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The original inhabitants of this area were members of several prehistoric cultures. A subculture called the Malmo focus lived here in the Middle Woodland Period, roughly between 300 and 1000 A.D.

In 1963 a burial pit was uncovered near Middle Birch Lake north of Melrose. It contained the bones of three people thought to be warriors, clam shells, and an intact pot.

By the mid-18th century, the inhabitants were probably all Wahpeton Dakota. The Sauk River may have been their main “war road” in their ongoing battle with their traditional enemy, the Ojibwa.

The Dakota were expelled from Minnesota after the Dakota Conflict of 1862.

Melrose Area Hospital had its start in February 1916 when Drs. Pierre Hilbert and Henry Goehrs asked Mary Pfeiffer, a registered nurse, to open the house at 107 W Second St S, where she lived with several family members, as a hospital. This facility had 5 patient rooms and an operating room.

In 1921 Pfeiffer married Joseph Stundebeck, one of her patients, and the hospital moved one door west, where it operated until 1925. Railroad workers were frequent patients there.

In October 1925, Dr. Anthony Meyer, who had a hospital in his second-floor offices on Main Street, purchased the large house built by Edwin Clark (now the site of the City Center) and converted it to a hospital. The west wing was added in 1939.

The first convent/school, serving what was then St. Boniface Church, was built in 1882. Both moved into the old church when the new one was built in 1892. A new convent was built in 1908, to be replaced in 1953 by this spacious building which could house 20 sisters.

In June 1991, the three remaining sisters moved into St. Mary’s White House. The convent then became Mary Hall, housing meeting rooms, Alternative Learning Center, Freedom Plus Recovery Center, and school art classes. In 2000 the city of Melrose acquired the building and leased it to the Melrose Area Historical Society for use as a museum.

St. Patrick’s Church also had a convent in a large home built by pioneer resident Peter Pallansch. In 1881 a rectory was built at 6 E 1st St S (a private home today), and the sisters later moved into it.

The museum’s military exhibit honors the men and women of the Melrose area who served, from the Civil War forward. Uniforms, medals, caps, patches, photographs and keepsakes fill the cases, and each war has a short note on the exhibit that sets the scene.

Wars shown in the exhibit

• Spanish-American War (1898). Cuban rebels had sought independence from Spain since the 1880s. The U.S. stayed officially neutral until the U.S.S. Maine was sunk in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. The war ended in Spanish defeat that August. Cuba became independent, and the U.S. received Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam.
• World War I (1914–1918). The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 set off a war across most of Europe. The U.S. entered on April 6, 1917, on the side of the Allies, and the armistice came on November 11, 1918.
• World War II (1939–1945). The U.S. remained neutral until Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, and Japan on August 14.
• Korean War (1950–1953). Korea was divided in 1945 into a Soviet-occupied North and a U.S.-occupied South. Fighting grew into full war by 1950, with U.N. forces aiding the South and Chinese forces the North. Peace terms were agreed in 1953.
• Vietnam War (1965–1975). U.S. troops were sent to South Vietnam early in 1965. After the Tet offensive of 1968, troop withdrawals began in 1969 and a cease-fire was agreed in 1973. North Vietnam united the country in April 1975.
• Persian Gulf War (1990–1991). Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. The U.S. joined 34 countries in Operation Desert Storm, which began January 16, 1991. Iraq withdrew on February 28, 1991.

Two Melrose-area heroes

Two local airmen from different wars have their own displays.

Capt. James Gallagher

On Feb. 26, 1949, Lucky Lady, a Boeing B-50 Superfortress bomber piloted by Melrose native Captain James Gallagher, took off from Carswell Air Force Base, Fort Worth, TX. It carried a large cargo of food, bedding, and toiletries for the 14 crewmen who would take the plane on its 4-day trip. The only thing Lucky Lady couldn’t carry was enough fuel to keep it airborne for the whole trip. It was refueled in mid-air several times, with highly flammable high-octane fuel. Total air time was 78 hours 54 minutes; average 249 miles per hour. When the news broke of this first successful non-stop circumnavigation of the globe, it made the front page of the Minneapolis Tribune, which also ran a series of comic strips about the adventure.

