This portrait of Northfield members is undated, but may well be from their 50th anniversary in 1944.

Did you know May 30 – July 4 is the first-ever Northfield History Month? Learn more about the events here.

Every weekday this Northfield History Month, come on over to the Northfield History Collaborative to learn a little more about one of the newest additions to our online collection of materials that help tell Northfield’s history.

• • Day 1: 259 photographs of World War II era servicemen and women
  • Day 2: 22 new Northfield Arts Guild theater programs
  • Day 3: Grand Army of the Republic minutes
  • Day 4: HATPIN newsletters
  • Day 5: Northfield High School ‘Periscopes’
  • Day 6: Northfield Retail Merchants minutes
  • Day 7: Northfield Hospital Aid Association minutes
  • Day 8: Northfield Garden Club history
  • Day 9: Red Cross minutes
  • Day 10: The “dairy papers”

The Collaborative’s current project is to digitize records of Northfield-area civic organizations. These groups reflect what interested and what was important to the average Northfielder, and what meant enough to them to spend time on outside of their work and their family.

One of our additions in this project was a brief history of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. The current national organization notes that its members “are dedicated women and men who sincerely reflect the spirit of fraternal love and the desire to work together for good. It gives them the opportunity to give a part of their time to many projects that benefit mankind.  Our lessons are scriptural, our purposes are beneficent, and our teachings are moral.”

Famous members of the past included Clara Barton and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The Northfield chapter received its charter in 1894. This document observes its fiftieth anniversary. Inside you’ll find a number of names of prominent Northfield women.

Did you know May 30 – July 4 is the first-ever Northfield History Month? Learn more about the events here.

Every weekday this Northfield History Month, come on over to the Northfield History Collaborative to learn a little more about one of the newest additions to our online collection of materials that help tell Northfield’s history.

• • Day 1: 259 photographs of World War II era servicemen and women
  • Day 2: 22 new Northfield Arts Guild theater programs
  • Day 3: Grand Army of the Republic minutes
  • Day 4: HATPIN newsletters
  • Day 5: Northfield High School ‘Periscopes’
  • Day 6: Northfield Retail Merchants minutes
  • Day 7: Northfield Hospital Aid Association minutes
  • Day 8: Northfield Garden Club history
  • Day 9: Red Cross minutes

“Cows, Colleges, and Contentment.”

When it comes to the history of Northfield, we don’t talk a lot about the cows. The Northfield History Collaborative is aiming to change that with the addition of 1,500 pages during the last year of a Northfield-produced dairy trade publication.

“Heatwole’s Dairy Paper” (later “Minnesota Dairyman”) was published from the Northfield News’ press for six years, beginning in 1906. It circulated not only in this area, but statewide and nationwide. Many of the photographs feature famed farms in Massachusetts, though there are also many Northfield-area farms and farmers mentioned.

The publication was initially named for Joel Heatwole, publisher of the Northfield News and congressman from 1895 to 1903. It was renamed after Heatwole’s death in 1908. The editor of this publication, though, was W. F. “Bill” Schilling, one-time editor of the Northfield News, longtime columnist (think Maggie-Lee-type longtime) and lifelong representative on any number of farm and dairy boards, locally and nationally. His picture is on the cover you see above — click on it for a larger view.

“Heatwole’s Dairy Paper” does the best job of explaining itself in its first issue.

Minnesota is known throughout the country as the Bread and Butter State. This title she has earned honestly, producing more flour than any other State in the Union and also making the best butter of any State or any country in the world. For this reason alone, if for no other, does the editor of Heatwole’s Dairy Paper claim that there is room for an up-to-date paper devoted exclusively to the dairy interests of this great bread and butter State and the adjacent country on the south, east and west.

But there are many other reasons for the publication of a distinctively dairy paper, and with these all first class dairymen are familiar. To place our dairy interests properly before the world and in a manner that will do them justice the work must be done by practical dairy enthusiasts who are in every day contact with dairymen and good dairy cows. Mr. Heatwole, the proprietor, owns one of the best dairy farms in the Northwest, and on this farm is associated with him Mr. W. F. Schilling, editor of the paper and a practical dairyman as well as a student, and who has been a dairy writer for some years. This practical work, together with the association of many dairymen in the best dairy section of the Northwest, gives a foundation and atmosphere that cannot be obtained in some sky-scraper located in the larger cities away from the farm and everything that pertains to farm life.

