Peter Aloysius Stanislawski

The bachelor farmer Stanislawski brothers, Steve & Peter had retired from farming & moved to Greenbush (1950) by the time I was old enough to visit them. One was a woodcarver & the other was mechanically inclined, but they both had a great sense of humor. One time we got a face full of flour from blowing into a carved whistle - that usually only work once per customer for them. They had a lot of things they carved & built...I do not know where all there creations ended up, but I have seen some of their creations at the Roseau County Historical Society and Museum. They have some of the carved horses pulling wagons, but my favorite is the carved-mechanical farm scene with carved caricatures of their family...parents and each of the sibling move, as they are caught in the act of a farm activity, like going in & out of the outhouse. [by Dale Nelson]

Stanislawski Brothers, Steve & Peter - The Stanislawski brothers, natives of Winona, came to Greenbush with their Polish immigrant parents who homesteaded here in 1895. Their first spring here was devoted to breaking five acres of land with a team of oxen, hand seeding the patch, harvesting with scythes, and flaying the bundles to harvest the barley. While the men worked in the field, the women did all of the house¬hold chores by hand-churning butter, washing clothes on a wash board, grinding coffee, and even spinning yam.

In 1904, the brothers took over the farm, operating it for forty years. During that time most of the farming was done with horses, although they did have two tractors. According to Peter, "Tractors were in the development stage and we were able to get into the fields faster with horses. Farm work produced a lot of sweat in those days." Steve and Peter retired in 1950 and moved into town.

These busy men were not thrilled with facing a winter of nothing to do. Steve said, "We didn't know what to do with ourselves. We were used to keeping busy. "But then he got an idea. He melted several old aluminum pots into small blocks, filed them down, and shaped them into miniature tools--the old-fashioned kind they had used all those years on the farm. A hobby was born. His brother, Peter, was an expert carver and carved parts for a miniature 1915 Case steam engine; then he sent them to a company to have them cast. Some parts he took to Polaris for boring and such; the rest he made by hand, filing and fitting so that everything worked. The result was a working miniature steam engine. The brothers crafted a multitude of tiny items, not only farm machinery, tools, and farmyard animals, but also household equipment, like a coffee grinder.

They garnered many a prize and award, including numerous blue ribbons at county fairs and hobby shows, but perhaps the most well-known project is the miniature working farm that resides at the Roseau County Museum. It's a wonderful little working farm that includes eighteen carved people who perform farm chores, all oper¬ated by a hidden electric motor. Perhaps the hobbies these men enjoyed are not so unusual, but what is unusual is the meticulousness of detail, entailed in the won¬derful little old-fashioned items made from first-hand knowledge of their uses. Submitted by Eunice Korczak. Condensed from newspaper articles provided by the family