The Downfall of the Village of St Lawrence
St Lawrence’s glory days were short. In 1866 plans for the railroad were laid out. The route did not include St Lawrence, instead passing just over a mile south of the community and stopping in Jordan and Belle Plaine instead. Rail quickly surpassed steamships as the primary method of travel and shipping in Scott County, and St Lawrence was rendered obsolete. As the Belle Plaine Herald put it in June of 1925, “The village was foredoomed to failure. Bands of steel were pushing westward and within a few years the railroad came down the valley, seriously crippling river and stage traffic.” According to a 1996 Belle Plaine Herald article, the village of St Lawrence was all but abandoned by 1869.
Former blacksmith shop of St Lawrence turned schoolhouse. Date unknown. Published in the Prior Lake American, October 5. 1987
By the 1920s, few of the original buildings from the town of St Lawrence remained. In 1925, the St Lawrence Hotel was part of the farm of E. J Liebbrand. Liebbrand used the building as a granary and storehouse for his tools. The former blacksmith shop was being used as the township’s schoolhouse.
In 1958 a fire destroyed the hotel, and the former blacksmith shop, now relieved of its school duties, was torn down for safety reasons. Today the only building that remains from the original building is the original limestone home of Horace Strait.
St Lawrence Township Continues
An end of the village did not mean that the township was abandoned. St Lawrence boasted excellent farmland, and continued to to be home to many farms and families.
Faye Libbrand was born in St Lawrence in 1926. She remembers that the “St Lawrence Farmers Club” that was established in the original village continued well into the 1900s. She also recalls a sense of community in the township: “Once a year we had a big picnic. It was one of the social highlights of the township. And there was lots of visiting in those days. People worked together with their neighbors. At harvesting, men would work in the fields, and women worked together in the houses. Kids had it pretty good on those days.” She remembered a township meeting being held once a month. Guest speakers and politicians would be invited, schoolchildren would give recitations, and local musicians would show off their talents. She also said “...afterwards we had buttermilk and donuts. You know, I hate buttermilk.”
Clara Frank was born in the township in 1896. She attended school in St Lawrence, got her teaching certificate in Shakopee, then returned to teach at the St Lawrence school. She recalls “You didn’t have much time [due to the busy farming schedule], but the kids learned a lot in those days.”