| A History of STRUM and the TOWN OF UNITY by Roy Matson |
| THIS IS PAGE 18 | TABLE OF CONTENTS | PAGE BACK | PAGE FORWARD |
| span. In 1904 Fred Lyon completed his grain elevator and Strum had four such operators buying grain, hay and straw. Freighting in big cities depended on horse power and required great quantities of such farm produce to feed the teams. At this time nearly all small towns had some sort of telephone connection. T. C. Johnson’s hardware store had a phone hooked onto the Osseo-Mondovi line that could provide an emergency call. In 1907 the telephone company hung lines throughout the countryside and everyone began to know their neighbors’ whereabouts at all times, besides having a second connection to the outside world. The Beef River Bridge About 1910. (Picture-Description). During 1905 John J. Dahl erected two brick buildings on the west side of main street. In the fall a bank was organized and opened for business early the next year. It was a most welcome service to the whole area. Also, the new druggist moved in next door. In 1907 the town business men promoted a July 4th celebration. Druggist Grove Pace was parade marshall and a local men’s band furnished music during the day. Another bit of tax money was spent on the river bridge in 1910. The steel cylinders were sunk into the Beef another foot or two and that strengthened the span. Times were fairly good and there were no complaints about various bridge expenditures. The first automobile rolled into town in 1909. No one could foresee how this noisy, smelly invention would change transportation, living habits, taxation, and, well, would affect about everything about the whole nation. Henry and Nels Robbe were the proud owners of a two cylinder Buick sporting a chain drive that would clog most anytime. Roads were horrible, the engine had little power and any grass in mid-road would result in a call for help. Auto owners everywhere were demanding better highways, government authorities at all levels were besieged with petitions for action regarding this. Unity had spent considerable sums for construction of stone bridge abutments but all were so narrow no two vehicles could pass simultaneously. Very few road beds had any gravel or crushed rock for a foundation. The county board appointed Ed Matchett, an Osseo contractor, as their first county highway commissioner in 1912. Appropriations were small and the first inventory of highway equipment made in 1916 was very limited. However, expenditures for roads and equipment kept rising for many decades. There can be some debate about the beginning of fire protection for village residents. An artesion well in front of the T. M. Olson building served as a watering place for horses, the means of transportation at the time. At least three large cisterns were built and this well provided the water to fill each for use in event of fire. One was located on the corner of Elm St. and 2nd Avenue, another on Maple and 5th Avenue and the third somewhere on 6th Avenue. Fred Lyons was the driving force |
| Scan of Original Page and Pictures (loads slowly) the picture link earlier in the story is a larger version of one of the pictures |