Christian Boisen, Luverne, Owned Luverne’s First “Juke” Box
     
      Although there is no sworn statement on file, it is believed that Chris Boisen, Luverne, had Luverne’s first “juke” box. Before going any farther, it might be well to explain that the “nickelodeon” brought here by Mr. Boisen could hardly be compared with the gaily colored coin phonographs of today, but it cost as much, perhaps, and proved just as popular as the modern machine.
         Mr. Boisen had purchased an Edison phonograph, one of the earliest models, and was in Rock Rapids when an acquaintance induced him to come here to display his machine. It was a crude affair, but a money maker. Fifteen rubber tubes emanated from the sound chamber. By putting the tubes into their ears, eight customers with one tube in each ear could listen to their favorite recording at one time. The 15th tube was used by the operator of the machine so that he could tell if the record was playing properly or not. Boisen charged his patrons five cents to listen to one record, or they could hear three for a dime. He did quite a business at those prices, he recalls.
         The equipment represented considerable investment. The machine itself cost $360 and the records cost $2.00 each.
         The experience with the phonograph, however, is but one of many interesting experiences in Mr. Boisen’s life. He was born Sept. 18, 1868, near Flensburg, Germany, a seaport city of 150,000 located on the Baltic Sea and bordering Denmark at the north edge of the city. His father was a blacksmith by trade, and during the Danish war, he shod horses for the army. He was a skilled workman, and specialized in fine work such as cutlery, etc. His parents died when he was a boy, and at the age of six, he went to live with his sister. At that time, he was able to speak the Danish language, but as the law forbade the speaking of Danish in the city where his sister lived, he soon forgot most of it. He can still say a few words in Danish, however, but he speaks both high and low German, in addition to English.
         In 1879 he came to Brooklyn, New York, on a ship which had been built in his home town. As a matter of fact, he was in the ship when it first went down the scaffold. At that time, the piers of the great Brooklyn bridge were just being completed, and he recalls driving a team onto a ferry boat, crossing the river, loading the wagon with supplies at a market, and then coming back, when he worked for a short time for a storekeeper.
         He went out one night with a fisherman friend with whom he stayed to get oysters, and states that he was really frightened when the man pulled in a giant sea turtle about three feet in diameter. The oysters, too, were extra large, and while in Brooklyn he learned to eat oysters prepared in many different ways, “I’ve eaten them in soup; I’ve eaten them chopped fine and put on pancakes and I’ve eaten them fried. I’ll tell you, those were real oysters,” he declared.
         He spent several hectic hours in Brooklyn one Decoration day, he recalls. He loved music, and when the band paraded in the street, he began following it until he became lost. He didn’t know what to do for some time, so he kept following it until it again passed the place where he had first seen it. He had enough band music, for that day, he relates, so he went home.
         His brother, who lived at Luzerne, Iowa, insisted that he come to live with him, so he reluctantly left Brooklyn. After coming to Iowa, he attended school, and later was confirmed there.
                  The first winter he was in Iowa was one of the most severe he ever experienced. Under normal conditions, 56 trains passed through the town of Luzerne in 24 hours. After the blizzard struck, there wasn’t a train in the town for a whole week. There were no snow plows in those days, and the only thing that could be done was to shovel cut the cuts, and try to force the locomotive through the snow banks by sheer force of power. Mr. Boisen recalls how two locomotives had a “running start” of two miles, and then hit a snow filled pass. Another locomotive had come up from the rear and pulled them back by a cable.

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 September 23, 1943.
(Continued from last week, where Herbert recounted his 1888 blizzard experience.)
 
With the clotheslines to follow, the neighbor was able to bring his family to the Herbert home.
