Reminiscing

Friday is my last day at the museum before I begin a new chapter in retirement.  For the past couple of weeks I’ve been reminiscing about the changes that have occured during my fifteen years at the Scott County Historical Society.

In technology alone we are light-years away from the lowly fax machine and dial-up internet service we used in 2004. To publicize our programs, like “coffee-talks” and “lunch-box lectures”, we had to program media phone numbers (like Southwest News and Star-Tribune reporters/editors), into the banker-box sized fax machine – which had a dedicated telephone line.  I remember listening for the buzz-dot-dot-ding-zzzzzz sound to make sure the fax went through properly.  Now sending a press release is super easy, just create a media email distribution list and send an email.  However, we still need to review and update the distribution lists – the same as for fax phone numbers – somethings don’t change.

Faster internet is a blessing – and a curse.  We can get so much more done, connect with people faster and easier, and share information with the click of a button, which is fantastic.  However, with ease-of-use comes pressure to do more.  It’s a balancing act to do more and keep quality, which is something I believe we achieve at SCHS.

Here is a visual walk through some of the more outstanding changes at SCHS.

Office space reflects changes in technology (thanks Cargill for donating in-kind the desk & chair).  The director (me) added a bit of color and cleaned up her act.

Our early hands-on exhibit item was a push button board – now we have a touchscreen that’s easily changed for new exhibit content.

Along with changes in technology, the museum building itself had a very different look when it opened.  Originally the center hallway was one large room. Over the years, two half-walls were added to create three separate exhibit galleries – Maurice Stans government life, family life, and a center hall gallery for local exhibits.

There was limited space to display county history; at one point we used the museum store area for exhibits.  A museum redesign project (funded by a 2013 Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community – SMSC grant), provided great opportunities to make the museum more welcoming, accessible and useful, including… a new entry and store.

We had an African gallery, complete with a diorama! The SMSC 2013 grant provided funds to change the diorama into much needed archival storage, and create open gallery space.  (The lion and zebra were auctioned and the proceeds benefited collections care.)

The research library shared space with SCHS exhibits. Through the SMSC 2013 redesign, we removed the platform and installed a much needed education storage closet. Exhibits were removed from the space and now the full room is devoted to research library use.

Even the garden changed (thanks to a TORO grant in 2016); we removed the hedge surrounding the garden to create an open parklike space.  The new garden has native plantings, butterfly gardens, pergola, raised garden beds, and open space for programming.  The garden has hosted a few weddings since it’s redesign!

Staff has shifted over the past 15 years and I am extremely grateful for their skills, laughter, and high-quality work!  Thanks Megan, Judith, Patrick, Jaden, Courtney, Andy, Allison, Theresa, Stephanie, Rachel, Tyler, Erika, Tony, Caitlin, Dave, and Rose.

It’s been quite a run and I am proud of all that we accomplished during my tenure at SCHS.  These years have been the best of my working life and I have had many wonderful experiences both professional and personal that I will remember fondly. I will miss the incredible people I had the pleasure to work with and am at a loss on how to thank you for all the support you’ve shown me and the experiences we shared.

SCHS has an amazing staff and a wonderful volunteer base, and I look forward to seeing what new heights SCHS will reach in the future.  Thank You!

Scott County Creameries

Guest Blog Post! Thank you to St. Thomas student Arnold Rosas for volunteering in our research library this past month, and for writing a blog post for us on Scott County Creameries. Are you interested in researching and writing a blog post for SCHS? Email our Program Manager Rose James at rjames@scottcountyhistory.org

Scott County Creameries

Although we love the sweet, sugary taste of ice cream and cake, the process of making these delicious desserts oftentimes goes unnoticed. The ingredients that make these foods so special are made from creameries all around the world and are central to our daily lives. You may not have known this, but creameries have been a huge part of Scott County’s history. In this article, we will discuss how local creameries start out and four major creameries located in Scott County and why this matters today.

