Biggest fire in Kenyon happened 100 years ago

25 years ago, 1983

Goodhue County’s unemployment rate is at 9.7 percent. Recent changes in economic indicators have been favorable, giving rise to predictions that the recession is ending.

Since 1966, St. John’s Auxiliary members have volunteered more than 96,000 hours of service including operating the gift shop and the surgical hostess station.

A rustic cafe called Strafford & Co. opened on Main Street in Zumbrota. The cafe is decorated in early settler motif gleaned from local history.

The Northern States nuclear power plant at Prairie Island is 10 years old and is still growing. A new water system has been installed and there are plans to fit the nuclear plant with more efficient computer systems.

A 16-year-old State Training School resident is being held in Goodhue County jail after abducting a female counselor at knife point. The counselor was not injured. The school will seek to have the youth prosecuted as an adult.

Midwest Importers, which started out as a small retail gift shop 25 years ago in Cannon Falls, is now a large wholesaling and distributorship known throughout the United States for hand-crafted imported wooden, glass, and metal items.

50 years ago, 1958

Hard Boiled Haggerty will be featured at a wrestling show scheduled for the Red Wing Armory. Haggerty will square off with Butch Levy. The special match of the night will be between two women wrestlers, Mary Jane Mull and Millie Stafford.

A legislative interim committee on higher education was told that 24 new junior colleges should be established in Minnesota and Red Wing is one of three southeastern Minnesota communities singled out as facing the need for a junior college within the next 10 years.

Plans for sale of Goodhue County state centennial buttons were outlined at a meeting of the County Centennial committee. The buttons will carry the maroon and gold centennial emblem with the words “Goodhue County” across the top.

Sixteen youths from Goodhue County attended the annual Boy and Girl County, held at the Goodhue County Courthouse. The youths toured the Courthouse and were given an explanation on how each department works and what it does.

A new plant to manufacture lightweight aggregate for concrete will be located in the rural area adjacent to Zumbrota and will use shale located on the Olaf Peterson property, site of the former Barr Clay Brick works. Investors in the new venture are a number of area residents.

When the Centennial Train visits Red Wing, a request has been made by the county committee that all Red Wing residents view the train during the daytime hours so that farm folks from the outlying area can enter the train during the evening. Capacity of the train is 400 persons per hour.

100 years ago, 1908

The most disastrous fire in the history of Kenyon wiped out $50,000 worth of business property including eight business buildings filled with various kinds of merchandise. The cause of the fire is unknown.

Zumbrota farmer Louis Scofield recently purchased a milking machine operated by a tank from which the air is pumped and rubber tubes cause a suction. Four cows can be milked at a time in 15 minutes. In time it will become as common with area farmers as the cream separator.

The Republican county convention was held in Goodhue. The 19 delegates elected are all Taft supporters.

A roller skating rink will open at the new armory. The latest pattern of ball bearing skates, equipped with fiber rollers guaranteed not to mar the hard wood surface, will be used.

Prairie Island Indians, who during the winter months engage in trapping, say that the season has not been a very profitable one for them. But a few mink and muskrat were killed. The season closes April 15.

Mayor A.P. Pierce suggested that a stone pile would be the proper idea to rid the city of hoboes. No action has been taken on the matter but it will be taken up at the next council meeting.

Compiled using news articles and Goodhue County History Center records.

Tags: community, history, center