The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on September 12, 1924:
 
LUVERNE PLANS FOR DEFENSE TEST DAY
 
Local Committee Completes Arrangements for Fitting Observance of Day This Afternoon
 
CO. H TO BE RECRUITED TO FULL WAR STRENGTH
 
Parade at 3 0’Clock will be Followed by Speech, Music and Exhibition Drill at Fair Grounds
 
Today is Defense Day, and it will be observed in Luverne this afternoon with appropriate exercises, conforming to the proclamations issued by President Coolidge and Governor Preus.
Company H, of the 205th infantry, M. N. G., will, under the order of the war department be mobilized to full war strength for the day only, such mobilization to be through volunteer recruiting. The war strength of Company H is 141 men and 5 officers.
The program for the day, as arranged by the committee appointed by Mayor C. S. Brewer, calls for the observance of the day to begin at 3 o’clock this afternoon. At that hour all citizens who wish to enlist in Company H for the exercises, are requested to assemble at the armory for enrollment.
At the meeting of the Luverne Kiwanis club last week, it was unanimously voted that all members of the club enlist in the company for the day. This number will not bring the company up to full war strength. Moreover, the company is not restricted to number above given, but can enroll as many as volunteer. Therefore, all citizens of military age are invited to enlist.
At 3 o’clock, or after the mobilization of the company, the company will form in line and march from the Armory to the corner of Main and Freeman; thence east to the corner of Main and McKenzie streets; thence back to the corner of Main and Freeman, and thence to the fair grounds. The regular members of the company will appear in uniform, while the recruits will be given distinctive badges. In the formation for the parade, the regular members and the recruits will intermingle.
At 2:45 the company bugler will sound the assembly to call attention to the hour of enlistment.
When the company reaches the fair grounds they will form in front of the speakers’ stand, where Major A. A. Anderson will read the Governor’s proclamation. Following this a short address, explaining the purpose of defense test day, will be given by E. H. Canfield, Esq. These exercises will be interspersed with selections by the Luverne band. One of the selections will be “America,” and all present will be asked to join in singing the anthem.
At the close of these exercises the recruits will be dismissed and the regular members of Company H will then give an exhibition drill. Following the drill the company will march to the Armory for dismissal.
At meetings held during the past week by the Luverne Commercial club and Dell-Hogan Post, American Legion, approval of defense day was voted by these organizations, with the understanding that hearty co-operation should be given.
The local committee in charge of the observance is Frank Ferguson, H. C. Engan, Henry Koehn and James Horne.
Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on August 29, 1924:
 
ROCK COUNTY USED 1,223,002 GALLONS OF GASOLINE IN 1923
 
Report of State Oil Inspection Department Shows Rock County Generous Buyer of Gas
Rock county used 1,223,002 gallons of gasoline during 1923, according to the annual report of the division of oil inspection of the Dairy and Ford Department. In addition to this quantity of gasoline, a total of 247,197 gallons of kerosene was used in the county in the same period. The report shows that the total number of gallons of gasoline used in the state in 1923 to be 185,785,042.
While Rock is one of the smallest counties in the state, in only forty-four of the eighty-seven counties was more gasoline used than in Rock county. Thirty-two of the eighty-seven counties used less than a million gallons. Hennepin heads the list with 34,034,833 gallons, while Ramsey comes next with 22,957,407, and St. Louis next with 13,954,546. Stearns takes fourth place with 4,936,887, and Blue Earth fifth with 3,480,472. No other county in the state reaches the three million mark.
Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on August 22, 1924:
 
(Continued from last week)
 
