Listen to the Weekly Radio Readings by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member
Recorded February 2020
February 2, 2020: I read some stories about Kenny Grand of Roseau recently, and would like to read another one today. This was in the January 1980 issue of the Roseau Times-Region, written on the occasion of his retirement.
Kenneth Grand wasn’t sure how he felt Friday … it was his last day at the Roseau Post Office after 32 years of employment there. “I guess I’ll maybe get that feeling next week,” he smiled. “I guess it will be nice to have more free time, not that it has been that tough with our holidays but I will be able to choose my time.”
He hasn’t had much leisure time since he started as a sub-clerk on December 7, 1947. “I worked practically full time at first … with Paul Buran, Mylo Anderson, Verner Anderson, Postmaster Lloyd Waag and carriers Mutt Peterson, Lambert Wenner, Melvin Johnson and Boyd Goodboe… listen for the rest of the story.
February 9, 2020: At the Roseau County Museum, I recently read some microfilmed copies of Roseau Times-Regions from 100 years ago. It was interesting to me to see the similarities of thought on some things going on at that time compared to now, and other extreme changes that have taken place in all those years. See what you think about some of the comments made by the editor. The First World War had just ended that previous year. On January 16, 1920, the Times-Region had a few thoughts about news items from around the nation, starting with a quote from William Jennings Bryan.
“A soldier is a soldier until his day of opportunity comes; after that he is either a hero or a coward. So with political parties.”
Sales of cigars and tobacco in Minneapolis in 1919 exceeded sales of tea and coffee by $3,200,000, and sales of candy and other sweets by $2,250,000. It also beat the lumber business by $250,000.
As one grows older, there is less of a tendency to “lambast” somebody and more inclination to let a lot of things pass. In the earlier years, one is more apt to take offense and to be ready to fight; as time frosts the hair one gets more willing to find excuses and to forgive. The forgiving spirit grows stronger with each succeeding year. This, says an exchange, is the mellowing process of the years acting upon us. And the same process acts upon this good old world, too. It is mellower and more charitable now than it used to be. There is more of the spirit of brotherhood abroad in the land now than there was a century ago. The world and we are getting a little more unselfish and considerate right along… listen for the rest of the story.
February 16, 2020: In 1982, a friend of mine, Sharlene Przekwas Peterson and her husband Leland had bought a home with an old shop in front of it along the highway in the little community of Ross, Minnesota. They were busy remodeling the old shop, and an article appearing in the Roseau Times-Region in September 1982 gave some history of the family who had owned the building before them. I’ll read you that story now.
Another landmark is disappearing in Roseau County. The old Cedarholm blacksmith shop, garage, store and Ross post office building is in the process of being demolished with about half of it to be converted into a shed by Leland Peterson who now lives there.
Carl Cedarholm and his wife Tilda came to the United States from Sweden and, in 1902, came to Ross where he set up a blacksmith shop across the road from where the present building was built in about 1920.
Clarence Dokken recalls that Carl cut the logs, sawed and hauled in the lumber for the new blacksmith shop where he moved his equipment and began a store as well. The post office was in the store at the time. His wife was postmistress there from 1919 to 1947… listen for the rest of the story.
February 23, 2020: In 1982, Ed and Vi Johnston celebrated 50 years of marriage, and they were interviewed for the occasion by the Roseau Times-Region. At the Roseau County Museum, I found this article.
The life of a game warden wasn’t always the most tranquil of existence, nor was the life of a warden’s wife! But Ed and Vi Johnston weathered the phone calls, bloody carcasses of animals to be bountied; the weird hours and even threats for fifty years which, they say, “have gone by incredibly fast. Unbelievably fast.”
Ed feels that their marriage “was meant to be”, because Violet Severson who was born in Pencer, stayed at the place Ed’s mother lived while going to school in Roseau. Ed came to visit her, he and Vi met, and the rest was 50 years of togetherness.
Ed came from Drayton, North Dakota, with his folks and farmed near Roseau and Ross. He started contract trucking for “anybody who had anything to move,” and Ed said, “She came to where I found her.” He courted her in a 1925 Oldsmobile, “a classic,” he said, and Vi apparently felt it was meant to be, too, for she says, “I don’t even know if I said ‘yes’ yet!” “She didn’t say ‘no’ and that was good enough for me,” Ed laughed…listen for the rest of the story.
Thank you to 
for letting us share the history of our county with your listeners.