Heatwole’s Dairy Paper will give its entire efforts to the dairy interests alone and will aim to voice the sentiment of the dairy farmer, the butter and cheese maker and also the dairy student. Already this paper has the assurance of hearty co-operation and support from the leading authors of dairy literature in the Northwest, and every article will appear neatly printed and as nearly correct as is possible to handle contributions from authors in various sections of the country.

Our thanks go to the Minnesota Digital Library, which scanned these 1,500 pages for us.

Two men walk past a Red Cross truck after a tornado in Castle Rock, Minnesota on May 20, 1920. The truck may or may not have been associated with the Northfield Red Cross chapter.

Did you know May 30 – July 4 is the first-ever Northfield History Month? Learn more about the events here.

Every weekday this Northfield History Month, come on over to the Northfield History Collaborative to learn a little more about one of the newest additions to our online collection of materials that help tell Northfield’s history.

• • Day 1: 259 photographs of World War II era servicemen and women
  • Day 2: 22 new Northfield Arts Guild theater programs
  • Day 3: Grand Army of the Republic minutes
  • Day 4: HATPIN newsletters
  • Day 5: Northfield High School ‘Periscopes’
  • Day 6: Northfield Retail Merchants minutes
  • Day 7: Northfield Hospital Aid Association minutes
  • Day 8: Northfield Garden Club history

The Northfield Red Cross minutes of 1917 to 1942 include parts of two world wars, a flu epidemic, and the Great Depression. There’s some good stuff in here!

1917 was when the Northfield chapter organized, though groups already existed at both of the colleges. They gained members very quickly, with 1,200 by the fall of that year.

The early minutes are less explicit about just what they did other than raising money for local, national and international work:

The ladies were urged to come to headquarters to sew and were given an opportunity to express a preference as to which afternoon each member could most conveniently give to this work each week.

Just after the war, in early 1919, they do share some figures that shed a little light on their action:

Mrs. Hill, as chairman of woman’s work, gave the report showing that a total of 11,509 finished articles had been made and shipped by the Northfield Chapter. An additional 2,019 had been sent from Oct. 1st to Jan 1st of this year. 916 linen articles had been sent to French hospitals in answer to a special call from Headquarters. … From Oct. 1917 to Dec. 1918, 67,477 dressings had been made in Northfield, at headquarters and by the College auxiliaries of St. Olaf and Carleton.

The Spanish influenza epidemic hit toward the end of World War I. The November 1918 minutes show that the local Red Cross was making plans in case of emergency:

The object of the meeting was the discussion of measures to be taken in case of a threatened epidemic of Influenza. Mr. Roe moved that Mr. Spohn, Miss Hill and Mr. Fobes be empowered to appoint all committees necessary to meet the situation. Motion carried. The following committees were appointed. Emergency Hospital: Roy Moses, Chr., F. B. Hill, C. F. Draper, A. O. Netland, Dr. J. G. Phillips. Supplies: Dr. Cruttenden, Chr., Prof. Dungay, P. O. Holland, Mrs. Flaten, Mrs. Hamblin, Mrs. [Malon?].

The flu epidemic also was responsible for the Red Cross postponing its October 1918 annual meeting for three months!

Once the war was over, the local chapter did remain active. It helped to employ a school nurse and a rural nurse; offered educational health and hygiene courses; and helped with natural disasters, such as a tornado in Randolph. It also provided local relief during the Great Depression, including distribution of clothing (and government cloth), flour, seeds, shoes, and glasses for schoolchildren.

Then came the second world war. Northfield residents helped out by sewing and knitting items to be sent overseas, among other projects. Sewing and knitting projects met item quotas sent from national headquarters. Because this minutes book does not span all of World War II, we simply get an idea of how they started out their efforts, even before Pearl Harbor:

Miss Stewart gave a report on the sewing and knitting units stating that a total of 376 garments, including 14 layettes had been made during the period beginning April 1, 1940 and ending March 1, 1941.

