Benefit for Bill (48) & Pat Hosmer:
From Diane Larson Sjol (70): Minot, ND
Everyone,
I am writing to inform all of you of a benefit on August 15th for Bill
and Pat Hosmer. There will be an all day golf outing for $25 at the
Birchwood Golf Course at Lake Metigoshe, ND….this includes 9 holes
of golf with prizes and lunch available. In the evening theire will be
a steak fry for anyone (golfers and non golfers) for $10. I will have
my husband scan the flyer and include it in another email since I
don’t have a scanner.
The reason for the benefit is to help with mounting medical costs for
Pat’s home care. Pat is suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, an
autoimmune disorder that destroys the alveoli in her lungs, making it
difficult to breathe. She has also developed scleraderma which has
spread to her lungs, causing tightening so they donot flex properly
when she does breathe. A third condition she has, that is very
painful is calcinoma, a rare disease where the body produces too much
calcium, causing eruptions in the skin to discharge pieces of calcium.
Pat is terminal and under 24 hour care at home, including hospice.
The cost of her care continues to mount and is over and above any
benefits Bill and Pat have, so we are hoping to help them out with a
benefit and generosity of their friends.
If any of you can participate in the golf tournament or even just the
dinner, please call the Birchwood Golf Course for a tee time at
701-263-4186. For more information about the event, go to
birchwoodgolf.com. You can also call Nancy Hosmer Baldwin Kontzie
(yes, she got married to Keith Kontzie on July 17!) for more
information.
A bank account has been set up at First National at Bottineau under
the name of Bill Hosmer. If you want to send a check there, here is
the address: 424 Main Street, Bottineau, ND 58318. The phone number
is: 701-228-2236. Thank you in advance for supporting our dear
friends, Bill and Pat.
Jim Metcalfe – Poem
From Gary Metcalfe (57): Forsyth, MO
Old history….Looking through my dads old wallet rently, I found this card that he must have carried all his adult life from about 1940 so thought I would share this information on it. If we had a scanner it would be easier, but….just ole hillbilly you know!
WAKE UP AND LIVE….IN YOUR OWN HOME
WILLIAM CHELCIE STRIKER
LICENSED
THE POET – BARBER AND REAL ESTATE MAN
HAIRCUTS 35cents :: CHILDREN 25 cents
BARBER SHOP SUnset 5360
306 WEST 85th ST. 9813 23RD AVE. N.W.
SEATTLE, WASH.
(This poem is on the back of the card…..if he was as good a barber and real estate man as he was a poet, he was very successful in deed)
THE STRIKING BEAUTIES OF PUGET SOUND
By
WILLIAM CHELCIE STRIKER
If you want a beautiful country to see,
come good stranger along with me.
From your prairie land way back in the east;
come along and let your fancies feast;
to this dream like place you’ve been wanting to be,
that lies in the sunshine along the sea.
Beauties and pleasure here abound,
in this place I am praising by the Sound.
Come out from the parched land over the hill;
and let your long starved soul just fill,
with these wonders rare that I have found
in the evergreen lands of Puget Sound.
A white sail swells and shines in the bay,
in the harbor quaint ships lay,
a fair haired fisherman plans his course
as he heads his ship toward the icy north.
A mountain wrapped in ancient snow
glazed from storms of long ago.
Smiles in the distance, serene and clear,
that fantom-like beacon called Mount Rainier.
Isles, streams and valleys please the eye,
every where evergreens blend with the sky,
luxuriant gardens and orchards grow,
beauties surround you wherever you go.
(all rights reserved)
Here was another colorful friend of my dad about 1940 in Seattle. Bill Striker and Elmer Striker were established in Seattle when my folks arrived in 1939. I am sure that Ken Striker and his family would like to have this card and I am willing to send it off to them. Stokes as well as a great number of N.D. people settled in Seattle and this poem, and I know my mother would agree, that this is right on dead center, as I do.
