Our Parker School House

On September 16, 1889 a community meeting was held to consider a new schoolhouse. The voters of the district later appropriated the huge sum of $10,000 to build the school. Ground was broken on March … Read more

On a Bike!

On several occasions during the last few days the attention of the residents of the village has been attracted by some very strange atmospherical disturbances. During a dead calm, the wind (without any previous indications), … Read more

Looking Back from the Turn of the Century

Minnesota became the 32nd state in the  Union in the spring of 1858. The community we know as Robbinsdale was not as yet organized as were others in the state. This was a farming community. … Read more

Mr. Robbins Comes to Town

This is the fourth in a series of posts featuring Mrs. Henry E. Hartig’s,  History of Robbinsdale. Prepared for the Robbinsdale Library Club, Hartig noted that while the material she used came from a variety … Read more

Fire, Water and Wind

1925 On February 25, in a bitter sub-zero gale, a disastrous fire burned down one half of a block of the business district. Flames started in the rear of R. L. Schuller’s two-story farm implement, … Read more

The Brooklyn-Crystal Cemetery

1863 In all pioneer communities there comes a time when people decide to bury their loved ones in an official cemetery — rather than under a favorite tree on the home farm. On November 20, … Read more

Our Neighbors: 100 Years Ago in Robbinsdale

On a high shelf under a stack of age-old maps and scrapbooks, we came across a little old album. There were just under 50 photos neatly arranged on black paper, framed by captions and comments … Read more

The Shumways

  John P. Shumway purchased 45 acres of  the Crystal Lake Township for $25 dollars a piece in 1856. He built a modest home near Twin Lake and managed to get most of the land … Read more

The First Congregational Church

The First Congregational Church was built On land donated by the Shumway family. Meeting first in the Village Hall, the First Congregational was an offshoot of the “Little White Church” on Broadway and Bass Lake … Read more