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1943: Mrs. Charles Brauer's story continues

The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on May 6, 1943.
This is continued from last week’s issue of Mrs. Charles Brauer’s story.
After living there six years, the Brauers moved to Missouri, in a community south of St. Louis, where a man owned considerable land and employed men to help him, furnishing them with homes to live in. Mr. Brauer worked in the woods, splitting rails, receiving $2 a day. Mrs. Brauer earned a little pin money by gathering dewberries and selling garden products to the families who worked in the mines.
Mr. Brauer became ill with malaria there, so they moved to Cedar county, Ia. There Mr. Brauer was employed as a railroad section worker for five years. However, he preferred working on the farm so they moved to Wilton, in Muscatine, Ia., where they obtained an 80 acre tract. They raised quite a few dairy cows, sold their milk, and were able to save some money.
From there, they moved to Rock county, and settled in Springwater township where they bought a farm and lived for 22 years. During those years, Mrs. Brauer states, she worked hard, taking the place of an extra man many times during the busy season. She helped with the chores, and even shocked grain.
About 25 years ago, they retired and moved to town. Mr. Brauer died about three years ago.
Mr. and Mrs. Brauer had three children, only one of whom is now living, Mrs. Meta Weckner of Springwater township. Her other direct descendents include five grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
Mrs. Brauer is a member of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran church in Luverne and has always been active in the work of the Ladies Aid, although she has never held an office.
Her favorite pastimes include piecing quilts, gardening (in summer) and caring for house plants. She has numerous plants of all varieties, and she enjoys working with them and watching them grow.
She attributes her long life to living on common food, and keeping regular hours.
She is the only one of her family now living, she states, and she was the oldest of all of them. She had one brother and three sisters, and one half-brother and two half-sisters.
        
         Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

1943: Brauer comes to U.S. at age 21

The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on May 6, 1943.
Of all the trips she has ever made, the one perhaps remembered the best of all by Mrs. Charles Brauer, Luverne, was the voyage from Germany to the United States. The trip is memorable for two reasons: one because she observed her 21st birthday on the ocean, and the other, because of the extremes in weather conditions encountered while on the voyage.
Mrs. Brauer, whose maiden name was Hilda Marie Krieger, was born in West Prussia, Germany, Feb. 27, 1868. Her mother died when she was eight, and her father remarried. He was induced by his cousin to come to the United States, so he decided he would make a trip over to see if he liked it well enough to go there to live with his family. After being here a year, he sent the family money and told them to come.
“The first few days out of port were as beautiful as I have ever seen,” Mrs. Brauer recalled. ‘I’ll never forget how the band would go on deck and play every morning at sunrise. When we had been at sea several days, there arose a great storm, and none of us were permitted to leave our rooms. I’ll never forget the people on board. Some were crying, others were playing and still others were singing. The storm did considerable damage to the ship, but it didn’t go down, and we finally reached America.”
The trip, made on the “Karlsruhe,” required 18 days.
Recalling the portion of her life when she lived in Germany, Mrs. Brauer stated that until her father remarried, she, being the oldest of the girls, helped her grandmother keep house when she was not attending school. School in those days was for children eight to 14. After the age of 14, everybody went to work.
Her father was a guard in the government forest preserve. The poorer people had been guilty of stealing wood from the forests, and for that reason, the government employed guards to prevent further loss from that community.
When she came to the United States, she and the family went directly to Wayne county, Neb. where her father lived. She immediately obtained work in a farm home and received $1.25 per week. Her duties included doing the cooking, baking, washing and cleaning indoors, and helping with the milking, gardening and chicken raising out of the doors. After a while, she felt that she was earning more than she was getting, so she asked for a raise. After that time, she received $2 a week.
She worked for one year, then was married to Charles Brauer at Wayne, Neb. April 30, 1891. They farmed in Nebraska for six years, and those six years were as trying as any she ever spent on a farm. If their crops weren’t dried out they were hailed out. Grasshoppers were numerous and money was scare. She recalls how her husband broke the prairie land, and how they gathered big roots which had been uncovered and saved them for fuel.
One year, they had some corn, so they took a load to town to sell it to buy coal. The amount of coal they received for the load of corn was so small that they decided they could get more heat for their money by burning the corn instead, Mrs. Brauer said.
(Part 2 next week)

