Fun Facts – Bruno – Part 2

1. The State Bank of Bruno was incorporated in 1910 and opened for business on June 1. Early shareholders included J.H. Lingren, Fred Jesmer, W.H. Rowcliff, E.E. Jesmer, and M.W. Tuttle. J.H. Lingren served as cashier and Will Ames as assistant cashier. The bank moved into a brand new, modern, fireproof building in 1912.

2. Bruno received a new school in 1915 after the current building (built in 1904) was condemned by the state. The new school cost $15,000 and served students in Kindergarten through twelfth grade.

3. The Bruno Cornet Band organized in 1915 when a group of interested musicians met at the Didden barber shop. Band members John Didden, H. Lund, R. Lund, Ralph Williams, Albert Fairchild, Elton Bigelow, Ray Fairchild, Edwin Fairchild, Floyd Fairchild, Sylvester Marihart, J.C. Anderson, Tommy Rodenberger, William Sague, and D.C. Holst immediately started practicing. Apparently they experienced a few difficulties at first because some Bruno residents reported “agonizing noise” coming from the practice room, but the band gave its first concert in June.

4. The village of Bruno was spared during the great forest fire of 1918, but several Bruno-area families lost their homes and farms to the blaze, which killed over 450 people in Carlton and Pine counties. Near Bruno, Ray Fairchild died along with his wife and son. The wife was trapped in the family home and died there. Mr. Fairchild and his boy tried to escape the fire but were badly burned and died a few days later.

5. In 1919, school superintendent Mr. Cook bought a moving picture machine, and the movies came to Bruno! Community members enjoyed such early silent films as Carmen and Mary Pickford's Rags.

6. One hundred Bruno farmers got together on April 1, 1920, to organize the Farmers' Cooperative Creamery. Farmers purchased one $10 share of the creamery for each cow they owned, and $2,500 was raised that day. The group elected the following officers: Nels Lindh, president; E.J. Rodenberger, vice-president; and I.B. McNelly, secretary-treasurer. Creamery directors were Fred Matthews, W.M. Plaisted, Louis Lindstrom, and A.L. Churchill. Otto Pearson received a construction contract for the creamery in October, but it was not open for business until 1923. Mr. Muffet was the butter maker.

7. By 1921, Bruno's business community included three general stores, a garage, a lumber yard, a feed and seed store, a farm machinery dealer, a lath mill, a blacksmith, a harness and shoe shop, the creamery, and the bank.

8. Beginning in 1931, Bruno had its own newspaper, Pine County Beacon. It was printed in Markville and featured news from Bruno and Kerrick.

9. In November of 1937, robbers made off with $2,500 from the State Bank of Bruno. Apparently, the thieves were professional about their work, for they robbed the bank in the middle of the night and poured water into the safe so the paper money would not be destroyed as they burned a large hole in the safe with a torch. In January of 1938, the bank installed a burglar alarm.

10. Bruno began to decline in the 1940s and 1950s. The Bruno school lost its high school program in 1947 when students were sent to Askov instead. Two stores, the Markus general store and Andy Traxler's Fairway store, burned in March of 1950. The creamery dissolved in August of 1951, and the bank closed the next year.

Sources: Courage in a Rugged Land by Edna Bjorkman and Robert David Olson; Pine County...and Its Memories by Jim Cordes

Bruno in 1908