It's All Fun and Games

June 13th marked the launch of our summer 2019 series of free mini-camps and craft workshops at libraries throughout Scott County. This program, funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage (Legacy) Amendment, allows us to bring fun engaging history activities to the young people of Scott County during their summer vacation.

This year our theme is GAMES. Participants in our “I’m Game” craft program will learn a bit about how fun in the past differed from today, and then try their hand at making a kite, or a hoop and stick toy.

Older kids, up for a greater challenge, can register for a “Game On” mini-camp! There, they will get to make a hoop and stick toy, use scavenged materials to invent their own games, and try their hand at historic stilts, hoops and graces games outside.

The kids who participate in these programs are quick to share their knowledge about how the lives of kids in Scott County 150 years ago were different from their lives today. They mention technology, a lack of video games, and the fact that houses didn’t have air conditioning (leading kids to want to play outside more). It was also a bit harder to get the variety of amusements in 1869 that are available today. Towns certainly had shops, and it was possible to order things by mail, but the selection was a bit different, and it took quite a bit longer for your packages to arrive. Children were likely encouraged to create their own toys and games.

That being said, kids still had fun, and, just like today’s big ticket items, there were games and toys that kids across the United States (and other nations) enjoyed. Three of those games- stilts, hoops and graces- are available to try by participants in our mini-camps. We will also be bringing them along with the Scott County Library Readmobile, and to fairs and festivals around the county this summer. Below, see what children’s literature of the past said about these three popular pastimes:

“Up In The Air On Stilts”, from The American Boy’s Book of Sport: Outdoor Games For All Seasons by Daniel Carter Beard  Published 1896

“According to the newspapers, walking on stilts is the very latest fashionable amusement for the ‘new woman’ in London. It is safe to say that before long you boys will be called on to make stilts for your sisters. There can be little doubt that a time is coming when a book written for boys will be the one girls will read, or rather, every book will be written for young people will be addressed to both boys and girls. Just why girls should not walk on stilts or engage in any similar sport no one has yet given a satisfactory answer. Twenty five years ago the boys used to make stilts with very low blocks for their sisters and the girls would seldom use them, but insisted on using their brothers’ high blocked stilts.

One bright boy on Fourth Avenue, New York City, has made a pair of stilts out of old laths from the ruins of some dismantled house. Three laths nailed together form each stilt pole, and the blocks are made of a graduated lot of lath pieces nailed together. Now, if a small boy in the tenement district can make himself a good serviceable pair of stilts out of some old laths, there can be no doubt that the boys who read this book will be able to find the material and tools to build themselves beautiful gadabouts”

“The Game of Graces”,  Lydia Marie Child’s The Girls Own Book, published 1838

“This is a new game, common in Germany, but introduced to this country from France. It derives its name from the graceful attitudes which it occasions. Two sticks are held in the hands, across each other, like open scissors: the object is to throw and catch a small hoop upon these sticks. The hoop to be bound with silk, or ribbon, according to fancy. The game is played by two persons. The sticks are held straight, about four inches apart, when trying to catch the hoop; and when the hoop is thrown, they are crossed like a pair of scissors. In this country it is called The Graces or The Flying Circle.”

A side note- author Lydia Marie Child is fascinating in her own right! Learn more about here here. 

“The Hoop”, from The American Boy’s Book of Sport: Outdoor Games For All Seasons by Daniel Carter Beard  Published 1896

“Everybody knows how to roll the hoop in the usual way. There is no horse, however trained, that obeys the hands of the rider with such precision. There is no ship, with the best pilot, which so correctly follows the guidance of its rudder. Here is a hoop, ruled by a stick, which maneuvers and drives it over the ground in all directions- to the right, to the left, straight on, backward, forward, describing a curve, a broken line, a triangle or, in a word, all the series of geometrical figures. Many players can contest with their hoops, and challenge each other, to know who shall drive his hoop the longest time without getting out of breath, or who shall be the first to reach a goal agreed on. In this latter case, all the players taking part in the contest should stand together on the same line, and start at a given signal… The hoop is like the skipping rope, one of the best exercises for giving strength and suppleness to the limbs.” 

