Scott County Memories: Experiences Traveling with a Band

These recollections were dictated by Mayme Dvorak Borak of New Prague in 1980 and originally shared in the collection “As I Remember Scott County”

Chaska Sodality band around 1920. Photo from the SCHS Collections.

I was a freshman in high school in 1919 when I was asked to play the piano with a seven piece band by the name of Borak and Boudin. It was the best modern and old time band around New Prague. We would rehearse at the Frank Borak house once a week. Then we were hired two or three times a week to play for wedding dances. K.C. dances and Fireman’s dances- as far away as the Iowa border.

It really wasn’t much fun to travel 64 years ago in summer or winter. The roads were narrow and when it rained it was very muddy because there was no gravel or blacktop at that time. In winter we would travel with horses and a sleigh which had hay in it for us to sit on to keep warm. Many times, if it was stormy, the horses went into the ditch and topped over the sled and all the instruments were scattered on the field. It took us many hours to get home. I would sleep maybe two to three hours and then go to school.

In 1926 we got uniforms, and I believe I was the first woman to wear slacks. We has tan slacks and brown corduroy jackets.

At some dance halls they had very poor pianos. St. Patrick had a small piano and I had to chew gum to past the black key on in order to play it. Then at St. Thomas, they had an organ which I had to pump with my feet all night to keep up with the band.

I played with different bands for over twenty years and enjoyed every bit of it.

History of Credit River Part 5: Memories of Early Credit River

Susan Allen (Sherin) grew up in Credit River and was interviewed in 1928 as an elderly woman. Her parents, like many others, came from Ireland, and then to Credit River by way of Dubuque. They traveled to St Paul by steamboat, and then to an Ox Cart into the township. She recalled dances at the village hall: “Everybody had a far better time than young people do nowadays. My goodness, I thought nothing of dancing all night when I was a girl and most of our dances were quadrilles too, that kept us moving lively. Even the waltzes were far more lively than they are now because we whirled round” 

She also mentioned the hard work that it took to run a farm. Her father cleared land using horses, and she remembers him planting wheat and corn among tree stumps. She said, “Hard work and hard times didn’t trouble farmers in those days. In fact, they didn’t expect anything different. Life in a log cabin and work in the woods and the fields all day were the lot of all the settlers”

Of school, she recalled ““we had to walk quite a distance and carry our dinners”. She also said “the curriculum was vastly different then today but still we learned quite a bit”. She also said that the hair ribbons that she could get growing up in Credit river were “just a little bit better” then those she could get in 1928. 

Rosella Lyons taught at the Credit River school in the late 1930s, and was interviewed in 1987. She remembered “We turned out a lot of talented people. Several priests and sisters and some attorneys. We had a wood shed and one day in the fall all the children would pile the wood in the shed. We would be done by mid afternoon. Then a couple of children would be selected to go to the store and get peanuts and candy. We had a couple of dollars allotted to us”. 

The school at the time had 20 or 30 students from first grade through highschool. Lyons recalled 1936 as a banner year because they had 10 children in first grade alone, and a total of 20 in the elementary school.

On January 17th, 1999 a large reunion was held for people that grew up in Credit River Township. Several of the attendees shared photographs, articles and stories, and these were put together into a scrapbook. The introduction of the scrapbook reads “No business aside from the agricultural pursuits of farmers is carried on in the town. No wonders of natural scenery vary the beauty of the landscape, consequently the history of Credit River is told in few words”

Scott County Memories: German, Baseball, Church Bells and Slot Machines

These recollections were dictated by Richard Mertz of Shakopee in 1980 and originally shared in the collection “As I Remember Scott County”

Shakopee has been most fortunate in the type of people it has attracted over these many years. It has an interesting and colorful past so it us pure fun to remember and relate some of the most pleasant memories.

Today we have many nationalities and most of our families are such a mixture that we can only say we are Americans. Not so forty or fifty years ago when most of our families were first or second generation German - or a European nation of close proximity. All of our people are hardworking and completely honest, but English sentence structure was absolutely foreign and vocabulary was not unlike Archie Bunker’s

In one of the early grades, we had a kid who would say “I’m going the hall across”, which was much to the amusement of those who had moved to Shakopee from some town that had an English speaking background.

I recall the evening when five or six of us, all teenagers, were chatting at home not far from where we live today when a lady from out of state, visiting our friend’s mother, mentioned that there was a great deal of activity around the house.

“Ach Ja” she said, “This coming and this wenting and this wenting and this coming this is me something” . Many times she would call her husband George from the garden with “George, come once from the outside in the telephone is calling you”/

Another time a picnic was being planned when our neighbor lady said “Ach Ja No, we have to insulate our new minister that day”.

