Reclaiming an Abandoned Cemetery

On September 19th of this year, Kim McAllister Anderson and I took a trip up north, into Manitoba, Canada. Emerson, to be exact. Town of my birth, and much more. But that aside, we were on a mission: To locate, by rough map, an old almost-forgotten cemetery.

Thanks to Wayne Arnesy, former Mayor of Emerson, he and some other helpers reclaimed the old gravestones they could locate and now it is roughly maintained annually. It is in a grove of oak trees in the middle of a farmer's field, not far from a marsh-like slough. A trail leads to it, which can be traversed in a 4-wheel drive off-road vehicle. Or if you're up to it, hiked a half mile from the street that ends at the current cemetery - closer to town and on higher of ground to prevent flooding.

"Coming Soon!"

I plan on researching a lot of the images in the above set, and telling expanded stories about them, but that takes times - a LOT of time. Until then, I wanted to share these photos. Excuse the few duplicates, and also excuse the quality - some of these were second-generation scans, or photocopies. I haven't been able to get to some of the originals to get better quality images. I gather what I can, how I can, as I encounter local history. 

 

NOTE: Anyone reading this that has information on any of these images, PLEASE contact me either here via comments, or click on 'About Me' link in upper right-hand corner, and then click on the email link on the next page to contact me directly. Any information could be a valuable clue to uncovering even more local history!

YouTube Local History: Pembina Depot

The video above was brought to my attention by Bill Ash the other day. In the interim, Bill found out from Clarence Bingham the scoop on the last few seconds of the film showing a depot, which turned out to be the old Pembina Depot, in its glory days!

Clarence also had this to say about Olaf Hanson, whose family (including Olaf) are shown earlier in the film:

Olaf Hanson was a Customs Inspector at Pembina during the 1950s. The depot in the video is the old Great Northern depot in Pembina. Olaf had a penchant for getting in trouble with the passengers he inspected by trying to joke with them. Unfortunately, travelers were not in a joking mood when crossing the border. To make matters worse the Collector of Customs office was just a couple of miles down the road in Pembina, so they would stop and complain. My desk in the headquarters office was close to the Collector's , so I could not help but hear some of those tirades. One day Olaf inspected a young man and woman at the Pembina Border station. He ascertained they were not married while establishing their citizenship, then when he was inspecting their car/suitcase, he jokingly inquired if it was appropriate that their underwear was comingled in the suitcase. They did not appreciate his attempt at humor and stopped at the Headquarters to lodge a complaint. The Collector - John O'Keefe - subsequently had Olaf in and threatened to transfer him to Hannah, N.D., where he would not encounter so many travelers. I don't recall if the transfer was in fact ever carried out.

When we lived in Pembina the GN depot was repainted. The B&B crew came to town - about 1958/59 - and in a few days painted the depot and associated buildings that God awful brownish/mustard yellow color the GN used in those days. A year or two later the section crew chief in Pembina repainted his house and by some mysterious circumstance the color was the same as the depot.

Bill Ash has this to share about Clarence:

Clarence "Bing" Bingham is a first cousin of my mother...He grew up in Wisconsin but got a job at the Railway Express office in Noyes, MN in the early 50's and soon after took a position with US Customs at Pembina and Noyes. He is retired now and is living in the state of Oregon.

FIRE!

The Humboldt Methodist Church burned down last night.

First reactions by former and current residents of the area...

"This is difficult to believe but the video clearly shows Humboldt's Methodist Church in blazes from a fire last night. It's a sad day for us all and a catastrophic loss for the community and for those of us who love Lost Humboldt..." - Mike Rustad

"I was told the Humboldt Methodist Church burned to the ground last night. Going up to Humboldt shortly so might have some photos of what is left tomorrow...First they burned my school to the ground and now the Methodist Church. What will be left of my youth if Pearls Inn burns to the ground? Humboldt will be a ghost town..." - William Ash

Cindy (Twamley) Ritteman remembers - and asks if I do - "...when your youth group came over and we made candy and had a good time running around Humboldt?" I sure do, Cindy, I sure do!

Thanks to Mike Rustad for letting me know about this. Thanks also to Bob Bockwitz for sharing video of the very sad event...

Hymnal in the ashes of Humboldt Methodist Church [Photos by Lynda Johnson Cassels]

Local History Video

An amazing film project put together by a guy with deep Fargo roots, it's the kind of 'local history' that I love, and would love to be able to put together about St. Vincent one of these days. Visually powerful, and deeply touching, it makes history come alive and become very personal...

