Elmblad_Wilson Family Research 2013j
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helmet and leg plates from the 4th century B. C." Eventually, he presented the t When young Willie was finally permitted to sell a few small articles i
family s 250 -piece collection of antique sil an many items from his art p Y 9Y
collection to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.himself, he wwas hJJones National School tof Auctionee Davenport, Iowa, to 3
Still Charles Bolles- Rogers did not forget Trinity Chapel during his travels
He returned one summer with a treasure from the Holy Land: a graceful bronze
he attended
learn the techniques and become properly licensed.ii
After graduation, 22- year -old Willie returned to manage a farm near rF,,
Sacristy Lamp. You can still see it at one end of the corridor between the old and l ,the new church where it is hanging above, and slightly to the left of, the old altar Excelsior and to marry the daughter of another pioneer family, Elva Newton.
from the 1930s The altar was saved in memory of Dr. Hugh Custer Are
Their wedding on October 30, 1907, was the last service held in Excelsior s old3 = !
ry g y)Trinity Church at its original site on Third Street. Already mounted on rollers,IF f
Whether or not the Sacristy Lamp is lighted when you see it, perhaps it will y the church started the following morning on the block -long journey to itsremindyouofitsdonor, the world traveler and art collector who was never too 1'
rushed to be gracious and appreciative.
1 ,iii,„ prese site.
As farmer, family man and auctioneer, Willis Wilson advertised, "Sales t
g
conducted anywhere in the state: Merchandise, Real Estate and Farm Sales." Tokhisvoiceintrim, and to practice the patter w driving his wife and
children crazy,
I GOING, GOING, GONE!
Mr. Wilson used to practice calling into a mason jar. D
ti. _Oli and Harriet remember the wonderful sound of his muffled hollering into the I `
il glass jar. They could barely distinguish: "Do I hear a bid now? I HAVE a bid --
At Excelsior's Trinity Episcopal Church I met Harriet Wilson, a
I
f tY young sickety- sickety- sickety. Do I hear seventy... now seventy...seventy one more I
Sunday School teacher whose parents had been married in that little church time...Going, going, gone! SOLD to the lady with the big smile and the pretty i .. i£ f,
More recently she told me about her father's career as an auctioneer.dimples- -and did she get a bargain!"h
Willis W. Wilson was, for many decades, the best known auctioneer in the m Harriet Wilson (now Mrs. Donald Elmblad) said she used to dream ofiiLakeAreaSonofapioneerfamily, he discovered his calling at the turn of the becoming a lady auctioneer. She still remembers a big sale of merchandise from slr
century and "cried" his last sale 65 years later.f
a Chanhassen store. Although not yet five years old and timid by nature, she IY r
on a hat. Her proud Papa i 'IWhen14yearsofage, young Willis looked upon Excelsior policeman, John surprised herself, as well as her parents, by bidding
Powers, as a hero - -not for bravery in action, but for his sideline, said, "Going, going,gGONE. Sold to the little girl in blue beside the nice-looking
auctioneerin In his eagerness to figure out Mr. Powers' jargon, Willie seldom woman in the blue suit." Harriet wore that hat a long time, secretly enjoying it 1
1 ;'missed a sale. He'd hear the auctioneer begin, slowly and distinctly, "What am I r as a symbol of her unexpected courage in becoming her father's youngest bidder.I„
bid ?"Then would follow a breathless verbal whirlwind:l
IwantonegimmeoneYESnowahalfnow sevent
g It used to be the custom for the seller to furnishafreelunchofcoffeeand
Y sandwiches to all who attended the sale. It fell to Auctioneer Wilson, therefore, to
fivenowtwoYEStwonowaquartergimmetwoandaquarter onemoretime...SOLD! And furnish several hundred tin cups, which he carried from sale to sale in gunny
so it went from household trinkets through farm machinery and even livestock.sacks. When little Harriet went along, she always hoped her father would be too
Willie's next step was to become an apprentice- helper. He earned 25 cents busy to accept the seller's customary invitation to join the family at a hot dinner
walking the streets, ringing a hand bell and calling out loudly: "Auction, auction,p inside the house. To her child's -eye view, a much better treat than a hot dinner
at ten tomorrow morning. Read all about it." Then he'd ive handbills to was a free bun sandwich, filled with a thick slice of ham or those "good, old-9
1;everyone in sight.fashioned, all -meat, skin -on weiners."
At the sales Willie held up the smaller articles, leaving the auctioneer free In the 1940s, garage and estate sales became popular, reducing country
to use gestures with his jargon to whip enthusiasm into a sales of farm equipment and livestock. Mr. Wilson missed the f'1gpfrenzyofbiddingauctionsmainlytosale
Speed was a factor, as the bidder must not be given time to think, or to use the ladies and their frantic bidding. He had come to depend on several dozen
F :power of mind over patter. While many came off with bargains, others could regulars" who would no more miss a household auction than they would a barn
sometimes be egged on to buy things they didn't even want, or to bid more than the 1 dance, as Ladies Aid supper, an ice -cream social--or at funeral.
cost of a similar article new at Sears.A.
