Webber holds 30th annual "Day in the Park"

30th Annual "Day in the Frank Herrmann Park"

By Kerma Crouse

For 30 years the residents and friends of Webber have celebrated "A Day in Frank Herrmann Park." The picnic has great food, good conversation and musical entertainment. This year, Mayor Lisa Boyles, welcomed participants to the event on Saturday, a beautifully cool summer evening.

The town of Webber has existed since the railroad came through the area in 1887. The Webber Post Office started in 1889 and is still serving patrons. Frank Vculek, city councilman, said the town now has only "about 23" people, though there are more in the summer with the "lake people." 

The town lies on part of the 1871 homestead of Daniel and Hannah Webber. When the town organized, it was named after the early homesteading couple.

The Herrmann Family first came to the area about 1906. Paul Herrmann, born in Beelitz, Germany in 1882, had landed in the United States on April 25, 1905. An unclaimed letter at the Superior Post Office for a "Paul Herrmann" was reported in the Oct. 4, 1906, Superior Weekly Journal.

Early evidence connecting Paul Herrmann with Webber is found in the Webber Items of the March 5, 1908 Jewell County Monitor. The paper noted "Paul Herrmann has purchased the blacksmith business here."  Later papers reported on the house he was building and then a longer article on his Feb. 11, 1911, marriage to Gladys Browning.

Paul and Gladys had four sons, Roebert, Frank – for whom the park is named, Norman and Howard. All four were to become blacksmiths and welders in various communities. Frank remained in Webber, taking over the shop when his father died in 1957. According to longtime area resident, Frank Langer, the last shop he had still stands just north of the park that bears his name.

During its heyday, the Herrmann Blacksmith Shop was known far and wide as being the place to get plow shares hard surfaced. The worn shares came in by the truck load or the train carload from across the country. But some came, just a few at a time, from local farmers.

The July 8, 1976, Jewell County Record, in an article about Frank Herrmann, noted area residents said "Frank could fix anything but a broken heart."  He might not have been able to fix a broken heart but he could fix a combine auger, as John Ross, Mankato, can attest.

As Ross tells the story, "He saved my life!"  It was about the time Frank took over the shop and Ross's father had just purchased a new combine.  At that time, the combine augers stuck out from the machines.  Rose "thought" he could get by tree – he couldn't.  The auger was bent and Ross's father "very mad." 

Ross got the auger off the combine and took it to Frank. "Frank had other things to do but he took pity on me." remembers Ross. Frank repaired the auger and Ross was back in the field in four hours.

The Record article also reported Frank was often late getting back to school after going home for lunch as he would stop at the shop and get involved with a project. He might have been tardy at times but he did graduate from Webber High School with the Class of 1932.

As farm practices changed, the need for hard surfacing diminished, the needs for blacksmiths changed in general and the Herrmanns aged. All are gone now, Paul died in 1957, Frank in 1977, Roebert in 1983, Norman in 1989 and Howard in 2019.  The Herrmann Blacksmith Shop is now a fading memory. But the Frank Herrmann Park remains a central gathering place in the community of Webber.