Doug Kelm InterviewINTERVIEW WITH DOUG KELM
INTERVIEWED BY MARLIN STENE
March 21, 1996
Interviewer:We invite you to begin by telling us what you know
about the arrival of the Kelms to Chanhassen.
Doug:The grandparent the oldest one I was able to
identify was named Godfried Kelm. Godfreied became
known however as Frederick after he moved to this
country but then interestingly his gravestone in
pioneer Cemetery west of Chanhassen they restored
his name again to Godfried. He came to this
country in 1863. He said on the various census
reports as well the application from Naturalization
that he came from Prussia which has not helped me a
great deal in trying to specifically identify what
town in Germany because Prussia in 1863 was quite a
vast territory so I am still struggling and getting
frustrated regularly trying to find out exactly
where he came from and therefore who his parents
were. He moved here with his wife and three or
four of his children. He ultimately had seven or
eight children depending on whether you counted
some of the deaths which occurred in those days at
child birth. Infant mortality was quite frequent.
He married a woman in Prussia her name was Anna
Brusch. I have not been able to identify where she
came from either. They were married when they
moved in 1863 and went first to the Upper Peninsula
of Michigan where he worked in the mines for about
1 1/2 to 2 years and then moved to Minnesota and
ended up purchasing his first farm east of the
Village of Chanhassen as we think of it. I would
guess that the home would be approximately where
the McDonalds is located. A few years later he
bought another farm West of Chanhassen. He
continued to own both of them during his lifetime.
The home West of Chanhassen includes the land where
Prince's studio is now located. He was a peasant
from Prussia and I expect working in the copper
mines of Michigan did not suit him at all and so
when he became aware of the land that was available
and being pre-empted back in those days he moved to
Minnesota.
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a .
He had seven to eight children the youngest of which was Henry.
Henry married Rose Geiser and they in turn produced my father Elmer
Kelm. Elmer had three children with his wife Loretta Weller. The
children being my sister, Henrietta or as she prefers to me known
Mickey, myself and the youngest my brother Tom. All of us
including my father were born in the Village of Chanhassen. The
first home they occupied was on st. Huberts a block east from the
church and school there is the big white house with the porch that
wraps around it. As a boy I thought of it as the Holly house.
Albert Holly who ran the grocery store. He purchased it from my
Dad around 1919 - 1920. I was born in a house which was located
approximately where the lobby of the Chanhassen Theater now sits.
They rented there and we only lived there about a year or so and
then we moved across the street to a house that eventually got
replaced by a feedmill which in turn I believe became an implement
store. I'm not sure what sits there now. From there we moved to
the house which still stands and is owned by Jerry Schlenk which
the estate sold to Jerry back in 1973 or 1974 after my mother died.
She had been a widow since 1947 when my Dad Elmer died.
The children of Godfried Kelm my grandfathers brothers and sisters
some of them remained in the area for a generation or so.
Frederick Kelm one of the older sons of Godfried had a farm about
2 miles west of Chanhassen on Highway 5. It was located just down
the road a piece from the pioneer Cemetery. others that lived
around the Chanhassen Chaska area I believe that their successors
and children I don't believe that any of them are in farming any
longer and many of them have moved out of the area.
I have been able to collect pictures of my great grandfather
Godfried but some of his children both sons and daughters but I
haven't been able to establish much connection with present Kelm
children of these various branches of the family.
My grandfather died as a young man in 1916. He had been the first
telegrapher for the Milwaukee Road and became the station agent at
the local depot. He also had a general store located right near
the tracks located approximately where the American Legion is right
now. And then in 1914 when a new bank was established by the
Minneapolis Group he became the small stockholder and first
cashier. That did not last very long because he died very
prematurely in 1916 and interestingly within the year my father
must have hardly been 17 years of age my father Elmer became
Cashier of the Bank which I find rather fascinating because I think
of mysel;!: at the age. of 17 and would have hardly have been
qualified to be Cashier and sole employee of a Bank no matter how
small.
My Dad in 1918 married Loretta Weller her mother's maiden name was
Driesen. Anna Driesen. Which brings back a memory the fact that
actually every branch of my family the Kelm's the Geiser's , the
Wellers, the Driesen's and the Millers all of them were in the
boundaries of the township of Chanhassen so they found their mates
on other farms in the city of Chanhassen.
