Walking in a Winter Wonderland

The sun is shining and the snow is sparkling outside the Scott County Historical Society museum. After several days of fog, folks are out on the street enjoying the snow. A sunny day in winter is delightful, whether you are sledding outside or holed up inside where it is warm. Below, find a selection of seasonal photographs from the SCHS collections. Enjoy the winter!

Downtown Shakopee after a blizzard. C.J. Stunk (seen holding a shovel) and several other men are standing on a shoveled First Ave. Handwritten in pencil on the backside of the image is “Sunday March 12th – 1899. 10 am.

Photograph of downtown Shakopee after a March snowstorm. The photo shows First Avenue looking southeast. 1899.

Two men moving logs on North Meridian Street in Belle Plaine. 

Thomas O’Connor delivering mail in Belle Plaine. 1905

Men clearing snow from the roads in Shakopee. 1905.

Postcard of Pond’s Mill in Shakopee during the winter. The card is addressed to Miss Clara Logenfeif of Shakopee but is unused.  1908.

Winter street scene in New Prague, Minnesota, probably a market day. 1914.

The Coller family standing outside their downtown Shakopee home. Seen from left to right are Julius Coller, I, Coe Coller and Julius Coller, II, and their dog (name unknown). 1914.

Holiday decorations inside a Shakopee home. 1915

Women ice skating in Shakopee, most likely on the Minnesota river. 1920.

The exterior of 434 South Lewis Street in Shakopee after a snowstorm. 1927. 

Two children wearing winter coats in Belle Plaine. 1928.

 Harry Weldon playing guitar with his dog during winter. 1933.

Arthur Bohnsack with two of his children, Arlyn and June standing in front of their new Chevorlet. Taken in St. Patrick MN. 1940.

Ray and Loretta (Mamer) Robel of Prior Lake sitting in their living room on Christmas. 1950.

Snowy road after a blizzard in Shakopee. 1950.

Christmas card featuring the Pekarna boys. 1954.

LeRoy Lebens shoveling snow outside his Fifth Avenue home in Shakopee. 1955.

Two Shakopee High School students in winter finery. 1958.

Cat in the snow. Shakopee 1959.

Nevins family holiday decorations, 1960

Clark family Christmas photo. 1963

The Minnesota River outside Shakopee. 1965.

Johnson family Christmas photo. 1970

Downtown Shakopee block with piles of snow. Date unknown.

Enjoy the winter!

Compiled by Rose James, SCHS Program Manager

Armistice Day

From “As I Remember Scott County”. Passage written by Kathleen Walsh, Belle Plaine

I was about thirteen years old when the word came on November 7, 1918 that World War 1 was over. It was a nasty, cold, rainy day and the town went wild. were were dismissed from school and ran around excited, but to our great disappointment, the evening news brought the word of false report. News reports were much different back then and the telephone was our fastest dispenser of good and bad news.

The O’Connor girls, Ann and Winnie, were the telephone operators then. November 11, about 4:00am, the call came in that the War was officially over. Winnie, the night operator, called Ann. She got up and dressed and went across the street to ring out the good tidings on the bells of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

My sister and I had collected noise makers after the false  alarm so we were ready when the real news came. Some of the young men of the borough had stuffed a suit of clothes to represent the Kaiser and had made a cannon noise maker and shot the Kaiser at day break, put the remains in an old style casket from the local undertaker, put that on a flat sled- like thing and lined up for a parade.

Later in the day farmers came to town on steam engines screeching whistles and the band played and we all marched in the parade that followed. It was a day full of excitement and memorable indeed.

Armistice Day, Belle Plaine, 1918. From the SCHS collections

Armistice Day, Belle Plaine, 1918. From the SCHS collections

Aprons – Tie One On

The holiday baking season is upon us and one item of clothing will be getting plenty of use… the apron.  Aprons have survived thousands of years as practical, functional clothing items; they served as towels, pot holders, baskets, and more.  Historically, the apron has engendered the feminine aura of domesticity. Some women adorned themselves with the apron as a mantle of pride, a symbol of homemaking, motherhood and nurturing.  Yet others felt it a symbol of constraint or oppression. Despite this, women found ways to be creative and resourceful, making them equally objects of skill and art.  The apron may be a simple object, but is firmly associated with home, motherhood, comfort, work, and servitude.

