The New Guy

As the new Curator of Collections for the Scott County Historical Society, I wanted my first blog to be something of an introduction. I was going to tell you a story of who I am and about my background in history. However, I was given the idea to instead talk about what it is like to be the new guy. What is it like to start at a new place, with new people, and new ways of doing things? How do you start? What do you do? How do you feel? I thought about this and realized that this is a good opportunity to tell you about myself in a different way. On that note, I would start by saying that my first few days could be summed up in two words, “I’m lost!”

It has been my experience that starting a new position can be one of the most exciting and confusing times in someone’s career. I’m still not entirely sure how I got here, I remember asking for a job and suddenly having one. Since I started with SCHS I have had to learn whole new ways of doing things, while at the same time knowing exactly what I am doing. The history field is strange in that way, everyone does things differently but we all end at the same thing. You save the same types of history and information no matter where you go. I only wish best practices told me how to manage my office.

As you can see, my office is full of all kinds of things, each one with a story, and each one a total mystery to me. For example, I found a box on a shelf full of pictures. I looked and looked and couldn’t find a thing on them. A box of 300 some pictures and I had no clue what to do with them or even what they were. Here begins the lesson of a new job, ask questions, every question. After some digging, and reaching out to me predecessors, we found out that all of those photos are copies. Here at SCHS we don’t accept copies of things into our collection, we want the genuine article. Still, the photos have a ton of history locked up in them. Those photos have been meaning to go in our library for years, I just happen to be the one doing it.

I admit I was lost when I started here, I didn’t know where to start or what to do. I look at that mess of an office and froze. It didn’t take long though for me to prioritize and begin tackling all of the projects and loose ends that needed tying up. I hope this quick blog gives you a sense of who I am, and if not feel free to stop in and meet me. I am always happy to talk with people and get to better know my community.

By Dave Nichols, SCHS Curator

“O, gone now are the good old days of hot cakes, thickly spread”

Spring is beginning to peek in from between the piles of snow, and Minnesotans from around the state are turning their attention towards their lawns and gardens.

A hundred years ago, that attention was cast as patriotic as well as recreational. As the United States entered World War I, food production was in the forefront of war preparation efforts.

Between the Civil war and World War I, cooking and kitchens were transformed in America. Iceboxes were being slowly replaced by refrigerators, invented in 1913. Farming changed too as gas powered tractors were becoming a commonplace sight in Minnesota’s fields. Crop, husbandry and soil research from large land-grant universities was making a difference in the daily lives of farmers. As A. D. Wilson, the director of the University of Minnesota said at the time “The changed conditions are placing more and more bright progressive men and women on our farms who are not ashamed to study their profession and put their best efforts into it. As a consequence, we are developing a true science of agriculture. We no longer depend on ‘chance’ or ‘good luck’ for results in farming but know the conditions necessary for good luck”. Scott County got into the game too. Entire pages of the Scott County Argus were devoted to the latest Agricultural research, with rousing headlines such as “Sugar Beets and Mangels Tend to Increase Milk When Fed to Dairy Cows but Corn Silage is Far More Economical” and “Prevention of Corn Smut Through Formaldehyde Use”, both appearing on March 16, 1917.

Less than two weeks after war was declared, President Hoover issued the proclamation “We must supply abundant food for ourselves and our armies… and for a large part the nations with whom we have now made common cause… without abundant food the great enterprise which we have embarked upon will break down and fail”.  In 1917, approximately half of Minnesotans lived on farms, and many of them began to view their efforts as essential to US victory.

An editorial published in the March 9th 1917 issue of the Scott County Argus declared:

“With conditions like these everyone who has a piece of ground should plant some food products. Most all of the large cities in the country are entering the worldwide movement of greater food production. If Shakopee does not do her part in this great movement it will not be the fault of her public school teachers, for all boys and girls are being encouraged to take up some form of the work and more encouragement from the homes of our young people is needed…Education should help us live better NOW as well as later in life, and NOW is the time for the young folks to get into the game.”

A much shorter letter to the Argus published on May 18th 1917 advocated “Minnesota can aid materially in averting a food shortage during the war and save millions of dollars annually on food in times of peace if we will take steps to utilize the millions of fish that inhabit the lakes”

During the war, meat and sugar were deemed important for the creation of foods which could provide compact calories for shipment abroad to feed soldiers and allied nations that were directly impacted by the fighting. Americans were also encouraged to conserve wheat so that bread could be distributed to hungry troops. In exchange, Americans were asked to use more milk, fish, and grains such as oats and corn

Throughout these efforts a lot of emphasis was put on the role of women. While most men and women still operated in distinct spheres during this time, the war provided the need and opportunity for female leadership, particularly in the role of food conservation.

The Minnesota Commission on Public Safety was organized in the spring of 1917 and a women’s auxiliary was created simultaneously. The sentiment of this organization was summed up thus in the May 1917 issue of Farmers Wife Magazine: “With the farm women lies the sacred charge of serving this nation in its hour of peril… on farmers’ wives and daughters, in large measure, rests the fate of the war and the fate of the nations”. The April 20th 1917 issue of the Scott County Argus described the creation of a statewide committee on food preservation and conservation by the governor. The article lists as one of their primary duties “… to encourage home economics and the organization of groups of town women to assist farm women in harvest and other periods of labor stress”.

