St. Michael Historical Society

Name: St. Michael Historical Society
Address: 11800 Town Center Drive NE, Saint Michael, MN, 55376, US
Telephone: +17634167967
Price range: Not applicable

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St. Michael Historical Society

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Preserving the history of St. Michael, Minnesota! The St. Michael Historical Society began with a meeting of general interest in April of 2005.

By July the fifteen incorporating members approved Articles of Incorporation, created Bylaws and elected officers. Meetings are generally held the second Monday of each month at the St. Michael City Hall; however, please check the "Events" for exact times and locations as they do vary occasionally. Anyone with interest is welcome to attend. Michael Historical Society is a 501(c), nonprofit corporation and a member of the Minnesota Historical Society.

10/20/2026

These are the lettermen from the 1960 St. Michael Catholic High School yearbook. Because the original photo was a bit fuzzy, it was enhanced using AI. Through trial and error we made our best attempt to improve the quality without changing the faces; however, since we are starting with a fuzzy image, we can't know for certain if AI did a great job or not. If you are in this photo or know someone in the photo, let us know (kindly) if it did an okay job. We at the historical society know the dangers of using a tool like AI. Sometimes it's helpful, sometimes it's not.

In the photo are both juniors and seniors. A few of the guys that lettered did not make it in the photo, and note that girls could not letter back then as there were few activities available to them. That won't change until the 1970s. Not all of these young men were from St. Michael or Albertville. The high school enrolled kids from Rogers, Dayton, Fletcher, Loretto and other towns where the parents wanted a Catholic high school education. For the kids in St. Michael and Albertville, there was no other local option until 1968. Front row starting from the left: Richard Fehn, Ronald Marquette, Dennis Valerius, Tom Corbin, Rollie Christian, Willie Barthel, Bill McCann, Charlie Weber. Second row: Ron Munn, John Ukasick, Dick Simms, Doug Kilian, Gerald Ruppelius, Dennis McLean, Ted Barthel. Third row: Don Scherber, Marv Doboszenski, Larry Lane, Rawland Trombley, Ray Scherber, Gordon Kolles, Don Schumacher, Mike DeMars. Do you spot yourself, a dad, or a grandpa?

10/13/2026

This seemed to be a favorite vantage point for photographers. This image is from a postcard that had a 1909 postmark on it. The original is in sepia tones, which is beautiful in its own right, but we've used AI to colorize it as it helps bring clarity to the items in the landscape. What appears to be smoke on the left side is not clear on this rendition or the original. It was likely damage to the original photo that appears as smoke here. An interesting feature is the dirt path that runs along the east side of main street. By 1909 several homes had already been built on the hill north of downtown which would explain the path's existence. The building with the little bell tower was the Catholic school, and in front of it was the Sisters' house. Besides the church, the other remaining structures include the houses closest to Main Street, and visible behind the church is the store of Andrew Brixius (now Ditto's Bar). Even though the person who published the postcard added an "s" onto St. Michael, it was never officially the name of the village, but it was commonly spoken that way. In the 1910 census the population of the village only (not surrounding Frankfort Township) was 401.

10/06/2026

Homecoming 1973! Those band uniforms were new in 1970 and got many years of use. If you wore them, you remember how hot they got. The pants, jackets, and overlays were wool; and then you wore a plastic "water buffalo" helmet covered in fake bear fur. Even your feet weren't allowed to breath with the vinyl spats over your shoes. Homecoming wasn't too bad as it was normally cooler, but heaven help you if you had to march at the Delano Fourth of July Parade! The director in 1973 was Mr. Russ Lovegren who has his head turned away in the photo. The band appears to be making a right turn from Central Avenue East onto 1st St. SE. The photographer was standing on the corner where the Liberty Restaurant (Legion Club) is now. It was a vacant lot in 1973. Behind the band is Big Tom's Nightclub which had previously been the St. Michael Dancehall for many years. Tom Libra owned the place from 1973 to 1976 after which it became the R & R Club (John Robeck and Rick Robeck). It famously exploded in December 1978 when construction workers nicked an unmarked gas line. The white house that is visible was the home of Erma Kilian and is now the What's The Scoop? ice cream shop. It suffered some damaged in the fire. Two hot topic questions: any marching band survivors remember those uniforms, and who remembers where they were when the R & R Club exploded?

