by Dennis Dalman
It was early December 1941 when all of the joy of Christmas was knocked out of the suddenly darkened lives of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bobick of Holdingford.
They had received a letter that their 26-year-old son, James, had been killed during the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. That violent raid on Dec. 7, 1941 brought the United States into World War II on the side of the Allies in Europe, as well as the war against the Japanese in the Pacific.
The early-morning attack took the lives of 2,335 American service personnel and wounded 1,143 others.
In Holdingford, the Bobicks were still deep in mourning when on the very day of Christmas Eve, another letter arrived informing them that their son was, after all, very much alive, that the earlier letter had been based on a regrettable misunderstanding.
The good news filled James’ parents’ hearts with joy, gladness and gratitude, and they were able to enjoy a very merry Christmas indeed.
The parents later learned the details: A sailor on the USS West Virginia, one of many large naval ships based at Pearl Harbor, James had managed to escape the sinking ship after it had been struck by a torpedo. He swam to safety, as did many other sailors. But in the terrifying chaos he was presumed to have been among the dead.
That Bobick story, with photos, is just one of many astounding stories in a new exhibit at the Stearns History Museum in St. Cloud. The exhibit’s title is “Rising to the Crisis: A County (Stearns) Responds to a World in Turmoil.” It intersects nicely with another new exhibit in the museum called “33rd and Cooper, from Pan to Electrolux: 50 Acres of Opportunity.” The latter covers more than 100 years of manufacturing on a site in northwest St. Cloud. During World War II, the facilities were used to make fuselages for war planes.
Rising to Crisis
The World War II exhibit contains vivid mock-ups and artifacts of the four years in the United States (1941-1945) when Americans pulled together in extraordinary efforts to help defeat worldwide fascist forces – most especially Hitler and his Nazis’ bloody grip on Europe.
The exhibit brings that era alive with photos, letters, an old black telephone, Civil Air Patrol members, two G.I. mannequins kneeling together while consulting in front of a tent, armament workers and a giant photo of “Rosie Riveters” (war-factory working women) putting together part of a plane. The photo, circa 1944, shows an officer named Lt. John Connell, surrounded by women riveters as he visits them at the Char-Gale Co. in St. Cloud where airplane fuselages were manufactured.
There is a special addition to the exhibit entitled “Chasing the American Dream.” It features, in text and large photos, the contributions during the war made by Japanese-Americans, many of them translators who were trained at Fort Snelling. More than 1,000 prestigious awards were earned for Japanese-Americans’ wide-ranging efforts to win the war, all the while when so many of their fellow citizens were being held for no good reasons in internment camps in the United States.
As visitors stroll through the exhibit, they hear recordings of songs, playing softly, that were popular during the war years, songs like the lonesome “I’ll Be Seeing You,” the 1944 version sung by Jo Stafford.
“I’ll be seeing you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you.”
Among the more somber artifacts is a large printed “Honor Roll” listing the names of central Minnesotans who died or were missing in action while serving their country. There were 80 who died, 20 missing.
A happy highlight of the exhibit are a few actual “St. Cloud Daily Times” newspapers announcing in large headlines, with exclamatory joy, the end of World War II: “PEACE!”
33rd and Cooper
In 1917, a brash, flamboyant visionary named Samuel Pandolfo swept into St. Cloud to realize his dream of manufacturing the finest cars ever built on a site along 33rd Avenue N. and what was then Cooper Avenue.
Born in Macon, Miss., Pandolfo became a school superintendent in New Mexico and later an insurance salesman. To fulfill his car-making dream, he began to sell stocks in what would become the Pan Motor Co. and Sheet Metal Works in northwest St. Cloud. On more than 20 acres of land, buildings soon sprang up for production. The area became known as “Pantown” where Pandolfo had superbly crafted homes built in that area for his employees. Many of those prized homes still exist.
Within a couple years, Pandolfo found himself in legal trouble. He was indicted for mail fraud involving the selling and misuse of stock funds. He was convicted and served almost three years in prison, although he had persistently proclaimed his innocence. After prison, he returned to St. Cloud for a time. Only 737 highly sought-after Pan cars were produced. Five are known to exist. One of them (a spiffy 1919 dark-green model) can be seen in the exhibit. Eventually, Pandolfo moved on to other pursuits and died of a stroke in Alaska in 1960.
Throughout the years, the buildings on the original Pantown site and others that were added covered 50 acres. In 1936, the Hilger Co. of the Twin Cities started production there (floor sanders, paint shakers, etc.), then the facilities were sold to Char-Gale Co. for war production (the making of fuselages, mainly by women workers, some who moved to St. Cloud to become part of the war effort).
After the war, the Franklin Manufacturing Co. moved in and began to make refrigerators and freezers. Many years later (1986), it was purchased by another interest and re-named Electrolux, which produced as many as 5,000 freezers in a day.
Both Franklin and Electrolux paid good wages and benefits for generations of employees living in cities, towns and farms in the central Minnesota areas.
After more than seven decades of production, the freezer-refrigerator manufacturing ended about two years ago when Electrolux decided to move its St. Cloud resources to an Electrolux facility in South Carolina.
In the exhibit, there is a very old refrigerator, the kind that can still be seen now and then, still functioning if a bit battered, in some people’s garages, used to chill beer for garage-and-yard parties.
Another “artifact” is a freezer, the last one to come off the assembly line when Electrolux ceased production. There it stands in the museum, covered by the squiggly signatures of all the employees who worked there right up to closing day.
Those two exhibits, both organized by museum curator Eric Cheever, will be on view for about two years, with periodic changes and additions to both from time to time.
Museum hours are 9:20 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Visitors are requested to wear masks. A nominal fee is charged.
The Stearns History Museum is located at 235 33rd Ave. S. in St. Cloud, behind the Costco store. For more information, visit info@stearns-museum.org or call 320-253-8424.
Steve Bobick of Holdingford was thought to have died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, and his parents were notified of his death in a letter they received in mid-December. However, a couple weeks later, on Christmas Eve Day, the Bobick family received another letter that stated their son was, in fact, very much alive. Needless to say, the family had a very Merry Christmas. The Bobick story is one of many in a new Stearns Museum exhibit dubbed “Rising to the Crisis: A County (Stearns) Responds to a World in Turmoil.”
This is the last freezer that came off of the assembly line at Electrolux Co. after it shut down for good about two years ago after 70 years in business – first as Franklin Mfg., then as Electrolux. All of the employees, staff and management signed this last freezer for posterity’s sake. The freezer and many other artifacts comprise a new exhibit at the Stearns History Museum entitled “33rd & Cooper, from Pan to Electrolux: 50 Acres of Opportunity.”
Two American soldiers talk in front of their makeshift “office tent” during World War II. The scene, along with others, are on view at the Stearns History Museum’s exhibit called “Rising to the Crisis: A County (Stearns) Responds to a World in Turmoil.”
In this 1944 photo, taken at the Char-Gale factory in St. Cloud, “Rosie Riveters” greet visitor Lt. John Connell. The women were putting together a fuselage for a plane used in the war effort during World War II. This photo and much more are part of a new exhibit at the Stearns History Museum entitled “33rd & Cooper, from Pan to Electrolux: 50 Acres of Opportunity.”
