From the Mascot Files
100 Years Ago
July 7, 1922
DeLanghe barn hit by
lightning, destroyed
A barn on the Jules DeLanghe farm, which is located in the township of Island Lake, was struck by lightning and totally destroyed. DeLanghe had insurance in the amount of $1,600 on the barn, but the loss was estimated at a considerable figure above that amount.
Rev. Holland, daughter
attend B.Y.P.U. convention
Rev. E.L. Holland and his daughter, Anna, returned to Minneota Monday from St. Paul where they had been attending the national convention of the B.Y.P.U. This convention goes down in history as one of the most enthusiastic and best attended gatherings of the organization. Thousands were in attendance at every session.
75 Years Ago
July 11, 1947
Basement being dug
for Legion building
Kenny Nomeland started digging the basement for the Legion building with his dragline Tuesday morning and it is expected that the excavating will be finalized this week. Haasien and Sons, a building contracting firm from Ortonville, has the contract for erecting the building. It is expected that they will begin pouring concrete for the foundation in three weeks. Construction work on the building will start around the first of September.
Hemnes preparing
for 75th anniversary
Former members and confirmands of Hemnes Lutheran Free Church are invited to attend the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of that church, which is being held Aug. 29-31. Members of the congregation are now making plans to commemorate the event during the last three days of next month at the church which is located three miles south of Minneota.
Lightning damages
home on Madison St.
Lightning, which struck the John G. Johnson home of North Madison Street shortly after noon on the Fourth of July. The lightning smashed the chimney to pieces, tore a hole in the room and knocked down some stove pipes. The Minneota Fire Department was called although there was no fire.
No "flying discs"
seen in Minneota
Although people all over the United States have reported seeing the mysterious "flying discs" during the past week, there had been no report of anyone in this community seeing the saucers.
50 Years Ago
July 6, 1972
Local farmer dies
in tractor accident
Funeral services were held Monday for John Myhre, 52, of Nordland Township who was killed last Thursday afternoon in a tractor accident which happened on a Lincoln County farm he was renting. Myhre was mowing grass at the time and it is thought that the tractor he was driving hit a stump, tipped over, and pinned him to the ground.
Fireman called out
twice last week
Members of the Minneota Fire Department were called out twice this last week, once for a farm fire late Friday afternoon and another for an automobile fire Saturday evening. The fire fighters were called to the Daniel Laleman farm home, about nine miles northeast of Minneota, when sparks from a tree stump started a fire in a load of hay and it spread into old hay bales nearby. The hay rack and the wagon under it were badly damaged. The other fire was to Virgil Ufkin's automobile, which was due to the electrical wiring.
Bergeth takes over
insurance firm here
Arthur A. Bergeth, is the new owner of Borson's Insurance Service. Bergeth took over that business last Saturday morning from former owner, Henry Borson, who had operated it since his father died in 1950. Bergeth comes from Mazeppa, MN, where he had been manager of insurance at the People's State Bank.
25 Years Ago
July 9, 1997
Swan ordered to
facility until Aug. 8
Judge George Harrelson ruled on Monday that Robert Swan will be confined to the state-run mental hospital in St. Peter until his civil commitment trial scheduled for Aug. 8. After that, it may take up to 90 days before a decision is made to release him. Swan, a convicted sex offender from Minneota, can be committed as a sexually dangerous person having a sexually psychopathic personality. If so, he could remain locked up for an indefinite period of time.
Schmitz earns Girl
Scout leader honors
Cheryl Schmitz of Minneota has completed the requirement for the Girl Scout Leadership Development pin, which is awarded by Peacepipe Girl Scout Council and Girl Scouts USA. To earn this recognition, Schmitz completed a course of study which included Orientation to Girl Scouting, Basic Leader Training, Outdoor Skills Training and a full day Leadership Conference in Redwood Falls. She has completed CPR training and is qualified to serve as the first aid person on outings with her troop.
Hemnes Church
celebrates 125th
Hemnes Lutheran Church of Minneota will celebrate its 125th anniversary on July 13 and they are hoping that many former members and friends of the congregation will be on hand that day. The congregation will enjoy a catered dinner following the 10:30 a.m. service. That will be followed by a program with former pastors taking part.
This Day in History
June 7
1769 - Daniel Boone begins to explore present-day Kentucky.
1892 - Homer Plessy, a “Creole of color,” is arrested for refusing to leave a Whites-only car of the East Louisiana Railroad. (Ruling on his case, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds “separate but equal” racial segregation, a concept it would renounce in 1954.)
1965 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in Griswold v. Connecticut, strikes down, 7-2, a Connecticut law used to prosecute a Planned Parenthood clinic in New Haven for providing contraceptives to married couples
1993 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that religious groups could sometimes meet on school property after hours.
1993 - Ground is broken for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
1998 - In a hate crime that stuns the nation, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old Black man, is hooked by a chain to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. (Two White men would be sentenced to death; Lawrence Russell Brewer would be executed in 2011, and John William King would be executed in April 2019. A third defendant, Shawn Berry, would receive life with the possibility of parole.)
2002: A Norwalk, Conn., Superior Court jury convicts Michael Skakel, nephew of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, in the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley, Skakel’s 15-year-old neighbor, after four days of deliberations. (Skakel’s conviction would be vacated in 2018 by the Connecticut Supreme Court, which ruled that his attorney had deprived him of a fair trial by failing to call an alibi witness.)
2014 - Actor/comedian Tracy Morgan is critically injured when a Walmart tractor-trailer rams into his chauffeured limousine bus on the New Jersey Turnpike.