10/02/2026

Here’s an opportunity for those interested in more pre-settlement history

09/29/2026

We pay homage in this post to a building that stood for just 54 years, but had a very active use for those 54 years. The first photo shows the bank building before it was completed in the late winter of 1957. The Security State Bank of St. Michael and (Roy) Simms Insurance held its grand opening in June of 1957 having moved across the street from its former location on the corner (where Jim's Barbershop was). In 1981 the bank moved out on Highway 241 and the American Legion Post 567 purchased the bank building to be its first club. The photo of the interior showing the teller windows was taken just after the Legion acquired it and is the only known photo showing the interior as it looked when used as a bank. The next photo shows Dale Kessler, former mailman and the first club manager, behind a bar that isn't even finished. The crude opening behind him is where the bank vault used to be. Notice the black and gold wall decorations that were in the bank and that the Legion kept for a while. By 2009 downtown St. Michael was being transformed to accommodate increased traffic and redevelopment. The last photo shows the 54-year-old building just prior to demolition in 2011. The Legion Club had moved to its current location in the former Russell's Of Course building, and as can be seen, the old building was going to become parking for the soon-to-be-completed Walgreens. Who has memories of the old bank? Remember the kid's banks that sat on the top ledge of the teller windows? How about the old Legion Club and fish fries down in the basement? If anyone has other photos of the interior from when it was used as a bank, please contact us or post it in the comments.

09/22/2026

Here's another photo taken by Cathy Zachmann of the Dairy and Community Day Parade of 1966. This time we are looking down Central Avenue East. Cathy was standing near the corner by the Catholic School, across the street from the Corner Bar. At the far right we see Loren Schumm's electric repair shop. The building was new in 1964. Next door is Dehmer's Meat Market. It was about the time of this parade that Joe and Patty had taken over running the meat market from Joe's dad, Oscar. The next building can't be seen as it sets back from the street, but we can make out the Texaco sign. Clarence Gutzwiller was still operating the Texaco service station in 1966. Next is the only building still standing to this day. Now it's the Domino's Pizza, but in 1966 it was the home of Kilian Electric and Hardware owned by Carroll and Armella Kilian. The next two buildings, which were connected, are Vic Schumm's Tavern and the Schumm store; however, at the time of this photo, those buildings were largely empty as Vic had passed away the year before. The buildings stood empty for over three years before being torn down in 1969. Way in the distance we can barely see the sign for Allen Jaeb's "66" filling station. Across the street, on the very left of the photo, we can just make out the front of the St. Michael Dance Hall. Who the owners of the dance hall in June of 1966 is difficult to determine as ownership was a revolving door in the 1960s. The band marching toward us is the St. Michael (Catholic) High School Band, or at least some portion of it. School was out, so no doubt band director Joe Huber pulled together as many kids as he could get. Does any one recognize any of the musicians or parade watchers?

09/15/2026

Because historical records are limited, early Indigenous history in St. Michael relies on archaeological evidence. Mound builders lived here 1,000 to 3,000 years ago, leaving behind pottery and stone artifacts. The mounds themselves were plowed under by the first farmers. The Dakota also held territory here, though they established no permanent settlements. In 1848 the U.S. government relocated the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) from Iowa to a reservation that extended into Wright County, before moving them again in 1855 down along the Blue Earth River. Prior to the completion of government land surveys in 1855, Euro-American squatters settled early and interacted briefly with the Ho-Chunk. While a substantial trading village existed along the shores of Buffalo Lake, here there was only a trading post near Hanover on what was known as Winneshiek Prairie, the largest and one of only a few natural prairies in the town. This prairie was between Lander Avenue and the Crow River, some north but mostly south of 15th Street NE, near Fehn Aggregates (lots of sand and gravel under prairie). The name Winneshiek Prairie comes from Chief Winneshiek who supposedly had a dwelling here for a few years. The photo for this post, from the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society, shows Chief Winneshiek (second from left), known to the Ho-Chunk as Thunder Coming, with other Ho-Chunk leaders at Fort Snelling ca. 1865. Early St. Michael settler, Ignatius Gutzwiller, Jr., also noted that a circular stockade, presumably built by the Ho-Chunk, stood in the vicinity of the St. Michael Rec Center, but it was burned down by careless campers in the first years of the settlement.