I mentioned before that my Grandfather Henry married Rose Geiser
and that was kind of an interesting family. My great-great-
grandfather John L. Geiser came from Wortenburg Germany. I have
not been able to find his exact village in Wortenburg but I am
still working on that. He traveled alone and came in to the port
of Baltimore and came across country in 1834 which meant that is
was not done by railroad or by automobile so that must have been
quite a trip in itself up to Salem Ohio where he met the woman who
was meant to be his wife a lady by the name of Mary Weimer. She
was the daughter of Sam Weimer and Sam Weimer and his family also
moved with some of his children already born before immigration
from Germany at roughly the same period of time that John Geiser
had immigrated.
Both the Weimer and the Geiser families did not stay very long in
Ohio. They came to this country in 1834, they moved on to Indiana
in 1836 with John Geiser having married Mary Weimer by that time
shortly before they moved to a place called Avilla in Noble County
Indiana. Both Sam Weimer and his son-in-law John Geiser bought
farms in the area adjacent. It was rather interesting that old Sam
who by the was kind of an active man until very late in his
lifetime having had about four wives (not simultaneously). Sam
also I would guess was illiterate as most immigrants were at that
time certainly as far as the English language is concerned but
perhaps as far as the German language is concerned it can't be
ascertained for sure. AT any rate he totally misunderstood the
legal description of the farm that he bought and proceeded to clear
land that was not his and having worked his butt off on that for
some period of time and discovering that he was on the wrong piece
of land moved on to another piece of land that he was certain was
his and proceeded to clear that land also of the trees and boulders
and the like only to find out in a year that once again he cleared
somebody elses land before finally on the third try successfully
started working the land that was truly his.
Meanwhile his son-in-law and his daughter started producing their
family and they stayed in the Indiana area for almost 30 years. It
was during the Civil War in fact that John Geiser and four of his
children moved on to Minnesota. And my great-grandfather Fred
Geiser is one. John farmed a piece of land just West of Chanhassen
adjacent to and East of the farm that we spoke briefly of the
Godfried Kelm farm which is now Paisley Park. Just East of there
John had his farm and blacksmith shop right up to the road and
Highway 5. His farm extended southward to the shores of Lake
Susan. He farmed there until his death in 1902. His youngest son,
Fred, continued to farm there for just a few years before selling
the farm and moving with his mother and his wife into the Village
of Chanhassen. He built the home that is Highway 101 as it ran
through chanhassen south of the Church, south of the liquor store
on the corner about a 1/2 block south on the left side of the
street next to a building that had already burnt down when I was a
child. It was Mason Brothers merchandise store.
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Fred started a business of delivering butter and eggs over towards
the Lake Minnetonka area towards Excelsior. It was an action or
failure of his that resulted in that road that leads to Excelsior
Highway 17. Immediately north of the intersection of Highway 5
were a couple of very sharp dipps and knolls which the last time I
drove out there it was almost level. On one occasion Fred lost
control of his horses and his wagon overturned and the vats of
butter went rolling down the hills and throughout my lifetime they
were called the butter hills. I don't suppose they are anYmore
because they are almost all leveled off. Another small loss of
history.
Fred was quite a character my great -grandfather Geiser. He used
to love to sit in a rocker in his front lawn. He was alive for
about 14 years of my life so I knew him and his wife Lottie quite
well. I had to go down and visit him because he always had
fascinating stories to tell but the thing that he liked most to do
is say "Kid, you've got something to really be proud of, look over
there in the cemetery, the biggest god damn tombstone in the
cemetery he said, and its mine."
While on the reverse side interestingly and it still remains and it
is.still the largest tombstone in the cemetery. It says Geiser and
on the backside is says Schroeder. Schroeder was Fred's sister's
husband. His brother-in-law. Fred decided long before he died
that he wanted a fine tombstone. He wanted the biggest one. It
must stand 7 feet or more tall. The story is that after Fred
decided that he wanted a fine tombstone he looked at pictures when
salesmen came around from time to time and finally decided on the
one he thought was appropriate. I don't know what the cost was in
those days. (For the idea of telling this let's just say $1,000.)
That may be high for that time period. Having decided that he
finally approached his brother-in-law. He said Henry, I have a
deal for you. The plot of land in the cemetery that is right next
to mine in not purchased. You buy it. We will then jointly buy a
tombstone and set it on the border between the two lots. You will
put my name on one side and on the other side put my name.
