My Mother and Father (Hazel Clarke and Archibald B. Vaughan) moved to Robbinsdale, MN in 1934. Our family consisted of five boys, Edward, Ellwood, Robert, Archie, Jr., and Westley; and four girls, Genevieve, Phyllis, Barbara and Phyllis’ daughter, Marlene. I believe we moved from South Minneapolis to Robbinsdale so my Mother could be near her sisters,Mrs. Glen (Edythe) Nichols and Mrs. Frank (Helen) Robinson. We had lots of picnics in our backyard and all of our cousins were there including the Wulffs. We remain very close to this day to our cousins. They are like our brothers and sisters. Robbinsdale was a very sleepy town then. We never locked our doors and I remember I used to go to the store with a list and give it to Mr. Harvey Liddicoat at the Beehive Grocery and he would fill up Marlene’s doll buggy with the groceries so I could get them home.
I went to Parker School along with Westley and Marlene. The other boys went to North High School. As soon as the new Robbinsdale High School opened, my brothers Archie. Jr., Westley, Marlene and myself attended the new school. We all four graduated from there. What fun to enter a brand new school. Our teachers included Mrs. Nordby, Home Economics; Mrs. Violet Peterson, English; Mr. Wadd, History; Mrs. Thote, Math; Mr. Mark Woodward, Math; Emily Katter, Art; Mrs. Christiansen, Acappela Choir; and of course Esther Loe, History. What glorious days those were. So unlike today. We walked to school everyday and in the winter had snowball fights on the way.
We lived at 3914 West Broadway until my Dad sold the upper half of our land to Dr. Keller. Then the front of our house faced Highway 52 (nowHighway 81). Our address then became 3921 Lakeland Ave. When we first moved there, it was a very large house. I remember circular rooms on one side of the house. I was told it was where the maids rooms were. The house had been built for Amy Robbins Ware by her father, Andrew B.Robbins. My dad had to cut off half of the house to accommodate Highway 52. When the highway was being built, we used to eat the lumps of tar. Actually, it tasted like licorice to us.
Amy Robbins Ware had built a large tree house in the willow tree on the property. It was a tea house for her. It was a sad day when my dad cut down the tree and we lost our tree house.
In our immediate neighborhood, there were no homes except for Aydt’s next door and Mohr’s house in the back. Across what is now Highway 81, lived the Hostermens, Hartigs and Mrs. Gates. Soon Blackie built his icehouse there on Crystal Lake. The day the icehouse was torn down the City Police (Matt Spurzem) came out and laid rat poison in the fields. Even with the rat poison, we found one rat in our kitchen sink. When the icehouse was torn down, the rats came across the road in droves. We were so scared. To this day, I’m afraid of mice and rats. Before he built the icehouse we used to swing out over Crystal Lake on a large rope. Pretty stupid as none of us, at that time, could swim.
When the United States went to war in 1941, four of my brothers enlisted in the military. Edward served in Hawaii, Robert in the army from Africa to Italy. Archie, Jr., and Westley were both in the Navy in the pacific theatre of operations. Ellwood, because of a heart condition didn’t pass the physical exam for the military and he served in the C.C.C’s. My mother worked for the Red Cross and my dad was an air raid warden. The war years were a sad time in our lives. Mother was in her rocker one day and she started to cry uncontrollably. She said one of the boys had kissed her goodbye. It turned out to be our cousin, Fred Robinson, who had been killed in North Africa on that very day. He was killed one mile from where my brother, Robert, was. Fred was the first one in our town to be killed fighting for his country. He was a mild-mannered and wonderful man. He will never be forgotten by any of us who knew him. The day the boys all came home to us was a day we will all remember.
When I dream of Robbinsdale, it is those days I see in my dreams. The old Police Station with its semi-circle driveway, Henning’s Drug Store, Beehive Grocery, and Chase’s Hamburger Shop. The streetcar circle at the end of town. We all knew each other and loved each other in those days. That is the way Robbinsdale will always be to me.
Submitted by Barbara Vaughan Ogren
What a wonderful piece of Robbinsdale history. Hazel Clarke Vaughan was my great-aunt. Her sister Edythe Clarke Nichols was my grandma, and lived at 3940 Regent Avenue No. Their sister Helen Clarke Robinson, father of Fred who died in WW11, lived at 5420 42nd Ave No. Edythe’s daughter Jane and family (Mitchells) lived at 3957 Noble Ave No.