Glimpse of the Earlier: Washburn Corner after was site of hog farm

Yard Metropolis — Could you locate your way to Washburn’s Corner? It is the corner where by Blue Earth County Highway 9 crosses Freeway 169, about equal length from Lake Crystal and Rapidan, and north of Backyard Metropolis. Possibly you recall its signal promotion hogs.

A schoolhouse, known as the Piper School, sat just south of the corner. The college for District 17 was in use from 1856 to 1923, when it turned section of the Garden Town District.

As electrical energy commenced to stream from the Rapidan Dam into the surrounding county in 1938, a substation was built on the east facet of Highway 169. It was referred to as the Washburn’s Corner substation.

Fred M. Washburn and his wife, Anna, acquired acreage on the corner in 1911 from Leonora J. Piper. Her spouse, Jefferson Piper, had settled the land in 1855.

During the time the Pipers owned the assets, a huge white household was crafted with porches and bay windows. The land was handed to their sons, G. Frank and Clarence (C.H.) Piper. Frank became included in Midland Linseed Oil Co. in Minneapolis and C.H. with Piper-Howe Lumber Corporation — neither was contemplating of returning to the farm.

The Washburn family came to the place from Indiana, wanting for a location to increase prized Duroc hogs. They erected a indicator together the freeway designating their farm as the F.M. Washburn and Sons Freeway Inventory Farm: Breeders of Market Type Duroc-Jersey Hogs.

The animals have been properly-recognized in the spot. For example, in 1941 a person of their boars was grand champion at 5 fairs.

A 30-website page catalog for a sale Jan. 7, 1920, displays the significant status of Washburn’s hogs. The site is referred to as Maplewood Inventory Farm, presenting 40 sows for sale, with names like Fancy Defender, Royal Woman and Magenta Woman. All had been bred to Big Pathfinder, who would be proven the subsequent calendar year.

Free transportation to the sale would be presented from possibly the Lake Crystal or Rapidan train depots. Ordered animals could be delivered from either railroad depot and would be shipped to the station by the vendor. Buyers who stayed at the Business Resort in Lake Crystal the night before the sale or the night of sale day would be guests of the Washburns. An advertisement in The Free Press even talked about a heated pavilion, a drawing card for a January function.

Fred Washburn was 71 when he died of a heart attack in 1958. He had been doing the job on his tractor in a cornfield. The farm was offered, the substation taken off, the outdated white household torn down, and a new residence created on the corner web page. But locals however refer to it as Washburn’s Corner.