30 Years Ago

SOUTH WASHINGTON COUNTY BULLETIN January 16, 1992 Summary headlines: New junior high school could cost $25 million, be built at site of Grey Cloud Elementary SOS students talk about graduating. Page 3A Park goalie competes in world tourney. Page 1B.

Where were you when the sun came out? Page. 13A Council meets on reconstruction of East Point Douglas road from Hefner to 90th.

Boy writes letter to dad urging that he quit smoking.

Modern Cottage Grove begins to rise!

Almost 61 years ago THE REPORTER March 17, 1961 Summary recap: Local residents approve the seven precinct boundaries for ISD 833 on a vote of 315 to 29, with school board members to be chosen at the May election from precincts 1, 3, and 5 for three-year terms.

Newport mayor reports that “many non-residents” were dumping their refuse at the Sterling avenue dump, with the result that it was filling up rapidly.

The town boards of Woodbury and Cottage Grove met for an annual get together and talk costs, while new legislation allows the residents to contract for police services directly, rather than paying these to the county as a third party.

News from Across the River 100 Years Ago THE PRESCOTT TRIBUNE February 16, 1922 The Prescott Bridge At This Point is an Assured Fact Contract Let Last Week to a Superior, Wisconsin Firm for $90,000, and Work is to Commence at a Very Early Date, According to Reliable information As stated in our last issue of the Tribune, the contract for Prescott’s new bridge across the St. Croix River at this place, connection Wisconsin State Highway No. 34, with Minnesota and the Twin Cities, was let last Thursday to Peppard & Fulton, contractors, of Superior, Wisconsin for the sum of $90,000, and work is to be completed and the structure placed in commission ready for traffic on or before October 15, 1922.

The Wisconsin approach will be at the foot of Cherry Street, between the I.O.O.F. building and the City Hall, and is an ideal location as the bank at this point is high enough so that practically no grade will be necessary in order to reach the floor level. On the other shore a fill will be necessary in order to bring the roadway above the possibility of any high water mark, but this work will come largely under the supervision of the Minnesota Highway Commission and Washington County who will make appropriations for the completion of the road to a junction with the Hastings-St. Paul road. In all probability considerable work will be done on this piece of highway the coming season, now that the bridge contract has been let and the bridge to be opened for traffic this fall.

French in the Twin Cities 137 Years Ago Echo de L’Ouest (Western Echo) February 11, 1885 Feud brewing between Minneapolis and St. Paul: Le projet d’extension des limites de St. Paul inspire de severes critiques au pricipaux hommes d’affairs de Minneapolis. (Minneapolis wasn’t happy with the capital city).

Fish of all kinds (Poissons de toutes sortes) Truite de Lac Superior $5.00 Siskiwit, $5.75 Poisson Blanc, $6.50 Hareng du Labrador, $8.50 New pastors appointed: Reverend Father Nougaret, reappointed to the to the parish of Ste. Chlotilde in West Minneapolis Reverenced Father Decker named as pastor at Osseo, Minnesota.

To Rome! Monsignor Smeulders, Apostolic Delegate from Canada, had arrived at Rome towards the end of January, after a long voyage.

General parish news: Four births registered in January. Baptisms of the infants made by Reverend Father Dagneault at Notre Dame de Lourdes parish.

Out at Fall River, Massachusetts: A parish with the greater part of its members being French Canadian, objects to an Irish priest named Father McGee, wishing instead for a pastor of the same nationality (this was not unknown at the time).

Pastoral letter from the fathers of the Concile-Plenier” at Baltimore: L’indissolubilitie de Marriage (Indissolubility of Marriage): “The security of the Christian family consists in the unbreakable nature of the matrimonial link. Christian marriage, once consummated, can never be dissolved, except through death.” Some circumstances allow for separation, but not remarriage. (full pastoral letter in French on Minnesota Digital Newspaper hub on page four of above stated issue date).

On the shores of Spring Lake just southeast of Grey Cloud Island 164 years ago THE EMIGRANT AID JOURNAL OF MINNESOTA City of Nininger, Dakota County, Minnesota Territory February 10, 1858 The City of Nininger—Its Rise, Progress, and Prospects.

Nininger is situated on the west bank of the Mississippi 25 miles below St. Paul by water, and 17 miles by land, (ferrying at Nininger).

