Hale-area histories
History of the Hale area
Hale is located about 10 miles south of Osseo on County Trunk EE near the intersection of E and EE.
After much searching of people’s memories and records not much history of Hale in known before 1890. Records show the township of Hale was named for George Hale, who was the first settler in the township, on a farm nine miles north of Independence along the Elk Creek River in 1858. If he had any connection with the beginning of the Hale store it is not known.
Some memories recall the name of John Smith, as being in the store before 1890.
Ole Hovre purchased the Hale Store in 1890 and operated it for 26 years. The property consisted of a store, a house, small barn and 28 acres of land. Mr. Hovre was also a school teacher in the Casewell School. There are some Indian Mounds along the creek and swamp area near there. Over the years many people have dug in the mounds and found Indian articles, proving that Indians had traveled in this area years past and maybe had camps there. There was also a tamarack growth in the swamp near the mounds. These trees were unusual in that there are very few areas that these trees grow. Over the years these trees have been cut off.
Christ Olson, an early settler had a sugar cane mill south of the store, near the creek. Area farmers would bring sugar cane there to be processed. Olaf Pederson 97 years old and a resident of Osseo Nursing Home recalls hauling sugar cane with a lumber wagon to this mill for his father.
The post office of the area was at the store also. So the store was a gathering place for news, shopping and meeting neighbors. Mrs. Bennie Enger (Mabel Hagen) remembers “as a little child” when she and her brother Roy Hagen, would walk to the store, down thru the Olson Marsh to get the mail. The mail didn’t get to the store until 5 p.m. so it would be getting dark and they would be scared walking home again so Mrs. Hovre would walk halfway with them. This was in 1898, during the Spanish American War. Mabel’s dad got the St. Paul Dispatch Newspaper so was anxious to get the paper to read the news. The “Decorah Poste” was also a paper received then, all in Norwegian. The comic strip Ola og Per was in this paper.
Farmers would bring their chickens in crates to sell at the store, also eggs and other products. It was such a common practice to sell products to pay for groceries, not much exchange of money. Mrs. Sim Lee (Martha Pederson) remembers walking to the store with a basket of eggs to sell for groceries and to get the mail, at least six miles. Once she had anew wool skirt on and by the time she got home again the basket had rubbed on the skirt over her hip so much it ruined the skirt. It was a common practice to pack eggs in oats in the pail or basket to keep them from breaking on the way to the store.
There was a hitching rail along the east side of the store for farmers to tie up their horse and buggies or sleighs. Mr. Hovre was Justice of the Peace for 24 years at this location, also the town of Hale clerk for 12 years. Mr Hovre also started a feed mill in Hale. Mr and Mrs. Hovre had a family of ten children.
In 1917, the Hovres traded the Hale property for a farm in Dunn County, near Colfax with William Schaefer. Mr. Schaefer operated the store until 1923, when the Oscar Olsons purchased it. In 1906 the feed mill had been sold to John Julson who also had a saw mill there. Mr. Henry Schaefer then purchased the feed mill in 1920. He was William’s son and having an active interest in a bee hobby he started a bee apairy in Hale.
C. Anderson (Willie) came to Hale in 1898 and worked for Alex Berg one year in the blacksmith shop as an apprentice. Then he went to Osseo and worked for 2 years as an apprentice. After which he came back to Hale in 1902 and purchased the blacksmith shop from Mr. Berg. He married Anna Julson and they had three sons, Ervin Clarence and Curtis and one daughter Selma. Willie built a new house near the blacksmith shop in 1908 and a new blacksmith shop in 1910. He had a very busy place of business sharpening plow shares, welding and other repairs. His son Curtis worked with him a few years until 1957. After first being built they held dances in the upstairs of the blacksmith shop. It has a beautiful hardwood floor. The last dance held there was March 1916. This was Mr. and Mrs. Albert Johnson’s wedding dance. After this the floor was used for roller skating for some years. Mr. Anderson retired in 1968 and the house and blacksmith shop were sold to Clarence Goss. The blacksmith shop is not operating anymore.
