edited March 2023, posted January 2023

by Gary Gauer

Lake Lillian Centennial
1923- 2023

What is being planned for the Lake Lillian Centennial Celebration :

It all begins on Saturday July 29 and wraps up on Sunday August 6, 2023

A detailed schedule sheet for all the events is being prepared.

Where is Lake Lillian, MN

• In southeast Kandiyohi County between the townships of Lake Lillian and East Lake Lillian
• About 17 miles southeast of Willmar and Just north of MN #7
• On County #8 just south of the lake of the same name

What happened near the lake before 1923

• in 1862: The area was freely roamed by Native Americans from the reservation south of the Minnesota River. The uprising began in August
• in 1864: When it was safer to do so, the first permanent Lake Lillian persons, mostly from Norway, came to the frontier and settled north and east of the lake
• In 1869: The railroad reached Willmar and more settlers, mostly from Sweden, found open land west and south of the lake.
• They all began to establish their farms, roads, and one room schools near the lakes and on the prairie.
  
• Church congregations organized and first met in homes and schools. Most rural churches were built in the 1880s and 1890s
• In 1878 a railroad was built through Hector, Bird Island and Olivia in Renville County
  
• In 1893 the area was well settled, and the original double wide township was separated into Lake Lillian and East Lake Lillian townships
• Holiday celebrations were organized with community groups at the lake
• Butter towns were beginning as creameries were built in the 1890s
• By 1914 local farmers were soliciting for a closer railroad.
• By 1915 the local newspapers were listing the farmers who purchased new cars
  
• In 1916 The Luce Line railroad reached Hutchinson and construction came to a stop because of WWI financial issues
  

 What happened in 1923

• The village of Lake Lillian was started in the spring of 1923 when. E. J. Strom built the first store and was open for business April 28, 1923.
• On June 21 A Gala Day was celebrated as a special 10-coach passenger train of 400 people, including a military band, arrived at the end of the new railroad line from Minneapolis for speeches and food at the south shore of the lake.

  

The first passenger train arrived in Lake Lillian, June 21,1923
pulled by engine number 146

• The town site was born and grew rapidly as new and moved-in structures from nearby butter towns clustered at the end of the new railroad line.

What happened in the next 100 years

Change Continued to Happen

:

• The main street soon filled with businesses to serve the greater farming community with a creamery, an elevator, two hardware stores and two grocery stores with dry goods. The produce store sold chicks in the early spring, bought eggs and old hens. There was a fertilizer store, two lumber yards, a blacksmith as well as the town depot. A bank, two dealerships of cars, tractors, and farm machinery and about six repair shops added to the prosperity of the town. There was a hotel and a medical doctor as well as three restaurants, three gas stations, and three nearby rural churches plus three churches in town.

On the Farms

• From many small, diversified farms sized at about 3 farms per section to fewer large farms on about 3 sections per farm
  
• From small, diversified family farms with everyday morning and evening chores to large, specialized farms without barns, livestock and fences or to some livestock operations with very large barns
  
• From starting a car by hand crank [the last Ford Model T was built in 1927] to the large and powerful sedans of the 50s to the smaller and more efficient SUVs of today with fuel injected computer-controlled engines and back up displays
  
• From draft Horses and steam power to early development of gas and fuel tractors in the 1920s by many manufacturers to row crop tractors that became more available after WWII to replace the last draft horses by 1947
  
• From the simpler John Deere 2-cylinder tractors of 1959 to the more powerful New Generation JD line with more cylinders in 1960, and today’s very large 8-wheel Diesel tractors with cabs and GPS
  
• From harvesting grain with horse drawn binders, setting the bundles into shocks, and collaborating with neighbors and the owner / operator of the threshing machine to using a tractor-drawn small combine and to the very large self-propelled combines of today
  
• From transporting grain with horse drawn high wheel wooden wagons, to using tractor-drawn steel flare box wagons on rubber tires; to stake trucks with 2-speed axel drive, and now to self-unloading field hoppers drawn by large tractors to transfer the grain from combines to 18-wheel semi-trucks.
  
• From lantern lighting and milking cows by hand to electricity coming to the farm for lighting and power. An electric vacuum pump was used to operate a hand-carried milking machine that the farmer brought to each cow in their stanchion line. Then the milk was poured into a filtered funnel on top of a 10-gallon milk can. The next advance used pipeline systems that filled a cooled bulk tank in the milk house. Today a large dairy operation will be more efficient as the cows come in line to a milking station
  
• The railroad freight trains were busy shipping grain to terminal elevators and with a stock yard to ship livestock to markets in the cities. They brought lumber, farm machinery and coal for heating, There was railway express for smaller items. Steam engines were used at first for pulling freight cars until being replaced by diesel/ electric engines. Also passenger service used self propelled gas/electric coaches until 1947. The last freight train was in 1967.

And in Town

Bill Johnson left and banker Ed Erickson far right are greeting 2 Ford Motor Reps.

Wm. R Johnson in his showroom with new 1938 Ford

Oct 1962 New lineup of 63 Fords with Otto Gauer on left and Wm R Johnson on far right

• A double-A lighted baseball park and a movie theater/ roller rink provided entertainment before television and smart phones.
  
• Before The municipal water system and tower was built in 1950. Each house had its own well and pails of water were carried into the kitchen from a hand pump in the back yard. Also each house had an outhouse along the back alley.
• Three wooden elevators burned in 1925, 1931 and 1951. In 1952 a modern slip-formed concrete elevator was built with a grain capacity of 142,000 bushels. Today it is empty and a monument to progress as the large farms have their own huge steel grain bins and trucks.
  
• The first five small one-room rural elementary schools had 8 grades in each. Then in 1925 a new 2-room school of 4 grades each was added in town.
  
• Later in 1950, one of the rural school buildings was moved into town so a kindergarten could start and each room had 3 grades.
  
• In 1955 all the schools were consolidated into a new school in town with a gym. Each grade had their own room. Four bus routes brought the rural students to town.
  
• Today the school is empty and all students are bussed to larger school districts. The last classes were held in the building through spring of 1979.
  

Now

• Today a new main street with a bank, library, community center and fire department with city hall remain with a convenience store, a sports bar and one church. A post office, a trucking firm and real estate/ insurance services as well as a senior home and a funeral home presently provide needed services.

• There was a weekly "Lake Lillian Crier" newspaper from 1949 to 1989. There is a monthly volunteer publication called the "Lake Lillian News" that continues now in its 31st year.

It is a smaller community today, that still has volunteers to plan excellent annual Fun Days celebration and this year’s Centennial events.

Reference

• Information is available on Facebook: Lake Lillian Centennial 2023.
• The city of Lake Lillian also has a website: lakelillian.govoffice.com
  
• Many historical articles of the Lake Lillian pioneer settlers, families and others of local interest are posted on my site with more detail at: gauer001.net