Later notes add that individuals from every church in Northfield had been involved in sewing and knitting for war relief by late 1941.

By early 1942, the Northfield Red Cross was busy enough that it needed a space to coordinate its activities.

Mrs. Wolf and Miss Piesinger made a report of their findings on rooms for use of the chapter. Motion: Odegaard, Spohn, That we accept the generous offer of M. Tschann and Company for the use of the two vacant office rooms in the Central Block, the rent of such office rooms to be $2.00 per month, heat and light included.

The room is open for sewing on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The room is open on Saturdays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. to distribute and receive the work which is taken outside the workroom.

Of course, the local chapter also gathered and raised funds toward national and international needs. In early 1940, the National Red Cross had set Northfield’s financial quota (over what timeframe is unclear) at $320, then quickly doubled it in light of rising needs. Northfield set its own goal for the timeframe at $1,000, having already raised $950.

Northfield seems to have been putting forth great effort toward war relief, even early on!

Did you know May 30 – July 4 is the first-ever Northfield History Month? Learn more about the events here.

Every weekday this Northfield History Month, come on over to the Northfield History Collaborative to learn a little more about one of the newest additions to our online collection of materials that help tell Northfield’s history.

• Day 1: 259 photographs of World War II era servicemen and women
• Day 2: 22 new Northfield Arts Guild theater programs
• Day 3: Grand Army of the Republic minutes
• Day 4: HATPIN newsletters
• Day 5: Northfield High School ‘Periscopes’
• Day 6: Northfield Retail Merchants minutes
• Day 7: Northfield Hospital Aid Association minutes

It was wise of the Northfield Garden Club to compile a club history upon its 50th anniversary in 2000. That comprehensive document, among their archives in residence at the Northfield Historical Society, is now available at the Northfield History Collaborative.

Northfield’s Garden Club was established November 5, 1950, after the nearby Little Prairie Garden Club was getting too big. That really surprised me!

Throughout its lifetime, the club has featured monthly presentations, largely by members, on a particular tip, gardening issue or type of flower.

The history’s author interviewed some Garden Club members upon their 50th anniversary about the impact the club had had on them. Here’s what she wrote:

People seemed to feel that the club’s most outstanding contribution to the town has been the community gardens, culminating in the success of the Flowers Along Division efforts. Members tell me they learn a lot from the programs, and enjoy the mix of people in the club, which represents a good cross-section of the community. The many activities and committees give people a place to serve and an outlet for their creativity, and a large-enough group of workers to share the load.. .and the fun!

Here’s a look back to some of their earlier activity, in 1961:

The club decided to continue its mission of beautifying Northfield by planting flowers and shrubs. Specifically, they continued to plant and maintain Bridge Square beds, gave rose bushes for the center circle in Central Park, and budgeted $200 for plantings at a new park on land the city purchased from Mr. and Mrs. Lester Linton. The club continued to fight to preserve the park at Bridge Square. Mrs. Van Slyke wrote a letter to the editor against the merchants’ campaign to create a parking lot in that space. She noted that the square was established at the suggestion of city founder John North.

The history’s author also made one other interesting observation: 1978 was the first year that the club records referred to members by their first names rather than their husband’s names (Mrs. Jane Doe rather than Mrs. John Doe.)

Did you know May 30 – July 4 is the first-ever Northfield History Month? Learn more about the events here.

Every weekday this Northfield History Month, come on over to the Northfield History Collaborative to learn a little more about one of the newest additions to our online collection of materials that help tell Northfield’s history.

• Day 1: 259 photographs of World War II era servicemen and women
• Day 2: 22 new Northfield Arts Guild theater programs
• Day 3: Grand Army of the Republic minutes
• Day 4: HATPIN newsletters
• Day 5: Northfield High School ‘Periscopes’
• Day 6: Northfield Retail Merchants minutes

Now available in the Collaborative: The minutes of the short-lived Northfield Hospital Aid Association, 1915-1929.

A private group bought a house to serve as Northfield’s hospital in 1910. Though privately owned, it was intended to serve the general public, and generally ran at a deficit.

