Thank you Myron for this reply.

 

Susan Fassett is the holder of this Picture. I am very sure we can get a good copy.

 

If there was a way we could get a copy of this photo to Carlyle Nelson, I am sure he would know all in this picture. Last I knew he was still living in Bottineau.

 

Myron, with the Atherton girls being your aunts, I believe your hunch is right with that being Mavis, Norma and Alice Atherton.

 

Gary 

Rendahl Church – 1940

Back Row: Alpha Gunderson, Ed Gunderson, Ovitt?, Hannah Rude

Middle Row: ??, ??, ??, ??

Front Row: Carlyle Nelson and Mavis, Norma & Alice Atherton.

Elijah our grand son, the son of Larry Jr. and Lynn took third in regional wrestling today

and is headed

to wrestle for a state championship next weekend at Fargo, ND.

We are proud and excited.

  

Darn good for a seventh grader.

Larry

This is an explanation for the Norwegian post card I sent you.  I got this from my cousin who lives in Mayville, ND.

Subject: Peder Carlson information from Clarissa’s cousin, Betty Knudson Roberts

Hi Don, 

Dick’s reply to Larry

 

Larry,

     Thanks again to you and to Clarice for the information.  The old newspaper articles are interesting too.  I didn’t know the land Gus owned by the corner of highways 3 and 43 was known as the Cain place.  Never heard that said before.  There are lots of misspelled words in the old newspapers from long ago.  I suppose they couldn’t all have had Anna Fish for English.  I now see the connection between the Dietrich, Hackman,  and Wellborn families  that I didn’t fully understand before.  I think it’s rather amazing that so many Wellborns are still living in Sifton, Manitoba where they went so long ago.

   On the German to English problem—long ago an old Norwegian came into the grocery store in Sherwood,  where my in-laws live,  and asked to open a charge account.  The store keeper said that was fine and asked the old Norskie what his name was?  He said,  “Oscar Wig”.  The store keep wondered about the brogue so asked him how to spell his last name.  It actually was ‘Vig’  but the Norskies mix up the pronunciation of  the ‘W’ and the ‘V’ as well as the ‘J’ and the ‘Y’.  Old Oscar said,  “It’s  We I G,  wit a capital We.”  It’s not chust the Chermans dat hass dat progue problem.  Grandpa Hans said,  “I yust learned to say ‘telewision’ and now day call it a ‘T We’.”

If you didn’t see this on the Tonight show, I hope you’re sitting down when you read it. This is probably the funniest date story ever, first date or not!!! We have all had bad dates but this takes the cake.

Jay Leno went into the audience to find the most embarrassing first date that a woman ever had. The winner described her worst first date experience.

There was absolutely no question as to why her tale took the prize!

She said it was midwinter…Snowing and quite cold… and the guy had taken her skiing in the mountains outside Salt Lake City, Utah.

It was a  day trip (no overnight). They were strangers, after all, and had never met before. The outing was fun but relatively uneventful until they were headed home late that a fternoon.

They were driving back down the mountain, when she gradually began to realize that she should not have had that extra latte. ! ! They were about an hour away from anywhere with a rest room and in the middle of nowhere! Her companion suggested she try to hold it, which she did for a while. Unfortunately, because of the heavy snow and slow going, there came a point here she told him that he had better stop and let her go beside the road, or it would be the front seat of his car.

They stopped and she quickly crawled out beside the car, yanked her pants down and started. In the deep snow she didn’t have good footing, so she let her butt rest against the rear fender to steady herself. Her companion stood on the side of the car watching for traffic and indeed was a real gentleman and refrained from peeking. All she could think about was the relief she felt despite the rather embarrassing nature of the situation.

Upon finishing however, she soon becam e aware of another sensation. As she bent to pull up her pants, the young lady discovered her buttocks were firmly glued against the car’s fender. Thoughts of tongues frozen to poles immediately came to mind as she attempted to disengage her flesh from the icy metal. It was quickly apparent that she had a brand new problem, due to  the extreme cold.
  Horrified by her plight and yet aware of the humor of the moment, she answered her date’s concerns about’ what is taking so long’ with a reply that indeed, she was ‘freezing her butt off’ and in need of some assistance!  He came around the car as she tried to cover herself with her sweater and then, as she looked imploringly into his eyes, he burst out laughing. She too, got the giggles and when they finally managed to compose  themselves, they assessed her dilemma. Obviously, as hysterical as the situation was, they also were faced with a real problem.

Both agreed it would take something hot to free her chilly cheeks from the grip of the icy metal! Thinking about what had gotten her into the predicament in the first place, both quickly realized that there was only one way to get her free. So, as she looked the other way, her first time date pr oceeded to unzip his pants and pee her butt off the fender.
  As the audience screamed in laughter, she took the Tonight Show prize hands down. Or perhaps that should be ‘pants  down’. And you thought your first date was embarrassing. Jay Leno’s comment… ‘This  gives a whole new meaning to being pissed  off.’

Oh and how did the first date turn out? He became her husband and was sitting next to her on the Leno show.

During a recent physical examination, Ole was asked by the doctor about
his physical activity level.

He described a typical day this way: “Vell, yesterday afternoon, I took a four hour
walk, about 5 miles, through some pretty rough terrain. I waded along the edge of
a lake. I pushed my way through brambles. I got sand in my shoes, eyes and hair.
I avoided getting bit by a snake, I climbed several rocky hills, and took a few leaks
behind some big trees. The mental stress of it all left me shattered. At the end of it
all, I drank eight beers.”

Inspired by the story, the doctor said, “You must be one hell of an outdoors man!”

“Actually, I’m not,” He replied, “ I’m just a crappy golfer.”

A doctor in Duluth , Minnesota wanted to get

off work and go hunting, so he

approached his assistant.

“Ole, I am goin’ huntin’ tomorrow and don’t want to close the clinic.. I want you to take care of the clinic and take care of all my patients.”

“Yes, sir!” answers Ole.