1971: Grimm and Byrne used to operate in former Ohlen's Cafe location

The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on June 10, 1971.
Who in the World Were Gimm and Byrne?
Not everyone remembers Gimm and Byrne’s any more.
There are still some, however, who do, and this writer is one of them. Now that Ohlen’s Café, which years ago was Gimm and Byrne’s, is closed, it is unlikely there will ever be a restaurant there again. So we’re going to reminisce a little in the event future historians should ever go through these pages searching for material on what happened “way back when.”
There are those who ask, even now, who in the world were Gimm and Byrne?
Well, as I remember them, Gimm was a jolly, well-built German, whose first name was Fred, but who often was called “Feedy.” Byrne was an Irishman, slight build, serious in demeanor.
Gimm was the talker and had a hearty laugh. Byrne was quiet.
Gimm was tri-lingual. He was best at German and English, but he could also speak and understand Norwegian.
It wasn’t until the prohibition era that I was old enough to come to town with Dad, and invariably, one visit we made in Luverne every time we came was Gimm and Bryne’s. (Before prohibition, it was the corner saloon). Gimm always hailed Dad with a greeting in Norwegian as he stood behind the massive bar. The best drink he could then serve was a bottle of Country Club near-beer which he called “Peeah.” “Peeah” was beer with a German accent.
I had my first drink of root beer in Gimm and Bryne’s. In a mug. It was at Gimm and Byrne’s that I had my first hamburger in a restaurant. Up to that time, I thought a hamburger could only be bought at a food stand at the county fair, and nowhere else.
What a treat a Gimm and Byrne hamburger was for a farm boy who had to be content with sandwiches made of minced ham, grape jam, and cold roast pork every noon while attending country school.
Gimm and Byrne’s also conjures up another boyhood memory. It was the only place I knew of to go when I had to go. A place like that you don’t forget too soon.
The first black man I ever saw was in Gimm and Byrne’s. When he wasn’t cooking in the kitchen, he was out in front cleaning and scrubbing.
A row of chairs lined the side of the building opposite the bar. Here was the town’s meeting place for men. A cuspidor (c’mon, man, they were spitoons, and you know it) stood beside each chair. The town characters of those days could usually be found sitting there.
It was at Gimm and Byrne’s that I came to know Dada Baer and Fred Start. The Martins and the Coys may have been feudin’ mountain boys, but their feud was a lover’s quarrel compared to the feud those two men had developed over the years. One thing, though, Dana and Fred never pulled guns or fought with their fists. Usually, when one came in, the other went out by another door, mumbling words unprintable in a family newspaper. They just weren’t for being in the same building together.
One thing I never did see in Gimm and Byrne’s, however, was a woman. Unless, in later years, it might have been a waitress. A “nice” woman wouldn’t go in the place; in fact, she wouldn’t even walk down that side of the street. I always wondered why!
Gimm and Byrne’s has been gone now for many years. Changes have been made, most of them for the better, I am sure. But as years go by, places like this take on a historical significance, not because they present an era that is gone, never to return.
Fred Gimm and John Byrne never achieved fame of greatness during their lifetimes. But ask anyone who knew them, and he’ll tell you they helped make Luverne history. That’s why, perhaps, you still occasionally hear an old timer refer to the “corner” as Gimm and Byrne’s.
Anyone for erecting a plaque, designating it as a historic site?
The Rock County Historical Society is having our annual meeting on October 3 at noon at the Big Top Events Center. We invite you to join us, $15 a person in advance available at the History Center; $25 at the door. Our program is on old restaurants. Do you remember this one?
         Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

1943: Mathilda Schneekloth continues Diamond Story

(Continued feature with Mathilda Schneekloth, Diamond Club member)
The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
This article appeared in the April 29, 1943, edition of The Rock County Star Herald.
 
