Listen to the Weekly Radio Readings by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member, or tune in to WILD 102 Radio Sunday mornings.
Available recordings will be linked to the Wild 102 “Looking Back in Time” page for the rest of the story. If the audio is not available the entire week’s story will be printed.
Recorded September 2022
September 4, 2022: Listen to the entire story here
Over 31 years ago, in 1991, this story appeared in the Warroad Pioneer on April 9.
Warroad’s first Bed and Breakfast establishment will be located in “pleasant surroundings, with a good building, a quiet neighborhood and a fine view out over the harbor and lake,” according to a description in the July 28, 1921 issue of the “Plaindealer,” the Pioneer’s previous title. Though the article was discussing the future site of Warroad’s first hospital, the description is a suitable one.
Harvey and Mary Corneliusen recently purchased the 3,000-plus square foot home built by Carl E. Carlquist about the year 1905. “Every time we drove by here we would say ‘wouldn’t that make a nice Bed and Breakfast?’” said Harvey. The house is located on Lake Street, by the fountain, on what is still known as Hospital Bay. The Corneliusens purchased the house in March [1991]. According to Harvey, a fire broke out in the basement of the house in January. The fire did a minimal amount of damage. “We got into the house cheaper, due to the fire damage,” said Harvey.
The house, nestled on the banks of the river surrounded by ancient, gnarly white oaks, has quite a history — even a bit of mystery. According to issues of the Plaindealer dating back to 1905, the soon-to-be Bed and Breakfast was built by Carl E. Carlquist from Stephen, Minnesota. Apparently, Carlquist built the first concrete foundation and basement in Roseau County. In that foundation lies the mystery. According to the August 17, 1905 issue of the Plaindealer, “The basement wall is built of hollow concrete blocks and in the corner block of the bottom tier … Mr. Carlquist placed a package containing a copy of the Plaindealer of August 3, 1905 and a number of rare coins.” Harvey referred to the mysterious box as a ”time capsule.” He said that “someplace in this house there’s a cement box in a corner with paperwork and stuff …that’s the story anyway.”
Apparently, the house was under construction for more than a year as an article dated July 13, 1906 reads, “Mr. Carlquist requests bathers to wait until evening to swim as it is too distractive to the workers on his new building.”
Carl and Emma, along with their eight children, occupied the house until about 1920. It was then bought by the Warroad Hospital Association, “a large number of citizens of Warroad and the adjacent territory,” according to the Plaindealer, for the purpose of transforming it into a hospital.
The house underwent much remodeling, and in 1921, it opened up with the new title of the Warroad Hospital, under the charge of Mrs. Thomas Melby “a graduate nurse well and favorably known to many of the people in this region,” says the Plaindealer in October, 1921. The operating room was located in the living room area of the house, with patients’ rooms located in what is now the garage, and the upstairs area.
In the mid ‘30s, the hospital was moved to its new location on the other side of Lake Street, and Dr Leech, the original doctor at the hospital, bought the Carlquist home and, with a bit more remodeling, turned it back into a home. He lived there for about ten years, and in 1946, he sold the home to Andrew and Emma Landin who lived there for nearly 40 years. In 1984, the house was purchased by Keith and Naeomi Ault, who then sold the house to the Corneliusens this spring.
It is the Corneliusens’ intent to restore the home to as close to… Listen to the entire story here
September 11, 2022:
In past weeks, I’ve told you about 5 of my dad’s siblings. Today I’ll tell you about one more sister. Her name was Irene Flaten Corneliusen.
Irene was born 5 July 1927 at Pinecreek, Roseau County, Minnesota, the second child of Gilbert and Ida Flaten, two years younger than my dad, Gilmore Flaten.
She grew up on their farm in Pinecreek, and went to school at Groveside 107 School about a mile from their home. She helped work on the farm and as her siblings came along, she helped take care of them while her parents worked on the farm. Once, when they were kids, her brother made a treehouse over some weeks, gathering the lumber from his dad’s scrap pile. Irene climbed up there one day and fell out of it, breaking her arm badly. She was taken to the doctor in Roseau where she was patched up, but always had a deep scar on her forearm. My dad told us that by the time his family came home from the doctor visit, he had torn down that whole treehouse.
When Irene was in her teens, she got work in Roseau at a restaurant, and then …listen for the rest of the story here.
September 18, 2022: NO story broadcast this week.
September 25, 2022:
The community of Badger has just finished a weekend of fun with their annual Fall Festival. Badger Community Club had sponsored a Community Fair on October 19, 1923, and others followed in the years after that. The first Flax Festival was held in the fall of 1941 and a Flax King was crowned each year based on his successful entry in a contest. Flax Festivals were held until flax lost its popularity as a crop in recent years and the Festival became the Fall Festival again. Today I’ll read a story I found in the research area at the Roseau County Museum which told about the 1954 Flax King.
Five years ago, when Tom Listug found a single, odd-looking blossom of an unidentified flax plant in his field, he didn’t know it would make him Roseau County Flax King of 1954 … but it did, and Tom was crowned at Badger Friday night where he told the story of his discovery.
Back in 1949 Tom had purchased five bushels of flax to seed in some good soil near his place. The flax came up as a good heavy stand and Tom was quite content with it.
One Sunday morning, when he was examining his strawberry patch, he looked over …listen for the rest of the story here.
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