Clarence Anderson remembers that in 1919 and 1920 the price of eggs was 60 cents. This was after the depression and boom years Sam Hammerstad inherited some chickens. He would bring “one egg” to the store on the way to school and get 5 cents for it. With that he would buy a large sack of candy to take to school and treat the girls.
Mr. Oscar Olson operated the store from 1923 to 1928 when Hovres reposessed it. Clarence Anderson purchased it then. However his father C. E. Anderson operated the store in his house until Clarence had completed electrical school in Milwaukee and his marriage to Alice Anaas and he took over the store. Clarence operated the old store until 1937 when he built a new store with living quarters attached, about a block east of the old store. Mr. Anderson was also Justice of the Peace many years (but he didn’t perform marriage ceremony for anyone.) In the first years Clarence owned the store, most everything was handled in bulk. The molasses barrel, sugar lumps, tubs of herring, cracker barrel, dried lutefisk. “Peabury Coffee” sold for 19 cents a pound and there was 5 cent ice cream cones with 2 or 3 scoops of ice cream. He also remembers when farmers’ eggs were worth only 8 cents a dozen.
He would purchase cattle hides after the farmers butchered at home. It was quite a job to salt the hides in the store basement and pile them for resale. During the depression years cattle, machinery and most anything was traded for groceries. His delivery route some weeks would see him purchasing 50 to 60 cases of eggs a week. The days of farmers having chickens and eggs are gone.
Clarence also worked as a lineman for the Pleasantville Telephone Co. from 1935 to 1946. He also does electrical work and minor electrical repairs. He sells Nutrena feed and has a portable feed mill. Mrs. Anderson does dress making and sells Sarah Coventry Jewelry. The Andersons have three married daughters, Alice’s sister Elsie Anaas has retired from teaching and has an apartment over the Hale Store.
The bee apiary was operated by Henry Schaefer until 1965 when Cal Pruess purchased it. He sold the business in 1975 to Leon Ehmen of Florida. Mr. Ehmen also has bees in Flordia so in the fall he moves the bees to Florida and back to the area in the spring.
Olaf Lovelien owned the farm by the Hale store. His house on the farm was destroyed by fire. Aldor Myren purchased that farm and the old Hovre farm. The old store was torn down. After Mr. Myren’s death Mrs. Myren built a new home near the area of the old store. Donald Myren operates the farm now.
Early settlers in this area and South Branch were Olaf Lovelien, Ole Helmondrud, Christ Olson, Frank George, Hans and Elmer Hammerstad, Sam Scott, Andrew and Henry Lewis, Harry Caswell, Hlllstads, Hans Enger, Joseph Hagen, Nels Nelson, Carl and Ole Jacobson, August Goplin, Alex Berg, Pete Beck, John Oshalahle, Pete, Carl, and Andrew Johnson, Jacob Pederson, Andrew Steen, Tes Ottestad, Nils Malke, John Nokeby, Ole Granrud, Even Christianson, Tes Hammerstad and others.
Albert Johnson tells of a cream separator station that was 10 to 20 rods from the creek on the former Henry Hauge farm along the road two miles north of Hale on County E. This was a large separator in a building operated by Willie Crow for the Osseo Creamery. Mr. Crow would come from Osseo with horse and wagon early in the morning to the station. Area farmers would bring their milk on wagons to this station, waiting their turn to have their milk separated. Mr. Crow took the cream to Osseo and farmers took the milk back home for the pigs. Nils Malke who lived where John Julson lived last would bring his one can of milk up there in a wheelbarrow.
The Hale General Store
If you don’t already know where the Hale General Store is you may never be able to find it. But store owner Clarence Anderson is in his 55th year of business in the tiny town of Hale near Junction E and County EE in Trempealeau County.
Like the good old-fashioned store it is, Anderson’s store features a little bit of everything, including groceries, ice-cold pop, nails, nits and bolts, scredrivers, feed for fairy cattle and gas for your car and, if you have some time, conversation. “A convenience store” is what we are.
A convenience store has been what it has been since its beginning. At onetime Hale had a post office, feed mill, blacksmith shop and a bee keeper in addition to the general store.
Anderson first worked in the store as a youngster. Then it stood empty for a while. He and h is father re-opened it in the fall of 1929.