 
 
By Betty Mann
Mrs. Schneekloth says that she never had a great deal of time or opportunity for entertainment and recreation as a young girl. Living 4 1/2 miles from the nearest town, Durant, going to town except for something absolutely necessary was rare indeed. Most of the “good times” were provided by parties held at the various farm homes. “We girls didn’t have to worry so much in those days that our dresses weren’t as up to date as those worn by our friends. Most of us had two “best” dresses a year, one for summer and one for winter.”
         When Mrs. Schneekloth was a young girl, her parents moved from Scott county to Cedar county, and it was Tipton in that county, where she and her husband were married on March 4, 1891. From Tipton they moved to West Liberty where they lived several years before moving to Rock county.
         It was at West Library that Mrs. Schneekloth had one of the worst scares of her life. She and the children were home alone, because the day dawned stormy and the children had not gone to school. Later, the sky became blacker and blacker, and finally a high wind arose. Although the fury of the storm missed their farm, it did hit the school. There, the teacher tried desperately to hold the door of the building shut, but was unable to do so. She drove a horse and buggy to school, and at the storm’s height, the buggy was picked up, blown away and wrecked. The storm frightened the horse, and it broke loose and ran away. A neighbor’s beautiful fruit orchard was ruined, and on one place, a house was moved off the foundation. Fortunately, however, no one was hurt, but there were plenty of people frightened, Mrs. Schneekloth states.
         Mr. and Mrs. Schneekloth became the parents of six children, all of whom are living. They include Mrs. Marcus Nath, Luverne; Theodore Schneekloth of near Adrian; Mrs. Ole Olson, Beaver Creek; Mrs. Walter Hand, Worthington; Mrs. Elmer Hemme, Hardwick; and William Schneekloth, Jr., Mason City, Ia. They also have 24 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
         Gardening and raising plants is one of Mrs. Schneekloth’s favorite hobbies. She’s been planting “victory garden” for years, and this year, has her garden all planted. She has good luck raising geraniums and other plants indoors, but she says she likes outdoor gardening better.
         Both she and Mr. Schneekloth are in good health. They enjoyed their 52nd wedding anniversary last month.
         At the present time Mrs. Schneekloth has only one sister, Mrs. Ida Merchant of Spencer, Ia.
 
         Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

1943: Diamond Club spotlight turns to resident Mathilda Schneekloth

The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
This article appeared in the April 29, 1943, edition of The Rock County Star Herald.
          A resident of Rock county since 1909, and a resident of Luverne since she and her husband retired from farming a number of years ago, Mrs. William Schneekloth, Luverne, says she likes this community better than any community in which she has lived.
         She was born in Scott county, Ia. Oct. 12, 1886, the daughter of Henry and Sophie Miller. The fifth of a family of eight, she was given the name Mathilda. She spent all of her girlhood living at home, and because she had four brothers and a sister older than herself, she states she was relieved of much of the hard work that most youngsters of that era had to do. Even then, however, she was called on to do work out of doors as well as indoors. When she became old enough to do the heavier tasks about the farm, she and her sister were required to do the milking. Between them, they milked as high as 16 head at one time, taking it as a matter of course, much the same as the modern girl makes her regular trip to the beauty shop.
         The Miller family lived about two miles away from school, and Mrs. Schneekloth states that most of the time, she and her brothers and sisters walked every morning and evening. “In those days, it didn’t seem to be so particular if one went to school or not,” Mrs. Schneekloth states. “When we weren’t busy and needed at home to help with the work, we’d go to school, but work always came first. No one ever permitted his education to interfere with his homework.”
         Home economics during the time Mrs. Schneekloth was a girl was taught either in the farm home kitchen or in the dining room or living room where the sewing table was kept. Keeping a family of eight children in clothes, to say nothing of herself and her husband was no small task for her mother, and Mrs. Schneekloth helped her with much of the work as soon as she was old enough to do so. “We not only made clothes for the girls and for the smaller children, she states, but for the men folks too. Buying everything ready made was unheard of at that time,” Mrs. Schneekloth states.
         Even after ready made dresses came into their own, she continued to make her own clothing. “When we celebrated our silver wedding anniversary 27 years ago, I still hadn’t had a store dress,” she declares.
         Cooking and baking too were learned not for the sake of convenience, but because of necessity. A large family, especially where grownups and young folks alike spend a good deal of the time in the out of doors, requires good, substantial food and plenty of it. Being one of the older girls, she learned at an early age to bake and prepare meals.
         When Mrs. Schneekloth was about 13, she had to quit school and come home to “learn how to make good bread for the rest of the family.” Her mother was seriously ill, and being the oldest girl left at home, the burden of the housework fell on her shoulders. Mrs. Schneekloth’s mother died some time later, and from that time until she was married, she was family cook, baker and housekeeper.
         The hardest work she has ever done, she relates, is helping the men during the haying season. Often times she helped to level the hay and push it back into the corners of the hay mow after it had been hauled in. On a hot day, pitching hay inside where there was little ventilation proved to be as difficult a job as any she has ever tackled, she states.
(More of Mres. Schneekloth's story in next week's Star Herald.)

1943: Story continues for David Payne, Pioneer Club member and Luverne president

The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
This article is continued from last week about David E. Payne, one of Luverne’s pioneer presidents. The article appeared in the April 15, 1943, edition of The Rock County Star Herald.
While in North Dakota, he (David Payne) helped break the prairie with oxen. He would leave them on the field and would haul water to them with a team. Many a time, he said, he would arrive there in the morning to see antelope drinking out of the watering tank.
In 1890, he landed in Adrian. He had friends from Wisconsin living in that community, so he decided he’d pay them a visit. He liked the country and obtained work, so he stayed. About 1903, he began farming for himself in Magnolia township on section 11. Later he farmed in sections 12, one and two, in Magnolia township and moved to the north half of section 36 in Vienna township, where he lived for five years. He farmed also in Springwater township one year on what was known as the Crawford place, but at that time, there were no roads, and being so far from town, he moved back to the Luverne community.
He sold out shortly after the last war, and he put his profits in a “good safe place like a bank.” That, he states, was one of the most foolish things he ever did in his life, because he lost it well soon after.
He continued to farm around Luverne until five years ago when he was going to help a neighbor cut some wood. He took his rifle with him, and it accidentally discharged, the shot going through his right hand. Since then, he has been unable to use his hand but little.
He moved to Luverne, and built himself a small home on a lot on W. Lincoln street and still lives there. He raises a garden but otherwise does not do a great deal of work “because of doctor’s orders.”
“I claim work never hurt me, but the doctor says it maybe hasn’t before but it might now, so I suppose I’d better listen to him,” Payne says.
Mr. Payne was never married, and says it’s a good thing that he never was. “I’m lucky I didn’t have a big wife and small family,” he states.
After working at many different jobs for 67 years, Mr. Payne should be a pretty fair authority on what hard work is. He believes that the hardest work he ever did was threshing from stacks in the days of dawn-til-dusk threshing with big rigs. On a number of occasions, he together with three other men pitched 16 stacks averaging seven loads of bundles each into a threshing machine in one day. That is an average of 28 loads each and any thresher will agree that pitching 28 loads of bundles is no snap.
Mr. Payne follows with considerable interest the war news of the day. He has a personal interest in it in that a nephew, his namesake, went down with the “Reuben James” at the time it was sunk. Although he never served in the United States army, it wasn’t because he didn’t want to, he states. He tried to enlist at the time of the Spanish-American war, “but they told me I didn’t weigh enough for my height.”
Of a family of eight children, Mr. Payne is one of three still living. He has one brother, John, who lives in Vancouver, Wash., and a sister, Mrs. Ellen Baird, who lives at Neenah-Menasha, Wis.
He attributes his long life to hard work and to regular habits. “I have always gone to bed on time and have gotten up on time,” he declares, “and I always eat regularly.”
 
         Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

1943: David E. Payne is one of Luverne pioneer presidents

The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
This article appeared in the April 15, 1943, edition of The Rock County Star Herald.   
Helping to move the buildings of an entire village using only oxen as motivating power, earning his own living at the age of eight, and helping to thresh 16 seven load stacks of grain in a day are but a few of the many experiences of David E. Payne, one of Luverne’s pioneer presidents.
Mr. Payne was born near Oshkosh, Wis., 30 miles from Lake Michigan, May 2, 1865, just 15 days after Abraham Lincoln died, and was left motherless at the age of four. His father was remarried to a widow, who had two sons just enough older than Mr. Payne to be able to “beat the stuffings” out of him whenever they felt the urge.
When he was about eight years old, he states, he decided he’d taken it long enough, so he brought the matter to his father’s attention. “I didn’t get as much satisfaction from father,” Mr. Payne said. “He didn’t seem to be much concerned with my troubles so I decided it was best for me to go someplace else.
“The next morning I got out of bed early, tucked two school books under my arm and with just a few clothes, I started out from home. I didn’t have the slightest idea where I was going, but I knew I’d be taken in somewhere, so I wasn’t really much worried.”
As souvenir of that morning, Mr. Payne still has in his possession one of the books, a primer, that he carried with him when he left home.
He went to a neighbor’s place, and he agreed to hire him at $5 per month for nine months. That he had the old-fashioned respect for a parent despite any differences that might have existed between them, is evidenced by the fact that he told his employer to “go see Dad and let him tell you if you are to pay me or him.”
This his employer did, and the father said, “If the kid wants to work, pay him. All I ask is that he grows up to be a man among men and that he pays his just debts like a white man.”
“That’s something I never forgot,” Mr. Payne states, “and I’ve tried to live up to that the best I could all my life.”
His employer was evidently satisfied with his work, for at the end of the year, instead of paying him $5 per month as he had agreed to do, he paid him $6. He worked there for five years, getting a couple of dollars raise per month each year. During the slack season he attended school.
“No football or basketball playing for me after school,” he declares. “I was introduced to the buck saw both before and after school for recreation.”
Mr. Payne remembers well the Wisconsin logging days, but he recalls one thing in particular—how low the living costs were for lumber jacks when they were not working. In those days, according to Mr. Payne, every saloon had a bar along one side, and a lunch counter on the other. All a man had to do to get a lunch was buy a glass of beer and help himself to what there was to eat on the lunch counter. He knew men, that lived on three glasses of beer a day and the free lunches that went with them.
At the age of 16 he went to visit his sister who lived on a farm near Fargo. Then he obtained work with a Minneapolis construction firm, but when they wanted him to go to Duluth in the dead of winter to help build a dock he quit his job.
One of the most interesting experiences he ever had was helping to move the village of Cogswell, N.D. to its present site from its former location a mile away. Buildings of all sizes and shapes, even some elevators as “big as any in town here,” were moved during a three month period. Twenty-eight yoke of oxen were used to drag the heavy structures. When the moving was finished, the town looked just as it had previously. The streets were identical, and the buildings were located exactly as they had been on the original site. Reason for moving the town, Payne said, was so that it could be on an important cross road.
This article will continue in next week’s edition of the Rock County Star Herald.
         Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

