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These oral histories were performed in 38 different community churches in central Minnesota during the late 1970s.  Most of the churches are in or around the St. Cloud area or Brainerd between Interstates 94 and 35.  Ordinarily, the interviews include the church pastor and several elderly members with long family ties to the church.  All the interviews begin with the basic biographical data of the participants including birth dates, the reason their family immigrated to the area and where they came from, length of association with the church, and ethnicity.

The ethnic backgrounds of the congregations and communities are discussed in many of the oral histories.  Attention is given to the ethnic foundations of each church. Americanization of the congregation appears to be significant in many of the histories.  Frequent mention is made of the efforts and influence of church groups, particularly women’s groups, and the concern over an aging congregation without new members joining.  Several interesting anecdotes appear as part of the personal histories, church history, or discussion of the community. The issue of language is particularly noteworthy as almost all the interviews discuss the switch to English from original immigrant languages for Protestant services or from Latin to English for Catholic mass.

Many histories describe the past and present efforts to maintain the church.  Early construction, maintaining church membership (particularly youth), splits and conflicts between churches and denominations over doctrine, and how the changes of the 20th century impacted their community and church.  Notable accomplishments of the churches are also described including community involvement, ministry and counseling, missionary work both locally and internationally, and continual improvement of facilities.  Church association with education is a common topic either as established church or parochial schools, Sunday schools, or as temporary efforts in the early parts of the 20th century.

Transcripts of the interviews are available unless otherwise noted below.  The audio tapes for some of these oral histories are presently unavailable.  Those histories are mentioned in the individual finding aids below.  Most of these histories do have full transcripts available, however.  Some folders include photographs of the church, interiors, grounds, and occasionally interview participants.

A question mark (?) for date of death does not necessarily indicate the participant is deceased.

These general oral histories were conducted from 1973 to 1993 predominantly in the late 1970s.  25 of the interviews are centered on the three cities of St. Cloud, Waite Park, and Sauk Rapids, while the remaining interviews are from communities north and east of that region.  Three interviews are from communities west of Duluth.

The people interviewed represent a wide spectrum of occupations including business owners in a variety of fields and farmers.  Journalists, teachers, musicians, peace officers, and medical care givers are also interviewed.  Each interviewee shares experiences from the early 1900s to the time of their interview and all discuss the changes to their community that they have seen in that time.  Many discuss how their parents or grandparents migrated to the United States and then to St. Cloud area, as well as giving family experiences in the area.  Experiences during the world wars, both at home and in the services, are provided, particularly economic effects on agriculture and manufacturing.  In some, experiences with the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression are also referenced.

Brief biographical and interview notes are given for all participants.  Date of birth and death were given when known using the oral histories, St. Cloud Times obituaries, Google search, or Findagrave.com.

Some interviews were actually transcribed. The typewritten transcripts were keyed into a Word document but have not been checked against the audio. Past experiences has suggested that the transcripts may not be complete. In the meantime, the transcripts are available here as PDFs.

This is a collection of material created and acquired from 129 mostly central Minnesota WWII veterans. The collection has 116 separate oral histories done from 1989 to 1993 for a project headed by St. Cloud State University History faculty member David Overy.

The material included that are not oral histories range from newspaper clippings, photographs, and paperwork related to an individual's service in the military, as well as souvenirs picked up while in Europe and from European Axis forces.

Most veterans included in this collection have an oral history with a handful that do not.  Also included material the veterans donated that relate to their experiences to go along with the oral histories that were conducted.

If there was no oral history for an individual, it was noted.

A few veterans had served solely during the Korean War and some served both in WWII and in Korea.