The doctor goes hunting and returns

the following day and asks: “So, Ole,

How was your day?”

Ole told him that he took care of

three patients. “The first one had a

headache so I gave him TYLENOL.”

“Bravo, mate, and the second one?”

asks the doctor.

“The second one had stomach burning and I gave him MAALOX, sir,” says Ole.

“Bravo, bravo! You’re good at this and what about the third one?” asks the Doctor.

“Sir, I was sitting here and suddenly the door opens

and a woman enters.

Like a flame, she undresses herself,

taking off everything including

her panties and lies

down on the table and shouts:

‘HELP ME – I haven’t

seen a man in over two years!!’”

“Tunderin’ Lard Yeezus, Ole,

What did you do?” asks the doctor.

“I put drops in her eyes!!”

You thought I was sending a dirty joke!!

NOT ME!

When San Haven opened in 1912, the primary treatments for the tubercular patients were fresh air, rest and a well balanced diet. As the decades went by at the sanatorium the primary treatments continued on throughout its’ history, but different treatments came and went.

Over the years, patients were given sun treatments, which were proven not to work and discontinued at the San. There were numerous surgical procedures conducted that collapse patients’ tubercular lungs and allowed them to rest, which saved a large number of lives at the sanatorium, but were grueling surgeries to go through, because the patients were awake through the all the procedures without general anesthetic because their lungs and health were too poor to take anesthetic without killing them.

As the sanatorium continued to treat their patients on a daily basis, researchers throughout the world were working on trying to find a cure for TB. A major breakthrough came in the 1940s when researchers discovered antibiotics that slow growth of, and in some instances, in sufficient concentration, eliminated TB.

The first major break through happened in 1943 when Dr. Selman Waksman, a microbiologist at Rutgers University, along with his colleague, Albert Schatz, were examining soil brought into their lab by a farmer who claimed his poultry was becoming ill because of the soil on his farmstead. In the soil, Waksman and Schatz discovered a fungus called Stretomyces griseus.

The two researchers began experiment with the fungus and discovered that certain strains of the fungus produced a chemical agent that slow or eliminate certain pathogens, which included TB. Waksman and Schatz called their new pharmaceutical Streptomycin.

Scientists continued their work in finding other pharmaceuticals to assist with TB and in the late 1940s discovered aminosalicylic acid and isoniazid.

On July 1, 1949, with the medications approval of being able to eliminate TB, San Haven began to use the antibiotics. By 1958, the number of beds being used at the sanatorium declined greatly.

In that same year, the state determined that Grafton State School, an institution for the mentally handicapped, was overcrowded. With open beds at the San, patients from Grafton were moved into the sanatorium with a portion of the San being used to treat TB patients, and the remainder of facility to care for the mentally ill, which consisted primarily of hydrocephalics.

On July 1, 1973, the North Dakota Tuberculosis Sanatorium officially closed as a state institution for the treatment of TB. With antibiotics, and local hospitals treating TB, there were no reasons to keep the San open for TB patients. With it closure, Grafton took over the facility and operated it as institution for the mentally handicapped.

Grafton ran the operations of the grounds until December 21, 1987, due to a judicial decision. In the summer of 1985, U.S. Distric Judge, Bruce Van Sickle, ruled in favored of a case brought before the court by the Association for Retarded Citizens, to deinstitutionalize the mentally handicapped and place them in the private sector. Governor George Sinner was order by the court to remove all patients from San Haven.

On that December day in 1987, the last seven patients were removed from the facility and the state closed down the institution.

Shortly after San Haven was close, a variety of companies from the private sector rented space within the grounds for a short time. After companies left the institution, the state was unable to care for sanatorium due to budget cuts. In 1993, The Turtle Mountain Chippewa Indian Reservation purchased the institution for $1,100 with plans to renovate the buildings for other uses.

As the grounds stood empty during through the 1990s, and against the wishes of the tribe, individuals trespassed into the former sanatorium and stole any items of value. Worse, in their efforts to steal from the San they caused mass destruction of the facility.

It also became a place for young people to party and in 1999 while in the Infirmary Building two kids entered into an open elevator shaft where one was killed and the other seriously injured.

Since that time, the buildings at San Haven have started to deteriorate and are slowly falling in on themselves.

In December, San Haven will be 100 years old. In the 61 years that it was state sanatorium, the San went from one building on 260 acres of land to 20 plus buildings on 940 acres of land.

It has been said that the sanatorium did not help in eliminating TB in our state. However, thousands of individuals were diagnosed with TB in North Dakota and only small fraction of those people passed away from the disease. San Haven did a tremendous job in caring for those with TB and in the process saved thousands of people’s lives in our state.        

Thank you, Neola, for bringing back memories with a picture of another good neighbor, Ingolf Medlang.  I haven’t heard that name for years.  He and my Dad were good friends.  Thanks again!

Dale Pritchard

By SCOTT WAGAR Bottineau Courant

When it came to caring for the patients with tuberculosis at San Haven, physicians and nurses played an important role at the sanatorium and often placed their lives in danger treating the patients with the deadly disease.

Physicians at San Haven held strict duties while on the job. During the Great Depression, it was noted in the Biennial Report of the Superintendent of the North Dakota Tuberculosis Sanatorium ending June 30, 1936, that on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday morning were surgical days for the physicians who conducted surgical procedures on the patients’ lungs so that their lungs rested and did not spread TB in their lungs.

The report also stated that on Tuesday and Friday mornings the doctors of the San attended to patients who had treatments done to them, while Thursday afternoons the doctors read, interpreted and dictated x-rays that were taken of patients outside the sanatorium who were referred to the medical facility.

On Friday afternoons and Sunday mornings, the physicians would volunteer their time to see people from around the state to have mantouxs (a skin test for TB) and x-rays performs on them for diagnostic purposes.

When it came to nurses at San Haven, their duties to the patients were numerous.    