The celebration of Capt. Gallagher’s triumph started with a caravan of cars which left Minneapolis on May 20 (coincidentally the 22nd anniversary of Lindbergh’s landing in Paris). Bands accompanied it through St. Cloud. When the caravan arrived in Melrose, it joined a 40-unit parade. The 28-year-old Gallagher, his wife, Mary, and baby daughter, Kathleen, rode in an open car as F-882 fighter planes did acrobatics overhead. Governor Luther Youngdahl and famed radio commentator Cedric Adams led the ceremonies at the Legion Park. Gallagher retired from the Air Force in 1972 as Vice Wing Commander. In 1984 he received the Jimmy Doolittle Award from the Air Force for his flight. He died in Washington DC on Feb. 24, 1985.

Air Ace Francis Lent

Francis Lent was a Melrose storekeeper until 1942, when he sold Lent Grocery and enlisted as a cadet in the US Army Air Force. On July 10, 1943, 1st Lieutenant Lent was sent to the South Pacific theatre of war. A month later, he shot down his first Japanese Zero. By October, he had brought the total to 6, qualifying him as an Ace Pilot. By November, he had added 2 more to his score. He credited his success to his trap shooting days in Melrose.

He shot down 8 planes in 4 months to earn the Air Medal (Oak Leaf Cluster), Distinguished Flying Cross and Silver Star.

By Feb. 1944 he was ranked one of the top 11 of the Southwest Pacific’s 5th Air Force fighter aces. The 26-year-old received his Captain’s commission that July.

In 1945, with 11 enemy planes and a few probables to his credit, Lent, who was scheduled to return home to his family and fiancée, volunteered to fly a mission for someone else. The P-51 Mustang, T-Rigor Mortis, was unfamiliar to him, which caused him to crash during an attempted landing in New Guinea. His death was officially announced on June 22, 1945. The memorial service was at St. Boniface Church on July 7, 1945.

Some early Melrose hat makers were the Grein sisters (c1906), the Hart sisters (c1908), Tillie Latzka, Elizabeth Pickard, the Thoreson sisters, and Mrs. John Lampert. They worked out of their homes.

In 1900, Margaret Stafford planned to open a hat shop at 219 E Main. Recently widowed, with two little girls to support, she took a course at a St. Paul millinery and worked hard to prepare for the grand opening of her Millinery and Dressmaking Parlors. That night, the building burned to the ground. She had no insurance, but the community rallied and the St. Paul Millinery agreed to stand half the loss. She re-opened at 430 E Main. Later that year, she married druggist William Stock.

In 1906, she moved her shop to the back room of his pharmacy at 409 E Main. The Stocks moved away later that year.

Burns Millinery opened at 0 S 4th Ave E in 1912. Subsequent owners were Mrs. C. Erickson in 1914 and Elizabeth McCoy in 1916.

Mary Lockhart became a Melrose legend as she operated her hat shop at 203 E. Main Street from 1939 to 1959. She displayed her hats in the front room and sometimes lived in the rear. An imposing figure in her long sweeping dresses and high-piled hair topped with one of her chapeaux, she called her customers honey and darling and convinced each one that she had chosen the best, most flattering hat.

Step back into the days when you knew your baker by name and the grocer delivered to your door. The museum’s business display is a walk down Main Street: the hand-painted Swany White Bakery sign, the Bohlig Cleaners banner, a Herges grocery delivery jacket, and the cash registers and scale that rang up the day’s sales.

Look closer and you will find the everyday things that filled local shelves and kitchens, from syrup and coffee tins to potato chip cans, fruit crates and crockery. Bring someone who remembers, and let the stories start.

Do you have a sign, a ledger or a family photo from a Melrose-area business? The Society would love to hear from you.

Before computers, the news was set in metal, and this machine is where the metal was cast. The Linotype turned an operator’s keystrokes into a solid line of type, and its name says it all: a “line o’ type.”

The operator typed on the keyboard, and small brass molds called matrices dropped into line to spell out each row of text. Molten metal was poured against the line to cast a single slug, ready for the press. When the page was printed, the slugs could be melted down and cast again.

Newspapers, including small-town papers like the Melrose Beacon, depended on machines like this one, and a skilled operator could set a column of type far faster than anyone could place letters by hand. Beside the machine you will find trays of hand-set type, printing supplies and a framed photograph from its history.

Stop in and see how the news was made, one line at a time.

All aboard! For generations the railroad was Melrose’s link to the wider world, bringing travelers, mail and freight to town and carrying the area’s goods away.

