Newspaper Clipping - Newspaper Clipping Scan - Happy Birthday Eagan - 3/4/1985
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Tales tell citys past
TALES: from p-1 A sort of rake on it to cut the grain
down. Then they bundled it up
morning and seeing the water and took it to the barn to
frozen in the kettle. separate it."
"Anyway, when this neighbor . Rahn shook his head and . ,
lady lit up the stove, the baby whistled, as he spoke. " Oh, boy,
started crying, and the mother that was a heck of a job, to pick
woke up, ran in, and snatched it apart all that grain."
out of the stove. They made up a In 1870 there was no formal Photo courtesy of James Diffley
song about the baby: `I Was religious structure in Eagan,
Born in the Kitchen When My Rahn said. Farmers took their The Diffley's, from left are Thomas Sr., Thomas Jr., James
Mother Was Away' went the families to the Old Emmanuel ( and William.
words." Lutheran Church in Inver ?
The Diffley family still owns Grove Heights. The first church
part of the farm William started in Eagan was Trinity Lone Oak
about 130 years ago. Martin Dif- Lutheran Church, built in 1881.
fley, James' nephew, runs the "Everybody'd go all wrapped
farm and has renamed it "The up in heavy furs in the winter-
Gardens of Eagan," which pro- time even though they had two
duces various sorts of big furnaces in the basement,"
vegetables, James said. Rahn said. "They had a long sh-
Willard Rahn, 73, recalls ed for the horses, and the men
what his grandfather, John would unharness the horses
Rahn, told him about early from the sleighs and bundle }
Eagan. In 1870, his grandfather them in blankets inside that Sh-
and two of his brothers left Ger- ed."
many for America. One of the first concerns of
"They were mighty the settlers was the need for
enthused," Rahn said, schoolhouses in Eagan, Rahn
"because land here was cheap, said. The township was divided
and they could work for into districts of four or five
themselves, instead of having square miles each, and a
to give it all up to the German schoolhouse was built in every
lord. They were serfs who lived district, where teachers taught
on land owned by the from 10 to 30 children in first
aristocracy." through eighth grade.
Rahn said there were few "Those schoolhouses were
families in Eagan in 1870. Most one-room, slant-roofed; and
of them were of Irish or French made out of wood," Rahri said.
descent who had come earlier. "Ir remember thbse..little
"All of them were.farmers wooden desks with the ink Wells,
who wanted to live near enough and the metal box to hold the
to the city for easier trade," he books. All the schoolhouses 1
said. "The land was heavily were white, except for the
wooded, even the women had to Wescott School, which was
help clear it. Grandpa said they brick, and had a bell that is now
raised mostly potatoes and in the Municipal Building.
onions. Wheat and a little bit of "Those.teachers had a hard
""torn was also ratsed'to feed the life; tob. •tthagitte ,hrifig to
cattle, but families then didn't teach all those grades at the
own too many cows just same time, and having to board
enough to feed the family: They at a farmer's house all the time.
made their own butter, of Those teachers never stayed
course, and took the cream over very long, you know., It was
to St. Paul creameries. really a lonesome job."
"Nobody had threshing
machines back then, either. Terry Tyler is an intern at this
They had to use scythes. with a newspaper:
4:f
Photo courtesy of Mirella LeTendre Simones
Treffle Auge's house was built about 1860.
Book chronicles"
Eagan's history
HISTORY' from p. 1A grocery store and saloon - in '
1865, near where highways 55
Farman built southeast of the and 149 now meet. The Halfway
present-day intersection of House was the first relay sta-
Yankee Doodle Road and Lex- tion out of St. Paul for
ington Avenue. About two years. stagecoaches headed for Dubu-
later a new school was built, not que, Iowa. The establishment's Minnesota Historical Society photo
too far from what is now Nor- name was changed to the Dixie Robert O'Neill, a member of
'thview Elementary School. Inn when George and May Eagan's first Town Board.
The stagecoach was' a Hinge took it over in 1930.
popular mode of travel when A little jaunt south was the The introduction to the for-
Eagan became a township and Wescott Inn that James thcoming Eagan history book
about that year the Minnesota Wescott opened on his property notes that the Lone Oak Tree
Company, emerged.. as .the in the 1850s, a little north of was the center of communica-
i state lading stage'line~' wh&b%ye'stPublishing Co.isto- tion from Eagan's earliest
covering more than 1,300 miles day. In' 1866 the inn became a days.
of stage routes with about 300 flag station for the Chicago, "It was also a symbol for the
more miles, of pony-carried Milwaukee and St. Paul community - making its
mail routes. In good weather Railroad line and a depot later citizens feel that they were a
and on good roads,-the 'stages was built there. part of something unique and
traveled about. 10 miles..* 6r No history of Eagan would be special," the book states.
hour: complete, without mention of "A city history tries to ac-
MAUL
l ec-,goals: M
a.1..+Qrie
ti ~tg "ostring a sense of cic pride
b and showing citizens that
h ~!x' 1yav Pale nt a unique and
r r a { the dial comma iit
"Of course, Uktoix" does not
via tit! 0" 010 history ofEagan. It
and aho1 impossible to record
hoov Bert My opeaeda on ' ev t ring that makes the city
bI0ltlt shop iwq i i^
,wha ~t~. ~aurdriators
w ek wk Roail~ abw ve ' of
ha r ed up a sweattorung
. ver Bell Hood. a 'lea ves>fram the tiee;' and hope
ru"
er ,It rd oil ed. Tree ~ that you will enjoy them as
N Tway Hous a on hi i much as they hav