WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018
Serving Polk County’s St. Croix Valley since 1897
VOL. 121 NO. 11 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: Osceola football wins Homecoming game. PAGE 17
Pumpkin Express headed for Dresser BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
SUZANNE LINDGREN | THE SUN
Osceola celebrates Homecoming Chieftain volleyball players give high fives to Osceola Intermediate School students at the Homecoming parade. Many high school clubs and teams marched, biked or had floats in the parade, which was held last Friday afternoon, October 5, in advance of the pep fest and Homecoming football game.
With the Pumpkin Express train and bash set for the weekend of October 19 - 21, Osceola and St. Croix Valley Railway volunteers are laying the groundwork for a successful event in Dresser. Andrew Tighe, a car host, reported that the event drew about 5,000 visitors last year. This year event coordinators are working with the Guild of Metalsmiths to bring blacksmithing demonstrations to the celebration. “We’re pulling out all the stops,” Tighe said. “[…] We have two forges at the [Jackson Street] Roundhouse in St. Paul now. The kids are fascinated by that, so we figured we’d bring it up here and do a little show up here too.” After boarding the Pumpkin Express at the Osceola Depot riders travel to Dresser, where pumpkins, games and food wait. They can return on any Osceola-bound train. Costumes are welcome on the train and at the event, but riders are advised to dress for the weather. In preparation for the event, the Dresser Village Board gave the OK for the village’s public works crew to lend a hand unloading pumpkins, and for the use of tables, chairs and orange cones. Fall is a popular season for the Osceola and St. Croix Valley Railway, which delayed the start of its season this year but has expanded the number of fall rides.
Local history meets moonshine St. Croix Falls author Phil Peterson, Sr., will elucidate three decades of research about moonshine’s local history at an upcoming talk sponsored by St. Croix Falls Historical Society. After eight years, Peterson has completed the third historical novel of his Northern Moon trilogy, based on his own research and that of Ward Moberg. The first in the series, “Northern Moon,” depicts rural farmers having trouble putting food on the table during Prohibition — until they discover the profits associated with moonshine. “Northern Moon Shadows,” examines the urban side of bootlegging, hiding the moonshine all the way to speakeasies in St. Paul and Minneapolis. And “Northern Moon Repeal” looks at the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. “It started one of the
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Phil Peterson
Connie and Jim Demulling and Mary and Randy Demulling were honored this year at the Wisconsin State Fair for having Century Farms.
nation’s greatest parties,” Peterson said, “and it hasn’t stopped yet.” The series includes stories about Osceola, Dresser, St. Croix Falls and Somerset. Peterson, who sits on the SCF Historical Society’s board, will present a program explaining why Prohibition was approved and why voting it out 13 years later was so widely celebrated.
At county line, Demullings farm 100 years
SEE HISTORY, PAGE 16
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BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
Today, Jim Demulling and Randy Demulling are neighbors on the border of Polk and St. Croix counties. But they’re also cousins, once removed. Both Demullings and their wives were honored for their century farms, which share a common history, at the WisconADVERTISING 715-294-2314 ads@osceolasun.com
sin State Fair in August. Once a single farm, the land was purchased March 2, 1918, by Jim’s grandfather and Randy’s great-grandfather, Emil Demulling. A dairy farmer, he also raised steers and grew corn and alfalfa for the dairy cattle. In the 1920s, the family split the land between the eldest of Emil’s six children, Edward and Clem. Ed got the Polk County
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slice and Clem the land in St. Croix County. In those days, farmers still worked the land with horses. They added land as they could, Ed buying 80 more acres in 1929. After decades of hard work, Clem’s son Donald took over his farm. And after another lifetime he passed it on to his own son, SEE FARM, PAGE 28
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