The Harris Centennial
Harris --The past 100 Years
Remember When?
Perry Rickabaugh was school janitor.
The Syrian peddlers traveled through the country selling
their wares.
John Hintz, the carpenter, who built many homes here,
also remodeled many.
You had to dig out dandelions from the school yard, get a
spanking or stand in the corner for not behaving at
school.
We went by horse and buggy to Millers Bay, Edwards Beach
or Manhattan, then rode the “Queen” to Arnolds
Park and had a wonderful time on 20 cents or a quarter.
Main highway nine went through Harris and was called the
AYP Trail (Atlantic, Yellowstone and Pacific); finally
was all graveled and later changed to one mile south of
town and paved.
Harvey James, “Tode” Harris, Dick Schwarting
and Bishop Robertson went snipe hunting?
Rims with tires were removed from cars and stored in the
house during the winter months.
Travel was by bobsled or cutter in wintertime.
Every church had a horse barn.
The school had a bus barn where the horses were kept
during school hours awaiting to pull the bus to take the
children home after school.
The concrete steps the people used to enter and exit from
the buggies. There was one of these at both the
Lutheran Church and the old Methodist Church south of the
Lutheran Church.
Harris had gas streetlights.
Free watermelon was served at Thresher’s Day and the
crowds of people eating melon.
Buss Saunders giving people rides in the Army Amphibious
Duck. He would load with people at Threshing Day
and take them over to Silver Lake, drive into the water
and give them a ride on the lake. This was a very
popular attraction on Threshing Days.
Harvey Forbes crashed James and Orville Harvey’s
World War I Jenny Airplane right south of Irvin
Bergman’s house.
The ghosts visited Waters and Shafer farm area in the
1920’s. Curious crowds gathered and saw the
moving light and heard ghostly sounds.
There was one large cottonwood tree at the south end of
Chain Lake in Allison Township. It could be seen
for miles around and was used as a guide across the
prairie by the first pioneers.
Indians shunned the area except for hunting because the
windblown prairie offered no protection for them and the
destructive prairie files were always dangerous.
When Ervin Schubert won the State Plowing Match in 1965
and 1966 – 7th and 8th in the National Contest.
Artichokes were raised as a crop.
Hemp was raised for the fiber to be used in rope.
You had to use ration stamps to buy sugar, gasoline, and
other staples during World War II.
There was a stagecoach stop a mile southwest of Harris.
Taking music lessons from Gertrude Mohr, Mabel Gardner,
Edith Peacock or Doris McLain.
It wasn’t against the law to shoot firecrackers in
town.
Hearing all the church bells, town bell, noise making and
celebrating of Armistice Day in 1919.
The plane rides from Harvey James and Bill Clifton.
The day the livery barn burned.
The annual butchering bees, the stuffing of the sausages
and fresh pork chops for supper.
Back in 1921 and 1922, when the dresses were as short as
they are now in 1964.
Cap Porter, and later Bill Immens, took mail to and from
the post office and depot.
Oscar Miller and McGee were buyers of livestock and
shipped about 150 carloads of cattle and hogs a year.
J. B. Wilson and Elmer Stahly conducted one of the
largest livery barns in the area.
Harris had a millinery store and Miss Marie Tierney
operated it.
Wooden buckets were used.
There was a state prison farm just a few miles south of
Harris.
Potatoes were raised and Henry Hintz was the
superintendent.
The Clarence Benson farm was called Willow Twig Stock
Farm (Harold Bensons and Ruth Benson now live there.)
Sue Miller won the first place in the state for
basketball free throws.
When it was necessary to have a sack to hold two cents
worth of candy and you could say, “give me some of
those and those and those.”
When you could fit yourself with eyeglasses at
Farnham’s Drug Store.
We could buy suits, dresses, shoes and all the latest
fashions at Grant’s Department Store.
Harris had two banks, both operating at the same time and
doing a nice business.
Wm. Sebode had a tiny variety and grocery store about
where the Co-op Station now is. No matter what we wanted
he’d dig it out of box from a shelf or some place.
Hunt’s Drug Store, where Mr. Hunt made the best root
beer floats ever.
Grandpa Crichton repaired watches – and his white
beard.
