Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 116
Josaphyna De Villiers was born on May 21, 1894, to Willem and Dominique De Villiers. Although she entered this world in these United States of America, Josaphyna was of French ancestry, with both sets of grandparents having migrated to these shores from the South of France, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Her grandparents, both paternal and maternal, had kept a certain part of their heritage a secret, as they had, in a manner of speaking, been forced to leave the land of their nativity. They...
John F. Stoddard entered the Armed Services in 1917. John Frank ( his middle name was actually Francis) was immediately shipped off, via New York Harbor, in early June of that same year, along with thousands of other boys from this great nation. Born in neighboring Waterloo in 1901, John Frank, having grown up in rural Iowa, had never even thought about joining the Army before. He was used to rising early, working the family farm from sunup to sundown, and going to bed when it got dark. The begi...
Dear Editor, Let me start by saying that corn used to be my most favored vegetable when it came to canned veggies, anyway. When I had good teeth, I would devour corn-on-the-cob like it was going out of style back in the day. Even to this day, I like my cornbread made with...you guessed it...creamed corn. But here’s where we come to the crux of the matter. It’s no big secret that corn, the delicious vegetable that saved our Pilgrim forefathers from starvation, has little to no nutritional value! Furthermore, studies have shown that the ind...
Understandably, Charlotte was proud to wear her new dress for the nice man holding the camera. It was her birthday trip after all! She and her parents, Russian immigrants Andrei and Alina Semenov, moved to Chicago from Kazan, Russia. They had begun homesteading a small parcel of land just west of the big city about three years previous. Charlotte was used to hardship, so when she stepped onto the boat headed east, down the Volga to the North Sea, she was prepared for the long, arduous journey,...
Dear Editor, I realize that this is a rather touchy and perhaps even volatile issue, but it needs to be addressed if only to further educate people. This letter is in response to last week’s Letter to the Editor, co-authored by Timothy Bennett and Sally Erickson, regarding both the safety and wisdom of the push to vaccinate our children. Before I go too far, though, I DO want to reiterate that I don’t disagree with much of what they wrote. Maybe they could have exhibited a bit more kindness and understanding, however, although I ack...
Danette Jocelynn Holding was born on January 18th, 1899 at the office of Adolf Gundersen in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The hospital which would be known as Lutheran Hospital was not built until about three years later. Danette's parents, Robert and Ida Holding, had recently relocated to the big city across the Mighty Miss'ipp four years earlier, after having heard the reports about this famous European doctor, who had jumped the pond to share his blessings with this fledgling country. Coming from a s...
Adell Peregrine Huffman emerged into this cold, cruel world on a warm fall day in 1852. On September the 22nd of that year, the day after her parent's first anniversary, she set the stage for her life by singing her lungs out! As heiress to the family business, Adell married the Barnard half of the equation on the 6th of September, 1871. The picture included was taken on the occasion of her 19th birthday, just over two weeks after she married her partner in business, Alonzo Barnard. This was...
Dear Editor, As far as conspiracy theories go, one might note that the the subject of climate change has been growing in popularity over the past few years, maybe as much as a decade. I’m not a scientist, so I’m not even going to try to convince anyone either way as to whether there’s something to it, or even if it’s as bad as they say. I’m definitely not going to say either, that it’s all just a bunch of hogwash, because I know there’s SOMETHING to it, if only that it’s as simple as our Mother Earth protesting being raped (a comment that I’ve...
Dear Editor, I would like to lead out with several paragraphs from an article I penned almost 6 years ago. To quote; “What passes for religion today is largely what drives the political engine of this nation! What people believe about a certain thing motivates them to, say, vote for the lesser of two evils, follow a certain party line, or throw their support behind a certain candidate that promises change. In order to preserve their way of life (as they see it), people will attack, with all their fervor, anything that they view as a threat t...
The tornado came, it saw, and it conquered! When the Donner twins were born, the Great Whirlwind which heralded their coming also signaled the course that their lives would forever take. With the meager means at his disposal, Robert Donner prepared his twins for the hard, often rough and tumble life of the early 1900s West. It could well be argued that Butte, Montana, especially in this early era, was even more rough and tumble than most. After his primary means of employment, the Parrot...
Dear Editor, Having just read approximately the first half of The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as posted on the United Nations website (https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda) I can affirm, with all the positivity I can muster, it SOUNDS pretty good, at least to some extent. Gender Equality: YES! Ending Poverty: YES! Protect the planet: YES! Promote peace: YES! All these are lofty goals, but do we really need governmental assistance in these matters? In this agenda, “the rule of law” and “universal law” come up frequently. With all conspir...
Mary and Jane Donner were born exactly one full minute apart, during a tornado on May 27th, 1896, in St. Louis, Missouri. For their parents, Robert and Miriam, their unique entrance into this life was merely a harbinger of what was to follow! Though the Donner's property was scarcely affected by the fury of the enormous "dust devil", they quickly decided to join the Westward Expansion and, uprooting from Missouri, took the Frisco from St. Louis to Kansas City. There they boarded the Kansas Pacif...
Dear Editor, First of all, kudos to Leonard Wortman! In response to his letter from last week, I would like to say that I find myself in almost full agreement with the majority of what he wrote. However, I must say that his comments about the new variant(s) are somewhat lacking. If this new Delta variant is as dangerous as he seems to have found it to be, there is definitely cause for concern. As you may recall, I am somewhat of a conspiracy theorist... What if “they” figured out the whole COVID thing wasn’t having the desired (lasting) effec...