A normal day for the nurses in San Haven were to conduct a variety of task, some of which included taking patients’ vitals, giving medication, charting, changing their bedding, emptying sputum bags that patients would cough and spit in from their TB and caring for the patients personal needs.

One of the personal needs the nurses care for in the winter months at the San was to keep the patients’ warm during their open air treatments, which meant having the windows of sanatorium open 24 hours a day so that outside air could circulate through the rooms.

In order to do keep the patients’ warm, nurses provided patients with hot water bottles along with half a dozen or more blankets for each patient. When it came to the water bottles, the Biennial Report of the Superintendent of the North Dakota Tuberculosis Sanatorium ending June 30, 1932 stated that on an average night in the 1930s nurses would go through 55 water barrels of hot water to provide the patients’ warmth in the cold nights that some time dipped to minus 40 below outside. Eventually, water bottles would be replaced with electric blankets for the patients.

The sanatorium also educated nurses. On Jan. 1, 1922, a one year nursing training school was opened at San Haven to train nurses on tuberculosis care, which brought nurses from a diverse number of places to be trained.

In the beginning at San Haven, nurses cared for patients without any protection for themselves, which often placed nurses in a dangerous position of getting TB.

As researchers learned more about TB and how it was spread, growing and masking was introduced to the San which protected the nurses from the patients’ TB and the patients from the nurses who brought any infectious diseases into the sanatorium.

According to Bottineau resident, Lorraine Millang, who worked in San Haven’s laboratory as young adult and participated in the State Historical Society of North Dakota’s Oral History Project on San Haven in 1996, gown and masking was no easy task for the nurses and all the staff members of the San. Upon entering San Haven, the nurses and other employees would have to shower, dress in their uniforms and then gown and mask themselves before going to work in the sanatorium.

After their shifts were over, they would remove their gowns and masks, their uniforms and would shower again before leaving the medical facility. (It should be noted here, Millang also stated in her oral history that all staff members who came on the patients’ floors at the San had to gown and mask. Depending on the type of work one did at the sanatorium, staff members at times would have to double gown (kitchen employees bringing food to the patients) or triple gown themselves (lab technicians working in the labs).

The nurses were also the largest staff at the sanatorium. In order to accommodate all the nurses at the San, the state constructed in Nursing Home in 1930 to house all the nurses and some of the female employees at the San Haven.

Unfortunately, the first and only murder to take place at San Haven happened within the nurses’ building. The structure was located on the west side of the San near a grove of trees that surrounded the sanatorium. One nurse, who mistakenly forgot to shut her windows blinds one evening, was observed by a man from the Turtle Mountains who noticed she was alone. He slipped into the building through a basement window, then into her room where he raped and murdered her before escaping out of her window.

The man, who wore a unique and different cap, dropped his hat at the window as he made his escaped, which was discovered by the local authorities. He was arrested, charged, found guilty of his crimes and was sentenced to the state penitentiary.

Physician and nurses (an all staff members) at San Haven had to deal with acquiring TB while working at the sanatorium, of which some of the staff members were diagnosed and had to become patients within the medical facility.

However, these physicians and nurses, in their duties and oaths and medical providers, placed their own safety aside to treat patients with TB in the state. Of the entire medical personal in the history of North Dakota, the physicians and nurses who worked at the San can be considered the bravest and most self-sacrificing physicians and nurses in the state amongst one of the most contagious disease to ever enter into North Dakota.    

On Thursday, February 21^st at 6PM there will be a Musical Jamboree

Held at the Turtle Mountain Community College in Belcourt honoring

Mr. Hubert Allery.  This is an annual doings which pays tribute to some of the elder living musicians of the area.  Theresa (Keplin) Marcellais, her sister Rita Gable and Sandra Poitra first initiated this event in 2011.

The first Jamboree in 2011 honored Mr. Eddy “King” Johnson, with the second year going to Mr. Mike Page.   Hubert has been singing and playing the Guitar since he was at a young age of 8 or 9.  During the 1960’s thru the 1980’s he was one of the finest Traditional Country singers around, he played with numerous Bands around the Dunseith and Belcourt areas.  He now resides in Fargo ND and operates an Antique Shoppe.

As tuberculosis spread rapidly across North Dakota in the early part of the 1900s, one group from the state was very susceptible in getting TB, the children of the state.

The children of North Dakota afflicted with TB had a special place in the heart of the people of the state and when the sanatorium first opened kids were readily accepted into the sanatorium and were housed in the Administration Building with the adults.

The children were given the same treatments as the adults, which included fresh air, rest and well-balanced diet.

One difference for children, unlike most of the adults they were treated with, did not have the opportunity to just rest and be treated or their TB. The kids, like all students in the state, had to continue in their studies.

School for the young students at the San was also quiet different than their friends back in their hometowns. There friends attended school inside, but the kids of San Haven had to be attended school in the outside elements due to their fresh-air treatments, even in the wintertime.

Although school wasn’t taught in the first three years at San Haven, in 1915 the North Dakota Anti-Tuberculosis Association raised funds through their Christmas Seal Campaign to open the first Open Air School in the state of North Dakota.

The first schoolroom was located on the west side of the Administration Building and was one of the open air porches, which was used by the patients for fresh-air treatments, sleeping rooms and dressing rooms.

On January 1, 1916, the open air school began with eight students. The student’s instructor was Fred Humphrys who was a patient himself at the sanatorium, described the school and the regimental routines the children had to follow.

“We did not miss one day of owing to extreme cold weather, and there were several days when the mercury stood at forty below zero. In wintertime, each pupil is equipped with enough blankets to keep warm, a hot water bottle and a reclining chair,” Humphrys wrote in John Lamont’s Biennial Report of the Superintendent of the North Dakota Tuberculosis Sanatorium for the period ending June 30, 1916. “School commences at 9:30 and continues until 10:30 when lunch is served consisting of hot milk and crackers. We resume studies at 10:45 and proceed until 11:30 when we have dinner. We take rest hour from 12:30 to 3:00 and then proceed with school until 5:00 at which time school is dismissed for the day. The same text books and courses of study are used here as in all North Dakota Public schools.