The Woman’s Committee booth at the 1917 Minnesota State Fair

The efforts were not without humor. A poem in the January 2018 issue Northfield Norwegian American described rationing with these words:

“Oh gone now are the good old days of hot cakes thickly spread

And meatless, wheatless, sweetless days are reigning in their stead

And gone are the days of fat rib roasts and two inch t-bone steaks

And doughnuts plump and golden brown, the kind that mother makes

And when it comes to pies and cake, just learn to cut it out”

Mr. Hoover’s goin’ to get you if you don’t watch out”

In terms of sheer volume, these efforts were largely successful.  In first year of war the US shipped 9 million more tons of food overseas than before the war, approximately a 250% increase. Listed below are a selection of recipes shared in Minnesota newspapers to help their readers practice conservation of sugar, wheat and meat in the kitchen. For more recipes and local war stories, visit the “The Great War” exhibit currently on display at the Scott County Historical Society. Let us know your results if you try any of these recipes!

Written by Rose James, SCHS Program Manager

Funny Photos From The Lebens’ Collection

As we finish inventorying our collection of LeRoy Lebens’ photographic work, a whopping 32,617 images, we thought it would be fun to share some of the most entertaining images that we’ve found through the past year. Having taken photos for most everything you could imagine: weddings, portraits, advertising, and nature, just to name a few, Lebens caught a lot of interesting and funny moments. These are only a small selection of what we have found. If you are interested in finding out more about the LeRoy Lebens collection, come by and give us a visit at the Scott County Historical Society.

Housekeeping Then & Now

When we think of housekeeping today we usually think of dusting, vacuuming, throwing clothes in the washer/dryer, grabbing ingredients from the fridge and whipping up dinner – or nukeing a frozen dinner in the microwave.  Things were much different over a century ago.

Because tasks were so more time consuming, they were sometimes assigned specific days of the week…

• Monday – wash clothes

• Tuesday – iron

• Wednesday – mending

• Thursday – churn butter

• Friday – clean the house

• Saturday – bake

• Sunday – rest

Washing clothes was a huge chore.  If you weren’t lucky enough to have a cistern in your house where you could pump water into the kitchen – then you had to fetch water from a well.  Then the water needed to be heated on the stove.  Laundry detergent wasn’t available.  You would have had to make your own soap from lard (or fat), water, and lye.  To wash clothes you would shave some slivers of soap into the boiling water, fill a washtub and hand scrub the clothes on a washboard.  Another tub of clean water was needed to rinse the clothes, then they were hung outside to dry (yes, even in the winter).  All this work gave you back pain, cracked hands, and scraped knuckles.

Eventually washing machines were created to help with the work.  This is a hand-operated wooden washer and wringer – made doing laundry easier and saved water.

After clothes dried – you ironed them on Tuesdays.  No plugging in a steam iron; you placed a heavy “sadiron” (so called because of its weight 5-9 pounds), on the cook-top to heat.  These irons had wooden handles to protect your hands.  However, they didn’t  hold heat very long, so you always had a second iron on the stove ready to switch out.  Ironing gave a person some awesome arm muscles.

While ironing you would notice whether a piece of clothing had any tears or holes.  That was set aside for mending on Wednesdays.  Clothes were NOT thrown out – they were repaired, socks were darned, and those too worn beyond repair were saved for quilts or rags.  If the item needed major repair work, the treadle sewing machine was put to use.  This made mending and creating clothes so much easier.  Although a person could purchase clothes from a store – most women made clothes for themselves and their families at home.

Thursdays were spent churning, making butter for Saturday’s baking.  Milk was put into a wooden container and a dasher was plunged up & down for 30-40 minutes to make butter.  The leftover milk – buttermilk – was saved for baking too.  This was usually a child’s chore.

Friday – cleaning day!  The same bar of soap was used not only for washing clothes, but also for washing dishes, cleaning floors, wiping down walls and furniture, taking baths – everything.  Floors and ceilings were swept, rugs were hung out and beaten, beds were striped and remade, furniture was dusted – the full house was wiped down.

Saturday was set aside as baking day, partially because families usually age a big meal on Sunday.  Women would bake bread for the full week on Saturday – maybe 10 – 12 loaves – from scratch.  Not only did you need ingredients, you needed fuel for the stove – whether wood, corn cobs or coal.  No turning a knob, or pushing a button to set a temperature – temperature was tested by running your hand in the oven to feel the heat.  Ovens cooked much slower, which is why cooking started in the morning for the evening meal to be on time.  It’s also why a specific day was set aside for cooking the weekly bread supply.

After a week’s worth of work, Sunday was set aside as a break from chores to relax, visit with friends and family, and have fun activities, such as singing around the piano, or listening to records on the Victrola.

Housework 100 years ago took lots of time and elbow grease. Today we take for granted the machines that allow us to complete in minutes what used to take days.  So next time you sprinkle some detergent into an automatic washing machine, be a bit grateful you didn’t have to make the soap, heat the water, hand scrub the clothes, or wring them out.  Today’s housekeeping is so much easier thanks to advances in technology.

Valentines Day

We have many Valentine’s Day cards in our collection, and I chose a few of the cutest, and loveliest, to show you. Valentine’s Day is often thought of a day simply for couples, but as many of these cards indicate, it can also be a day for loved ones, be they from a daughter to a father, or a grandchild to their grandparent. These cards below range from the 1950s to the 1990s, and all were written with love. I hope that you have had a wonderful Valentine’s Day, whether you celebrated it on Wednesday, or plan to do so over the weekend. Or any day you please. Enjoy these cards, and if you’re interested in learning more about Valentine’s Day in Scott County, feel free to stop by.