By Bev Jackson, Historical museum

What would our lives be like if we were living in St. Nicholas? It could have very well happened, you know.

If Jacob LyBrand and George Ruble had been able to reach an agreement in 1855, our county seat would have been located further south along the shore of Lake Albert Lea, and we might be living in the town that LyBrand had founded, instead of the city created by Ruble.

How fun it would be at this time of the year. I can just see the tourists thronging to our community. With its beautiful view of the snow covered lake, its little shops and restaurants all decorated with greens and berries and sparkly ribbons, its year-round jolly holiday spirit, and the look on the faces of strangers when you gave them the name of your home town.

Our post office would be bustling with letters to Santa, and our Web site would be tracking his Christmas Eve journey and maybe even recording the toy inventory thanks to the industriousness of our local elves.

I’ll bet even the area &uot;Scrooges&uot; would have to think twice about some of their grumpy donut shop conversations and letters to the editor. Maybe if we invited the Grinch to a lutefisk supper, he might change his attitude.

I would love to be one of Santa’s helpers on the committee that answered letters from children like one that was printed in last week’s Sunday paper.

&uot;Dear Santa, I hope you don’t get stuck in a snowstorm. How does Rudolph’s nose glow? Why do you have reindeer? What do you do in the summer? Your friend, Kyle.&uot;

What an amazing place St. Nicholas would be.

Just in case you are wondering where on Earth I am coming from, I’d like to share a little information from the 1882 History of Freeborn County. This article is from a letter written by George Ruble, then living at Lookout Mountain, Tenn.

It was read at the sixth annual reunion of the Old Settlers Association.

&uot;In 1855, I, like hundreds of others, had sought the West to find a city destined in the future to be the ‘great business center.’ …I had come with my head full of towns (plans), and with this all absorbing idea began hunting immediately for desirable locations.

&uot;With such material at hand, it took me but a short time to find just what I wanted. Having made all arrangements I left, and in the fall returned with my family and a gang of men, and began at once the erection of the old saw-mill, which was, by the way, when completed, the finest frame building ever erected in Minnesota. &uot;About this time St. Nicholas was founded, under the chief auspices of Jacob LyBrand, as doubtless many will remember. One day, I went and looked over the position, and came to the conclusion that the situation of St. Nicholas was in every way equal to Albert Lea, and the mill power was ever so much better than the one I was improving.

&uot;I therefore made a proposition to LyBrand to unite town interests and influences, build the mill, procure the County Seat, and make the future metropolis at St. Nicholas, instead of Albert Lea. My proposition was received with indignation by that confident individual, who informed me that I might abandon my town

&uot;If I chose to do so, at any rate he proposed to have both mill and county seat at his place, and did not propose to have any partnership about it, either.&uot;

In another section, the book reads, &uot;LyBrand and Thompson … laid out as a town site the village of St. Nicholas, which was the first of this brood that was soon hatched out in such rapid succession. Here, the first store was opened with a large stock of goods, a hotel, a saw-mill, a blacksmith shop, and other improvements rapidly followed, and the impression went out that this was to be the great metropolis of this section, the energy of its founders, with the wealth of Mr. LyBrand, encouraging this idea.&uot;

The Minnesota Legislative Act of March, 1857, organized the county and authorized the commissioners to select a temporary county seat. Bancroft, St. Nicholas, Geneva, and Albert Lea were suggested and Albert Lea was the unanimous winner.

When the general election was held in October, 1857, four towns entered the race &045; Shell Rock (now Glenville), Bancroft, St. Nicholas, and Albert Lea. Albert Lea won by a majority of 165 with a total vote of 642.

In 1860, a petition was presented to the county board, asking for another vote. Another election was held, and this time Itasca was the lone competitor. With a total vote of 770, Albert Lea was the winner with a 198 majority.

I wish I could warp time for just a little while. It would be so much fim to watch the competition between LyBrand and Ruble as each determined personality worked to create the &uot;great business center.&uot;

I wonder just what happened. Why is it that Albert Lea is optimistic about its future, and St. Nicholas is a little mowed park on the edge of the lake with a tombstone-like marker? What determination, or hard work, or energy, or quirk of fate made it happen?

Well, I’ve left you with a lot of questions. That’s what makes history so much fun.

So now, on behalf of the FCHM Board of Directors and the staff, I would also like to leave you with lots of wishes for a blessed, safe, and loving holiday season, and a wonderful new year.

(Bev Jackson is the executive director of the Freeborn County Historical Museum.)