Over these many years I have enjoyed telling a story that occurred in about 1939 when Shakopee was hosting the State Baseball Tournament and Superintendent of Schools, John Metcalf (later a distinguished state senator) was the announcer. In those days we didn’t have a lighted ball field, so many of the games were played in the morning. John found it necessary to leave the press box which also served as the announcer’s office. He left just as there was an argument on the field that turned the microphone over to one of our leading fans who soon announced “Owatonna is playing this game under protest, claiming that the Beardsly left fielder is illegitimate”. It brought the house down, and I doubt if anyone an remember to this day who won the ball game

I wonder how many people remember the time that the Presbyterian Church bell was ringing every night at midnight? The town was rife with rumors and guards took up posts around the church - all to no avail. The bell kept ringing at the appointed hour. Eventually, some brave soul climbed to the tower in daylight. There he found numerous chunks of lead from 22 rifle shots fired by one of the town characters.

Or the days when Scott County ha slot machines in almost every bar (Shakopee had over 30 bars at the time), barbershop, and gas station. Liquor was served in the 3.2 beer bars. Every time the state liquor control officers came into the county, phones rang at all those 3.2 bars warning the bartenders of a possible raid. On one such occasion a feisty Irishman had hardly hung up the phone when two men in suits arrived and sat in a booths. Now most people didn’t wear a suit until Saturday, so this was a dead giveaway. Then, sitting in a booth confirmed the worst because no one ever sat in a booth unless he had a wife or girlfriend along - or unless he was a liquor control agent. One order charged water, the other ginger ale, Mac, the Irishman, went behind the bar, returned with the drinks, and rang up the register. The agents announced that there was no liquor in their drinks. Mac just said that it was policy of the house not to serve liquor to liquor control agents. The other patrons howled with laughter, and the agents left hurriedly without drinking their soft drinks.

Scott County Remembers The Civil War

Memorial Day 1915 marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the Civil War in Scott County. The holiday was always a grand affair, but the fifty-year anniversary of the conflict was met with unusual pomp.

The Jordan Independent noted on June 3, 1915, that “… There have been at Jordan, during the last forty-odd years, many Memorial Day observations, but those who remember back for many years tell us that they do not recall any that surpassed the 1915 occasion.” The town brought in a speaker, Charles Fowler of Minneapolis, who reminded them that “Memorial Day is taken as a true manifestation of the patriotic spirit of our people, as well as a sincere measure of respect to the memory in particular of the brave Union soldiers, present and departed.” Fowler praised Jordan, noting: “There were upward of 100 men enlisted from Jordan... few frontier villages the size of Jordan could point to a better record.”

After the speech was a parade, led by Joseph Smith. Smith was a veteran of the Civil War, having served in the 8th Minnesota Regiment. The 8th was, like several units from Minnesota, involved in both the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, and the Civil War in the south. The unit fought in the Third Battle of Murfreesboro, as well as the Battle of Wyse Fork, and is noted for traveling more miles during the conflict than any other regiment in the Union Army.

Scott County members of Jordan’s Von Minden Post #105 of the Grand Army of the Republic, all Civil War veterans, were photographed around 1890.

Following Smith was the Jordan Brass Band, and the Von Mindon Post #105 of the G.A.R., or Grand Army of the Republic. The G.A.R. was a fraternal organization for the veterans of the Civil War. Much more than a social club, the G.A.R. was one of the first organized advocacy groups in American politics; supporting voting rights for black veterans, promoting patriotic education, helping to make Memorial Day a national holiday, and lobbying the United States Congress to establish regular veterans’ pensions. At its peak in 1890, nationwide membership was 410,000. The G.A.R. was dissolved in 1956 at the death of its last member, Albert Woolson (1850–1956) of Duluth, Minnesota.

Behind the band were marchers from the Ladies of the G.A.R. and the Jordan Fire Department. They were followed by the pupils of Jordan Public Schools in a long procession, lined up by grade level. Finally, the citizens of Jordan followed in a parade of carriages and automobiles.

The parade ended at Spirit Hill Cemetery with more music, a church procession, and finally time to decorate the gravesites of Jordan’s veterans.

Shakopee also celebrated in grand style. The day started with a gathering of the G.A.R., accompanied by buglers, a drum corps, and children carrying wreaths and bouquets. The entire group walked to Valley Cemetery to decorate the gravestones of soldiers. At 1:30 p.m. a parade formed at the County Courthouse, starting with a band, followed by the city police and a procession of Shakopee schoolchildren. This group was followed by representatives from labor unions from around the County. The parade traveled to Bridge Square to pay their respects to a group of Union veterans who waited there. The Shakopee Tribune noted on June 3, 1915 that “Fifty years have wrought changes, both in appearance and numbers of our Boys in Blue, yet their hearts seemed young once again as they beheld the honors paid to them and the memories of their comrades that are gone. Times change too, for the streets were filled with autos instead of teams, and there was not one horse in the whole line of the parade.” The day concluded with a meal being served to the G.A.R. members and their families

It is unsurprising that the anniversary was held in such esteem. Scott County sent around 650 soldiers to the Civil War, a huge number in a county that had less than 5000 residents at the time. Most families would have had a personal tie to someone involved in the war. The veterans that remained were aging, and there was a widespread push in the County to honor their memories and preserve their stories.

