St. James in 1916 had a population estimated at 2,500. Some of the city's attributes at that time were:
Its own water plant and 24-hour electric service.
Three banks with a million dollars on deposit.
Three newspapers.
A high school with agricultural, manual training, and domestic science departments, also a fine graded school building.
Public library.
Eight churches.
Fine large hospital.
Two moving picture shows and one opera house.
One planing mill.
One flour mill.
Four elevators.
Cooperative creamery.
Two cigar factories.
One bottling works.
One cement tile factory.
Four garages.
Two lines of railroad.
Fourteen passenger trains daily.
Rainfall of 31 inches annually.
Located 24 miles north of the Iowa line, St. James is unquestionably in the center of the great corn belt of Southern Minnesota. The county is crossed by three lines of railroad - the Omaha, the Northwestern, and the M&StL. St. James is midway between St. Paul and Sioux City. It contains the division offices and roundhouse of the Omaha lines. It is also on the principal automobile roads north, south, east and west.
There are splendid high schools at St. James and Madelia, with manual training and agricultural departments. Butterfield and Lewisville have graded schools, and in the county there are 50 district schools.
A start has been made toward consolidating the district schools, and in a few years there will be several consolidated districts with high school courses.
There are churches of practically all the Christian denominations. Many of the churches are located in the country and have large memberships. The following is a list of the churches in St. James: Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopal, Norwegian Lutheran, Swedish Lutheran, German Lutheran, German Evangelical.
The schools are as follows with their average attendance: First ward school, high school attendance 199, grades 244; second ward school, grades 152; Catholic 90; German Lutheran 45 (total 730).
Unknown newspaper
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From a 1901 edition of the "Plaindealer":
All manure, garbage, kitchen and cellar refuse must be removed from all property and alleys adjacent thereto, within the city of St. James, before the first day of June, 1901. Chairman of Board of Health.