Scott County Memories: Tales of a Mail Carrier in the Early 1900s

These recollections were dictated by Joan Muehlbauer and Corrine Meierbachtol of Belle Plaine in 1980 and originally shared in the collection “As I Remember Scott County”

Tom O’Connor delivering mail in Belle Plaine, 1905. Photo from the SCHS Collections.

Our dad, John McDevitt started hs mail carrier job in 1903. He had three horses. In the summer he had a two wheel buggy. When the water was high in the spring, he would have to leave his horses at the last patron’s hows, that of Adam Brandl. He would also sometimes have to spend the night there. When I was a little girl, I can remember how unhappy it made me when e couldn’t come home. When we had a phone he would call up and talk to me and it would be ok. If the current in the river was not too swift, the mail could be brought over in a bot to him,

Belle Plaine mail carriers, 1913. Photo from the SCHS Coilections.

In the winter he would travel in a cutter drawn by one horse. A large stone was placed in the oven of the cookstove overnight, and in the morning the stone was wrapped in burlap. That was kept near his feet. He wore a heavy, sheeplined coat. A nice warm horse hair blanket covered him. All was fine, unless he had to go over high snow drifts, which many times tipped over the sleigh. He had to be at the post office at 8:30 in the morning to sort the mail. Then he came home and had a hot bowl of soup. The only lunch he took was a thermos of coffee. He left for the route at ten o’clock. The route was 30 miles long, In good weather he was home around three. In the winter, it was later.

He bought the first car in 1925. It was a Model T Ford. When we were old enough, we were taken with him on the route to keep him company. He was a mail carrier from 1903 until 1932.

Scott County Memories: Change of Times in the Farming Line

These recollections were dictated by Henry L Latzke of Belle Plaine in 1980 and originally shared in the collection “As I Remember Scott County”

Boys with horse. Photo taken around 1910. From the SCHS Collections.

I was born and grew up on the farm Dad owned, a 200 acre farm. At the age of six, Dad had me do all of the hoeing and at seven years of age I did the plowing with a bulky plow outfit that was drawn by three horses. The seeding was done with a seeder that spread the seed on top of the ground and it had eight shovels to cultivate the soil. Then it was harrowed twice, one crosswise and then across the corner to work the seed in. Corn was planted by a hand planter. The field was marked with a homemade marker made of wood, marked two ways, and the corn was planted in the mark so it could be cultivated lengthwise and crosswise.

In 1905, Dad and my uncle bought a fourteen she drill for seeding the small grain, and the next spring, Dad bought a 16 disk drill as it got seed in the ground better. In 1907, Dad bought a cornplanter, and the field was marked crosswise and planted the long way. the planter required two men and was drawn by two horses. One man drove the team, and the two men sat in front and dropped the corn on the cross mark. A lever had to be pulled to drop the seed corn.

The next year the same company that made the planter came out with a wire attachment that saved the time of marking the field.

I farmed on my own in the year of 1924; I bought a John Deere two-row grain drill. I used this until 1938, then I bought a 20 disk drill and used it until 1944. Then bought a 22 disk Moline tractor power lift. The corn was still being planted with horses, and I had four good work horses. The corn on the farm was planted with a two row horse planter, and the biggest part of the hay mowing and raking was also done with horses.

The chick corn with tractor planters did not work out as well as it should have. In 1954, my son bought a tow row mounted to help out. The grain was cut with a six foot Deering binder. There were only three binders at that time: Deering, McMorick and Plano. They shucked as a rule, nine or eleven bundles in a round shuck with some bundles broken and capped to get barley. Eleven bundles as a rule; it required two bundles for the cap. The cap bundle was to keep the wheat from blackening after 7-12 days of being dry. It was stacked with four stacks for a setting. The average stack was six to ten loads. I remember in the beginning of 1900, the separator was run by horse power called a sweep threshing.

Threshing crew near Shakopee, around 1910. Photo from the SCHS Collections.

Wood sawing and grinding were all horse powered and the separator had no blower to remover the straw as it was passed from man to man onto the stack. Bundles were cut and fed by man. The first steamer that threshed for us was moved from farm to farm by horses. Haas and Winterfeldt had the first completed steam power thresher in our neighborhood and they threshed our grain for quite a number of years. We were last at the very end of the run. John Haas was our neighbor, and our rig was shedded there. His first three boys and himself were with the outfit as the years went on. One year as we threshed, we had close to a foot of snow Dad raked it off the stacks to keep them from freezing.

