ABOVE: A historic photo of the July 4, 1909 celebration, which shows Downtown Truman, on the side of a building. It’s one of several photos on display throughout town and made possible by a grant from the Marvin Bosshart Family Foundation. The photos can be viewed at this weekend’s Truman Days celebration.

Brooke Wohlrabe

Editor/Publisher

Truman celebrates 125 years of history

TRUMAN– The city of Truman is celebrating 125 years in 2024. As part of marking this milestone, some information on the town’s history has been made available and some special events will be taking place during this weekend’s annual Truman Days.

Marilyn Carrigan of the Truman Museum said that there was a desire for a north-south railroad that would go from Fairmont to Madelia.

“It’s named Truman because the vice president of the railroad that came through named it after his son, Truman Clark,” Carrigan explained.

She said once the town was founded, building started right away and that the town grew quickly.

“Churches popped up right away,” Carrigan said.

At one point there were five churches. Currently there are three churches within the city.

“Banks were built and we at one time had three banks. It was a booming time when it was first founded,” Carrigan said.

At one point there was also a movie theater, bowling alley, three car dealerships and three grocery stores.

“That was in the 1940s when there was a lot of duplicate businesses, before transportation improved and people started going to Fairmont and then Mankato,” Carrigan said.

She said that Truman Farmers Elevator started soon after the town was founded in 1903 and it was very important for the region because bringing the grain to market was easier.

The Truman Cafe, presently China House Cafe, is also a notable business and first opened in 1902 as Damon’s Grocery. Over the last 125 years it’s changed owners, services and names many times.

“This building had the most businesses that I found when I was researching,” Carrigan said.

Some of the first settlers were business people. One notable person was Otto Graf who donated some land for a park, which is known today as Graf Park. He also donated land for a school.

Truman Public School has been on the same land though the building itself has changed. A portion of a new school building built in 1935 remains today though an addition was added in the 1960s.

“The first graduating class was in 1913 but there was only one student, E.E. Olson. He used to joke that he was at the top of his class and the bottom of his class,” Carrigan said with a laugh.

She pointed out that at that time a lot of children went to schools in the country or would only receive an education through the 8th grade.

Olson started Olson Furniture and Olson Funeral Home, which has changed ownership over the years but remains in town today as Zaharia Family Funeral Home.

Dave Jennings, a graduate of Truman public School, went on to be a state representative and speaker of the house and also ran for governor. He wrote the forward in the 1999 centennial book.

Like many small towns, offerings and population has declined but Truman is holding steady at just over 1,000 citizens.

“The school helps. The superintendent that we have is awesome and we have a good school board and a public that supports it. Never has a referendum failed in Truman,” Carrigan said.

The town is also proud of its pool, which is nearly 60 years old.

“It’s a Godsend for the kids because there’s not always a lot to do in a small town but the pool and library are wonderful things,” Carrigan said.

To help celebrate the history of the town, people who attend Truman Days this weekend are invited to go on a self-guided walking tour which will go down three blocks of Downtown Truman and include some other locations throughout town. A stake with signs on them that lists what the buildings or spaces used to be and in what years will be posted. For example, a few homes were formerly hospitals.

“We’re hoping that the history walks shows people, especially the younger people, what used to be here,” Carrigan said.

In addition to that, the Spruce Up Committee has been painting buildings and other features around town to clean it up in anticipation of the event and the group has also put up a number of historic pictures.

“They’ve also had some other signs made to beautify the town and on the school is a photo of our 1982 state championship football team,” Carrigan said.

In fact, members of the team, coaching staff and cheerleaders are the Grand Marshals of this year’s Truman Days parade. The 1982 state championship game will also play on the TVs at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Aardvark’s.

A display of the 1982 championship team is also on display at the museum as it’s a focus of this year’s Truman Days celebration.

“At 125 years, we have to think back on some of our happenings that were really special,” Carrigan said.

While the 1982 team is serving as Grand Marshal, the Truman Baseball/Softball Association is being recognized as the Volunteers of the Year.

“They do a lot for the community and have the pull tabs at the bar and the diamond is really well-maintained,” said Nancy Salic, a long-time organizer of Truman Days.

She said that several special events are happening this year for the 125th celebration.

The museum is sponsoring historian Arne Kind who will give a presentation on Minnesota in the Civil War on Saturday at the Community Building. It’s a free presentation and is open to the public.

Also new this year is a medallion hunt sponsored by Peterson-Anthony Insurance. On Saturday at Graf Park some special Truman memorabilia, including mugs, T-shirts and ornament, will be for sale and there will be other vendors and entertainment.

For the grand parade Saturday, there are currently 72 units planned. It will follow the traditional route and last about 1.5 hours.

At the park after the parade, SuFuDu Drumline, Groove Inc. and the Dixieland Pickup Band will perform.

“The park will just be packed when they perform. It’s incredible,” Salic said.

MisGuided Inc. will be at the park later for evening entertainment.

One really special offering this year is a fireworks display which will be put on by the Truman Fire Department. Fundraising for the fireworks, which will celebrate the 125th anniversary of Truman, started right after last year’s Truman Days.

“It really took off after the first of the year,” Fire Chief Brandon Mosloski said of fundraising.

He said the department had a goal of raising $25,000 (which is what Fairmont spends on its Fourth of July display) and ended up raising $27,500.

“Most of it was contributions from businesses and private donations. We had a couple really good donations from businesses, like $5,000 plus,” Mosloski said.

The Relief Association through the fire department did a side-by-side ride in May and raised quite a lot of money there, too.

The fireworks will go off from the Gun Club beginning at 10 p.m. on Saturday night.

They should be able to be seen from most anywhere in Truman.

“I think there’s been good feedback and hopefully we get a great turnout,” Mosloski said.

He noted that the last time Truman had a fireworks display was for the centennial in 1999.

“We want to thank all of the generous sponsors that made this happen,” Mosloski said.