Is this the school that was near Thorne? My family lived in that area and my sisters and brother attended school there. We lived near a Fassett family and our neighbor was a Mr. Lake. One time when we went back to Dunseith we drove to this Russell school. It was a two story four rooms on each floor (reminded one of the school in Dunseith). Our family moved from the Turtle Mountains to Thorne and then to Dunseith in 1929. I have never known if my father was buy the farm or rented it, but in 1929 he decided not to farm anymore.

We moved to Dunseith and lived there until 1938.

They say that everyone has a story and I really enjoy the stories that are sent to Gary’s blog. Dorothy Schneider was a classmate of mine in grade school as was Alan Campbell and Emerson Murry, Barbara Nelson and Margaret Ann Myhre.

Have a good day!

Blanche Wicks Schley

2005 First Avenue North

Grand Forks, ND

Erling Landsverk’s book

San Haven

From Karen Loeb Mhyre (65): Bellevue, WA.

Hello Gary,

I was looking back through the email list and was trying to find the information about ordering Mr Landsverk’s book, “My Dakota Years”. Can’t seem to find it. Could you pass along the ordering information, please?

I have read the notes from various people about the San and have been thinking alot about the wonderful days we had as kids living there. It really was an idyllic world for the kids in the 50’s. Our family moved to Minneapolis in the summer of 1958, but we continued to visit the San almost yearly for many years. My grandmother, Alida Higgins had her place at Lake Metigoshi until the early 70’s, I think and we would always drive through the San after visiting the Lake before going on to my parents place in northern Minnesota. Their cabin was at Longville, Minnesota on Girl Lake. My parents lived for many years in St. Cloud, Minnesota. That cabin was no match for Metigoshi when it came to early childhood memories. We took swimming lessons at the little park near “Slemmons Store.” We would swim with the raft we built out of washed up boards out to what I think is Mac Kay Island. My Gramma’s cottage was next to some cabins owned by Bottineau and Minot Families, the Stover’s and I can’t remember the Minot family name. Jay Vanorny and his parents had a cabin a few doors down too. One of these cabins is now owned by Lola’s sister and her husband, a Mr Woods who is related to the Stovers, I think. We looked across at Rugby Point(?). I think most of the cabins over there were owned by Rugby families, but am not sure. I am also not sure what they call “our” side of the lake. After a few years my gramma sold the cabin to my Aunt Pat Black and she eventually sold it to a woman named Robin (also a Stover relative) who is a Veterinarian in Nebraska. We always heard that she planned to rebuild the cabin when she retires. We always stop and look at the cabin when we are in the area. In September, my brother Tom and I stopped. It is still the old cabin. We always remember it as a wonderful place with a beautiful screened porch and amazing fireplace made out of BIG rocks. it also had a huge wooden beam running the length of the main living room. When my husband built our home here in Bellevue, Washington, we tried to build the fireplace like the one Gramma had at the Lake.

It has been amazing to go back and see how small the cabin is really and that the fireplace was not so big either. It is so interesting to revisit the old places of our childhood.

Up until and including the year of the reunion we were always able to drive through the San and even get out and walk around and look at so many places we remembered. When I was born, my parents lived in the Children’s Building. We then moved to one of the Green buildings (I think) and then to one if the two white cottages that was across from the play ground. Eventually we moved to the Superintendent’s House when my dad became the head of the hospital. I only really remember living in that house. It had beautiful furnishings and many rooms to play in. The big enclosed porch on the east side of the house had red brick like linoleum on the floor and I remember practicing my roller skating there for hours. In good weather the kids living at the San would all be out on the sidewalks skating. My brother Tom (born in 1956) was born at home in one of the upstairs bedrooms. My mom had worked in surgery (she gave anesthetics for the surgery cases my Dad was doing) that day he was born and was very tired that night. I think she woke up about 2 AM, she had one pain and then Tom was born. My Mom says that after they cleaned up the baby and everything was taken care of, my dad went up to the hospital and brought home everything you would need to handle any medical emergency. Mom often comments that it was the only time she saw George Loeb not know what to do!!! I still have a visual memory of my dad coming downstairs with a metal pan to show my brother, Bob and my sister, Marianne and I the placenta. He never missed an opportunity to “teach”!! We three older kids were all born at the hospital in Rugby. My sister, Jane was born in Minneapolis after we moved away from the San.

The San was a wonderful place for kids in those days. We ran through the tunnels in the winter and had the most amazing times sledding on the little hills. the North Dakota snow made amazing drifts of hard compact snow that we would climb on and through.

I first watched television at my friend, Carol Jasper’s house. It took a while for my folks to decide TV was OK. Carol and I had wonderful collections of paper dolls which I kept at Carol’s house. I guess my Dad did not approve of “pretend” play with paper dolls. I guess they were a little on the sexist side. Kind of like paper Ken and Barbie dolls, I think. We loved going to the commissary to get the mail and look at comic books and buy candy. I remember a Hersey bar was 5 cents. Outside to the west of the Refectory building where the dining room was was a sidewalk triangle filled with what I remember to be three very large fir trees. We would play inside this treed area, pretending it was a play house, village, a fort and the like. The whole San really was a wonderful place to explore. The last evening before we moved to Minneapolis, I remember walking around to all the special places and saying “good bye” to these favorite places. The rows of holly hocks along the sidewalks where we would catch bees in the flower cups, the playground with swings, of course. There was a big hill below the Commissary building (maybe called the AD Building?) where my dad taught my brother and I to ski. It really was not such a big hill, but it seemed big when we had to sidestep up to the top. I remember how unbelievably cold we would get when we were out in the snow.

