Tenney, Minnesota
Encyclopedia
Tenney is a former city, now an unincorporated community, in section 28 of Campbell Township, Wilkin County
, Minnesota
, United States
. A post office was established there in 1887, and Tenney was incorporated as a city on November 30, 1901. The population was five at the 2010 census, making the city tied with Funkley
as being the least populous incorporated place in Minnesota. It is part of the Wahpeton
, ND
–MN Micropolitan Statistical Area
. The community's main economic feature is a single grain elevator located near its southern border.
, the city contained a total area of 0 square mile (0 km²), all land.
Tenney is located in the flat basin of prehistoric Lake Agassiz
, a glacial lake which existed at the end of the last Ice Age
. The remarkably flat land in this area is sometimes described as the upper valley of the Red River of the North
, though it is not technically in the Red River valley, but is near the Bois de Sioux River
.
.
After 1910 a steady population decline was driven by the lack of significant population in outlying areas, migration to larger urban centers, and the absence of dynamic economic factors to generate wealth. The hardware store closed in 1928 and the bank, like thousands of other undercapitalized small town banks in the United States, went out of business in 1929 or 1930 in the aftermath of the stock market crash
of 1929. U.S. Census bureau data indicates that the population fell to 102 in 1920, 80 in 1930, rose slightly to 89 in 1940, and fell to 62 in 1950, 35 in 1960 and 24 in 1970. As local establishments burned down or went out of business they were not replaced, and finally the post office was discontinued in 1980 when the population was pegged at 19 by the census bureau. Today the only remaining business in town is the elevator. The only commercial building remaining on the main drag is the former James Bigsby general store, later the G.A. Klugman general store, which also housed the post office until its closing in 1980. The building had been vacant for several years, but was recently purchased and is being rehabilitated.
The population bottomed out at 2 sometime after the 2000 census, but due to the energetic efforts of current residents, the population has again risen to five, and efforts to attract more residents are ongoing.
In late June, 2011, residents of Tenney voted 2 to 1 to dissolve the town and have it become part of Campbell Township.
, listed on the National Register of Historic Places
, was a small wood frame building with a bell tower and flag mast, built in 1904. It housed the town's two hand-pulled chemical fire engines. The rearmost part of the building also contained the town jail
. This building is currently privately owned, but the city is hopeful of reacquiring it and performing important repairs. According to the National Register's Inventory-Nomination Form, the Fire Hall is significant for the following reasons:
church. From 1914 to 1946 it was called the Evangelical
church. 1946-1968 it became the Evangelical United Brethren church. From 1968 until closing in 1997 it was the Tenney United Methodist Church. The building was purchased by the city at a cost of $11 in 1999, and in 2006/2007 underwent a significant renovation and expansion.
The elevator is served by the Soo Line Railroad
, which is the United States arm of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
of 2000, there were 6 people, 4 households, and 2 families residing in the city. The population density
was 115.8/km²; (298.0/sq mi;). There were 8 housing units at an average density of 154.4/km²; (397.3/sq mi;). The racial makeup of the city was 100.00% White.
There were 4 households out of which none had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.0% were married couples
living together, and 50.0% were non-families. 50.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 50.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.50 and the average family size was 2.00.
In the city the population was spread out with 33.3% from 25 to 44, 33.3% from 45 to 64, and 33.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 61 years. For every 100 females there were 100.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $8,750, and the median income for a family was $0. Males had a median income of $0 versus $0 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $8,000. All of the population and none of the families were below the poverty line. None of those under the age of 18 and all of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
Wilkin County, Minnesota
-External links:*...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. A post office was established there in 1887, and Tenney was incorporated as a city on November 30, 1901. The population was five at the 2010 census, making the city tied with Funkley
Funkley, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 15 people, 6 households, and 4 families residing in the city. The population density was 38.9 people per square mile . There were 12 housing units at an average density of 31.1 per square mile...
as being the least populous incorporated place in Minnesota. It is part of the Wahpeton
Wahpeton, North Dakota
The first European explorer in the area was Jonathan Carver in 1767. He explored and mapped the Northwest at the request of Major Robert Rogers, commander of Fort Michilimackinac, the British fort at Mackinaw City, Michigan, which protected the passage between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron...