“You didn’t have to have much to start a store then and everything was there, counters, scale, and coffee grinders,” he said.
There was no need for expensive refrigeration equipment because there was no electricity. On a hot day the cheese simply would melt.
To survive in the ’30s, Anderson started a delivery route. He delivered groceries in exchange for eggs and then hauled the eggs to Pigeon Falls to get his money. That’s convenience.
His father stayed in the business only a year. In 1931 Clarence Anderson married Alice Anaas and since then they have run the store and raised three daughters. In 1937 they put up the present building which also includes their home. With the new building came the modern convenience of electricity.
It was hard going during the depression Anderson admitted, “Nobody had any money. Farmers would bring in $8 and $10 milk checks. I had a full line of machinery that I had exchanged for goods. It wasn’t good machinery but it was cheap.
To help ends meet, the Andersons have done more than just run the store. At one time he milked 11 cows, repaired radios and small appliances and for several years was a lineman for the Pleasantville Telephone Co. Today he repairs electrical fencers and a few small appliances.
Mrs. Anderson is a seamstress and has done sewing for others.
She also sells jewelry at home parties. This stubborn faith in the store and location has paid off. “There was a time that the banker refused to borrow us money because he thought I should go into a bigger town,” Anderson said. But we proved him wrong, everything is paid for.
Son of the local blacksmith, Anderson can boast he was born and raised in Hale. The only time he was away was when he got his degree in electrical engineering, but he liked the country and people here and couldn’t wait to get back to Hale after two years in Milwaukee. The biggest changes in over 55 years have been the prices and the people. His first ledger records bread at 15 cents a loaf and oil at 15 cents a quart, galvanized nails 25 cents each and gas was 20 cents a gallon.
While people are not as easy to record as price changes, Anderson noted differences there as well.
Nobody had anything then, but they seemed happier. Nor happier now but everyone is so busy they don’t even have the time to visit.
Mrs. Anderson’s sister Elsie Anaas makes her home here also.
(From Pictorial Atlas of Trempealeau County, compiled by Title Atlas Co., Minneapolis, Minn., 1984)
Hale is located about 10 miles south of Osseo on County Trunk EE near the intersection of E and EE.
After much searching of people’s memories and records not much history of Hale in known before 1890. Records show the township of Hale was named for George Hale, who was the first settler in the township, on a farm nine miles north of Independence along the Elk Creek River in 1858. If he had any connection with the beginning of the Hale store it is not known.
Some memories recall the name of John Smith, as being in the store before 1890.
Ole Hovre purchased the Hale Store in 1890 and operated it for 26 years. The property consisted of a store, a house, small barn and 28 acres of land. Mr. Hovre was also a school teacher in the Casewell School. There are some Indian Mounds along the creek and swamp area near there. Over the years many people have dug in the mounds and found Indian articles, proving that Indians had traveled in this area years past and maybe had camps there. There was also a tamarack growth in the swamp near the mounds. These trees were unusual in that there are very few areas that these trees grow. Over the years these trees have been cut off.
Christ Olson, an early settler had a sugar cane mill south of the store, near the creek. Area farmers would bring sugar cane there to be processed. Olaf Pederson 97 years old and a resident of Osseo Nursing Home recalls hauling sugar cane with a lumber wagon to this mill for his father.
The post office of the area was at the store also. So the store was a gathering place for news, shopping and meeting neighbors. Mrs. Bennie Enger (Mabel Hagen) remembers “as a little child” when she and her brother Roy Hagen, would walk to the store, down thru the Olson Marsh to get the mail. The mail didn’t get to the store until 5 p.m. so it would be getting dark and they would be scared walking home again so Mrs. Hovre would walk halfway with them. This was in 1898, during the Spanish American War. Mabel’s dad got the St. Paul Dispatch Newspaper so was anxious to get the paper to read the news. The “Decorah Poste” was also a paper received then, all in Norwegian. The comic strip Ola og Per was in this paper.