The 50th anniversary of the Civil War also came during the time of a great deal of national change, as the Shakopee Tribune alluded to in their coverage of the Memorial Day parade. Technology was changing rapidly, cities were booming, and more Americans were working in factories instead of fields. Social change followed, with campaigns for labor rights and women’s suffrage. With so much in flux during the present, many of Scott County’s residents found it important to honor the past.

The year 1915 itself brought conflict. Less than a year before the Memorial Day celebrations honoring the Civil War, World War I had begun in Europe. While the United States was still several years away from joining the fight, the specter of war must have seemed very real to the American people.

World War I might have seemed particularly relevant to Scott County’s large German population. In 1915, Scott County newspapers still carried a weekly column entitled “News of the Fatherland” that gave a summary of events transpiring in Germany. As the war progressed, and with it anti-German rhetoric of “divided loyalties” and “hyphenated Americanism,” this column disappeared. Many Scott County residents were Americans that still had strong ties to Germany, and they might have felt the prospect of a divided nation on the horizon once again.

Jordan Independent, June 3, 1915

In Scott County newspapers, articles extolling the virtues of Scott County’s Civil War veterans appeared alongside editorials praising President Wilson’s policy of neutrality in the war, and hopes that America would remain separate from the conflict. During his speech at the 1915 Jordan Memorial Day celebrations, Charles Fowler noted “We were fortunate in George Washington during revolutionary times, we were fortunate in having Abraham Lincoln when rebellion broke loose; today, in another tense time, we may be grateful that a man of Wilson’s poise and balance is here to guide the nation in peace.”

In the Shakopee Argus, coverage of Memorial Day on June 3, 1915 was accompanied by an article entitled “Memorial Day Lessons.” The article concluded with this warning:

From the lips of thoughtless youth we sometimes hear the flippant charge that the old soldiers are still fighting the battles of the Civil War, little realizing what they mean to the scarred survivors of those epoch-making days. Who that marched with Sherman to the sea could ever forget? Who that came back from the slippery slopes of Gettysburg can ever forget the bloody tragedy… Who that witnessed the destruction by the Confederate army itself of its last hope and stronghold, the City of Richmond, in that memorable April of ‘65 will ever forget the indescribable scene of horror… thirty city blocks swept out of existence by the searing flames while hundreds of hospitals and almshouse inmates were said to have been blown to eternity. Such is war! God forbid our land will ever know another.

Credit River History Part 4: Into the 20th Century



In the 1920s and 30s the children of many of the original Credit River families are said to have left the township for St Paul, seeking employment and higher wages. At that time, several Dutch families moved into the southern part of the township, and there was apparently some tension between the original Irish families and the new Dutch families. 

A poem (date unknown) was written by Julius Schnider that detailed life in Credit River. It tells the story of a confrontation between young Dutch and Irish residents that was settled by Pat White of White’s General Store. The complete text of the poem is at the end of this document. Schnieder said in 1987 “There was always two factions [Irish and Dutch] but it wasn’t really as bad as I wrote. You have to spice things up a little to make them more interesting.”

Enough Credit River residents moved to St Paul in these years that on March 7th, 1940 a “Credit River Club” was formed in the city. Melvin Faricy and Joe White were elected officers and former Credit River residents agreed to hold meetings as well as a large annual picnic every summer. 

In 1903 rural free mail delivery came to Credit River, closing the town post office. Telephones arrived in 1910, and electricity on March 28, 1929. The latter was exciting enough that a town party was held, though it was postponed so that the celebrations could commence after the end of Lent. 

The township had an important role during World War II. One hundred acres in Credit River, part of the Cleary farm, were used as a military training field.  Novice flyers and flight instructors would travel there from Fort Snelling and practice taking off, landing, and flight maneuvers. 

Jordan Independent, February 4th, 1960

As roads grew better, transportation easier, and cars more common, many Credit River residents began traveling to nearby Prior Lake for errands and social events. This was true for religious services as well. The last pastor at Credit River’s St Peter’s Church was named John Deere. He was remembered by resident Pat Cleary as tall and redheaded, “just the typical Irishman.” As the congregation dwindled, St Peter’s church closed in 1960. Soon after, in a decision that still saddens many residents, the archdiocese tore the church down for safety reasons. 

The Cleary family land was passed down through generations. Eventually the Cleary’s great great grandchildren sold the land to the parks department. Today it is known as Cleary Lake regional park. It features camping, skiing, a golf course, a dog park, hiking trails, and of course boating and swimming.