The sanatorium had no problems finding teachers to teach in the open air school at the San Haven because a number of teachers were patients at San Haven. The state in 1906 had so many teachers who were tubercular that the State Board f Health in North Dakota stepped in and made ordinance who were diagnosed with TB to teach on the public school system.

Throughout the time the San was opened, numerous teaches came to the sanatorium to be treated for TB. Twenty-three school teachers alone were admitted to San Haven between 1934 through 1936.

As new structures were built, additions were added on and patients numbers increased at the San, the students’ classroom was moved to a variety of buildings, one specifically named after the kids of the sanatorium.  

In 1927, the sanatorium constructed the Children’s Building, a preventorium at a cost of $65,000. The structure included patient rooms, dinning area, treatment rooms and decks for fresh air and sun treatments. 

The preventorium was a building for children who were exposed to TB or those who were already diagnosed with the disease. Charles MacLachlin, the administrator of san Haven in 1936, wrote about the Children’s Buildings in the Biennial Report of the Superintendent of the North Dakota Tuberculosis Sanatorium for the period ending June 30, 1936.   

“Between the ages of six months to fourteen years of age, 73 children were admitted for care to the preventorium of the sanatorium, comprising for the great part those who fathers and mothers were concurrently under treatment as bed patients in the infirmary as open cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. Seven of the children admitted had no clinical tuberculosis and were discharged after a short observation. Sixty-six were diseased,” MacLachlin wrote. “Here at the sanatorium by provision of the right surroundings with regular rest hours, nourishing food, including goats milk and vegetables, sunlight on porches and artificial light administrator under the group plan indoors and open air school hours tries to prevent the disease from becoming more serious and to build up the highest resistance possible. Usually within a year, the disease becomes quiescent, the children gain in weight and returned to their homes with their health restored.”

Through the treatments of San Haven, fund raising and educational promotions of Anti-Tuberculosis Association of North Dakota and decision made about TB children by the North Dakota State Board of Health the number children first admitted to the San decline quickly over the years.

Children in the state were still diagnosed with TB, but the numbers were so small, the Children’s Building eventually closed a preventorium and the young patient of North Dakota were admitted into the Infirmary Building

Now that I’m older here’s what I’ve discovered:

1. I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.

2. My wild oats have turned into prunes and all-bran.

3. I finally got my head together, and now my body is falling apart.

4. Funny, I don’t remember being absent-minded.

5. Funny, I don’t remember being absent-minded.

6. If all is not lost, where is it?

7. It is easier to get older than it is to get wiser.

8. Some days, you’re the dog; some days you’re the hydrant.

9. I wish the buck stopped here; I sure could use a few.

10. Kids in the back seat cause accidents.

11. Accidents in the back seat cause kids.

12. It’s hard to make a comeback when you haven’t been anywhere.

13. The only time the world beats a path to your door is when you’re in the bathroom.

14. If God wanted me to touch my toes, he’d have put them on my knees.

15. When I’m finally holding all the cards, why does everyone want to play chess?

16. It’s not hard to meet expenses . . . they’re everywhere.

17. A whale swims all day, only eats fish, drinks water, and is fat.

18. These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about the hereafter . . I go somewhere to get something, and then wonder what I’m hereafter

19. Funny, I don’t remember being absent-minded.

20. DID I SEND THESE TO YOU BEFORE……….??????

In the first 18 months of San Haven, North Dakota’s only state run Tuberculosis sanatorium, the institute had admitted 170 patients and had a long waiting list of patients wanting to be received by the facility for treatment.

As of June 30, 1914, with newly completed cottages the sanatorium had 62 beds; however, there was such a demand for admittance in the state the San in 1920 constructed an Infirmary Building for $10,000 that added 60 beds. In 1927, an addition was added on to the Infirmary at a cost of $125,000 that brought an additional 80 beds. In 1937, another addition was built for $300,000 with 123 beds. In 1938, the original Infirmary was remolded and added 45 more beds.

With the construction of the Infirmary and its two additions a number of problems were solved. First, instead of all patients be being a number of different buildings, they were all housed in the Infirmary. Second, with the completion of the addition in 1938, San Haven for the first time did not have a waiting list for individuals who wanted admission into the sanatorium.

The primary treatment at the San continued to be fresh air, rest and well-balanced diet. San Haven, like sanatoriums throughout the nation, followed a set number of rules they adopted from the physicians who originated the sanatorium, Dr. Edward Trudeau. San haven had a strict routine and the patients were expected to follow the routine precisely.

The late Lillian Petterson (Married to Emil Petterson who was a brother to Bob Stokes), a resident of Bottineau who spent four years at San Haven, spoke of her time at the sanatorium in an oral history she gave State Historical Society of North Dakota in the 1990s.

“They woke us up in the mornings and brought us a basin to clean ourselves after breakfast. Then our mornings were our quiet time. We read and studied our Bibles, and wrote letters, too. I wrote more letters than I ever wrote in my whole life. I wrote several service men in war (WW II), my part for the war effort,” Petterson said. “In the afternoons we had to take naps, after our naps we did fancy work like crocheting and embroidering. In the evenings, we had visitors, or just had had fun. Each bed had a radio with earphones. I was the biggest baseball fan and I always listened to all the games.”

Patients who were well enough to become ambulatory were allowed to work a few short hours a day in different departments at San Haven. Bands, choirs and theater groups (including Dakota College at Bottineau’s Drama Club) from throughout he state entertained patients,

The San had its own U.S. Post Office and its’ own newspaper called the San Piper, which housed its own printing press and was published monthly.

Numerous patients in bed spent their days writing poetry, which were published in the San Piper and eventually collected into an anthology titled, “San Musing.”

In Assembly Hall of the Refractory Building church services were held for the different denominations of the patients. The hall also granted patients movie nights were they were given the opportunity to see the latest movies coming out of Hollywood.