In 1915 or 1916, Fred Blume ought a gas tractor. He owned a steamer also. In the winter or spring he sawed lumber. In 1917 he sawed lumber after Thanksgiving day for a barn on the farm that I farmed until I retired.

Frederick Bohnsack Sitting on a Tractor, 1952. Photo from the SCHS Collections.

I lived on his farm to take care of the livestock and hauled cord wood to Belle Plaine for three years. Before that, we had a family to take care of the stock. The first year we had 76 head of cattle and over a dozen horses. We farmed in partnership, and we farmed three farms in 1920. I married and still farmed. In 1923 I bought a tractor. I used the tractor for power to fill the silo and it was used for belt work and plowing too. I still did some plowing with horses. In 1924, I traded the Fordson in on an 10-20 International as it was ma more powerful tractor, and in 1936 traded int in for an Allis and that was a three plow outfit.

In 1936, when I bought the Allis tractor it was on all steel wheels. In 1938 I assembled it on rubber. Te beginning of 1936 I did custom silo filling and filled in forty silos each fall. For grain threshing we had seven farmers, mostly neighbors, and they all had shares in the threshing machine. I used my tractor for power, and took care of the machine. The elevator, machine, and tractor were shedded on my farm.

In 1948 we went to combining the grain.

Historic Breweries of Scott County

Shakopee Brewery

The first brewery in the Minnesota River Valley, Shakopee Brewery opened in 1855. The facility was founded by H.H. Strunk (also the proprietor of Strunk Drug). Strunk owned Shakopee Brewery until, interested in other pursuits, he sold the business to Andrew Winkler in 1863, who retained ownership until his death in 1870.

After 1870, Winkler’s widow, Mary, continued to manage brewery operations. Five years later, she married a German Master Brewer named Hubert Nyssen and the two continued to run Shakopee Brewery together.

Unfortunately, the building was destroyed by fire in 1885. Fire was a huge concern in early brewing due to the dangerous combination of wood or coal heating and the dry, airborne dust produced when grain was industrially ground. Luckily, the family had enough capital to invest in rebuilding the facility. Shakopee brewery remained a fixture of the community until prohibition forced it to close in 1920.

You can still see the ruins of the brewery today, along the Minnesota River bike path, on the northwest edge of the city.

Shakopee Brewery, 1907. Photograph from the SCHS Collections

Hubert Nyssen, around 1920. Photo from the SCHS Collections.

Schutz and Hilgers Jordan Brewery

The Jordan Brewery was founded in 1866. Like the Shakopee Brewery, it was started by a prominent local businessman – in this case Frank Nicolin. The structure of Jordan brewery was built to last with limestone and brick walls more then 3 feet thick. Nicolin sold the building soon after it’s opening, and in 1867 it took on the name Sand Creek Brewing, run by partners Sebastian Gehring and Frank Paier, who ran the business for almost 20 years. In 1885 they decided to sell to Peter Schutz and William Kaiser. Kaiser left the partnership, and by 1902 the facility was owned jointly by Peter Schultz and Peter Hilgers, whose names have remained with the brewery building ever since.

Like breweries around the country. Schutz and Hilgers closed in 1920, but reopened immediately upon prohibition’s repeal in 1933. At its height, Schutz and Hilgers brewed 40,000 barrels of beer annually and distributed to seven states.

In 1946 the brewery facilities were bought by Mankato Brewing Company, but they were soon forced to shut down due to financial difficulties. Finally, in 1954, the building caught fire during construction work, and nearly burned to the ground. The ruins were left vacant for many years until the city considered demolishing the property. Today, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and has been refurbished into retail property.

Schutz and Hilgers Brewery, around 1940. Photograph from the SCHS Collections.

Lable from Schutz and Hilgers, around 1940. From the SCHS Collections.

Kokes Brewery, New Prague

Kokes Brewry was started by brothers-in-law Thomas Kokes and Albert Minars in 1884. Kokes, like many other early brewery owners, was a prominent local businessman who also owned a general store. Located at the corner of Second Avenue NW and Fifth Street N, the brewery advertised itself as “using clear hops and malts” and having a modern “steam operated” plant. Minars left the partnership in 1887, but Kokes remained an active owner for many years. The brewery was a prominent local employer, and delivered barrels to many small communities nearby New Prague.

When prohibition hit in 1920, the facility switched to selling soft drinks and malted non-alcoholic cereal beverages. Unfortunately, this new business model was not as profitable, and the business closed in 1931. Today, the historic building houses apartments.

1891 plat map of New Prague. Kokes Brewery is marked with a black square, in the upper right-hand corner.

