Listen to the Weekly Radio Readings by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member
Recorded October 2018
October 7 A story about a fire that could’ve been a lot worse had it not been for a switchboard operator. The headline is “Fire Gutted Nelson Café.” Here’s the story from the newspaper:
An alert telephone operator, Mrs. Luella Jensen, Roseau, may have saved a block of business places in Roseau Saturday morning when she called the Emil Nelson residence to inform them that the two telephones in the cafe were indicating an “off the hook” condition. The warning was the tip-off to a fire which gutted the interior of the café, melting telephones, warping fixtures, ruining walls and ceilings and severely damaging much of the café equipment.
October 14 A reading from Marcella Eklund Woidtke’s story about her mother’s family. Her mother’s name was Emily Erickson, and Emily’s parents were Arne and Mathilda Nelson. Emily was the oldest girl in the family. Her parents had homestead north of Badger, Minnesota around the turn of the last century. Marcella’s account of her mother’s family is in the research area at the Roseau County Museum if you’d like to read the entire story. The story today starts on a page with a photo of the family around a new well being dug in 1912.
This was the way of life for the pioneers in the early 1900s. Most people had enough to eat and shelter, but no luxuries as we have today. Life on the farm meant a lot of hard work, hardships, and long hours of labor. Children learned to work at an early age and as they grew older, they were expected to accept more and more of the responsibility, including looking after the younger siblings. Families tended to be quite large during that time, but everyone seemed to pull together and not only work together, but play together as well. They learned to get along together as they had no playmates nearby, they just had each other. Arne and Mathilde had done quite well by pioneer standards during the first twelve year period of their marriage…
October 21 More than 500 people enjoyed seeing a play at Malung Community Center as a fundraiser for a new heating system for the building, which was previously the school in Malung. It wasn’t the first time the play had been performed in Malung, however. Of the local people performing the play, most of them were descendants of the actors in the performance 63 years earlier! In the November 3, 1955, issue of Roseau Times-Region this article appeared about that upcoming play.
A farce in three acts, “Aunt Samanthy Rules the Roost”, will be presented by the Malung Hospital Auxiliary at Malung Hall on Friday, November 4, with the curtain scheduled to go up at 8 PM.
Composed of a strictly local cast, the play is full of comical episodes as Helen Johnson (playing Aunt Samanthy Simpkins, an old maid) finds need for making a choice among politics, egg business and romance. Albert Brandt (as Lucien Littlefield, a farmer who woos the fair Samanthy) and Lloyd Rice (as Lawrence Lonewell, a stranger who is looking for romance) find themselves in a hair pulling and fist cuffing situation…
Front L to R: Albert Brandt, Helen Johnson, Lloyd Rice
Back L to R: Myrtle Fichter-Director, Carol Hetteen, Odin Lisell, Hazel Erickson, Floyd Johnson, Clifford Black, Irene Miller, Clara Mae Fichter, Esther Sandstrom
October 28 Badger Herald-Rustler from 1918 around this time of the year an article was contributed describing some Halloween fun. Here’s what they had to say:
Last Friday night the Hesperians entertained the Crescents at a belated Hallowe’en party. Each person was asked to wear a costume and be ready for a real exciting time. Everybody went to the assembly and tried to find out who everybody else was. There were four ghosts, three witches, and old maid one musician, a couple of clowns and two very pretty young girls. Several others wore no costumes…
Thank you to 
for letting us share the history of our county with your listeners.