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Group recalls how embezzler Cy Thomson created Oakdale Park

Ransom J. “Cy” Thomson was remembered for a lot of things, among them being a giving man and an embezzler.

About 50 people gathered in the LeRoy Community Center Saturday to remember both sides of a man who embezzled more than $1 million from Hormel Foods Corp. between 1911 and 1920.

But from the illegal actions of this Hormel accountant came a massive recreation area just south of LeRoy that people still remember today.

The $1.19 million he embezzled was used to buy a hatchery, a dairy farm near Blooming Prairie, and most prominently, Oakdale Park.

“It’s just an interesting story,” said Janet Mayer, who owns the land where the park used to stand. “If he had done it right, it could have been the Disneyland of the Midwest.”

There is little but memories marking what was once an enormous collection of recreations that included a dance pavilion, swimming pool, bowling alley, ball diamond, skating rink, campground and even its own fire station.

The reunion was organized by Eileen Evans, who since the mid-1990s has been documenting the Cy Thomson story.

“This has been marvelous,” she said after the presentation. “I didn’t know what to expect. It’s been so much fun.”

One by one, people stood up, remembering what they could. Even with so many attendees in their 80s and 90s, they only remembered it through the tales of their parents or other families visiting Oakdale.

“I barely remember being out at Oakdale with my family,” said Leo Rendahl, who graduated from LeRoy High School in 1935. “But it must have been big because it was really humming.”

Others related stories they had gathered over the years.

Lucille Jensen of Riceville, Iowa, could almost sum up the popularity of Oakdale with the story she told as she was leaving.

“They couldn’t dance on Sundays,” Jensen said. “So they would dance until Saturday at midnight and then Sunday at midnight they would start dancing.”

Not always so open

Being able to come together and trade stories of Thomson seemed far removed from the days when nobody talked about the infamous embezzler.

In LeRoy, the name Cy Thomson was looked upon as a black mark in the town’s history.

It’s a subject Evans says that Hormel strays away from as well. She talked about the naming of her book, “The Generous Embezzler,” which was initially going to be called “The Hormel Embezzler.”

“They didn’t want Hormel with the word embezzler,” she told the crowd, drawing some laughter. “As if it didn’t happen.”

History continues to unfold

There is plenty of information circulating about Thomson, but as it so often does, there was room for more.

Jerry Barber, a loan officer for First State Bank of Minnesota in LeRoy, produced several letters that gave a glimpse into the crime Thomson committed.

Barber, a Louisiana native, found the letters in the basement of the bank, all meticulously stored.

“We don’t have much in Louisiana except politicians and criminals,” she said. “So this was right up my ally.”

One of the letters, from Thomson with a Hormel letterhead, said: Enclosed please find $1,000.00 which is to be credited to the general account of the Oakdale Farm. Yours respectively, R.J. Thomson.”

Another letter came from then-Hormel President and CEO Jay C. Hormel himself, not long after Thomson’s crime was discovered. This letter ironically was sent with an Oakdale Farms letterhead.

In part it read: “This will serve as notice that no further deposits will be made in your bank against checking accounts carried there by the Oak Dale Farms Ass’n., by Mr. R. J. Thomson, or by any organization affiliated with the Oak Dale Farms or with Mr. R.J. Thomson.”

After the presentation, attendees traveled to the land where Oakdale Park once stood and walked around a little. The house that served as the hatchery’s office is still there as are the coops across the road, but little else still stands. Covered with trees and foliage, visitors could also barely make out the foundation of the Oakdale swimming pool.

It was just another opportunity to remember the fun made possible by a criminal.

Joe Kempe summed it up.

“It was a wonderful place,” Kempe said, speaking to the times he and his brothers visited Oakdale. “We had a lot of fun there.”