Are you interested in joining us for any of our historic games programs? See the full schedule below, and contact your local library to register for mini-camps! All programs are free of charge.

 I’m Game! Library Crafts:Best for young people aged 6-10 and their families 
Shakopee Library: June 13th, 10:30am-11:00am
Prior Lake Library: June 15th, 12:00pm-12:30pm
Jordan Library: June 20th, 10:30am-11:00am
New Prague Library: July 2nd, 10:30am-11:00am
Elko New Market Library: July 3rd, 2:00pm-2:30pm
Savage Library: July 12th, 10:30am-11:00am
Belle Plaine Library: July 16th, 10:30-11:00am

 Game On! Library Camps:Best for young people aged 8-12
Savage Library: June 13th, 2:00pm-3:00pm
New Prague Library: Jume 18th, 2:00pm-3:00pm
Belle Plaine Library: June 20th, 2:00pm-3:00pm
Prior Lake Library: July 2nd, 2:00pm-3:00pm
Shakopee Library: July 12th, 2:00pm-3:00pm
Jordan Library: July 16th, 2:00pm-3:00pm
Elko New Market Libray: July 17th, 2:00pm-3:00pm

Written by Rose James, SCHS Program Manger

Bike Season!

It’s the time of year when Minnesotans emerge from their winter hibernation and everyone wants to be outdoors! Scott County boasts an excellent biking trail system, and opportunities abound to ditch your four wheeled vehicle and head out on two wheels. Biking has long been a popular form of transportation for Scott County residents. Check out some bicycle gems from the SCHS collections below, and learn a bit more about Scott County’s cycling history in this blog post. 

Children on bicycles join a parade at Holmes Avenue and Third Street in Shakopee. 1945. Photo from the SCHS Collections.

Studio portrait of three cyclists. Handwritten on the back is “Uncle Walter Adams. He rode this bicycle from Sioux City, Iowa to Shakopee and back to Sioux City Iowa” Walter Adams is the man on the left. 1885. Photo from the SCHS Collections

Studio portrait of Fritz Kahle of Belle Plaine with a bicycle. 1890. Photo from the SCHS Collections

Performer at Valley Fair, 1978. Photo from the SCHS Collections.

Steve Lebens of Shakopee, 1965. Photo from the SCHS Collections

Enjoy the summer sun and join us for our annual series of Pedaling the Past history bike tours! Each tour focuses on the unique environmental history of a Scott County community. Tours span between 2 and 5 miles and last approximately 2 hours with frequent stops for discussion and to look at photographs!

Participants must bring their own bikes and all participants MUST wear helmets (no exceptions!). This tour is open to participants ages 10 and up; participants under age 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

$5.00, SCHS members FREE

Registration Links:
New Prague Tour, Sat. June 8th, 10am-12pm: https://bit.ly/2V8e5Ro
Jordan Tour: Sat, July 13th, 10am-12pm: https://bit.ly/2ZT1GPV
Prior Lake Tour: Sat, Aug 10th, 10am-12pm: https://bit.ly/2VHEJjE
Shakopee Tour: Sat, Sept 14th, 10am-12pm: https://bit.ly/2Vc9Wf6

Women’s Suffrage in Minnesota

In September 1919, the Minnesota legislature ratified the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote.

This change had been a long time coming. As far back as 1858, granting the right to vote to married women was proposed as an addition to the new state’s constitution. This idea was, unfortunately, rejected.

Women moved one step closer to the ballot in 1875 when they were granted the right to vote and run for office- but only for school board and school related issues.

The first statewide suffrage organization was formed in 1881 when the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) was created by 14 women in Hastings.

The MWSA transformed into the Minnesota League of Women Voters, which is still an active organization devoted to civic engagement nearly 100 years later.

