I grew up about a mile north of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. As a teenager I got to the Fair several times each summer, and when it ended, it always meant that school started all too soon. That’s my association with Fairs.

Waseca County Historical Society Museum & Research Library

Well, the storytelling and reminiscing has started! Waseca, you definitely love your Clear Lake. I’ve heard about how there were over 200 rowboats for rent at many “boat liveries” all around the lake; and every weekend they were all rented, and out on the lake!” I’ve heard that during the 1940s and 1950s, there were around seven bars around the lake. Everyone seemed to want to enjoy a beer after work and sit by Clear Lake. Most of these places had dancing—the favorite pastime of  returning WWII soldiers and their girlfriends. I’ve heard that you could start with a beer at Thompson Boat House, and “drink your way around the lake!”

Fifteen and twenty years later, kids were heading to Clear Lake beach as soon as school was out—on their bikes. They spent the whole day at the beach, maybe home for lunch, but back for more playing and swimming. Cannonballs off the float! Running into the lake and splashing the girls! Building sandcastles or burying your little sister or brother up to his neck in the sand! Picnics by the swings and “jungle jims”!

The Waseca County Free Fair starts today—July 14 through 18th, 12 noon-9 p.m. Come out to Hodgson Hall and see the big map of Clear Lake, and so many photographs starting from the 1880s to the present! When did Lakeside Golf Club get built? Who stroked the first golf in Waseca? Why did the Chautauquas come to Waseca? What is so special about Maplewood Park? Were there really steamboat rides on Clear Lake? Were there really waterslides on the beaches around Clear Lake?  Where was “Lovers’ Lane”? Where did someone raise minks? And chickens? --On Clear Lake!!

The Waseca County Historical Society invites you to visit Hodgson Hall—see the big map of Clear Lake historic sites, buy some Used Books, or posters, or t-shirts; see the Log Cabin and the District #41 School Room, play some 1960s LPs (What are those?), see the 1920s Sock Knitter “crank out a sock,” and enjoy the cheapest pop, ice cream and popcorn at the Fair!

Look Forward to Our Past!  Support WCHS with membership or a donation!

Were you born in the 1940s or 1950s?

(This is not an original piece by us, the author is unknown. It speaks to the people we hope will donate stories, artifacts and information about their childhoods here in Waseca County. Does any of this sound familiar to you?
Tell us!)


First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored
lead-based paints.


We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we
rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.


As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.


Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.


We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.


We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!


We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.


We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down
the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Play Stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cellphones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms--WE HAD FRIENDS, and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!


Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.


You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids, so they will know how brave their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?

--Author Unknown

Is anybody else wondering, with all the state legacy funds available, why do Waseca’s arts and history organizations still need “community enhancement” grants from the City of Waseca?  That was the question posed by Waseca City Councilman Larry Johnson at the City’s work session last evening (April 6).

The Answer: Because by state legislative guidelines, the legacy funds cannot be used for operating funds (rent, utilities, insurance, staff salaries) OR to supplant current funding by other sources. Legacy funds must be used for NEW programs and projects. In short, legacy funds were intended to GROW these organizations. However, in this economy, it’s getting more difficult to grow programs without the organization itself surviving. THIS IS WHY WE NEED LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL AND MEMBER SUPPORT FOR THE OPERATIONS OF ESSENTIAL NON-PROFITS! Simple, minimal support leverages so much more! With staff in place they can apply for Legacy funding for new programs and projects that benefit Waseca and the whole county! Take it away, and all energies of staff and volunteers go into just trying to survive, i.e., keep the doors open.

It seems that’s the direction we’re heading—survival mode for arts and history in Waseca County. As Governor Pawlenty has cut LGA, so it seems our City and County governments may have to cut local agencies, departments, etc. And the Waseca City Council indicated that next year will be worse, and the year after that . . . until this recession is over.

For us, as non-profits, it’s a “squeeze play.”

All that Legacy money coming into state coffers, but not to be used for operating funds. At the same time, the governor cuts LGA, and our local governments have less to support local non-profits.

The City is not uncaring. The April 6 work session revealed how staff and departments have offered up cuts that will save a lot of money. We are “all in this mess together.” It is extremely important that all citizens and boards understand HOW non-profits are funded. It’s a balancing act, and we need local government to support its share of our OPERATING FUNDS. It’s what saves government from supporting them in total.

The Chinese New Year’s celebration started on Valentines Day this year. It’s the Year of the Tiger, still being celebrated. Were there Chinese immigrants in Waseca County’s history? We found one Chinese immigrant who had a laundry business in Janesville, and according to newspaper accounts, moved his business to Waseca in 1903 because of harassment by local boys.

In Waseca his laundry was located on South State Street just north of the old city hall where Quality Print is located today. He likely washed, starched and ironed most of Waseca’s businessmen’s white shirts of the time. Then he was drafted into the army to serve in World War I. On June 27, 1918, he was photographed with the other young men posed front and center against the south exterior of the Waseca County Courthouse. They left that day for training camp. He was a member of the 22nd Company 161st Depot Brigade, Camp Grant, IL.

His stint in the army lasted less than one year. Did he survive World War I? Yes, he did. He
came back to Waseca, but in 1920 he sold his laundry to Mr. Brownson of the Waseca Steam Laundry, and moved to Minneapolis.  We recently found his name in the 1930 San Francisco census. This photograph is his service portrait from the World War I book in our Bailey-Lewer Research Library. To see other photographs, join WCHS online, and search “Yep Lun.”

Waseca County History. It's unexpected.



Occasionally WCHS needs help identifying a photograph, and members of the community have been able to do that.