Schroeder decided that might be a good idea but he might want to
think about it. How much would it cost? Fred said, $2,000 a
1,000 for you and $1,000 for me. Henry thought that was a heck of
a lot of money and he finally came back and said OK here is my
1,000. So the stone arrived and came nicely carved with their
names on either side of it but Henry went to his grave not knowing
that he paid the entire cost of the tombstone.
Fred was also in to gimmickry. He would buy such things as an
electric belt which was suppose to do all sorts of wonderful things
for your body. Lottie his wife was a character in her own right.
She was a Miller of the Eden prairie Millers. During most of the
time that I knew her she had become quite senile but still a
wonderful lady. A very happy sort that would sing rhYmes. Fred
died in December of 1935. He was born in 1856 so he was nearing 79
years of age. Interestingly Lottie at a similar age had not shown
any signs of loss of vitality. In less than a month she followed
f
him to death. It was widely assumed that the loss of Fred
precipitated her death. But they were wonderful people to know.
They produced a son by the name of Jack, who ended up as a depot
agent in South Dakota. Another son Bill who was also a station
agent in the Dakotas for the Milwaukee Road a third son Walter who
also was a station agent out there and another son Clarence Geiser
who was a very gilded citizen of Chanhassen. He had to share
honors with two or three other members of Chanhassen as being the
town drunk. A city the size of Chanhassen those days with only
about 120 population they were only qualified for one town drunk
but Chanhassen had at least 3 perhaps 4. Never any problem with
any of them. Clarence also ran an automobile garage by his
parent's home described earlier. He was the youngest. There was
also a daughter Rose who married Henry KeIrn. After her husband
Henry died she married John Bigaman of Chaska and he had a previous
marriage from which he had a son and a daughter. Rose had a son
and daughter and together they produced a son and a daughter. It
was confusing for a small boy to figure out how I was related to
whom.
The Geiser family as a whole was an extremely interesting family.
John C. Geiser the son of John L. Geiser. John C. was the oldest
of John L.'s sons and was pretty much an adult when they moved from
Indiana. He became a widely known builder of churches having built
some 30 churches through south central Minnesota including st.
Huberts Church in Chanhassen. And st. Joseph in Waconia. There is
one in Belle Plaine and did a lot of the design work. Although one
should hasten to say that they were copies of what I believed were
German Gothic churches that came from that place of origin. John
had his shops directly across the street from his brother Fred's
home. Those buildings are still standing there. There is a two
story building across the street which became a residence on both
floor and east of the building were lumber yards. Later on those
lumber yards became a part of the chain but as the years past with
very little further development in the area the lumber yard faded
away. At that time it was owned by the Klein family.
As I reflect upon even right up to the time of my own life in
Chanhassen, its interesting but common that there were no attorney
in town, no doctor, no dentist no CPA. There wasn't a constable
other than on paper. On thinking back people settled things on
their own. Not running to the courts all the time. An attorney
was a very strange type of person that they rarely had any contact
with the exception perhaps to write their will or to write up
papers at the courthouse for the transfer of property. But
liabilities suits, practically unknown. I wish we could move back
to those days somewhat.
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Interviewer:There is an interesting story recorded in the
Valley Press out of Chaska of an attorney from
Waconia who came to town to try an influence the
Chanhassen vote to have the Courthouse moved to
Waconia and it states "He had no followers among
the Chanhassen people."
I guess there were repeated tries to move the
courthouse from Chaska to Waconia. Seems to me
that there was one when I was a boy and undoubtedly
attempts before that time.
Doug:
I was talking about some of the members of the
Geiser family John C. the Church builder. He moved
from Chanhassen to Deep Haven. His home still
stands there today.
Then there was Sam Geiser. I guess he was one of my favorite
relatives. Sam would in other words be my Great-grand-uncle. An
older brother of Fred's. Sam had a farm in Eden Prairie. And long
about 1870's he moved to Murdock, MN in swift county. Moving at
the same time was another family from Eden Prairie. Just exactly
why they moved from their farms, perhaps they did not own them, and
they had the opportunity to get new land in swift county. (the name
of the other family escapes me.) The pioneer Press reported this
rather fully telling how the police based on a tip from the man of
the household of this other family found Sam in bed in the st.