Schmitt Brewery, Belle Plaine

Schmitt Brewery was opened by Albert Swinger in 1860. It cost $500.00 to build, and was located Northeast of town along what came to be known (aptly) as brewery creek. In 1866, Schmitt Brewery fell victim, like many other early breweries, to a fire, and Swinger was forced to rebuild.

Ownership of the brewery fluctuated after the fire. City records list B. Osterfeldt as proprietor in 1870, but Christian Schmitt purchased the brewery in 1871.

In 1877 the building burned down yet again and was rebuilt by Schmitt. For many years, Schmitt brewery was a local business, with a capacity of 10 barrels per day. Schmitt began to expand, increasing the capacity to 500 barrels per year and starting a bottling line, but his health was failing. In 1905, Schmitt passed away, leaving the brewery to his sons. It finally closed in 1916 after being outsold by competition from larger, regional brewing facilities.

Schmitt Brewery around 1900. Photograph from the SCHS Collections.

Written by Rose James, SCHS Program Manager

An Irishman in Scott County

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from the Scott County Historical Society! Today we had the pleasure of visiting ProAct-New Options in Shakopee to share a little Scott County Irish history and help them celebrate the holiday. We would also like to celebrate with a blog post by profiling one of Scott County’s  early Irish citizens.

The 1800s were a rough time for Irish farmers. Few families actually owned their land, instead owing money and crops to British landlords. In the case that a family did own their plot, a law of subdivision was in place requiring that all land was required to be divided equally between living sons at the time of a parent’s death. This led to increasingly small plots, often insufficient for a family to earn a living. Many Irish farmers eked out their lives in abject poverty.

The response to these conditions was potatoes. Potatoes packed a lot of calories into a small package, required minimal upkeep, could be grown in small areas, and could be stored throughout the winter. Growing potatoes allowed a family with limited time and resources a hearty food source. By 1840, roughly half the population of Ireland lived almost entirely on potatoes.

Unfortunately, this extensive cultivation of a single crop left Ireland’s potatoes vulnerable to Phytophthora infestans, commonly known as “blight”. In 1844, Irish newspapers began mentioning concern due to a disease that had attacked potatoes in the United States and elsewhere in Europe. By 1846, three-quarters of the potato harvest was lost to blight. Ireland’s level of dependence on the potato was such that by 1849, the potato blight left over 1 million people dead from starvation, or related illnesses.

The response of the English government to the famine was lackluster, and many Irish began looking for a way out. Thus began a period of mass migration from Ireland to the United States. It is estimated that between 1820 and 1930 around 4.5 million Irish arrived in America.

Jeremiah Hayes

One of these Irish immigrants was Jeremiah Hayes. He was born around 1830 on a farm on the outskirts of the village of Milltown, in County Kerry Ireland, 30 years after Ireland officially became a British state. In January. He recalled his childhood in Ireland in an article published by the Belle Plaine Herald on January 14th, 1926, noting a storm that had hit his family’s farm when he was “a pretty small lad”

“I remember that wind all right. There has never been anything like it since. It would blow the hair right off your head. I can remember my father and mother propping the door, and a terrible time they had of it too. No one was killed in  in our neighborhood, but a good many cows and pigs were lost, and there was a lot of property damage”

Hayes also recalled living through the potato famine

“The potato crop had been good in ’45, but the next year when the crop failed and the pits containing last year’s harvest were opened, the walls of the pits caved in and it was found that dry rot had ruined them. They didn’t have any relief organizations in those days. Little aid could be obtained from England and from famine and disease people died like flies”

Hayes held on through the potato famine, and grew to adulthood. Along the way he met and married Ellen Hayes and the two tried to make a living on the family farm. In 1860 he decided that his prospects on the farm were “none too bright” and he decided to come to the United States.

Following two cousins, Hayes settled in Faxton, then a flourishing village not far from Belle Plaine. Jeremiah Hayes described life in Faxton:

“There were great times in that community in those days. They worked hard but they enjoyed themselves. There were several saloons and most of the stores had a whiskey barrel where drinks could be bought for five cents. There were dances in which Irish jigs were features, and sometimes there were fights. The boys were full of life and fun and naturally a little rough at times, but beyond a few black eyes and bruised noses little damage was done”

For three years, Jeremiah worked digging drainage ditches and saved his money. Eventually, he was able to bring his wife from Ireland to join him in the United States. The two settled on a small farm in St. John’s parish.