This is in regard to the Whitehall Master Plan meeting, which was held October 6, 2021. I am by no means a politician or even much of a reporter, but I’ll be honest, I really didn’t take much home from said meeting. However, as the meeting progressed, one thing I did notice was talk about growing our community. Exactly what that growth should look like is the real question! The question asked by Downey, as mentioned in the article: “Do we want to become Bozeman? No. But do we want to grow? Probably, but to what extent?” is the gist of my own...
For many years, Frank and Harriet Jester had tried, God knows they had! In the late Spring of 1923, their patience was finally rewarded when little Charlotte Mae came into this world with hardly a peep. In fact, both Mother and Father would say that little Maisie was the best baby they'd ever had (ironic since she was their only child.) Frank and Harriet were from opposite ends of the country. Harriet a New Jersey lady, while Frank was born into one of the original gold rush families, out of...
Dear Editor, I’m not one to complain, because it is what it is, but what is being done about the drug problem in our normally peaceful little town? At least on the surface, Whitehall has been a thriving little community in the past and even to this day enjoys the reputation for being a quiet, but strong and lively little community. Soon after moving here, coming up on 11 years ago, I heard someone say that our peaceful little town had been a “drug hub” since the 50s. Apparently, we are positioned almost perfectly, being right off the inter...
In turn of the century New England, short hair on women, even shoulder-length, brought the offending female under more than a bit of suspicion. Josaphyna Dundarsen was such a female! Not only did she wear her hair uncomfortably short, she wore her heart on her sleeve, so to speak, showing off a star-shaped pendant on a choker around her neck. One might say Jo, as she was affectionately known to those few who truly knew and loved her, didn't care what people thought of her. However, coming from...
Dear Editor, Here in Jefferson County, particularly in our little burg of Whitehall, we have been pretty lucky when it comes to the mask mandate. Although health officials are still strongly recommending that we “mask up”, even those few businesses in town that were following the guidelines very stringently have dropped their requirement. One may note the occasional mask-wearer in certain businesses around town, but for most people, pure common sense seems to have prevailed. In essence, if you’re sick, stay home; if you’re worried about g...
Dear Editor, The cost of living seems to be increasing at an almost unthinkable rate! High as those costs climb though, Americans rise above it, because life must go on. Right?! The price of lumber, while it has fluctuated somewhat, is ridiculous. But construction goes on, seemingly unperturbed. Gas prices, while not too crazy yet, in our neck of the woods anyway, are rising. Related to that, food prices are on the rise. It seems that the best option for many of us is to shop out of town, rather than at our local store. Either that or shop...
The year was 1877. Having signed the contract in the year previous, "The Professor" officially became the Documenter for the Northern Pacific Railway's west-ward expansion. Young Frank Jay, or F. Jay as he was known to friends and family, had just relocated to Moorhead, Minnesota, where he proceeded to open the first of four photographic studios under the family name. Along the way, Frank married his high school sweetheart Lily Snyder. While in Moorhead, Frank and Lily had a daughter, Bertha....
Dear Editor, Not to be too negative, but this is getting ridiculous! Mr. Johnson’s latest representative statement, “People do not control guns. Guns control people” has become reductio ad absurdum (reduced to absurdity). Although I can understand his reasoning, as he mentions addiction later on in his latest letter, it really should come as no surprise that he should stand upon such a blatantly ridiculous statement. In the past, Mr. Johnson, by his very questionable reasoning, has seemingly given life to what should be otherwise known as an...
The year was 1907. College was all but a fading memory, but Don was determined not to let the memories of his old college mate, Victor, fade with them! Victor Green and Don Carroll, both of whom played football for their respective colleges, had met in 1891 at the University of Iowa vs. Iowa (Grinnell) College game in Grinnell, Iowa. This was a very close game; in fact, the lowest scoring of the season. However, the Hawkeyes had lost 4-6. The mutual respect they found for each other carried the...
Dear Editor, Once again (probably not for the last time either), I feel compelled to respond to Mr. Gerald Johnson’s almost ignominious “war” on firearms. I say almost because I do not believe he means to bring shame on his obviously favored political position. Unfortunately, by claiming the “War on Terror” to be touted as America’s Longest War simply goes to show his seeming disregard for actual facts when it comes to his pet project, which, again, seems to be much stricter gun-control laws, or simply a gun ban. He goes on to list several inj...
Mr. Hyram P. Winkler, Finnie to those who knew and loved him, was a young lad of 16 years when he left his family's wheat fields in Dorchester to labor full-time at the relatively new Waukon Iron Company, which had opened an open-pit mine and ore-washing plant in neighboring Waukon, a mere 17 miles away. The photo pictured here was taken in 1892, several years after Finnie had begun work at the Iron Company. After a bit over a year of dirty work in the pit, Mr. Winkler, through much blood,...
Dear Editor, Again, I felt compelled to voice my opinion on the question of vaccination, particularly for the COVID-19 “virus.“ As I said in my previous letter on this subject, I do not plan to get vaccinated, but neither will I condemn (or ridicule) those who do. I mentioned the immune system thing, how many people, both young and old (mostly elderly, maybe), in the day and age in which we live, have a compromised immune system. If they have one at all? I’d be willing to say, with some surety, that people in general today are more unhea...