OLE-TIMER RECALLS THE DAYS OF THE EARLY ’70s
 
Collin Estey had the first pre-emption along the Rock river valley in Rock  county. Mrs. Deborah Estey, her six sons, Amos, Collin, Orville, Al and Byron and two daughters.  Ruth Estey Ferguson and Hulda, came here from time to time during the years 1867 to 1870. Mrs. Estey’s homestead was located where Ashcreek now stands, east of the Ashcreek post office.
Mr. DeForce clearly recalls the first Fourth of July celebration, held in 1873 in Amos Estey’s grove, one mile below Ashcreek. At that time Mr. DeForce was only ten years old and the settlers called on him to sing. He responded with the song, “Alcohol.” Between fifty and sixty people, almost all of the settlers then in the county, were present.
Luverne could boast of only a few business houses in 1873. These were Wold and McKay’s store, the only store in town, Hoffman’s blacksmith shop, Estey’s drug store and the office of George and P. J. Kniss and Martin Webber, bankers and real estate men in Luverne.
Wold’s store was located in the building at present occupied as a home by Carl Pederson, at the corner of Main and Oakley streets; Estey’s drug store in the present Skoland residence and the Kniss Bros. and Mr. Webber had their offices in the two buildings immediately west of the Skoland place, now occupied as homes.
The Luverne House, this section’s most pretentious hotel, occupied a site where the Weick feed yards were located, and Mr. DeForce recalls that while a heavy, fleshy man, whose name he is unable to recall, was engaged in painting this building, the scaffold gave way and he fell a considerable distance to the ground, badly fracturing one of his ankles.
The weather was warm, and following a consultation, Dr. Crawford and another physician who did not remain here very long afterwards, decided that the injured man might develop infection from the fracture, and decided to forestall this possibility by amputating the injured foot, instead of taking chances by attempting to reset the broken bones.
The result was that the physicians brought their patient to the drug store, and after borrowing an ordinary meat saw from the meat market across the street, laid their patient out on a table in the drug store, and proceeded to cut the injured part of the limb off. With each stroke of the saw the patient gave voice to additional anguish, but the doctors kept at work until they had completed the disagreeable task. The patient survived the operation.
Mr. DeForce takes pride in the fact that he joined the Baptist congregation of this city in the summer of 1876, and has always retained membership in this denomination. He was formally baptized one Sunday morning in Rock River, about one hundred feet north of the present Main street bridge.
Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on August 22, 1924:
 
OLE-TIMER RECALLS THE DAYS OF THE EARLY ‘70S
 
George DeForce Returns here After Absence of Forty-Eight Years — And, Becomes Reminiscent.
 
George DeForce, who first came to Rock county with his parents fifty-two years ago, returned here last week after an absence of forty-eight years, and expects to again make his home here.
Mr. DeForce, who is a son of the late Ed. A. DeForce, one of the first settlers of Kanaranzi township, still retains vivid recollections of Rock county when it was a wilderness in the first stages of transformation.
His father first came here in 1871, filing on a homestead in Kanaranzi, and the following year returned to Boone county, Illinois, and brought his family, which included George, then nine years of age, back with him. That fall the father passed away and the family moved into Collin Estey’s dugout for the winter. This dugout was on the south part of what is now known as the Frank Kohn place, but was originally the Henry Martin homestead.
In the fall of 1873 the DeForces returned to Illinois and later on, in the same year, Mrs. DeForce was married to Collin Estey at Mankato. The next spring they moved to the Estey homestead located four miles south and one half mile west of Luverne, on the southwest quarter of section 34, Luverne township. The year 1874 was the first year that the grasshoppers were  here and they continued to ravage the crops in the county for the next two years.
In the summer of 1876 Mr. DeForce began to work in the first drug store in Luverne owned by Nathan Estey. That December he left this county and since that has lived, for the greater part of the time, in Colorado and Montana. For the last eighteen months he has been under a physician’s care, spending part of that time, in hospitals, but since his return to Minnesota, his health has shown considerable improvement.
Mr. DeForce, in company with Nathan and Collin Estey, are credited with having killed the last buffalo seen in Rock county, which was in 1873. Nathan Estey had often hunted buffalo in this section and he claimed that the male that was shot at that time was the largest ever seen on these plains. These buffalo, which consisted of a bull, a cow  and a calf, were sighted one fall day in the tall, rank growth of grass about a mile southeast of the Collin Estey homestead.
One of the three hunters succeeded in crippling the bull as it made a mad rush for him, and then George was granted the privilege of firing the shot that put it out of its misery.
The cow and calf, were then trailed to near the present site of Valley Springs, where one of the party succeeded in dispatching the cow. The calf was captured and brought back to the Estey homestead, and kept.
Nathan Estey and a man named Moon came to the section of the northwest in 1866 and the next year filed on a homestead where Rock Rapids now stands. When Edward DeForce and his family came to where Rock Rapids now stands, all they could see was a dugout in the side of a hill and a pet deer, belonging to Mr. Moon, tied to a picket rope.
This article will continue next week.
Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on August 12, 1924:
 