A group of women organized five years later to raise money and provide for a wide range of the hospital’s daily needs. When the Northfield Hospital Aid Association began meeting, a Hospital Board member came to speak with them:

The needs of the hospital were enumerated by Mr. Hill as follows: An addition to the building, a detention ward, a remodeled kitchen, a steam heating plant, sewer connections, a free bed, and a district nurse.

The group’s minutes showed that they helped finance the following, some repeatedly:

• Night shirts
• Curtains
• Carpeting
• Furniture
• An electric call system
• Hot water bottles
• Dishes of all types
• A pad for the operating table
• Washcloths
• A freezer
• A plumbing bill for soft water
• Canned fruits and veggies

In exchange for its services, the Hospital Board granted the Aid Association an allowance toward services for the needy patients of the Aid Association’s choice. The minutes show a few occasions when they took advantage of that offer, generally for children who needed minor operations.

But again, only a few occasions are listed. In 1920, the minutes for the group suddenly dry up – until 1929, when they meet to decide what to do with the funds remaining in their treasury. The minutes don’t say why the group disbanded, but I’d be curious to know!

Did you know May 30 – July 4 is the first-ever Northfield History Month? Learn more about the events here.

Every weekday this Northfield History Month, come on over to the Northfield History Collaborative to learn a little more about one of the newest additions to our online collection of materials that help tell Northfield’s history.

• Day 1: 259 photographs of World War II era servicemen and women
• Day 2: 22 new Northfield Arts Guild theater programs
• Day 3: Grand Army of the Republic minutes
• Day 4: HATPIN newsletters
• Day 5: Northfield High School ‘Periscopes’

Before the Northfield chapter of the Chamber of Commerce was established, businesses in Northfield were already united through the Northfield Retail Merchants. Their minutes from 1929 to 1933 are now available in the Collaborative.

Somewhat surprisingly, downtown parking was an issue even in 1930:

After some discussion it was decided to make every effort to get all Merchants and Professional people of the town to Cooperate in avoiding congestion on the main streets by parking their cars else where when possible.

The merchants’ association back then seemed to hold events that specifically attracted “country folks” to town. Right away in the 1929 minutes, the merchants were planning a summertime entertainment for those country folks:

The committee favored an all day entertainment, with novelty attractions, sports, games and the kind, with free refreshments consisting of Coffee, Pop, and Ice Cream.

Likewise, they talked about hosting poultry shows and colt shows, and encouraging like conventions.

Did you know May 30 – July 4 is the first-ever Northfield History Month? Learn more about the events here.

Every weekday this Northfield History Month, come on over to the Northfield History Collaborative to learn a little more about one of the newest additions to our online collection of materials that help tell Northfield’s history.

• Day 1: 259 photographs of World War II era servicemen and women
• Day 2: 22 new Northfield Arts Guild theater programs
• Day 3: Grand Army of the Republic minutes
• Day 4: HATPIN newsletters

The newspaper of Northfield High School, “The Periscope,” dates back to at least 1922. Thirty-one issues of the paper, ranging from 1922 to 1933, now join a few other fledgling copies available online in the Northfield History Collaborative.

The first regular issue of The Periscope was printed in February of 1922, though that  first untitled issue notes that a student newspaper has been “fledgling” for about two years already.

That first issue included a contest to name the publication. The second then bore the name “Periscope,” with the following explanation:

After much deliberation and thought over the array of names which were suggested in response to the call for titles, the staff finally decided upon “The Periscope” submitted by Lois Miller of the freshman class. In this advanced age when periscopes are being put to every day uses, even appearing in crowds awaiting parades, our name should not he incongruous. We may use our “Periscope” as the High ‘School eye through which to watch and note the parade of school life as it passes by.

Below that box, an article appears encouraging students to try the hot lunches the school was now offering:

Tho many of us are dimly aware of the fact that the serving of hot lunches has been introduced recently into our school, we give little thought or consideration to what goes on in the domestic science room every noon. It may seem a small matter to us who live near by whether the people who live far away get a good hot meal or not on these ten below zero days, but anyone who has sufficient interest to go down and “take a try” will realize the Importance and value of this new enterprise. Few of us realize what really good things the domestic science girls can cook. We don’t know of the soup that “beats all,” of the escalloped corn that melts in your mouth, or of the macaroni and cheese that makes you wonder whether there really isn’t someone in this world whose cooking is equal to mother’s. In most schools the size of ours, lunches are very popular and well patronized by every student. That is what makes them a success. The more people who eat, the better and cheaper the lunches can be made. At present there are about twenty-five taking lunches every day and the average number is increasing. Hot lunches are coming into their own rapidly, but it is we, and we only who can make them a true success and a proper factor of our school. Let’s take a dime and try ’em!

