Below is a "scrapbook" of some of those communities that used to be thriving centers of local economies but are all but deserted now. When and if we can find more information on these now empty towns, we will post it along with the photos.
This section of our web site should serve as stark warning to us all. Although locally supported economies can still be saved and rebuilt, we have lost much more than should have been allowed already.
The first lost community in our scrapbook is Bee, Iowa. Bee once straddled the Minnesota border between Dorchester, Iowa and Spring Grove, Minnesota. Years ago, locals were fond of telling visitors the storekeepers woke up in Minnesota, had breakfast in Iowa and worked in both states all day long. The state line runs right through the old store building.
Dorchester, Iowa
Dorchester was settled in 1853 by Edmund and Harvey Bell, who erected a grist mill. In 1873 the village plot was laid out by Sylvester and Elsie T. Haines and placed on record but remained unincorporated. The Haines family came from Dorchester, Massachusetts, and thus the village received its name. Soon after the village sprang up with a store, blacksmith shop, wagon shop and sawmill, and thus a thriving business center by the 1870s and an active town in the 1900s. Today it is a quiet town with a trout stream, tavern and a supper club with an excellent Friday night fish fry. All the other businesses mentioned above, along with the school are no longer operating.
The self sufficient community had two grocery stores operated by Joe and Mabel Kumpf, and the other, the Coppersmith Mercantile, built from local limestone. It had its own doctor, chiropractor, boot and shoe shop, creamery, hotel, roller mill, meat market, produce station, brewery, two garages, restaurant, farm implement, bank, post office, dance hall, barber shop, school and two churches. The town and surrounding farms supported each other.
Middle L-R: Joe Kumpf, George Kumpf, Henry Shefelbine, Wallace Long, Emil Shefelbine
Back L-R: Will Shefelbine, Ben Wenig, Henry Schultz, Fred Wenig, Albert Long, William Luehr
Back L-R: Harry Reinbolt, Roy Coppersmith, Joe Kumpf, Chris Schwartzhoff, Charlie Steinbach
Below: Dorchester today