James Hotel in Minneapolis with the wife of his neighbor. Sam had
been married and at this time he was a widower. It appears that
the wife of the other gentleman whom he was found in bed with must
have started divorce proceedings before this. Anyway the marriage
was very shaky and this particular incident resulted in the divorce
becoming final and Sam then took on this new wife and they
continued to live out there in Murdock and the feathered against
husband moved out of town. His second wife then after some 20 some
years died and Sam moved on to pine County where he met a very
lovely woman 20 years his junior in age and he married her. They
ultimately moved to Florida where they both died in the 1920' s
having lived quite a full life. So one finds such wonderful
characters that I enjoy very much as I have done my genealogy
research. I did look for royalty or capitalist or celebrities. I
rather enjoyed those of the human nature and kind of appreciate
them as a matter of fact. It goes back to one branch of my family
to someone who. would be my great-great-great-great-great
grandmother who when she was asked by the priest back in Germany in
about 1700 "who is the father" and her response basically was she
didn't know.
o
The Weller family came from Kabrunz Germany near Luxembourg not far
from the Netherlands but he didn't meet his wife who was a
Hollander until he moved to this country. He name was Anna
Driesen. They came from that part of Holland which dips sharply to
the south between Belgium and Germany in a very heavily Catholic
area. That land had shifted back and forth from time to time in
between France and Spain with one of Napoleon's brothers as I
recall having been named by him as the King of Holland. There was
some question as to how Hollanderish those ancestors were or
whether they were possibly French or Spanish or whatever. But none
the less they came from Holland in the 1860' s and it was in
Chanhassen but Peter Weller had brought his family and his son
married Anna Driesen who's father was Thomas Driesen and Tom also
settled in Chanhassen not far from what is now the City of Chaska.
I mentioned earlier that Lottie Geiser was a Miller. He came from
Bavaria and traveled this country alone about 1858 stayed a short
time in New York city and then moved on to Chicago where he met his
wife who came with her parents from a city called Lehr the very
northwesterly part of Germany. They married in chicago in the
early 1860's they moved on to Chanhassen and had a farm (look at
the map) between Chanhassen and Chaska. On that farm somewhere are
at lease three graves. His father-in law who he brought along from
Chicago with him when they moved and his wife's child by an earlier
marriage and another child by their marriage. The maiden name of
Fred Miller's wife was Matthei. They stayed on that farm until
1867 and then moved on to a farm adjacent to Lake Mitchell and that
land is now known as Miller Park. His son and his widow organized
or built the General Store in Eden prairie which is less than a
block south of the railroad crossing. I imagine that you can still
see evidence of where the railroad was, I don't believe the rails
are there any longer. It was a very typical old general store that
sold everything. I bring that up because Charlotte Matthei Miller
must have been quite a gal because one census report where they ask
her occupation she said "capitalist" so having run this general
store she thought of herself as totally Americanized Capitalist.
The Weller's, Peter Weller and his two boys farmed directly North
of Chanhassen not far from Long Lake, on the West side of Long
Lake. Peter Weller had some 80 acres. I'm quite sure that now it
is owned by a Kerber family unless its changed hands again. Long
Lake is now known as Lotus Lake. When he died his son Peter and
his son Michael split the 80 acres into two 40 acres which they
continued to farm. Ultimately Peter moved to Chaska where his son
Lambert Weller started a funeral home and was so frequently the
case in those days combined with a furniture store and he also
operated a building contractor company. The story is that he built
many of the stills for the bootleggers in the early days. I'm not
sure whether there is more than one death penalty in Carver county
or at least in that part of Carver County but the story is that he
built the gallows for the person who was executed for a case of
murder back in the early 1900's. He had married Anna Driesen who's
father was Thomas Driesen who had a small farm to the East of
Chaska adjoining what would now be Highway 212 just a very small
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farm. I'm told that Tom Driesen though of himself as a ladies man
but that he retained his fidelity to his wife but looked upon
himself as being quite the gay blade. His other children Tom
Driesen's beside Anna the wife of Lambert Weller were Regina who
married a Wartman who had a farm West and North of Chaska on the
way to victoria. He had another daughter who married a Lansberger
her name was Agnes. They lived in the Chaska area and also in
Cologne.
One of Annie's brothers was a grand old man by the name of Brother
victor whose give name was actually John by he became a Franciscan
Monk and spent part of his later life at the Chaska. A very gentle
very simple kind of a man I remember man I remember his being. He
claimed that he had been a wild one in his youth and that he became
converted and joint the Monastery. I suspect that this Catholic
gentle man could not have been very wild.