Worked in Harness Shop
Here he worked as foreman in the shop for Burley and Kennicott. After three years, Kennicott was in full charge of the business and he was employed by him for 10 years. He was a shop mate of the late Ed Lynch for 12 years, and later worked for him in his own shop. He went to Alden, Minn., where he remained one year working at his trade, then he came back and worked 12 years for Steve Kennedy and three years for John Albert. On March 1, 1919, he opened his own shoe repair shop in the rear of what then was the Handy grocery, and what now is the Schlader jewelry building. This he operated until going to California in February, 1928. He opened a shop in San Fernando, and after his wife’s death on May 15, 1929, he moved to North Hollywood where he is still proprietor of “Dad Herbert’s” shoe repair shop.
Racing was one of Mr. Herbert’s favorite sports in his younger days. When he was a boy of nine, he rode on the first half mile race track at the Minnesota state fair. For three seasons, he rode for a horse owner named Dilley, and when the latter was ruled from further competition from the track, Mr. Herbert’s horse racing days were over.
Won But Lost
The account of the last race as related by Mr. Herbert is interesting. Seven horses were entered in a seven heat race. His horse, a buckskin mustang, won three of the races, and a spotted horse, ridden by a Negro boy, also had won three. The other horse dropped out, leaving the two of them to finish the last race alone.
“That crazy horse I was riding got Mr. Dilley ruled off the race track,” Mr. Herbert relates. “It was one of the fastest horses I’ve ever been on, and also one of the most unpredictable. It would just as soon run right through a crowd as go around a curve at the end of the track. In this particular race, I was about three lengths ahead of the other horse. Just a few feet from the finish line, the buckskin came to a dead stop. It happened so fast that I went right over its head, and landed on the other side of the finish line ahead of the other horse, but my horse still hadn’t crossed the line. The owners of the two horses, and the judges had quite a discussion about the whole thing, and finally, the victory was awarded my horse, but only on condition that Mr. Dilley would never race another horse on that track.”
On Fire Hose Team
Foot racing was also a favorite sport of Mr. Herbert, who said that one time he would just as soon have run a foot race as to go fishing. After coming to Luverne, he joined the Luverne fire department, and was a member of the hose cart team that won the world’s championship in a tournament in Pipestone in 1895, by running 200 yards, laying 150 feet of hose and making the coupling in 26 and one-fifth seconds. Mr. Herbert was not one of the runners, but served as one of two “bracers” as they were called; men who braced the wheels just as the race was about to begin. Only a few of those men are living at the present time, he said, among whom are Al Angell and Jim Wiggins of Luverne, Jean Barck, Spokane, and Ed Bronson, who lives in Idaho. Mr. Herbert served as a member of the fire department for about 20 years.
Mr. Herbert became the father of four children, three of whom are living at the present time. They are Mrs. A. B. Cowan, Luverne; Mrs. Maude M. Smith, North Hollywood, and Horace G. Herbert, also of North Hollywood.
Nicknamed “Waxie”
He explained that his son, Horace, was known more generally by the nickname, “Waxie”. After his second son, Horace grew older, it developed that he acquired the name “Little Waxie,” his brother became “Big Waxie,” and Mr. Herbert himself became “Old Waxie”.
On Nov. 11, 1939, Mr. Herbert remarried, his wife being Anna Mattison. She is here with him at the present time, and they expect to leave today for their home in North Hollywood.
In addition to his children, his direct descendants include five grandsons and two great granddaughters. He has three brothers and one sister living; Charley Herbert and John Herbert, both of Sioux Falls, Cort Herbert, Galesburg, Wis. and Mrs. Fletcher Alger, of Sioux Falls.
He attributes his long life to hard work and having lots of fun. Always a lover of sports, his hobbies until later years have been hunting and fishing. His health is still good, he says, as a recent medical examination revealed that he was as “fit” as a fiddle.”
He was never greatly interested in politics, and has never held a public office. He is affiliated with the AOUW lodge, of which he has been a member for 35 years.
 
         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.

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 September 23, 1943.
Maybe you knew him as the “shoemaker in back of the Handy grocery.” Or maybe as the man who made harness for Burley and Kennicott. Perhaps you will recall him as one of the members of the Luverne fire hose team that won the world’s championship back in 1895. Or maybe as “Big Waxie” Herbert, the man with the inevitable cigar in his mouth.