Holidays were always made special for the residents of San Haven. During Christmas time, the grounds were decorated and lighted for the patients to see out f their open windows. Within the Infirmary Building, every floor and each of the patients rooms had a decorated Christmas Trees and each of the patients received a gift from the sanatorium. The staff made fruit cakes, popcorn balls, and boxes of nuts and candy for its residents. On Christmas Day, those who were ambulatory were given a sleigh ride through the Turtle Mountains. 

During Eater, the employees also colored Easter eggs for the patients and on the Fourth of July the San entertained the patients with a fireworks show.       

Entertainment was important for patients because although fresh air, rest and a well balanced diet was the primary treatment, other procedures began to play an important role. By 1920, surgeries began at San Haven which granted patients’ lungs to rest complete, allowing them to heal natural through the body forming a calcification around the TB in lungs, which stopped the disease from spreading.

The procedures to rest the lung was to collapse the infective lung. The surgeries began at San Haven on July 1, 1920, and physicians utilized numerous types of surgical procedures to collapse the lung. Most patients at the San had a procedure called artificial pneumothorax. In the procedure, the surgeons would inject air with a needle into the lining around the lungs causing the lung with TB to collapse.

Unfortunately, artificial pneumothrax would have to be performed numerous times because lungs would naturally fill up with air again. The re-collapsing procedure was called, “refills” because the physicians would “refill” the lung’s lining with air again.

Another procedure performed at San Haven was called phrenemphraxis, where the surgeon would temporary paralysis the phrenic nerve, the nerve that sends message to the brain to control the diaphragm moving up and down. Through this procedure, compression to the phrenic nerve would cause the diaphragm to lift upward, causing negative pressure, collapsing the lung.

If patients were in the advanced stages of TB, surgeons wanted the lung to rest permanently. This was accomplished by a surgery called thoracoplasty where the physician would remove on an average mean seven to eight of the patients’ ribs on the side where the lung was infected. Once the ribs were removed, the lung would collapse permanently.

This was a difficult procedure for patients because they could not use anesthesia because their lungs and bodies could not safely take the anesthetic. So, the patients were given local anesthetic and the surgeon would remove the ribs while they were awake. Thoracoplasty was such a difficult surgery for patients; so, it had to be done through several procedures.

Another phrenic nerve procedure that was completely was called phrenexexresis, where the surgeon would enduringly paralysis the nerve by avulsion collapsing the nerve undyingly.

For Petterson, her TB was so advance when she came to the San, the surgeon’s conducted a thoracoplasty on her. The surgery left her distorted, bending her forward at her side because she had no ribs to keep her posture upright. Petterson spent the remainder of her life in that uncomfortable posture, walking at all times with a cane, but as she stated in her oral interview with the SHSND, it was horrible and painful surgery, but she was alive and cured of her TB when she left San Haven.

Gary and friends,

The following tale is from my cousin, Eleanor who, for me, yesterday, it was a gold mine day visit.

Eleanor let me take her treasured 1923 photo of her parents, which I copied today, and will return.

Wow, a story  to share on your blog too!

Bill and Mary Metcalfe were married in September of 1923.

The couple witnessing their vows were good friends and neighbors,

Gertrude Anderson and  John Awalt.

Later, a wedding dance was held to celebrate this union.

The wedding dance music was made by local musician, neighbor and good friend, Frank Poitra.

Frank who could play sweet fiddle music or a rousing good stepping jig.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Mary, during their first years of marriage  lived on the “Olson Place”

at the  side of Rabbit City Lake.

The Olson place was across the lake from William I and Rose Metcalfe.

Bill and Mary’s first child, Eleanor Rose, was born in August 1924.

Among, two Metcalfe families, many of the aunts and uncles, and their nephews and nieces

were around the same age, and grew up together.

            Along with Eleanor, my dad Cliff was taught his arc’s by his  oldest  brother Billy,

who had a little slate board, chalk and an eraser.   Cliff and Eleanor then began first grade at Bergan -Hillside School.

Eleanor say’s, Mr. Louis  Bergan donated the land and  the carpentry skills to build that school.

She said, Her Uncle Emil.   Gentle Emil was her protector. But she followed Cliff around calling him Uncle.

He didn’t like the teasing from other kids. He didn’t feel like an old uncle!  Then came Bob and Alice who were closer in age

to their aunt Jean.

In November of 1912, San Haven opened its doors for patients with tuberculosis with great anticipation of curbing the death rate of tuberculosis in the state.

The first building to be constructed on San Haven’s 260 acres of land was the Administration Building at a cost of $25,000. The structured housed a central dinning room, kitchen, laundry, furnace room, employee’s dinning room, porches and dressing rooms for 18 patients, offices, a laboratory and living quarters for the superintendent’s family and nursing staff. Initially, the building did not have electrical lights or telephone.

Dr. J.P. Widmeyer of Rolla was the first administrator of San Haven and in late November of 1912 he welcomed the first patient to be admitted into the TB sanatorium, Martha Magnusson of Wildrose, North Dakota.

In 1912, it cost patients $1.50 a day, or $5 a week to be treated at the facility.  Patients could either pay the sanatorium bill themselves, or, if they did not have the means to pay, the counties in which they came from would care for their bills.

In the first 18 months of the sanatorium opening its doors, 170 patients had been admitted to San Haven with a long waiting list for individuals wanting to get in to be treated.

With San Haven filled to its capacity, and a long waiting list, the institution constructed three cottages for the patients in 1913, which included the Men’s Cottage, the State Cottage for Women and the Masonic Cottage, which was funded by the Masons and furnishing by the Order of the Eastern Star. Outside of the three cottages being built on the property, the state also constructed a cottage for staff members that same year.

In 1915, the state added another cottage for the superintendent and his family, along with a dairy barn and new a structure called the Refractory Building which housed a new kitchen, dinning hall, assembly room and dormitory for employees.   

