foot pan, put a little water in it with carbolic acid in the water, mix it up and then soak our foot in that. Later on, we used iodine and mercuricomb (mercurochrome), followed by … [Read more...]

The four-generation family farm of 316 acres was “well-endowed with improvements, not the least of which was the outhouse,” wrote Marie (Middendorf) Muenkel, born in Winnebago Township, about her childhood in 1930s Houston County. Yes, at one time, the outhouse was a modern improvement, especially when considering the options before one was available. By definition, it did not … [Read more...]

Part three of a series “Hello, central?” and “Number please,” were commonly heard during the first half of the 1900s as telephone callers spoke with central switchboard operators, who would connect their calls. There was a personal touch to every call. Operators were required for anything other than calling other telephones on a shared party line. Caledonia received its first … [Read more...]

Part two of a series Can you imagine sharing a telephone line with 20 families – not 20 people, but 20 large farm families. No? Well, it was better if one lived in town. Telephones (most likely diaphragm string phones) had come to southeast Minnesota in the 1880s with “electric speaking” phones available in the mid-1890s. The first switchboard came to Caledonia in 1900. … [Read more...]