, ND
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
–MN Micropolitan Statistical Area
Wahpeton micropolitan area
The Wahpeton Micropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of two counties – one in southeast North Dakota and one in west central Minnesota, anchored by the city of Wahpeton, North Dakota...
. The community's main economic feature is a single grain elevator located near its southern border.
Geography
According to the United States Census BureauUnited States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city contained a total area of 0 square mile (0 km²), all land.
Tenney is located in the flat basin of prehistoric Lake Agassiz
Lake Agassiz
Lake Agassiz was an immense glacial lake located in the center of North America. Fed by glacial runoff at the end of the last glacial period, its area was larger than all of the modern Great Lakes combined, and it held more water than contained by all lakes in the world today.-Conception:First...
, a glacial lake which existed at the end of the last Ice Age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
. The remarkably flat land in this area is sometimes described as the upper valley of the Red River of the North
Red River of the North
The Red River is a North American river. Originating at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers in the United States, it flows northward through the Red River Valley and forms the border between the U.S. states of Minnesota and North Dakota before continuing into Manitoba, Canada...
, though it is not technically in the Red River valley, but is near the Bois de Sioux River
Bois de Sioux River
The Bois de Sioux River drains Lake Traverse, the southernmost body of water in the Hudson Bay watershed of North America. It is a tributary of the Red River of the North and defines part of the western border of the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the eastern borders of North Dakota and South Dakota...
.
History
The city of Tenney was named for the owner of its townsite, lumberman John P. Tenney, because of his willingness to give land to the railroad which came through in 1885. The first house was built by his son-in-law, Fred Maechler. The post office was established in 1887, the plat was filed for record with the office of the Register of Deeds in Wilkin County on August 4, 1887, and the city was incorporated on November 30, 1901. The city originally encompassed four square miles, but it never grew enough to meet its boundaries, so in 1916 the farmers petitioned their land from the city, and their request was granted. According to an unpublished town history written in the mid 1980s, the city's population peaked at about 200 in 1910. Before 1910 the city boasted a church, three grain elevators, a hardware store, two mercantile stores, a butcher shop, bank, machine shop, implement shop, blacksmith shop, pool hall, lumberyard, and a hotel, which also housed the barber shop, saloon, and post office. In 1909 a small post office building was erected and used until 1952, when Leonard Hardie became postmaster and moved the post office to the general store. Electricity arrived in Tenney in 1914, through a franchise granted to Otter Tail Power CompanyOtter Tail Power Company
Otter Tail Corporation is an energy company based in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Its main subsidiary is the Otter Tail Power Company.As of 2007, Otter Tail Power Company serves at least 423 towns at retail and delivers power to about 14 municipal utilities...
.
After 1910 a steady population decline was driven by the lack of significant population in outlying areas, migration to larger urban centers, and the absence of dynamic economic factors to generate wealth. The hardware store closed in 1928 and the bank, like thousands of other undercapitalized small town banks in the United States, went out of business in 1929 or 1930 in the aftermath of the stock market crash
Stock market crash
A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a significant cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are driven by panic as much as by underlying economic factors...
of 1929. U.S. Census bureau data indicates that the population fell to 102 in 1920, 80 in 1930, rose slightly to 89 in 1940, and fell to 62 in 1950, 35 in 1960 and 24 in 1970. As local establishments burned down or went out of business they were not replaced, and finally the post office was discontinued in 1980 when the population was pegged at 19 by the census bureau. Today the only remaining business in town is the elevator. The only commercial building remaining on the main drag is the former James Bigsby general store, later the G.A. Klugman general store, which also housed the post office until its closing in 1980. The building had been vacant for several years, but was recently purchased and is being rehabilitated.
The population bottomed out at 2 sometime after the 2000 census, but due to the energetic efforts of current residents, the population has again risen to five, and efforts to attract more residents are ongoing.
In late June, 2011, residents of Tenney voted 2 to 1 to dissolve the town and have it become part of Campbell Township.