BUILDING FOR HEALTH EXHIBIT REST ROOM AT COUNTY FAIR
 
Three Organizations Unite for Construction of Exhibit Building and Rest Room at Fair Grounds
Under arrangements completed this week, the Rock County Chapter of American Red Cross, the Rock County Public Health association and the Rock County Agricultural society will jointly erect a building at the fair grounds for use of public health exhibits and as a rest room during the fair. The plans call for a building 20x24 feet, of arrangement suitable to the purpose for which it is to be utilized, and the cost will be $600, one-third of which will be borne by each of the three societies named.
Heretofore it has been customary to rent a tent for the public health exhibit and rest room. This has not only been very unsatisfactory from every standpoint, but has been an expensive way of supplying a place of exhibit and rest room. A check of the situation showed that the rental saved could pay the cost of the new building in a few years, and at the same time provide much better facilities.
The building will be completed in time for use during the coming fair, Sept. 10th to 13th, and will make a noticeable addition to the buildings at the fairgrounds.
Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on July 11, 1924:
 
HARDWICK’S TWO BANKING INSTITUTIONS CONSOLIDATE
 
Farmers State Bank Takes Over Business of Security State Bank and Stockholders Pool Interests
 
The consolidation of Hardwick’s two banking institutions, which had been under consideration for sometime, was fully agreed upon at a joint meeting of the stockholders held Saturday evening. The merger was formally consummated Monday morning, the Farmers State bank taking over the business of the Security State bank, which passed out of existence.
This action was taken by the stockholders for their mutual benefit, for it has long been recognized that the field did not necessitate two banks, and that the consolidation of the two under one corps of officers would not only eliminate much overhead expense, but also give the community one of the very strongest financial institutions in the county outside of Luverne.
In connection with this change the stockholders in the Security State bank were given at apportionate representation on the board of directors of the Farmers State bank, although but slight changes or additions were made in the list of officers of the Farmers State bank.
Stockholders of the two institutions met Monday and re-organized by electing a board of directors composed of Herman Hemme, E. T. Thorson, Harry Rolfs, Jas. C. Graham, J. W. Stamman, Gus Fredericks, Adolf Hauger, Louis Rath and E. A. Meyer.
This board organized by the re-election of Mr. Hemme as president, Mr. Thorson, vice president; Mr. Graham, cashier; A. A. Peterson, assistant cashier and also elected Mr. Stamman a vice president, and H. T. Banger an assistant cashier.
The consolidation gives the Farmers State bank total footings in excess of $400,000, with a cash reserve of more than $43,000, and places this bank on a stronger foundation and in a better condition to meet the needs of the Hardwick territory than ever before.
Security State bank was founded about nine years ago, and at the time of the its being merged into the Farmers State bank, Mr. Stamman was president, and A. L. Martinka cashier. Mr. Martinka retires from the banking field at Hardwick.
Merging of the two banks was accomplished without the slightest interruption, the contents of the vault and the records of the Security Bank being moved to the Farmers State Sunday, and the consolidation had been fully accomplished before banking hours Monday morning.
Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on May 30, 1924:
 
THREE ARE ARRESTED FOR ASHCREEK BANK ROBBERY
 
Members of Notorious Gang Are Apprehended and Positively Identified at Sioux Falls
 