Documentary: EMERSON

Emerson was the subject of feature of a CTV documentary, as part of the Manitoba Moments series that airs each Sunday At 6:30 P.M. The show reveals Emerson’s efforts to rival Winnipeg in the 1880s as Manitoba’s major urban centre. The documentary also shows how Emerson’s history is tied in with significant events on Canadian history - the abortive Fenian Raid in 1871 and the establishment of Fort Dufferin which was associated with land surveyors who marked out the Canadian Border and Northwest Mounted Police who started their historic trek west. Also, we are reminded that Emerson housed Mennonites from Russia as they traveled along the Mennonite Post Road en route to farmland in the West Reserve. The TV show was researched and written by James McClelland who taught school in Dominion City and Vita from 1974 to 2003. It premiered on March 6, 2005.

- From Manitoba Historical Society's TIME LINES, Volume 37, No. 4 (April/May 2005)

MHS on YouTube: Minnesota on the Map

A fascinating video from the Minnesota Historical Society on Minnesota maps from 16th century through 2009. Especially fun is the mapmaker's assumptions about the mythic Northwest Passage - wishful thinking on his part, as the curator makes note!

Old Film Stills

This is the druggist in Emerson, taken during the 1950 flood.
Harvest lunch break near Humboldt (circa 1950)
From Humboldt Centennial DVDs (2007)

I recently (finally!) bought the Humboldt Centennial DVDs that has the collected films of the Bockwitz family on them. They contain decades of filming done around my hometown area, priceless documentation of people and events of our times. I can't tell you how much they mean to me as I screen them, even though many of them were made before I was born. No matter - my family and my community had told me local history often and repeatedly, of which I could never get enough. I almost feel like I was there! Where I come from, people really care about each other and their communities and general. I'm pretty sure that's why it's had a special place in my heart, and always will...

Four Corners Followup

The video above is a followup to the main story we shared earlier. I was especially moved - to tears - to see Noyes so desolate. How long can the depot stay open there, so isolated? It must only be a matter of time before Burlington Northern finds a more efficient automated method and even that will be gone...

Four Corners of Minnesota: Kittson County

KARE-11 News contacted me a couple of weeks ago when doing research on a story for their Four Corners of Minnesota series. They had found this website during their online research and wanted to talk with me about my impressions of what's going on up home, in Kittson County. I talked with Boyd Huppert, the reporter for the series, saying pretty much what all natives know - that we are sorry to see our hometowns growing smaller but know there's not much we can do about it, or so it seems. Then again, who knows what ideas or developments are around the corner?

It was wonderful to see my music teacher from my school days being interviewed. I almost didn't recognize Mrs. Docken at first, but when I listened to her talk, and saw her eyes, I realize yes, that's her! I daresay she'd probably not recognize me right off either! Time, as they say, marches on!

LOCAL YouTube

William Ash recently put me to the wise on the above video, which includes a clip from Fargo that was filmed in Hallock - probably old news to many Hallock residents, but news to me!


"...the lake is named after the first people who settled along the South Branch of the Two Rivers...which forms the lake....Bronson was named after the first settlers in the area, Giles and Margaret Bronson. It became Lake Bronson in the late 1930's after the dam was built and their homestead became part of the lake." - Comments on YouTube by Lake Bronson resident

CPR Empress: A Grand Old Lady

I didn't know about this until today, but just this past fall, a legendary steam engine passed through our area on a very special passenger train trip...

William G. Ash wrote to say, "... I went down to Minneapolis, MN in early Sept. 2007 and rode behind the Canadian Pacific Railroad steam locomotive on 2 seperate trips on 2 days. The first round trip was a round trip from Minneapolis to Glenwood, MN on the Canadian Pacific Railroad mainline which is the old Soo Line Railroad and return that evening. The following day we went from Minneapolis, MN to Dresser, WI and return across the St. Croix River." The photo above was taken by Bill, who described it, "Here is a photo of the Canadian Pacific Railroad locomotive #2816 that came thru Noyes, MN in August, 2007 heading for Minneapolis and Chicago. This photo was taken a few miles south of Noyes, MN behind my parents farm on the old Soo Line Railroad." (Thanks for correcting me on the photo, Bill, and for the additional information!)

Bill also caught a fleeting glimpse of a Hiawatha 'Sky Top' observation car; to be able to ride on this trip, and view the countryside from this car, would have been amazing!

Another rail fan caught the engine as it passed through Manitoba...

Downfall

Thanks to Dan Twamley, who forwarded it on to me from Bob Bockwitz. I'm tellin' ya, this Kittson County network is quite the deal...!