Following the parade path

Today, two  WCCO news guys, Matt Brinkman and Jason DeRusha, reported from Lake Minnetonka on the segment “Goin’ to the Lake.” They talked a bit about the lake’s beauty, the great food outlets along the shore, and supplied a short history of the area. I was  a bit dismayed when they started with Prince–even non-cult followers like me know “Purple Rain.”  They gave the audience a Wikipedia-like summary of its early history, mentioning early “settlers.” I know this is history, Minnesota’s history, and I know they don’t have lots of time to say everything on air, so I get it. 

Cindy2
(Cindy Frank, Clearwater Centennial, standing in front of my uncle Dick’s new convertible.)

Of course, Native Americans were the first to settle here–dating back thousands of years.  They treasured and honored the vast hunting grounds and this huge crystal-clear lake for the sustenance it provided. I doubt they would have dealt with lake disease like e-coli.  Yet, and who and what the newscasters didn’t mention was Clearwater, Minnesota’s future founder Simon Stevens, brother to the “Father of Minneapolis,” John Harrington Stevens, who owned land in and around Clearwater as well, both of whom I write about in my historical Around Clearwater.   Simon and Calvin Tuttle were two of the first white men to explore and settle this area.  They followed what is now called Minnehaha Creek west until they found this huge body of water Native Americans had told about. Once here, they built a sawmill, thus beginning the initial settlement; “Minnetonka has a long history stretching back to the mid-1800s when the first settlement was established along Minnehaha Creek.”

Little has been written about Simon or connect him to this site, very few people connect him to brother John Harrington Stevens,  and few know he was such a historic character who made so much happen in Minnesota. Without him and others like him, Clearwater might not have been founded.  This weekend, Friday, in particular, Clearwater celebrates its heritage, and like days of old, the town sponsors a kiddie parade.   After a long postponement, both the kiddie and the grown-up parade are back, where I think it belongs because of the word HERITAGE, downtown Main Street, where the town first began running parallel to the Clearwater and Mississippi Rivers.  So here is a brief identification and synopsis of the parade route.  Follow the Grand Marshal, Elaine Paumen, and take notice of the town that used to be. (By the way, you can gather more information about the sites in my AROUND CLEARWATER historical.)

  1.  Start at the Clearwater Dam area. Phillips Album - Dam Site1   Agnew, David 1 Aug 15 Clearwater1 Where the Rendezvous will be setup is where Clear Water–began.  Sawmills, Quinn’s Tasting Room (not a saloon but it old booze),pulp mills,  flour mills, and a number of other stores lined the banks of the Clearwater River. Abigail Camp Porter became the first white woman to settle in the village.  She came from Stowe, Vermont, and served as the housekeeper for the first townsite hotel–along the banks of the river.  BTW, none of this was there anymore even when I was a youngster.
  2. As you come to the top of a slight rise, you’ll come to a newer section of town, as far back as the 1860s or so–Here on Oak Street, after you were dropped off by the ferry on the banks of the Mississippi, you’d most likely find a few buildings to inspect.  Hardware stores, watch and jewelry dealers, general mercantile, shoes–you name it, and you could find it here.

Boutwell’s Hardware Store sat on the corner, a few hundred feet from the ferry landing. Upstairs, Maude Porter had her millinery store, as I wrote about in Pins & Needles.  Across the street sat Pat Quinn’s Saloon and the Whiting Building–none of these buildings are there anymore. Whitney Building

To the west is the Masonic Temple–still standing– that houses the Masons upstairs, and hosted a variety of different businesses –general mercantile, beer parlors etc. Masonic_Temple3.  From here, you’ll see a variety of landmarks and areas where some used to be.  You’ll go by James Lyon’s house and store. Many of the town originals remember it as the Solinger home –(where it is now all lit up and entertains with yuletide music at Christmas)–

Jessie Maude Porter’s last home sat next to Solingers but that too is gone. Maude PorterShe was daughter to T. C. Porter and Abigial Camp Porter, early towns founders. Maude lived to be 103, was born, and lived all but her last year or so in Clearwater.

Kitty-corner is the United Methodist Church on Elm. This was the first church that was formed, but the first church built was the Congregationalist and sits on the hill by the apartment-once-school building.

A building or two down is another hardware store that is now owned by potters. When I was young, we often went here to buy nails, a stash of gifts, and just about everything else. And next to that is now a business office but it was once a bank as well.

Across from here at an angle are an old home and meat market, once owned by Luther Laughton–a name very well-known to the early citizens.

 

First_State_Bank1 Next to this building on the corner stood the Lyons’ Mercantile. When I was a kid, the post office sat there.

 

3.    I am beginning Phillips Drug Store close up here with #3 because this building which now houses apartments was the Phillip Drug Store that I write about in Scruples & Drams   http://www.cynthiafrankstupnik.com/product/scruples-drams-novel-minnesotas-main-street-women/.  On the corner of Maple, this historic building has lived many lives.  Drug store, Kniss Grocery, and now apartments to say the least.  Right next door was –not so historic–Tri-County Lumber. Directly across the street from Phillips’s stood a hotel that burned down and was replaced by another grocery store, and then variety store.

