Farmers Picked Up Side Jobs To Get Through Winters | Opinion

Forest Lake farmers often sold the game they could catch, ranging from ducks to fish, during the winter months.

Communities throughout the area and region can boast unique shops and businesses, but in the Forest Lake area in the 19th century there seemed to be a lot of special ways the residents made money to survive. The selling of charcoal, fish and game were such operations that kept people busy at the time.

Charcoal manufacturing was a source of supplemental income for a number of farmers in the area, providing a market for cord wood cut during the winter months.

John B. Houle, one of Centerville’s earliest pioneers, carried his trade of charcoal manufacturing here from Canada and set up charcoal kilns on his farm.

His son John A. Houle, at the age of 20, purchased land in Columbus Township, later part of the farm owned by Roy Houle, and constructed three charcoal kilns there to incorporate into his business. During the peak of his processing, Houle would burn up to 900 cords of wood per year.

Each of the three brick kilns held about 10 cords of wood. The wood was stacked to the roof in a circular manner so that a small open space remained in the center. Chips of kindling wood were then put in the center and lighted by means of a long pole with a kerosene torch on the end. This method was used so that all the wood would burn evenly at the same rate and would not leave any of the cord wood unburned.

Each batch normally burned about seven days and then was left standing for a few additional days. During the burning process, it was necessary to remove loose bricks occasionally to introduce air for burning and then to replace those bricks to permit the burning wood to smolder.

After the charcoal was cool, it was loaded onto wagons and taken to the markets in the bigger communities and into the Twin City area. It helped the farmer to earn extra money during the winter.

Another way to earn money was hunting.

Many Forest Lake men in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s picked up considerable money by selling fish, ducks and other game in the Twin Cities as well.

Old timers were known to remember that mallard ducks would go for a nickel a pound in St. Paul. It wasn’t unheard of to have someone ship up to 50 or 60 ducks at a time to the markets. Some of the duck was even shipped out east.

By 1891, Gov. William Meriam, who had a place in Forest Lake, appointed a commissioner of fisheries to cope with the problem of market fishing and the loss of natural fisheries around the state. The governor himself had been reported to have purchased large quantities of game from Forest Lake fisherman to supply his family at the governor’s “summer mansion” on the north shore of Forest Lake.

Soon regulations on the number of fish and ducks taken ended the days of the market hunter. It was just another way that the people of Forest Lake found unique ways of making an income in the old days.

Brent Peterson is the executive director of the Washington County Historical Society.

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