Description
The community encompasses two and a half blocks, including one vacant commercial building (the old general store and post office, currently being remodeled into a restaurant), a church building (now the city hall), a community center, three inhabited homes, and one vacant dwelling. The ruins of the Tenney School, a two-room brick schoolhouse which was built in 1907 and operated until the 1950s, are visible at the northwest corner of town, and the Wheaton-Dumont Elevator runs the length of town on the south side along Minnesota Highway 55. The old Tenney Fire Hall is on the east side of Corcord Avenue.Location
Tenney is located on Minnesota Highway 55 in far western Minnesota. It is about 2 miles (3.2 km) east of the junction of Minnesota Highway 55 and US Route 75. It is six miles (10 km) east of Fairmount, ND; 63 miles (101.4 km) south of Moorhead, MN; and 170 miles (273.6 km) northwest of Minneapolis, MN. It is at roughly the same Longitude as Tulsa, OK and Dallas, TX, and approximately the same Latitude as Walla Walla, WA and Montreal, Quebec.Major highways
U.S. Highway 75
Minnesota State Highway 55Minnesota State Highway 55Minnesota State Highway 55 is a highway in west-central, central, and east-central Minnesota, which runs from the North Dakota state line near Tenney and continues east and southeast to its eastern terminus at its intersection with U.S...
Tenney Fire Hall
The Tenney Fire HallTenney Fire Hall
The Tenney Fire Hall, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was a small metal-sided wood frame building with a bell tower and flag mast, located in Tenney, Minnesota.-Functions:...
, listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, was a small wood frame building with a bell tower and flag mast, built in 1904. It housed the town's two hand-pulled chemical fire engines. The rearmost part of the building also contained the town jail
Jail
A jail is a short-term detention facility in the United States and Canada.Jail may also refer to:In entertainment:*Jail , a 1966 Malayalam movie*Jail , a 2009 Bollywood movie...
. This building is currently privately owned, but the city is hopeful of reacquiring it and performing important repairs. According to the National Register's Inventory-Nomination Form, the Fire Hall is significant for the following reasons:
- "Government functions were often centered in towns, [including] places as small as Tenney with its Fire Hall..."
- "Though of simple metal-sided, frame construction, the diminutive Tenney Fire Hall...is a visual landmark in the small town."
City Hall
The City Hall was at 295 Concord Avenue (Concord is the town's main north-south street). It is open to the public 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Visitors are invited to come inside and sign the town's guestbook. The building was built in the early 1900s as a community church. Later it was a BaptistBaptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
church. From 1914 to 1946 it was called the Evangelical
Evangelical Association
The Evangelical Church or Evangelical Association, also known as the Albright Brethren, is a "body of American Christians chiefly of German descent", Arminian in doctrine and theology; in its form of church government, Methodist Episcopal....
church. 1946-1968 it became the Evangelical United Brethren church. From 1968 until closing in 1997 it was the Tenney United Methodist Church. The building was purchased by the city at a cost of $11 in 1999, and in 2006/2007 underwent a significant renovation and expansion.
The Wheaton-Dumont Cooperative Elevator
The Co-op had its primary rail terminal in Tenney. In 2003, 20 million bushels of grain were trucked into Tenney from other elevators, and shipped out by rail. At that time it was estimated that in 2004 this figure would rise to 32 million bushels.Bushel
A bushel is an imperial and U.S. customary unit of dry volume, equivalent in each of these systems to 4 pecks or 8 gallons. It is used for volumes of dry commodities , most often in agriculture...
The elevator is served by the Soo Line Railroad
Soo Line Railroad
The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , controlled through the Soo Line Corporation, and one of seven U.S. Class I railroads. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste...
, which is the United States arm of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 6 people, 4 households, and 2 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 115.8/km²; (298.0/sq mi;). There were 8 housing units at an average density of 154.4/km²; (397.3/sq mi;). The racial makeup of the city was 100.00% White.
There were 4 households out of which none had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.0% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, and 50.0% were non-families. 50.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 50.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.50 and the average family size was 2.00.
In the city the population was spread out with 33.3% from 25 to 44, 33.3% from 45 to 64, and 33.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 61 years. For every 100 females there were 100.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $8,750, and the median income for a family was $0. Males had a median income of $0 versus $0 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $8,000. All of the population and none of the families were below the poverty line. None of those under the age of 18 and all of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.