Gary, thanks again for ALL you do!!!!!!!  Without you I would not have seen an old friend

I hadn’t seen in 34 years….not since she graduated in 74′.  Ivy Eller Robert was passing thru Missoula on her way back home for her sons wedding and she stopped in Friday night and we had a short visit but it was AWESOME!!!!!  She got to meet my daughters and my husband( my son was working).  It was neat to share news from back home!!! The first thing she told my girls wa “your Mom wasn’t my BFF that was Darla but she was a good freind”.

It brought back alot of memories and did we have some good laughs…………

Thanks Gary without you that wouldn’t ahve been possilbe!!! I appreciate you very much and just wanted you to know……

Don’t forget to call me Ivy when you’re on your way this way again!!!!! Hope the wedding is fabulous and you have  agrat visit…..say hello for me!!!!

Sharon Longie Dana

Ivy Eller Robert, I have marked on my calendar that you plan on being in the Dunseith area most all this week.  Please keep us posted.  Gary

Reply to Larry Hackman

You are a blessing to remember where some of us came from.  I am headed out for the Hurricane Ike evacuation, but had to take time to respond to your stories.  I will make it quick.  My dad, Jim Metcalfe and Harry Zeiler were sawing lumber on the Miller 80.  While the crew had lunch, Harry, the machine man worked on the drive belt.  He asked my dad if he had a jack knife, when Dad handed him the knife, Harry threw it as far as he could in the wild, tall grass and said, “anyone who has a jack knife like that should be ashamed!”

So, with tears in his eyes, my dad told Harry that was Mrs. Evan’s knife (Grandma).  Poor old Harry hired us kids to look for that knife, to no avail.

I have been going to ask you to share stories about Gus and Bill.  I have a lot of my own.  Larry, Gus had two Prince Albert cans in his bib pocket.  One was his billfold.  He paid me for a load of wheat straw one winter day.  I can still see him standing behind that load bending the can just right and putting it back in his bib.

When Gus lived over by the Kelly place, my dad and his pesky brother Archie delivered a young bull Gus had bought from one of them.  Gus was much younger then.  Gus was not home, so they backed up to the old building, perhaps a barn.  After Archie got the lariat off him, he had to swing on the rafters to get out.  He turned pretty mean.  So they wrote a note and left it on the door, “mean mountain lion”.  Saturday night at Kelvin, Dad asked Gus how he handled his new bull.  Gus said, “I wrestled him down and put a polk on him.”  I am not going to explain what a polk is.

For the other story teller, Dick….in case you run short of stories, you probably have a couple of Otto Streitzel stories.  About 1956 or 57, the summer your Uncle Cliff and Otto were housed in Glenburn.  Otto was driving Cliff’s gravel truck on the Air Base second shift.  Otto spent one afternoon chasing a fly in that old trailer house, I don’t think he really liked flies according to what he called them.  Otto told me he was related to Jesse James.  Some Missouri folks said he was a dead mix for Jesse.  I always liked that Missouri jargon.

Gary Metcalfe

From Vickie Metcalfe (70): V

Gary, You are so…. relentless and good at keeping us on task from Cebu. Thank you for your foresight in giving back to the Dunseith Graduates something they didn’t realize they needed/wanted.  Do you realize you now that can’t ever think… quit ? ..There would be a number of us folks on with drawl. Vickie

From Vickie Metcalfe (70): 

Gary,Inga and Ingolf Medlang were twins, no other siblings.  Both are deceased.  Ingolf was caretaker at the Peace Garden many years and Peace Lutheran treasurer at times.  Inga’s daughter, Sharon Bjornson just retired from working at Bottineau County Social Services resides in Bottineau.

Inga and Ingolf’s dad was a brother to Odin Medlang’s dad and Dot
Kavali’s mom.  I ‘ll ask  KenRose Medlang or Bob Lagerquist, or Hank
Salmonson about any other connections.

Larry , Thanks for affirming my dad, Cliff’s saying,  “A good farmer
or cowboy always carries two tools. A pair of pliers and a jack
knife.” For exactly the some of reasons you shared.  I always thought
if my brothers chose not to take over the family farm I would, but
it’s becoming  clearer to me why I didn’t.   I never wore bib’s,  and
can’t open a jack knife. They both take a special talent. I do
continue to carry pliers and a jack knife in my trunk.

