Many southeast Minnesota settlers in the late 1800s had direct contact with or at least observed local Native Americans, most notably the Winnebago tribe. Marlene Meiners wrote her grandfather would barter with skunk hides for chickens. The Indians made baskets, which they sold for $1 or $2. The great “Indian scare” did not involve those mostly-peaceful Winnebago neighbors … [Read more...]
The Simple Blessings of Summer From the Peanuts gang
By Pastor Mark Woodward Maple Leaf Parish Churches: Spring Valley: Faith, Cherry Grove, Fountain, Preston (and Lenora) Over the years I have much appreciation for Charles Schulz and his Peanuts characters. On Facebook I enjoy “Snoopy’s Everybody’s Best Friend.” Now as summer moves ever closer to autumn, I saw a Peanuts cartoon which kind of spoke to a late summer … [Read more...]
Fresh Off The Farm – Every Mom Knows….
I couldn’t believe my ears. Relief flooded over her face as she told me her story with a beaming grateful smile. As she talked, I wondered silently: Could raw milk really change someone’s life? It’s funny I could wonder, because people tell me every week how raw milk is changing their lives. People constantly tell me stories of raw milk healing eczema, clearing up breakouts, … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past A Missing Horse, Wolves, Robberies and a Big Dog
Part two of a series Had it been stolen? A live animal was of tremendous value to the early pioneers in Minnesota. Soon after building a log cabin near Eitzen in Houston County, Henry Christian Bunge, Sr. (1821-1899) was missing his valuable horse he had with him when moving into Winnebago Township from Illinois in 1862. Had it strayed or been stolen? Frontier areas had their … [Read more...]
Weeds Among the Wheat
By Pastor Jeff Jacobs Unity Lutheran Parish - St. Paul, Saetersdal and St. Matthew’s, Granger A recent Gospel recounted Jesus’ parable about the weeds among the wheat, Matthew 13. He compared the kingdom of heaven to someone sowing good seed in his field, when an enemy sowed weeds at night. As both sprouted, the servants noticed the difference and asked the householder … [Read more...]
I was Working on Degrees in Teetering and Tottering
We knew little, but we suspected a lot. Each day was a test we hadn’t studied for back in the time before Vanna White landed her demanding letter-turning gig. In a world filled with “aww” and “eww,” there were many mysteries. If medicine was good for us, why did it taste bad? Are the crusts of sandwiches good for us? Why do some people cut sandwiches diagonally? When I was … [Read more...]
There was a Flyswatter in the Ointment
It was a fly year. It was hot and humid, and the flies were sticky. Flies were left, right and center. I’d finished a gig of telling stories at a fair. People had been milling about, but now there was a lull. Feeling peckish, I procured a malt and looked for shade. I found it where wooden cable spools acted as tables and looked like the yo-yos of a fee-fi-fo-fum-sized giant. … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Pioneers Lived, Survived by Ingenuity
At night in bed, asthma sufferer Henry Christian Bunge, Sr. sought relief from severe coughing by taking hold of a rope that he had attached to an overhead beam and lifted himself into a sitting position. Life as a southeast Minnesota pioneer during the last half of the 1800s called for as much ingenuity as possible. Success depended on self-sufficiency. Doctors were scarce, … [Read more...]
Fry Me to the Moon Where No Two Snow Cones are Alike
I slipped the surly bonds of the unfair and leaped like a graceful gazelle onto the county fairgrounds. It was fairly fabulous. People, lights, music and the racket of the carnival. There were fewer people than at an average Taylor Swift concert, but there was a sound carried by the fair air that reverberated as if a thousand people were standing in a corner and yelling … [Read more...]
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Summer is a time of opening things up and getting light on everything. I love the smell of fresh air that comes with summer. Unless I’m hauling a load of manure... I think that would be called ripe. As a kid, I remember my mom reading books to me of stories from the “olden days” when they would bring out all the rugs, hang them on the clothes line and pound them until they … [Read more...]