Anyway, he’s been back in Luverne for the past two weeks, visiting his daughter, Mrs. A. B. Cowan and to those of his many old friends and acquaintances that didn’t get to see him, we’ll say, “here’s Art Herbert, cigar and all, and he missed seeing you, not because he wanted to, but because he didn’t have the time.”
Almost 80 Years Old
Mr. Herbert, who is lacking just three months of being 80 years old, decided he’d earned a vacation so he closed his shoe repair shop in North Hollywood, and he and his wife boarded a train for Luverne. “Sure, business was good,” he said, “but it will be good when I get back, too. The shop would stand if I was dead and gone, so it should be there if I get back. If it goes up in smoke in the meantime, that’s all right too. A fellow’s got to have a little fun once in a while.”
And fun he has been having since he’s been here, especially shaking hands with his former acquaintances. “Took me two hours to get from the Handy Grocery corner to Nelson’s store one day,” he declared. “After that trip, my wife told my daughter if she ever wanted to go up town to do some shopping she’d better not take me along if she was in any hurry.”
Lived Here 40 Years
Mr. Herbert was a Luverne resident for 40 years, having come here in 1888, and having left for California in 1928. He lived in various places before coming here as a young man. Born in Celk, Quebec, Canada, Dec. 22, 1863, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Anderson Herbert, he came to the United States with his parents in 1865. His first home in this country was at Ft. Snelling, Minn. While living there, his father helped build the first bridge across the Mississippi river from Ft. Snelling to St. Paul. From Ft. Snelling, they moved to Lakeville, south of Minneapolis, and from there to Farmington, where they lived until 1878. Mr. Herbert’s father was a blacksmith.
With considerable land still open to homesteading in the area west of Sioux Falls, the Herberts left Farmington and moved to the vicinity of Wall Lake, S.D.
The trip was made by covered wagon, and from Mankato to Worthington, they travelled with a wagon train consisting of 36 wagons. All but the Herberts were bound for Nebraska. Some of the wagons were covered with blankets. At night, they would form a circle with the cattle on the inside to prevent their straying away. For a boy of 15, that was a great experience, Mr. Herbert recalls. Days were always filled with excitement, and the nights proved enjoyable because a man with a fiddle and another with an accordion provided music for the group.
Hauled Lumber 40 Miles
Lumber for their new home on their homestead was hauled from Beaver Creek, because the railroad had as yet come as far as Sioux Falls. Mr. Herbert’s father hauled two car loads of lumber and two carloads of machinery by wagon, a distance of 40 odd miles.
Until their new home was built, they lived in a tent. A heavy, wet snow fell in April, causing their tent to fall down on them while they slept one night. That was an experience that Mr. Herbert will never forget.
The days I spent on the Dakota prairie were the happiest days of my life,” states Mr. Herbert. “Lots of times I’d go for six months and never see another woman’s face except my mother’s and sisters. Occasionally we’d see Indians, and wild game was plentiful. Every once in a while, my brother and I’d go out and shoot an antelope in the hills. Fish, especially big bullheads and perch, filled Wall Lake so for a kid that loved the out-of-doors, that was real country.”
Began Learning Trade
In the spring of 1881, he went to Sioux Falls to learn a trade. He wanted to be a blacksmith, but there were openings for an apprentice at that time. There was an opening in a harness shop, owned and operated by John McGee, so he went to work. The first year, he earned $25 and received his board. The second year, his salary was increased to $75. He was to have received $100 his third year, but he figured he knew enough about the business then to go out and get a job for himself so he quit. He went to Parker where he worked as a journeyman for two years, and from there went to Hartford, where he lived about a year. There he met and married Minnie Schultz, on Dec. 12, 1885. From there he went to Sioux Falls, and remained there until coming to Luverne on July 15, 1888.
