Posted: 10/30/07
Commemorative belt buckles, banks are donated to HCHS
By Charlie Warner
Argus Editor
What started out as an annual fundraiser for the Caledonia Masonic Lodge a quarter century ago has been reborn and will now help raise money for the Houston County Historical Society.
In 1980, Berdell Meiners of Caledonia, noticed a fancy belt buckle a sales rep was wearing. He complimented the man about his buckle and learned the buckle was purchased as part of a fund-raising event in Buffalo, MN. The detailing on the pure pewter buckle so impressed Meiners, he brought the idea up at the next Masonic Lodge meeting.
"We were looking for some type of fund-raiser back then," Meiners recalled. "And many in our lodge felt a commemorative belt buckle was a good idea."
The rest, as they say, is history. From 1981 until 1994, more than 3,000 buckles, depicting five different historic scenes, and then featuring eight different local churches, were purchased by Caledonia-area residents.
The first was a ox-drawn covered wagon with a settler on a horse. The second was a farmer clearing the land, the third a paddle-wheeler moving up the Mississippi, the fourth Shechís Mill, and the last of the frontier collection in 1985 was the Houston County Courthouse.
The Masons sold an excess of 250 buckles each of those five years and raised enough money to pay off the mortgage on their lodge.
"We really didnít know where to go from there," Meiners said. "Thatís when we got the Founders Day committee involved."
From 1986 through 1993, the Caledonia Founders Day committee commissioned commemorative buckles featuring local churches. The beautifully-detailed buckles even had a short history of each church included on the back side of the buckle.
The eight churches included: St. Johnís The Baptist Catholic; St. Johnís Lutheran; St. Maryís Catholic; Immanuel Lutheran; United Methodist; Caledonia Presbyterian; St. Peterís Lutheran of Union Ridge; and the Christian Outreach Fellowship.
The Founders Day committee also realized quite a bit of success selling the church series buckles, averaging between 250 and 300 buckles per year.
In 1994 the buckle series was discontinued and a pewter "piggy bank" series took its place. The series included a stage coach in 1994, a tractor in 1995, and a four-piece train series from 1996 through 2000.
The Founders Day committee took on different fundraisers beginning in 2001, although some of the remaining buckles and banks were still available and sold.
"We decided it would be a good idea to donate the remaining buckles and banks to the historical society," Founders Day committee member Jane Schiltz explained. "The historical society can display them in the museum and sell them to help raise more money for their museum expansion project."
Over 100 buckles and several dozen banks, including several full train sets were donated to the Houston County Historical Society.
"We are very pleased with this donation and plan to put a display together very soon," said historical society president Shirley Johnson. Johnson added the society board will get together to decide how much the commemorative buckles and banks will sell for.
"This will be a wonderful way for persons wishing to make a donation to the county museum," Dr. Rolf Jore added. "Each one of the buckles and banks are numbered. So people will be buying a piece of Caledonia history."
Caledonia Argus
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