Largely through clever work on the part of C. D. Brown, of St. Paul, who has been the directing head of the criminal detection department of the Minnesota Bankers’ association for many years, three of the four men who participated in the day-light robbery of the Ashcreek State bank Wednesday afternoon of last week, are now under the care of Sheriff Frank Wiggins.
The alleged bank robbers under confinement are Carroll Denbow, Ray Lage and Frank Davis, all rated as hardened criminals, with Davis as the brains of the organization. All three of the men were apprehended at Sioux Falls, Sunday afternoon. Denbow and Davis were brought here later the same night by Sheriff Wiggins and Deputy Sheriff Kitterman and Mr. Brown arrived Monday with Lage.
A fourth member of the party, who is thought to be in possession of the new Buick automobile which the robbers used, and which it has since been ascertained was stolen at Spencer, Iowa, is still at large. It is expected, however, that he will be apprehended in a short time.
Several bank robberies, including that of the Wall Lake, S. D. bank in April are laid at the door of this gang by Mr. Brown, and his information was that the robbers had planned to hold up the bank at St. Leo, a small inland town near Northfield Tuesday, and then go to the twin cities to dispose of their loot. But, of course, the arrest of three members of the gang Sunday upset these plans.
Before the men were brought here Sunday night, Geo. M. LaDue, who was in charge of the Ashcreek bank at the time it was robbed, was called to Sioux Falls, to identify the suspected men. And the identification was considered unusually complete for Mr. LaDue not only instantly recognized Denbow and Davis as the two men who entered the bank, but they also gave unmistakable signs of recognizing him, when they were led into the waiting room at the county jail, where Mr. LaDue was seated with about twenty other people.
Hardened criminals as they appeared to be, those who were watching them declare that the moment their gaze became focused on Mr. LaDue, the twitching of Denbow’s eyes, and Davis’s jaws clearly indicated unwilling recognition, although they sought to put up a bold front when confronted by Mr. LaDue, and declared that he was mistaken.
The arrested men had been under surveillance at Sioux Falls since Friday, and are known to have entered that place on the afternoon of the robbery in an old Ford automobile, which they are thought to have secreted near Sioux Falls, before the robbery. Lage is believed to have been the driver of the new Buick car on the trip to Ashcreek.
Denbow and Lage were arrested Sunday afternoon while in front of the place where they had had rooms. Davis was then in a down town restaurant, but in some mysterious way he received word of the two men’s arrest, and attempted to effect an escape out of the back way at the restaurant. He was captured after a chase that ended near the Queen Bee mills.
Just before he was captured he was seen to throw his gun into the river, and considerable pains have since been expended to recover it, for it is believed to be a peculiarly marked army revolver, that was the property of the cashier of the Wall Lake bank, which was taken at the time of this robbery.
Mr. Brown has a fairly complete record of Denbow and Lage, both of whom were involved in the Milwaukee railway jewelry robbery at Sioux Falls, and who but recently gained their release from the South Dakota penitentiary. Both are Sioux Falls boys.
Who Davis is, is a mystery to Mr. Brown, and in an effort to get his record, pictures of him were taken Wednesday, and arrangements made to send them broadcast. He is somewhat older than the other two, and is thought to come from Oklahoma.
In the opinion of those who professed to be versed in criminology, he is a bad actor, commonly dubbed a “killer,” who will stop at nothing to go through with any job that he attempts.
A studied effort is being made to prevent the three men from communicating with each other. Davis and Lage occupy cells on different floors in the Rock county jail, and Denbow is confined in a cell in the Nobles county jail at Worthington.
Owing to the absence of County Attorney Canfield, the preliminary examinations of the accused men has been postponed until the fore part of next week. Denbow will be given a hearing Monday afternoon at 2 o’clock before Judge Reynold’s; Davis Tuesday morning at 10 o’clock, and Lage Wednesday morning at 10 o’clock.
Thorough rechecking following the robbery of the Ashcreek bank disclosed that they secured $1,316, of which $960 was in Liberty bonds and war savings stamps. This loss is fully covered by insurance.
Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

(The following is the last half of the article from last week’s “Bits by Betty.”)
 
