Marshall Awalt sent in a picture of people celebrating the end of World War I at Berdella, ND. This was actually here on our farmland. What I was wondering is if Marshall or any of the Awalt family would have a picture of their grandparent’s home which sat on the exact same location where I built my log house in 1978? I remember the old log house of William Awalt’s that I cleaned up in order to build on the spot. It was a log house with two very small added rooms on the north side. It was left unoccupied from 1938, when the Conn family moved to the west coast. By the mid ’50s, when I started exploring the place, it was starting to deteriorate badly. One story about the house is about how the living room floor got caved in like it was. Dad told me that when Grandpa Hans Johnson used the yard and surrounding acres for pasture, one of his team of workhorses pushed the door open and went in and fell through the floor. They couldn’t find him and finally looked inside the open door and he was standing in the cellar, unhurt. By 1978, when I cleaned up the old house with the Cat, it had collapsed and was just rubble. I really would appreciate it if anyone has a picture of the old house back in the day when it was Awalt’s home and would post it for me. The big elm trees that graced the yard were planted in 1902 and John Awalt told me his dad covered them with horse blankets so they wouldn’t be damaged during the building of the house. We had a beautiful yard for many years until a few years ago when Dutch Elm disease claimed ever single elm in the yard. I do have pictures taken in the yard when Awalts lived here but none show the house, just people and horses and the picket fence gate on the south side of the house. I hope Marshall or one of the family has a picture for us. I would really like to see one. Thanks Gary!

Dick