Making their way in America
By John Russell
Scenes of Yesteryear
Sunday, November 30, 2008 7:08 AM CST
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What these young men were doing on this bright early spring day in the first decade of the 1900s? Note the snow piled up behind this quintet of young men. Perhaps they had been busy shoveling the snow off the walk in front of Jungck Hardware store. But how does that explain why the man on the left is holding a trowel? The next young man is holding a wide paint brush in his right hand and is leaning on the top of the handle of the broom engineered by the third man from the left. And notice the extra pair of legs of a passerby behind the supposed Jungck brothers. I believe that the man with the shovel held in his left hand just might be George Jungck, the new proprietor of the hardware store shown here on the left. And that just might be younger brother, Albert, who in the 1920s was working for the Minneapolis Auto Tire & Sales Co.
Submitted Photo/For Dunn County News
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It was not unusual for a member of a European family, especially a boy in a large family, to come to America to seek his fortune. That was especially true in many Norwegian farm families with more than enough young boys working the soil on the ancestral farm.
Farmland was scarce in Norway, and most farms were passed down through generations. Generally, the oldest boy was next in line to run the family farm, a fact often resulting in the remaining boy or boys in the family going to America to go into farming on the expansive prairies and oak savannahs of the upper Midwest.
In Germany, it was much the same, with sons learning their father’s trade and then finding the markets in America. Charles Jungck, a shoemaker, and his wife, Magdalen, were raising seven children in Munchweiler, Germany. When their oldest child, Charles, became a shoemaker, he left for America and soon found his way to Menomonie in 1856 and opened a shoe shop.
Two years later, a younger brother, Jacob, came to Menomonie to work as a raft pilot for the Knapp, Stout & Co., Company, the largest white pine operation in the world, and then became a bookkeeper for the company, a position he held for 18 years before joining J. J. Carter in the mercantile business.
William, another son, died as a young man in Germany, and two daughters, Barbara and Elizabeth, remained in Germany, but the youngest of them all, Peter, found his way to America and Menomonie. At the age of 22, he came to America in 1868, three years after the end of the American Civil War.
Peter had studied the shoemaker’s trade and by the age of 14, was considered to be one of the best. He immediately joined his brother, Charles, in Menomonie, working with him for 18 years.
Branching out
In 1870, Peter purchased the southwest corner of Main and Broadway, with his long experience working with leather, opened a harness shop on the site. This first little shop was featured in this column several years ago. In 1900, Peter closed his shop, and a son, George, established a hardware store in the frame building.
In 1910, Peter sold the corner site to the city. Later, the Masonic Temple was built on the site, a handsome building of Menomonie brick with a commercial space on the ground floor.
For years, this space was occupied by the salesroom and service center of the Northern States Power Company, the forerunner of Xcel Energy. George moved his hardware store across the street into the current location of the Pence Artists Supply Warehouse.
After George Jungck retired, the site housed the Redgren Hardware Store. Many readers may remember the Fair Store, operated by Herman Chudacoff that featured groceries and ready-to-wear for many years at this location.
Today, the former Masonic Temple building’s ground floor is the site of the Acoustic Café. For many years, the Boothby Print Shop occupied the basement area, reached by the open staircase that has served much business since Jonathan Boothby turned over the keys to the print shop to the late Harry Thomas.
Also located in the basement area of the building was an automobile agency, that, because of the slope of the land, was able to have windows and a garage fully exposed to passersby on West Broadway.
About the photo
It is a pure guess, and maybe a reader can help us, but I feel that the two young men on the right in this photograph may be the two sons of Peter and Barbara Jungck — Albert, holding the 2x6 board, and George, in a cross-legged stance, second from the right. Note that despite of their overalls, both are wearing ties.
Beyond the group is the location of what was the headquarters of the Wilson Lumber Company, a remnant of the Knapp, Stout & Co., Company that had a lumberyard on North Broadway on the current site of a mobile home court across the highway from the Menomonie Public Library.
On the second floor of this building, the ladies of Menomonie made bandages and other items for the fighting men in World War I. During World War II, the ration board doled out ration books and “A” stickers and other gas stickers for drivers that were qualified for them.
This building has served as a dentist’s office, a barbershop, an ice cream emporium operated by the Sanna Dairies Company, and most recently, the temporary location for Legacy Chocolates until it was able to move into new quarters at 643 South Broadway.
John Russell, a local photographer and Dunn County resident, writes a weekly column for The Dunn County News. He is curator emeritus of the Dunn County Historical Society. |
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