Shakopee Stove Companies

In the late 19th century into mid 20th century Shakopee was the home of a booming industry.  In the times before electricity really got a hold in America, the tools for cooking and heating relied on wood or coal with gas becoming popular later.  Stoves and ranges that these fuels were loaded into were heavy metal constructions that looked quite a bit different than the typical box stove/oven combos that we see in our modern kitchens.  Here, in the northern portion of the Midwest, such heating implements were in high demand but there wasn’t really a big Midwestern stove and range producer until 1891.  The year 1891 marked the beginning of the Minnesota Stove Company, and once it started, it took off.

In May of 1891 Henry Hinds, Theodore Weiland, and Julius A. Coller returned to Shakopee after being appointed to inspect a stove and general foundry in Ohio.  They were sent to determine whether or not a proposition to open a similar business in Shakopee seemed a wise thing to do.  Their reports returned satisfactory and the plans to build the Minnesota Stove Company were put into action shortly thereafter.  On September 19th of the same year the foundry was built with the first smelting taking place on November 23rd.  Some of these early stove styles were the “Steel Coral” stoves.  These stoves, unlike later stoves, were highly decorated.

The cold northern weather and the lack of stove companies pushed the Minnesota Stove Company to early success.  A 1906 copy of the Scott County Argus stated that 100 stoves were sold from one advertisement within two hours of leaving the press.  Due to these successes, the “Imperial Coral” stove was added to the production line and in 1908 the foundry was expanded.  A 12,000 square foot brick building was added to make the total size for the company 60,000 square feet.  They also increased the number of employees.  What had started as a 35 person operation was increased to 85.  By 1908 the company had “more than 150 styles and sizes of stoves” to claim.  Some of these were the Sanico, Steel Coral, and Son Brands stoves.  In 1911, the company was overhauled.  They had a new cupola made and new machinery installed.

The Sanico line.

Things continued to go well until 1914, where the Minnesota Stove Company ran into one of its first hiccups.  The company closed in December of 1914 due to an issue with union workers and they stayed closed for about two months.  They closed again in March of 1915 due to similar issues.  They opened again on April 15th of 1915 with a crew of non-union workers.  By October 1915 they were employing 125 workers and business was booming once more.  An October issue of the Scott County Argus stated, “The company is today one of the chief manufacturing industries of our city and one of the leading institutions of its kind in the Northwest.”

Looking at the successes of the Minnesota Stove Company, a second group of men looked to open a stove and range company of their own.  In 1915 J. Warren Hawthorne, George G. Reis, W. T. Curry, and Rudolph T. Selbig incorporated the Shakopee Stove Company, what was originally going to be called “Equity Stove Company,”  and produced their Gopher line of stoves and ranges.

Work in the foundry of the Shakopee Stove Company began on October 28th of 1915.  Finished products did not begin rolling out until mid November due to the late arrival of cleaners, nickeling equipment, and polishing equipment.  These stoves were designed by the four men that had incorporated the business.  They were with little decoration so that parts could be easily repaired and replaced.  Much like Minnesota Stove Company, business at the Shakopee Stove Company took off.  Fortunately, demand for their products was so high, both companies were capable of existing in Shakopee without interfering with each other.  In fact, before the Shakopee Stove Company was even completed, they had orders for each of the items in their product line.  People were so impressed by the Shakopee Stove Company’s work that the Waterbury Furnace and Heating Company of Minneapolis moved orders for foundry work from an Iowa company to the Shakopee Stove Company.

In 1921, William Spoerner stated that the Shakopee Stove Company could not meet demand despite having recently added two expansions.  A newspaper reporter referred to a statement by William Spoerner saying “…he is not able to supply the demand with the limited capacity of the plant.  He says if he had the room he has orders enough to keep  a force of twenty-five full-fledged molders busy every day.”  Part of the problem the Shakopee Stove Company had was that they had no where else to expand to.  They had other companies working near them and while they were looking to expand to a plot of land past the railroad, they did not end up working out a deal with the owners.

While the Shakopee Stove Company was having its troubles keeping up with demand, the Minnesota Stove Company had problems of its own.  On March 1st of 1923 there was an explosion in the casting room at the Minnesota Stove Company that was likely caused by a spray used for castings coming in contact with an electric stove.  The explosion started a fire that spread to the assembling department and warehouse.  Firemen were able to prevent the enameling department from getting caught up in the blaze.  The total losses amounted to $150,000 that was only partially covered by insurance.  Despite the fire, business wasn’t too harshly affected.  Employees were back to work by March 12th and damaged stoves were sold off at a reduced price.

