Dusting off the Archives
News from Verndale's Past
75 Years Ago, April 29, 1948
• The Wadena Country Club extends an invitation to all Verndale men and women to join their club. Women interested can play golf or bridge on Ladies' Day on Thursday of each week with luncheon served at 5 p.m. Memberships with year around privileges are $10. Any ladies interested in joining are asked to write or see Mrs. Gus Tullgren, Wadena.
• Rural school children of Wadena County will enjoy a holiday from school next Friday, April 30. Their teachers will be attending a teacher’s meeting at the courthouse in Wadena. This will be an all-day meeting and a full program is planned. The following teachers will participate in the program by giving short talks on our new curriculum: Mrs. Aldrich, Mrs. Buding, Mrs. Billing, Miss Maunumaki, Miss Edin, Mrs. Eitel, Mrs. Blanchard, Mrs. Vasecka, Mrs. Kern, Miss Thompson, Miss Nohernberg and Mr. Chandler.
• The electrical storm that hit the area last Thursday night killed four sows and a boar on one farm and a cow on another farm. On the Cliff Horn farm, four sows that had recently farrowed were killed and one boar was killed which he borrowed from his neighbor, Leonard Schwartz. At the Wm. Becker farm in Stowe Prairie Township, a cow was struck and killed. Mr. Becker was milking the cow next to the one that was struck and received quite a shock. Also at the Gordon Bower farm a tree was struck and set ablaze.
•Newton Ireland of Minneapolis, former Verndale businessman, who for the past 10 years has been working on a safety device for window cleaners on large buildings, now has his patent in mass production through a Minneapolis firm. Newton’s patent is known as the SAF-T-SEAT, and is now being manufactured and sold on a large scale through the SAF-T-SEAT Co. of Minneapolis.
40 Years Ago, April 28, 1983
• This month’s distribution of surplus dairy products will be on April 28 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Verndale Fire Hall. The amount of cheese and butter ordered for April’s distribution was increased so as to compensate for the sites that ran out of products early last month. Verndale’s site ran out of the most products by 11 a.m. The project is a Verndale community church effort, and they appreciate the cooperation of the fire department in providing a distribution point. The community hall in Nimrod has been added as a site for the April distribution.
• Spring cleaning isn’t just for our homes...it also includes the city streets. Pictured is the first mechanized street sweeper Verndale has owned, having recently purchased it from the city of Aitkin, which purchased a larger, duo brush system. It was put to use last week.
• Spring fieldwork began in earnest last week when the sun peeked through the clouds enough to dry things off. Clayton Dahlvang said he still had some difficulty last Saturday getting through a low spot in the far end of the field. Warmer temperatures this week (67 degrees on Tuesday) prompted many farmers to also get their seeds into the ground.
•Lions Club Secretary Jim Neuerburg watched as Betty Mae Wogan of Verndale, 48, demonstrated the use of the Perkins Brailler which will provide her with the opportunity to continue using the skills she learned in Minneapolis three years ago. The acquisition of the machine was made possible by the Verndale Lions Club through its “Journey for Sight” program. Betty Mae, who has tunnel vision only, is classed as legally blind. She lives in Verndale with her mother, Emma Sidenkranz. The Brailler has six keys and a spacebar, and by using different combinations of keys, she is able to reproduce the alphabet in Braille.