Tidbits

On October 29, 1879, a local newspaper reported that there were two ladies and twenty bachelors in the town of Lakefield.

When the Barnum & Bailey Circus came to Lakefield in about 1899, one of their many attractions included a tight rope walker. A rope was strung from the White Hotel across to the old Lewis building and a fellow was employed to walk back and forth with the aid of a balance pole.   A certain 23-year-old farmer, named Steve Pavelko Sr., from Minneota Township watched for some time and just couldn’t see why this fellow used that long pole and told him so a couple of times, then repeatedly kept heckling the fellow on the wire. The fellow became so irritated at Steve that he said, “If you can do better, maybe you had better come up and try it.” Steve did just that – not only did he walk back and forth, but he walked without the aid of the balance pole. He was offered a job in the circus walking the tight rope at a good salary, but because of the recent death of his father he was the sole support of his mother and 15-year-old brother, John, so he had to decline.

In 1899, a Dr. J.G. Heller had his office in a barn one block east of the city hall and was listed in the newspaper as “Veterinary Surgeon and Dentist.”

Charity was a virtue of high value to Jackson County residents in early days. At Heron Lake Township’s annual meeting on March 13, 1877, the township elected its first “Overseer of the Poor,” William Rossow. It was the responsibility of the township to provide relief for all of the needy and destitute residents therein.   Again at the annual township meeting in 1934 the township decided to build a 16’x24’x10’ building for poor families to live in which were being supported by the township. This “poor house” was built on the ½ acre which had been purchased for a tractor shed. This building later became the town hall. Heron Lake Township also owned other living places for the poor.

The early town council was emphatic that there be no more than four saloons in Lakefield, even though the $1000 license fee for each saloon made up a large portion of the revenue on which the town operated.

Some of the streets in Lakefield are named for early inhabitants. Among them are Funk, Griffin and Snure.

Karl Rolvaag, the 31st governor of Minnesota and son of the famous Norwegian-American author, Ole Rolvaag, was the guest speaker at a corn picking contest on a farm 2 ½ miles west of Lakefield on October 13, 1964.