The old Star Bowery was so popular.
Getting your harness oiled, your shoes repaired, etc., at
Renn’s Harness shop.
The F. D. Palmer farm was known as Lone Elm Stock Farm
(Clyde Palmers and Andy Akkerman’s live on the farm
now.)
When sugar beets were raised here and all the migrant
Mexican families weeded and took care of the crop.
Manuel Brubaker shelled corn in the Harris area with a
horse-powered station. He furnished one team and the
farmer two teams of horses. The corn was then hauled to
town in wagons, 52 bushels per trip.
Richard Rickabaugh had a soft water plant – one of
the very first ones in the area.
Beelers Store was lit by ceiling gaslights.
Ellery Hass managed the midget and mite baseball teams.
Ice cream cones were filled with a teaspoon at
Farnham’s Drug Store.
Jake Burk used to entertain with sleight of hand tricks.
Harris had a bakery.
Oscar Miller operated a little tobacco shop.
Dorothy Modisett, Now Mrs. Louis Snyder, taught school
here and was girls’ basketball coach.
Henry Hintz, in the summer of 1929, at the age of 60, was
drowned in West Lake Okoboji, due to a boat disaster.
Nine lives were lost when the speedboat
“Thriller” was hit and sunk by the impact of
another speedboat, the “Zipper.”
Bert Burley had a self-service gas pump at his Blacksmith
Shop and Garage – insert a dollar or 50 cents and
get that amount of gas. (About 1918.)
It was cheaper to burn corn than coal. Corn was 9 cents a
bushel.
Farm ladies churned butter, sold it to the local grocery
stores. The amount not sold locally was packed in
25-pound containers (tubs) and shipped to Chicago.
Henry Nagel was the butcher, then later Carl, Frank and
Emery Wentler.
Hobos came to Harris, numerously on freights and on foot.
Carl Rahn had a grocery store here.
You couldn’t buy fresh fruits and vegetables. Most
fruits were dried.
Young Harris men used the stock train passes to get to
Chicago or Detroit.
Eggs were packed in oats or water glass for winter use,
as hens didn’t seem to lay eggs after it got real
cold.
We had Chautauquas and Medicine Shows come to town.
Doctors performed operations on the dining room table in
the home.
Babies were delivered by midwives, as no doctors were in
the community. Mrs. Ben Webster and Mrs. Watling were
among the earliest.
Florence Fuller (now Mrs. DeWitt Forbes) taught school in
Harris.
Harris had a creamery. It was located just west of where
Charles Fousek and his mother now live. It was converted
into a garage and repair shop and operated by John
Crichton. The building now belongs to Wayland Forbes and
is used for storage of tools and equipment.
You got a sample of X-lax thru’ the mail.
Bernard Stronks was bookkeeper at Robertson Hardware, was
town clerk for several years and also was a notary
public.
Kerosene lanterns and lamps were used.
Part of the daily chores was to fill the lamps, trim the
wicks and polish the chimneys.
The ladies used to heat their curling irons in the lamp
chimneys.
The personal shaving mugs in the barber shop. Each
customer had his mug, brush and razor.
Vinegar and sugar were shipped in barrels.
How pop got its name. The original pop bottle.
We shipped eight to ten cars of livestock to Chicago
every week.
Lou Stahly, retired farmer, helped in the Stroufe Service
Station.
Harvey James had a garage and spent his free time fishing
and playing pranks on his friends.
The old icehouse was filled in the winter with ice from
the lake and packed in flax straw and sawdust for summer
refrigeration.
Lots of farms had ponds and ditches of water where fish
could be caught and boats used. In fact, in the spring of
the year, one could row a boat from just East of town to
Silver Lake.
Saunders had a grocery store in the old drug store
building.
Charles Gordon had a barbershop in a room behind the
Gordon Grill.
Dances were held in the IOOF Hall and also in the local
theatre.
The variety store was operated by Bertha Woodworth, and
later by Minnie Peterson.
John Graham went fishing about every evening all season.
Mrs. Kathy Stahly farmed so many years with the help of
her five sons and two daughters.
The Henry DeLint farm was a tree claim. By planting 20
acres of trees, 160 acres of land could be claimed.