Hafter and Belle Hafterson.

Hafter served on the Church of God Boa rd of Trustees, on the rural school board, and on the township board .

The fami ly's pride and joy was their first car, a 1909 Buick - complete with straight fenders, hard tires, side curtains, car-bide lights (lit by matches), a right-hand steering wheel, and a loud fog-horn noise coming out of the rubber ba ll when it was

squeezed. It was the first car in the neighborhood. It cost twelve hundred do llars and a team of mules. What fun it was to crank up the car and go riding! Those early roads had sharp turns but the Buick took the corners pretty well. Having been used to driving horses and mules, it was not surprising to hear Hafter say, "Whoa," as he applied the brakes to stop the car.

Hafter helped organize the Garden Valley Telephone Com-pany. Day after day he went about getting signers. By 1912 the family telephone was installed . The telephone, too, had to be cranked.

In the fall of 1924 the family proudly owned a radio - an Atwater Kent. It had three dials, a large cone-shaped loud-speaker, and a pair of earphones. Everyone in the neighbor-hood came over and eagerly listened to station WDA Y.

Hafter and Belle celebrated their twenty-fifth a nd their for-tieth wedding anniversaries on the fa rm. In 1943 they rented out the farm and moved to Crookston, Minnesota together with Oluf, Ruth, and Irene and their little pet dog, Spotty. In 1944 Hafter and Belle celebrated their golden wedding with their family and friend s. Belle went to be with the Lord in ApriL 1945 and Hafter in August. 1956.

Parnell Township PAUL AND EMMA MAGSAM

We have spent our lifetime in the Euclid vicinity. Paul came to our present home with his parents at the age of two, from Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. I was born on my parents' farm in Parnell Township, Polk County, Minnesota. Both Pa ul and I were the youngest in our families. We both went to the rura l

·school district 179, where we completed the eighth grade. We were married in 1944. We have eight living children. Our first child died a t the age of two days. She had a heart defect.

Our first three children attended the rural school district 179 for a few yj:ars , In 1957 they entered the Crookston school sys-tem. Kenneth graduated from central in 1965 and attended the University of North Dakota, graduating in 1970 with a degree in industrial engineering. He is employed by Morris Knutson Company and is in Chicago, Illinois now. Loren graduated in 1966. He attended the University of Idaho for his freshman year, and then a ttended Moorhead State University where he graduated cum laude in 1970 with a degree in special educa-tion. He worked in the Virginia and St. Cloud, Minnesota schools for two years, then attended St. Cloud State University to get his master's degree. He is now employed by the Monti-cello, Minnesota schools. He married Kathy Harwig of Pine City, Minnesota in 1972. They live in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. Glenna was valedictorian of the 1968 class. She graduated cum laude from the University of Minnesota (Duluth) in 1972 with a degree in biology. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota and was employed by the Pillsbury Company for two years, and is now attending the University of Minnesota in St. Paul , Minnesota to get her master's degree in food science. Keith graduated from Central High School in 1970. In 1975 he graduated from St. Cloud State University with a degree in music. He was our church organist for several years. Music is his life. Una is a sophomore at Stout State of Wisconsin majoring in Home Economics. Joy is a senior at Central High School. Joleen is a sophomore at Central High School. Dona ld, the youngest is in sixth grade at Highland Middle School.

All were very active in 4-H work, and give it credit for mold-ing their lives in leadership and in getting along with others. The six oldest all have received 4-H Key awards. All attended the Euclid Presbyterian Sunday School and were confirmed there in that faith .

Paul is an Elder and r am Sunday School superintendent and member of the United Presbyterian Women. Paul and I are also youth leaders. We are Farm Bureau members. I belong to the Town and Country Homemakers . We have been 4-H leaders of Double B 4-H club for eleven years. We have a 480 acre farm. We had a small dairy herd and are presently

small grain farmers. Paul's parents, David and Martha (Kuhn) Magsam, were

born and raised in Pennsylvania. They came to this farm in 1913. They had seven children. Father David died in 1931. Mother Martha continued to farm with her boys. After the older ones married, Paul and she continued farming until our marriage. Shortly thereafter she bought a small house in Euclid, Minnesota and lived there about fourteen years. The past ten years she has made her home with her daughter, Mrs. Frank Armstrong of Thief River Falls, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Magsam were of German descent.