The museum’s train display brings that era back with the big painted MELROSE station sign, photographs of the rail yards and roundhouse, Great Northern Railway and Burlington Northern keepsakes, and railroad lanterns, keys and a telegraph set. A framed map shows where the roundhouse was planned, and a toy locomotive on a bit of track is a favorite with young visitors.

Have a railroad story, a ticket stub or a family photo from the depot? The Society would love to add it to the collection.

Small towns grow big athletes. The museum’s sports display salutes the Melrose-area players, runners and champions who carried the community’s name into competition, all the way to the Olympic rings.

Behind the glass you will find Team USA gear, athlete photographs and recognition posters honoring women athletes from the region. Come cheer again for the hometown heroes, and tell us who we should add next.

Do you have a trophy, a team photo or a favorite game story? Bring it by, and the Society will help keep it in the record books.

Remember Saturday afternoons on the living room floor? The museum’s toy and game display is a trip back to childhood, with the board games that filled family game nights and the toys that filled the toy box.

Look for Twister, Yahtzee, Parcheesi and Cootie, television favorites like Lassie, The Honeymooners and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and a Rubik’s Cube or two. Below are a paper big-top circus, toy tractors and a tin barn full of farm animals, a reminder of how many local kids grew up on the farm.

Bring the grandchildren, and see how many you can name.

In 1920, a group of businessmen built a theater at 414 E Main Street. Steam heated and fireproof, it cost $50,000. It had an orchestra pit, fully equipped stage, and dressing rooms for live performances and a projection booth for movies. The owners offered a prize for the best name. The winner was the Olympic, but when the theater opened on September 19, it was called simply The New Melrose Theatre. Later it was called the Olympic and finally The Melrose Theater.

George O’Brien, Sr. and his family arrived in 1937 to manage and eventually buy The Melrose. The movies were strictly family fare. “Gone With The Wind” was the only picture it ever ran rated ‘B’ by the Legion of Decency.

Ticket prices when the theater opened were $1.00 for adults, 40 cents for kids. The Depression saw them creep down to 19 cents. Wednesday was Bank Night when a patron in the right seat might win from $5.00 to $50.00.

O’Brien Sr. died in November 1966, and the theater closed. George O’Brien, Jr. arrived to become the manager the following year. Four days before the premiere of “The Singing Nun,” the marquee collapsed and had to be removed. It was a sign of things to come. The Melrose closed permanently 8 months later.

This display contains the ticket window and much of the original equipment, including the dreaded hook, which speedily ended the careers of bad performers. Its bamboo handle and business end are held together with many layers of tape. There is no doubt that in Melrose, somebody got the hook.

August and Louisa Lindbergh and son Charles were among the first white settlers in Melrose in 1859. A hired farmer with no formal schooling, August had risen in Sweden to become a banker, personal secretary to King Charles XV, and member of Parliament. He was considered a wild-eyed radical who wanted to improve public transportation, abolish the whipping post, and let peasants vote. He got his way with the whipping post issue, but trumped-up charges against him by his enemies lost him his bank job.

He was 50 and his wife was 21 when they sailed for America with infant Charles. They homesteaded on 40 acres of woodland east of the future city of Melrose. In 1862, August lost his left arm in a sawmill accident. His 2-year convalescent period gave him time to share his world and political views with his son. After he recovered, August modified his tools so that he could work one-handed. When Sioux invaded the farmyard and stole his special axe, Louisa faced them down and made them give it back.

Their famed grandson, Charles Lindbergh, Jr., spent most of his summers as a child and young man visiting his grandparents’ farm near Melrose. He became an instant hero when he flew the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.

August Lindbergh was at various times town clerk, village recorder, postmaster, school district clerk, banker, and Stearns County Justice of the Peace. A building on his land became the town’s first school. In 1889, the Lindberghs went to live in Little Falls with Charles, Sr., who was an attorney and Minnesota Congressman. August died in 1895. Louisa then lived in Melrose with her daughter, Linda Seal. August and Louisa and three of their young children are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Their son, Charles Lindbergh, Sr., became a legislator, and their grandson, aviator Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr., made the first solo, non-stop transatlantic flight on May 20, 1927 — 3,610 miles from Roosevelt Field, New York, to Le Bourget Field in Paris, in 33 hours and 30 minutes aboard the Spirit of St. Louis.

Aviation milestones (PBS American Experience)