July 1910 Excursion to Osseo and Robbinsdale Minnesota

City Hall and Park
Osseo, Minnesota
July 1910

Presented by Mary Katherine May (amateur history detective)
of QualityMusicandBooks.com.

Osseo, Minnesota City Hall and Park

There is something so delightful in finding a postcard written over 100 years ago not far from where we live.  A girl or young lady named Esther wrote the postcard, but beyond that she will at this time remain anonymous.

So many interesting points can be found on this one little card! The illustrated side of the postcard show the Osseo, Minnesota, City Hall and Park. In the back ground is what looks like a large residential building, and on the park ground I can see a wood platform.  Since the postcard was written on July 25, perhaps the platform was used for a program in relation to independence day.

Esther gives us bits of news that tempt my imagination.  There was a storm with strong winds and Sadie Ward's tree blew down. Was it Sadie's tree, or was it the Ward family's tree?  Since Esther mentions both Osseo and Robbinsdale, in which town did Sadie live?

July 25, 1910(?)
Robbinsdale Minn.

Dear Ruth
We are having so much fun.  We were to Osseo Sat. with Mr. B-. and we had a ice cream cornet.  Sun. morning we went to Robinsdale to meet some people.  Mr. Benells nieces and his son Hilmar.  We had our pictures taken.
Goodbye. Esther.

P.S. Twelve people came besides us. We had a swell dinner with spring chickens. Write soon.

We may assume that Esther was part of a group of young people with perhaps a teacher as a chaperone on an excursion, maybe from South Minneapolis since the card mailing address is there.  The novelty in Osseo was to have an ice cream cornet, which would be the same or similar to what we call a waffle cone today.  Though ice cream was sometimes served in cones for many yearsin Europe already, it may still have been a novelty in Minnesota at that time since the first big splash of attention the cone, or cornet, received was just a few years previous in 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair.

The next morning the group left Osseo for Robbinsdale, which would have been on the way back to Minneapolis. To drive from Osseo to Robbinsdale now takes a15 to 20 minutes traveling between 40 to 50 miles per hour.  I wonder how long it would have taken in 1910.  They were joined by their chaperone, Mr. Benell's son Hilmar in Robbinsdale, where there was a large group who had a "swell" dinner of spring chickens.

The house we live in wasn't built in 1910, but if it were this group on a holiday would have passed our home on their way south to Robbinsdale.  I wonder if they went by horse driven wagon, buggy, or an early motor car?  Or, they may have taken the train--the tracks just a couple blocks from our home still carry trains, and maybe the trip out and back was accomplished in good time, all traveled on the Iron Horse.

I can imagine that Esther was very happy for some time after such a delightful trip, and had a lot of news to tell her friends and family when she returned home.

Should someone familiar with any of the people mentioned on this postcard see this blog post, it would be wonderful to be able to add an image of the  photograph here that was taken on that Sunday in July as mentioned by Esther.  Also, if a viewer could verify the year, which I am reading as 1910, I would appreciate the information.  I can be emailed through this blog site or through our webstore, QualityMusicandBooks.com.

Osseo City Hall, 1910