My father, Andrew Nielsen, was born in Germany and came to this country at the age of six teen. His mother died shortly after he was born, and he was ra ised by an aunt and uncle. His two sisters and three brothers came to this country before he did. They all settled in the Omaha, Nebraska vicin-ity. He first worked for a farmer at Elkhorn, Nebraska. Then he moved to a farm near Omaha, Nebraska, where he met his wife, Mary Ambrust. They were married in 1877. A few years later they bought a farm near LaPla tte, Nebraska on the Mis-souri River. In a few years the river bega n to take their land so they had to look for a new farm. Through a land agent they traded their Nebraska farm for a farm in Parnell Township, Polk County, Minnesota in 1908. My father brought his farm animals and other possessions in a box car riding with them.

He arrived in Euclid, Minnesota the first day of January. A few weeks later Mother and their six oldest children came. Shortly after she came, he became very ill with pneumonia. When he was very near death, a neighbor lady came and gave him some of her "home cure" and he soon regained his health. Four more children were born to them, the youngest living only two months. Father died in 1942 of a kidney infection. Mother died in 1944 of cancer.

RUDOLPH ERDMANN SR. Rudolph Erdmann was born May 6, 1857 in Velnar, East

Prussia and passed away in Crookston , Minnesota, December 7, 1934. He had two sisters and one brother. On November 3, 1881, he married Augusta Rose Manteufel. They had seven children: Anna, Emil, Henry, Emma, Rudolph, Martha and Fredrick. All were born in the United States except Anna. At the present time only Martha and Fred are living. Mr. Erd-mann was a sheep herder in East Prussia before coming to the United States. They came over by boat which took six weeks. They came directly to Storm Lake, Iowa, in 1884. He worked there on the railroad and foundry. They started farming four

361

Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Erdmann 1926.

miles from Storm Lake. renting the land . In 1903 the Erdmanns all came to Crookston , Minnesota to

farm twelve Northeast in Parnell Township . A farm of 320 acres was bought from Mr. Sam Blueh for $23.50 an acre. Half of the land was prairie. They came here from Storm Lake, Iowa, on an immigrant train bringing cows, horses, pigs, chick-ens. a dog. machinery and household goods. The train stopped in Crookston, Minnesota, and the cows were driven to the farm. Emil and Henry took care of the animals and chickens on the train , which took four days to get here. The rest of the family came by passenger train .

In 1934, Henry and Fred took over the farming. The farm was sold to Vance Schipper in 1942. Henry, Fred and Emma then bought a home in Crookston , Minnesota. To the Erd-mann union there were born eighteen grandchildren, forty-two great-grandchildren and twenty-three great great-grandchil-dren.

Anna Erdmann married Emil Pankonin. They had eight children : Elsie, Ernest, Fred, Alfred, Walter, Emil, Esther and Arthur. Mr. and Mrs. Pankonin have passed away. Emil Erd-mann married Louise Heydt of Crookston , Minnesota January

20, 1909. They lived on what was then known as the Vance farm two miles south of Crookston, Minnesota . In 1914, they bought a 160 acre farm four miles south of Crookston, Minne-sota Section 13 in Andover Township. They had five children: Martha, Edna, Walter, Harold and Loren . Harold and family are now living on the home farm. Emil passed away March I, 1956. Rudolph married Marie Neilsen of Euclid, Minnesota. They bought a farm southwest of Crookston, Minnesota in Andover Township. They had three boys: Albert, Elmer and Irwin. Rudolph, Marie and Irwin have passed away .

Martha married Albert Krengel. Albert lived in Parnell Township and after marriage they made their home in St. Paul, Minnesota . They had two children : Donald and Ardella. Albert and Ardella have passed away.

