This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
Produced by Lillian Carlson, with support by Erin Dorbin, Melissa Wray, and Amanda Ninneman, in conjunction with the Houston County Historical Society, Minnesota. Image courtesy Houston County Historical Society Archives.
Lillian Carlson (00:00): My name is Lillian Carlson, and I am a rural Houston County storyteller. Houston County is the southeastern most County in Minnesota. And I reside in the city of Houston. My small town is part of the gorgeous Driftless area and unglaciated region of the Midwest, giving us amazing bluffs, river valleys, and diverse wildlife. My parents are local business owners, and I work in town too. Throughout Houston's 144 year history, businesses have changed, just as in other rural towns across the nation. I have talked to residents and business owners to gather their historical and present day perspectives on our retail community.
Rae Evenson (00:41): My name is Rae Evanson.
Ron Evenson (00:43): I'm Ron Evanson.
Rae Evenson (00:44): We came to Houston in July of 1969.
Ron Evenson (00:48): That was basically a town that had four grocery stores and five salons and two or three barber shops, and three car dealers, and an implement dealer. And it was a booming little town.
Rae Evenson (01:01): Friday night was a big, big night in Houston for things. But in the years gone by, maybe before we came, there were three or four or five restaurants.
Ron Evenson (01:11): Of course, as time goes along, it was a lot easier to go to other towns like [inaudible 00:01:20]. And all these things gradually faded out, as the honors got old.
Rae Evenson (01:21): It's been hard to keep some small businesses here. We do have a lovely little coffee shop, and they've added some things, such as sandwiches. They have some soups.
Rae Evenson (01:50): (singing).
Rae Evenson (01:51): We've been blessed to have a grocery store that has struggled, but people have valued it. And it has been through some tough times, but people have really invested financially as well as really trying to shop locally.
Speaker 4 (02:04): Hi.
Clerk (02:12): 45 and three.
Speaker 4 (02:13): All right.
Clerk (02:15): Thank you, have a good day.
Speaker 4 (02:15): Same to you.
David Wilson (02:17): My name is David Wilson. I'm the store manager at the Root River Market in Houston, Minnesota. We have a bakery, produce meat, dairy, frozen, six aisles of general goods, with a few specialty stuff here and there, like mozzarella sticks from [inaudible 00:02:32] and cheese curds from [inaudible 00:02:35], B&B Honey Farm, [inaudible 00:02:37] brings the eggs, Sweet 16. I'll start bringing in a little bit of produce from down the road and flowers. As a co-op means that we have members. We're membership owned. We have roughly 572, 73 members. So they all have a stake in the company. We have a board, so a nine person board. Basically, if you're a member, if you want, you can get a discount on groceries on Mondays. And two, you have voting rights at our annual meeting.
Asset ID: 2018.18
For a complete transcript, visit www.museumonmainstreet.org
