Dusting Off The Archives
News from Verndale's Past
75 Years Ago, June 7, 1945
• Mr. and Mrs. Herman Rach Sr. received the sad news last Thursday that their son, Harold W. Rach S2c, one of their three boys in service, was missing in action in the Pacific. It is thought Harold was on the U. S. Destroyer Luce, which was reported as being hit last week. Another son of Mr. and Mrs. Rach Sgt. Alfred Rach, is now in Tacoma, Wash., receiving treatment for wounds received in action several weeks ago.
• Six of the past year’s faculty will not be returning to the Verndale School. Those not coming back are: Miss Marion Robb of Wadena; Miss Joan Pomije of New Prague; Miss Evelyn Marquette of Thief River Falls; Mr. Alvin Wagner of Duluth and Miss Marie Jautka of Montgomery. Two of these vacancies have been filled by Miss Mae Peterson of St. Paul for Home Economics and Miss Krogstad of Fertile for the third and fourth grades. The four vacancies yet to be filled are the commercial department, industrial arts and physical education and another department of high school.
• The number of farms in the county of Wadena as shown by the preliminary count of returns of the 1945 census of agriculture was 1601 compared with 1623 in 1940 and 1703 in 1935. This was announced today by Joseph F. Mushel, supervisor for the 1945 farm census in the third Minnesota Census District with headquarters in Brainerd.
40 Years Ago, June 5, 1980
• Work is progressing well at Verndale’s new mobile home park, with one unit already awaiting completion of a site. The engineer’s model of the park has been changed to include the man-made lake and island. Parking pads, large enough for double-wides, will be located on 60’ x 120’ lots equipped with 10 x 12 raised patio with railing and steps. Bob and Betty Reul, owners of the park, plan to keep the rules simple with a requirement that renters must agree to be good neighbors.
• Rollin Denniston of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture met Thursday at the Staples Irrigation Center for a noon luncheon with area people dealing directly and indirectly with farming operations, a great many of them from the Verndale area. As a 4-H member Kent Horsager was concerned about energy, restrictions and suggested that marketing needs to be looked into by the ag department. He concluded by saying that the best thing government can do is to have less government.
• Ray Ismil, who farms just beyond the southwest edge of the Verndale city limits, reported to the Wadena County Sheriff’s Department the theft of a 16-foot galvanized gate sometime during the night of Friday, May 30. The mooring lags and bolts had been removed as well as the chain severed by a bolt cutter, allowing his cattle to leave the pasture and roam the neighborhood. The gate was located about a mile west of the farmyard on County 104.
15 Years Ago, June 9, 2005
• During the late hours of June 2 or early morning hours of June 3, vandals struck. A mini-van owned by Rodney Bounds was parked in front of his shop and had all four tires slashed. Chuck Goddard had one tire on his vehicle slashed. A pick-up in front of the Cannon residence had a sliced tire and had been egged. At the time of this report, not all of the damage done to vehicles had been reported or yet discovered. Verndale Police Officer Mike Helle is asking anyone who has knowledge of the crimes to report the information to the department.
• Joyce Arndt recently completed a mural for Verndale residents Dave Finck and Linda Olson. It was a big mural on a 14 foot by 14 foot garage door. Previously, Joyce had painted a 48-inch table saw blade for the couple. The scene featured wolves. When Dave got the idea to paint the garage door, he contacted Joyce.
• The BHV track and field team traveled to Moorhead for the Section 6A track and field championships with hope of a state birth. The boys started with a second place finish and a new school record in the 4x800 relay with a time of 8:28. Then came the 100m dash with Philipp Scharff taking sixth. Dan Adamietz took 10th place with a 4:51 in the 1600m. Aaron Moenkedick and Tom Adameitz took seventh and eighth in the 800m. Philipp Scharff jumped a 42’4” in the triple jump taking second place and is now representing BHV at the state tournament on June 11.