On March 16th of 1923 they set plans into motion to expand their enameling department.   Within one year, business was high once more despite certain areas within the factory still being shut down.  In March of 1924 they  organized a 150 person fire company and fully equipped the building with fire chemicals and a new hose to prevent future fire problems.  Unfortunately, later that year, the Minnesota Stove Company ran into a second problem.  It was the same problem that the Shakopee Stove Company was having.  Demand was high.  Too high.  The Minnesota Stove Company was not able to keep up and was declared bankrupt October 27, 1924.  This was not the end of things though.  The people of Shakopee had seen their stove company do a lot of good for their town and they did not want to see it go.  The company was sold to the American Range and Foundry December 4th with the sale being confirmed December 22nd.  The main offices of the American Range and Foundry moved their offices to Shakopee and the business was taken over as the American Range Corporation on January 1st of 1925.

Sadly, fire struck again in early 1925.  This time, at the Shakopee Stove Company.  On February 3rd at around 2:40am the Shakopee Stove Company caught flame destroying the building, machinery, equipment, heaters, and ranges.  Only one new steel warehouse was saved and this was only due to a rapid response keeping the fires contained to the other buildings.  That warehouse along with the 150 stoves and heaters inside of it were the only things to survive.  The losses amounted to $40,000 dollars and was, again, only parially covered by insurance.  Unlike the Minnesota Stove Company, the Shakopee Stove Company did not recover and its story ended there.  This is particularly unfortunate seeing as plans were in place to merge Shakopee Stove Company with the American Range Corporation.  An article from a February 13th edition of the Shakopee Argus stated, “A consolidation of the Shakopee Stove Company with American Range Corporation was to have been effected last Saturday but was held up temporarily and would have gone into effect this week.”  After only 10 years, the Shakopee Stove Company was gone leaving the American Range Corporation to meet demand.

By 1927, the American Range Corporation was facing the same troubles that the Minnesota Stove Company had faced.  A headline from the May 26th edition of the Argus Tribune declared, “Local Industry Captialized at $500,000, Employs 175 Men Has $25,000 Monthly Payroll, Capacity 75 Stoves Daily, Production Fails to Keep Step with Demand.”  Despite its struggles, the American Range Corporation continued to run until May 1931, when it shut down temporarily.  Between 1931 and 1933 the factory made efforts to restart but it was unclear if it ever was able to.  Reports suggest that there were plans to restart in late 1931 but it would seem that did not happen.  On August 10th of 1933, business did start again with owners expressing hope that the restart would not just be temporary.  By 1936 business was certainly rolling smoothly as work was done to keep pace with the demand caused by a cold streak.  Eventually, the problems of the past caught up with them and supply was not able to meet demand.  Instead of continuing the business, it was authorized for sale on April 20th of 1940.  The factory was bought for $45,000 by a group in Chicago.  Beginning in 1941, the factory space was put to a new purpose of building cots for the military engaged in World War II.  The factory never returned to its original purpose.

The Scott County Historical had an exhibit entitled “Stoke the Fire: The Life and Times of the Shakopee Stove” in 1998.  Below are some photos of the stoves produced by the Minnesota Stove Company, Shakopee Stove Company, and American Range Corporation as displayed in the exhibit.  The white stove in the upper right hand corner is currently on display in the museum.

Written by Tony Connors, Curatorial Assistant.

Ghost Towns of Scott County

Merriam-Webster’s definition of a ghost town is: “a once-flourishing town wholly or nearly deserted usually as a result of the exhaustion of some natural resource.”1

It is sad to say, but Scott County has its fair share of ghost towns. Below is a list of those ghost towns, with years that the towns were founded and/or ended. As you can see, many of these towns only lasted a handful of years, at most.

• Louisville, 1854

• Mount Pleasant, 1856

• Bellefontaine, 1856

• St. Lawrence, 1856

• St. Joseph, 1858

• Dooleyville: 1855-1870

• Yorkville

• Merriam Junction, 1866-1871

• Helena, 1887

• Village of Joel: Blakeley Township 1897-1917

• Brentwood, 1860

• Luxembourger – early 1900s

• Lydia

Why did these towns disappear? Many of these towns contained grist or sawmills, a post office, church, school house, hotel, general store, creamery, newspaper, tavern, blacksmith, and of course residential houses. So why, with all the apparent success of a growing town, did these towns die out?

