5 years ago

Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021

Dot Schwartz has become just as much of the Minnesota State Fair as corn dogs, cheap milk and those little cookies that are sold by the bucket. For the better part of a half century, Schwartz has rarely missed a state fair. Thanks to a donation from one of her daughters and granddaughter, Schwartz has become quite literally a fixture at the state fair.  The bench was a surprise gift from her daughter Barb and granddaughter Megan. The bench says Crabb-Schwartz, which was her maiden and married last name, as well as a small plaque telling about her life. 

A six-year-old Anna Mae Vetter sat on her mother’s lap in the back of a 1943 cab. With cruel intent, the driver poked fun at Vetter for sitting on her mother’s lap, noting she was a big girl and could sit in her own seat. Neither Vetter nor her mother responded. They kept quiet, just as they had been directed.

35 years ago

Wednesday, Oct. 10, 1991

Regional Head Start center begins operating in New York Mills. Roughly two weeks’ worth of labor and lots of paint later, the former fire damaged Trinity Lutheran Church is now home to the Otter Tail Wadena Community  Action Council’s Head Start program. Getting the building ready to serve as Head Start center took plenty of hands to assist in painting and other chores, the most noticeable of which was the sand-blasting that was required in the fire-scarred sections of the main church area.

Friday night proved to be another successful evening for the 1991 Eagles football team as the top ranked squad turned in a 54-7 trouncing of Parkers Prairie. The Eagles had 13 points on the board before the Panthers had even touched the ball. Terry Frost scored the first of three touchdowns early in the  first quarter on a fast breaking 51 yard touchdown scamper up the middle. After a  successful on-side kick, the Eagles scored again to make it  13-0  in favor of New York Mills. The scoring barrage continued for the Eagles when Mitch Becker, Chris Roberts and Brandon Bernu all added additional touchdowns to make the final score 54-7.With a lead safely tucked away, the Mills coaching staff went to the bench to give the reserves playing time. Those players also had a good workout Friday night, accounting for 20  second-quarter points. 

Elman Becker makes combining a run through a corn field on the Vince Guck  farm, which is being rented by Tom Becker and Rick Frost. The combining work was being done in conjunction with all-relative service that’s offered each year by Ron Windels. Windels added the corn looked good, with an estimated yield of about 95 bushels an acre.

50 years ago

Thursday, Oct. 7, 1976

After much delay, U.S. 10 was opened Monday as an expressway around New York Mills. The divided highway starts about 3 1/2 miles east of the community just past the 106 interchange and remains as an expressway to Fargo-Moorhead where it joins  I-94. Although the highway is an expressway with normal highway access, there is one “freeway type” interchange at New York Mills. A diamond interchange was built at the junction of CH 67 and U.S. 10 to serve as the main exchange for the community on the north side of town, Actually, New York Mills is served with five accesses from U.S. 10. People are reminded to be cautious when using the new road until drivers become familiar with the new system.

Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, you may be interested in knowing how your party’s symbol was adopted. The Republican elephant first appeared in an 1874 Harpers Weekly cartoon by Thomas Nast. But the elephant didn’t become a Republican overnight. Nast used the elephant as a Republican symbol many times before it came to stand for the Republican party. The donkey was first used as a political  symbol by Andrew Jackson after his opponents called him a “jackass” during the 1828  election. By the 1880’s, Thomas Nast’s cartoons had caught the public eye and established the donkey as the symbol of the Democratic party.

Mascot presented to school. The New York Mills school received a rather special gift which is now mounted and in place in front of the Sport’s Center, an “Eagle Mascot!” The huge eagle was presented to the school by Mr. and Mrs. Reno Haakana of Minneapolis and Mr. and Mrs. Harold Karvonen. Through the efforts of Harold and Reno the Eagle was secured from Gold Eagle in Minneapolis. The Eagle was then trucked to New York Mills where it was painted the school colors, blue and white. The large decorative symbol was prepared for mounting by Lund American through the efforts of Harvey Kowitz and  installed by the school at the entrance to the Sports Center.

75 years ago

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 1951

American Republic Insurance Company to canvass the New York Mills area. Effective protection of the freedom of American individuals to pay their own way  is combined with assurance against sudden crippling hospital and surgical  expense in a sound, simple insurance plan soon to be offered the residents of this community and of Otter Tail County by representatives  of the American Republic Insurance Company of Des Moines, Iowa and Minneapolis. It is generally conceded that socialized or state medicine has been strongly advocated and has  gained more or less favorable attention in many quarters, not because Minnesotans and the rest of the American people have given up and expect to lean upon the Government for everything; but rather because there has been and is increasing need for the protection of a very large percentage of our population against the sudden crippling cost of accidents, operations, hospitalization for any cause. It is thought quite probable that people on the whole are more frightened at  medical expenses for which they are unprepared than they are enamored of the idea of having government take care of them. American Republic squarely meets this issue in the traditional American way by enabling the citizens to take are of themselves.

Carl Peltoniemi, son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Peltoniemi of New York Mills, was admitted  to the Minnesota Bar on Oct. 5, 1951, at St. Paul. Mr. Peltoniemi was honor graduate of the St. Paul College of Law last June. Following his graduation from the New York Mills High School he attended Moorhead State Teachers College before enlisting in the U.S, Navy. Mr. Peltoniemi was commissioned an officer in the Navy at the U.S. Naval Reserve Midshipman’s School at Northwestern University. He then saw duty with the Pacific Fleet at Iwo Jima, Okinawa and with the occupation forces in Japan. Following his release from active duty he returned to MSTC for one year and then continued his studies at the St. Paul College of Law.