With victims of TB coming to San Haven to be treated, family members of the TB patients often moved to the Dunseith area to be closed to their loved ones while they were being treated. Other individuals journeyed to the sanatorium to find employment. With an increase in population and construction going on at the San, enterprise also increased in the Dunseith area, which included an interested team of horses owned by a Dunseith man.

 “Supplies were hauled from town by Henry Grim, driving a grey horse team of communistic habits. These horses wrecked much property. It was not unusual to find boxes of groceries, wagon wheels and bits of horse hair along the two miles of sanatorium road,” stated Stephen L. McDonough in his book, The Golden Ounce. “The grey horses were sold for a good price during the World War (WW I) and shipped to Europe. Everyone signed relief when the news came that they were blown up in the Battle of Marne.”

As for San Haven, itself, any resident from North Dakota could be treated at the sanatorium. Patients were admitted to the San when their personal physician or county medical health officer diagnosed them with TB. At that point, the superintendent of the sanatorium would be notified, and if there were any open beds at the institution, patients would be allowed to come to the facility.

Once diagnosed, patients’ primary treatments during their stay at the sanatorium consisted of rest, fresh air and a well balanced diet. Patients, depending on how severe their tuberculosis was, could expect to be in the sanatorium from one to four years.

Patients spent the majority of their time outdoors receiving fresh air treatments, even through the winter months. If indoors, patients’ windows were always left open, no matter what the weather conditions. For patients who slept in the Administration Building’s porches, it was not unusual for them to wake up in the morning in the wintertime and find snow on the porches’ floors. To keep warm, the patients slept with numerous blankets and hot water bottles.

According to Dr. John Lamont of Towner, who replaced Widmeyer three months after the sanatorium open, the improvement of the patients’ health at San Haven was found to be successful from the very beginning.

“The majority of the patients have shown a great improvement in health, the average gain in the first fifty patients treated being about five pounds, and this is in spite of the fact that many of our early cases sent the institution were in the advance stage of the disease,” wrote Lamont in the Biennial Report to the Board of Control of State Institutions for the Period Ending June 30, 1914. “The largest gain was thirty-three and one-half pounds.”

Even though the state was getting a handle on TB through San Haven, there was still no cure for the disease, and it flourished in the state with alarming numbers, bringing an abundance of patients to San Haven, along with a number of new buildings and treatments for tubercular patients.

In the summer months of 1981 in Jamestown, N.D., a construction company was constructing an apartment complex when it accidentally unearthed nine linear and nine conical mounds while preparing the footings for the complex. Within three of the mounds, 75 Native American were found buried, which included a female Indian between the ages of 35 to 45, and who was found to have had tuberculosis of the hip bone. The radiocarbon dates of the hip bone dated to around 980 A.D., granting North Dakota with one of the oldest paleontological specimens of TB found on the North American Continent.

Although finding TB in the State of North Dakota during the time John the Apostle was writing the Book of Revelation, little is known about TB until the beginning of the 1900s when this disease made an appearance in the state, and marked it for death.

As TB made its way across the state killing numerous individuals and bringing fear to all its’ communities, the Turtle Mountains gained a sense of immortality as the only place in North Dakota where one could go to be saved from TB; and, it came due to special circumstance that could only be found in the Turtle Mountains.     

In the “Biennial Report of the State Board of Health to the Governor of North Dakota for the Years of 1901 and 1902,” Dr. H.H. Healy made a quick reference in his report about TB, After careful inquiry I believe that the state is remarkably free from this disease.”

Two years later, when it came time for Healy to write the state health report, he was so ill with TB he could not write or present the report to Gov. Frank White.

Healy would recover from his TB, but the majority of the state would not be as lucky as Healy, as death rates increased across the state due to TB.  By 1908, the statistics on TB were alarming.

“One death in every ten, excluding stillbirths and those who died from violence, is due to it (tuberculosis),” the state health report stated. “At this rate, assuming our population to be 500,000 residents, there will die of tuberculosis in our state 50,000 of those now living.

With an alarming rate of TB deaths in North Dakota, Dr. James Grassick and Dr. Fannie Dunn Quain founded the Anti-Tuberculosis Association of North Dakota in 1909 immediately began lobbying the state to construct a sanatorium.

Through Grassick and Quian’s hard work, the two physicians saw some positive results from lobbying with the state’s leadership as they went into the 1909 legislative session, obtaining $10,000 to purchase land for a state run sanatorium, along with a board to oversee the project.

The board consisted of Gov. John Burke, the newly elected democratic governor to North Dakota; Grassick as the newly appointed superintendent of the State Board of Health; Dr. G.F. Ruediger of the public health laboratory; Quain and C.J. Lord of Cando.     

For the most part in 1909, the word sanatorium wasn’t a familiar term in North Dakota. The word comes from the Latin word, sanare, which when translated into English, means “to heal.” Sanatoriums had its beginnings in the United States starting in 1884 when Dr. Edward Trudeau of New York was diagnosed with the disease. Learning of his fate, he made the decision to spend the remainder of his days resting in the Adirondack Mountains.

While living in the Adirondacks, Trudeau discovered that instead of health failing, his health improved. He theorized that rest, fresh air and a good balance diet in an isolated area with proper altitude and low moisture rates could save a person’s life.

In 1884, Trudeau put his theory into practice and opened the Adirondack Cottage Sanatorium. Trudeau’s theory and sanatorium was successful and by the turn of the century sanatoriums were opening up nationwide.

In North Dakota, after gaining funding to purchase land for a sanatorium, the five board members started looking for best the location to construct the state’s sanatorium and soon found themselves on the south-east side of the Turtle Mountains just northeast of Dunseith.

Like Trudeau’s Adirondack Mountains, the state board felt the Turtle Mountains was the best place to locate to construct a sanatorium, because it held the right climatic conditions for TB patients, which included of high altitude, low moisture rates and all in an isolated area.

The site was also protected on the north and west sides by hills and trees, the site offered fresh water with lakes and springs and the ground’s soil was very fertile for growing crops. The land was perfect to construct an isolated community where people could come and recover from TB.

