NEED OF HITCHING POSTS ENDEDThe following appeared in the Rock County Herald on April 25, 1924:COUNCIL DECIDES TO FORGET NEED OF HITCHING POSTSProtest Made and Prospects of Others on Locations Causes Storing of Special Posts. Up to Tuesday noon prospects of the city council taking immediate steps to provide adequate hitching places for farmers’ teams, were exceedingly bright. And, then the project completely reversed itself. For several months members of the council had been hearing much about the urgent need of hitching posts being erected at different points about the city, so that farmers could find a place to tie their teams when compelled to come to town by this mode of travel. Recognizing that the need was real, because there is not a place in the city where several or more teams can be put up, the council has admitted the void, but for the sake of cleanliness and expense in caring for such hitching places, decided that they should be located on paved streets. Preparations for meeting the need had progressed to such extent by Tuesday forenoon, that the council had fourteen heavy steel posts with convenient steel rings for tying to, ready for erection. Tentative plans provided for six of these posts being installed at the curb line on the south side of Lincoln street, fifty or sixty feet around the corner on the north from the Paulsen pool hall. The other posts were to be installed in another part of the business section, and more steel posts were to be provided in a few days. All were to be firmly and neatly set in concrete. But Street Commissioner P.J. Connell had barely started installing the posts on the Lincoln street site, when F.C.C. Smith, whose residence is directly across the street on the north from the proposed site, raised objections to having the hitching place located there, and informed members of the council that if necessary he would get out an injunction to stop the erection of the posts. The city dads immediately held a consultation and decided that if Mr. Smith considered the proposed hitching place an unsanitary nuisance, work would stop at once, and this was what was done. Then the after-thought followed that having heeded Mr. Smith’s protest, they could not logically go to other locations and attempt to erect hitching posts, for while it was their expectation to see that the hitching places were kept as clean as possible, there would still be grounds for some objection from nearby residents, and that the moment an objection was raised they must, if they wished to be consistent, grant it the same recognition as had been given Mr. Smith’s protest. In view of this situation, and the fact that the idea of providing hitching places was not originally proposed by the council, that body decided to place the hitching posts back in storage and so far as the members of the council are concerned the matter is now a dead issue. Donations to the Rock County Historical Endowment Fund can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.
