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Underwood residents pause, give thanks
Published 12:17pm Tuesday, December 1, 2009The Thanksgiving weekend was not only a time of celebration among families in the Underwood area. Friends gathered throughout the weekend to also give thanks for the community and rural area in which they live.
Doing just that late Friday afternoon were buddies Roald Bjornaas, Larry Melby and Walter Bergrud who had coffee together at the Farmhouse Cafe in Underwood. Bjornaas and Bergrud are retired farmers, while Melby still farms near Underwood.
“This has been a great area to live, farm and appreciate your neighbors and friends,” said Bergrud who also worked 40 years at the milk and cheese plant in Fergus Falls, known as Mid-America Dairy and later Dairy Farmers of America. Barrel cheese was the staple before the plant closed.
All three appreciate the thanks from the Underwood school district that go their way — as well as appreiation to others — in light of community and rural support for increased taxes to support area schools over the years.
“We know that the school is the heart of this community,” said Melby. “It’s times like this week (Thanksgiving weekend) to stop and think about the good community that we have. Knowing people like Roald and Walter is part of this.”
The three, like many coffee buddies, also do a lot of kidding.
“We talk abut things like farming, hunting and sports,” said Bjornaas, “but we try to stay away from things such as politics and religion. We try to keep it fun — and positive.”
They also appreciate the history of Underwood.
Homesteaders chose the area, once a heavily wooded area, for their home in 1869. From their humble log dwellings, the whistle of the train — as noted on the city’s web site — was to be heard just 12 years later, in 1881. This was the beginning of a very busy little town, which people know today as Underwood.
The railroad was petitioned to change the name from Southvick and the post office was also petitioned to change their name from Turtle Lake Post Office — all to Underwood.
The populace of the village called their settlement Underwood, in honor of A. J. Underwood, editor of the Weekly Journal at Fergus Falls. He was someone known personally by nearly every settler at that time, and a man of vast knowledge in the history of Otter Tail County.
In 1881 the Northern Pacific Railroad was built. Three years later the Turtle Lake Post Office and Southvick Railroad were petitioned to the name Underwood. In 1887 the first schoolhouse in District Five was erected. In 1912 the village of Underwood was incorporated by 27 voters.
Underwood celebrated its Centennial in 1981.
