Spring Valley’s Bustling Business District Remembered – Part 2

 

The first part of this article concentrated on those businesses of which there were duplicate types operating simultaneously.  There were, of course, many one-of-a-kind businesses as well, and that is the focus of this segment of the article. 

But, before we get to those, I would like to include additional information provided by Darwin “Hap” Litzell, now with a Woodville address.  Hap is a bit younger than me, so only some of our experiences overlap.  First, a correction: “…referring to Lee Richardson, I believe he was in the Insurance business.”  Hap is right - I erroneously said law offices.

Hap included some additional businesses that should have been included in the first article on “duplicate business types”.  I’ve included the following excerpts from Hap’s correspondence.  “Furhman’s Garage (Marcus, Wilbur & Marshall) – I used to use the restroom in their station to change into my swim suit so I could go swimming in the wading pole across the street. …  Also, … Harshman’s (Skyler Ofstie) garage, Gildner’s Grocery across from the feed mill, …Dr. Eldon Hill.”   The Chevrolet Garage mentioned in the first segment was more specifically “Peterson & Eckert Chevrolet”.  Thanks for making the record more complete, Hap.

Now for the one-of-a-kind businesses.  The Sun office was right where it is today (editors were Donald Lowater, then Mr. Requie (?)).

 

Harvey Hanson’s Bakery was at the same location as the SV Bakery today.  I remember seeing Harvey going into the Bakery in the early hours of the morning when some of us guys were just getting back from dates in Menomonie.  I recall Harvey briskly delivering the morning breads and pastries to Leonard Thompson’s and Burt Safe’s restaurants before they opened in the morning.  The spring in his walk as he carried the box of goodies on their appointed rounds always seemed to suggest that he was enjoying his work immensely.

 

Then there was Geving and Keehr’s furniture store (middle part of Huepfel’s Spring Valley Drug & Hardware).  Next to it was Bertelsen’s Drug Store (hardware part of Huepfel’s Spring Valley Drug & Hardware), a favorite place to hunker down and read the magazines and comic books.  “Bert” probably wasn’t real happy with that, but he never said anything or kicked our behinds down the steps to the sidewalk, which would have been appropriate.

 

I remember going to the Bertelsen’s “reading room” after football practice one evening after school when I was a freshman.  There had been a celebration of some kind, with horses, on the playing field a day or so earlier.  One of the upper classmen put a road-apple in my helmet, and when I put the helmet on to get into the practice, I got a road-apple shampoo.  Good joke, but later while at the reading room, the danged flies wouldn’t leave me alone.  I thought I had washed it out, but the flies had a different opinion.  I finally gave up and left.

 

Neil Lillie’s Jewelry store was next to my dad’s Marshall Wells hardware store to the North.  That was another reading place for us kids.  Mrs. O’Brien worked there and she would stand there over us while we read.  I’m sure she was trying to shame us into buying or leaving, or both, but it never worked.  She spent a lot of time standing there watching us read.

 

Off Main Street, there was a little concentration of businesses.  Klanderman’s SV Feed Mill was a great place to play on the bags of feed.  The bags were stacked high, and there was some small danger to us kids, so the workers would chase us out when they had the opportunity.  We would see them coming from the office/scale area and dart out the North end door, only to roll it shut on them just as they arrived.  Great fun - for us anyway.  It didn’t endear us to them, though. 

 

Reid’s hatchery was just across the street from the feed mill (North across from the village garage today).   I remember going in there and seeing them candle the eggs and to get Easter chicks.  Across Akers Street from the Mill, next to McCardle’s Grocery, was the Spring Valley Lumber Yard.  Roy Siegerstrom owned it at the time.  It used to be fun to play in there, too.  And, there was always some scrap lumber at the saw table that was just right for making model boats and such.

 

Back on Main Street, the locker plant - a butcher shop and commercial meat coolers (pizza place today), was an especially busy place during deer hunting season.  There was Ringrose’s Telephone Co., Conrad Stein’s electrical (Olstad’s Repair shop across from Pence’s garage - Hap), Ray “Gunny” Gunvalson’s shoe repair, Stockman’s clothing and dry goods store (“Rex’s V Store” – Hap; NAPA store today), the SV Bank (just one bank during that time – where the senior center is today), a movie theater, a bowling alley (“Otto & Aggie Olson’s Bowling alley and Café” - Hap), and next to that on the North side was Don Keehr’s Mortuary. 

 

Duffy’s Cleaners was just next to Arneson’s Insurance Agency.  Last time I looked, you could still see the outline of the sign over the window on the front of the building.  When I was in high school and old enough to have my driver’s license, the Duffy’s employed me to deliver dry cleaning to customers after school.  They had a Ford station wagon for this purpose, but on occasion that was not available for deliveries.  They had a new Cadillac Coup De Ville hardtop, and when the Ford wasn’t available I had to use it ti deliver dry the cleaning.  Wow!  Talk about a classy job for a teenager!  That was a real nice delivery van.  I don’t remember any specific deliveries in the Ford, but I sure do remember some in the Caddie!