1943: Diamond Club features Tom Knudtson

The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
This article appeared in the April 15, 1943 edition of The Rock County Star Herald.
         Skiing, now a popular winter sport in Minnesota, served a practical purpose as well as being a form of recreation for Tom Knudtson, Luverne, when he was a boy.
Living on a farm at Bjolland, near Christiansand, in Norway, Mr. Knudtson would strap on his skis and speed down a mountainside to school about a mile away. The place where he was born was about five miles from the sea and in the timber country. Although the surroundings were beautiful, Mr. Knudtson felt that an opportunity for a successful future could be found only in America, so he left home at the age of 22.
Mr. Knudtson was one of seven children and was born March 22, 1865. He was christened Torkel, but after coming to this country he has used the name Tom.
He had hardly reached school age before he was put to work, helping with the wood cutting, cattle herding and other tasks. The first money he ever earned that he could call his own was a small amount which he received from a neighbor for helping to plant potatoes. Later, he received the income that was produced by two of the cows in the herd which he watched while they grazed on the mountainside.
A sister who lived in Sioux City induced him to make his decision to leave the land of his birth. With another young man, he set out for the United States, and one day in the spring of 1887, they stepped off the train at the Rock Island depot here. Mr. Knudtson distinctly remembers that they had no one here to meet them and that they made two trips from the depot to the business district, carrying their trunks.
Mr. Knudtson had $10 in his pocket—more than his companion had. “You’ll get along right with that much more,” his companion stated, and Mrs. Knudtson agrees that the prediction came true.
The first year he was in Rock county, he worked at several different jobs. He recalls how Ole Iveland at one time took him in an oxcart to the brick yard to get a job. He didn’t get one, and in walking back to Luverne, he took the wrong railroad track. When he realized the fact, he was almost to Kanaranzi, so had to walk back.
He worked first for Jens Haugetum, on a farm about two miles south of Luverne. It was there he milked his first cow. In Norway it was always the custom that the women folk did the milking, and for that reason, he had no training along that line endeavor.
Later, he obtained a job on the Ole Hanson farm near Ashcreek. When asked what wages he wanted, he said $25 a month.
“To my surprise,” Mr. Knudtson said, “I got it.” As a matter of fact, I was so ashamed when I asked for that much, that I looked down on the ground instead of at Mr. Hanson.
“I worked there until fall, then got a job helping build the railroad into Steen. That winter, the winter of the big blizzard, I lived with Mr. and Mrs. Knute Aanenson in their dugout. I saved $100 during the summer so I felt pretty good about my first year in this country.”
Mr. Knudtson then obtained a job working for T. P. Grout in Beaver Creek township. Up until that time, whenever he wanted to go to town, he would have to walk. Mr. Grout, however, permitted him to use one of his horses to ride, and that pleased him as much as it would a farm hand today if his employer would give him his gasoline coupon book and tell him to use the new car whenever he wanted it.
“Even though I had a horse to ride, I didn’t go very much,” Mr. Knudtson states. “In those early days, about the only time a young fellow would ever go to town would be on the Fourth of July.”
After working for Mr. Grout, he went to work for LaDues, near Luverne, who had many cattle. For six years, he did the milking on the La Due farm, then he bought a quarter section in Vienna township. Five years later, he lost his property in the Depression, and after that came to Luverne where he worked at several jobs before going back to farming, this time in Clinton township. After 10 years, he bought a farm there and lived there until 1935 when he retired and moved to Luverne.
Mr. Knudtson was married to Anna Hollekim in Luverne on Nov. 15, 1900. They became the parents of five children, three of whom are living. Thy are Mrs. Alvin Olson, Luverne; Mrs. Ragnvald Nelson, Clinton township and Mrs. Olivia Moldenhauer, Chicago. They have five grandchildren.
Mr. Knudtson is a member of the Lutheran Free church and helped organize the Zion Lutheran congregation in Luverne.
Thinking back over the years which have come and gone since his friend told him, “You’ll get along here all right,” Mr. Knudtson declared, “God has been good to me all these years, and I’m thankful for it.”
One year, he went back to Norway, but was glad to return to the United States. “I think this is the best country in the world,” he said, “and when I went back to Norway, I realized it all the more. I never had any desire to return to Norway to live, even if it was my motherland.”
One of a family of seven children, Mr. Knudtson has two sisters, Mrs. Esther Chesley of Denver and Mrs. Anna Haugen, who lives in Canada. Before the outbreak of the war, he had a brother still living in Norway.
 
         Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

1943: Mina Carlisle of Battle Plain Township featured Diamond Club member

The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
This article appeared in the April 1, 1943, edition of The Rock County Star Herald.
         The term “cost of production” is an expression which brings back memories to Mrs. Mina Carlisle of Battle Plain township, who lives there on a farm with her son, Elmer Pierson. To have received most of production one of those hard years in the ’20s would have seen money in the pockets of the farmers who battled drought and depression at the same time with all the odds against them.
They would have felt they were literally rolling in wealth if they could have had the “cost plus 10 percent,” the economic profit scale of this era, but let Mrs. Carlisle tell you in her own words what was the plight of her father, a farmer in Iowa. She says:
“One year, our wheat crop yielded three bushels per acre. We had sowed one and one-half bushels of seed per acre and had paid $2 a bushel for the seed. Father was sick that year, so we had to hire help at $3 a day, and had to hire some of the grain cut at $1.25 an acre. When we sold the wheat, we received 45 cents a bushel for it, so you can see how much profit we got out of our crop. All we got was the straw, and there wasn’t much of that. Those really were hard times.”
Mrs. Carlisle was born Dec. 25, 1862, in Holmes county, Ohio, the daughter of Martin and Delila VanSwearingen. She moved with her family to Iowa when she was a young girl, and lived in that state until 1921 when she came to Rock county to make her home.
If St. Patrick had driven the snakes out of Ireland he must have chased them into Iowa, because Mrs. Carlisle states there were plenty of them in her community when she was a girl. She recalls that on one occasion, she killed one that measured five feet in length and five inches in diameter. First she tried using a hoe, but when she apparently wasn’t having any success, she used an ax.
She distinctly remembers the blizzard of 1881. The storm lasted three days and three nights, and when it was over, the drifts were even with the eaves of the house. When they wanted to go any place, they had to detour in all directions because of the snow’s great depth. That winter was one of the longest and hardest Mrs. Carlisle ever experienced. As she recalls it now, there were but few days when it was not either snowing or blowing or both. Spring came very late, and all the snow did not thaw away until late in April. They began sowing their wheat on April 27, she recalls, and that was the year they had the small crop.
She recalls she earned her first dollars as a girl doing housework. Her salary was $1.50 per week.
March 29, 1885, she was married at Carroll, Ia., to Albert B. Pierson. They lived on a farm and became the parents of two children, Elmer J. Pierson of near Edgerton and John who died in infancy. Mr. Pierson lost his life in a hunting accident when her son Elmer was 10 years old.
On Dec. 30, 1907, she married C. H. Carlisle, at Manning, Ia., and after her marriage, she lived in Manning where Mr. Carlisle was on the police force. After his death in 1921, she came to Minnesota to live with her son Elmer on the farm near Edgerton. The years she spent in Manning, Mrs. Carlisle states, are the only years of her life that were not spent on a farm.
Mrs. Carlisle has four grandchildren, Louis J. Pierson, Albert B. Pierson, Mrs. Vione Stamman and Bernice Pierson, and three great-grandchildren Gary C. Stamman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Clinton Stamman, and Gail, Janice and Wesley Louis, children of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Pierson.
Mrs. Carlisle’s favorite hobby is piecing quilts and quilting, although she also knits and braids many rag rugs, not only for herself but for her grandchildren and others.
Although she has been hard of hearing since she was nine years old, she has not been handicapped because she has learned to read lip movements. “For this ability I am very thankful,” she says, “as it has enabled me to carry on a good conversation with anyone.”
Of eight children in her father’s family, she and six others are still living. Her brothers and sisters include: Sam VanSwearingen, Happy, Tex.; Elmer Van Swearingen, Spirit Lake, Ia.; Mrs. Lillie Grundmeier, Hines; Mrs. Dicea Wilson, Marshalltown, Ia. and Mrs. Viantha Scheiber, Lake Benton.
Mrs. Carlisle has had good health all her life, and to this and to the fact that she has worked hard, she attributes her long life.
She is a member of the Presbyterian church.
         Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