There are a lot of things that need to be done just to build a creamery such as approval from the state. The New Prague Times recounted the Farmers’ Cooperative Creamery’s city hall meeting on September 7th, 1911. At this session, “the committee discussed the cost of building, operating name, the number of cows to each creamery, and the price paid for butter fat.” In addition to this initial report, the committee brought in Mr. Grosser, the butter maker of the Cannon Falls creamery, and Mr. Meyer, the manager of the Webster, Minn. creamery to explain the success and higher prices of Farmers’ Cooperative would be for the community.”  “The city members were pleasantly surprised at the facts brought out by the report and Farmers Cooperative was able to start building plans the following day.” Without a doubt, starting a creamery in Scott County takes a lot of preparation and research, but when all of these components come together, it is the community that really benefits.

Have you ever wondered how thousands of dairy products are brought to your local grocery store every week? Well, it takes a lot of machinery, packaging and transportation. Historically this was very difficult because of the lack of technology. One local creamery in New Prague was able to mass produce butter and cream at an astonishing rate. An article from the New Prague Times published on February 11 in the year of 1926 notes “the importance of the dairy industry not only to the farming community but also to small family businesses.” On this historic date, “the New Prague Creamery Association ranked third among all of the co-operative creameries in the entire state of Minnesota and produced 974,464 pounds of butter and 2,892,716 pounds of cream.” Needless to say, New Prague had an amazing creamery, but there were also notable ones located in Shakopee.

The Scott Co. Argus on October 15th, 1915 boasted the success of “the Shakopee Creamery, Geo. and the proprietor, A. Dellwo.” This “creamery has listed 85 farmers and pays them an average of $85 a day for their cream.” In addition to this, “Mr. Dellwo manufactures a fine grade of ice cream, averaging about 75 gallons per day during the summer months.” Even though Scott Co. Argus is a famous creamery in this area, the first one started in Shakopee by J.C. Munsch was another prominent creamery. Another Scott Co. Argus article published on December 14th, 1906 invited “farmers in the vicinity who have cream to sell or shipping abilities to work with Mr. Munsch.” Some questioned his qualifications, “but he was a practical butter maker that learned the trade from the Silver Lake creamery, where he was sole in charge of the business.” Understandably the creamery business takes a lot of marketing to provide the best dairy products, but this task was very easy for the Milton Creamery in Belle Plaine.

The Belle Plaine Herald revealed Milton Creamery’s immense milk shipping on June 8th, 1898. This creamery operated here in Scott County way before New Prague and Shakopee. The authors found that “eighty teams had hauled in milk that day, from which 440 gallons of cream had been separated and shipped out.” It was also found that “the amount of milk received each day seemed to vary from 14,000 to over 22,000 pounds a day, the latter amount coming in on Mondays.” What made this feat so significant was how this creamery was able to produce so much in such a competitive environment where “business had been lost to the number of other creameries that had sprung up around them.” Clearly, it was a stressful time and even though a pound of butter amounted to a couple of dollars back in 18th and 19th centuries, there were some that chose to steal these products.

The Jordan Independent mentioned multiple butter robberies in the Scott County area during the year of 1927 in an article published on March 31st. According to “the police department, Olschlagle purchased creamery butter that was stolen from someone in the area and sold them to residents.” This influenced “sheriffs to set out a stakeout and “E.J. Dee was apprehended by Hastings police for trying break into a local pool hall and around the same time, Jack Welte was taken into custody in Owatonna while trying to rob a grocery store.” It turns out “that these two burglars traded stolen butter for Olschagle’s bootleg booze.” Although these two were put into jail, “Olschagle pleaded that he was innocent, but police later found out that he had a second identity as George Harvey, and arrested him for receiving and selling stolen property and selling illegal liquor.” The aspect “that made this case so controversial was whether or not the creameries were going to be reimbursed for their losses.” Overall, creameries are difficult to sustain and these issues are even faced today.

Today, many companies today move towards sustainability and protecting the environment. In terms of the future, creameries in Scott County will have to be less mindful of bootleggers, and more mindful of the changes in our society and how their products are being made.

