Keeping warm in the wintertime was a real challenge for Minnesotans several generations ago, even in their homes.

In that era, about a century ago, the main sources for heating in both urban and rural homes were wood and coal for the kitchen and living room stoves, plus fireplaces.

Wood was plentiful, cheap, and a good source of heat. However, a wood fire had to be maintained and more fuel provided from time to time to keep the homes and people warm. A coal-based fire was better because this fuel burned hotter and longer. Both wood and coal fires produced ashes and clinkers which had to be removed from the stoves (when cool) on a regular basis. Also, both types of fuel created smoke and all too much pollution during the winter months.

(There’s an old joke about Minnesotans burning gopher wood. And what is gopher wood? It’s the type of fast-burning wood which is put in the fireplace, then right away someone has to &uot;go for&uot; more wood.)

People with early memories based on that era can recall waking up in a cold bedroom and going to the kitchen to get next to a warm stove. They can remember those days when indoor temperatures could go from extremes of too much heat to frigid conditions within a home during a 24-hour period.

One improvement for home heating came with the development of central heating for the homes and businesses. This was the advent of the furnace, usually installed in the basement.

Shoveling coal into the furnace became a regular household chore, and was done more frequently during the times of colder weather. One Montgomery Ward catalog said these trips to the basement could be as many as 15 on a really frigid day to shovel more coal into the furnace.

There was an alternative method for home heating based on the use of fuel oil. However, there were always understandable problems with the filling of a container at the outside tank, then filling the smaller tank on the stove or furnace. One was odor, and the other was possible spillage of fuel oil in the home.

An innovation for home heating came in the 1920s with the development of the stoker. This added feature and attachment for the furnace consisted of a large hopper for the coal, an electric motor, and a screw-type conveyor or auger to move the coal from the hopper to the bottom of the furnace. There the special hopper fuel, a smaller size of bituminous or soft coal; was pushed up into the firebox. The stoker’s electric motor fed coal and air at a controlled rate, assuring even and complete burning inside the furnace.

Here’s how Montgomery Ward described the soft coal stoker in the 1937-38 catalog:

&uot;Lowest cost method of heating homes – Uses lowest price coal – less of it – Maintains exact heat – whenever you want – day and night – 24 hours a day – Only a few minutes attention – once a day!

&uot;Tend your fire 15 minutes in the evening during coldest weather – instead of 15 times a day! And in early spring and late fall, look at it every two or three days when you fill the hopper with coal and take out a few clinkers! That is all you do! Outside temperature can go from 30 above to zero &045; and back again &045; yet all you do is stay upstairs and enjoy uniform heat, to the exact degree set on the thermostat! This stoker ‘fires up’ to meet cold spells – it ‘shuts down’ when the weather is mild! Automatic controls … make it ‘run itself’ &045; maintains fire all the time without going out. …

&uot;Hopper holds 350 pounds of coal. Speed of feed is easily adjustable from 1/2 pound to 50 pounds an hour.&uot;

However, some homeowners in this area couldn’t use the stoker for wintertime heating. These were the rural residents who didn’t yet have electricity. And when the electrical connection was made in the late 1930s and early ’40s, many of the rural homes were then heated with newly installed stoker units.

Coal for the stokers was once available from many firms. For example, in 1943, they were: Albert Lea Ice and Fuel Co., Atlas Lumber Yards, Benson Coal Co., Botsford Lumber Co., Donovan Grain and Fuel Co., Minnesota Lumber Co., and the Speltz Grain and Coal Co. in Albert Lea. Also listed in the directory were: Speltz branches in Alden, Glenville, London and Myrtle, plus Clark Grove Lumber Co. and Sorenson Grain and Coal Co. in Clarks Grove, and Lebeck Hardware and Coal of Manchester.

A decade later, in 1953, only three firms: Albert Lea Fuel Co. (note the change in name), Benson Coal Co., and Speltz Grain and Coal Co., 415 E. William St., were listed in the city directory as coal dealers.

During that decade two newer fuels became more popular and practical. One was natural gas, and the other for rural residents was LP gas. Thus, the stoker units were gradually replaced and an era in wintertime heating ended.

King Coal had been dethroned.