Listen to the Weekly Radio Readings by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member
Recorded December 2019
December 1, 2019: I’ll read from the book the Roosevelt community published to celebrate its 100th anniversary. It’s the story about their Community Christmas party.
Our story starts many years ago, with a local gentleman, who had a love for children and a “twinkle” in his eye. We dedicate this story of our, the Community Christmas Party’s beginning, to the memory of Les Henderson and his family. That without them and their ideas we wouldn’t have a Roosevelt Community Christmas Party as we do.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Roosevelt had an elementary school with four rooms and three teachers for grades 1 through 8. Students presented a long-practiced and long-awaited Christmas program each December in the Roosevelt Hall and the community sponsored a Christmas party to follow the program. The three elementary teachers were long-suffering, creative and patient as the children anxiously prepared and awaited the annual evening program. Adults in the community supported the program and party by providing their services to ready the village hall for the event and by providing treats for every child who received a small brown bag of goodies after the program. Santa always appeared and long-time residents of Roosevelt, Carl Peterson ad Frank Marhula, remembered the children of the community by donating treats.
December 8, 2019: Looking through a Roseau Times-Region from 80 years ago, I came across a story about a road grader created right here in the county. I’ll read the article, which comes from the July 6, 1939 issue. Keep that date in mind when prices are mentioned.
Tom Gardner, who has been working as a maintenance man with the County Highway Department, has developed into a machine creator of no small means. He takes an ordinary farm tractor, rubber-mounted, and converts it into a road maintenance unit that does the work of a $5,000 or $6,000 machine at a cost of $225. And the job is done in the County Highway shop, which has no high-faluting machinery or equipment. What makes it is the genius of Mr. Gardner himself.
December 15, 2019: Today’s story is from an article in the December 14, 1939 issue of the Roseau Times-Region. The column head says “Library Fest is Big Event”.
The Municipal Auditorium was filled Thursday evening for the first annual observance of the opening of the Roseau Public Library. An inspection of the library by the public was made between the hours of 7:30 and 8:30, and this was followed by a program and lunch in the Auditorium. Mrs. A. H. Fikkan, chairman of the library board, presided at the program.
December 22, 2019: In 1939, the Roseau Times-Region tells of the visit from Santa in an article from December 21.
Did Santa Claus get a genuinely hearty welcome from the boys and girls of Roseau and adjacent trade territory Tuesday afternoon? Well, there is no doubt about it. The youngsters, however, noticed that while the genial old fellow seemed to have grown taller, he was also considerably less corpulent. Indications are that with the coming of the airplane, Santa has found it necessary to either reduce (although this is hard to believe) or the drought or grasshoppers have caused a shortage of things that add avoirdupois to any person’s frame.
December 29, 2019: In June of 1990, Candace Schneider wrote this article in the Roseau Times-Region about some of the loggers of that time.
Out in the Beltrami Forest, a unique blend of sound can be heard: shrill bird whistles, twigs snapping under feet of deer, the wind winding through the pines, and an occasional buzz of chainsaws.
This is one of the many work areas of the Minnesota loggers, men and women who help bring the populace napkins, newspaper, toothpicks and lumber for homes. But that’s not all they help with.
Sixteen-year logger John Brown has grown up knowing firsthand how loggers help revitalize forested areas. He’s one of the dozen or so loggers left in the area who work full-time year round. Full-time numbers have dwindled from days when machines weren’t as labor-intensive.
Thank you to for letting us share the history of our county with your listeners.