Mr. Herbert was helping shovel snow from the railroad track at Parker at the time the famous blizzard of January 12, 1888, struck. During the morning, the weather was so warm that the men were working in their shirt sleeves. At 1 p.m. the station agent at Parker told the crews that they shouldn’t go out that afternoon as a blizzard was reported at Mitchell. The storm struck at 2 p.m. and at 4 p.m. the temperature had dropped to 44 below zero.
He states that he started walking home a distance of 10 blocks, and he didn’t reach there for two hours. After reaching home, he heard his next door neighbor calling, and he found that the latter’s chimney had blown off his house. Both he and his neighbor tied their clotheslines to door knobs of their respective homes and then fumbled their way through the blinding snow until they reached a clothesline post between the two places.
(Continues Next Week)

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 September 16, 1943.
(Continued from last week.)
Mr. and Mrs. Scott (Abraham and Lou) were married at Gettysburg, Pa., March 3, 1890, and then moved to Dixon, Ill., where they lived 16 years, seven of which they lived on a dairy farm owned by the Borden Company. They milked 36 cows by hand and when they were done, they had 11 ten-gallon cans filled to capacity. Their morning milking would be done by 6 a.m. and then Mr. Scott would load the cans into a wagon and drive to Dixon where the condensed milk factory was located.
“I really had some cold trips sometimes,” Mr. Scott recalls. “In the winter time, especially when the wind was cold, I really hated to cross the bridge there at Dixon, as that seemed to be colder than any other place in the country.”
Mr. and Mrs. Scott worked in partnership with I.B. Countryman in Illinois, and it was he who induced them to come to Minnesota to live. He had a farm near Hardwick, and in 1905, they moved there. They were almost ready to turn back after their first year, because it was such a change from what they were accustomed to in either Illinois or Pennsylvania. Their first corn crop turned out to produce nothing but husk, and the land was not as desirable as it later was because it had not been tiled. Conditions improved the following year, and they finally made up their minds to stay.
They farmed until 1920, and then moved to Hardwick, which has since been their home. It was there they observed their golden wedding anniversary three years ago.
Mr. and Mrs. Scott were the parents of four sons, only one of whom is now living. He is Byron J. Scott, of Hardwick. They have five grandchildren.
Mrs. Scott has two brothers living. They are Frank Manahan, of Dayton, Ohio. There were five in the family at one time. Mr. Scott has two sisters living. They are Mrs. Mary De Lapp, and Elizabeth Scott, both of Harrisburg, Pa. There were seven children in the Scott family.
 
         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.

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 September 16, 1943.
The Civil War to most of the residents of Rock county was another war fought in the south over the question of slavery. Only a scattered few have forefathers who were in uniform during the conflict, and only a small number, perhaps, have seen Civil War battlegrounds.
To Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Scott, Hardwick, however, the Civil War represents quite a bit more than a chapter from an American history book, as they were born and reared almost within seeing distance of where the final battle, the battle of Gettysburg, was fought. Both had relatives who fought in the war, and from them heard many eye-witness accounts of Civil War days.
Mr. Scott was born July 7, 1886, in Adams county, Pa., the son of Joseph R. and Susan Weikert Scott, while Mrs. Scott, who before her marriage was Lou Manahan, was born Feb. 10, 1869, at Westminister, Carroll county, Md., the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Manahan.
Both Mr. Scott’s father and Mrs. Scott’s father fought on the side of the Union army. Had they lived several miles farther south, they would have been in Confederate territory, for their homes were but a short way from the Mason-Dixon line that divided the slave states from the free states.
The present selective service system is marked advancement over the system used in Civil War days, Mrs. Scott points out. At that time, one of the commanding officers came to their home, took her father and two uncles out of bed, and placed them on active duty without a bit of training. Her father escaped unhurt, but her uncle was killed, and the other seriously wounded.
For years afterward, when Mr. and Mrs. Scott were children, the battle field near Gettysburg was left untouched. Later it was made into a memorial park and is now visited by thousands of people annually during normal times.