The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on May 23, 1924:
 
BANDITS ROB ASHCREEK STATE BANK
 
Secure $700.00 in Currency and Few Liberty Bonds in Daring Day-Light Hold Up
 
GEO. M. LaDUE FORCED INTO BANK’S VAULT
 
Robbers Consist of Four Men Who Come and Disappear in New Buick Automobile
Shortly before two o’clock, the occupants of the new Buick were seen to drive up and circle the street square opposite the bank and then return to a point near the Omaha stockyards in the south part of the village. Ten or fifteen minutes later they returned and parked the car along the sidewalk on the west side of the bank.
The two men entered the bank, and as Mr. LaDue got up to wait on them they walked to the south end of the bank lobby, instead of stopping at the cashier’s window. As Mr. LaDue came up to them they disclosed leveled revolvers, and ordered him to walk to the south wall of the office and study a wall map. One of the men kept right close to him, and held the barrel of his gun against Mr. LaDue’s back.
While Mr. LaDue was kept covered, the second man proceeded to go through the drawers and into the vault in quest of currency, but in his hurried search he overlooked a considerable number of bills and bankable paper, contained in a large wallet.
During this time A. D. Emerson, the Ashcreek merchant, and E. W. Brown, of this city, were out in front of the Emerson store, straight across from the bank on the north. They were looking towards the bank, noticed the men go in, saw them inside the bank and saw them come out, but their suspicions were not aroused.
After compelling Mr. LaDue to enter the vault, the men closed the vault door all right, but failed to turn the dial wheel of the door, or throw in the door bolts. As soon as the robbers had gotten out of the bank building, the imprisoned man started pounding on the vault door in the hope of attracting the attention of someone who might be passing. The blows on the door caused the dial to gradually turn back until it finally reached the correct position for the door to open, and Mr. LaDue walked out.
A. D. LaDue was at once notified and while the telephone was brought into use to notify the officers of surrounding points to be on the lookout for the robbers. Mr. LaDue accompanied Sheriff Wiggins and Deputy Sheriff Kitterman to Ashcreek, but the party from Luverne were unable to accomplish anything in the way of aiding in the apprehension of the robbers. After leaving Ashcreek they had gone south to the state line road, and thence west, and were last seen about three miles north of Lester, presumably headed for Sioux Falls.
The loss sustained by the Ashcreek bank is fully covered by burglar insurance.
Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on May 23, 1924:
 
BANDITS ROB ASHCREEK STATE BANK
 
Secure $700.00 in Currency and Few Liberty Bonds in Daring Day-Light Hold Up
 
GEO. M. LaDUE FORCED INTO BANK’S VAULT
 
Robbers Consist of Four Men Who Come and Disappear in New Buick Automobile
About $700 in currency and several Liberty bonds were obtained in a daring day-light robbery of the Ashcreek State bank, staged Wednesday afternoon at 2 o’clock. Geo. M. LaDue, who happened to be in charge of the bank at the time, was compelled at the point of a leveled gun to stand idly by while the money was being collected, and then enter the vault and have its doors closed upon him.
There were four men in the party of robbers, and they traveled in a brand new Buick six touring car, but only two of the men participated in the holdup, the other two remaining in the waiting automobile. Mr. LaDue was able to open the vault door within two or three minutes after the robbers had left the bank. He at once spread an alarm, which resulted in reports being phoned to all surrounding towns, but up to yesterday noon, there had been no developments that might lead to the apprehension of the culprits.
The robbers were first noticed in Ashcreek at about 11 o’clock Wednesday morning, and it is now thought that they planned to rob the bank during the noon hour but were prevented from doing so owing to the presence of a number of Northern States Power Co. linemen. The latter workmen assembled near the bank and spent the noon hour pitching horseshoes, and this is believed to have caused the robbers to postpone their plans.
The two men who took the active parts in the robbery were dressed in overalls, one in blue and the other in khaki, and their general appearance led those who observed them to suppose that they were electric or phone linemen. The fact that they were seen sizing up wire connections on posts gave added weight to this theory.
Their general appearance, however, tended to create suspicion, and while they were near the Lundy Hill home on the Kitterman farm, a block or so south of the bank, Mr. Hill, who is a constable, expressed doubt about their business there, and he asked Mrs. Hill to endeavor to get the number of the license plate. But when she tried to do so, she found that she could not distinguish anything on the plate, but the letters, S. D., the numerical figures being so thickly covered with dust that it is thought that the robbers must have smeared grease over them in order to collect dust and hide the numbers.
Next week: What occurred after two o'clock left bank employees in shock.