 

Fred Thome had his blacksmith shop on the River Bank (about where the tanning spa is now), and there was a second-hand shop next to the “Greasy Spoon” restaurant over in that area.   I was big on cowboys and Indians when I was small.  I remember seeing a six-shooter cap pistol in that store window when I was six or seven years old.  Dad surprised me with it as a 4th of July gift.  I was thrilled, and very much indebted to Dad and the second-hand store.

You may be surprised to know that an industrial strength creamery occupied the site behind the Post Office (I think there are apartments there now).  It was large, at least two stories, maybe three, with a big smoke stack that towered about halfway to the height of the surrounding hills.  That’s how I recall it, anyway, but things did look bigger in those days.  There was a large pile of coal in the creamery yard. This was used to fuel the “creaming” process, and I can still smell the coal smoke that occasionally filled the valley.  And I can still hear the clanging of the big milk cans echoing across the valley as they rolled down the metal rollers.  Hap Litzell mentioned that there was the “Spring Valley Bottling Works across the river from "Sucker Rock”.  I don’t recall that, but it may have been after my time, or just a memory hole.  I am sure it was somehow connected with the creamery.

Other outlying businesses, not part of Main Street but nevertheless part of Spring Valley’s commercial life, were Crystal Cave, Forthun’s Motel, Madson’s Flooring Mill, Bjorenson’s Lumber, and the foundry.  The foundry, located approximately where the Community Bible Church on 2nd street is today, provided us kids with income.  We scoured the hills and valleys, dumps and alleys for scrap iron.  We would take it to the owner of the foundry to be weighed, and get a dollar and a quarter for a day’s work.  That was good money. 

It is good to know that the younger generation carried on in our enterprising footsteps.  Hap wrote “I can remember spending a whole day pulling my Radio Flyer wagon all over town and up and down the Railroad Tracks looking for some scrap iron to sell to the foundry.  Every load I took up there he would weigh it (Can't remember the owner’s name) and say, "It looks like about 25 cents worth, Hap" and he would flip me a quarter and I was a happy camper.  More times than not I would go right next door to Mae’s Bargain Nook and spend it on some used comic books or an old frying pan that I could use for camping.  Ah, the good old days. ”  I do remember that “the Iron Man” would not accept obvious railroad iron – I guess he thought it would encourage us to rip up the rails and he would get into trouble.

I wish I could remember his name – I knew it well when I wore a younger man’s clothes.  He was maintaining that foundry for his retirement.  It was a wondrous great gloomy two-story place of giant pulleys and endless wide rubber/fiber belts driving machinery, dimly lit by smoky shafts of daylight here and there.  Tragically, it burned down while I was away in the Navy.

Last, but not least, was the railroad.  While the railroad wasn’t exactly a Spring Valley business, it did figure prominently in Spring Valley’s commerce for part of that decade following the Second World War.   Rex Aikens (spelling?) was the depot agent while I was growing up.  Later, according to Hap, “…young John Moore was the telegrapher and continued to work for the RR until his retirement”. 

 

Several steam locomotives came to SV daily in the early part of that decade from 1945 to 1956.  I saw them replaced by diesel, and the trips gradually dwindle to one every other weekday by the time I left for the U.S. Navy.  It was gone when I returned after my tour of duty.  The location, you ask?  Well, the folks in the SV Apartments and the trailer court might occasionally hear the ghostly rumble of a big steam locomotive traversing their living rooms. 

 

 (More on the railroad in Spring Valley’s history, from the Pence family perspective, later.  In future articles I would like to share experiences of the old times, as related by my Dad, Rex, with the Railroad and the Ford Garage.  His father, Cassius, was the depot agent, starting around 1902, before buying the Ford agency and bringing it to SV.  The Agency got all of its cars (disassembled) shipped in via the railroad in the early days, and it was Rex’s job, as the youngest brother, to assemble them.  Also, the railroad was the superhighway of that day.  My Grandmother used to take Rex, as a small boy, along on a day’s shopping trip to St. Paul using the train… but later - therein lies another tale.)

 

Well, there you have a high-level view of the commercial layout of Spring Valley a half-century ago.  I know I have left some businesses out, and have probably remembered other things inaccurately.  My purpose here was to share personal memories and experiences.  For a more formal treatment and details, please reference Doug Blegen’s second volume, Spring Valley – Yesteryear Revisited, chapter 6, “General Businesses”.  Pages 208-209 in particular summarizes the players in that and adjacent decades, and reinforces the picture of a vibrant and lively community.

 

There are many other things about that decade that I would like to share, such as the Farmer’s Day celebration (replaced by Lumberjack Days, then Dam Days) in the Fall, and the stores staying open on Friday or Saturday evenings so the surrounding farmers could shop and socialize, but I will leave that for another time.

 

Disclaimer: I think my recollections are accurate, but I was pretty small for part of that decade.  I would welcome any corrections and/or additions to these recollections of that decade following the Second World War.  If you see anything that needs correction, please write/call the Spring Valley Sun, and/or email me at pence@asu.edu.   If you have anything to add, I would be happy to work it in, with credit to you, in a future article.

 

The Spring Valley Kid

Russell Pence

pence@asu.edu