Elmer Striker’s son, Gary, became a dr. in Seattle.
Gary Metcalfe
Gary, how beautiful. Yes, this is right on dead center. Gary S.
India folks
Reply from Larry Liere (54): Devils Lake, ND
Gary
We have friends from India and I agree they are most polite and friendly people. Two of our doctors in Devils Lake are from India. One of my friends (from India) that worked for the city of Devils Lake could not stay in the USA after 911 so he moved up to Canada. He was a city planner for Devils Lake and did a lot of things over and above what his job title said, like being the first city person out after a big wind storm to help the people that had storm damage and working after hours to get the job done. The city tried to keep him after 911 and even worked with North Dakota people in Washington but nothing seemed to help him and his family. He had to leave because his type of visa was one that was in question as a could beterrorist. I also read that people from India have the highest IQ of all world countries.
LARRY
Lamb & Wicks Picture/Story
From Vickie Metcalfe (70): Bottineau, ND
Gary,
Several years ago my sister-in-law was working at Dunseith’s Security State Bank. A gal came in and gave Deb a photograph. She said her grandmother had instructed her to give the photo to Lottie Metcalfe’s family. Deb gave me the photo which I shared with mom who identified the people. The photo was from Mrs.Stretzel of Carpenter Lake……..Stretzels were long ago friends of the Sam Wicks family.
The attached photo is of my grandmother SYLVIA ARIZONIA WICKS (Lamb), her parents Sam and Elizabeth,her Uncle Homer Welch,and younger brother Orville Wicks.
Grandma Sylvia was born in Iowa & traveled by covered wagon to Dakota territory with her parents Sam and Elizabeth (Welch) Wicks. The Wicks’ first settled and homesteaded at Perth N.D. They then ran a cafe/hotel in McCumber , still later a cafe, “Mountain View”at Dunseith, North Dakota.
Mrs.Elizabeth(Welch) Wicks was of Irish and Penn- Dutch origins and Sam Wicks was of Somersetshire English decent. Elizabeth Wicks was a local area midwife.
Sylvia Arizona Wicks filed on Holmes Township land west of Carpenter lake which she proved up. She later gave her homestead land to her parents upon her marriage to Robert Eli Lamb. Robert Lamb also of English decent had immigrated from Ontario, homesteaded at Fortuna ND, and purchased a farm east of highway #3 in Holmes Township.
Among the neighbors in that East Carpenter community were the Brennan’s, the Hurst’s, the Hackmans, the Dietrichs, the Nerpels, the Schroders, the Beachler’s and the Abrahamsons.
During the latter part of WWII Sam Wicks, Bob and Sylvia Lamb left the Carpenter Lake community to work in the shipyards of Washington state. The maintenance and care of the cattle and farms were left in the in the capable hands of Elizabeth Wicks, Carl Wicks, & Floyd and Charlotte Lamb.
Before she passed away in December 2207, Lottie relayed to her daughter that while she took care of the Lamb home, and the chickens. Floyd was responsible for the live stock. They both shared responsibility for their two younger siblings. If they needed guidance they were to go to their Grandmother Wicks and uncle Carl. “Lottie” said often on weekends Floyd would harness the team, she would roast potatoes to stuff in their pockets, off they’d go to the aforementioned neighbors, eat and socialize when they got there.
No telephone. Just letters to communicate to their parents in Washington. And an adventure in growing up.
A year later, when Grandpa Wicks and her mom and Pop returned from Washington they were able to “undo” the financial burdens and concerns left from the “depression years” of the thirties with the monies earned at the shipyards.
Sylvia (Wicks) Lamb was noted for her passion of flowers in her gardens on West Highway #43 and flavorful homemade ice cream.
Sylvia’s homestead remained in her family and is currently owned by Martha (Lamb) Sheopp. And Sylvia’s passion of flower gardening was inherited by at least few granddaughters ….Martha, Nancy and Cynthia.
