A History of Bee
By Percival N. Narveson
SPRING GROVE, Minn. - A village that once had a
post office and produced butter that rated the
quality award of the National Creamery and
Butter-makers Association now has a population of
only eight.
Sales taxes afflicted the hamlet of Bee years
before they came to Minnesota, and there were other
complications at Bee because the village store and
saloon straddled the Minnesota-Iowa line.
It was the Irish who first looked with favor on
this scenic little spot between high hills through
which Waterloo Creek flowed. They came in the early 1850s,
but soon moved on, leaving cultivation of the lands
to Scandinavians who began streaming into the
locality in 1854-55.
Early history is scanty, but by the early 1860's a
post office had been established, a mill built, and
there were several stores.
It was Joseph Schwarzholf, native of Westphalia,
Germany, who made the settlement boom. After arriving
at Dorchester, Iowa, in I853 with his parents, he
opened a brewery there in 1862, rented it to an
operator in 1863, moved on to Highlandville, Iowa,
and after a short stay there, settled at Bee, where
at 4th of July celebrations and on other festive
occasions, he was unable to keep the crowds supplied
with beer — evidence that already the area was
well populated.
Although Schwarzholf didn't have much trouble
running his store at that time despite the fact that
some of the shelves were in Iowa and the others in
Minnesota; but operating the saloon in the same
building caused complications.
Iowa had been dry since 1855. It appears that this
state-line village wasn't bothered too much by
officialdom until 1885 when the laws on intoxicating
beverages became more stringent. But the owner solved
that by moving his liquors in the Minnesota side of
the building.
There were advantages, too, in operating in two
states. When an Iowa sheriff pursued a lawbreaker, he
could step over to the Minnesota side to protect
himself from arrest. Likewise, Minnesota law
enforcement officers could not pursue a lawbreaker
into Iowa.
Bennie Magnusson, now of Spring Grove — who
operated the Bee store with his mother, Mrs. Magnus
Magnusson, until her death in 1936 and then until
1950 — recalls the sales tax problem, Iowa
adopted the sales tax long ago but Minnesota didn't
until this year. To keep the prices uniform, he paid
the tax out of his own pocket. While both Iowa and
Minnesota had cigarette- taxes, the Iowa taxes were
higher, so the cigarettes were stored and sold on the
Minnesota side. Bonnie paid his properly taxes and
obtained his car license in Iowa, but kept the car in
Minnesota.
For many years gnarled tree slump — with iron
rings screwed In to serve as a hitching post —
marked the state line in front of the store.
Schwarzholf, who also was postmaster during his
residence here, employed one Hans Presatter as his
mailer. He had learned the trade in his native Norway
and was an expert millstone refinisher, a highly
skilled art. After being used over and over again to
grind wheat, the millstones had to be recut, and
Presatter was in great demand for refinishing them in
all the mills in the area. While employed in
Schwarzhoft's mill, he lost a hand and part of an arm
in an accident.
When Schwarzhoff moved out of Bee in the early
1890s, John Gunderson and Gustav Smerud became
subsequent mill operators. After the dam was carried
away by a flood, Smerud installed a gasoline engine
and ground stock feed. The mill was a familiar
landmark in Bee until in the early 1930s, when it was
razed.
Hans Morken and Hans Clauson secured Schwarzhoff’s
store; Clauson later sold it to Morken. who operated
it until 1911. He sold to a newly organized
mercantile firm with L. B. Olen as manager. On July
4, 1917, the business was purchased by Magnus
Magnusson, and it stayed in that family until Ben
Magnusson sold to his brother-in-Saw, Leonard Sadd,
who after a short time closed it. Sadd and his wife,
the former Christine Magnusson , still live at Bee,
It was Magnus Magnusson — whose family became
more intimately connected with Bee than any other
— who received the national medal for quality
butler; he earned the honor three times. Magnus
learned butter making from Professor T. L. Haecker,
considered to be the founder of the cooperative
creamery movement in Minnesota. Magnus entered the
dairy school in 1892, held his first job as
butter-maker at Strand, Minn., and in 1894 went to
Bee, where the Honey Bee Farmers Association, one of
the first cooperatives in northeastern Iowa, was in
the process of being organized. Local farmers
purchased 300 shares valued at $600 and began
operation in a creamery building constructed by
George Amray. Magnus is generally credited with much
of the success of the Honey Bee Creamery, which
continued in operation until the early 1940s, when
many of the smaller creameries found it necessary to
join with larger units.
The butter was usually packed in wooden tubs
containing 64 pounds, but for a time the Bee creamery
capitalized on its name by selling butter directly to
a firm in Philadelphia in 10-pound rolls called
"Honey Bee Butter Rolls."
Magnusson was born in Folgerohavn near Bergen,
Norway, in 1869. When he was 17 he came to the U.S.,
locating at Gary, Minn., where his sister had
immigrated earlier. He was butter maker for 31 years,
his son, Bennie, assisting in later years. He
continued operating the store at Bee until his death.
He was succeeded as butter maker by Ole Morken, Paul
Pagel and Olaf Goodno.
In addition to the old store and four residences,
all that remains of Bee today are blocks of old
foundations, depressions in the ground where other
buildings stood, and a beautiful view as Waterloo
Creek winds among; the steep tree-covered bluffs from
Wilmington Township, Houston County, to Allamakee
County, Iowa.
Those first Irish settlers were George Carver, who
staked out a claim on the south side of the state
line on the site of Bee, George Edgers, Michael
Callahan, Charles Kelly and Michael Tanner. Edgers
and Callahan sold to Ole Bye, believed to have been
the first Norwegian settler in the area.
The first Scandinavians called the settlement
Bergen from the Norwegian city by that name. The name
Bee is of uncertain origin. One plausible theory is
that it is derived from the Norwegian "by”
meaning hamlet or town, and that through some quirk
of translation the village emerged as
"Bee."
As most frontier villages, Bee had its
blacksmiths, among them Henry and Charley Peterson,
sons of Hans Peterson, early Spring Grove blacksmith,
and John Akre, expert smithy and wheelwright who
moved to Spring Grove in 1913 bringing an end to the
industry in Bee.
Although small, the tiny vi1lage played its part
in the development of the region, and only within the
last year or two has it been left off the official
highway maps of Minnesota.