The Scott County Historical Society will be commemorating the anniversary of statewide womens’ suffrage during the upcoming year. To kick things off, we are excited to host historian and author Lois Glewwe. Glewwe is the descendant of the longtime South St. Paul Glewwe family. On August 27, 1920, South St. Paul women, including three of Lois Glewwe’s paternal aunts went to the polls. They were the first women in Minnesota to vote after the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Glewwe will share the story of 21-year-old Marguerite Newburgh, a stenographer at South St. Paul City Hall who the national press identified as the very first woman to vote that morning at 6:00 a.m. when the polls opened. Join us on Thursday, August 8th at 6:30pm for this special event!  Learn more at https://bit.ly/2NIZGYM

Additionally, look forward to a special exhibit on the journey towards womens’ suffrage in Scott County opening in April of 2020. Do you have any artifacts or stories to share relating to the history of women’s suffrage in Scott County? Don’t hesitate to reach out to SCHS at 952-445-0378, or email info@scottcountyhistory.org

Womens’ suffrage was a hotly contested issue in print publications of the early 1900s. Below is the text of an article entitled “Votes for Women: By a Suffragette” about the British and American womens’ fight for voting rights. It was published in the Scott County Argus on April 2nd, 1909:

IIlustration from the Scott County Argus, April 2, 1909

“Votes For Women”: The peer who could have been apprehended uttering those words 100 years ago in England would have been ostracized by society- by men and women alike. But scan the situation today and you will find that we suffragettes have nearly won our battle. Perhaps it seems far from victory for Americans who have been following the the struggle which we have been conducting in our own way, but let me say right here that “votes for women” is in my mind a certainty within a decade. 

The idea has been drive home among the men who are the ruling powers of Great Britain and they cannot help but see the beauty of our arguments. The opening of a vista of light in the stubborn minds of men who construct English law is to the suffragettes a certain indication that if the fight is carried on in the next few years with the same vigorous measures which have marked the pursuit of votes by the feminine British of the past few years our cause is won. 

It is an enlightened age. The woman who spurns the thought of participating in the political activities of her country has not yet reached a plane, according to my belief, where she can possibly appreciate the benefits derived from the ballot. Why do women dislike politics? I answer simply because they believe the political side of a country’s life is the degraded one. They connect politics and votes with drinking, graft, and other evils which, I may say beset the safety of political government today. 

Illustration from the Scott County Argus, April 2, 1909

And, let me ask the woman who does not believe that she should vote. Would not the introduction of the feminine into government affairs serve to cleanse them of the stigma which is too often attached. To mind that would be the result. 

I have said that I would deal impartially in this article and so I am giving “the other hand” of the question. Men have opposed equal rights because they say that the influence a women of evil intentions could throw into a political fight would disrupt organization. I answer: There is now much evil in the manner in which our male citizens are carrying out their policies and it is a certainty that the purifying influences of women would be felt in national questions.

“But women has not the training for a political career”, some of my skeptical friends may declare. True, she has not had the training which has been accorded to the men, but just ow she is not looking for political office, for she is after her primary right- the ballot. Then after that is one the political training will naturally follow with the interest which the woman must take in the affairs of the country which she will necessarily help in deciding. 

I do not suppose that enlightened readers will want me to again go over that thread bare motto, which arises to the uppermost part of the brain of man whenever he is arguing against equal rights, vis., that “women’s place is in the home”. 

Of course woman’s place is in her home. So is a man’s, but that does not prevent either from participating in the decision of who shall govern the rights upon which that home is built. Think it over. Does it? 

It befell me to be a member of the little band of women who, when they asserted their rights verbally in front of the house of commons in February, were dragged into the worst excuse for a court of justice and sentenced to one month in the workshop because they had nerve enough to tell the people of London their ideas on the rights of men and women. 

The mental agonies which we women were compelled to undergo were compensated in the good which was done the cause, or we were the martyrs of our division of the great band of women which is fighting for the ballot. 

True, the magistrate was good enough to give us places in “jail” which were better than those to which the ordinary drunkard is sentenced, but the care we received was not such that our lived in the confinement of the “jail” was by any means comfortable. Yet we refused to allow ourselves freedom. 

Men have laughed at our methods of going about the acquirement of our right to the ballot. 

A male friend of mine said to me: “Why do not you women go after suffrage peaceably without the attempt at making your point felt by the use of brute strength?”

Think of it, sisters and brothers. He called our efforts the utilization of “brute strength”. I laughed outright when he chose to term our fight under that caption. 