Early aprons were made from muslin, silk, and serge, and formed part of the dress for special occasions as well as everyday wear. Aprons in the early 1700s were in regular use to protect clothing and were usually a simple rectangular piece of fabric fastened with ties or a belt.  By the end of the century, they were fashionable, particularly for upper-class women, and decorated with embroidery and drawn work. The dainty apron of the 1800s became the small tea apron pinned on – and became called the “pinner”, and was often the badge of the parlor maid.

Aprons gained popularity in Victorian England. The ideals of femininity and domesticity ensured their status as upper-class women wore them adorned with embroidery and hand-made lace. It was around the early part of the 1900s that aprons began to slowly diminish in size, previously covering the wearer from neck to toe.

During the 1920s, the apron returned to its practical uses, but in a new style. The “Hooverette”, a loose, wrap-around apron, was influenced by the drop-waist, straight-lined dresses of the time. By the 1930s, the apron ended at the knees and the upper bib portion became smaller. During the Great Depression, a resurgence in home crafts resulted in many hand-embroidered aprons. Instead of the traditional white cotton or linen, women used what was available, including flour sacks and clothing scraps.  Aprons weren’t merely decorative, they meant hard work, often by members of an unpaid labor force.  Despite that, wearers found a way to be resourceful and creative.

By the 1940s, aprons decorated with rick-rack and made of calicos and floral prints became symbols of pride. Flour sacks could be edged with stripes, ribbons, or ruffles.  By the 1950s the cocktail apron became a fashion statement. Summoning glamour, they weren’t created for protection. The bib portion was gone, and the length was shortened to well above the knees.  Fashion was more important than practicality.

The 1940’s and 1950s were the heyday of aprons, when commercial and intricately hand-decorated aprons flourished as symbols of family and motherhood. The TV family of the 1950s included the perfect housewife and mother, proudly wearing an apron as a symbol of her occupation. Apron kits became popular, but women continued to make their own. Hostess-aprons of sheer organdy trimmed with lace were more ceremonial than functional. Another change emerged in the 1950s – backyard barbecues, which allowed men to handle the cooking duties.  Aprons for “Dad” covered his larger size and many had whimsical pictures and sayings printed on the front.

In the 1960s aprons plummeted out of fashion, seen as housewifely accoutrements that symbolized a secondary role for women. The apron became a frivolous item. This was also a time of washers and dryers, and better detergent. Ready-made, easy-to-change clothing  became cheaper so the need to protect and cover clothes disappeared.  By the 1970s, aprons were again utilitarian in nature, relegated to waiters and cooks at the barbecue. The bib returned, and fabric became heavy-duty.  Women began to work outside the home more, but cooking duties were still largely her responsibility. The more protective apron allowed women to cover their business clothes as they started dinner.

In recent years, planned menu and scratch cooking have become recreational activities and relegated to the weekend. Today’s aprons fit any size of wearer and are not gender specific, but their use continues to be limited to the kitchen and barbecue. However, snazzy / snappy sayings and beautiful fabrics are still popular today.

Apron etymology: Middle English, alteration of napron, from Middle French, naperon, diminutive of nape cloth, modification of Latin mappa napkin.

Apron: a garment usually of cloth, plastic, or leather usually tied around the waist and used to protect clothing or adorn a costume.

Apron String: the string of an apron – usually used in plural as a symbol of dominance or complete control.

Idiom: “tied to your mother’s apron strings”; wholly depended on or controlled by a woman, especially one’s mother or wife.  This expression, dating from the early 1800s probably alluded to Apron String Tenure, a 17th Century law that allowed a husband to control his wife’s and her family’s property during her lifetime. In other words: a husband could only hold title passed on by his wife’s family, only while the wife was alive.

From the SCHS 2003 exhibit, “Aprons: Tie One One”

Prohibition by the Numbers

Why Ban Alcohol?

The United States had a drinking problem. At the turn of the century, alcohol was beginning to be seen not as natural or medicinal, but as a vice that attacked those who consumed it. Alcohol consumption was also primarily a male problem due to social pressures that kept most women in the home and out of the saloon. In a time when men primarily controlled family income, alcoholism had an outsized impact on dependent wives and children. The early 1900s was era of reformers, and with a newfound focus on health and the rights of women and children, it was natural that drinking would come under attack. Sides were formed between the “Wets” and the “Drys”, and an increasing number of Americans began to call for the ban of liquor.

In 1920 the18th amendment was added to constitution, banning the sale if intoxicating liquors. This law was given teeth by the Vosted Act that allowed for enforcement.