For many of these towns, the main reason was location, as well as mode of transportation to the town. Several of these towns were built near rivers, as that was one of the main sources of transportation at the time. For St. Lawrence, the building of the railroad spelled the end for the town. The river was no longer used, and no main roads were built to the town. For Merriam Junction, a town built right on the railroad, the invention of the automobile was its downfall. All that is left of the town is an old dilapidated railroad depot.

For towns like Yorkville and Brentwood, animosity between their neighbor towns caused them to struggle with their business. Yorkville residents were seen as a threat by those in Chaska Township, and many Yorkville residents were lured over to the other side. Brentwood was on the other side of the railroad tracks to Jordan, and held possession of the depot. Jordan residents disliked this fact, and eventually Brentwood was incorporated into Jordan, disappearing entirely.

No matter the reason for its disappearance, the fact remains that these towns that once flourished are no longer standing. Even though many of these towns have little to indicate where they once stood, their memories are still held in the minds of once residents, as well as their family members. These towns still stand in photographs, newspapers, and postcards. Take a look at a few of the photographs the SCHS has in its collection of some of the ghost towns in the county.

Merriam Junction

Lydia

Joel

Helena

If you wish to learn more about the ghost towns of Scott County, please contact the SCHS for more information. If anyone happens to have photographs or information on any of the ghost towns in the county, please let us at SCHS know. We would greatly appreciate the information!

The Lamplighter Sextet and the LeRoy Lebens Trio: Music at the St Paul House and the Shakopee House

During his lifetime in Shakopee, LeRoy Lebens spent a lot of time at the St. Paul House and its successor the Shakopee House participating in two of his great passions, music and photography, and the Scott County Historical Society is grateful to be able to house many of his photographs which document this period. From 1854 until its destruction in a fire in 1965, the St Paul House, located on the corner of Lewis Street and Second Ave, was known as one of the best places in the city to enjoy dinner and music. It attracted people from all over the Twin Cities, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights. Hosting music and entertainment six nights a week, the St Paul House brought a wide array of entertainment to Shakopee. Some of the most popular performances, which occurred on a regular basis, involved a group called the St. Paul House Sextet, also known as the “Lamplighters.” The original group was composed of Bruce Neilson, Ronelle Sinjem, Russ Miller, Bill Lutz, Ann Thorgrimson, and Jane Sorber. Together this group would perform shortened versions of hit Broadway shows and other musical skits. Being that LeRoy often performed at the St Paul House with his own band, the LeRoy Lebens Trio, he captured quite a few of their shows, as well as took promotional photography for them. Here are just a few of the photos he took of the Lamplighters, the LeRoy Lebens Trio, and some of the other acts to grace the stages at the St Paul House and the Shakopee House. If you’re interested in learning more about the Lebens Photograph Collection, the St Paul House, or Scott County in general, come by and visit us at the Scott County Historical Society!

Storytelling

Everyone has a story – or two – or more.  Some are amazing, or outrageous, or heart-warming, or funny, or depressing, or frustrating, or… The thing is, these personal stories are what we usually take with us to the grave.  They are also the “special something” that makes history come alive.

Our mission is to search, save, and share the history and cultural heritage of Scott County, which includes our stories.  In our collection we have stories on paper – journals, letters, postcards, books, etc.  We also have stories on cassette tape, video cassette, and digital files. However, not everyone kept a journal, or it’s still packed away in someone’s attic. Stories on cassette tapes, videos or digital files really aren’t very useful if you don’t know what’s on them – what topics were covered.  It’s the transcripts that make the stories easy to search and use.

The SCHS conducted a six-year project to collect stories from the “Greatest Generation” a few years ago.  With the help of dedicated volunteers, stories were collected on cassette tape from over 130 people in our county – over 70 with WWII Veterans.  With the help of the women at the Shakopee Women’s Correctional Facility, all the tapes were transcribed, an intern converted the tapes to digital files, and we used snippets for an award-winning exhibit on WWII.

Because we were able to access the transcripts, we could choose snippets of stories to use in exhibits.  Because they were digitally accessible, it was fairly easy to locate and pull out the snippet we chose, and convert it to the proper format for use.

