​Each fall, from 1903 through 1915, the Cokato Street Fair took place. We have written about those before. We also have two files of images from those events. One of those images came to us in July 1996. It was an undated postcard view of a speaker at one of the fairs. The image, seen be-low, showed how community events in those days functioned. The caption reads: “SPEECH, BY, SEN. M.E. CLAPP, “COKATO FAIR” COKATO MINN.”

Paul Christenson.

​​​Every football game. Every wrestling-match. Every baseball game. Every basketball game. And practically every other athletic event that Cokato high school played from the early 1940s until Paul Christenson was moved to the Willmar Presbyterian Family Foundation facility in the fall of 1985. Not only did Paul attend every home event, but he attended every away event by riding the team bus. For Paul, every loss was agony and every win was ecstasy.

Martha Jacobson,"The Titanic Disaster and its Cokato Connection," In The Midst Of, Cokato Historical Society (Fall, 1993) vol. 13 no. 4. 

RMS Titanic, April 10, 1912. Photo taken by ​F.G.O. Stuart (1843-1923). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

In this day when we hear of global disasters almost as they happen, is it not surprising to learn how slowly and by what manner, news was carried--and often distorted--as recently as the early years of this, the twentieth century?

On April 25, 1912, the Cokato Enterprise reported that a Cokato couple perished in the treacherous waters of the North Atlantic. This story--recreated below--created much speculation by local residents and more recently an inquiry to the Cokato Historical Society from the Titanic Historical Society, Indian Orchard, Massachusetts.

MRS. WM. LAHTINEN DIES WITH HUSBAND
Refuses Chance to Be Saved and
Both Go Down With Ill-Fated Titanic