In 1890, Adam Roth and his son, William E., established a butcher business in Nerstrand (Rice County) that grew to specialize in smoked and grilled meats—particularly bologna and wieners. In 2019 the family-owned enterprise, Nerstrand Meats and Catering, celebrated 129 years of continuous operation.
The business traces its roots to the establishment of the Nerstrand railway station by the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad (later renamed the Chicago Great Western) in September 1885. Soon after, the Nerstrand Hotel was erected to accommodate the influx of daily and overnight passengers. By 1888, a Miss Anne Marie Olson (later Mrs. Thorstein Midtling) served as the hotel’s housekeeper.
To feed her customers, Olson engaged Adam Roth, a resident of Wheeling Township since 1856, to butcher a cow, of which she took one-half for her needs; he peddled the remainder to the community. This relationship continued with success, and by 1890, Roth was joined by his son to form Adam Roth & Son.
As their pioneer business of supplying locally sourced butchered meats to the Nerstrand area grew, the Roths started selling sausages. Working with John Brandenburg, an experienced butcher from Kenyon, the men experimented with different spices and hand crafted their well-known bologna and wiener recipes. The closely guarded recipes have been passed down from generation to generation.
By late April 1892, the Roths opened a twenty-foot-by-twenty-foot wood-frame meat market with an adjoining slaughterhouse. Workers were paid fifty cents a day, and ring bologna sold for ten cents per ring or twenty-five cents for three rings. In December, the Roths erected a twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot icehouse to help preserve meat. A horse-drawn sleigh was sent to gather chunks of ice cut from a creek in the Big Woods. Sawdust was used as an insulator, slowing the melting of the ice while it was stored.
With the death of Adam Roth in 1909, the shop became known as the W. E. Roth Meat Market. William was assisted by his younger brother, Louis H., who worked as a meat cutter into his eighties. By 1914, Roth razed the wood building and replaced it with one made of brick.
By the 1940s, William’s grandson, Neil Heggedahl, had joined the business and learned the family trade. In April 1947, the three men started custom butchering and processing for the surrounding area. They put in 184 lockers to rent to their customers, keeping in mind that few homes at the time had freezers.
By the 1950s, William had died, and Louis had retired. Clyde Heggedahl joined his brother in assuming ownership of the business. In the ensuing years, the brothers were wholesaling their bologna to area stores in Farmington, Faribault, Dennison, Northfield, and Kenyon, making up to 600 pounds each week. In 1967, the Wholesale Meat Act required the purchase of only federally inspected meat. The restriction forced the brothers to forgo the wholesale business, limiting sales strictly to the Nerstrand store, which focused on specialty meats.
In November 1978, Clyde and Mary Heggedahl assumed sole ownership of the store. Before long they discontinued butchering and concentrated on their expanding catering services. Renamed Nerstrand Meats and Catering, the store purchased its USDA- inspected meats from a supplier.
In 1984, the Nerstrand Booster Club created Bologna Days, held annually in August. The event not only served as a promotion for the store, but also for the Nerstrand community. The bologna-eating contest proved particularly popular every year; for instance, the 1989 winner ate 3.17 pounds. In 1994, Bologna Days held its last gathering, and the US Post Office offered a Bologna Days Pictorial Cancellation.
During the 2000s, the catering side of the business expanded by purchasing two trailers with grills and a third for smoked items. In 2015, the business was honored for its 125 years of continuous operation, which made it the oldest in Nerstrand and one of the oldest in Rice County. Online ordering and social media were introduced to enhance sales. The following year, Clyde Heggedahl died. His widow, seventy-one-year-old Mary Heggedahl, who had worked at the store since the age of sixteen, assumed sole ownership.