Grove City, Minnesota<\/h3>
The numerous tracts of groves in the area were the inspiration for the town\u2019s name. There was little difference in the early days between Swede Grove and Grove City. On the 17th of August, 1862, a meeting of some of the settlers was held at Nels Elofson's home for the purpose of getting three men to join the army and fill a draft levy, which had been made on the town of Swede Grove. At the meeting, they suddenly all heard of the massacre nearby in Acton. Most of the people left their homes and farms and went to Forest City for protection. When they returned in October of 1862, they found that every house but two had been burned down in the village. The narratives must have meant Swede Grove, because records state that the first house built in Grove City was built in 1869 by Olaf J. Levander, one of the early settlers, who came from Sweden. That must be when they started calling the place Grove City. The railroad was built through the town in 1870. The first business was a general store and a post office and it was moved from north of Grove City, into the Levander home in 1871, Olaf being the first postmaster. With the railroad coming, the town began to grow, like most of the towns on what became Highway 12. The trains needed stops every five miles or so to take on water for the steam engines, so most of the towns on the route are that far apart. Also, lumber was needed to burn and the crew on the train was equipped with axes and, because they often ran out of wood, they\u2019d jump off the train near woods and do some chopping. Grove City was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1878. The post office has been in operation since 1879. Olaf Levander had a saloon in town in 1880, a much need commodity. \n<\/p>
In the early 1900's, Grove City had four groceries or general merchandise stores (Andrew P. Nelson with O. H. Peterson, C. C. Reitan with A. C. Haugen, and two others), two hardware stores, two hotels (Mrs. L. A. Olson, Peter D. Ringstrom), a shoe store\/men\u2019s clothing store (O. Levander), a harness shop, a millenary shop, a bakery, four grain elevators (Farmer\u2019s Mill Company was one, Andrew P. Nelson and Mr. Dudley was another), two lumber yards (Andrew P. Nelson and another), a doctor's office (C. J. Eriksan), a creamery, five saloons (B. Bresden, A. Okerson, Olaf Levander, and two others ), a pool hall, a barrel factory, a feed mill and flour mill (C. E. Lindberg), two bulk oil stations (for kerosene lamps), four filling stations (really?), two garages, an express and railroad agent (George Kellog), a painter (Martin J. Paulson, former owner of one of the hotels), a drug store, three restaurants, a watchmaker (S. Hawkinson), a confectionery store, two blacksmiths shops (Eric P. Eklund, Peter J. Malmquist), a wagon-making shop (A. P. Gustafson), two carpenters (A. Levander, Ole W. Lindell), two banks, and a partridge in a\u2026.er\u2026a telephone office.\n<\/p>
A summer of 1925 Litchfield newspaper headline stated: \u201cMan, 93, Arrested as Still Tender, Stands on Rights. Nels Elefson (Elofson was the correct spelling) of Meeker County, Held as State's Oldest Moonshiner.\u201d Other than the fact that the paper got his name and age wrong, the old settler, who died a couple of months later on June 8, 1925, at the correct age of 90 plus, was going to go out with a bang. Nels, who was involved in the Sioux Uprising, was still the oldest man ever accused of bootlegging in Minnesota. Prohibition agent Ole Olson brought Nels into custody. According to the newspaper article, Nels was \u201csaid to have been caught red-handed in the act of tending a still cooker in Grove City. Elefson was born in 1831 (actually June 18, 1834) and used to be a justice of the peace in his county.\u201d (He was also the postmaster in Swede Grove in 1859.) \u201cIt's my constitutional right to make moonshine if I want to,\u201d Nels said to the officers. The article went on that \u201cthe still, said to have been operated there by the aged man, was in a tiny teapot and that it took him (Nels) three weeks to make a quart of alcoholic liquor which he said he used in his coffee in the morning, the habit of 80 years. Elefson was the second white man in Meeker County and is known as a pioneer and Indian fighter of the early days. He was released on his own recognizance.\u201d Oh, the crimes our newspapers reported in Meeker County.\n<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n