A special thank you to those like Mrs. Stretzel who continue to share their photos so we can preserve our histories and friendships.
(note the shoes and grandma’s sideburn curls)
Country School Reunion – July 10th – Lake Metigoshe
Message/Pictures from Linda Gardner: Vienna, VA
Hi Gary – Sorry this took so long. I’ve been having Internat access problems but I think they are finally cleared up. Here’s a list of those signed up for the reunion:
Laurel & Shari Wenstad, Neva M. E. Ramey & Kenneth Hill, Lynette Wenstad, Melvin (Pete) Wenstad, Diane Weibe, Marie Parrill, Mildred Parrill, Thomas (Tom) Hagan, Allen Pladson, Janice & Norman McCullough, Lloyd & Orlene Larshus, Lloyd Pederson, Myron & Yvonne Amundson, Everett J. Solper, Mary Ann Brennan, Mike & Marion Nerpel, Evelyn Hanson, Curtis L. Hahn, JoAnn Wittmayer, Donna Molander, Helen Taylor, Marlie Baker, Betty Tratebas, Karen & Gary Wenstad, F. Lars Sivertson, Helen & James Dunlop, Jerry Christianson, Borghild & Frank Filas, Erling & Owen Landsverk, Arliss Lider, Orvin Hagan, Doreen Moran, Linda Gardner, Lloyd Gardner, Minnie Flynn, Larry & Gail Schuler, Wallace Pladson, Arlan & Darlene Wenstad, Karen Prouty, Janet LeNoue, Barbara & Larry Lawrence, Sharon Beckman, Bruce Landsverk, David Landsverk, Connie Turner, Debbie Slyter, Jack Dahl, Lynda Jordan, Lester Halverson, Luella & Floyd Dion, Earl Roland, Rena Roland, Edna Millang, Robert & Kim Bott, and Ronald & Betty Heinz. We had some drop ins who did not sign up so I don’t have those documented.
I took some random pics of people that I’m also including – There are some in those pictures also that I cannot identify so if anyone can help me out that would be great!
Borghild FIlas, Luella Dion, Lester Halvorson, Marie Parrill
Borghild Filas & Orvin Hagan – They attended first grade together.
Laurel Wenstad, ?, Lloyd Gardner, Erling Landsverk’s Son
Marion Nerple, Connie Turner, Gary Wenstad
The Bottineau Paper and the Metigoshe Mirror both did very nice articles about the reunion. I do not have a copy of the Metigoshe Mirror article yet but I can scan the one from the Bottineau paper if anyone is interested.
As a follow on to the reunion, I think it would be fun to document some of the stories people remember from their Country School Days. I have a story Erling Landsverk wrote about his first grade teacher. My one regret from the reunion is that I did not record the stories folks got up and shared with the group – And there were some really good ones – Plus Orvin entertained us not only with stores but yodeling as well!!!! Anyway, getting back to my original thought – I think it would be a real compliment to Rena Roland’s book about the one room schools in Bottineau County to augment that with a compilation of stores from those of us who attended country schools in the Turtle Mountains. I will be happy to collect and assemble such a document if people would like to submit their stories. Let me know if anyone is interested.
Again, Gary, thanks for all that you do. I’m sure the success of the Country School Reunion was a result of your support!
Linda, Thank you so much for these pictures and list of those that attended the reunion. I know about 80% of those that attended. I am so glad that this was a great success with so many folks. I would have dearly loved to have attended. Those my age, 63, were the last to graduate from the country schools. After we graduated, the country schools were closed and everyone was bussed to the town schools. We country school Alumni folks are getting up there in years. We need to have another one of these reunions before too many more years pass. 20 to 30 years from now we’ll be a lot thinner. Gary
PS – You know it’s been about 45 years since I’ve seen Gary Wenstad. I knew him well in my growing up days too. He looks great, but I would have never recognized him.
