These stories can also be heard Sunday mornings around 10 am on WILD 102’s “Look Back in Time” program. Each week’s radio story will be posted here on our website.
Weekly radio stories are researched, compiled, and read by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member.
August 6, 2023
This story was told in 1933 in the September 7 issue of the Northern Minnesota Leader newspaper. The caption on the column was “Lad’s sister proves to be a real heroine in saving him from terrible fate”. The boy was 14 when it happened, and his sister Helen was 4 years older. Here’s the story:
“Last Friday while Oscar and Ludvig, sons of Mr. and Mrs. Ole Lund east of town, were herding cattle on the home farm, Oscar was attacked by the bull. The boy went over to drive the bull toward the other cattle when the huge animal turned and jumped right onto him. A fork he had with him availed him nothing, and he was downed and being pawed by the enraged animal.
But Oscar was not going to give up. He grabbed hold of the bull’s nostrils (there was no ring in the animal’s nose) and held on. His strength was no match for the beast under the handicap and he was forced to let go.
Twice, Oscar said, the animal put his head on his chest and squashed down; what saved the boy was that the soil was loose and sandy.
While the bull was goring and pawing Oscar, Ludvig was at the other end of the herd and made his way to the buildings for help. The men were away at Victor Grahn’s threshing. Mrs. Lund was frightened and at a loss to know what to do; but [Oscar’s sister] Helen jumped in the car, a Model A Ford, and raced to the scene and with the car drove the animal away and picked Oscar up.
They rushed the injured boy to Roseau to the hospital where Dr. Berge found him in a serious condition due to shock and loss of blood. In the encounter, he had suffered a fractured collar bone, 3 ribs fractured on the left side, a punctured left lung, and internal hemorrhages. He remained in a critical condition for several days but will leave the hospital the latter part of the week now.
Tuesday when we called at the hospital Oscar changed his position on the pillow several times and adjusted the harness on his chest as he talked. “Oh, I can go home any time now,” he said. When asked if he was going to have another bullfight he said, “It won’t be with the same bull, because next Saturday he will be on his way to South St. Paul.”
Oscar also told of how his folks had told him, the same bull had charged one of the horses when they drove him into the barn that evening – and the car cannot push him inside now either.
The animal, which is of the black Angus breed, had shown signs of being mad before but had never attacked anyone before.”
Well, Oscar survived that accident and went on to marry Alve Karlsson in 1942, and they raised 5 children.
I talked to his youngest son Gary, and he filled me in a bit on Oscar’s life. He told me that Oscar’s bones weren’t set for 3 days because they weren’t sure he was going to survive. When the US entered World War II, Oscar’s early injuries left him with a 4F draft status. However, by the later years of the war, there was enough demand for more service people, that he did end up in the Army working in radio. He was scheduled to be a forward observer directing artillery for the invasion of Japan, where he would have been at high risk from sniper fire. However, the bomb ended that possibility.
Oscar’s brother Ludvig farmed on the home place. Oscar farmed land across the road and had cattle so it wasn’t easy to take vacations in the summer over the years, but he and Alve later made a trip or two to Sweden and also visited Wisconsin. Later they bought property at Graceton Beach and spent time there when they could. After they retired, they enjoyed that place a lot more often, coming home to Roseau to keep their yard mowed.
Oscar was 73 when he died from prostate cancer.
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