1955 3-Car Crash

The incident documented in the articles below, happened only a year after the tragedies of the drunk driver accident on the same street, and the drowning of the sisters and father of one of accident's victims three months later.  An already mourning community was hit with further tragedy within a year's time, all three incidents involving youth of the community...

NOTE:  At least one of the articles has names incorrect.  To make it clear, Gloria Gardner was the one who died; Virginia Gardner lived.

Best Kept Secret

This poster from 2010 represents what you can
typically see at the festival! [Click to enlarge...]

I had the opportunity to share one of our state's 'best kept secrets' this week on Minnesota Public Radio, and it is related to our history up here in the far northwest corner of the state: The Chautauqua and French Festival at Old Crossing Treaty Park near Huot, Minnesota. Take a listen

Buildup to War

Father Goiffon

In 1861, Joseph Goiffon, a missionary at Pembina, wrote that a Dakota runner passed through the area on his way to the western plains with a war summons in preparation for a conflict with the Americans.

- From Assassination of Hole-in-the-Day, by Anton Treuer

In the above-quoted book, Professor Treuer tells how there were concurrent uprisings, but their methods were different.  Where the Dakota decided to fight back due the injustices against them, the Ojibwe tried an overall more peaceful path.  The result for each was that the Dakota had loss of life in the fighting, and the biggest mass execution in U.S. history, while the Ojibwe experienced no loss of life and received some concessions from US Government that they were after.

Town Reunion Itinerary

For latest information and details, visit the St. Vincent Town Reunion Facebook page...

Saturday, July 28

1pm to 5pm - St Vincent Cemetery Walking Tour and Historical Displays - 8th Street, St Vincent, MN

9am to 6pm - 155th St Vincent Historical Exhibit at Pembina Museum - 805 State Hwy 59, Pembina, ND

6pm to 9pm (or until food is gone) - Pig Roast Dinner at the Pembina Fire Hall - 162 W Rolette St, Pembina, ND (Free Will donation for the Pembina Fire Department)

Open Until 2am - Meet after dinner at Pembina's Corner Bar and Cafe - 113 W Stutsman Street, Pembina, ND

Sunday, July 29

8am to 1pm - Pancake Breakfast at the Pembina Fire Hall - 162 W Rolette St, Pembina, ND (Free Will donation for the Pembina Fire Department)

1pm to 5pm - St Vincent Cemetery Walking Tour and Historical Displays - 8th Street, St Vincent, MN

1pm to 6pm - 155th St Vincent Historical Exhibit at Pembina Museum - 805 State Hwy 59, Pembina, ND

2pm – Saint Vincent Veterans Memorial Service at the St Vincent Cemetery - 8th Street, St Vincent, MN

Want to stay in the area Saturday Night?

Fort Daer Campground and RV Park, Pembina, ND - 701.825.6819

Red Roost Motel, 203 W Stutsman St, Pembina, ND - 701.825.6254

Budget Host Inn Caribou Inn, 203 East Broadway Street, Hallock, MN - 218.843.3702

AmericInn Hotel, 1015 12th St West, Grafton, ND - 701.352.2788

Select Inn Hotel, 948 West 12th Street, Grafton, ND - 701.352.0888

Get with friends and play a round of Golf at Pembina's LaMoure Memorial 9-Hole Golf Course - southwest of Fort Daer Campground and Louis Gooselaw Ball Field. 701.825.6619

A Peek into 1907 Pembina

Postcard:  Crossroads of Stutsman and Cavileer Streets 
[Photo Source:  Kris Kefgen¹]

The image above shows part of  downtown old Pembina, circa 1907.  On the middle building's sign just to the right of the white awning, it says "Restaurant - Meals" on the top line, while on the bottom, it declares the proprietor to be A. D. Cavileer.  Along the side of the building are advertisements for some of the items to be found inside Mr. Cavileer's establishment - El Paterno cigars.  I especially like the building's unique "sky light".

A.D. Cavileer, son of
Charles Cavileer 
[Photo:  MSHS]

Across the street, to the north, is the elegant bank building - the Merchants Bank of Pembina.  I love the original windows with their arches and abundant glass, together with the beautiful lettering on some of the windows and their stylish window curtains.  The exposed iron supports add architectural beauty to the brick building, which soars over the humbler wooden buildings to its left.  The building still stands in Pembina to this day, although a bit worse for wear; today it is better known now as the Corner Bar and Grill.
___________________

¹ - The postcards came from Kris Kefgen's grandfather, Lyman K. Raymond on his business travels through small towns in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan. He worked for the Union Mattress Co. which was out of St. Paul, Minnesota...

Memories: Alan E. Wilwand

As a youngster growing up in Pembina, I had a second town - St. Vincent.

Wallace & Matilda Cameron's
Home during 1950 flood
[Photo:  Turner Family Collection]

My grandparents, Wallace and Matilda Cameron lived there.  I was crossing that old Red River bridge whenever I got the chance.  I loved my grandparents.  Grandma made the greatest date-filled cookies!  The house where they lived was north of Short's Cafe.  The house is gone now, but the memories linger on.  My grandmother was a seamstress and speculator.  She gave me the deeds to about half of the places that she had bought in St. Vincent.  Who knows?  I may own half of the town!

After WW II, my Uncle Ralph (Ike) Cameron worked at Short's Cafe.  He would give me those double ice cream cones, one side vanilla and the other cohcolate or strawberry, heaping the helpings.  Ma Short was taking a big loss on ice cream with those!

If walls could talk:  the
St. Vincent jail today...

I remember so many things about St. Vincent.  My Grandfather was the town constable.  I believe the old jail is still standing.  He gave me the big lock and key for it.  He also gave me the pair of handcuffs that he used.  I donated his daily log that he carried in his breast pocket, to the Kittson County Museum in Lake Bronson.  That diary saved his life the time that he was shot.  I believe the museum also has one of my paintings that I did of the old fire hall.  I remember the fire hall well.  This is where he set up his office once in awhile.  The depot that was established in 1878 was close by.  My grandparents' big barn floated down the Red River in the flood of 1948.

Blue Star Grandmother

There were many mothers & grandmothers across America like
Mrs. Lang during WWII [Image Courtesy: Lang family descendants]
                                    - CLICK TO ENLARGE - 

School Days

Class Photo, circa 1911.  
Far Left:  Ed Gooselaw, Ted Ryan, Dick Lapp, and John Gooselaw
Back Row:  Eliza Stranger (later Ma Short), Emma Godon, Christina
Stranger, --, Mary Ryan (teacher), Eva Bouie, and Henry Gooselaw
The rest of them listed on back of photo, but unknown who is who,
are:  Marie Parenteau, --nita Lucas, Wilma Cameron, Allen  Gamble,
Margaret Ryan, M--- Hutchinson, Lenora Lucas, L--- Gamble; there
are a few children whose names are no longer known, sadly...
[Photo Courtesy:  Margaret Gooselaw Cleem]

Profile: A.H. Anderson

Who was the man who photographed the 1897 Red River flood in St. Vincent?  The man who took the famous "High Water" series photographs?

His name was Andrew H. Anderson.

He was a farmer who happened to have an eye for photography. He apprenticed in Fergus Falls, Fosston, and Grand Forks before he began a photography business in Hallock in the1890s. 

He eventually sold his interest in his photography business to then partner William Hartvig so he could focus on farming.  But he returned to photography when he bought the studio of G. G. Shaker in Hallock in 1936.  

Born in 1867, he lived a long life in our area, passing away in 1960.  He chronicled many events and families in Kittson County!

Red River Steamboat Documentary

Fascinating documentary on Steamboating on the Red River.