Zimmerman is an active, progressive village located in sections 9 and 16 of Livonia Township. On most maps the village has always been listed as Zimmerman, as the post office was always officially that, but there were occasional maps that failed to have Zimmerman marked. Then, a person looked for the Village of Lake Fremont which was the legal name of the entire area. Locals had no problem with two names but in 1967 Zimmerman became the official name of the village. To understand the history of the town with two names we need to look into the past.
In 1982, the J.F. Bean family, formerly of New Hampshire, was among the first group of settlers to start the site of the village of Elk River. Mrs. Betsy Harvey Bean was the first schoolteacher in the county which was organized February 25, 1856. Soon after this the Bean family took up permanent residence on the west side of Lake Fremont. Bean and two other early residents, J. F. Felch and Samuel Hayden organized the settlement of Lake Fremont before 1860. The Bean family home soon became a well-known stopping place for travelers. The first stagecoach line, established between Elk River and Princeton, came past the Bean residence. Many weary travelers would rest, feed and water their oxen or horses there. When these first families arrived the area was included in Elk River Township. In 1856 the boundary lines were changed and Livonia Township organized.
Other families soon came to settle in the area; among the names of early settlers are still remembered in the county: Bailey, Hill, Iliff, Craig, Lovell and Whitney.
A school was started and a building erected across the road from the Bean house. Miss Lottie Goss, from Princeton was the first teacher. By 1884 there were 22 students enrolled for a three-month term. “Over the hill” south of the Lake Fremont settlement a small country store was built to serve the community. John Pratt of Otsego was the original owner. William Lovell built the building but it was known as the Graham Store because a Mr. and Mrs. Graham ran the store for many years.
Moses Zimmerman had established his farm near the Graham Store. Mr. Zimmerman was influential in promoting the idea of having the Great Northern Railroad go through this area. The first train went through the Lake Fremont vicinity on November 24, 1886 from Minneapolis and Elk River to Princeton, then on to Hinckley and Duluth. The tiny Graham Store, just a few yards from the railway was enlarged to a two story L-shaped building with a complete line of general merchandise, dry goods and groceries. By the 1890s an elevator and a blacksmith shop were operating in the early 1900s and the store in the 1930s.
By the 1890s the rapidly growing prosperous community needed a market for their dairy surplus. In 1898 a group of local farmers established a co-operative creamery. Moses Zimmerman objected to their original plans to build the creamery in the southern section of the village so a new site north of Zimmerman’s land was selected. This is perhaps the start of a separation that led to the two names developing essentially for the same site. This building on the hill beside the original stage route was the first main building in town.
The village was platted in 1904 from the creamery site. Main Street, or Fremont Avenue, went east/west from the crest of the hill. Other businesses soon followed after the building of the creamery. In 1899 a new store built by Harry English and H.E. Thomas went up along with a number of homes. The blacksmith shop gave way, in the early 1900s to a large new general merchandise store built by Martin Swanson. Swanson’s store would serve Zimmerman for more than 60 years. At the same time Swanson’s store went up the two-story Blanchett Hotel opened. Other businesses that attest to the bustling atmosphere of Zimmerman were a livery, lumberyard, bowling alley, liquor store, hardware store, café and barbershop. All of these businesses were built west and south of the original creamery building.
As the settlement grew postal service also came quickly. In the early days the stagecoach carried what mail there was and left it at the Bean stopping place where people would pick it up for themselves. Mr. Bean automatically became the first postmaster. When the railroad was built, the mail was delivered by train. The Bean residence was only a short distance form the railroad so some family member would go down and meet the train at 5 0’clock each morning and get the mail sack when it was thrown from the passing train. As the settlement grew near the store it became more convenient to have the mail delivered there. Mr. Zimmerman built a platform near the track, and then if there was anything to be sent from the town it was left on the platform and someone would flag the train down. If there was nothing to be sent out on the train the mail sack was plucked from a hook near the platform without a stop. Incoming mail sacks were dropped on the platform and the mail sorted and picked up at the Graham Store. The town gradually became known as “Zimmerman’s Establishment.” When the English-Thomas store was well established, they obtained a franchise for the post office and moved it to their store with Grace Orr, from Princeton, as the first official postmistress in 1902. The post office was officially established as Zimmerman, and kept that name to this day.
By 1910 the town had grown to such an extent that a local governing body was necessary. On January 29, 1910 a group of townspeople held a meeting at which the town was incorporated and named “The Village of Lake Fremont.” Lake Fremont received its name in 1856 when John C. Fremont was the Republican candidate for President. Also, Fremont accompanied Nicollet during the 1838 – 43 explorations of the upper Mississippi regions, assisting in surveying and mapping the area.
The post office did not continue in the English-Thomas store where it was started. After the store burned the post office was operated by Mr. and Mrs. Mode from September 21, 1906 to August 16, 1908 in the building on the south side of Main Street that was known as the Fremont Grange Hall. I n 1908, Ina Bean, daughter of the original settlers, was appointed postmistress. In 1909, a building was erected to be the post office for fifty-one years. So while the name of the post office was never changed to Lake Fremont the location of the Zimmerman post office was, for many years, in the village of Lake Fremont. With the official name change in 1967 “the town with two names” became the town of Zimmerman ending the confusion.
(From an article based upon a paper researched and written by Jaci Christensen in 1961 and printed by the Sherburne County Historical Society in the spring of 1993.)