Hancock, Minnesota

A lifetime of changes – Revision #4 of 6/2/2023

                                                     By

      Gene Estensen – Hancock Class of ‘65

 

                     With input from

           Charles and Roger Schaefer

 

Hancock appears to be thriving.  However, the Hancock of our youth no longer exists.  These business places are missing:

Hardware Store (Johnson)

Hardware Store (Kositskze)

Grocery Store (Bell)

Grocery Store (Sloneker & Stenson)

Car Dealer (Ford, Brunswold)

Car Dealer (Chevy, Steinbring)

Café #1 (Cooper’s Blueroom)

Café #2 (Elmer and Mary’s)

Café #3 (Ella Estensen’s Ideal Cafe)

Cafe #4 (Jepma’s)

Veterinary Clinic (Christensen)

Medical Clinic (Eide)

Dental Clinic (Alcox)

Conroy Well Drilling (Conroy)

Time Theatre

The Fixall Shop

The Creamery (My uncle Lane Koskovich worked there)

Clothing Store (Nelson)

Gas Station (Estensen)

Gas Station (Haugen)

Gas Station (Weiss)

Rainbow Rafter (Schaefer)

Drug Store (Matson)

Newspaper (Babbs)

Liquor Store

VFW Club

Laundromat (Bell)

Car Wash (Bell)

Insurance Agency (Frisbee)

Lumber Yard #1 (Hancock Lumber)

Lumber Yard #2 (Erickson, Hellikson, and Vye)

Furniture Store (DenBestens)

Farm Implement #1 (Stetner)

Farm Implement #2 (Mikelsens)

Farm Elevator #1

Farm Elevator #2

Farm Elevator #3

Nursing Home (Braaten)

Shady Lawn Rest Home

Barbershop #1 (Mert Turner)

Barbershop #2 (Asa Way)

Swenson Trucking

Bob’s Recreation

Blacksmith Shop (Shaw)

Ralph’s Junkyard

Nettie Nohl’s Rugs

Eddie Nohl’s Garage

 

These changes didn’t happen overnight.  Perhaps it was being away from Hancock for so many years that the magnitude of the changes became so evident to me.  So, what keeps the town of Hancock alive?  Where does the sense of community come from? 

It takes jobs and the three main sources of employment seem to be:

1) Hancock Concrete (old name) – is larger than ever and has an international presence.  I learned what work is when I worked there right out of high school.

 

2) Hancock Public Schools - the school system, by all accounts is one of the best around.  Open enrollment attracts good students from great distances.  One source told me that the school is as close as you can get to a private school, while being a public school.  Football season finds me walking the sidelines, just as my Dad did when I was playing on the same field.

 

3) Agribusiness.  The changes are profound.  Most of the small farms are gone.  Some farms are huge, with Riverview milking some 8,500 cows.  There are numerous agribusinesses providing support to the area farmers.  I will post an update on Riverview soon.

Classmates, feel free to suggest updates to the list above.   

Everybody must come from some place, and we were fortunate to come from Hancock, the small midwestern corn-belt town on the great American Prairie.

 

Footnote:

I left Hancock in 1965 for a life in technology.  This technology man is very impressed with the deployment of technology in farming.  With GeoMobile technology solutions (drones, GPS, and GIS) each acre of farmland can be managed with accuracy to less than the one-foot level.  Thus, the tractor of today can be operated without hands on the steering wheel.  This is quite amazing to this grandson of a farm implement (Minneapolis Moline) dealer.

 

There are YouTube videos of area farmers working their fields hands-off, with cloud computing algorithms determining how much chemical to spray out of each spray nozzle as it differs from acre to acre.  Here is an example video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=581Kx8wzTMc