Recently we received an artifact representing part of the history of the Waseca Water &Light Board. It is a handsaw used to trim tree branches that interfere with telephone wires. The saw teeth are slanted in one direction so as not to let the workman lose his balance and footing as he used the saw! And this artifact reminded me of this photograph in our collection--Does someone know who is standing atop this telephone pole? The year is likely sometime between 1910 and 1925. We’re not even sure this is Waseca, but wouldn’t it be great if it is? 

Sometimes, Waseca County history . . .  is unexpected!

Remember when Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer lyric said, “You’ll go down in his-tor-y!” Didn’t that sound strange to us as children, what did it mean? Well, in the history business it means you only have to live here to be part of the history of a place. You don’t have to be famous, or infamous, or have accomplished great feats to be part of Waseca County’s history.  But what is the evidence of your existence? Think about your photographs, stories, objects and documents. How do we remember what happens in this place called Waseca County, if the stories aren’t written down or recorded, the facts aren’t verified, the photographs not taken, the information isn’t made available to our children’s children, and their grandchildren’s grandchildren? My point is--care about the history of your place in time, here in  Waseca County, and all the parts of it—the towns, the farms, the townships, the businesses, the organizations, the objects, the stories, and especially the people. It’s all information and it’s all going to be history . . . some day. Care about it now.

Every community needs celebrations to pull us away from our computers and TVs and meet each other doing something together. The key word here is together! Being together as a community, watching, listening, dancing, playing, laughing and crying—it’s what keeps us together in this place called Waseca County. For many this is truly their birthplace. It’s my adopted hometown. That counts. So when there are celebrations, come out and participate. Maybe we can’t get to every one of them, but let’s try! The Leroy Shield Hometown Tribute’s Saturday Night Dance is this weekend on October 3.

So who is Leroy Shield and why is he significant to Waseca, Minnesota?

Leroy Shield was born in Waseca, Minnesota on October 2, 1893 and grew up to become a composer and conductor for Hollywood's popular Laurel & Hardy films and the Our Gang/Little Rascals films of the 1920s/30s. His music has become synonymous with these ageless favorites! Those films were created at the Hal Roach Studios. Movie-making was such a new medium, there weren’t any rules or copyright laws yet in those early years. In fact Shield wrote most of the music for the Hal Roach movies, receiving onscreen credit in only two of the dozens of films. Roach continued to use Shield’s music without the permission and use agreements required today.



Bernard Shield, who worked for the railroad, moved the family from Waseca when Leroy was a child. Eventually, though, Leroy Shield's talents took him to Chicago where he became the Musical Director of the National Broadcasting Company in 1931. There he composed and arranged symphonic music for radio dramas with millions of listeners. He was recognized in Who’s Who in Music in 1941; and received his Honorary Doctorate from the Chicago Musical College in 1942. In 1945 Shield became conductor for the NBC Orchestra in New York, working and touring with the renowned Arturo Toscanini. Leroy Shield retired in 1955 and died in 1962. His importance as a composer has rarely been recognized, but he was a major American composer. 



A Very Unusual Visitor

 “Unzie” was perhaps Waseca County’s most unusual visitor. He was an albino Australian aborigine who traveled with Barnum & Bailey’s Circus, and who is thought to have performed at the Chautauqua at Maplewood Park in the 1880s/90s.

Unzie’s real name was either Charlie or Danny Hadley, twins that were photographed by Charles Eisenmann, a Victorian photographer who specialized in photographing very unusual people, 1870-1890. At the time “Unzie” was thought to be a very handsome man. His snow-white hair grew very quickly, and of course, he attracted a great deal of attention. This cabinet card photograph was found in the WCHS collection, donor unknown. Waseca County history, it’s unexpected.

The show opened on May 17, 1894 drawing an initial crowd of 1500, but the second performance was rained out. Hitting the road, the Blakeslee & Stearns Circus traveled to Albert Lea, Waseca, Mankato, Waterville, Redwing and Minneapolis over the next three weeks.

On June 14, 1894, the New Richland Star reported, “Busted—The World’s Fair and Wild West Show organized in this place, has after an existence of less than a month . . . (was busted).”

On August 4, 2009 the circus once again came to New Richland, the Culpepper & Merriweather Circus—traveling not on the railroad, but on county roads and highways, in trailers, flat beds and vans. There were tightrope walkers, acrobats, high wire acts, jugglers, a clown, beautiful girls, lions, tigers, and even an albino python. What we experienced was most likely one of the last of the small traveling circuses where everything had to be set up—tent, concessions, bleachers, cages, riggings and more. And everyone had several jobs. The ticket-taker was also the stilt-walker and a juggler. The announcer was also a high wire act. The clown was also a trapeze artist. The python handler was also another trapeze artist, and so on. The huge striped tent was a little worse for wear, but one could still imagine its former glory and wonder how many trips it had taken across our country?

Another questions, when will we have another opportunity to experience another small traveling circus?

We feasted on the fun and daring, the music and the “extreme announcer,” the cotton candy and popcorn, the hard bleacher seats and dirt floor, the laughter, o-ohs and a-ahs, and the wonderment in the eyes of the children, parents and grandparents. Leaving, we were glad to have left the TV, Internet, iPods, cellphones and texting all back home. We enjoyed a perfect Minnesota summer evening as our minds tucked another memory away.

Were you there? What did you experience?

Blog-istory is written by Sheila Morris and Joan Mooney, co-directors of the Waseca County Historical Society. They can be reached at 507-835-7700 or director@historical.waseca.mn.us.