Unfortunately, alcohol was woven into the fabric of US society, and it not fade peacefully into the night. Instead, Alcohol consumption was driven underground, and criminal elements rapidly gained control of supply and production. Though organized crime existed before prohibition, criminal groups received a major boost in income and publicity from the ban. Throughout the 1920s “wets” gained renewed support, painting prohibition as a source, rather than a cure, for crime and debauchery.

There were several legal sources of alcohol during prohibition. Doctors could prescribe it for medicinal purposes- a clause that was often abused. Over the course of prohibition, it is estimated that the medical community made more than $40 million dollars form illicit prescriptions. In order to appease rural populations, the Volsted act also allowed for home-brewing of wine and hard cider.

The prohibition experiment finally ended in 1933 with the push of the great depression creating a vested interest in the tax revenue that the sale of legal alcohol would bring in.

What about Scott County?

Group standing with kegs and beer. Taken in Shakopee between 1921 and 1928. Image from the SCHS collections.

Minnesota a whole was in favor of Prohibition. The “Prohibition Party”, a political organization that put forth Dry and pro-suffrage candidates (the movements were closely linked) elected it’s first state candidates in 1871. Andrew Volsted, the imfamous author of the Volsted act was born in Goodhue County and attend St Olaf College. He served in the US House of Representatives from the 7th district of Minnesota from 1903-1923

Unlike the state at large, these Dry sentiments were not popular in Scott County. At the turn of the century, the county was overwhelmingly German and Czech, immigrant groups that were largely against prohibition. In fact, the specter of Prohibition was enough to completely alter the county’s voting habits. In the presidential election of 1920 and before the county voted largely Republican. In 1924, the Socialist 3rd party candidate won the majority of votes, and by 1928 the county mostly voted Democrat- a dramatic change that occurred without any major demographic shifts.

Prohibition By the Numbers

Alcohol-Related Arrests in Scott County in a single month, March of 1921

Jordan: Four arrests. It was claimed that 100 gallons of liquor were seized, 25 coming from one house alone.

Belle Plaine : Three arrests, including 10 gallons from a single restaurant

New Market: A man was arrested after drunkenly bragging that he had already made $16,000 ($225, 000 in 2018’s money) from the sale of illicit liquor

Shakopee: Only one arrest…this was not because Shakopee was low in crime, but rather because complicit police were tipping people off to the raids.

Scott County Presidential Election Results During Prohibition
Or, How the Right To Drink Flipped the Polls

1920
Republican: 69%
Democrat: 29.7%

1924
Republican: 29.3%
Democrat: 18.3%
Socialist: 52.4%

1928
Republican: 28.1%
Democrat: 71.7%

1932
Republican: 18.7%
Democrat: 80.6%

Scott County Ethnicities in 1920

German: 47.1%
Czech: 23.3%
Norwegian: 7.7%
Swedish: 3.6%
Irish: 2.8%
Canadian: 2.6%
Danish: 2.1%

Scott County Population

1860: 4,595
1930: 14,116

Alcohol Consumption Per Capita Per Year in the US

1790: 5.8 gallons
1830: 7.1 gallons
2016: 2.3 gallons

Death by Cirrhosis (liver failure) in US Men

1918: 29.5 / 100,000
1928: 4.7 / 100,000

Written by Rose James, Program. Thank you to Paul Keever for research.

Spooky Times Are Here Again

Well its that time of year again, soon ghosts and goblins will hit the streets in search of candy. Halloween is always a fun time of year, a last hurrah for kids before winter rears its head. Halloween has had quite the transformation over the centuries. It started as All Hallows Eve, and was associated with witches and demons. It was a dark day when you stayed inside and hoped nothing came for you in the night.

Did you know that the first Halloween costumes were meant to scare away evil spirits? I can’t imagine a spirit being too afraid of Charlie Brown is a hole-filled bed sheet, but I can imagine them getting a good laugh.

The turn of the twentieth century, and even a little earlier, saw the waning holiday go from being a day to be feared to one of jokes and pranks. In time, it became the Halloween we know today.

It is little wonder, given the history of the festive and colorful holiday why we still tend to associate fear and other dark things with it. Even today Halloween has an air of unease for some people. The neighborhoods of American before graveyards and haunted mansions, I wonder if those are to scare away evil spirits too?

So before the weather decides to turn its old familiar Minnesota Cold, let’s have one last night of spooks and jokes at the expense of whatever evil spirits might still linger. After all, the reward for be brave and going out is the best one of all some sweet, sweet candy!