4. Nearly at the Next block–Ash–was what early and old villagers referred to as the Black Smith Hill, named for all the blacksmiths that worked their trade in this area.  A large house on the Corner  is a large home once owned by the Banker Shaw.  It was sold many times and often remodeled. Across the street, mid-block, was the Phillips’s home.  Jennie and her father Stanley, as well as the rest of the family, trod back and forth many times a day from home to drug store as I told in Scruples & Drams.  Most of the houses that line Main Street are historical, many have been remodeled, and many empty lots still sit waiting to be built on. Clearwater Outfitting can be seen off Pine Street.  It is housed in the original creamery building.

5. You’ll find yourself coming to almost the end of your parade route soon once you go under the bridge, which has a historical life all its own. Thomas Porter owned much of the land from her on until you reach the Eagle Trace Golf Club.

Thomas Porters land on both sides of Main.

Thomas, Abigail, and Maude Porter provided a home across the street for friends and relatives in their large home once it was built in 1871.  This large white structure is on your right close to Porter Circle.  After Maude moved out in 1910, Frank Kothmann owned it and most of the land.

Finally, you’ll be pulling into Eagle Drive on the left.  Here you’ll be entertained even more Friday and Saturday, Aug. 2-3.  The Rendezvous will start Saturday and go though Sunday.  All the specifics can be found at https://www.facebook.com/events/498211524260628/.

Back to Simon Stevens….without his foresight and adventurous spirit, he may not have come to Clearwater.  But this beautiful landscape surrounded by water wouldn’t have been unfounded for long.  Stevens may not have had a big name written in many history books like his brother,  but he took on every job the town gave him, built a large farm, and had a strong family that carried on his name for years to come.

More information can be found in my Around Clearwater.

 

Thanks to Clearwater Remembers and Monticello Times for a couple of the various pictures provided.

 

 

Reviews, the Prequel to the Minnesota Main Street Women, and August Events

The world of book reviews:  I have to admit, besides staring at a blank page on my laptop screen on a day I have nothing to say or write about, asking for a review of one of my books is not only daunting but scary. I feel like my whole being is laid open for surgical purposes.   Self-critical thoughts like–who told me I could write? run through my head.  Then when the reviews arrive, I beat myself up with how could I have not seen what the reviewer saw?  

So when I received a few 4/5’s,  80% or B in the world of education, I felt humbled. I also have had little control over my editing process with any of my books, but that is to put blame on others instead of myself. Each book I have written has had many eyes on it throughout its process. Yet once it is published, I see glaring typos.  How can this happen?  These editors and proofers have wonderful skills, but regrettably, mistakes happen.  No excuses.  I know that the author is responsible for her own work–no matter how she can’t see the proverbial forest for the trees.  Yet, when I received a 3/5 because a reader didn’t like the topic or chose the wrong book, I have a hard time not getting angry.

Overall, I have a crowd of people who love following the lives of my Minnesota Main Street Women series. I am humbled again, and thankful for their generous comments.  Here are just a couple reviews:

PINS & NEEDLES

  •  “In this historic novel set in 1909 Maude Porter and Jennie Phillips balance their careers with fighting for women’s basic rights – some openly, others behind the scenes.  These old friends, who we met in Cindy Stupnik’s earlier Scruples & Drams, continue to face fearsome adversaries with growing courage and conviction.  Along the way, we meet the historic characters who populate the village of Clearwater, Minnesota and get a flavor of early white settlement and its challenges. Stupnik has a gift for drawing us into the time and place, and this book hits the mark.

Sally Roesch Wagner, Ph.D.; Executive Director, The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, Inc.

  • Frank-Stupnik’s Minnesota’s Main Street Women series does not disappoint. First with Jennie Phillips and now with Maude Porter, the unheard, real-life stories of early Clearwater, Minnesota, residents are coming to light. These women don’t exactly fit the narrative for what we think of when we think of women living in the early twentieth century. Neither of these women married, and both ran their own businesses in town, thriving in an age when most women worked in their homes.

I can’t wait to see which of Minnesota’s Main Street Women Frank-Stupnik decides to highlight next.  (Read                       more:       https://inkstandeditorial.com/2019/04/05/book-review-pins-needles/

Anne Nerison, Instand Editorial

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I’ve been researching and collecting data for my next novel, a prequel, in the Minnesota Main Street Women’s series.  If you have read Pins & Needles, you can make a guess who the main character will be.  There is so much for me to write about.  I am having a hard time sorting and narrowing.  A hint:  She was the first woman in the early village of Clearwater and married a fur trader.

Nanny knows who will be Frank-Stupnik’s protagonist in her prequel to her Minnesota Main Street women series.

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Upcoming August Events

Clearwater Heritage Days  https://www.facebook.com/events/498211524260628/

This year, August 2-3, will begin Friday night with the parade down historic Main Street Clearwater, MN at the Clearwater River dam.  Down here where the Clearwater flows into the Mississippi is where the original town began, along the banks.  Sawmills, flour mills, Quinn’s Tasting Saloon, and so many other businesses got their start. Parade-goers will follow Main all the way down past the original Porter farm (told about in Pins & Needles), eventually sold to Frank Kothmann, and down to his property on the Mississippi River at Driftwood Golf and Fitness.  Those of us who love the history of Clearwater are shouting out a big “Hurray!”  Welcome home.  This is where the Heritage in Clearwater Heritage Days should be!

August 3-4 Clearwater Rendezvous at the Clearwater, MN Dam off Highway 75

August 17    Buffalo Arts and Crafts, downtown Buffalo, MN