Mina Satory's Evening Gown

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Emily Patwell

Catalog Number: 1981.063.04

Mina Satory (née Meincke) was born in Lake City, Minnesota, on Aug. 2, 1906 to Henry and Margaret Meincke.

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

She attended the Winona Teachers College and the University of Michigan School of Nursing, later teaching at Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. While in Minneapolis, she met and married Dr. Perry T. Walters, with whom she had three sons. Mina was widowed in January 1943, but later married Dr. John J. Satory in 1948 after she moved to La Crosse. With John, she had two more children, a son and a daughter.

Through her contributions to society, Mina proved herself to be a woman to be reckoned with.

A civic leader as well as an educator and a nurse, she was heavily involved with the La Crosse community through organizations such as the Women’s Auxiliaries of the State Medical Society and the La Crosse County Medical Society, the La Crosse County Association for Mental Health, and the La Crosse chapter of the American Association of University Women, among many others.

For her work in the community, she was awarded the outstanding contribution award by the State Association for Mental Health in 1958 and the woman of the month award by the La Crosse Tribune and the Greater La Crosse Chamber of Commerce in February 1971.

As a lifelong Republican, Mina was also heavily involved in politics, rubbing elbows with influential political figures such as Bob Dole and President Richard Nixon. She served as the fourth vice president of the Wisconsin Federation of Republican Women and was the co-recipient of the Everett Yerly Memorial Award in 1978 for her “devotion and dedication” to her party.

Along with her passions for civics, politics and community service, Mina had a refined taste in fashion.

She owned many beautiful and luxurious dresses, including this seafoam green, sleeveless, plissé silk evening gown with white flowers around the neckline and hem.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on June 1, 2019.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

Eloda Beach's Monkey Fur Jacket

Susan Hessel

Catalog Number: 1975.007.02

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

If you look into Eloda Beach’s background, her monkey fur jacket isn’t surprising.

It may not be politically correct today, but no one gave furs a second thought in the 1920s – except those who were jealous they did not have a fur.

Beach was beloved in La Crosse as a theater star, a celebrity. She lived on the quirky side of life, but had a kind and generous heart.

Beach worked as a bicycle messenger for Western Union before becoming an actress. She came to La Crosse to perform in a play during World War I, while her husband, Guy, served in the Army in Europe.

After the war, she and her husband decided to make La Crosse their home base for what became the Beach Stock Company. Eloda said the city was the nicest place she had ever lived.

The Beaches actually kept monkeys in the garage of their home at 205 Losey Boulevard North. They were used in the Beach Stock Company shows at the Majestic Theater on Main Street.

This silk satin evening jacket, trimmed with sleek black monkey fur, was made in New York, and donated to the La Crosse County Historical Society in 1975 by Eloda’s daughter.

After her marriage ended in divorce, Eloda sold the North Losey Boulevard house, and moved to Minnesota with her adopted daughter, Eloda Mae.

While performing in theater, she met Minnesota state Sen. William Roepke, who she married in 1935, moving with him to Rochester, Minnesota, in 1942. After he died in 1945, she married for a third time, to fellow actor, Addison Aulger, but they soon divorced.

After that, she worked in a variety of jobs, including at the Rochester State Hospital, an asylum for patients with mental illness. During her nine years there, she created and ran a recreation program. She later said those years were among the most pleasant in her career.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on May 25, 2019.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

Nannie Colwell's Dress

Amy Vach

Catalog Number: 1965.003.11

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Treasured articles of clothing are sometimes saved and repurposed so that they can be worn again.

Wedding dresses can be made into christening gowns, T-shirts and baby clothes can be made into patchwork quilts.

Special articles of clothing have meaning, and sometimes we want to keep those memories alive. This black and blue velvet dress worn by Nannie Colwell Dorset and later her daughter Nannie Colwell is an example.

In April 1861, La Crosse Mayor Wilson Colwell left his position to lead the La Crosse Light Guards into service for the Civil War. Wilson’s young family, his wife, Nannie, and his daughter, also named Nannie, followed as Company B went to Madison and then Washington, D.C.

During their time at the Capitol, Capt. Colwell and his wife were invited to a presidential reception at the White House where the couple met President Lincoln and his wife, Mary. Nannie wore a fashionable blue and black silk velvet gown. According to the family, the dress was made in Pittsburgh, and the floral velvet cutwork fabric came from France.

Later in life, Mrs. Colwell would recall the president as “tall, gaunt, loveable and big-hearted and kindly to all in his conversation as he moved about the crowd.”

After a bout of illness, Nannie and her young daughter returned to La Crosse to be with family and friends. While in La Crosse, she learned that her husband was killed at the Battle of South Mountain in September 1862. Capt. Colwell was never returned to La Crosse, but his sword was sent to his young widow.

Five years later, Nannie married Rev. Charles Dorset and they had three children, Marian, Helen and Bernard. The family moved around over the years but eventually returned to La Crosse.

In the 1890s, Nannie Colwell Dorset still had the dress that she wore to the White House 30 years earlier. It was during this time that she repurposed the skirt from her dress and had it remade into a more fashionable dress for the time, with leg-of-mutton sleeves and a bustle.

After her mother’s death, the younger Nannie and her half-sisters wore their mother’s refashioned dress at various La Crosse functions of the Daughters of the American Revolution and other organizations.

A 1948 La Crosse Tribune feature about the Colwell Dorset family described this dress as a prized possession of Nannie and her half-sisters.

Upon the death of Helen Dorset in 1965, this dress and Wilson’s Civil War sword and other items from the Colwell-Dorset family were bequeathed to the La Crosse County Historical Society.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on May 18, 2019.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.