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In 1965, Willis Wilson " called " his last farm sale at eighty years of age.The Methodist membership, consisting then of just fourteen persons, grew to
Again he missed the ladies trying to outbid each other on apple peelers and coffee
grinders.
about 30 by the time building started, but the largest single pledge to the
finders. By that time, also, customers were not only having to pay for their i building fund was $25. D. J. Higgins, the first preacher, came from Eden 1 4
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sandwiches, but they were getting only "modern, adulterated, skinless weiners to Prairie, as Excelsior belonged to the Eden Prairie Circuit.s I.
of earlier da sdays.W. made the pews. In fact," Geer said, "they nearly built the church. And theboot." To the elderly auctioneer, it seemed as if country sales had lost much of The Reverend Higgins, Mr. Woodruff, Grandfather Spickerman and his son C.
ii
the zip and zing Y I minister himself made the pulpit and the altar rail."
Preacher tenure in the Methodist church was conspicuously brief in those ii , f - _
days. Pastor Higgins served the church from May of 1885 to October, 1886, and I
MRS. GEER AND THE METHODIST CHURCHS the next six preachers stayed just one year apiece. Then came the young and 4 ;
enthusiastic Reverend Spicer, who was unmarried and very popular. He had a 1 i
row of carriage sheds built for the membership, and a porch built just high 19ry
If I were asked to discuss "Women of Excelsior," I would place Aldena Cram g
1
Geer high on the list. Few have been her equal enough so that, when carriages were driven alongside, the ladies could step right
1 g b h eual in talent, training, or Christian
out. The men would then drive around to the sheds and blanket the horses.
a
iifithandfellowship. Born in a Methodist parsonage in Ohio in 1881, she earned
ter's de ree in English Literature at the University of Nebraska.Young Spicer's next projectroject was painting the church. He rounded up
mas volunteers--old and young, tall and short - -but ended up having to paint thea9z{ 4 volunteers of y g,r
Somewhere along the line she received a degree in music and took up painting.y spire himself. He finished the ob and still had time to take a large group of
In 1905 she married Dr. r harried Dr Benjamin Cram, a Methodist minister, and then P 1
Catherine. Widowed in 1928, she later married young people into the church. Some of them were sprinkled at the altar, but
had two children: Arthur and Cath those wh wanted to be baptizedtized b immersion were taken to Christmas Lake. A r,',
1 the Rev. James Geer, who had served the Excelsior Methodist Church for five
few were disappointed that another
by
pastor was called to do the honors, because
years. The couple spent the next ten years serving churches in Wadena and
Reverend Spicere yet At the end of the year, however, he wentpwasnotyeordained.it
ead before returning to Excelsior to spend the rest of their lives.f
Moorh j back to school and a succession of other ministers followed.IIIth'
Although Reverend Geer retired from the ministry, both were active in thehe I '' ,,
In AuAugust of 1894, women of the church were delighted to welcome Dr.il(local church; in fact, Mrs. Geer herself was "a local ordained minister of t
Methodist Church." In Excelsior she took part in the Women s Society, was part-Vin-Martha Sheldon, a medical missionary home on furlough from a hospital in India.Ik <
EI ti organist, and directed the choir for eight years. But she is probably best 3 _Martha, who had graduated from the University of Minnesota and the Boston c,,..
x''remembered for the plays and poems she wrote for church publications. One of
School of Medicine with high honors, had spent a year in hospital work before
li`her plays, entitled "Women of the Bible," for example, was a series of short
a I in to the American Board to be sent out to India. When the Excelsior
sketches that were dramatized and produced in churches nationwide. She wrote
C ngregational Church (where her father was pastor) refused to send her, she
her last poem in 1974, at the age of 93, three years before her death.had turned to the Methodists for help and their Women's Foreign Missionary
t One literary effort for which Mrs. Geer is remembered locally is her
Society made it possible for her to serve in the country of her choice. When she
4 History of the Excelsior Methodist Church," in which she pretended she was a i
31 fictitious character, attending the old white church on George Street through the
cataract operation
this
high-upup DcialSheldonecause to Tibet
been perfor I `, }
years. Here are some of the high points gleaned from her story without (for the
the door was open to the lad surgeoneon from o''
i sake of brevity) her imaginative touch.
successful in this type of surgery,p lady 9
Excelsior, even though Tibet was then a "Forbidden Land."4
On January 5, 1886, the Official Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church
During the four-year stay of the Rev. J. R. Davies, the church mortgage was z
met at the Masonic Hall "to discuss plans and ways and means to carry on the g Y Y
Se tember 25, 1900.
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mworkofthechurch, [which included] the question of a new church."
burned at an interesting service on Tuesday evening, p I `.
Former pastors were invited to take art. Little Lou Davies and Lizzie Show, in
white dresses exactly alike, came downdresses aisle, one carrying a candlestick with G'4
1 lighted candle and the other, a silver tray on which lay the old mortgage. When 1
f the presiding elder (Mr. Fielder) applied the flame, the mortgage was reduced to
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170 171 l'
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