02/11/2011 | Dunseith Alumni

Reply to several personal messages between Gary Stokes and Bob.

From Bob Hosmer (56): Lynnwood, WA

Hi Gary,

I did not know Pastor Grudt, Pastors Duane and Ronning I did know. I knew Pastor Duane better than Pastor Ronning, however. I ran a DVBS program at Little Prairie Church one summer. Both Margaret and Patty Metcalf were part of my class. Also, Medlangs, Dana Henriksen, and others I can’t remember. But that was one exciting summer. It must have been in 1957 or 1958. Margaret was 10 years old then.

Glad you’re enjoying the Philippines. We have close Japanese friends who live there, but I think they’re further south. They work with Wycliffe Bible Translators and have been translating the Bible in one of the Indonesian languages (they can no longer get visas to live and work in Indonesia as missionaries).

Have a good weekend soon coming. Weather in Puget Sound is blue sky clear and in the mid 40’s and low 50’s just my kind of winter.

Bob

Follow up reply from Bob

Thanks, Gary. I’m slow to contribute to the blogs. My experience with horses is very limited, but it’s fun to read up on all the fun people were having in those earlier days. Bob

Request from Rosemary (Wayne 61) Smith: Bottineau, ND

Will you add Mary (Prouty) Knudson to your mailing list. Her email is

She is married to Keith Knudson from Botno. His mother is Beverly Handeland from Dunseith.

Thanks

Rosemary Smith

Rosemary, It is our pleasure to add Mary and Keith to our distribution list. Gary

School Bus Reply

From Aime Casavant (66): Jamestown, ND

I think David Fugere is quite accurate – when it is -40 degrees,
school is two hours late in ND. It was his (dad, grandfather?) and
Johny Hill who owned the Dunseith School Buses. I got a chuckle out
of that one. Thinking of riding those sort of cold buses to school.

Aime Casavant

Aime, I remember riding those buses well myself. We had two of the greatest bus drivers ever, Mike Vandal and Stan Salmonson. Mike’s father-in-law, Arnold Zeiler, was a fill in driver too. Those three are the only ones I ever remember diving our bus the 4 years that I rode it. We always watched for them to go north to pick up the Fauske’s so we could be out at the road on their way back. This was all after we had done the morning chores of milking the cows, separating the milk, feeding the calves, slopping the pigs, etc. Dad always feed the cows and cleaned the barn, so we didn’t have to have to do that before going to school. Dad would wheel the manure a hundred or so feet out the back door of the barn. In the spring, he would hire Elwood Fauske, with the County D-8, cat to push that manure pile back into the woods to the north. Gary

Reply to Mary Eurich Knutson’s Log school picture #6.

From Mary Anderson Millang (67): Dunseith, ND

I have dad’s original copy and it’s in the Centennial Book. The school is the original Witherhalt school. The picture is dated 1910

Mary Anderson Millang Class of “67

Pictures

Reply from Mary Eurich Knutson (62): Dunseith, ND

Morning Gary,

Boy was I surprised to see Mary M. had identified the picture of the
school kids. Don’t know why, it’s what I wanted.

Now I wonder where that school was.

Just to comment on some of the others. #1 Pete Schneider Jr and Dave
Eurich Sr (1925 or 26). I had gone visiting one evening and they
brought out pictures to look at. I was just surprised. I really never
expected to ever see a picture of Pete. Schneiders were our neighbors on
the praire. I don’t know of ever not knowing them. Pete drove school
bus for years. He even took us to school with horses and sleigh. I can’t
remember what they called the sleigh’s with the built over top. I
remember the front window and the cut out for the lines. It had a wood
heater sitting in the middle of the floor. It wasn’t bolted down and on
one particular trip we hit a hard snow drift and the sleigh felt like it
wrenched when the front runners went ove the drift and Pete hollered for
Stanley to grab the stove. We made it without tipping the stove over.
Again I remember getting pretty cold. I never could take the cold very
well.

#2 Grandma – Ida Thompson Pritchard. I’ve only seen two pictures of her.
Her wedding picture and this one. I know she was camera shy and would
disappear when someone showed up with a camera.

#3 Irvin Pritchard – writing on the back says Wm Pritchard’s youngest
brother. I believe he’s making a ski.

The picture of the family – I have no clue but maybe somebody will have
the same picture and be able to identify it yet.

Thanks Mary and Thanks
Gary.

Mary

Mary, I remember well, your Grandma Ida living in Bottineau. The Dunseith book says she lived her entire life on the farm. Corbin and all of the Pritchard’s had moved off of the Pritchard place that bordered the Canadian line by the time I was born. I know Lloyd Awalt remembers that place well though. I remember visiting and being at your Grandma Ida’s many times when she lived in Bottineau. I was only about 11 years old when she passed. Gary

Picture #1 – 1925 or 1926

Pete Schneider Jr and Dave Eurich Sr