An Irishman in Scott County

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from the Scott County Historical Society! Today we had the pleasure of visiting ProAct-New Options in Shakopee to share a little Scott County Irish history and help them celebrate the holiday. We would also like to celebrate with a blog post by profiling one of Scott County’s  early Irish citizens.

The 1800s were a rough time for Irish farmers. Few families actually owned their land, instead owing money and crops to British landlords. In the case that a family did own their plot, a law of subdivision was in place requiring that all land was required to be divided equally between living sons at the time of a parent’s death. This led to increasingly small plots, often insufficient for a family to earn a living. Many Irish farmers eked out their lives in abject poverty.

The response to these conditions was potatoes. Potatoes packed a lot of calories into a small package, required minimal upkeep, could be grown in small areas, and could be stored throughout the winter. Growing potatoes allowed a family with limited time and resources a hearty food source. By 1840, roughly half the population of Ireland lived almost entirely on potatoes.

Unfortunately, this extensive cultivation of a single crop left Ireland’s potatoes vulnerable to Phytophthora infestans, commonly known as “blight”. In 1844, Irish newspapers began mentioning concern due to a disease that had attacked potatoes in the United States and elsewhere in Europe. By 1846, three-quarters of the potato harvest was lost to blight. Ireland’s level of dependence on the potato was such that by 1849, the potato blight left over 1 million people dead from starvation, or related illnesses.

The response of the English government to the famine was lackluster, and many Irish began looking for a way out. Thus began a period of mass migration from Ireland to the United States. It is estimated that between 1820 and 1930 around 4.5 million Irish arrived in America.

Jeremiah Hayes

One of these Irish immigrants was Jeremiah Hayes. He was born around 1830 on a farm on the outskirts of the village of Milltown, in County Kerry Ireland, 30 years after Ireland officially became a British state. In January. He recalled his childhood in Ireland in an article published by the Belle Plaine Herald on January 14th, 1926, noting a storm that had hit his family’s farm when he was “a pretty small lad”

“I remember that wind all right. There has never been anything like it since. It would blow the hair right off your head. I can remember my father and mother propping the door, and a terrible time they had of it too. No one was killed in  in our neighborhood, but a good many cows and pigs were lost, and there was a lot of property damage”

Hayes also recalled living through the potato famine

“The potato crop had been good in ’45, but the next year when the crop failed and the pits containing last year’s harvest were opened, the walls of the pits caved in and it was found that dry rot had ruined them. They didn’t have any relief organizations in those days. Little aid could be obtained from England and from famine and disease people died like flies”

Hayes held on through the potato famine, and grew to adulthood. Along the way he met and married Ellen Hayes and the two tried to make a living on the family farm. In 1860 he decided that his prospects on the farm were “none too bright” and he decided to come to the United States.

Following two cousins, Hayes settled in Faxton, then a flourishing village not far from Belle Plaine. Jeremiah Hayes described life in Faxton:

“There were great times in that community in those days. They worked hard but they enjoyed themselves. There were several saloons and most of the stores had a whiskey barrel where drinks could be bought for five cents. There were dances in which Irish jigs were features, and sometimes there were fights. The boys were full of life and fun and naturally a little rough at times, but beyond a few black eyes and bruised noses little damage was done”

For three years, Jeremiah worked digging drainage ditches and saved his money. Eventually, he was able to bring his wife from Ireland to join him in the United States. The two settled on a small farm in St. John’s parish.

Jeremiah Hayes took pride in what he saw his is rough-and-tumble Irish roots. A huge fan of boxing, Hayes told the Belle Plaine Herald on January 24th, 1926 that “There was always a lot of good Irish names to be found among the boys at the prize ring”, and said of his youth “You see, they boys fought it out and shook hands afterwards. There was no long arguments and no sidestepping like we have nowadays. A man had to be able to stand up and take care of himself and it was the making of lots of them”.

Ellen Hayes passed away in 1891 from consumption. Jeremiah Continued to farm until 1921, when he moved in with his daughter in Belle Plaine. In his old age, Jeremiah Hayes was known for his jigging ability. He performed at American Legion meetings, and for the Twin City Auto Show, with favorite tunes including the Fisherman’s Hornpipe, Liverpool Hornpipe, and the Scottish Reel. He did not think much of Jazz, what he called “modern music”.

In his old age, Jeremiah Hayes left some advice behind for future generations on the pages of the Belle Plaine Herald “Young folks have too good of a time nowadays. A little hard work would do ‘em good”.

Hayes passed away on August 27, 1927 in Belle Plaine. Though his story, like all stories, is unique, he represents one of the largest mass-migrations of refugees in American history. Today, we celebrate those stories on St. Patrick’s day.

Written by Rose James, SCHS Program Manager

By the Edge of a Whittler’s Knife

The Scott County Historical Society recently received a donation of folk art created during World War II in Shakopee. The art is a beautiful example of how people during such a hard time in history found a way to still create art. Whittling is the act of carving wooden shapes and designs with a knife. It is an art that requires similar skills to sculpting, and the pieces are art below are works of patience and dedication. All of these items were carved using only a small carving knife, which is remarkable when considering the detail work involved.

This ax is about 14 inches long and has a carve ax head and handle that are then fitted together.

The teeth of this saw are broken because the donor, when she was a child, believed it to be a real saw and tried to cut something with it with her brother.

The links in this chain are all independent, carved one at a time and then separated to be linked together without breaking the rings.

Written by Dave Nichols, Curator of Collections

Bird is the Word

We are slowly inching towards the first day of spring… March 20th is only a few weeks away! As I write this, the streets outside the museum are still piled high with mounds of fluffy white, but the sun is shining and the snow feels more magical than malicious.

With the advent of spring comes the return of songbirds. To prepare for our feathered friends, I thought I would share an article published in the early days of spring 1865. On March 25 of that year, the following passage extolling the divine virtues of birds was printed in the pages of the Scott County Argus:

Usefulness of Birds

Jay in a tree. Photo taken by Leroy Lebens, 1960. From the SCHS Collections

Birds on a telephone wire. Photo taken by Leroy Lebens, around 1960. From the SCHS Collections.

“It takes mankind a great while to learn the ways of Providence and to understand that things are better contrived by him than can be contrived by him than they can contrive them. Of late people are beginning to learn that they have mistaken the character of most little birds, and have not understood the object of the Almighty in creating them. They are looked upon as the friends, and great friends of those who sow and reap. It has been seen that they mostly live on insects which are among the worst enemy of the agriculturist, and that if they take, now and then, a grain of wheat, they levy but a small tax for the immense services rendered. In this altered state of things, legislatures are passing laws for the protection of little birds and increasing the penalties to be enforced upon the bird-killers. An illustration of the virtue of some of the winged tribe is before us in a paragraph from a paper in Birmingham, New York: — a farmer from that neighborhood wished to borrow a gun of a neighbor for the purpose of killing some yellow birds in his field of wheat, eating up his grain. The neighbor declined the loan of the gun, however to gratify his curiosity he shot one of them, opened its crop, and found in it two hundred weevils and but four grains of wheat, and in those four grains weevils had burrowed! This was a most instructive lesson and worth the life of the poor bird as valuable as it was. The bird is said to resemble the canary and sings nicely. — One of our citizens, a careful observer and owner of many farms called for our attention to this paragraph and said, use as a text for sermonizing, for the benefit of farmers and other who may look upon little birds as inimical to their interests. He said he has studied the subject as a lover of natural history, as well as a hunter and farmer, and he knows there is hardly a bird that flies  that is not a friend to the farmer and gardener. We think the gentleman is right, and we hop his suggestions will have their due weight. — Working Farmer”

Interested in expanding your avian knowledge? Join us on the Second Thursday evening of each month for educational, informative and interesting programs! We will be presenting guest speakers, author talks, tours and DIY projects.

April’s Second Thursday will take place on April 11th, 2019 at 6:30pm. Join us to learn a bit about bird life in Scott County, and then make your very on wooden bird door-knocker. Interested? Register now RIGHT HERE