The Erdmann families have contributed much in the way of producing food by having large dairy herds, flocks of chickens, and by the raising of all small grains and sugar beets.

V ANCE SCHIPPER Vance Schipper was born in Crookston, Minnesota and

attended country school in Parnell Township, near the home of his parents, Edward and Sylvia Frisbee Schipper. He gradu-ated from Central High School in 1948 and was called into active duty with the 47th Viking Division in 1951. While at Fort Rucker, Alabama, he met June Segler of Dothan, Ala-bama. whom he married in 1954. They bought the old Erd-mann homestead in Parnell Township that year and have lived and farmed there ever since.

Their daughter, I1a, is married to Charles Pahlen, and they live in a new home in Parnell Township. Quinn Schipper, son of Vance and June, is a student at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture in Scottsdale, Arizona. Their daughter, Vana, is a student at Central High School in Crookston, Min-nesota and Leah is at Highland Middle School. Vance has served eleven years as Parnell Township assessor. June worked as a copywriter at KROX Radio from 1966 to 1976.

Beltrall1i Village and Reis Township The village of Beltrami owes its place on the map today to

the farmers of the community. Even now a building housing a mall and business center is near completion, hllving been con-structed by Cenex, the cooperative farmers' organization so well known in the Midwest.

There are fifty-four homes in Beltrami, all occupied. Fifteen of these family units are gainfully employed in the village half of them by Cenex.

Three adults live in the house in which they were born: Oscar Aanden, Andrew Anderson and Gladys Johnson. Other adults who have lived in Beltrami since birth are Mrs. Luther Erikson (Lois Johnson), Frank Regedal, Mrs. Norman Mjelde (Hulda Olson Skaug), Jack Webster, Mrs. Clifford Webster (Elmira Johnson), and Keith Webster and children.

People began settling in the Beltrami area about 1870 and by 1885 it had become a thriving community with the Great Northern Railroad built through the center of the town. The post office, however, was three miles south of the train station and was called Edna, named after the postmistress, Edna Webb. Not until 1900, was the post office moved to its present location and named Beltrami. The village was incorporated in 1902.

At the turn of the century, Beltrami boasted a business sec-tion comparable to many larger communities today: three hotels ; the Regedal, the Stauning, and the North Star, man-aged originally by J . P. Johnson ; two department stores, the Kimberley and the Mott; several saloons; three elevators; the Thorpe, the St. Anthony and Dakota, and one individually owned; and three banks. There was also a bustling newspaper, drug store, shoemaker's shop, blacksmith shop, barber shop, photography shop, millinery store, creamery, meat market, hardware store, lumber yard. livery stable, a dentist, and a 362

Beltrami Street Scene 1905. doctor. Of these businesses and professions only the hardware store has run continuously. Originated by James Regedal and Henry Budd, it was subsequently owned by Louis Johanne-sohn (who also was the village photographer), Knemhus and Kise, Hamburg Brothers, Tom Logan and Luther Erikson, who recently retired after forty years in the business .

The department store owned by Mott was later sold to Charlie Ford, a thrifty and ingenious business man. He willed the store to his son, Charlie, who lacked his father's interest in the business, and soon sold it to Budd and Elwood. E. W. Johnson, a young clerk in the store, eventually bought the bus-iness, along with his brother, Herman, and Carl Lekue. Later Herman bought Lekue's share, and Lekue built and operated a grain elevator which stood at the site of the present Farmers Union Elevator. In 1914, E. W. Johnson and Company burned to the ground. A new store was set up in the theater building at the north end of town. This store burned in 1918, along with the Lekue elevator, a bank, barber shop, shoemaker shop, warehouses, and Boyer's Store, established by Theodore Boyer and his brother, Matt, in 1908. Both E. W. Johnson and Com-pany and Boyers began Johnson again in a new theater on the site of the original store, and Boyers in the recently vacated post office on the corner of Highway 9 and County Road I.

A pioneer business man in Beltrami was Knute Flakne. He