Reply from LeaRae Parrill Espe (67): 

Thelma Medlang is mother’s (Mildred Nelson Parrill) classmate (43).  I just talked to mom and she said that Thelma is a cousin of Inga and Ingolf.  She is also a cousin of Odin Medlang.  Thelma lived in town during high school.  Her father ,Iver, was a carpenter and built the house that Ed and Florence Conroy bought.  Thelma had a brother named Kenneth and a sister (mom couldn’t remember her name) and possibly another brother.  Inga Medlang Bjornson (deceased) had a son in Alaska and a daughter in Bottineau named Sharon who just retired from social services after about 40 years of service.  She may be traveling, but I think she would be willing to help us out if she can.  I called her tonight and there was no answer.   701-228-2724.  She also has a cabin at Lake Metigoshe 263-4917 and I just called there and that line was busy.

Mom asked about Wilma Fisk so I finally wrote her an email tonight.  We’ll see if we can’t get those two in contact.

Thanks for all your wonderful work. LeaRae

(Part 3) CARROLL CARLSON’S TRAVELING  YEARS, BY VICKIE METCALFE (70):

THE  SPRING  38, YEARS OF  39, 40, AND FALL OF 41 AT THE MILLER  BROTHER’S RANCH
In the spring of  ’38, Archie married Bernice Seim, daughter of John and Ingrid Seim. Archie and Bernice moved to the Kolhmeir farm, where they began a family and farmed. Later,  Archie, Bernice and Conrid moved to Washington State where Archie began his career in construction.   (Archie passed away, January 1959.)

In the Spring of  ’38, Carroll returned to the Bears Paw  of  Montana  by train and went to work for Henry Miller.  The pay was $40.00 a month.  Carroll continued  working for the Henry Miller Ranch. from the spring of 1938, through 1939, and 1940.  Carroll  was not to return to  Dunseith until after the war.

The Miller Brothers were progressive ranchers and good managers . The brothers each,  had their own focus,  Chris, sheep and Henry , cattle.    The  Miller  Brothers Ranch  at that time ran about 1,900 head of cows and over 35,000 sheep. Carroll worked in many capacities  including hauling hay by team and wagon or team and sled to feed the sheep those three winters.  And,  lambing, sheep herding, haying, threshing and taking the  large Miller horse herd to Harlem where they were wintered on the mountains of the reservation.
Carroll purchased a fine working, used with very few miles on it,  1936 Chevy Coupe for about  $300.- 350. from the Ford Dealer in Chinook.  Carroll and  ranch hands, usually one of them being  Whitey.   “Whitey,   was  a North Dakota kid who’s hair was so bleached it looked white”.  Carroll and the guys  adventured around Montana, and the Western  U.S.  as far as Yakima , WA.

It seem’s Carroll and his friends  were never lag-abouts.  When,  not seeing the country, Carroll would try different jobs on time off.  Once he got a job laying railroad ties out of Lewistown,  Montana.     However, “working on the railroad” was not for him.  “It was hard heavy work and  often be coated by creosote” .

……………………………So back to the ranch……………  .

Carroll says other Dunseith fellows came out  to find seasonal employment.  He recalls Alcide Lajimodere who was on a haying crew.  Alcide was deathly afraid of rattle snakes and somehow was put into the stack frame.  Whenever he  heard a suspicious rattle sound, Alcide would jump off the stack….. with a  mighty  holler.  Alcide continued to do farm labor  in the Dunseith area after he was released from active military service in the Pacific . And as we recall,   never  did care much for any snake.  Alcide was a kind person, and hard worker,  often would work for Cliff Metcalfe.   In later years he would “chore” for  Cliff and Lottie.  He entertained the Metcalfe girls with his  stories, “tall tales”.   Alcide  was a good top off man on a haystack, and  in hay season  Cliff Metcalfe children would stomp the stack frame and Alcide would top it off.  With the Metcalfe humor,  Cliff every now  and then would holler,  snake!   Alcide would always jump.

Carroll also remembers seeing  one of the Henry’s and Charlie Metcalfe working for the Miller ranch.   The ranch hands continued their Saturday nights off at  a local gathering  place, the Cleveland Beer Parlor.

Then back to the ranch….

Carroll’s Traveling Years will Continue with part 4 tomorrow: