Scott County Memories: Tales of a Mail Carrier in the Early 1900s

These recollections were dictated by Joan Muehlbauer and Corrine Meierbachtol of Belle Plaine in 1980 and originally shared in the collection “As I Remember Scott County”

Tom O’Connor delivering mail in Belle Plaine, 1905. Photo from the SCHS Collections.

Our dad, John McDevitt started hs mail carrier job in 1903. He had three horses. In the summer he had a two wheel buggy. When the water was high in the spring, he would have to leave his horses at the last patron’s hows, that of Adam Brandl. He would also sometimes have to spend the night there. When I was a little girl, I can remember how unhappy it made me when e couldn’t come home. When we had a phone he would call up and talk to me and it would be ok. If the current in the river was not too swift, the mail could be brought over in a bot to him,

Belle Plaine mail carriers, 1913. Photo from the SCHS Coilections.

In the winter he would travel in a cutter drawn by one horse. A large stone was placed in the oven of the cookstove overnight, and in the morning the stone was wrapped in burlap. That was kept near his feet. He wore a heavy, sheeplined coat. A nice warm horse hair blanket covered him. All was fine, unless he had to go over high snow drifts, which many times tipped over the sleigh. He had to be at the post office at 8:30 in the morning to sort the mail. Then he came home and had a hot bowl of soup. The only lunch he took was a thermos of coffee. He left for the route at ten o’clock. The route was 30 miles long, In good weather he was home around three. In the winter, it was later.

He bought the first car in 1925. It was a Model T Ford. When we were old enough, we were taken with him on the route to keep him company. He was a mail carrier from 1903 until 1932.

History of Credit River Part 2: The Township Grows

Credit River’s first municipal building was the post office, built in 1856. It was initially called the New Dublin post office. 

The choice of names is not surprising. The vast majority of the township’s early European American settlers were from Ireland, coming to the United States to escape the potato famine and to take advantage of the possibility of land ownership. Land in places like Credit River went quickly. The early Irish families claimed land through the homestead act or the territorial land act. All of this land had been claimed by 1870. 

These early European American settlers lived mostly in the northern part of the township, which was almost exclusively Irish. In 1870, as the final land was claimed, records show that the township was ⅔ Irish and 95% Catholic. 

After the post office, the town built a church. The first church building was a log cabin built in 1862 on a hill overlooking Cleary lake. Unfortunately, this early building burned down. The township’s second church was completed in 1871 and named St Peters. It featured a hand carved altar, stained glass windows, a choir loft, a tower that was sixty-five feet high, and a 1200 pound bell. St Peters stood next to where Credit River Cemetery is now located, along Highway 27.

The church didn’t have a dedicated priest. Instead, a traveling priest would come through first monthly, then weekly to perform the service. In the late 1980s, several elderly lifelong residents recalled that in the winter or during difficult weather conditions Sunday services would begin when the priest arrived, not at an appointed time. This meant that they sometimes did not start until late afternoon. 

Sketch of St Peter’s Church in Credit River. From the Shakopee Valley News, August 12, 1987

According to early residents, much of the town’s social life was centered around St Peter’s Church. The church hosted weddings, banquets, anniversary celebrations and card parties. It was not uncommon for the people in the town to arrive at Sunday services very early, and stay several hours after the service ended to chat with their neighbors. 

In 1878 a reporter from the Shakopee Courier took a weekend trip to Credit River in order to write an article about what life was like in the community. He went in December and wrote of his journey “It was slightly chilly outside of a good buffalo robe especially in an occasional blinding snowstorm.” He said of his arrival “When we got to the settlement we found everybody going to church so we fell in line and did likewise.”

Outside of the church, the township was home to a blacksmith shop, general store, creamery and village hall. There were taverns attached at various points to both the store and the town hall. 

The village hall was a public place, and residents remember parties, weddings and basket socials being held there. A basket social was a tradition where a young woman would pack a basket with a meal or baked goods. Men would bid in the basket, with the hopes of sharing the meal with the lady who originally packed the food. The money was generally donated to a charitable cause. 

Scott County Memories: Wash Day

These recollections were dictated by Frances Brandl of Belle Plaine in 1980 and originally shared in the collection “As I Remember Scott County”

Monday was wash day. Anyone who didn’t wash on Monday was not considered a good housekeeper. Sunday evening the old copper wash boiler was brought in from back porch and filled with water from the cistern. We were very fortunate to have a large cistern with plenty of water and a pump in the kitchen. Then two large tubs and the wash bench were brought in, one tub for washing clothes and one tub for rinsing clothes. The rinsing water was put in the tub to which was added Mrs. Edwards Liquid Bluing. One had to be very careful not to add too much or one had blue clothes.

In the morning, the first boiler of water was poured into the washing tub and then filled again for boiling the white clothes. Clothes were scrubbed on a washboard- a board with corrugated metal on which one rubbed the clothes up and down and lathered them with good homemade lye soap. All white clothes were boiled in the boiler - again with lots of homemade soap added to the boiling water. Usually the two front lids were removed so the boiler set right on the flame for a good fast boil, especially in the summertime when one didn’t want any more heat in the house then necessary.

Ann and Clara Albrecht on a train platform, 1913. Photo from the SCHS Collections.

After a few minutes of boiling, the clothes were removed with a wooden stick and put in rinse water. Now it was time to hang them out to dry. Clothes were hung out winter or summer, especially all white clothes. The outdoors helped to bleach and keep them white. One big problem in wintertime was to make sure the wind was not from the north, because of the trains going by. In those days there were many trains and loots of coal soot. This stuff would fall down on the clothes and that was really bad. Also, one would have to remember to shut down the rain spout going into the cistern in the fall of the year and leave it turned off until after a good rain in the spring had washed all the soot from the roof. Way back then we had a pollution problem, but of course it was not thought of as such. One just had to be alert and keep and eye on the wash line when trains were going by.

All aprons, dresses, men’s shirt collars, cuffs and petticoats were starched. This starch wa made with flour and water mixed to a milky consistency, then boiling water was added until it became pudding-like. Sometimes if articles needed a heavier starch, sugar was added. This often was used on petticoats and lace doilies. Some folks even put a bit if butter in the starch- they claimed it ironed smoother.

History of Credit River Part 1: Beginning of the Township

he township of Credit River was platted in 1854. European American settlers arrived to the area later that year. The first of these was John Spratt, who came from Illinois. Second was William McQuestion. 

There are three different stories that describe how Credit River got its name, though none have been officially verified as fact. 

The first says that the town and river were named after a generous shopkeeper who used to give “down on their luck” Irish families credit. The second story is similar, stating that the French traders of Mendota used to give Irish immigrants credit on their way up the Mississippi to the Minnesota river as they traveled West. 

The third story is the most commonly told, and also the most dark. In this tale, Reverend Albert Ostet from Lakeville came to deliver mass at the Credit River settlement. On one of his trips the river was so swollen with floodwater that he couldn’t cross. He turned back towards home.  When he got back to Lakeville he found out his mother was dying. He gave the river “credit” because if it hadn’t been flooding he wouldn’t have been able to see his mother before she passed away. 

In 1855 many more families came to Credit River, with names that are still prominent in the area today: Cleary, Hough, Suel, White, Regan Reardon, Casey, Sherin, Flemming, Faricy. 

For the Hough (later spelled Haugh) family, this was their second time in America. When they first came across the Atlantic, they decided that they didn’t much like the United States, and turned around for Ireland. When they got home, they unfortunately discovered that their land had been sold, and felt they had no choice but to make the journey to America once again. When they arrived for the second time they decided to settle in Credit River. 

Some of the most well known of these early Credit River citizens was the family of Cornelius and Bridget Cleary. Cornelius came to the United States in 1850 from County Clare in Ireland to escape the potato famine. He lived in New York for five years and worked to pay for his family’s passage to the United States. After the entire family arrived they traveled to Dubuque, Iowa (a common waypoint for Irish families who were interested in homesteading in the West), and then claimed territorial land on the shores of the lake in Credit River. 

The original 1857 Cleary log home. Photo from the Prior Lake American, March 19, 2005

There they built a log cabin, and became known in the area for allowing passing missionaries to stay in their home. The first church services in the township were held in the Cleary cabin, along with the first Credit River municipal elections. 

In his 1875 obituary, Cornelius Cleary was described as “an excellent citizen and friend”, and “the real first settler of the town”. 

In an interesting side note, William McQuestion, the second European American to settle in Credit River, eventually moved on to Prior Lake. His descendant Cora McQuestion became the first female mayor of Prior Lake (and one of the first in the nation) during the 1920s. She was elected to the position after singlehandedly foiling a bank robbery with her shotgun. 

Scott County Memories: A New Market Hotel

These recollections were dictated by Helen Kaufenberg of New Market in 1980 and originally shared in the collection “As I Remember Scott County”

New Market MN around 1900. Photo from the SCHS Collections.

My earliest memories of my childhood are the first ten years of my life that I spent in the hotel that my parents operated. It was a busy little lace as very few people owned cars. The traveling salesman would come by train to the neighboring village of Elko. Then they would come to New Market. If they came in the evening, they would have to stay until the next day. Also the farmers from neighboring Cedar Lake Township had to haul their grai to the elevator at Elko by team, so many of them would stop at the hotel for a meal. They were charged twenty five cents. This was around 1910 to 1920. We had several girls who helped with the cooking and other chores.

I remember mother getting up some mornings at 3 o’clock to do the laundry. There was no electricity and it was a little scary to come downstairs alone. I laso recall that some of the laundry was sent to the cities by train. It was put in large canvas hampers around 4 feet long and 3 feet high.

There were dances held in the Village Hall and during intermission a supper was served at the hotel. On one particular night they served a turkey supper. They had everything waiting for the crowd when the stove pope in a the wood range fell down. It was really a disaster.

St. Nicholas Catholic Church of New Market, 1890. Photo from the SCHS Collections.

Another time, my folks told about a burglary at the Post Office next door. A salesman for the Schmidt Brewery had been on the train and got off at Elko. He had seen to suspicious men get of the train. He immediately walked around to the other side of the train and walked toward the train elevator. He called from the depot and alerted the people at New Market, so when the hotel closed at 11 o’clock, some of the people stayed up and watched through a window at the back of the hotel. They were watching the Post Office and also the bank which was next door. The salesman got ahold of a gun and opened the window just enough to put the gun through. When the burglars tried to get in the back door of the Post Office they were frightened away. There was evidence that the burglars had waited in the choir loft of the church as there were cigarettes and cigar stubs left behind.