Looking Back; 1937 - New overnight telegraph rates on the way

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One year ago

Sally Anne Benson retired after 29 years at the Worthington Montessori School.

A new restroom addition was being completed at Millard Walker Park, Worthington. The $65,000 project was authorized in February; the well-used park previously had only a portable toilet.

Willmar-based woodcarver Fred Cogelow had about a dozen of his carvings on display at the Rock County Veterans Memorial Building in Luverne. Cogelow was considered to be one of the greatest woodcarvers in the United States.

Roughly 500 student musicians in District 518 participated in two band and orchestra concerts this week at Worthington High School.

Thomas Appel, who had taught agricultural education and science at Mountain Lake for 30 years, learned he was the 2011 recipient of the Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan Foundation Outstanding Educator Award for Academic Challenge Coach. The award was accompanied by a $10,000 prize.

Five years ago

Representatives from Peer Engineering, Eden Prairie, presented a Development Considerations Evaluation to the Worthington City Council, reporting that cleanup of the former Campbell Soup Co. facility could cost as little as an estimated $800,000 or as much as $6 million-plus, depending on how the site was redeveloped.

Worthington’s average gas price was $3.12 per gallon mid-week, compared to $3.27 per gallon in Minneapolis and $3.29 in Sioux Falls, S.D. Area drivers were reacting to the “sharp spike” in gas prices with resignation and irritability.

An open house was hosted at the new law enforcement center in Luverne, in conjunction with Peace Officer Week.

More than 200 people participated in WalkAmerica, moving en masse around Worthington’s Lake Okabena. About $16,000 was raised for the March of Dimes through the walkers’ efforts.

10 years ago

Jackie Van Horsen assumed the duties of youth librarian at the Nobles County Library, Worthington.

Gene Fujan passed the torch of his 38 years of business with State Farm Insurance in Worthington to Jason Vote, who maintained the former offices on Oxford Street.

Mountain Lake’s Protient was fined $10,000 by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for alleged violations of anti-pollution regulations during the later parts of 2000-01. A spokesperson for the MPCA said the discharged from Protient contained excessive levels of biochemical agents higher than the acceptable ranges in its statutes for commercial users.

Nobles County Attorney Ken Kohler resigned his position effective July 28 to take a job in Clay County.

A 23-year-old Brookings, S.D., man was seriously injured Wednesday on Interstate 90 near Worthington when the car he was driving collided with a semi-trailer.

25 years ago

Officials from the Sibley, Iowa, Fire Department and the state Fire Marshal’s office were investigating a gasoline leak near the intersection of Highway 60 and 10th Street in Sibley. The leak’s source was not immediately apparent, but four gasoline stations in that area had underground fuel storage tanks.

As part of National Nursing Home Week, 10 senior citizens from the Arnold Memorial Nursing Home of Adrian were given the chance to go fishing at Talcot Lake. One senior, Josie Kontz, 90, hooked 10 bullheads; together, the group caught 75 bullheads and one carp.

Lefse and sausages were sold at Windom’s Courthouse Square as part of the Syttende Mai celebration held there. Events included a Norwegian bake sale, Scandinavian meals served in Windom restaurants and music by Hardanger fiddler Sidney Mathistad of Butterfield.

Playing this week at Worthington’s Northland Cinema were “Mannequin,” “The Aristocats” and “Extreme Prejudice.”

Candace Schilling of Ellsworth was the youngest person (at age 15) to claim the office of state FHA president. Schilling was a sophomore at Ellsworth High School.

50 years ago

Weekend thunderstorms did scattered damage to property in southwestern Minnesota and northwest Iowa. Shortly after 3 a.m., high winds struck Ellsworth, blowing down several tree branches and knocking a window from the post office building. The same storm resulted in a stampede of beef cattle at the Wilber Kortelever farm near Ellsworth. The animals broke down a fence and scattered. Early Sunday morning, lightning struck the steeple of the Lime Lake Lutheran Church at Avoca, setting a fire. In Worthington, wind blew out a window at the Worthington Motor Company showroom on Oxford Street.

Despite bad weather causing a slow start to the 1962 game fishing season, things picked up on Sunday, with a number of walleyes taken from Lake Okabena and bullheads were biting rapidly in Round Lake and Iowa Lake. The walleyes ran up to seven pounds, with many in the one- to one-and-a-half-pound category.

Worthington Senior High School’s Class of ’62 had its annual Work Day on Friday, with more than 170 students of all sizes available for work of all descriptions. The purpose of the annual Work Day event was to raise funds for the class gift to the school system. Students would work on a “five hours for five dollars” basis and would do any kind of yard, field, house or farm work that was requested.

Showing this week at the State Theater, Worthington, was “Comin’ Round the Mountain” starring Abbott and Costello.

75 years ago

An ad for Worthmore ice cream, a product of Worthington Creamery & Produce Co., featured the special flavors of grape and pineapple, with pints costing 20 cents and quarts, 35 cents. The ad also suggested adding a handful of Quaker Puffed Rice over a bowl of ice cream. “You’ll be delightfully surprised,” the copy suggested.

Drastic reductions in rates for overnight telegraph service were to become effective June 1 and would “provide substantial savings to residents of Worthington.” The effect of these reductions is that the charge for 25 words will be the same as, and in some cases lower than, the present charge for a 10-word night message, and that long messages can be sent at relatively lower rates,” said O. I. Leblanc, local manager of the Western Union Telegraph Company.

A forgotten 500-bbl. cistern was discovered Monday by the Wolf construction crew, trenching footings for the new addition to the Hotel Thompson, which was to house the kitchen and new coffee shop, work on which had officially opened with the work on the new wing. A lusty centrifugal pump worked for several hours, pumping the huge brick tank down, the first intention being to build a foundation through the cistern. Finally it was decided to enlarge the addition so that the footing went outside of the structure.

Thousands of dollars of damage was done in Nobles, Murray and Jackson counties by a windstorm which swept through the three counties early Tuesday morning. Hundreds of small farm outbuildings were blown down, trees were uprooted, and some barns, windmills, farm homes and other larger buildings were damaged. The storm struck in and north of Fulda, traveling southeastward toward Brewster and Heron Lake.

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