A few more highlights:

• A 1932 issue mentions a local influenza outbreak that kept 103 high school students out in one day. In an era that saw maybe 90 graduates a year, that’s nothing to sneeze at!
• A 1922 issue interviewed two Northfield men about their acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln! (Though one probably didn’t really constitute “acquaintance.”)
• Here’s my favorite part in the issues I browsed: A quiz! Back in 1923, Periscope readers were encouraged to rate themselves on a list of noble characteristics. How do you rate?

Did you know May 30 – July 4 is the first-ever Northfield History Month? Learn more about the events here.

Every weekday this Northfield History Month, come on over to the Northfield History Collaborative to learn a little more about one of the newest additions to our online collection of materials that help tell Northfield’s history.

• Day 1: 259 photographs of World War II era servicemen and women
• Day 2: 22 new Northfield Arts Guild theater programs
• Day 3: Grand Army of the Republic minutes

Northfield had a really unique organization in the 1970s and 80s called HATPIN: Housewives Alert to Pollution in Northfield (later “Households”). Here is how one St. Olaf student described them (and you can also find her research in the Collaborative!):

Led by a group of local women, the organization sought to preserve a marsh and prairie near an elementary school on the east side of town [Sibley] for the benefit of local students. They recognized the advant- ages of direct observational learning and advocated within the community for the marsh’s preservation. The women led fundraisers, wrote editorials for the local newspaper and gained community support from Carleton, St. Olaf, and Northfield High School educators, as well as the Northfield students themselves. HATPIN wanted to use the marsh to increase students’ scientific understanding, but they also wanted to foster an environmental engagement within the Northfield youth that would go beyond the classroom.

The Collaborative recently added 22 of HATPIN’s newsletters from 1971 to 1973. These newsletters, titled “PIN-Point,” and much of HATPIN’s records reside at the Northfield Historical Society.

In addition to chronicling the meetings and goings-on of the environmental organization, these newsletters (which are full-text searchable) are also a window on what was going on in Northfield, or even what didn’t go on in Northfield.

• In September 1971, glass recycling in Northfield was being handled by a schoolteacher and her students, until collection was turned over to a private gentleman. Northfielders would bring their glass to collection points at grocery stores, after removing any metal from the bottles, and sorting their glass by color.
• In May 1973, HATPIN was lobbying the City of Northfield to take over can recycling. The group estimated that in the previous 18 months, it had prevented 20 tons of cans and 135 tons of glass from taking up space in the local landfill.
• In April 1972, there was talk of Northern States Power constructing underground gas domes beneath Northfield Township.
• The October 1972 newsletter says that an NSP representative will field questions about a proposed fossil-fuel power plant in Rice County.
• The September 1971 newsletter outlines a history of pollution-prevention steps at Schjeldahl (later Sheldahl, now Multek).

The NHC is is hiring a new Project Coordinator.  You can see the job description here.

Did you know May 30 – July 4 is the first-ever Northfield History Month? Learn more about the events here.

Every weekday this Northfield History Month, come on over to the Northfield History Collaborative to learn a little more about one of the newest additions to our online collection of materials that help tell Northfield’s history.

• Day 1: 259 photographs of World War II era servicemen and women
• Day 2: 22 new Northfield Arts Guild theater programs

In today’s spotlight collection, we are reminded of what makes the Northfield History Collaborative so useful:

• Items that are originally handwritten become full-text searchable
• Items kept in one location become accessible to researchers at all of our partner organizations and around the world
• Original items that are fragile don’t need to be handled as much once they are scanned and available online

The 1884 – 1892 minutes of the local Grand Army of the Republic post, along with several later books, reside in Faribault with the Rice County Historical Society. The nearly 200 pages are handwritten, and that’s an awful lot to wade through if you’re looking for one particular name or event. Now that the book has been digitized and transcribed, it is fully searchable. It’s also available to you whether you can get to Faribault or not; and even if you were in Faribault, the staff could point you online in order to minimize contact with the 130-year-old book.

