10 years ago (2009)
•Dozens of firefighters from five area departments responded to a barn fire Saturday morning near Hardwick.
According to Hardwick Fire Chief Dan Kindt, a tin pole barn at the Barry Kracht farm was fully engulfed in flames when he and his crew arrived. ...
Kindt said the pole barn was completely destroyed, along with two sick calves being treated and housed in the structure.
Corn stalk bales and livestock feed stored in the building burned up, and two silos attached to the pole barn were damaged.
The Krachts weren’t home at the time of the fire, which was reported around 8:15 a.m. by an individual who had showed up to do livestock chores. ...
Also responding to the blaze were Jasper, Edgerton, Kenneth and Luverne fire departments.
25 years ago (1994)
•Visitors to the Carne-gie Cultural center this month will see a display of paintings unlike most seen at other art showings.
Steven Larson’s exhibit of “Paintings from the Blue Mounds” will surprise – and hopefully intrigue – viewers who in the past have looked at art work depicting the Mounds as a place of red cliffs, green and yellow prairie grasses, gnarled oaks and blue skies.
While not a native Rock Countian, Larson has lived in this general area all of his life. He was born and spent his boyhood on his parents’ farm a short distance northwest of Sherman, S.D., and attended rural school in what was then known as Lincoln School District 86. …
Larson will have 36 of his paintings on display at the Cultural Center. ... Most of them are abstract land-scapes of the Blue Mounds from different perspectives.
50 years ago (1969)
•The Palace Theatre will reopen on Wednesday, Sept. 17, under new ownership.
James R. Herreid, Northfield, a former Luverne resident, purchased the building and business from Mrs. Herman Jochims, and has employed Mr. and Mrs. Ray Lawrence, Adrian, to manage the theatre. The Lawrences formerly lived in Luverne when they managed the Manitou hotel for a year. ...
Herreid said he ... expects to have the best films to show in Luverne.
“I think we can make Saturday and Sunday matinees go again, if we promote it right,” he said, “and who knows, maybe we’ll even try bank night.”
75 years ago (1944)
•Two badly wanted escaped convicts from Anamosa, Iowa, abandoned a stolen car on West Lincoln street here Sunday evening. Local authorities notified about a half hour later combed the town and searched the highways but were unable to find the men. It is believed that they caught a ride with a passing car or truck.
The car was owned by Carl R. Moir, who had driven Sunday from his home at Akron, Iowa, to Sioux City. The car was stolen there later in the afternoon and driven here.
A Luverne man happened to notice two men drive up on West Lincoln street and get out of the car. The Luverne man was working on his car about fifty feet away. Later he noticed that the car bore a Plymouth county Iowa license and then became suspicious, remembering that the men had started walking to the highway to evidently hitchhike a ride. He called the office of Sheriff Roberts, who was out of town, and Officer Ryan answered the call.
The Luverne man identified pictures of Kenneth Pryor, alias James Davis, and Alpheus Meyers, alias Bill Newton, as the men who had abandoned the car.
100 years ago (1919)
•A new business concern, to be known as the Luverne Sand and Gravel Co., has been organized with W.J. McCracken as president and general manager.
The company will specialize in the sale of sand and gravel for paving and other purposes and will install the most modern equipment for supplying these products in carload lots–washed, screened and graded to any size desired.
The stockholders in the new company are practically the same as in the McCracken Concrete Pipe Co., and the company will install the gravel handling plant at the McCracken Co.’s sand deposits.
The plant to be installed by the Luverne Sand and Gravel Co. will present an expenditure of over $20,000, and will give the concern a capacity of fifteen carloads of sand and gravel daily.
You must log in to continue reading. Log in or subscribe today.