It can be difficult to enforce a law that a good portion of the populace wishes to violate. So it was when the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibited the production, importation, transportation and sale of liquor. Caledonia journalist and commentator Perk Steffen noted that the eastern part of Houston County “did not turn its back upon prohibition… It faced … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past: New Year’s Day: “If you had not seen us crash, we may have all died.”
“It was like the Lord told him to do it now – you have an important job to do tomorrow,” wrote Glenn Buxengard, referring to neighbor George Wiemerslage, whose tractor had run out of gas the night before – New Year’s Eve. It was dark and time for chores, so Wiemerslage was going to leave gassing up until tomorrow. But he didn’t wait. So, when Buxengard phoned him the next … [Read more...]
Mabel-Canton, LeRoy-Ostrander claim team, individual trap titles
Mabel-Canton and Leroy-Ostrander High School trap teams both bagged conference championships during the pandemic fall season of 2020. Kingsland was conference runner-up while Spring Grove shooters finished fourth in their clay-target league race. The area’s two best individual scoring averages belonged to two Mabel-Canton marksmen, who were both All-State last spring. Senior … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past: Trains bypass county seats; earn dollar and a half a day working on the railroad
The first railroad in southeast Minnesota went up the Root River Valley, bypassing two county seats – Caledonia and Preston. That omission would soon be solved by entrepreneurs in Caledonia. Railroads began to cross Houston County in the 1860s, shortly after the Civil War. The railroad era in southeast Minnesota lasted more than a century before ending in 1976. In 1880, the … [Read more...]
Cougar cheerleaders again earn recognition, Kleiboer repeats All-American
Three Mabel-Canton cheerleader captains received nominations and tried out for the 2020 All-American Team – seniors Jenny Reenalda and Katelyn Kleiboer along with sophomore Grace Solberg. Kleiboer was nominated for the sixth year and has earned All-American acclaim three times, including 2020. It was the second nomination for both Solberg and Reenalda. Individuals that attend … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past – RFD delivers mail, eliminates most Houston County post offices
A new postal rural route out of Spring Grove, to be established in October of 1905, would discontinue the post office in Yucatan, according to the September 8, 1905, edition of the Winona Republican-Herald. An additional route from Rushford would cross the county line and service Money Creek. The post office at Money Creek (established in 1856) was discontinued in August of … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Railroad cars afloat on the river; stagecoaches replaced
With the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, transcontinental stagecoach traffic ended. The arrival of railroads in southeast Minnesota in the 1860s and ‘70s signaled the demise of stagecoach passenger service. By 1880, most of Minnesota was accessible by railroad. And it would not be long before automobiles replaced stagecoaches in the delivery of mail. In … [Read more...]
Long-distance Lions were fourth-quarter conquerors
The Spring Grove boys won five football games but led only one of those games at halftime. The 2020 Lions (5-3, 4-2 district) needed four second-half surges and fourth-quarter heroics to extend their string of winning seasons to 11. As is often the case, the difference between a winning or losing record or breaking even depended on winning the close games. And Spring Grove took … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past: If women on board – then no boozing, no smoking, no cussing
It was surely more pleasant watching the ride from a theatre seat than experiencing an actual ride on a stagecoach. Made famous by mid-20th century movies and television about life in the American West of the late 1800s, horse-drawn coach travel dates back to England in the early 1600s and came to North America during colonization. While stagecoaches contributed to the lore of … [Read more...]
Volleyball Lions persevere through pandemic for another winning season
It was the sixth consecutive winning season for coach Kelsey Morken and the Spring Grove volleyball girls, who finished at 8-4, including a 5-4 conference mark to tie for third place in the six-team SEC East Division race. Considering two break-even seasons, it has been a dozen seasons since the Lions finished below.500, the longest non-losing streak in program history. The … [Read more...]