1943: Edward Byrne remembers traveling to Iowa at age 17

The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
This article appeared in the March 25, 1943, edition of The Rock County Star Herald.
         When Edward Byrne, Luverne, came west from Iowa to settle, South Dakota was still a part of Dakota Territory. A lot of people, who had heard of the rich prairie land open to homesteaders in the territory, moved out of Iowa in immigrant trains at that time, and joining the throng was Mr. Byrne and his brother. He was then only 17 years old.
         Mr. Byrne was born March 18, 1865, in a log house in Alamakee county, in the northeast corner of Iowa. His parents, Lawrence and Bridget Hart Byrne, were natives of Ireland who came first to Quebec, Canada, and then to Iowa to live.
         They settled not far from the Mississippi river, and at that time, the land in that area was covered with timber. Unusually fine trees were cleared by the settlers so they could begin raising crops, Mr. Byrne states. Now comparatively rare, the walnut tree, butter nut trees, three kinds of oak and basswood trees would be cut down just to get them out of the road.
         Mr. Byrne was a boy of 10 when he began earning his own money. He received 25 cents a day for planting corn by hand. The fields were marked out in squares, and wherever lines crossed, the person or persons doing the planting had to drop two or three kernels of corn. After some practice, Mr. Byrne reports, it was no trick at all to pick out the exact number of seeds out of the bag and drop them exactly where they were supposed to be. Men, and often times the women folks, would follow after the person doing the planting and would cover up the seed with hoes.
         In 1881, Mr. Byrne’s older brother Frank went to Dakota Territory, and the following year, Mr. Byrne and his brother Will moved there, going to the vicinity of Marion.
         In 1884, they decided to go to Faulk county where there was a lot of prairie sod to be broken for settlers who had homesteaded there. Mr. Byrne, using four head of oxen on an 18 inch sulky plow, and his brother, using three horses on a 16 inch sulky plow, together broke five acres a day. They received $4 per acre for the work—a good salary, Mr. Byrne says, but every dollar was well earned.
         So new was Faulk county, when they went there, Mr. Byrne said, that section lines in some places hadn’t even been surveyed. He was present to see the surveyors running the first section lines in Arcade township, Faulk county.
         Although he was not out in the storm, he remembers the blizzard of 1888 well. His brother had driven to Faulkton with a team and sled and was about two or three miles out of town on his way home when the storm struck. He decided to turn around and go back, but his team would not face the wind. He managed to keep his bearings by driving parallel to the railroad grade. He drove 10 miles through the blinding snow and finally arrived in the town of Miranda where he remained until the weather conditions improved.
         But Mr. Byrne never entered politics himself, with the exception of the time he served as treasurer of Hillsdale township in Faulk county. His brother Frank, however, served as governor of South Dakota for two terms, 1913 to 1917.
         Mr. Byrne was married at Waukon, Ia. Sept. 30, 1908. He and his wife farmed in South Dakota until 1919, and then moved to Luverne which has since been their home. They decided to move here after they had visited in Luverne several times and had grown to like the town. After coming here, Mr. Byrne operated a dray and bus line for two years, and retired after he suffered a leg injury.
         Mr. and Mrs. Byrne have two children, Mrs. Nick Forrette of Adrian, and Sgt. Robert Byrne, who is attending a radio school in Montreal, Canada. They have two grandchildren.
         Of a family of 10, Mr. Byrne, and two other brothers, Joe Byrne of Clairmont, Fla., and Tom Byrne of Clairmont, Fla., and Tom Byrne of Seattle, Wash. are still living.
         He is a member of St. Catherine’s church of Luverne.
         Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.