By choosing this land in the Turtle Mountains, the state also acquired an additional 100 acres of land as a gift to the state. The board made the decision to purchase the site and secured it for $4,052.

Although pleased with the funding they received to purchase the land and prepare it for a sanatorium, Grassick and Quain were disappointed that no allocations were made to construct the building, leaving them with land, but no building to start caring for victims of TB in the state.

Burke, who was a strong supporter of sanatoriums, and great orator, spoke on the issue during the opening of the Twelfth Legislative Session of North Dakota in his State to State address to the joint session of the North Dakota Congress in 1911.

“We have expanded altogether $4,052 for land and $4,119 for the lay out of the land. We have $1,8000 of the appropriations still unexpended,” Burke said. “We have expanded about $100,000 in the last two years fighting disease in animals. Surely we can afford to spend a little fighting this dreaded disease among our own kind. Everywhere war is being waged against the Great White Plague. It is no longer an experiment. We know that consumptives are being cured everyday in sanatoriums throughout the land. Let us not be behind the times in this respect.”

Twenty days later, Rep. Wesley Fassett of Dunseith, introduced House Bill 155 as “a bill for an act to provide for the establishment and government of a State Tuberculosis Sanatorium,” Fassett said in the House chamber with great determination, which was passed unanimously in both the house and senate with $25,000 allocated to construct an administration building; $3,000 for cottages to be built where patients would be located and treated, $1,000 for equipment; $1,000 for stock and poultry and %500 to construct a barn. 

The bill also included that a board be appointed to oversee the project. Burke appointed William Gottbrecht of Dunseith to be the president of the board; Dr. D. Lemieux of Dunseith the secretary, Dr. J.P. Widmeyer of Rolla the superintendent along Marion Edwards of Rolette and Grassick.

The board hired H.G Lykken of Grand Forks as the consulting engineer; W.J. Edwards of Grand Forks as the architect of the administration building and the Northern Construction Company of Grand Forks to construct the water, sewer and administration building.

After four long years, Grassick and Quain’s patience and determination to bring a state sanatorium to North Dakota finally paid off in the later part of November 1912 when the North Dakota Tuberculosis Sanatorium received its first patient; and, a future that would change North Dakota in infinite detail.

  Later when he married Phyllis after finishing college in Jamestown, they were always involved with activities my wife, Pat, and I and others in Dunseith enjoyed when I would be home for a visit between
assignments. They both, and their children all were sterling members of our community, and during my long life, there was always a Campbell somewhere on our agenda.  Few people had greater influence and
greater example of that rare breed of Americans. Dunseith People.   Bill Hosmer

Alan Watson Campbell, 88, Minot, ND, longtime resident of Dunseith, ND and well-known banker, passed away Tuesday, January 22, 2013 in Minot.

Alan was born on August 18, 1924 in Bottineau, ND to William and Violet (Watson) Campbell. He was raised in Omemee, ND until he was 9 years old. The family moved to Dunseith where he attended school and graduated from Dunseith High School in 1942. He attended Jamestown College for one year and then enlisted in the military in 1943 and served in the U.S. Army Air Corps until his discharge on December 7, 1945. Following his discharge, he returned to Jamestown College and graduated with a Business Administration degree in 1948. While at Jamestown College, Alan met the love of his life, Phyllis Berg. They were married on July 30, 1947 at Voorhees Chapel at Jamestown College. Alan and Phyllis moved to Pittsburgh, PA where he attended the University of Pittsburgh and received his Masters degree in retail training.

In 1949, Alan and Phyllis moved to Minot, ND where he worked at the International Harvester District Office. While in Minot, he was a member of the American Legion and the First Presbyterian Church. Alan and Phyllis moved to Dunseith in 1953 and he worked with his father at Security State Bank and joined Campbell Insurance Agency in 1953.

Alan retired as President of Security State Bank in 1994.

Alan was very involved in the community of Dunseith. He was active in the American Legion, Dunseith Masonic Lodge, Shriners, Order of Eastern Star, Dunseith Golf Club, United Methodist Church, Dunseith Community Development Corporation, Rugby Good Samaritan hospital board and served as Mayor of Dunseith. Alan was a 50 plus year member of the Dunseith Masonic Lodge #99 and the North Dakota Masonic Lodge and the Archie Jardine American Legion Post  #185. He was also involved in the North Dakota KEM Temple Shrine.

Alan and Phyllis traveled extensively throughout the United States and attended several reunions of the 490^th Bomb Group. He enjoyed spending summers at Lake Metigoshe and winters in Mesa, Arizona.

He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Phyllis, Minot; children: Rich (Vicky) Campbell, Minot, Dave (Jodie) Campbell, Bismarck, Cathy (Steve) Springan, Stanley and Jeff (Lori) Campbell, Bismarck; grandchildren: Kyle (Grace) Campbell, Duluth, MN, Nicole (John) Grubb, Burlington, ND,  Jim (Darla) Cook, Seattle, WA, Heather Campbell, Eagan, MN, Alisha (Jeremy) Lacher, Bismarck, ND, Shaun (Zanna) Campbell, Bismarck, ND, Courtney Campbell, West Fargo, ND, Sara (Andrew) Herr, Minneapolis, MN, Gregg Springan, Madison, WI, Kayla (Travis) Dressler, Bismarck, ND and Jeremy Campbell (fiancée Brooke Marquardt), Bismarck, ND; great-grandchildren,  Trenton and Ellie Lacher, Nona and Sage Campbell and  Colin Grubb and cousin: Glen (Hester) Campbell.

Alan was preceded in death by his parents, infant daughter, Janice, and several aunts, uncles and cousins.