Farmers would bring their chickens in crates to sell at the store, also eggs and other products. It was such a common practice to sell products to pay for groceries, not much exchange of money. Mrs. Sim Lee (Martha Pederson) remembers walking to the store with a basket of eggs to sell for groceries and to get the mail, at least six miles. Once she had anew wool skirt on and by the time she got home again the basket had rubbed on the skirt over her hip so much it ruined the skirt. It was a common practice to pack eggs in oats in the pail or basket to keep them from breaking on the way to the store.
There was a hitching rail along the east side of the store for farmers to tie up their horse and buggies or sleighs. Mr. Hovre was Justice of the Peace for 24 years at this location, also the town of Hale clerk for 12 years. Mr Hovre also started a feed mill in Hale. Mr and Mrs. Hovre had a family of ten children.
In 1917, the Hovres traded the Hale property for a farm in Dunn County, near Colfax with William Schaefer. Mr. Schaefer operated the store until 1923, when the Oscar Olsons purchased it. In 1906 the feed mill had been sold to John Julson who also had a saw mill there. Mr. Henry Schaefer then purchased the feed mill in 1920. He was William’s son and having an active interest in a bee hobby he started a bee apairy in Hale.
C. Anderson (Willie) came to Hale in 1898 and worked for Alex Berg one year in the blacksmith shop as an apprentice. Then he went to Osseo and worked for 2 years as an apprentice. After which he came back to Hale in 1902 and purchased the blacksmith shop from Mr. Berg. He married Anna Julson and they had three sons, Ervin Clarence and Curtis and one daughter Selma. Willie built a new house near the blacksmith shop in 1908 and a new blacksmith shop in 1910. He had a very busy place of business sharpening plow shares, welding and other repairs. His son Curtis worked with him a few years until 1957. After first being built they held dances in the upstairs of the blacksmith shop. It has a beautiful hardwood floor. The last dance held there was March 1916. This was Mr. and Mrs. Albert Johnson’s wedding dance. After this the floor was used for roller skating for some years. Mr. Anderson retired in 1968 and the house and blacksmith shop were sold to Clarence Goss. The blacksmith shop is not operating anymore.
Clarence Anderson remembers that in 1919 and 1920 the price of eggs was 60 cents. This was after the depression and boom years Sam Hammerstad inherited some chickens. He would bring “one egg” to the store on the way to school and get 5 cents for it. With that he would buy a large sack of candy to take to school and treat the girls.
Mr. Oscar Olson operated the store from 1923 to 1928 when Hovres reposessed it. Clarence Anderson purchased it then. However his father C. E. Anderson operated the store in his house until Clarence had completed electrical school in Milwaukee and his marriage to Alice Anaas and he took over the store. Clarence operated the old store until 1937 when he built a new store with living quarters attached, about a block east of the old store. Mr. Anderson was also Justice of the Peace many years (but he didn’t perform marriage ceremony for anyone.) In the first years Clarence owned the store, most everything was handled in bulk. The molasses barrel, sugar lumps, tubs of herring, cracker barrel, dried lutefisk. “Peabury Coffee” sold for 19 cents a pound and there was 5 cent ice cream cones with 2 or 3 scoops of ice cream. He also remembers when farmers’ eggs were worth only 8 cents a dozen.
He would purchase cattle hides after the farmers butchered at home. It was quite a job to salt the hides in the store basement and pile them for resale. During the depression years cattle, machinery and most anything was traded for groceries. His delivery route some weeks would see him purchasing 50 to 60 cases of eggs a week. The days of farmers having chickens and eggs are gone.
Clarence also worked as a lineman for the Pleasantville Telephone Co. from 1935 to 1946. He also does electrical work and minor electrical repairs. He sells Nutrena feed and has a portable feed mill. Mrs. Anderson does dress making and sells Sarah Coventry Jewelry. The Andersons have three married daughters, Alice’s sister Elsie Anaas has retired from teaching and has an apartment over the Hale Store.
The bee apiary was operated by Henry Schaefer until 1965 when Cal Pruess purchased it. He sold the business in 1975 to Leon Ehmen of Florida. Mr. Ehmen also has bees in Flordia so in the fall he moves the bees to Florida and back to the area in the spring.
