Driving around the Wanamingo/Kenyon area, I see a lot of signs the tell the name of a town that was once there, and is no more. Like Cherry Grove. There is a sign and maybe one house near the sign. Or Fair Point. Not even a home in sight. How about Ayr? A Scottish name in a predominantly Norwegian area...... What are these signs telling us? History!
I decided to do some investigating. What I found was quite interesting. Apparently many of these names were once busting little hamlets, and some grew into real towns when the railroad was in operation in our area. So, what constitutes a real town? According to most people, in order to be a town, you must have a post office. To have a post office, you need people who get mail. In order to have people, you must have a way to make a living..... See how it works?
Why do some towns grow, and some just fade away? Again, the railroad has a lot to do with it, because of the commerce it brings. Since we are mostly an agricultural area, there are animals that we need to produce the milk, eggs and meat that we need to sustain life. In order to have animals, we need a business like a saw mill to make boards to build homes and barns. Of course then we would need a grist mill to grind the wheat into flour to bake our daily bread, and grind our dried corn into meal. How about a blacksmith to fashion our tools and shoes for the horses that draw the plows through the fields? Ah! And a mercantile to sell us our fabric, needles and thread, salves to heal our blisters, and shoes for our own feet. And if we are really lucky, maybe a creamery to make our cheese and butter.
All these mentioned and lots more go into growing a town, and not letting it fade away.
So, being an insatiable investigator, I have set out on a short journey to bring to life some of these old and faded town signs where once a town stood, and some even flourished. I hope you will join me into a peek at the past history of towns where a lot of you started your family trees, long before you were born. Shall we?
I want to start with a town called Aspelund, not far from here. The town was named by Norwegian immigrants who heard the mid west was great farm land, and all you had to do was settle on a parcel of land, and make improvements for a set number of years (usually 5) and the government would give you a deed to the land, saying it was now yours. Well, that sounded pretty good, so the immigrants hopped into their horse drawn wagons, left the east coast where they had arrived from far away lands, and began looking for a place to stay and make their own.
Mind you, this was not an easy feat. What they had not been told was that there were already occupants on the land.....yep! The Native Americans who were already here. Fortunately, in this area of the country, the newcomers were able to get along with the natives for the most part, and they learned many things about each other, and ways of life that were previously unknown to both.
Aspelund means "grove of aspen trees", and this you will find as you travel the area. In fact, there were lots of trees of all kinds in the mid west. Trees that had to be chopped down and the roots pulled from the ground in order to clear a patch of land to say, build a home. Or, plow a field to grow the necessary crops for man and beast. This was not an easy task, as there were not yet any motorized vehicles, so it was done by hand, literally! Some were fortunate enough to have an ox or a horse to help out, but many had very little to accomplish this task, so it was grueling work, dependent on Nature for sunshine and water. But these were a hardy bunch of folks, determined to make this area their home, and so they did.
So, this is just the beginning of the journey we are about to embark on, piece by piece, month by month. In the next article, we will go into a bit more depth about the town of Aspelund, and continue on our journey by exploring some of the other towns that were here, and some that still are...... So stay tuned for a few articles on the "towns" near us! And try to stay warm!