I remember our friendships with the other kids who lived at the San. Carol, Jay, the Hoffman’s, the Pearson girls, Link boys, Johnson’s and there were others too. I am just not remembering all the names. It was all such a long time ago. Sadly, I have not kept in touch with these long ago friends.

I better get back to my packing. I leave on Thursday to visit my daughter and her two kids who live in Ann Arbor. The University of Michigan!! Go Blue! Such fun being a grandmother.

Take care, and again thanks for all the email postings you send out. Many names are so familiar and it is just fun to read about the place where you come from.

Karen Loeb Mhyre

Folks, I forwarded an advance copy of Karen’s request to Erling when I got her message last night (10 hours ago). Erling has already called her. This is his reply. Gary

Reply from Erling Landsverk (44): Portage, WI

Hi Gary and Everyone:

I received your E Mail requesting information for Karen Mhyre. I called her this morning and had a most delightful conversation with her. It so happens that her mother, Mrs Loeb rode in the same buggy as my sister Borg and I did at the parade in 2007 that comemorated the 125th anniversary of dunseith as a city or village, I believe that was the year. In Addition, her father was the superintendent of the Tuberculosis sanitorioum during the fifties, and I guess we actually spoke to Karen, but in the hub bub of the celebration and the unexpected invitation to ride in the parade, I guess some things just didn’t come to the fore front. Thank you very much for forwarding her request to me. I was able to help her with the book. I would like to add that as I have more and more contact with former North Dakota residents, more esspecially those from our own particular area, the more interesting the history. Now i know I missed out on a lot of good things when we left so early, but of course you know as well as I that when Dad and Mom say lets go, we jump. Maybe its because i am blind now that I wax more sentimental about the Turtle mountains and the immediate area. I am not sure about that because I know how I felt about the hills and the people there when I lived ther , and the affection I felt for the land and for the people has always been with me. I know the living was tough in the 30s, I know because I lived it, but I learned a lot about life, and about the great folks that i met and and associated with. Perhaps its like this: they have been tempered by the harshness of severe winter, the difficulty with economic conditions like the great depression, and how their spirit of independence has made them a cut above the whining populace so often demonstrated in other parts of our country. . Has memory softened reality, I don’t think so, I read the reference to the Pladson boys who pulled us out of mud holes and snow drifts. That wasn’t done for moneyk they didn’t charge a nickel, It was doing something for your neighbor. God bless them. North Dakota folks looked after their own, just like the flooding crisis at Fargo last spring.

Erling Landsverk

Reply from Keith Pladson (66): Stafford, VA

Gary,

This is a response to Shirley Olson Warcup’s input on your last blog.

Since you graduated, Shirley, the year after I was born, my memories of the past are somewhat different than yours. The Willow Lake Road past the “Pladson Farm” (my older siblings and I still refer to it as the old “home place”) wasn’t that bad as I remember it. But I’m sure it had been somewhat improved when we (my dad and mom and my siblings) lived there. That was in the early 50s. Since you are probably referring to an earlier time frame (mid thirties?), it would probably have been my Grandfather, Olaf and Grandmother, Thyra and there four children living there (though my Aunts may have both been married and gone by then). The two Pladson boys you refer to would then have had to have been my Dad, Elden and my Uncle, Arthur. That generation in my family is now all gone. However, when we were growing up, our dad often entertained my siblings and I with stories of his childhood on that farm and how different things were. Though pulling people through the mud on the road was not something I remember him specifically speaking of, there were many other stories of the use of horses on the farm and around the neighborhood. If it was my family, I’m glad they were able to help you out.

Keith Pladson (66)

Keith, I am only a year older than you, but I remember, Well, you guys living on that place. That would have been my pre-school days. Speaking of the Willow Lake road, I remember the road washing out frequently on the south side of the lake where the creek runs under the road. In the spring, the water used to run over the road. Clarence Bye, the county commissioner, lived close by though and he always got it fixed. Clarence and Helen were such wonderful folks too. We used to visit them often. In retired years, they visited my folks often. Gary

Halloween Story

From Dick Johnson (68): Dunseith, ND.

Gary and Friends,

Just another story of Halloween tricks from days past. Dad taught in
Rolette from ’58-63 and told about a Halloween prank gone bad. A bunch
of high school kids went to sneak into someone’s yard and tip his
outdoor biffy. They figured the best way was to run up behind it in the
shadow of the building. The owner thought this was probably going top
happen so he moved the toilet toward the light and left the open hole in
the shadow. A tall girl named Lucy Doehlen (sp) was the poor soul who
got there first! They gave her a ride home—but she had to sit on the
front fender of the car! A couple messages ago (#603), Jeri Fosberg
Neameyer mentioned Dad teaching in Rolette and ending his concerts with
‘The Lord Bless You and Keep You’. I remember going to most of the
concerts in Rolette. He had some really good singers. One of the boys
sang Mancini’s ‘Moon River’ very well. I think it was Robert Graber. He
also had a girl in choir who had what is called ‘perfect pitch’. If the
song started in a certain key, he would tell her the key and she would
hum in that key—very rare! I believe it was Lynette Gilje. Jeri
Neameyer—help me here! I want to test my memory. I think the Fosberg
kids were–Myrna, Jeri, Deanna, and Chuck, who was my age. I might have
it wrong. If I remember correctly, Myrna married Ross Julson, who was
the coach for Wolford when Les Halvorson played for the Wolves. Les is
married to Myra Henning (DHS ’72). If I have any names or memories
wrong, please correct me. Thanks Gary!

Dick