Most of us aren’t familiar with the Grand Army of the Republic, or the GAR. That’s natural – it was a fraternal organization for those who had served in the Civil War, and, well, the war ended 149 years ago. Its objectives were “To preserve and strengthen those kind and fraternal feelings which bind together the soldiers sailors and Marines who united to suppress the late Rebellion and to perpetuate the memory and the history of the dead,” and to aid comrades in need, as well as their widows and orphans.

The local post, named for Joseph Lee Heywood (a Civil War veteran as well as a local hero), was established in 1884. Its membership was nearly gone by the 1920s.

I’m hard-pressed to summarize 200 pages into a brief blog post. It’s such a significant organization and book that I’ll be slightly less brief than usual. Here are some highlights:

• Decoration Day [precursor to Memorial day] was one of the post’s biggest events every year. Their plans for 1888: “[The post] will meet at the new G. A. R. hall [the building where First National Bank is now?] at 12:30 P.M. sharp, march to the cemetery at 1 P. M., and after decorating the soldiers’ graves the members of the post will return to their hall. At 2:15 P. M. they will form a procession, together with the children of the public schools, and march to the park, where the program will be as follows: Music. Prayer by the post chaplain. Music. Remarks by Post Commander M. M. Clark. Address by Hon. W. S. Pattee. Music. Recitation by Miss Lillian Spencer, “The Drummer Boy’s Lament.” Remarks by the president of the Women’s Relief Corps, Mrs. J. A. Clifford. Music. Decoration of floral cross in memory of deceased soldiers. Music in which the audience will join. Benediction by the chaplain.”
• That particular year was a late spring: “The committee on flowers specially request that all our generous citizens who have flowers contribute the same for the occasion. The spring is so backward that flowers will be scarce, and it is therefore the more necessary that there be a general co-operation in furnishing them. They should be at the new G. A. R. hall, Nutting’s new block [current First National Bank?], by 10 o’clock A. M. Wednesday.”
• Northfielders responded en masse: “The G. A. R. comrades expressly thank the ladies of the W. C. T. U. [Women’s Christian Temperance Union] who so kindly furnished a bouquet of flowers and a card with a scripture passage or a couplet from a hymn, to every comrade on Decoration Day; and to the generous citizens who furnished such a profuse supply of all kinds of rare flowers, as well as the ladies of the woman’s relief corps, and the ladies of St. Olaf, for the beautiful floral anchor; and especially the committee who had this matter in charge and had such an abundant supply of bouquets to decorate the graves of the departed heroes.”
• Camp Fires were a type of event the post held occasionally that were both entertaining and educational. From the minutes of  Nov. 20, 1884: “Heywood Post, G. A. R., held its first Camp Fire at the opera house, on Thursday evening of last week, and the affair was in every respect a grand success Members of the Post, their wives, sisters, cousins and their aunts, and invited guests, in all numbering over two hundred, assembled at a seasonable hour. An ample amount of provisions was supplied by members of the Post and their families, and the hungry two hundred ate to their fill, and there were many baskets full of unbroken food left, which was taken in charge by the relief committee of the post and left where it would do the most good.” Members of the post shared war stories, and there were also patriotic readings and speeches.
• I found this curious, and find no other reference to it in this book: “The post unanimously declined the proposition to erect a tablet to the Memory of deceased Veterans in the proposed Mill square [park?] and the Commander instructed to notify the proper parties.” (May 20, 1886)
• I would love to know what happened to this after the Heywood Post was done with it! “After a short recess Commander Kelly on behalf of Miss May Haywood [sic] presented the Post with Portrait of J. L. Heywood for which a vote of thanks was tendered.  (April 2, 1891)
• In 1887, steps were taken towards organizing a Women’s Relief Corps (a ladies’ auxiliary); In 1890, a local Sons of Veterans chapter was formed.