John Everts of Everts Lumber tells the story of how his family came to be in the lumber business and how their business came to be neighbors to Stub’s.

Everts Lumber is the oldest business in town, beginning even before Battle Lake was incorporated. It all started in 1882 when Edmund Everts decided to add a building to his farmstead. Forty-two years-old at the time, Edmund ordered a carload of lumber from a lumberyard in Fergus Falls. When the load arrived on the new Northern Pacific, townspeople anxious to do some building asked Everts if they could buy a little lumber. Soon he didn’t have enough for his building, so he ordered another carload, and the same thing happened. That’s when he decided he could do better at business than farming.

Edmund ended up in Battle Lake through a circuitous route. Born in Carroll County, Illinois in 1840, he moved with his parents to a Winona County farm in 1855. When the Civil War broke out, the 21- year-old enlisted in the Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. According to lifelong friend, EE Corliss, “he was a brave soldier, a true friend and an absolutely honorable man in all his dealings.”

After the war, Edmund returned to Winona County to follow in his father’s footsteps, eventually ending up with a farm outside Battle Lake until the day he decided to add a new building.

Since then, generations of Everts have steered the company’s course over 143 years. Second generation Fred joined his father in 1905, third generation Tom and Ed in 1954, fourth, John and Peter in the 1990s, and fifth, Ambrose and Rezin today.

In 1946 Sam Moen built a farm-implement building servicing tractors and such just south of Everts. In 1955, Moen leased the implement business to 32-year-old Sam Lykken. In 1965, North Star Fiberglass moved into the building producing fiberglass lake products.

Enter Stub Digre in 1969 who turned the building into our beloved Stub’s Dining Hall & Saloon. For 55 years, Stub’s was the place of the butterknife steak, three-choice salad dressing, hot buns, small dove bars, the beer garden, bands, teen dances, family occasions, reunion gatherings, and clever sayings. Sadly, Stub’s burned in September 2024, memories now all that remain. But now the lot was purchased by Everts, and we will see what its future holds.