Gary, can you believe how vital your blog has become to us Dunseith people. I bet most people don’t understand how big 1,500 hits is. And I wouldn’t have either before posting my own website. You go guy!

Gary and Friends,

Allen Richard’s posting of the Pigeon family pictures brings to mind
the summer of ’68 when I worked at the ‘Dunseith Sand and Gravel’ gravel
pit west of town. There were three truck drivers hired on to do the more
local hauling. Corbin Sime, Junior Cote, and Romulus ‘Bae’ Pigeon.
Corbin and Junior had big Ford trucks and Bae had an older International
that had been Lawrence Berube’s. One of them had replaced the engine
with a 348 cubic inch Chevy engine. Bae drove the devil out of that old
truck! He would usually make three loads to Rolla while Corbin and
Junior made two! They all got paid by the hour I think so they weren’t
trying to set any records! I remember how he would come roaring back so
fast that when I would look I could see daylight under the rear tires as
they bounced down the rough road into the pit. I weighed trucks and
other stuff and got to know all the habits and ways of each of the guys
who worked there. Bae would get reloaded down in the pit and as he was
heading back up the grade to the scale I would watch him. If he held his
hand out the window with a screwdriver in it, it meant for me to
subtract 175 lbs from the gross weight because he was going to be on the
scale as I weighed his truck. He would jump out and pop open the hood
and set the carburetor while I was weighing the load. I used to have to
laugh when he came in to grab the scale ticket because he would say, in
his French brogue, ” I don’t know if it’s da carbur-A-ter or da g___d___
distri-BU-ter dis time!” He would roar off the scale and out of site for
another load. He was a good mechanic and wanted that old truck to
perform to the max and it did! Seeing the picture of Bae Pigeon brought
back the memories! Thanks Gary!

Dick

Dear Gary,

In September when I met George and Ronnie at Fort Benton, MT, George conveyed an old ledger of my Gr Grandfather William Gottbreht. This was found in the basement of Alice Tennancour Berube and given to George by Jim and Cheri Evans. I have reviewed the time line that extends from April 1914 thru April 1927 and feel certain that your visitors will appreciate a glance from time to time. I tried to use my home scanner but the book is large and heavy so I shall be better prepared with my next posting. Bill Hosmer mentioned his potato picking lark with Chuck Johnson for the San Haven harvest; this sparked my recall of potato transactions of the State San with Wm. Gottbreht enterprises.

April 7, 500 lbs feed ordered. Cost $5.62
April 21, 2 bushels potato “now” and another 18 bushels next trip – Ales Fassett made the delivery. $8.00
April 25, 500 lbs feed; 20 bushels potato. Cost $13.95
May 11, another 32 B potato.

Fred, John, George and Teddy were all useful hands about the place, but John seems to have been manager and factor for his father regarding aspects of planting and harvest. The men he employed would go to Wm Sr. for wages. These wages would include some cash, but also flour and animal feed/fodder. Some men listed were Delany; Ray Wickshem; Ole Olson; F Delorem; Louis Allery; Burchem and Joe Delorem. Wm Gottbreht’s pen is quite legible, but I need to verify some of his spelling of surnames. Please excuse. Burchem was paid $37.42 for picking potatoes Oct 5 and 8. John Gottbreht was paid 1/2 the value of the potato harvest from 250 acres owned by Marion Edwards: $125.00, 26 Oct 1914. Edwards, a banker in Rolla and Rolette held vast acreage in Rolette County. The other half of John’s harvest was paid against the note held by Edward’s bank: $202.00. I would suggest the land that John rented or leased were in Sec 9 and Sec 21 of Hillside Twp.

The May delivery was the final potato order; the Gottbreht supply was no doubt exhausted. There were very few requests for livestock feed after June 1; natural grazing for milk cows and horses? Probably. The next potato order was for 125 B [5 loads] $71.85 Nov 18, 1914. It may have been less expensive in early years to contract for the big demand of the State Sanitarium.

I have 3 items marked in this ledger regarding D. Dion, Floyd’s father, by way of thank you. It is always great to meet with Floyd when home and I sure appreciate that date.

For Larry: Frances Barnhart, age 20, was the public school teacher Hillside Twp 1930. She roomed at the home of Jos. Wm. and Alphonsine Poitra who lived a short distance from the school. Eleanor Metcalfe was 6/7 that school year. Agness [sic] Leonard, age 20, lived at home, she had not worked the previous day. That’s a laugh, I cannot imagine a gal of 20 without ten tasks a day. Interesting challenge Larry, and I’ll give it further study. I can scan the census records, but poor quality? Wish I had some pictures ready for Gary M and bloggers, tomorrow maybe; I want to post a great one of Darrell Getzlaff who celebrates his 80th year 29 Jan 2010.

Lord have mercy on all those suffering in Haiti. Sharron

Gary and Friends,

I can name some of the people in the confirmation picture.

Back Row: L-R Deloris Hiatt–?–Bernice Olson Johnson (Mom)–Shirley
Olson Warcup–Iona Habberstad ?–Atherton girl?–Murl Watkins Hill

Front: I only recognize the girl on the far right. She is Minnie
Mary McKay

Thanks Gary!

Dick

Did I copy this from one of your news letters?

Neola, I don’t ever remember seeing this picture before, so I’m not sure where you got this from either. Anyway, it’s a great picture of our DHS class of 63 folks. Again, Thanks for being there for us with all this memorabilia that you have stored in your achieves. The stuff you provide is so valuable. Gary