B'VILLE, WORTHINGTON, MN., AND TARGET: TIES THAT BIND

By Juan Montoya

The other day we had occasion to visit the local Target store.

While in there, we sat for a spell and drank a cup of their Starbucks coffee after the shopping was done.
A few acquaintances were in the store, including a friend from the old neighborhood whose son was up north working at a pork slaughterhouse in Worthington, Minnesota. 

His son had experienced domestic problems and he signed up with Swift and Co., the pig slaughter outfit, when its labor recruiters came to the Cameron County Workforce Center.

He said junior was in the southwest corner of that state a few miles north of the Iowa-Minnesota state line near Sibley, Iowa, and some 40 to 50 miles east of the South Dakota border on the west. It is a rural town with only about 13,000 population. Many of the workers at the Swift (ConAgra) pork slaughterhouse are from outside of the area, including some recruited in South Texas, some Central Americans, Asians, and even some Ethiopians and Somalis.

Some are here in the United States legally. Many are not. In a recent ICE raid, many were found to have passed the E-verification test for employment using "papers" they had purchased from an outfit in California that provided Social Security numbers, a driver's license and a birth certificate belonging to real people, that is, identity theft, or "papeles chocolates."

(They could be had for $250 a pop, he said. As incongruous as it may sound, there were all these short, dark Guatemalans (chapines) with names like Edwin, Wendy, etc.)

Yet, underlying the reason so many outside minorities are there is because the local population base cannot provide the workers needed at the plant. Across the border in Iowa there is a beef slaughter plant and further east in Windom, on the Minnesota side, there is another beef slaughterhouse. Poultry processors also dot the landscape in the region. The work is hard, tedious and dangerous. No locals want their kids to work there.

In fact, a majority of the elementary-school population in Worthington is made up of minority children, sons and daughters of the Swift company workers, a fact that is resented by the older southwest Minnesota generation who  have to pay property taxes.

"Did you know that the founder of Target stores was from Worthington, Minnesota,?" he asked
us.

We didn't know, of course, and he sat down to tell us how how that came to be.

It seems that when Minnesota was considered to be in the northwest frontier, George Dayton, in about 1883, was sent to the frontier by his well-to-do parents to try his hand at business.

He started buying mortgages and soon became one of the city's leading fathers, presiding over the Bank of Worthington and founding a real-estate company.

In 1890 Dayton built a large home on eight lots one one of his subdivisions designed by Sioux falls (S.D. ) architect Wallace Dow. His northeastern upbringing is reflected in the inclusion of a widow's walk into the house's design.

Dayton lived by his religious principles improving his community and dedicating himself to the service of others; he served on the Worthington Board of Education, and was church clerk, elder, and trustee of Westminster Presbyterian Church, teaching Sunday School and hosting church events at his home.

According to a book written by one of his grandsons, his ancestor was a firm believer in adding value to the agricultural products raised on the frontier. Instead of just raising corn, he encouraged them to raise pigs and other animals that they could sell for more than the corn. Over time, Worthington had a Campbell Soup and turkey plant, and much later, Swift's.

Worthington's fame as the self-proclaimed "Turkey capital of the World" was challenged by Cuero, Texas, and an annual "turkey trot" race resulted between their two turkeys into an annual event. In fact, a delegation of turkey racers from each town trek to each others' towns each year to race the birds. He said that as daffy as that sounds, it is an annual event in both towns.

In 1902, Dayton moved to Minneapolis and founded

Dayton's Dry Goods store, later to become Dayton's Department store. Dayton continued to donate significant sums of money to the Worthington church and he established The Dayton Foundation, dedicated to promoting the welfare of mankind. 

In 1926, he served on the finance committee for the Community Fund, a predecessor of today's United Way. The Dayton family, sons David Draper Dayton (1880–1923) and George Nelson Dayton (1886–1950), continued their father's business and his commitment to the community.

Then the Daytons built Southdale Center in Edina, teamed up with Marshall-Fields and Mervyns and in 1962 began the Target discount store chain. In fact, the Daytons have been at the center of progress in Minnesota and the original Dayton was great-grandfather to Mark Dayton former U.S. Senator and Governor of Minnesota.

"So Dayton was right that a little corn and a few pigs go a long way," we told him as we stood up to leave. "Is the house he built still standing?"

"Oh, yes," he answered. "It has been restored and is now a bed-and-breakfast and used for community events. We've visited our son and it's still quite a sturdy building. And we went there during the King Turkey Trot. It was a lot of fun."