Hearing someone’s voice describe something you are looking at, or a scene in the past, it creates images in your mind and through their voice, you are able to experience the past in a deeper and richer way.

I don’t know about you, but there are many times I’ve thought – Dang, wish I had thought to record my Mom’s stories about when she was little.  Or… it would be great to hear Grandpa talk about how he made special lures for fishing.  You know…, family lore and stories.  These stories provide an anchor to our past, share special skills, link us to communities, and more.  Unfortunately, we usually think of recording stories after the person has passed away.

At SCHS we thought of this too.  To help capture and save those stories, we partnered with the Scott County Agricultural Society (SCAS), to create a mobile recording studio, named the “speak easy“.

The speak easy, is ADA compliant (it kneels to the ground, has a ramp, and space inside for wheelchairs); is comfortable (designed to look like a comfy kitchen); includes easy to use, professional recording equipment; and is available for anyone to use.

If you aren’t interested in the trailer, the recording equipment can also be rented separately.

With the holidays quickly approaching, it’s a wonderful time to think about actually capturing those family stories before they slip away.  

We are here to help with advice on what questions to ask, how to ask them, how to capture the stories, and what to do with them once they are recorded.

The speak easy is available for rent – contact us for information at info@scottcountyhistory.org or give us a call at 952-445-0378.

HATS OFF TO YOU

Hats serve in a variety of ways: as protection from the elements, identify your occupation, serve as a status symbol, a must for ritual clothing, and of course serve as a fashion statement.  Style and use of hats has changed over time.  Fashionable hats more replaced the bonnet in the late 1800s.  By the beginning of the twentieth century, hat styles began to change by the decade.  The close fitting cloche hat of the 1920s covered short bobbed hair.  During the turbulent 1930s and 1940s, Hollywood glamour influenced women’s hats when feathers, veils, and more masculine style hats became popular.  Hats decreased and increased in size throughout the 1950s and 1960s until concern for maintaining the latest hairstyle became more important than wearing a hat.

Identity and Belonging:

A school baseball team. Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts at summer camp.  What do these groups have in common?  They all wear headgear, along with other clothing that indicates their collective identity.  The emphasis is on the group, not the individual.

Cultural Identity:

People with a common ancestry often wear distinctive hats that proclaims national identity, clan affiliation, political beliefs, or common cultural interests.

Protection for Work and Sport:

We take for granted that workers in heavy industry or dangerous jobs wear standard safety helmets.  In fact protective headgear was confined to a few industries until recently, and become compulsory in those industries only around the 1950s.  Likewise, head wear for hockey and football players, motorcyclists, and race car drivers was standardized only recently.

Religion and Ritual:

Head wear plays a prominent role in religion, social rituals and ceremonies: many people demonstrate their faith and relationship with God by covering their heads.  The Sikh wears a turban, observant Jews a Yarmulke, and a nun a coif.

Rites of Passage:

During significant events in our lives, such as marriage or bereavement, we often participate in public rituals that require particular dress, especially headdress.  Often these rites of passage have sacred as well as social significance.  For example, the white bridal veil symbolize physical and spiritual purity.

• Although women of many different cultures have worn veils of some sort for centuries, the white wedding gown and veil tradition is barely a hundred years old.

Ceremony:

Hats worn for public ceremonies is often spectacular.  Military headdresses worn on ceremonial occasions impress onlookers, as well as foster regimental pride and allegiance.  Indeed, all manner of “pomp and circumstance” requires its particular head wear: civic parade, powwow, royal visits, changing of ceremonial guards…

Authority and Status:

Hats convey power.  Hats such as a tall black top hat represent prestige and social standing. Some such as an army helmet proclaim military might, others identify professional authority such as a police hat or nurses’ cap.

• Originally nurses wore practical, white, pleated cap and apron of the maidservant – signifying respectability, cleanliness and servitude. As the nursing profession gained recognition, nurse’ caps became less utilitarian and more symbolic, a badge of office and achievement.  Since the Second World War, the cap has lost much of its significance and has virtually disappeared.

Fashion Hats, 1890-1920:

By the 1890s, the bonnet was declining in popularity and the jaunty hat, perched on top of the head, was considered more suitable for the “new girl” of the period, for whom tennis and bicycling, working in an office and participating in higher education were now acceptable pursuits.

