Louis Letourneau and Minnie Guckenberg
Louis Henry Letourneau was born
February 19th, 1902 to Oliver 'Pepe'
Letourneau and Evalina May Peloquin
near Withrow, Minnesota. He was the ninth of twelve
children. He grew up near Sunset Lake and attended a small
country schoolhouse nearby. When Louie was a young man, he
moved to Cloquet where one of his older brothers, Cyril, was
working in a paper mill.
Minnie Catherine
Guckenberg was born on April 17, 1900 on a farm in Huron
Township, Chippewa County, Wisconsin. She was the eighth of
ten children born to Andrew Guckenberg and Pauline Theby.
As a young girl, Minnie went to school in Stanley, Wisconsin and
often stayed in town while school was in session. As a
young lady, Minnie came to Cloquet to stay with her older sister,
Lena Dahl who was working as a domestic.
Louie and Minnie met while Louie was working as a chaffuer for
one of the Weyerhausers. They were married in Cloquet on
January 22nd, 1922 and they set up housekeeping in nearby
Scanlon. Their first child, Luella Elizabeth, was born in
Scanlon in 1922. Shortly thereafter, they moved to Saint
Paul, then to White Bear Lake, and then to Withrow in Washington
County. While living in Withrow, three more children where
born: Dorothy May in 1923, Allan Louis in 1925 and Lorraine
Alice in 1927. In about 1928, the family moved to a house
that Louie built in White Bear Beach. Louie worked as an
iron worker most of his life but he also had a large truck that
he used to haul potatos in the summer and coal in the
winter. Louie and Minnie lived at White Bear Beach until
Louie died of cancer on January 12, 1951.
Minnie returned to Cloquet to live with her sister Lena and to
help run Dahl's Grocery, which was located at the east end of
Cloquet Avenue. The small neighborhood grocery was open
from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. seven days a week and was often a
stop-off for workers on the way to and from work at the paper
mill or match mill.
Lena died in 1978 and when the store closed several years
later, Minnie moved to her brother Jake's house and then to White
Bear Lake. She passed away on April 6th, 1997, just 11 days
shy of her 97th birthday.
November 24, 2007