When Mrs. Scott was 13 years old, her father moved to a farm adjoining the one owned by Mr. Scott’s father. The land there was rolling, and orchards dotted the countryside. Wheat was the main cash crop, although some oats and corn was raised for feed.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Scott began working early in life. Mr. Scott spent much of the time on the farm, as also did Mrs. Scott. She states that she learned how to plant corn by hand, dropping three kernels in each hill. She went to work in a canning factory, and recalls that she earned two cents for each huge bowl full of corn she cut from the cob. She also skinned tomatoes, prepared beans, and did other tasks at similar low wages. Her father had a large fruit orchard, and peaches from it were sold at 50 cents a bushel. She has picked a whole bushel of blackberries for only a dollar. Other fruit raised there included apples and pears. One year, her father raised 300 bushels of the latter.
(Scott story continues next week.)

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 Sept. 9, 1943.
(Continued from last week’s Star Herald.)
Emma Hamann worked hard for her salary, though, for her job meant getting up at 5 a.m. in the summer, milking seven or eight cows morning and night, as well as doing inside work. The weekly washing for eight or nine people was all done by hand on a wash board, and whenever she would bake bread, she would have to bake at least 10 loaves at the time.
After working for her uncle for about a year, she obtained employment as a dish washer in a hotel at Van Horn, Iowa, with an increase in salary of $1 a week. The hotel served many dinners as a rule, as trains would stop there so passengers could eat their meals. “I saw all kinds of people,” Mrs. Hamann recalls. “There were people there from all walks of life, from all parts of the country. It was interesting to see them.”
On June 30, 1885, she was married to August H. Hamann, at Vinton, Iowa, and immediately afterward they began housekeeping on Mr. Hamann’s farm near Remsen in Plymouth county, Ia. They lived there seven years, then a friend of theirs, Albert Ahrendt, induced them to come to Minnesota. Mr. Hamann bought a farm northwest of Luverne, and they lived there until they moved to Luverne in 1919.
During her early years on the farm, Mrs. Hamann often worked in the fields during harvest and corn picking. She did this in addition to her house work and to rearing her six children.
She never went away from home a great deal. For one thing, she didn’t have the time, and for another thing, traveling in those days was not easy. “When we went to town, it was just too bad if we forgot to buy something, because it usually meant that we would have to live without it for about two weeks, when we would go to town again.”
There was no German Lutheran church here then, and she recalls attending services in the county court house with Pastor Brinkman as the minister. Later, enough money was raised to build the school house near the present St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, and finally the  church was built. Mrs. Hamann was one of the first members of ladies’ aid of the church, and was active in its function until later years. She is still able to attend church, however.
Direct descendants of Mrs. Hamann include six children, 21 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Her children include: Rudolph A. Hamann, Clear Lake, S.D.; Mrs. Albert Priesz, Mrs. J. W. Ahrendt, August F. Hamann, Arthur Hamann and Herbert F. Hamann, all of Luverne.
Mrs. Hamann still maintains her own home, and although she has given up gardening on a big scale, she still raises a few vegetables for her own use, and has many beautiful flowers. She at one time did considerable sewing and fancy work but in later years, she has been unable to do so because of her poor eyesight. She is able to read somewhat, enough to “keep up with the times,” she says.
         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.

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 Sept. 9, 1943.
Looking back over the past half century, Mrs. August Hamann, Luverne, wonders sometimes if some of her experiences in early day Rock county aren’t just dreams.
Now living in her own home in Luverne, she has conveniences she never even thought were possible when she and her husband came to live northwest of here in the spring of 1891. Instead of going to the well pumping a pail of water, and bringing it inside, all she has to do now is to turn a faucet in her kitchen, and water streams out. Instead of carrying in baskets of cobs and wood, and virtually choking the kitchen stove to keep her home warm, she merely has to turn a thermostat dial on the wall, and an oil burning furnace keeps her rooms at the temperature she desires. Instead of the almost daily task of filling lamps with kerosene for light at night, she merely has to press a button on the wall and pay an electric light bill once each month.