Getting more up to date, my father Elmer as I said was the Cashier
at the Bank and sold insurance after he closed the bank at the end
of each day. Sometime my mother and us kids would go out with him
just for a little joy ride. During the Depression Days we would
frequently end up eating bologna and crackers at a rural school
house. I thought of it as a picnic, my sister being a little older
insisted that we had to go to the backside of the school so that
nobody would see us because she recognized that this was no picnic
is was a way of saving money during the Depression.
Dad was also a great one for innovative things. He had the first
telephone in town, he did not have the first radio but I bet very
close to it. Long before tape recorders or wire recorders he had
a recording machine that actually cut the carbon records and I have
been able to salvage some of those and converted them to tape.
Nothing very interesting, it was relatives singing at some party of
occasionally he would record a letter to one of his children out of
town. He also was a ham radio operator which was perhaps his
second or third love. His first love being his wife and family,
the second one being politics and the third ham radio.
We grew up in a political environment. When I was six years old my
dad had me distributing literature for Al smith who carried the
town of Chanhassen by 1/3 of something like 60 to 0 over Hoover.
The entire town being Catholic except for the Mayor who was a
Republican by the name of Descowski but he converted at least for
that election to make it unanimous for Al smith.
Dad at the time was the Chairman of the Democratic Party so each
election 'we were surrounded by talks of politics and he
subsequently became the Congressional District Chairman and ran the
campaign of the congressman who was elected back in the 1930's by
the name of Elmer Ryan. That is when the district included sort of
a Central slice of Minnesota from Carver down to the Iowa border.
The first and second district now cover all the way across from the
Wisconsin Border to the South Dakota border. At the time I am
talking about when we had nine congressman there was an additional
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district so that in that territory there would have been three
districts running across the Southern part of Minnesota.
Subsequently he became the Chairman of the Minnesota State
Democratic Party. We are now getting up to the late 1930's and
1940's.
Finally, when the two parties (Democratic and Farmer Labor Party),
the Farmer Labor Party had been enjoying great success up to that'
period when they had fallen into some disrepute and so the two
parties Democratic primarily merged into what we know now as the
DFL party in 1945. Elmer became the first Chairman the primary
founder and organizer of the merged party. III health forced him
to resign a couple of years later and he accepted an appointment of
U.S. Collector of Internal Revenue for the State of Minnesota. He
died at a fairly young age of 57 in 1957. Having lived throughout
his life in Chanhassen which reminds me of how enduring things
seemed to be in those days. We live in a world today where things
move so fast and change so often. An example of what I'm talking
about: In first grade at st. Hubert's school my father was taught
by a nun sister Gwenivent. Many years later my sister was taught
by the same nun. And three more years later I was taught by her
and I believe even my brother who is eight years my junior, Tom, I
believe that sister Gwenivent was still there at that time.
Perhaps that is not a very good example of how things seem to
endure and go on but the traditions weren't so volatile.
When one got into trouble as a child it didn't take long for
discipline to occur because Joe would call up Elmer or visit with
Elmer over a beer and say your son Doug was seen doing such and
such this afternoon and that would result in severe discipline when
Elmer came home. I lived in this atmosphere not in fear but in
knowing that I had a lot of Uncles allover town who kept an eye on
things and maybe were not afraid to slap you across the ears
themselves as well as to tell your parents if you misbehaved at
all. I'm not complaining. When I moved into the City of st. Paul,
Minneapolis you hardly knew people that lived on the same block as
you even in established neighborhoods. Even those that had a
fairly strong community organization. You maybe would know half of
the people in the b~ock. We lost something in that process.
I indicated that I got disciplined from time to time. For example
you did not come home and complain about one of teachers did
something that seemed unfair to you because you didn't get very far
with argument and you would get boxed across the ears by your
parent until you minded what Sister tells you and you did!
There were time when you would do things ,very foolish like. One
Sunday morning a cousin of mine was visiting a family over a week-
end and I was showing her around the great metropolis of Chanhassen
and we came to the Village Hall which was sort of a playground for
us because they never locked the Hall. The files were very open
shall we say. One our playgrounds would be the back part of
Village Hall where they was a typical old fashion jail cell and
nobody minded the fact that the kids used the building as a play
thing as long as they didn't do any damage. But the village Hall
has a little Bell Tower. I trust the Bell is still there. I would
be sad if it wasn't. It was pulled by hand with the rope attached
to the outside of the building and my cousin said "Have you ever
rang that bell?" I said no I haven't I do not think you are
suppose to. At this point I am about seven years of age perhaps.