Those who visit Nininger now and recollect the appearance of the landscape when they paused to admire it eighteen months ago will surely exclaim, ‘truth is stranger than fiction,’ were it not for the indelible impression made on their minds by the rare beauty of the location and its prominent landmarks assuring them it was the same spot., they could scarcely believe that in s short a period a thriving town of seven hundred inhabitants could arise, where on their previous visit they could only discern two lonely dwellings. Part of this astonishing progress, be it noted, has been realized during a revulsion almost unparalleled, and while other places were stationary or retrograding.

The natural advantages of the spot as a site for a large city are such as could not long have been overlooked. A party of shrewd business men determined to turn these natural advantages to account, went to work in the right way. They sold building lots at cost to parties who bound themselves by covenant to put up a certain amount of improvements within two years, or forfeit the lots. They gave due publicity to the project, and as every lot sold at cost price would within two year call forth a stipulated amount of improvement, the certainly of the town getting a good start was beyond doubt. Till his stipulated improvements were put up, no man who bought at cost price could get a legally perfect Title Deed for his lots. Some lots were reserved by the proprietors, and sold at high prices without an improvement clause. The Deeds for these are perfect.

It is also the most accessible point to the vast tracts of land of unsurpassed richness in the beautiful valleys of the Cannon, Vermillion, and Straight Rivers….the location of Nininger is an admirable one for a distributing river town, and the settlers in the fertile valleys of the Vermillion and Cannon rivers, and the Cottage Grove district, congratulate each other on the advent of a river town at the precise point best suited for their wants. We have already two Sawmills and a Sash, Door, and Blind Factory.

N.B: as there is only a small part of the town seen from the river, strangers should land to view it properly at the Handyside House, where they will find every comfort, it being one of the best hotels in the country.

Nininger February 10, 1858 (Editorial) The Public Domain should be free to actual settlers; the fact is forced on the attention of all familiar with the West and its wants; so it is on those who associate with the struggling and overcrowded laborers of the East, and also on the political economist* of this country. Each and all of these parties have emphatically declared that by opening this domain to the needy, free of charge, it would largely benefit the whole country over all that its sale now realizes, and would directly benefit the West to an untold degree. In this declaration the people of the North and West have coincided, and now why is it not done?

The President’s Message Transmitting the Lecompton Constitution The President (James Buchanan) opens with the assertion that a great delusion seems to pervade the public mind in relation to the condition of parties in Kansas…. The dividing line then is not between two political parties, both acknowledging the lawful existence of the government, but to those who are loyal to this government, and those who have endeavored to destroy its existence by force and usurpation—between those who abstain and who have done all in their power to overthrow the Territorial government established by Congress. This government they would long since have subverted had it not been protected from assaults by the United States troops.

* “economy” comes from the Greek words “oikos” and “nomos,” meaning in turn “house order.”

Territorial Dispatch 170 Years Ago THE MINNESOTIAN February 14, 1852 Minnesota Legislature Council.

Friday, February 6 Memorial in relation to Indian treaties reportedly correctly enrolled. Bill to incorporate Cottage Grove Academy considered in Committee of the Whole, amended and ordered engrossed.

Bill amendatory to the town of St. Paul read third time and passed.

Bill to amend charter of Mississippi Boom Company reported back by select committee, with amendments, which were agreed to, and bill passed.

House bill to divorce Lottman, indefinitely postponed— ayes 6, nays 2.

Two o’clock p.m. Committee on enrolled bills reported that they had placed in the hands of the Governor, Memorial in relation to treaties.

Adjourned until Monday.

HALF-WAY HOUSE John Morgan (half-way between St. Paul and Stillwater) begs leave to say to strangers visiting Minnesota, and the public generally, that having made his arrangements complete for the accommodation of the public and being situated in the midst of the most delightful scenery, surrounded by lakes that abound with fish, and in an atmosphere of unsurpassed purity, he hopes to see company from abroad as well as from neighboring villages.—they will find the charges moderate.

Abroad: FIVE HUNDRED LIVES LOST BYA WATERSPOUT .—Intelligence was received at Lloyds, London, under date of Malta, Monday, the 8th of December, of a most awful occurrence at the island off Sicily, which had been swept by two enormous waterspouts, accompanied by a terrible hurricane. Those who witnessed the phenomena, described the waterspouts as two immense spherical bodies of water reaching from the clouds, their cones nearly touching the earth, and as far as could be judged, at a quarter of a mile apart, traveling with immense velocity…Upwards of 500 persons have been destroyed by this terrible visitation, and an immense amount of property.