But all the conveniences she enjoys today she greatly appreciates, because she worked hard under difficult circumstances during her younger days, and experienced many a hardship.
She was born in Mecklenburg, Germany, Sept. 25, 1867, as Emma Wieckman, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Wieckman. Her father worked in the country, and at an early age she learned to do many of the common everyday tasks. She attended school and even before she had completed the prescribed course of study, she had begun working away from home. At first, she received only her board and room. After she finished school, however, she was paid a salary of $12 per year.
Fortunately, she said, she did not have to do much outdoor work. Most of her duties had to do with housekeeping, but helping with the cooking, washing and baking and tending to the children, kept her plenty busy.
Relatives who had moved to the United States induced her to come to this country in 1883. She and her sister boarded a ship in Germany and landed in New York 14 days later. Although the trip was uneventful, the sight of land was a pleasant one, Mrs. Hamann states. They came directly to Benton county, where Mrs. Hamann immediately began working for her uncle at $2 a week. Truly she thought, America must be the land of promise if she could earn as much in six weeks here as she could in Germany in 52 weeks.
Continued in the April 6, 2023, edition of the Star Herald

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 Sept. 2, 1943.
You can’t beat a life of retirement for a good time, according to William Mitchell, Luverne, who after four years of taking life easy, still has enough fun working with his tools and in his garden, to keep him from being lonesome to be “on the job.”
Mr. Mitchell retired in 1939 after having been employed for 53 years as railroad depot agent, telegraph operator and yardmaster in towns and cities throughout a big area in the Midwest. Now, when he tires of just loafing, he goes out to his workshop where he has a lathe and other woodworking tools, or he works in his garden. Being a city councilman, he also has certain duties to perform in connection with that office, so he certainly isn’t living a life of idleness, although it might be one of leisure.
Mr. Mitchell has had an interesting life, ever since he was a boy. Born in Fond de Lac, Wis., Sept. 3, 1868, the son of James Monroe and Mathilda Dusenberry Mitchell, he moved with them at the age of three to Winneisheik county, Iowa. The trip was made by ox-team and covered wagon, and he recalls ferrying across the Mississippi river at McGregor.
His first home was a log house. There were many snakes in the country at that time, and on many occasions his mother would carry him around while driving snakes through openings in the log floor.
“Wild! I’ll say that country was wild in those days,” Mr. Mitchell relates. “You could hear the wolves howl at night, and lots of times I heard the groundhogs and the skunks fight for possession of the living quarters under the house. I’d lie in bed and listen to them, half scared to death.”
His father borrowed money from his grandfather at 12 percent interest to buy the land on which they settled. At that time, the farm consisted of 80 acres of hard timber. Now it has been all cleared, and farm land.
He helped his father clear the land, and rattle snakes often hid in the brush piles which were numerous in the clearings. When the brush would be burned, the snakes crawl out, only to find men and boys waiting with pitchforks to kill them. Mr. Mitchell states that on several occasions while pitching bundles to his father on a grain stack that snakes would crawl out of the bundles. However, neither his father nor he was ever hurt.
After finishing the public school, he attended high school in Ossian, Iowa, and after that went to Upper Iowa University at Fayette, where he took a business course. He came home and worked on the farm, then decided he wanted to be a railroad man. He was given a chance to learn to be a telegraph operator, and then was given his first job at La Porte. His salary was $40 a month for a 16-hour day.
From that time until coming to Luverne in 1918, Mr. Mitchell was moved from one town to another. While he was employed at Dysart, Iowa, he became acquainted with Cora Brode, and they were married at her home in Benton county, Dec. 23, 1891.
He worked nights at Dysart for eight years. He reports that he sold many tickets to people from that area who were coming to southwestern Minnesota on home seeker’s excursions. In the spring, these same people would leave on immigrant trains for their new homes which had been arranged for the previous autumn.
