Never Forget

18 years ago...we should never forget.

Far Side

Sidetracked

As you know, my husband is the Class Babysitter Historian for his Class of 1968.

I don’t get too involved…especially when the popular wenches girls won’t let him scan their precious grade school photos.  He gets upset when he shares so much and a few of the cheerleader types won’t share a thing.  Then one finally came through while cleaning out a bunch of “stuff.” She had a photo of one of the Kindergarten class of 1955-1956.  There were three sections.  Far Guy has photos of two sections. He is missing the section that he was in….that is a bummer.  Maybe someday!

Na na na na prissy little Mary M in the front row with the polka dot shirt can just keep her old photos.
 
School was a lot different back then…you could bring your cap pistol to school. One of the little boys in the front row has a long rifle…probably a BB gun.

I am only the tech person.  I deciphered the Class Roll from Kindergarten Graduation, the children were not listed in alphabetical order???  So I made notes from the other photo we have and discovered that they are listed by class.   That makes the identification much easier.  I also said save the photo here and print it there…high tech “stuff.”


Since we know who was in the last photo that remains elusive, perhaps an email here or there will yield some results.  Never give up hope. Who knows I may find the photo in an antique shop someday.

These little kids all turn 66 this year.

Wistful Wednesday: Nunn’s Store

Years ago J.W. Nunn had a store in Ponsford Minnesota.

Far Guy’s Mom wrote “I remember the large J.W. Nunn store and my mother bringing several cases of eggs to the store every week to buy groceries.  Those were during my childhood years.  Also riding to Sunday School by horse and wagon to the Baptist Church in Ponsford.”

I think the Nunn store was on the North side of the street on the East side of town and it  opened in 1902.

Here is a very old photo that Jim Mack (J.W. Nunn’s grandson) shared with me. J. W. Nunn and an unknown child are in the photo.

Family Genealogy Info: Alfred and Elezebeth Nunn lived near William and Martha Abbott in Wellington County Eramosa Township Ontario Canada, they came together to the (Lake Eunice) Detroit Lakes area and then to Carsonville Township/Ponsford Minnesota around 1889.

Wistful Wednesday : A spot along the road

I must have been a fairly observant child.  I remember when there were buildings on this corner.  I also remember when it was a gravel road.

This was a busy spot in the road back in the 1920’s - 1930’s.  Believe it or not this was the only way to get from Park Rapids to Detroit Lakes. It was still called Highway 34.
Here is a Road Map from 1924-1925.  In 1924-25 Detroit Lakes was known as Detroit.  From early history of Detroit Lakes:  As a result of continuous postal mix-ups between Detroit, Minnesota and the better-known Detroit, Michigan, a special election was held on September 7, 1926 to change the city's name to Detroit Lakes. This befitting title has remained ever since.

As you can imagine every little berg along the way got some business.

Today we are concerned with that third from the left circle…the one that was named Shell Lake…I didn’t know it was called that.  We used to call it Four Corners…not to be confused with the Four Corners between Height of Land and Detroit Lakes.

On the North side of the corners were Halvorsons and Lantondrys/Lotonche
Tufield George Latondre (Letonde).  Letondre's was a Dance Hall and Beer Joint that also sold gasoline.  Halvorsons had groceries, sandwiches, beer and pop and gasoline. On the South East corner was Grant Old’s he had tobacco, pop and gasoline.

In the 1940’s the new Highway 34 would be built straight from Osage to Detroit Lakes.  The corners would see less and less people going through.

This is the Halvorson’s place of business.  I have known Irene (Halvorson) Mack practically forever, she let me scan this photo of the old store a few years ago.
In the first photo you will notice that there is a clump of Lilac bushes.
Irene  had many brothers and sisters.  For the past few years the flowers have been accumulating on the North East side of the corner.  This spring a signpost would go up.

I am not certain who else is buried there…or if anyone is.  Helen was a Native American and she married Walter who must have been a Norwegian.  Walter was Irene’s little brother.  Helen and Walter used to plant a garden and many flowers they used to stop by the greenhouse on their way back from town.

I have heard a few wild stories about the goings on at the corners on weekends…especially during prohibition.  I have heard of a dancehall gal called Trixie and of someone driving in a snowstorm…all the while he was in the ditch and his wheels were spinning…someone opened the car door and asked him if he needed help getting out of the ditch.  He said “That scared the crap out of me.”  I am certain there are many more stories…but most of those storytellers have passed on.