Old enough to know better. My cousin talked me into ringing the
bell. Unfortunately, high mass was in progress this Sunday morning
right across the street and the windows and doors of the church
flew open because the ringing of that bell was the equivalent of a
fire siren in Chanhassen. I perhaps got the worst spanking of my
life because Elmer was at High Mass when I interrupted. I never
had known if the priest interrupted mass of continued on, but I
will never forget, whenever I hear a bell it comes back to me.
Interviewer:There is a story that is told by one of the
resident out there that he and two other boys were
caught by the priest up on the steeple that on the
back side of st. Huberts there were steps and
somehow the priest caught two, the third one
managed to escape somehow inside the building and
was saved a rather sever backside treatment.
Doug: That reminds me, I don't know if this particular
event is still celebrated in rural churches or not. I never hear
about it in the city. But in the spring of each year there is a
piece called Corpus Christi Latin for Body of Christ. It was
really a great thing. After mass the entire parish would leave the
church and parade down st. Hubert's street to the East with little
girls carrying baskets of flower petals that they would distribute
and boys carrying banners and incense and large candle holders and
the like. As they marched along the bells would be ringing the
three or four bells whatever there is in the steeple of st.
Huberts. Just to the East of the old school was a little chapel
and we stopped there to have a brief benediction during which time
the bells would stop the ringing and the choir would singing and
then we would move on again with the bells ringing to still another
such a chapel. As I recall there were four of them scattered in
what was called the church woods the area immediately north of the
present school was all wooded and to my memory had a greater rise
in the land than it does today and scattered through the woods were
these little chapels. So we would move from one to the other. One
of the jobs that had the greatest stature for the boys was to go up
into the steeple because the smaller bells would have the habit of
turning over completely because the guys below pulling the ropes
were really giving her and so the bells would turn over and the
young boys would turn the bell back. I remember the time when
Lewis Klein was about a year older than me bent over to take the
bell by the rim to turn it back over just as the large bell came
swinging along and caught him in the buttocks and sent him right
over the smaller bell he was about to turn over.
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The Church was pretty much the center of social life. Not
necessarily combined as in this case with the religious ceremony
but it was the ice cream social that was held out on the school
grounds a couple time during the summer with ice cream that was
homemade by the ladies on their farms with the fresh cream. During
the winter there were card parties that were held in the church
basement or auditorium. The drama club that was called the st.
Huberts drama club. There were the young ladies that would make a
lunch and there would be card party and towards the end there would
be an auction. It was anticipated that the young man who had his
eye on this young lady who brought the box luncheon would bid to
buy that lunch and eat it with her. And there were always guys
there devilish enough to keep bidding up the price so the guy would
spent much more than needed. This money did end up in the church
coffers.
Back in about the mid 1930 during the heart of the Depression the
Church was having difficulty in terms of expenses and that
organized what for many years was simply called the Chanhassen
Chicken Dinner which being rather good to their reputation many
100's of people would come to Chanhassen on a Sunday to eat this
chicken dinner for a relatively small price but it was a great
source of income to maintain the church. First it was at st.
Hubert's school and then they decided to excavate a basement under
the church because it had no basement back in those days or what
basement they had was just a small area in which the furnace was
located. 90% of the church had no basement. Pretty much with just
local labor volunteers with horses being the primary source of
energy they dug out the earth from underneath the church and shored
it up where necessary, added foundations to the thing. Quite a
massive jOb for the group of local men to undertake but they did
and that became the location for various social affairs and of
course the Chanhassen Chicken Dinner in particular which later
became known as the Harvest Festival.
Interviewer:It is still called the Harvest Festival and the
second Sunday after we moved into the Village we
were invited over by some neighbors that we met to
the fall festival and this was in 1990 and this was
still the best deal in the whole county as far as
quality of food, quantity for a very modest price.
Now it is on the school grounds in the gymnasium as
well as in a large tent to the East of the
playground.
Doug:Originally they had it right across the street from
the church in this little pocket park that existed
there. They had to get our of there because it
would take the grounds most of the summer to
recover from the people and always a problem was
the beer stand. Gambling games ranging to bingo
and a game I remember with a very large dice. It
must have been 10 inches on the side and you would
buy paddles with numbers on them and let's assume
I(
there were six possible numbers on the dice and you
would pay a quarter for your paddle which had
numbers on it so that would be $1.50 per throw and
the prize was $1.00 so there was a 50 cent profit
for the festival with each throw of the dice.
z