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.
August 3, 2025
About 25 years ago, Wilbert McFarlane decided it was time to start writing his memoirs. Today
I’ll read from his story, a copy of which is in the Family Search files at the Roseau County
Museum. The title is “The Memories of Willie – “Mac””.
My dad, Alec McFarlane and my brother Buster (Charlie) left Firdale, Manitoba in October of
1923 to come to Greenbush. In Canada, Alec worked on building railroad beds and roads. They
had two other fellows, named Charlie Kapp and Loren Kennedy with them. They felt that by
coming to the U. S. there would be more opportunities, and there were more family members
here. They left my mother, Cora Belle, and six sisters and one brother in Canada. They were:
May, Alice, Cora, Neil, Nellie, Edna and Ruby.
My dad and my brother each drove a team of horses on the wagons loaded with everything that
we owned. I’m sure it looked like a bunch of gypsies … and the other two fellows rode saddle
horses and drove the cows. The trip took them about three weeks. They had to spend about
three days at the Canadian border getting the horses and cattle vaccinated.
When they got to Greenbush the new place was located one mile west of the Fred Wiskow farm
in Huss township, section 15, in the NW corner.
My mother and the kids were about to leave Canada when they were quarantined for several
weeks with scarlet fever so their departure to the U. S. was delayed. They got here in February
of 1924. They came by train to Karlstad and Arnold Smith’s dad, old Rob Smith, who had a car,
picked them up and brought them to the farm.
That is where my famous Sister Superior was born who was later named Elsie. They evidently
spent a year or so on that place.
Sometime after June 5, they moved to another farm which was 6 or 7 miles away called the
Lidell farm which was east of the Hogan farm in Barnett township, section 21 on the east side.
After they left the Lidell place, they moved to the Willy Huffer place in Nereson township on the
south side of section 5, half a mile east of Klitson store and that is where I was born on June 26,
1929. They lived there a year and a half. There’s lots of stories about that place. I was 3 days
old when my mother was taken to the Budd Hospital for major surgery. It was gallbladder and
she was there 28 days. Needless to say, I was put on the bottle and found a new home in the
top dresser drawer. Luckily, I survived that 28 days with Elsie and Ruby as my caretakers. They
would set me in the high chair and tie me in with a dishtowel. One of them tipped the high chair
over and I thought I was in an earthquake.
After that we moved south of Wiskows in section 15 on the south side called the Selstad farm.
I was 3 or 4 years old when we left that place and we moved 1 mile north of the Bill and Harf
Wiskow farm in Huss Township, section 5, NE corner. We lived there until I was close to 5 years
old.
We made a living by keeping a few cattle and chickens and Dad worked on construction
projects in the summer and hauled wood in the winter and in the fall he hauled bundles.
It was then when we made the big move into Badger where we lived in a log house in the woods
on the southwest corner of town. Later Nellie and Art Bjerk lived there and it was here that Art
built the famous slide for the kids.
It was here that dad cooked up a batch of home brew. I noticed he and some guys dipping in
there and having what looked like a good time. Well, I wanted some, too. It was then that my
mother grabbed me and took me to the back of the house and showed me a gold watch. She
said, “Son, I’ll give you this watch if you promise you’ll never drink beer.” So I promised. To this
day I have never tasted beer and I still have the watch.
We lived there and had a few cows and a few horses. My dad would haul freight around town. I
remember going with him on a homemade snowplow that we had, freezing my feet a little, but I
kept quiet because I knew if I said I was cold he wouldn’t let me go anymore. It was about this
time that he hauled all the bricks that came into Badger on the boxcars. These were the bricks
that built Goofy Halvorson’s store and the Post Office. All the bricks were hauled uptown by a
team of mules and a wagon. I remember going along. I couldn’t lift many bricks, but it was
interesting at the time. I thought it was fun.
I remember being out in the barn with Ruby and Edna. They were feeding the cows hay. There
was a square hole in the side of the barn to poke the hay in. Ruby was on the outside poking in
the hay and she accidentally poked Edna in the eye with a pitchfork. Ruby, of course, came
unglued. She ran and crawled into a hole underneath the house and took me with her. There we
layed trying to hear how bad off Edna was. Luckily, nothing too serious happened and Edna
could always see what she needed to … and then some.
Another thing I remember is the donkey we had named Snowball. He was pure white.
Somewhere, someplace, there’s a picture of Ruby riding him in the 4 th of July parade. He wasn’t
very big but he was snow white and that’s how he got the name Snowball. Later on, one
morning, somebody went out to the barn to milk the cows and here Snowball had gotten tangled
up in his halter rope and he was dead. And so that was the end of that one.
I’ll continue to read from Wilbert McFarlane’s story 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.