Small Town

I frequent the Ben Franklin Store in Park Rapids… otherwise known as “the dime store” or “the five and dime”  although nothing is a dime anymore.  They have paper and paints, yarn and who knows what all.  I was looking for some small Christmas containers for cookies for the cookie exchange.  I got some there last year.  I hate going to Wally World…maybe I will stop by the new Dollar Store where everything is supposed to be a dollar.  There are buildings sitting empty around town..yet they build new. Go figure.

It has been a Ben Franklin for a good long time.  Back when Norman and Gladys Fulton had the store it was a Ben Franklin.  A classmate and next door neighbor of Far Guys probably would have inherited the store.  Norm and Gladys had no children, they took Danny under their wing as much as they could…sadly he was killed in a car accident in 1970.

You can barely see the name on the Fulton Bldg…but it is still there.

Norman was an only child born in 1914 , his mother was Belle J.Sobles Fulton Schmider and his father was the famous Fred Fulton Heavyweight Boxer.  Lena Fulton helped raise Norman…she was his stepmother…she married Fred in 1939 but they must have lived together for some time.  Lena was 18 years older than Fred and 67 years old when they married. There must be more to that story…and it must have caused many tongues to wag about town.

There are lots of stories about Fred Fulton…some not so pretty…did he throw some fights or “take a dive” as some report?  He must have.  He had quite a temper and hit his brother once…there was a law suit.   He bought White City Resort in Park Rapids and ran it successfully for many years.  There was a supper club and a dance pavilion out over the water in the late 1920’s and 1930’s.  You had to pass by the drinking place known as “The Bloody Bucket”  on your way out there.

Far Guy remembers seeing Fred Fulton around town and having to look up up up!  Fred was 6 feet 6 1/2 inches tall.

Back when I was the Director at the museum, I ran onto an old packet full of papers and old photos of Fred Fulton.  With the help of volunteer Tess we organized everything in Acid Free sleeves and put them all in a three ring binder.  History which someone may want to look at someday.

Perception

Far Guy and I do not see eye to eye sometimes.  It seems to be happening alot lately, perhaps it is the rain, perhaps we both have spring fever. Perhaps it is just perception.

Like the other day, I mentioned the millpond, at Osage.  I call the whole thing the millpond..the part with the new dam, pier, swimming area and the part of the lake before the narrows into the big lake.  Far Guy calls only the part with the new dam and the pier the millpond.  Jen our youngest daughter had her own opinion..but waffled back and forth between her parents opinions. Perhaps because it was Mother's Day she wanted to give me the benefit of the doubt, but she didn't want to totally squash her fathers thoughts either.

Years ago, in 1881  there was a sawmill built and the mill dammed up the whole lake and raised the water level by thirteen feet.  That is why there are so many deadheads on the edges of the lake..especially in the what I call the millpond area.  The sawmill became a flour mill and wheat was ground there before it was even ground in nearby big city Park Rapids.  The mill was owned by a cooperative of farmers.  They milled three grades ( patent, straight and export) of wheat..this in itself is impressive.  The dam collapsed in the spring of 1903 or 1904 ( I cannot come up with the exact date right now..lost local history book..put away too well) anyway when the dam was built it was built with a temporary piling of slabs and trees.  Over the years these slabs began to rot.   During the winter muskrats burrowed into the dam weakening it, during the spring run off the dam collapsed.

 This is the old photo postcard. The mill has fallen in.

This is a photo taken from almost the same view last weekend.  You can see the beach off to the right. In the old photo where all the people are standing is the present beach area.

On a side note, this area has caused arguements before.  Squire McKinley was the man who built the original sawmill and raised the water level.  Just down the road from us a half mile, was a farmer by the name of Siegford, one spring he noticed that the lake was coming up and water was flooding his barn.  He went to Osage, in search of Squire McKinley ..they disscussed the situation..and in a manly way solved the arguement.  Fisticuffs insued..the Squire won, and Siegford tore down his barn and moved it.

Now back to the our argument. I am no good at fisticuffs and we do not hit each other..ever. A Millpond is a pond formed by a milldam. OR any expanse of calm water OR a pool formed by damming up a stream to provide water to turn a millwheel.  Well both of these areas qualify, no one is right and no one is wrong..it is all in your perception.  So Far Guy is half correct and I am half correct..exactly 50%. No more, no less..50 % wrong too..I can live with that.  Now finally we can put this argument to rest:)