The following is from “As I Remember Scott County,” a collection of oral histories from Scott County residents in the 1980s. This collection of memories was submitted by Meda Kop, born Meda Felix, of Prior Lake. Meda was born in Nebraska in 1914 but just a few years later the family had moved to Minnesota.
My family moved to Prior Lake in 1916. There were four of us. My younger brother and sister were born here. We lived one block east of Highway 13, known as Frog Town (now called Evanston Avenue). The main road into town went by our home. The traffic was slow-moving, mostly horse-drawn wagons, buggies, etc., as it was before there were many cars.
My dad worked with his team hauling everything. Horse-drawn wagons were the predecessors of trucks and tractors; they even worked on road construction. In the winter he harvested ice, cutting, hauling and packing it in ice houses to be used for refrigeration in homes and stores for the coming summer. Certain hours at night he worked as the town marshall. Besides being a peace officer with a badge, the job included being the lamplighter. Each evening, he hauled the kerosene for the corner lamps in a little red wagon. The kerosene was in metal cans about 2” x 4” x 6” and held about a pint. Thei was enough to keep the light burning until daylight. I remember the first lamp well. It was on the corner of Highway 13 and the cross street. That was as far as we were allowed to walk with him. My dad also unloaded coal, cement, lumber, etc. That came by rail.
The railroad was Prior Lake’s connection with the Twin Cities area. The train went east in the morning and west in the afternoon, transporting mail, the daily papers, groceries, cream for the creamery and also an occasional passenger. We lived about a block from the railroad tracks. The usual thing was for the engineer to pull down on the whistle and the kids in the area would be there to wave. I remember that well.
On a hill near the railroad tracks was a stockyard with holding pens for cattle and sheep being shipped out on the train. Up the street from our home on the right side stood the District 49 schoolhouse with two floors. The lower level was for the first to fourth grades and the upper level was for fifth to eighth grades. There were two teachers. It was considered a large school for that time. It was built in 1897 and taken down when Highway 13 was to be built.
School commenced at nine o’clock with a 15-minute recess in the morning and afternoon. There was one-hour for lunch and school was dismissed at four o’clock in the afternoon. The pupils who lived near the school went home for lunch and country pupils carried their lunches. Everyone hurried back to play on the school grounds. The building was heated with large round burning stoves with metal walls or jackets around them about a foot from the floor and stove. In later years, soft coal was burned. The toilets were outside in back labeled “Girls” and “Boys”.
Prior Lake School District #49. In background, Presbyterian Church, Schmokel Livery Barn, Peter Ring house.
The Presbyterian Church on the same side of the street was well attended by people who either walked or came with horse-drawn vehicles. All the children of the area, regardless of faith, were invited to participate in the Christmas program and received a bag of goodies from Santa.
Across on the south side of the street, was a large residence with a surrounding hedge. At night we walked in the middle of the street because we were afraid of what might be lurking there. On the corner of the street was a hotel which included a saloon with a livery stable in the back. It later burned down.
Turning left on Main Street was a hardware on the corner. The next building was a meat market with sawdust on the floor, meat coolers, butcher knives, saws and cleavers hanging on the wall. The smell of smoked meat was obvious. If you were with your parents the butcher would give you a delicious wiener. To the south, the next building was a saloon. If you passed by the building and the door swung open you could smell beer from inside.
Located next was a blacksmith shop for shoeing horses, mending wheels, sharpening plowshares and other repair jobs needed by farmers and other people who used horse-drawn vehicles.
A little building about as large as a good sized ice fish house was a barber shop. It was run by a man from our neighborhood. If any of the kids needed a haircut, he would give them a trim usually with no money changing hands.
A large grocery store was next to a general store, indeed, selling about everything. They also bought poultry and eggs or traded them for merchandise. Next was the doctor’s building, a structure much like the general store.
A confectionary store was run by a woman who sold ice cream, soft drinks and light lunches (early ice cream parlor).
On the cross street abutting the railroad tracks stood the depot with its office, telegraph machine, storage space and agent operator. It had a passenger waiting room with about a dozen seats. The agent sold tickets, sent and received telegraph messages, and weighed merchandise to be shipped. The mail was brought over from the Post Office in mail bags twice a day on a four-wheeled wagon. Cream came in for the creamery.
Across the tracks was another hardware. Next was a harness and shoe repair shop. Most interesting were the harnesses rolled together suspended in the air by a rope to be dunked in a tank of oil to lubricate them. After a certain time they were lifted out to let oil drip back into the tank. Shoe repairing was done by hand as well as with a treadle machine. Soles and heels were tacked on. They also repaired grain binder canvasses.
J. A. Lyons Hardware Store, 1913.
Crossing Main Street going north on the left side was a garage for early car sales and repairs. Next was a restaurant.
Located at the next corner was another blacksmith shop that always had a coal forge going to heat horseshoes and iron to be repaired. What fun it was to stand there, smell the smoke and watch the sweating blacksmith shoe horses and pound the anvil with even timing.
Going down the block west off Main Street was a drugstore and pharmacy with living quarters above. It later became a hatchery
Next door was a barbershop with part of the building used for the telephone office. As a teenager I worked at the switchboard with its hinged drops and its hand ringing system.
On the same side of the street was a creamery with a couple of fulltime butter makers who produced enough butter to be sold and shipped out by the train. You could always get a cold drink of fresh buttermilk when they were churning. A thing of the past only in memory.
Located across the street was another general store was everything for sale from groceries to button shoes. Equipment included a tobacco cutter, coffee grinder and hand meat slicer. The upper level had a storage place for merchandise. The first telephone office and switchboard I ever saw with an apartment for the operator was also on the second floor. The building also had the Post Office, a place for friends to meet and visit while waiting for their mail.
Back to Main Street going north across the tracks was a restaurant converted from a saloon. A large family house next door was later used for an implement dealership and after that a grocery shop.
Next comes the lumberyard. The Prior Lake News was put together in the next building, partly printed with hand-set type and an insert printed elsewhere. […] Around the corner on the same side of the street was the Village Hall which had multiple uses. It had a belfry with a fire bell which rang for emergencies, fires, etc. The fire rig was a two-wheeled cart with a tank and hose pulled by the firemen who responded at the sound of the bell. Probably this was. Good equipment for that time.
Later we had silent movies shown here. While the reels were being changed, a girl played the piano.
Across the back on the railroad tracks stood a grain elevator that was active at fall harvest.
A short distance away was the jail, a small building with bars on the windows. It was not used too much that I recall.
Across the street from the bank Prior Lake’s only mayor lived with her family. She shot in the air one night and frightened away bank robbers. She was given recognition by Prior Lake and the Twin Cities newspapers.
The first Lutheran church was built at the end of this block. Not long after, the Presbyterian church was no longer used. I do not remember the first Catholic church located at the end of the creamery block which burned. St. Michael Catholic Church, on the other corner of the block, was dedicated in 1921. The Angelus Bell rang at 7am, 12 noon, and 6 pm for prayer and meditation. Also it rang for others to check their clocks and watches. It was a most inspiring sound for all in range to hear.
1898 Plat Map of Prior Lake showing the street names as they were called when Meda was referring to them in her stories.