Jeremiah Hayes took pride in what he saw his is rough-and-tumble Irish roots. A huge fan of boxing, Hayes told the Belle Plaine Herald on January 24th, 1926 that “There was always a lot of good Irish names to be found among the boys at the prize ring”, and said of his youth “You see, they boys fought it out and shook hands afterwards. There was no long arguments and no sidestepping like we have nowadays. A man had to be able to stand up and take care of himself and it was the making of lots of them”.

Ellen Hayes passed away in 1891 from consumption. Jeremiah Continued to farm until 1921, when he moved in with his daughter in Belle Plaine. In his old age, Jeremiah Hayes was known for his jigging ability. He performed at American Legion meetings, and for the Twin City Auto Show, with favorite tunes including the Fisherman’s Hornpipe, Liverpool Hornpipe, and the Scottish Reel. He did not think much of Jazz, what he called “modern music”.

In his old age, Jeremiah Hayes left some advice behind for future generations on the pages of the Belle Plaine Herald “Young folks have too good of a time nowadays. A little hard work would do ‘em good”.

Hayes passed away on August 27, 1927 in Belle Plaine. Though his story, like all stories, is unique, he represents one of the largest mass-migrations of refugees in American history. Today, we celebrate those stories on St. Patrick’s day.

Written by Rose James, SCHS Program Manager

New Years: 1919

One hundred years ago Scott County was recovering from the Great War. International affairs, influenza, and global food supplies dominated newspaper headlines, pushing aside the local interest stories that had held the front pages prior to the outbreak of war. New Years 1919 was a chance for people to reflect on the violence of the past year and to envision a future free from war. As we leave 2018 behind, take a moment to explore the fears and dreams of Scott County as published in the new years editions of  newspapers from 100 years ago.

Belle Plaine Herald
January 2nd, 1919

The front page new of the Herald was the Great War and the flu. Prominently featured were the obituaries of two Belle Plain citizens, William Gomoll and the young soldier Frank Strandcutter, who had fallen victim to the 1918 flu epidemic. The paper’s featured article was “Some War Experiences”, a tribute to soldiers from Belle Plaine who had fought in the Great War. In local news, the paper praised Belle Plaine for growth in the face of wartime shortages.

Images below are from the Belle Plaine Herald, January 2nd, 1919

 Jordan Independant
January 2nd, 1919

The 1918 flu was also featured prominently on the front page of the Jordan Independent, as were wartime recollections. The headlining article was a wartime letter home from a soldier, published in its entirety.  Local front- page news highlighted the need for year-round county roads in order to keep communities growing and expand access to goods. Inside the paper, international affairs took the spotlight, with special attention on global food shortages.

Images below are from the Jordan Independent, January 2nd 1919

 Shakopee Tribune 
January 3rd, 1919

Like the rest of the county papers, the front page of the Tribune featured war news and sad news of county deaths due to flu and a train accident. The Tribune also inserted some levity with a piece on British naval nicknames, and an article on proper floral arrangement in vases- an odd choice for the flower-free month of January. Finally, the front page declared 1918 to be a year of steady progress in Shakopee.

Inside, the Tribune dedicated a full page to the joyous formation of the peace-keeping League of Nations. An article also outlined tensions in Syria, a piece that sadly would not have seemed out of place today.

Images below are from the Shakopee Tribune, January 3rd, 1919

New Prague Times
January 2nd, 1919

New Prague used their front page to pay tribute to many who had lost their lives in the previous year, including many flu victims,  in a New Years edition of the regular column entitled “Brief Neighborhood News”  Oddly, the column ended by highlighting the purchase of a turkey. The font page also outline the terms of the Great War peace treaty, and urged New Prague residents to join the Red Cross.

International news dominated the inside of the paper, with headlines such as “Russians In Sad Plight”, and “Puerto Rico Requires Food”.

Images below are from the New Prague Times. January 2nd, 1919

Scott County Argus 
January 2nd, 1919

The Argus’s headlining New Year story praised Minnesotans for their war efforts, bearing the headline “Food Administration Proud of State Record”. Like most county newspapers of the times, those that lost their lives were honored on the front page of the paper, including the influenza death of Gilbert Vierling. The front page also announced plans to build a reformatory for women in Shakopee.

The Argus was dominated by a timeline of events of 1918, organized into the cheery categories “World War”, “Domestic”, “Necrology” and “Disasters” Recent war news was highlighted with the headlines “Chaos in Russia”. “Why Polish Statehood Should Rise”, and “Martial Law in Polish Streets”.

Images below are from the Scott County Argus, January 2nd, 1919

Written by Rose James, SCHS Program Manager