bits by betty
By Betty Mann, Bits by BettyFebruary 11, 2026The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on March 5, 1942. You, the reader of the Diamond Club, no doubt can recall many interesting experiences during your childhood. Perhaps you can recall occurrences while you were attending school. Maybe you remember a few experiences you had before you started school. Incidents most vivid in your memory, however, are no doubt the ones that played…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianFebruary 04, 2026The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group and it appeared in The Rock County Herald on Feb. 26, 1942. Of all Luverne residents, there is perhaps no one who can tell you more about building and construction than Frank Soutar, early day contractor and builder, who is this week’s Diamond Club member. Mr. Soutar lives in a home which he built at 218 W. Warren street. He retired…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianJanuary 28, 2026The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group and it appeared in The Rock County Herald on Feb. 19, 1942. Having watched the state of Minnesota grow from a population of just a few thousands to its present size, John M. Rustad, Luverne, could tell you quite a bit about changes that have taken place during his lifetime. Although Rustad was born about seven miles from Oslo, Norway…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianJanuary 21, 2026The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group and it appeared in The Rock County Herald on Feb. 12, 1942. “A stage coach to most people in this day and age is a mode of conveyance which they have seen depicted in motion pictures of the days of the wild west. To Mrs. Elgenie V. Gibson, Beaver Creek, however, it is something real, for she rode in one when she was five years old.…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianJanuary 14, 2026The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group and it appeared in The Rock County Herald on Feb. 5, 1942. “It was a long time ago that I first visited Luverne,” recalls William E. Hocking, of this city, this week’s Diamond Club member. “As a matter of fact, you’d never know it was the same place. The first thing about Luverne that I remember was eating dinner in a hotel which…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianJanuary 07, 2026The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group and it appeared in The Rock County Herald on Jan. 29, 1942. “I went to school when hickory sticks were always kept in readiness,” recalls Mrs. Emma Cummings, Beaver Creek, this week’s member of the Diamond Club. Mrs. Cummings attended a country school in Pennsylvania, her native state. School in those days were designed as a means of…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianDecember 30, 2025The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group and it appeared in The Rock County Herald on Jan. 22, 1942. The fear of contracting one of the most dreaded of diseases, human cholera, was one of the many experiences in the life of Ernest Kiebach, Sr., of this city. The fear was even greater under the circumstances, than it would have been under ordinary conditions, for he,…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianDecember 23, 2025The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on Jan. 15, 1942. Although old man winter had his controls turned on “cold” the first ten days of the new year, his grip on the middle west today is not what it was in the latter 1870s when Mrs. C.N. Remme, of this city, first came to Rock county. The temperatures may drop as low now, perhaps, but the average person is better equipped to combat…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianDecember 17, 2025The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on Jan. 1, 1942. Charley Ehlers story continues farming as a boy. Soil conservation, a common byword of modern day farming was practiced in that country when he was a boy, he recalls. He remembers well how land was planted to clover, and later plowed to make it more fertile. He attended the state school, at which religion was taught as one of…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianDecember 09, 2025The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on Jan. 1, 1942. “I’m having some of the fun now that I didn’t have time for when I was a youngster,” declares Charley Ehlers, Luverne, who is this week’s Diamond Club Member. Charley, who reached his 75th birthday in November says that the fact that one has passed the three-quarter century mark does not mean that he is getting old unless he…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianDecember 03, 2025The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on Dec. 18, 1941. The terrorizing crash of a frail sailing craft against an iceberg in the cold North Atlantic, and the sight of a broad, treeless, unsettled prairie from the open end of an overturned wagon box which served as a home are but two of the many memories in the mind of Mrs. Bertha Thompson, 82, Lismore’s oldest living settler. Mrs.…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianNovember 25, 2025The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on Dec. 11, 1941. A 91-year-old “youngster” who can walk 10 blocks down town and back faster than many people 50 years younger, is this week’s member of the Star’s Diamond Club. He is David Wood McKay, better known as “Dave” among his many acquaintances in Luverne and surrounding community. Born in Scotland on August 15, 1850, and not coming to…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianNovember 19, 2025The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on Dec. 4, 1941. Despite the fact that they are 82 and 76 years of age, respectively, Mr. and Mrs. Evert Fikse, Steen, this week’s Diamond Club members, are literally as active as youngsters and enjoy themselves just as much. It’s not at all unusual to see just the two of them get into the family car and drive to the river or a nearby lake for a…- By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianNovember 12, 2025The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on Nov. 27, 1941. “To get the fullest enjoyment provided by the modern conveniences of this day and age, it is necessary that you have experienced life in an earlier era.” This is the contention of Mrs. Marit Sundem, 90, of Hills, this week’s Diamond club member. “What the younger generation takes for granted today—the speedy automobiles, the…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianNovember 05, 2025The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on Nov. 20, 1941. Fred A. Baker, Magnolia, recalls “roaring west” Days when this part of the country was part of the “roaring west” are vividly recalled by Fred A. Baker, Magnolia pioneer. Mr. Baker came to the middle west from Canton, N.Y., at the age of seven. Living in Illinois two years, the family moved to Sioux City in 1868 in a covered…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianOctober 29, 2025The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on Nov. 13, 1941. Nights when only 20 streetlights penetrated the darkness of Luverne’s streets are well remembered by Frank H. Wiggins, Luverne, this week’s Diamond Club member. Wiggins, a resident of Rock county for 55 years, recalls that the marshall’s job, in addition to preserving peace and order, also called for keeping street lamps…
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