Looking Back - 1937: Nobles County farm fetches $125 an acre

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One year ago

Two area men were among a group of 20 farmers to take part in a Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council-sponsored See For Yourself mission trip to Phoenix, Ariz. Gene Stoel of Lake Wilson and Chris Hill of Brewster saw first-hand how the funds they contribute to the nationwide soybean check-off are used to advance the industry of soybean and soy-based products.

The Iron Horse Motorcycle Club of Fulda hosted its eighth annual chili cook-off scholarship fundraiser at the Fulda Community Center.

A Worthington man who pleaded guilty in January to possession of 10 kilos or more of marijuana from a 2008 arrest was sentenced to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The Worthington City Council approved an agreement between the city and District 518 for a joint tennis court project, estimated to cost $800,000, with the city contributing $235,000 towards the facility’s cost.

Five years ago

The congregation of Worthington’s St. Matthew Lutheran Church dedicated its newly renovated and expanded church, including a 40 x 80-foot, two-level addition.

An unoccupied three-story house in Reading — known as the Read House, it was the community’s oldest home — was destroyed by an early morning blaze.

Amy Hoglin was the new Murray County Economic Development Director.

Adolfo Avila Jr., a Southwest Initiative Foundation business consultant, was working with Hispanic business owners in Worthington and helping to form a new Latino business group in cooperation with the Worthington Area Chamber of Commerce.

Nearly a year after construction began on a new city hall in Adrian, employees began moving into their new offices this week.

The 12th annual Instrumental Music Festival for elementary students was hosted at Prairie Elementary with about 55 fourth- and fifth-grade musicians participating.

10 years ago

The opening of a gift shop in the Worthington Regional Hospital lobby gave the hospital’s auxiliary a more visible presence and filled a need for patients and their visitors.

A duplex fire on Lucy Drive, Worthington, resulted in one woman suffering burns, although three children in the residence escaped unharmed.

The number of tobacco retailers selling to minors in Rock and Nobles counties declined for the fourth straight round of compliance checks.

Former St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman campaigned in Worthington on the first swing of his Senate run. Coleman was attempting to unseat Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone.

More than 200 people of Asian descent gathered in Brewster for a Chinese New Year celebration.

25 years ago

Pat Thiel, a former Lismore-area resident who was a chemistry professor at Iowa State University, was named winner of a $50,000 Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar grant for 1986. Thiel also held the National Science Foundation’s 1985 Presidential Young Investigator grant, which was a five-year award. Thiel was a 1972 graduate of Adrian High School.

Jay York, president of the Nobles Co-op Electric, Worthington, and Cooperative Power Association, Eden Prairie, was elected secretary-treasurer of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association at the organization’s 45th annual meeting in Dallas, Texas.

Advertised specials at Worthington’s Hy-Vee this week included a five-pound bag of G.W. beet sugar, $1.19; one-pound box of Grade AA butter, $1.49; an 18-ounce jar of Peter Pan peanut butter, $1.79; a 12-ounce bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, $1.09; and bottom round or rump roast for $2.19 per pound.

Loss of two judgeships in the 5th Judicial District would affect residents of all 15 area counties, county commissioners and school superintendents were told. If the judgeships now held by Judge Donald Lasley of Jackson County and Judge John D. Holt of Murray County were not filled upon their retirements later this year, assistant Murray County attorney John Doyle said there would not be sufficient judicial access in the counties involved.

50 years ago

A group of 80 home councilors, home agents and women members of the extension committee from a 10-county area attended a daylong meeting at St. Francis Xavier Hall in Windom. Dorothy Simmons, state leader of the extension home economics program, spoke on the Changing Home Economics Program.

Frank (Mickey) Flynn Jr. presented a check for $500 on behalf of Worthington’s Voak-Jansen Veterans of Foreign Wars post to YMCA general secretary George Zeise for the current Worthington YMCA swimming pool fund drive.

Six women were required to operate the long distance boards of the Worthington Telephone Company. During the course of a day, hundreds of calls went through their hands to all points of the world. The telephone office hosted an open house this week.

Voters in Jackson were to decide the question of a new franchise for the People’s Natural Gas Company at a special election.

Round Lake school board officials awarded contracts for a new addition to the school building. The roughly $200,000 project would provide improvements including a new gymnasium and expanded laboratory and classroom space.

75 years ago

Nobles County’s old age assistance bill for the month of January 1937 was $3,350 of which the county pays one-sixth, or $558, according to records in the relief office at the courthouse. Assistance grants were paid to 106 men and 75 women, a total of 185 clients, or an average of $18.10.

Nobles County land was going up. As news spread about the city this afternoon that J. C. Albinson had gotten $125 an acre for his 80-acre farm east of town on the Jackson road, local landowners took a fresh lease on life, and mentally revised their holdout price on a new basis.

Students at the Worthington grade school mentioned on the honor roll for the fourth six-week period totaled 103, according to reports furnished by teacher of the various grades. Perfect attendance records were maintained by 96 during the same period.

Agitated by a 30- to 35-mph wind, which at intervals came in gusts which sent the velocity up to an estimated 45 miles, snow started moving across the highways again Saturday and by late afternoon made driving conditions in the country next to impossible. Snow flurries periodically filled the air with a white smother that made it impossible to see for even half a block in the city of Worthington.

Tags: looking back, lifestyle, reminiscing, columns