Rosendale
Rosendale, A Little Town From the Past
John Skaalure came to Hamilton County from Rosendale, Hardanger, Norway and purchased land in the southeast corner of Section 26, Clear Lake Township, in 1886. Other settlers who came to the area were Lars and E. P. Anderson, Chris Boe, Torkel Oppedol, Ole Johnson, Ole and Lars Jacobson, Ole and John Nelson, Benedict and Edwin Olson, and Peter Frette. In 1873 Skaalure opened a grocery store at the corner of what is now Nelson Avenue and 390th Street. A school was built on the northeast corner of that intersection.
A post office was established on November 20, 1888, with John Skaalure as postmaster. The mail came by horseback from Mackey, in Boone County, and Gilbert, in Story County. Paul Jacobson worked as mail carrier for $100 a year, making deliveries six days a week. This post office continued until May 28, 1896, when it was moved to the Rosendale Cooperative Creamery building, which happened to be located just across the Hamilton County line in Boone County. The Rosendale post office was discontinued on March 31, 1902.
Other stores in this tiny community were Baldus Implement Store, Jacob and Sarah Teig's Grocery Store, Tom Mikkelson Grocery and Dry Goods Store. Ole Nelson was the village blacksmith. A pool hall was later added to the Mikkelson store. A barber came out once a week from Story City and cut hair in a coal bin for 15 cents a head. A gas pump had been added in front of the Teig Store in 1928. The Teig store was sold to Selmer Sansgaard in 1936. He operated this last Rosendale business until 1950, when he sold it to Harvey Tungsevick.
A. O. Peterson had a whole street full of buildings, from 1899 to 1919, where he sold groceries, hardware, and machinery. One of his buildings was called the Produce House, where he bought and sold chickens, ducks, and eggs. Herman Peterson worked at the Egg House candling eggs and put them in wooden boxes for shipment to Chicago and New York. Binder twine and kerosene was also sold.
In 1895 the Rosendale Cooperative Creamery was established a mile south of Skaalure's farm, which put it in Section 2, Harrison Township, Boone County. Mr. Sanky was the buttermaker in the beginning. Then L. C. Peterson served as buttermaker for the next twenty years. The butter was packed in large tubs and hauled by team and wagon to Story City, the nearest railroad station. Each member farmer was entitled to his share of the skim milk and buttermilk, which he took home and fed to his livestock. Before the days of electricity, ice had to be hauled by members in the wintertime. The ice was cut from Sowers Pond, located east of Rosendale, or from Lake Comar in Story County. The ice was packed in sawdust in 300 pound blocks for later use. A steam boiler was used as power to pump water and also to clean and steam the insides of the cream cans. During the winter of 1909-1910, while the boiler was being repaired at the creamery, a Reeves Steam Engine was brought in to operate the creamery.
There was never a church in Rosendale. The farmers went to St. Paul's Lutheran Church, straight north of Rosendale 2 1/2 miles, or to the Clear Lake Ellsworth Lutheran Church, a mile east and a mile and a half north of Rosendale.
The invention of the Delaval cream separator ended the need for a creamery as each farmer could now separate their own cream. A. O. Peterson sold the separators to the area farmers at his implement business.. After the mid 1920's, the farmers' cream was gathered at the creamery and trucked to the Dairy Industry Building at Iowa State College. The creamery building was torn down in 1923.
Rosendale faded away over time. The various business buildings were torn down or moved to farms in the area. The little crossroads store, operated by Tungsevick, was the last reminder of the thriving, busy Rosendale of long ago. It supplied the farmers with groceries, nails, bolts, tools, twine, brooms, pitchforks, gas, ice cream and soda pop. The store is pictured in this story. This store closed for the last time in 1966.