Perhaps he gained his idea from the fact that our vigorous prosecuting of the fight has been styled “rioting” by the sensationalist press. But in my mind, it cannot be called that for to my knowledge, none of the women came to blows with their enemies in this fight. IT seems to me that what “brute strength” has been used was on the other side. 

Brains have been used to a greater extent then you might imagine. It was a cunning mind among our leaders who thought out the plan to talk to leaders of Parliament by having two women chain themselves to the guard in the balcony. Just that little incident gave England the idea that the fight was a determined one. 

Illustration from the Scott County Argus, April 2, 1909

Modern advertising methods were used to circulate general knowledge of the March demonstration and certainly if we believed that the power of brawn is needed to win this struggle we would not have gone about it in that manner. We could have hired hoodlums to make a far more startling argument in the line with the use of brute strength. 

Another manner of unique advertising was the airship episode which unfortunately ended disastrously. The craft, upon the side of which a great banner hung bearing the slogan “votes for women” traveled in the direction opposite to that for which it had been steered, but the moral effect upon the public was good 

Though it is not generally known, there are great minds behind this campaign and through them eventual success is sure. Every day new moves are planned, and the members of parliament who are opposed to our creed little know where to look next for an outcropping of the emblem which bears our little legend “equal suffrage”. 

Male members of the British nobility are to be figured upon if the selfish would defeat us, and that is why I say I believe I have good reason to argue that within a decade our fight will be won. Are there not in England among the male population minds of far lesser caliber than those of the women who believe they should vote? There is no doubt of it. Yet we, who have a greater grasp of the political side of life in his majesty’s domain are denied the privilege. Is our condition not like that which you Americans fought back in 1776: taxation without representation?

From reading the cable news from America in the daily newspaper here in London I learn that several states of our former colonies have bestowed upon their women the right to cast ballots in rendering decisions as to state and city officers. If the offspring of England shall have so far progressed as to recognize that the feminine branch of the human race deserves a say in the affairs of men is it not time for the mother country to cast from her back the black cloak of unequal suffrage? 

There is a suffrage lesson in America and well may England profit by it. The thought that voting is unwomanly is as obsolete as the old stage-coach system, to my mind and some day the eyes of our country will be opened to that fact. We women have simply formed ourselves into a band of leaders and we hope soon to see our way clear to the voting booth. 

Our struggle commenced in humble little mass meetings in the street. The success of these resolved itself into the desire to do greater things and today you Americans who read the newspapers are viewing a fight which is nearing the mountain top of victory. 

Recent Program Highlights

It’s been a busy few months at the SCHS! Below are photos and highlights from some of our recent programs.

David Schleper presenting “We Were Here, Too: African-Americans in Early Shakopee” at the SCHS on Feb. 9, 2017.

– In February, we learned about the lives of several African-American men and women who lived in 1800s Shakopee, thanks to guest presenter David Schleper of the Shakopee Heritage Society.

Making lye soap at the SCHS!

– In March, Shelley Gorham from the Minnesota DNR taught us all about the Minnesota River valley, from the history of fur trading in the area to present-day habitats and wildlife. (PSSST- if you haven’t yet visited the SCHS’s “Minnesota River” exhibit, there’s still time! It will be up through the end of May!)

-In April, guest instructor David Hudson showed us how to make our own lye soap, just as people did in the old days. (Well, except we had the advantage of microwaves to help speed up the process!)

We’ve also had lots of fun kids’ programs recently!

– If you visited the museum on just the right Saturday in January, February, or April, you may have seen students carving tools out of rocks, throwing darts with an atlatl, or digging for artifacts in the museum garden. This was all part of our Youth Archaeology program. Big thanks to the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund for making these workshops possible!

– Meanwhile, younger kids enjoyed singing songs, listening to stories, and making crafts at our monthly Kids Kraft program, a fun opportunity to introduce young children to the museum.

We have many more great programs coming up, including our annual meeting next Thursday, May 18 featuring guest speaker and local racing legend John Boegeman. Register for that program here, and stay up-to-date on all of our events by visiting http://www.scottcountyhistory.org.