He served at Morrison, Iowa, as a telegraph operator at the time a flood washed out a stretch of track between Morrison and Reinbeck, about five miles in length. He was on duty three days and three nights without relief, and as a result, he fell asleep on the job. The company found it out, and that ended his career in Morrison.
He served in a number of other towns and finally landed in Cedar Rapids. From there he came to Ellsworth in 1906, where he remained until going to Watertown in 1911. Ellsworth was a booming railroad town then, and Mr. Michell served as yardmaster, one of the toughest jobs in railroading. Considerable amount of livestock was shipped from Ellsworth at that time. He remembers one time a whole trainload of cattle was shipped from there to Liverpool, England.
He served in Watertown eight years and then came to Luverne, where he was station agent and operator until his retirement in 1939.
Looking back over his 53 years of service, he states, “Railroading really gives a person a good schooling. You learn how to know and how to take people — a matter of fact, you can learn to read their minds. I used to study people, and got so that I could tell what they were going to ask me before they ever spoke a word. The company would send “spies” around to check up on the employees, and I got so I could tell one the minute he began coming down the walk.”
Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell became the parents of seven children, all except one of whom are living. They include Lawrence of Minneapolis; Gertrude, of Napa, Calif.; Harold, of Luverne; Dorothy (Mrs. Selmer Bly) Valley Springs; James, who is serving with the army in India and Delmer of Luverne. They have 10 grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
He has one living sister, Mrs. Caroline Finney, Hattiesville, Maryland.
Mr. Mitchell is a member of the Methodist church, the Masonic Blue Lodge, the Commandery and Eastern Star.
He served three years as mayor of the city, and has been on the city council for four years.
He attributes his good health and age to just keeping busy, and having good habits. “I can’t remember that I’ve had a doctor more than once in my life,” he states.
In addition to woodworking, Mr. Mitchell also keeps bees as a hobby. “It’s not only interesting, but it’s profitable,” he declares.
         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.

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 Aug. 26, 1943.
(Lars Larson of Hardwick continues his story from last week.)
There were no public schools at that time, and the education the children did get was obtained from classes conducted in the homes. School was held one week in each home, and the Norwegian language was used exclusively until the public schools came into being. One of her teachers, she recalls, was Christopher Helgeson.
Her father went to Sibley the first year or two he was here to have their wheat ground into flour. Trips were made to Mud Creek, near where the present town of Hills is now located by ox-team and lumber wagon. A hard plank across the wagon box was the only seat.
“Thinking back,” says Mrs. Larson, “I don’t see how they could pull through in those days. But in spite of the hardships, I can’t remember that we ever went hungry.”
When she was about 16, she worked as a maid in Luverne for one of the bankers. Her salary was $1.50 per week, and that sum was hard-earned. On wash days, she would get up at 3 a.m. and rub all the clothes clean on a wash board. In the winter time, when there was no rain water, she would melt snow and ice to obtain soft water to do the washing. In addition she did the housework, cleaning, baking, and other tasks to earn her meager salary.
Although the country was “quite civilized” when her parents moved here, there were times that Indians were seen in this section of the country. Most of them were trappers and had their trap lines along the Rock river. Although they never did any harm, they often came to the homes to beg something to eat, and as a rule, they were never refused by the frightened housewives.
Mr. and Mrs. Larson have two children, the Misses Inga and Helen Larson, both of whom live at home.
Mr. Larson has one brother, Nels Larson, Luverne, and one sister, Mrs. Harold Sambo, of Willmar, living. There were six boys and four girls in the family at one time. 
Mrs. Larson has only one brother, Ben Roen, of Vienna township, who is living. The family once numbered eight children, and Mrs. Larson and Mr. Roen are the two youngest.
Mr. and Mrs. Larson are members of Our Savior’s Lutheran church here, having joined after they moved here in 1920. However, when they lived on the farm, they were members of the Blue Mound Lutheran church, and Mr. Larson served as church treasurer for many years. 
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.