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Remember When Dec. 17, 2020

10 years ago (2010)
•Members of the Luverne Economic Development  Authority took a field trip at Luverne’s Midwest Fire business Tuesday morning at the conclusion of their meeting.
LEDA assisted Scott and Pam Schneekloth with the relocation and expansion of Midwest Fire. Tuesday’s tour was a follow-up on business since the project was completed two years ago.
City officials weren’t disappointed.
They were impressed by the spacious, sunny showroom, the heated and enclosed shop areas, ample office space and state-of-the art technology.
The Schneekloths operated Midwest Fire in its Maple Street location near downtown Luverne from 1987 until moving into its new $2.3 million building in April of 2008.
The move nearly tripled the workspace for Midwest Fire operations, which increased its workforce from 19 to 32 employees. And they’re looking to hire another.
“I’m very happy,” owner Scott Schneekloth told LEDA board members during the tour. “We’ve had another really good year.”
 
25 years ago (1995)
•Tammy Wessels-Makram, adopted daughter of Stand and Gert Wessels, Luverne, recently decided to find her biological mother.
Tammy, 34, hasn’t yet found that woman, but her search led her to a series of newspaper articles by the St. Paul Dispatch about a Baby Jane Doe whom adoption officials believe to be Tammy.
The Christmas 1961 edition of the Dispatch gives the account of what was presumably Tammy’s debut into the world. …
Despite all the publicity, Tammy’s biological mother did not step forward to claim her, and she ended up under the care of the Ramsey County Welfare Department.
A St. Paul adoption agency eventually placed her under the care of a southwest Minnesota couple – far enough away from the metro area that the publicity would likely not follow her.
At last, Baby Jane Doe was given a new name and a new family in the home of Stan and Gert Wessels, who lived on a farm near Ellsworth at the time.
The rest is history. According to the adoption plan of Children’s Home Society of Minnesota, the court terminated the rights of the birth parents (who couldn’t be found) on March 6, 1962. On March 30, 1962, Stan and Gert took her home, and the adoption became final on July 2, 1963.
 
50 years ago (1970)
•Federal funds spent in Rock County during the year ending June 30, 1970, totaled $9,950,919, according to the annual report of federal spending released this week.
The expenditure represents $887 per person.
Rock County ranked next to the lowest in per capita spending in the four-county area of Rock, Nobles, Pipestone and Murray Counties. Murray had the highest of $988 per capita; Pipestone had $940 and Nobles was low with $887.
 
75 years ago (1945)
•The local American Legion post is sponsoring another school patrol.
At Magnolia Friday evening, a patrol was installed in the school there, and they are now on duty. Representing the American Legion at installation ceremonies was Lloyd Johnson, chairman of the local patrol committee, and R. L. Fritz and Oscar Martinson, members of the committee. The program included a talk by Supt. Lloyd Paul, presentation of badges by Mr. Johnson, and instructions in patrol work by R. H. Hudson and Ted Swenson, members of the state highway patrol.
Members of the patrol are Jerome Bonnett, Lloyd Michelson, Kermit Oldre, Eugene Flanigan, Eugene Cragoe, Gerald Van Dorsten, Billy Hisken and John Johnson.
 
100 years ago (1920)
•At the International Grain and Corn show, held the first week in December at Chicago, James Bjerk, of Beaver Creek township, was awarded 13th prize on a string of ten ears of yellow dent corn.
Every corn producing state in the union was represented by numerous exhibits, and agricultural experts declared that the show was the most comprehensive of its kind ever held. Twenty places were awarded in each of ten-ear string classes, and this left a great many of the entries still unplaced.
Mr. Bjerk was the only Rock county farmer who exhibited at the show, and his winning was made on Golden Jewel, in the breeding of which he has given much thought and attention. He won several prizes on corn at the late State Seed shows, and has also been a highly successful exhibitor at different county fairs.

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