Hodgson Collection. Prior to accessioning, the number 209 was printed in white ink on bowl. Hodgson's Smoke Rings note: "On a boy scout canoe trip along the Canadian border in 1938, I was assigned to clean fish. A large flat rock looked like a good table, but whe raised, they yellow bole pipe and a can of Tuxedo were found beneath it. So far as we knew, no people were within 100 miles of that portage. Probably some city dude on a fishing trip determined to be hardy. One pipeful was apparently enough. I have put a lot of tobacco through it and now retired the critter to pasture." Robert E. Hodgson (1893-1968) was superintendent of the Southern Experiment Station from 1919 to 1960. He promoted modern agricultural methods in Waseca and throughout Minnesota. From 1948 to 1964, Hodgson wrote a column for The Farmer Magazine, and his column “Bob Hodgson Talks” appeared in more than one hundred rural Minnesota newspapers for over 20 years. Hodgson was a member of the Waseca County Historical Society, the Waseca County Horse Thief Detectives, The Boy Scouts and other organizations. Among his many interests were history, nature study and pipe collecting. During World War II, Hodgson wrote a once a month letter to members of Boy Scout Troop 85 who were serving in the armed forces all over the world. The letters were published in the Waseca Journal with separate copies printed and mailed to any Waseca serviceman who wished to receive them. Hodgson’s letters maintained the home contacts, helped men keep up on the locations of friends and provided morale-boosting communications for those far away from home.