Celebration of the Life of Alan Campbell:  Saturday, January 26, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. in Vincent United Methodist Church – Minot.
Interment:  North Dakota Veterans Cemetery – rural Mandan.
Visitation:  At Alan’s request there will be no reviewal, but friends may sign a memorial register on Friday from 2:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. in Thomas Family Funeral Home – Minot and at the church one hour prior to the service.
Memorials:  In lieu of plants and flowers, memorials to the donor’s choice are preferred.

                                  Donald L. Williams

I went through the same process while stationed at CCK in Taiwan from Dec 70 to Mar 72.  And again while stationed at Kadena, Okinawa from Jan – Sep 75.  Vietnam actually closed the doors in April 1975 and I got back out of there the day before that happened.  Made a unit move from Kadena to Yokota, Japan where I stayed from Sep 75 to May 78.

I have some pictures of Cam Ranh Bay, including some of the same scenes on the video.  I’ll share some of these with you.  Some of them are deteriorated but they are memories.  Don’t bother to send them out to the public.  The little camera I had at the time wasn’t very good, I had slides made of the pictures, and over 45 years they deteriorated at lot.

The question I still get asked once in a while is “Would you recommend the AF as the branch of service to join?”  The answer is yes.  But a follow on question is usually “Would you do it again if you could?”  Yes to the AF but no otherwise.  I spent my 20 years all in aircraft maintenance on C-130s and it took about 8 years to quit being fun.  The main thing is that I don’t regret the 20 years!!! 

Dale Pritchard

Dale,

 

How well I remember those C-130 Aircrafts. I actually rode in those a number of times with my travels around Vietnam.

 

I am sharing this picture of the Barracks in Cam Ranh Bay that you included with one of your attachments. It brings back memories of just the way those Barracks were that I lived in when stationed there. My room was on the top floor. How well I remember the cockroaches too. Often times when I’d be unlocking the door to my room I’d hear this mass exodus of cockroaches leaving my room going to the next room.

 

Dale, you had a remarkable career too, one to be commended for. 

 

Gary 

                            During the Vietnam War in Cam Ranh Bay

I am so sorry to hear about your dad passing away.  Our thoughts are with you and your mom.

Diane

Reply from Allen Richard (’65):  Midland, MI

January 17, 2013 11:07 pm  •  By JOHN ELIGON | New York Times Service

Bob Stokes’ Army Picture

Mary Knutson can maybe prove me right or wrong but I believe that the man on the right is Uncle Norman Pritchard, uncle to both Mary and me.  I never saw Uncle Norman more than once or twice, and that would have been before any memory of it.  You’re right about Corbin in the middle.

Dale Pritchard

 Bob Stokes’ Army Picture

The guy on the right looks like Chester Gibbs from Willow City..maybe you are not even in the same age bracket???

Gary,

Thanks for providing the picture of my Uncle Linc and thanks to Pam also for making the picture of her grandfather available.  I had never seen this one before.  Pam, if you have any more I would really like to see them.

Dale Pritchard

He pours some liquid onto the teaspoon and offers it to the chemist.

“Could you taste this for me, please?”

The chemist takes the teaspoon, puts it in his mouth, swills the liquid around and swallows it.

“Does that taste sweet to you?” says Paddy.

“No, not at all,” says the chemist.

“Oh that’s a relief,” says Paddy. “The doctor told me to come here and get my urine tested for sugar.” 

The kids in the front……Murl (Watkins) Hill, not sure who the dark haired girl is – again, I’d guess a sister of Emery, if he has that many – the cute little girl in plain in front of Murl is her sister Elaine Watkins, then Mickey Haagenson, Curtis Gunderson….and that’s the extent of MY knowledge.

Oh – except for my Great Grandma Ellen Amundson…..she is behind Helen – her face is to the immediate right of Helen’s.  I think we still have the hat she’s wearing in this photo – it gets worn at tea parties w/the grandkids at Crystal’s.

Guess I don’t make it into the running for Aggie’s ‘honorary historian’ award!!! 

Paula  Fassett

They suggested to notify you,  by  e-mail the obit.
.
The Williams family were long time members of the Dunseith  community.

The older  William’s  children,  Bryan, Deb, Brad, and Boyd
all graduated from Dunseith High School.

I extend  sympathy to the Williams family.

Thanks Gary.

Vickie Metcalfe

Deborah Slyter, age 58 of Dunseith, died Monday at a Bismarck hospital. A memorial service will be held on Friday at 2:00 pm at the Peace Lutheran Church in Dunseith.

Deborah Lynn Slyter, a daughter of Oscar and Elberta (Anderson) Wenstad, was born on August 25, 1954 at Bottineau. She was reared at Dunseith and later graduated from Dunseith High School. On August 25, 1972, she married David Slyter at Dunseith. This marriage later ended. She worked as a caregiver at the Dunseith Nursing Home and at the San Haven State Hospital. She later worked as an assembler at the Turtle Mountain Corporation until she retired due to her health. She also did janitorial work at the Johnson Clinic for many years.

She was a member of the Peace Lutheran Church in Dunseith. Deborah loved spending time with her grandchildren. She also loved animals an enjoyed word puzzles, painting antiques, writing, reading, photography and investigating old buildings for artifacts and treasures.

She is survived by her son, Chad Slyter of Valley City; daughter Stacey Slyter of Atlanta, GA; grandchildren, Abby and Olivia Slyter of Valley City and Anastasia Clinkscales of Atlanta, GA; brothers, Arlan (Darlene) Wenstad of Lansford, Don Wenstad of Rolla and Curtis Wenstad of Rolette; sisters, Connie (Lawrence) Turner of Boissevain, MB, Donna Wenstad of Dunseith and Pam Lane of Rugby; significant other, Jack Dahl of Dunseith; step-children; Jack and Heather Dahl of Skime, MN and Heidi Dahl and Darin Raftevold of Roseau, MN; step-grandchildren, Matthew, Tyra, Anastasia, Dylan, Hope, Whitnie, CJ and Hallie.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her sister, Bobbi Wenstad.

Arrangements were with Nero Funeral Home in Bottineau. Friends may sign the online register book at www.nerofuneralhome.net.