{"id":1857,"date":"2013-08-04T16:59:17","date_gmt":"2013-08-04T23:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackenedroots.com\/blog\/?p=1857"},"modified":"2013-08-23T19:46:12","modified_gmt":"2013-08-24T02:46:12","slug":"the-askew-women-at-the-commercial-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackenedroots.com\/blog\/the-askew-women-at-the-commercial-hotel\/","title":{"rendered":"The Askew women at the Commercial Hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2012-11-12-wadena-055\"<\/a>The Commercial Hotel (on the\u00a0National Register of Historic Places<\/a>, now repurposed as the Commercial Apartments), is a three-story Queen Anne Style, late Victorian brick building on South Jefferson St. in Wadena, Minnesota, that served as an anchor for the Askew family, especially the women of the Askew family, for decades. I’m still trying to understand this aspect of the Askew family, so this post will serve as a place to gather my notes and sources about the Askews at the Commercial Hotel. I have a lot to learn about this subject, so please do leave comments if you can further illuminate the subject.<\/p>\n

In the Spring of 1901, Joseph Askew and his wife Jane leased a three-story brick hotel called the Wadena Hotel. They soon renamed the hotel the Commercial Hotel, as their target customers were travelling salesmen who came by train and needed a place to eat, sleep, and display their goods. After a time, Joseph purchased the Hotel for an estimated $10,000 (the equivalent of about $275,000 in today’s dollars<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/a>

The Commercial Hotel in its current incarnation as the Commercial Apartments<\/p><\/div>\n

Joseph Askew and his wife and their children managed and later owned the Commercial Hotel in Wadena, MN, for much of the first decade of the 1900s. By 1908, Joseph decided to sell the hotel and move his family to North Dakota to farm. In the meantime, the hotel was leased to Frank Lynch in 1908, then to J. A. Schreiner in 1909, and in 1910 the hotel was leased (or possibly purchased) by the Askew’s youngest daughter, Jennie, and her husband, Albert Barker.<\/p>\n

After Joseph’s death September 21, 1911, Jane made the decision to sell the farm, move back to Wadena, and buy back the Commercial Hotel. Jane’s son Wilfred contributed $5,000 he had from selling off his mining interest in Colorado, and this, combined with other family money was enough to buy back the Commercial Hotel. Possibly in recognition of the fact that the hotel was bought back and then operated cooperatively by the members of the Askew family, in 1912, Jane Askew formed the Askew Realty Company and distributed shares of the company among the members of the family.
\n\"Askew<\/a> \"Askew<\/a>Long after Jane’s death in 1914, the Commercial Hotel served served as a shared home for many of the Askew daughters, keeping the family bonds strong. As can be seen from the 1920 census return (below; the top half of the page lists the residents of the Commercial Hotel), the Askew women and their families made the Commercial Hotel their home as well as their livelihood.
\n\"\"<\/a>The Askews enumerated at the Commercial Hotel on the 1920 census:<\/p>\n