The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1932-08-18
Prominent H.
Folks Have
Lived inCity
DR.. j. A. Dubois Interesting
y Looks Backward Over
= Five Decades
HISTORY OF THE PAST
Main Street" Very Well Rep
resented in "Who Is Who"
in America
HISTORY OF THE PAST
lRv ]. A. DuBois)

Happy is the man who can find
in his environment, in the little
village or city he calls his home,
that which will create in him an
abiding interest and stimulate
justifiable civic pride. Suppose you
had happened to have been q resi-
dent of Old Concord, Massachu-
sets. Would you not be thrillingly
proud that it was your little COM
munity that gave to the world the
master minds of Emerson and
Thoreau, and was the home of
Hawthorne, Claiming, and the Al
colt family? Of course, an in
stance of so brilliant a contribution
made to the world by a small town
is very rare indeed. But let us
come down from such an empyrean
altitude to the common ground.
What is the matter with our
little Sank Centre? Is there not
enough in the history of her build
ing up to swell the pride of all of
her citizens? Starting with nothing
in the line of natural advantages,
excepting the, possibility of making
a mill dam over a sluggish stream,
she has become one of the beautiful
little cities in Minnesota. And this
has been accomplished by united
human effort. Moreover, Sank Cen
tire has been given a permanent
place on the map of our country;
and further pertinent to her repu-
tation, one of her boys, having gain
ed a Nobel Prize, has carried her
name across the seas. Jokingly 1t
has been observed that the four
cities of America most familiar to
the minds of the Swedish people
are New York, Chicago, Minneapo-
lis and Sank Centre. Her initia-
ton into such prominence was que
to her Main Street. Now there have
been, and still are. many, many
Main Streets of the pioneer type.
For it is ordained that what we
call Civilization has to find its way
upward through these very ave
nues. And the placing of our small
city in the limelight was the pages
of a popular fiction by one OF our
sons, in which were presented to
the public the crudities, absurdi-
ties and pecuharities of this thor
oughfare which has been decorated
with the title of Original Main
Street" It was Sank Centres con-
fession of the rawness of her early
days. And the confession is accom-
panied in no sense by an apology.
We are not ashamed of the old
DAYS. Stored in our memory is the
strenuous experience they brought
to us, they shall ever retain the re-
spect due them. In these times OF
wonderful inventive processes does
not the electric lamp throw sort
of halo around the old tallow
candle.
But Time is placing sure and
benevolent hand upon those OF
the generation that was in personal
contact with the old Sank Centre.
Their number is rapidly diminish
ing. 1t is the younger element in
our community who are now put
ting on the harness and it is to
them that I desire in these ramb-
ling sentences to deliver this
preachment. Familiarize yourselves
with the salient points and the
landmarks in the history of the old
town. When tourists drawn hither
by what might be called our un-
savory reputation, are heard to
calculate in tones of disappoint-
ment: $50 this is Main Street"
they can be presented with a copy
of the 1878 photo of the Main
Street they seem to have expected
to see in actual existence today.
But there are more points OF in
terest to them than most little COM
munities possess. Upon the corner
where Mr.. Hillerud is now erecting
a house, there once stood plain,
simple cottage which for several
wears was the home of the grand
daughter of one President OF the
United States and the cousin OF an
other. And their attention can be
called to the peculiarly graceful
architecture of the Episcopal
Church, one of our very early build
ings. And there is our beautiful
little park, not a gift of nature, but
wrought from an old ruined brew
ery-site with it's sandy knobs pro-
ducing nothing but burrs and
Continued on Page Four)