These stories can also be heard on 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.
January 25, 2026
Looking through some bound copies of the Roseau Times-Region from 1954 at the Roseau
County Museum, I saw the smiling faces of Mr and Mrs Russell Reinhart from Warroad on the
day they celebrated their 50 th wedding anniversary. The caption of the photo said they had
seven sons and seven daughters, all living, in addition to 70 grandchildren and 15 great-
grandchildren at the time the article was written over 70 years ago. I decided to find out a bit
more so looked in the family history files and found a very nicely written story about them, which
I’ll be reading from today.
Russell Wilbur Reinhart was born March 1, 1882 at Pine Island, Minnesota. His father Lorenzo
Reinhart died when Russell was twelve years old. Russell came to Warroad, Minnesota in
September of 1902 probably because a good friend of his was already here and encouraged
him to come. He homesteaded the land that later was sold to Baltze Streiff and is now owned by
Ernest and Mavis Brandli.
Maude Elizabeth Voaklander was born to Albert and Clara Chapin Voaklander July 27, 1882 in
Lake County, South Dakota.
Because Maude’s brother, Herbert, was already living in America Township, her parents decided
to move to Roseau County in September of 1902. She homesteaded the land that now is owned
by her grandson Richard Reinhart and his wife Nancy.
Maude came with her folks from Nebraska where they then lived, to America Township. They
left by train early in September 1902 for Stephen, Minnesota. From there they traveled in an
open four-horse stage. It was raining and cold and the gumbo roads were nearly impassable;
they had to rest the horses every few rods. The country was a wilderness. The teams were
exchanged twice during the afternoon. Along either side of the road were meadows, woods and
sometimes just long stretches of prairie.
“Most of the houses along the way were small log houses with a post office in one corner. There
were also post offices where we stopped to leave mail sacks and to take on other sacks,”
Maude related.
They arrived at Pelan about midnight, tired, wet, cold and hungry, hours late. They enjoyed the
comfort of the log house, good food and clean beds. Five thirty in the morning seemed too early
for heading out for Roseau. It was still cloudy and rainy, but after a good night’s sleep, things
looked more cheerful.
They passed through Greenbush where a friend of Maude’s grandmother, Harold Sanders,
greeted them, which made them feel less alone in the world.
“We arrived at Roseau about noon where we were met by Aunt Rose,” Maude said. “After a
good dinner at a hotel we were ready to board another stage to make the eight-mile trip out to
Grandma’s.” They bumped over corduroy roads nearly all the rest of the way.
“We stayed at Grandma’s a day or two, then started out for the claim right through the woods,”
Maude stated. “And so crooked we hardly followed the trail, then more corduroy and creeks with
log bridges and mud and water holes,” she complained. Maude decided to try walking; since
there was only one trail to follow, there was no danger of getting lost.
“I arrived at my brother’s bachelor shack at about supper time and enjoyed a good old bachelor
supper,” she said.
Russell’s trip from Pine Island to Warroad appears to be more comfortable and less
adventurous. He also came in September. But he came by train by way of Winnipeg.
The first time Maude saw Russell he was climbing out of an upstairs widow onto a ladder
leaning against Bert Mason’s log house as she rode past in a horse drawn wagon with her
parents.
Maude taught school in Roseau County a year or more. She qualified because she was a high
school graduate.
Russell and Maude were married at her folks’ homestead in America Township on March 15,
1904. It was a double wedding, Maude’s brother Herbert and his bride Annie being the other
couple. Russell sold his homestead and they made their home on Maude’s farm. They had been
married by Rev. Maxon, who had walked three miles to her father’s homestead. “We spent our
honeymoon trip in the horse and buggy going to our homestead for the honeymoon,” they
remarked.
After a few years they sold that farm to Ambrose Engles and bought forty acres in Moranville
Township where they lived for a few years. Then they bought back the homestead farm which
was sold for delinquent taxes. They lived on this farm until they moved to Warroad in 1953. The
next year they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary.
During those fifty years Russell and Maude Reinhart raised fourteen children to adulthood. With
a growing family like that, even though isolated out in the country, there were always enough
people for a baseball team, a game of tag, kick the can or any other game that required several
players. Numbers helped when work was to be done, too.
There were trying times when financial depressions, individual illness or epidemic diseases
struck. Those were the times when common sense, practical remedies and faith came into play.
The Reinharts, like many other pioneers were grateful for the professional help, which was not
always available, and the neighborly help that they received.
There’s much more to the Reinharts’ story, which I’ll continue reading next week.
Thank you to 
for letting us share our county’s history with your listeners by donating air time, studio time, and production staff every week.