10/19/2009 4:25:00 PM Minnetrista's farm-heavy history
By David Schueller
Farming is a major theme in any history of Minnetrista.
It's been 150 years since Minnetrista was given its name - before that it was called German Home Township - and on Oct. 25 an event at Gale Woods Farm will celebrate the city's history.
Professional storyteller Bob Gasch will focus on the history of two farm families from two ends of the farming spectrum.
The Krenke/Banks family lived the rough pioneer life and the Gale family came from money and used it to run a model farm.
Stories about the families will be the focus of the event, which will also include historical stories, displays and participation from people who've known each family.
The Krenke/Banks family
Gasch said the Krenke family was from Germany and settled at what's now the juncture of County Road 110 and County Road 26.
The 80 acres there were bought in 1891.
"Like all pioneer farmers, they came because of a desire for fertile land. And the land they got of course was basically woods with wetland and creek in it," Gasch said.
After some work, they farmed it, and grew some crops to feed the family and some to take to market.
In the good topsoil found in Minnetrista, most farm families grew a mixture of crops like corn, strawberries, raspberries, apples or other crops. They raised dairy cows.
When they sold at the Minneapolis farmer's market, some traveled on what's now County Road 6 to get there. It was one of the main east-west routes, Gasch said, and had originally been an American Indian trail that led from St. Anthony Falls to bison hunting grounds west of Hutchinson.
"The Native American trails went to where they had the river crossings," Gasch said.
That means taking a route through what's now Watertown because of its river rapids, rather than one through Delano, with its steep river banks.
The late Mildred Krenke Banks will play a role in the event. Banks grew up on the farm, became a school teacher and helped shape the first historical society in the area that became the Westonka Historical Society.
"Since she grew up there she knew a lot of the history that we'll be focusing on," Gasch said.
The Gale family
In contrast to the pioneers who roughed it, the Gale family came from money.
"The Gale family was a family that came to Minneapolis in the mid-1800s and was very successful in business in Minneapolis and hence their decedents were in a totally different financial position," Gasch said.
Alfred Gale, who currently lives in Minnetrista, moved his family out to the country for a more healthy lifestyle and then farmed using the most up-to-date techniquess of the time, Gasch said.
Other families did similarly - names like Dayton, Loring, Heffelfinger or Highcroft.
"They were the gentleman farmers," Gasch said.
Farming may have been a lot of things to them, but it wasn't about the money.
They'd learn the best techniques, or travel to Europe and buy the best dairy cows and ship them back home. The farming could be called a hobby, but the farms were the same size as other full-scale farms.
"These very wealthy men would come into town," said Gasch, giving a Wayzata hardware store as an example. "They would be dirty and grubby. And the new employees would think, just another dirty grubby farmer coming into town. And after they would leave the owner would say, 'That dirty grubby farmer that you just snubbed with your attitude could buy this hardware store.'"
The Gale family eventually donated the land that's now Gale Woods Farm, a working farm that carries on the spirit of the farming that was done there for decades.
The unexpected
Besides two families, there's plenty more Minnetrista history to talk about.
Most of the commerce was done by railroad. Berries were shipped out by rail to the Dakotas, Montana and Idaho. And believe it or not, some Minnetrista maple syrup was shipped to Vermont - a state known for its maples and syrup - because local soil chemistry made for a different taste in the syrup.
"I'd always heard that story and one day I was doing some research and here are the railroad shipping tags," Gasch said.
Gasch said knowing local history gives residents a better idea about the places they live in and travel through all the time, in a city that was at one time almost exclusively used for farming.
"And people forget that as we look at Minnetrista now as it develops," Gasch said, adding that it was a similar story with Minnetonka and Plymouth. "Only because of our economic downturn has Minnetrista not exploded into housing developments."
Case in point: A housing development is planned for a 488 acre parcel, that includes farmland, next to Kings Point Road.
Gasch said that after early farmers cleared the woodlands in Minnetrista, they found 12-36 inches of good black topsoil made from the land being covered by forests.
No amount of topsoil could've prepared farmers for the grasshopper invasions that came in the latter half of the 1800s.
"They came and they devoured every green leaf, every green blade of grass," Gasch said.
It just about broke them.
Fortunately, at the same as the grasshopper invasions there was a great demand for ginseng, which grew in Minnetrista woods. Farmers were able to make a living digging up ginseng roots, Gasch said.
"Ginseng was the savior during the grasshopper invasions," he said.
Old timers say it still grows in Minnetrista, if you know where to look.
"They know where to find the ginseng. It's still there," Gasch said.
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