This Was Brainerd - Dec. 24 A look through the Brainerd Dispatch archives with Terry McCollough combing the microfilm for tidbits of history through the decades going back to 1920. Written By: Terry McCollough | × DECEMBER 24 20 years ago (2000) As a young girl, she rode the campaign trains with Eleanor Roosevelt and William Jennings Bryan, and later became the matriarch of one of Brainerd's best known families. Born in Staples, she graduated from Carleton College and taught at Pine River, where she met her late husband Stewart. Helen Mills will turn 100 on Christmas Eve. 30 years ago (1990) Ski Gull Pres. Tom Burton hopes people spend as much time in 1991 pulling tabs as skiing. The ski hill, supported in part by charitable gambling, is hurting. The legislature raised the tax rate last year from 14.9 to 42.4 percent. So, while June receipts went from $39,875 last year to $56,000 this year, the net proceeds dropped by $5,000.