125 YEARS AGO: 1897
Simon Dietel has just completed a new summer hotel on Eagle Point at Lake Jennie where he has a fine port, bath houses and everything arranged for the comfort of guests. He has rented his old cottage to Charles Penney of Dassel, who will keep fruit, candles, ice cream and so and and serve lunch to visitors to the lake.
Typhoid fever, malaria and kindred diseases lurk in those vile, green, scum-covered frog ponds in the park and float into your windows in the miasmic vapors arising therefrom.
A break in the flume of the mill caused miller Ames a good deal of anxiety for a time and came near letting the water all out of the Mill Pond and Otter Lake above. The timbers and planks of the flume are rotten and the unusual pressure started a small stream through the north side, which rapidly enlarged and, had it not been discovered when it was, would soon have been beyond control. As it was, the leak was stopped with difficulty by filling flour sacks with dirt and piling them in the breach. Mr. Ames has the timber on the ground to rebuild the entire flume as soon as the water is low enough.
The telephone company is closing deals for the purchase of poles, wire and phones for the system to be put in as soon as the poles arrive. Work will be pushed as rapidly as possible. No expense is being spared in getting the very best quality of everything so that the system may be perfect in every respect.
100 YEARS AGO: 1922
Two farmers paid fines of $150 each and costs for making and selling moonshine. The costs in the case of Walter Smegil of Hale Township are $34.85, and in the case of Anton Pokornowski, his neighbor, the cost is $21. The still at the Smegil place was the largest yet found in this county. About 100 gallons of mash and several gallons of distilled product were found. The haul at the Pokornowski farm was not so large, and the owner thought because he didn’t have so large a still his fine was too heavy.
William Streachek, well-known Koniska farmer living five miles south of Silver Lake, was attacked and seriously injured by a bull on his farm. Mr. Streachek sustained a fracture of both bones of his right leg below the knee, had his collar bone broken and received serious internal injuries. The bull, because of its unruly disposition was kept tied in the barn, being allowed in the pasture only at night. It was while Mr. Streachek was leading the animal from the pasture to the barn that it attacked him. It was some time before family members heard his cries for help as he could not move for fear the animal would attack him as he lay on the ground.
75 YEARS AGO: 1947
Fire destroyed the combined granary, machine shed and chicken house on the Ancher Nelsen farm, southwest of Hutchinson, occupied by the Arthur Knacke family. The building, about 50 x 20, including two lean-tos, burned to the ground with all its contents. Cause of the fire remains a mystery, as the building wasn’t even wired for electricity. It began to burn near a 50-gallon barrel full of gasoline and the two explosions could be heard a half-mile away. The loss, in addition to the building, included more than 300 bushes of oats, 200 bushes of hard dry corn, two tractor plows, a corn binder and Knacke’s tools. It will run at least several thousands of dollars.
50 YEARS AGO: 1972
Congressman Ancher Nelsen of Hutchinson filed for re-election for an eighth term as Second District representative in Congress. The 68-year-old farmer and long-time public official is a Republican. Nelsen has served in the state Senate from 1935 through 1948 and was elected lieutenant governor in 1952. He was the national administrator for the Rural Electric Administration under President Dwight Eisenhower.
25 YEARS AGO: 1997
Following the example of the Sumter Township Board and the McLeod County Planning Commission, the county board of commissioners voted to deny granting a conditional-use permit to Prairie Run Inc. for a hog-farrowing operation that would have 3,106 sows, 200 finishing pigs and 24 boars.
Even though it has no firm plans to use it, the Hutchinson City Council decided to go ahead with an application for a disaster-relief grant that would allow purchase of properties near the Crow River that are prone to flooding.
Hutchinson School Board members did not give themselves a raise this year. The $3,000 annual compensation will remain steady for its 11th year, despite previous discussions about the increased demands of the position in Hutchinson’s growing and ever-changing district.