09/07/2026

September 7, 2026 marks the 170th anniversary of the first Mass being celebrated in what was known in 1856 as the Crow River Settlement. While a religious service wouldn’t normally be significant in the history of a town, it was for St. Michael because it marked the beginning of the town itself. Here’s the backstory: between 1854 and 1856 German Catholic families collaborated to settle near one another along the Crow River, but living in the Big Woods on scattered 160 acre claims did not lend itself to forming a community. What helped start this process was their desire to have a priest. Not having enough priests to serve all of the Catholics then arriving, Bishop Cretin invited the famous Jesuit missionary, Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger (pictured below), to preach in Minnesota Territory. Fr. Weninger accepted the invitation, but being familiar with the challenges of creating communities where people lived on distant claims, he knew that the survival of any congregation depended on giving them a reason to work toward a common cause. Weninger spread the word that he would only visit settlements where there was a church. The settlers near the Crow River worked together in the summer of 1856 to build a 16-foot by 20-foot log church just west of the present site of the Millside Tavern, completing it by the end of August. According to Fr. Weninger’s own records, he visited here between Saturday, September 6th through the following Saturday the 13th. While it is possible that he celebrated Mass here on the day of his arrival, we can say with high confidence that he did so on Sunday, September 7. And since he was the first priest to visit the log church, it is therefore also likely that he was the one who blessed and dedicated the church in honor of St. Michael. Who suggested that particular saint’s name is still a mystery, but it could have been Weninger himself. The community quickly became known as St. Michael’s (as in the people who belong to the Church of St. Michael) which is why St. Michael’s-with the “s” at the end-was often used in speech, but never adopted officially. When in 1866 the congregation relocated the church two miles west and mapped out a village there (the current intersection of Main Street and Central Avenue), there was no question that this village would be called St. Michael. Happy 170th birthday St. Michael!

09/01/2026

The Berning Brothers were among St. Michael's first successful businessmen. Their father and mother, Anton and Marie (Koors) Berning were among the first settlers. Both German-born, they met and married in Cincinnati, Ohio; came St. Anthony, Minnesota in 1855, and then took a claim along the Crow River in 1857. The boys helped them establish several businesses. The first was a small store that Anton purchased from the first businessman in the settlement, Peter Scheirich. The store, located near the river, closed by 1865, but they were also farming their land along the Crow. Much of that farmland is today the Waters Edge development south of 40th St. NE. The most significant business was the saw and grist mill which went into operation after successfully damming the river in 1886. By 1890 their advertised services included feed, lumber, house moving rollers, and wood turning. After replacing mill stones with the more modern roller mill, Berning Brothers' "St. Michael Roller Mills" was an essential element of St. Michael's growing agri-business. Standing in the photo is Henry (1857-1935), and sitting Herman (1859-1945) and Joseph (1851-1935). The photo is undated, but may been taken before Henry's move to Oregon in 1906. Henry, by the way, was the first St. Michael politician, serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives, 1891-1893. He also helped establish the State Bank of St. Michael in 1904.

08/25/2026

As we prepare for another school year, let's look back to some of the hard-working people who took care of the kids at St. Michael-Albertville schools. Pictured here are the high school cooks as they appeared in the 1978 Yearbook. Most of them worked in the kitchens for many years, but not always in the same building, so they will likely be remembered by many kids who came through the STMA system. From left is Monica Heuring, Armella Schumacher, Mary Ann Barthel, and Mary Ann Helgeson. There were fewer kids to feed back then and the cooks had the time to do more cooking and not just heating up of prepared foods; however, choices were fewer. In a concession to the mostly Catholic population, Fridays were generally meatless and one could expect either grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, or fish sticks. Some of their specialties, rarely seen today, were Chicken Kluski Hotdish, hamburger gravy on mashed potatoes, and Turkey a la King. Yum! What were your favorite school lunches or memories of the cooks?

Address

11800 Town Center Drive NE
Saint Michael, MN
55376

Telephone

+17634167967

Website

http://www.saintmichaelhistory.org/

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