Women of the 1920s adopted a boyishly tubular silhouette and covered their cropped hair with a close-fitting cloche hat in symbolic rejection of the previous image of femininity.  The chic cloche proved to be an ideal design for mass production; with a few snips, tucks and stitches by a skilled milliner, the hat was ready to wear.

The 1930s offered a dizzying parade of imaginative hat styles, including some fanciful and surreal shapes.  Hollywood had an influence on increased glamour and drama in design and lent themselves to the cult of personality, centering on film stars such as Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and Humphrey Bogart.

During the war years the trend towards variety and ingenuity continued as an antidote to the anxieties and rationing of wartime.  Dramatic feather trimmings were revived and the veil reappeared.  Women’s hats often borrowed masculine hat styles, such as the fedora, which complemented the padded-shouldered, tailored suites.  These masculine styles, when combined with feminine trimmings such as feathers and veal, and worn at a coquettish, forward-slanting angle, gave a new meaning to the feminine image.

After the war, hats became part of the New Look launched by Christian Dior.  Headwear was either very small or very large, hairstyles were neat, and close to the head and make-up included mascara-ringed eyes.  But the hat was in decline by the late 1950s.  Reduced to whimsy and novelty, it began to lose its outstanding place at the head of fashion.

By the 1960s, the hat represented attitudes to femininity that seemed outdated.  The youth movement jettisoned hats along with gloves, stockings, and bras.  What was new and exciting was hair, teased into bouffant and beehives, and professional hairdressers took over from milliners as the creators of headdress.

Under the Veil:

The veil is the only head covering virtually exclusive to women.  It has been worn since ancient times and is still worn by women who follow a religion that requires the hair, and sometimes the fact to be covered in public.  Many Islamic women wear the Hijab as part of a dress code prescribed in the Koran.  The Hijab denotes both female modesty and reserve, and female dignity and respect.

Cultivated Cloche

The Cloche hat, so simple and modern, nevertheless blinkered its wearer no less than the poke-bonnets of the 1800s.  It dictated a stance that became characteristic of the period, since it was necessary for the wearer to lift the chin and peer imperiously down the nose.  The cloche led to society’s tolerance of eye and lip cosmetics, which gave definition to the face.

Where did the Mortarboard come in?

The mortarboard’s historical roots can be traced to the medieval square biretta worn by both clergy and laity to indicate social status.  As the affairs of the Church and academe became separated over the centuries, so did their hats.  The biretta was modified to become the head wear of the clergy, and the mortarboard (or flattened square tam), became the hat of the academic.

The Cap:

A cheap, simple, visor, cloth hat moved from the baseball diamond to perch on more heads than any other kind of head wear today.  The proletarian baseball cap is anti-elitist, deliberately shunning high fashion.  The cap can proclaim a wearer’s affiliation with a particular team; be an emblem of solidarity with workers; a memento of a special place or event; and show what kind of beer you drink or music you like.  Worn with designer jeans it can become trendy, when worn back to front it can mean peer identity or a badge of defiance.

It is difficult to imagine today, but in the past almost everyone had at least one hat for each season of the year – straw hats for spring and summer, and felt or fur hats for fall and winter.  Upper-middle-class women had a whole collection of hats to suit different times of the day and to match their outfits, which they replaced each year.  Others of more moderate means had a milliner re-trim or recondition the previous year’s model to produce the new year’s shape.  Hats were worn in all public places, including on the street, in restaurants, for visits, and in the theater.  Men were expected to remove their hats in the company of ladies and indoors.

Many words and phrases connected with hats have become part of everyday language.

When a person puts on their thinking cap to give a problem careful thought, there are mentally imitating the teachers and philosophers of the Middle Ages who often wore distinctive caps that set them apart from those with less learning.

The expression mad as a hatter has been in use ever since Lewis Carroll wrote of the Mat Hatter’s tea party in his famous children’s tale, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, published in 1865.  Carroll was referring to the industrial disease caused by inhaling the fumes of mercuric nitrate, used in the felting of animal furs for hat making.  It caused twitching, nervousness and irritability – just like the antics of the Mad Hatter.

bee in his or her bonnet.   eat your hat.   hold onto your hat.   hats off to you!   feather in their cap.    Keep it under your hat.   She’s setting her cap for him.   I’ve thrown my hat in the ring.   If the cap fits, wear it!.   You’re talking through your hat.   That’s really old hat. Home is where one hangs one’s hat.