From the Mascot Files

100 Years Ago
May 12, 1922

Solberg to speak
at Westerheim Club
K.K. Solberg will speak in the Westerheim Club House this Friday evening. He is the Non-Partisan League candidate for the office of senator in this district. We have not been informed as to what he will talk about, but presume that he intends to touch on the subject of politics. Everyone is welcome to listen on May 12.

Baldwin to install soda
fountain in drug store
Taunton druggist George Baldwin is fixing up an ice cream parlor and is about to install a soda fountain in his little drug store. He said there is not a mint of money running a drug store in a small town like Taunton but he said he is not at all discouraged.

Pacific Hotel open
again for business
The Pacific Hotel will be open again for business this month. The property has been leased to Mr. and Mrs. G.O. Everson of Fairmont, N.D. These people are experienced in the hotel business, having for many years managed good hotel properties. They will arrive here about the first of next week and will open the hotel for business as soon as they get here. We understand that extensive repairs will be made on the property and that it is the intention of the Eversons to conduct her a first class hotel.

Doc Seales catches
up with old friend
With Mrs. T.D. Seales away visiting her daughter in South Dakota, Doc Seales finds "batching" it a rather lonely and unpleasant job. He tells the Mascot that if it were not for his pioneer friend, Jack Frost, he would be very lonesome. Of the "makers of history" in Minneota's early days, Doc and Jack are about all there is left and when they get together, they can sling more ancient history than any other two men in town.

75 Years Ago
May 16, 1947

Girl Scouts to sell
memorial poppies
Girl Scouts of Minneota will assist the American Legion Auxiliary in distributing memorial poppies May 17 and 24, Mrs. N.J. Mootz, Poppy Chairman of the local auxiliary, announced recently. The Girl Scouts will aid the auxiliary members distributing the memorial flowers in the streets throughout the two days and receiving contributions for the welfare of disabled veterans, their families and families of deceased veterans.

Hospital fund total
increases to $68,000
Donations and pledges for the erection of a hospital here went up another $2,000 this past week, making the total now more than $68,000, H.J. Tillemans, general chairman, announced this week. Mr. Tillemans also handed the Mascot percentages on standings of the various precincts which showed that Minneotans had contributed and pledged 205 percent of the goal set for this village at the beginning of the campaign.

New basketball coach
hired by school board
Robert Kafka, who is now coaching basketball at Odessa, Minn., was hired at Natural Science teacher and coach at Minneota High School by the school board at a meeting on Monday evening,. Mr. Kafka has been coach at Odessa the past year, is married and is a Navy veteran. According to reports, his two basketball teams lost but one game each during last season. Willard Walters, the present coach who also teaches here, handed in his resignation some time ago.

New dairy store to
open here next week
Joe Gislason, who recently bought the Snook building on Main Street and has remodeled it for a dairy store, said this week that he would open the store sometime next week with a Grand Opening on May 24. The store will be managed by Edward Janssen. Ice cream, soft drinks, coffee and sandwiches will be sold at the store, as well as milk and cream.

50 Years Ago
May 11, 1972

4 get 'A' rating at
state music contest
Four of the Minneota High School entries received "A" ratings in the state-area music contest last week in Marshall. This was the final contest in the state this year. Those receiving "A" ratings were Rita Baugher in vocal solo, as well as flute duet, saxophone quintet and stage band. The stage band, which consists of saxophones, trombones, trumpets and a rhythm section, played three selections in the contest.

Longtime custodian
resigns from school
The resignation of Delmar Friedrichs as head custodian of the Minneota Public School was accepted by the board of education at its regular monthly meeting Thursday night. Friedrichs is retiring after serving in this capacity for the past 15 years. Names by the board to succeed Friedrichs as head custodian is James Atwood, who has been employed as a janitor in the school for nine years.

Merritt named an
alternate delegate
Dr. Wm. W. Merritt of Minneota was named alternate delegate to the National Democratic Convention when it is held in July in Miami. Dr. Merritt was named at the DFL district convention last Saturday in Montevideo. At the same meeting, Richard Nolan was endorsed as the party's candidate for the Congressional seat now held by John Zwach of Milroy.

25 Years Ago
May 14, 1997

Suspicious fire causes
damage at farm home
A call was placed to the Minneota Fire Department around 6:20 a.m. on Saturday, May 10, to the farm home of Robert Prellwitz Jr. north of Minneota. Dennis Heggeseth and Harold DeSmet, neighbors of the Prellwitz's, attempted to douse the fire with water from a water tank that was being transported to the field. The fire department then arrived on the scene and the fire was extinguished. The Prellwitz family was not at home at the time of the fire, as they were attending a wedding in Texas. The State Fire Marshal said this was not a "usual" fire as the television had been removed from the entertainment center and the kitchen drawers had been rifled through. Other objects in the home were also missing. The living room of the home was totally destroyed and there was extensive smoke damage to the rest of the home.

Temperatures hit
freezing mark again
Temperatures that reached a high of 84 degrees last week, with nighttime lows in the 50s, plunged to 22 degrees Monday night of this week. A cold front moved into the area Sunday, dropping temperatures to below normal and forecasters predict it will be unseasonably cold for the next few days.

Hagen chosen as
Teacher of the Year
Judy Hagen was chosen as Minneota's Teacher of the Year by the Minneota Education Association. Judy has been a teacher in the Minneota Public School system for the past 27 years and has taught junior and senior high mathematics. She and her husband, Ralph, have three children and are active in their church and community.

This Day in History
May 12

1780 - During the Revolutionary War, the besieged city of Charleston, S.C., surrenders to British forces.

1932 - The body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, is found in a wooded area near Hopewell, N.J.

1943 - The two-week Trident Conference, headed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, opens in Washington.

1949 - The Soviet Union lifts the Berlin Blockade, which the Western powers had succeeded in circumventing with their Berlin Airlift.

1955 - Manhattan’s last elevated rail line, the Third Avenue El, in New York City ceases operation.

1958 - The United States and Canada sign an agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command (later called the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD).

1978 - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says hurricanes would no longer be given only female names.

1982 - In Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpower a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who attacks Pope John Paul II.

2008 - A 7.9 magnitude earthquake in China’s Sichuan province leaves more than 87,000 people dead or missing.

2009 - Five Miami men are convicted in a plot to blow up FBI buildings and Chicago’s Sears Tower; one man is acquitted.

2009 - Suspected Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk is deported from the United States to Germany.

2014 - Scientists express concern during a NASA news conference over a pair of studies that said the huge West Antarctic ice sheet was starting to melt and would eventually add 4 to 12 feet to current sea levels.

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The Minneota Mascot
Address: 201 N. Jefferson
Minneota, MN 56264

Phone:(507) 872-6492