Olaf Lovelien owned the farm by the Hale store. His house on the farm was destroyed by fire. Aldor Myren purchased that farm and the old Hovre farm. The old store was torn down. After Mr. Myren’s death Mrs. Myren built a new home near the area of the old store. Donald Myren operates the farm now.
Early settlers in this area and South Branch were Olaf Lovelien, Ole Helmondrud, Christ Olson, Frank George, Hans and Elmer Hammerstad, Sam Scott, Andrew and Henry Lewis, Harry Caswell, Hlllstads, Hans Enger, Joseph Hagen, Nels Nelson, Carl and Ole Jacobson, August Goplin, Alex Berg, Pete Beck, John Oshalahle, Pete, Carl, and Andrew Johnson, Jacob Pederson, Andrew Steen, Tes Ottestad, Nils Malke, John Nokeby, Ole Granrud, Even Christianson, Tes Hammerstad and others.
Albert Johnson tells of a cream separator station that was 10 to 20 rods from the creek on the former Henry Hauge farm along the road two miles north of Hale on County E. This was a large separator in a building operated by Willie Crow for the Osseo Creamery. Mr. Crow would come from Osseo with horse and wagon early in the morning to the station. Area farmers would bring their milk on wagons to this station, waiting their turn to have their milk separated. Mr. Crow took the cream to Osseo and farmers took the milk back home for the pigs. Nils Malke who lived where John Julson lived last would bring his one can of milk up there in a wheelbarrow.
The Hale General Store
If you don’t already know where the Hale General Store is you may never be able to find it. But store owner Clarence Anderson is in his 55th year of business in the tiny town of Hale near Junction E and County EE in Trempealeau County.
Like the good old-fashioned store it is, Anderson’s store features a little bit of everything, including groceries, ice-cold pop, nails, nits and bolts, scredrivers, feed for fairy cattle and gas for your car and, if you have some time, conversation. “A convenience store” is what we are.
A convenience store has been what it has been since its beginning. At onetime Hale had a post office, feed mill, blacksmith shop and a bee keeper in addition to the general store.
Anderson first worked in the store as a youngster. Then it stood empty for a while. He and h is father re-opened it in the fall of 1929.
“You didn’t have to have much to start a store then and everything was there, counters, scale, and coffee grinders,” he said.
There was no need for expensive refrigeration equipment because there was no electricity. On a hot day the cheese simply would melt.
To survive in the ’30s, Anderson started a delivery route. He delivered groceries in exchange for eggs and then hauled the eggs to Pigeon Falls to get his money. That’s convenience.
His father stayed in the business only a year. In 1931 Clarence Anderson married Alice Anaas and since then they have run the store and raised three daughters. In 1937 they put up the present building which also includes their home. With the new building came the modern convenience of electricity.
It was hard going during the depression Anderson admitted, “Nobody had any money. Farmers would bring in $8 and $10 milk checks. I had a full line of machinery that I had exchanged for goods. It wasn’t good machinery but it was cheap.
To help ends meet, the Andersons have done more than just run the store. At one time he milked 11 cows, repaired radios and small appliances and for several years was a lineman for the Pleasantville Telephone Co. Today he repairs electrical fencers and a few small appliances.
Mrs. Anderson is a seamstress and has done sewing for others.
She also sells jewelry at home parties. This stubborn faith in the store and location has paid off. “There was a time that the banker refused to borrow us money because he thought I should go into a bigger town,” Anderson said. But we proved him wrong, everything is paid for.
Son of the local blacksmith, Anderson can boast he was born and raised in Hale. The only time he was away was when he got his degree in electrical engineering, but he liked the country and people here and couldn’t wait to get back to Hale after two years in Milwaukee. The biggest changes in over 55 years have been the prices and the people. His first ledger records bread at 15 cents a loaf and oil at 15 cents a quart, galvanized nails 25 cents each and gas was 20 cents a gallon.
While people are not as easy to record as price changes, Anderson noted differences there as well.
Nobody had anything then, but they seemed happier. Nor happier now but everyone is so busy they don’t even have the time to visit.
Mrs. Anderson’s sister Elsie Anaas makes her home here also.
(From Pictorial Atlas of Trempealeau County, compiled by Title Atlas Co., Minneapolis, Minn., 1984)