Julebukking

 by Kathy Anderson

Thor, the Norwegian mythology god of thunder, strength and protection rode through the sky in a chariot pulled by goats. Yes, goats! The symbol of the goat became a holdover as the Norwegians moved from Paganism to Christianity from about 980 AD through 1150 AD and later. During this transition, goatskins would masquerade people as they “traveled” from home to home during Yule, the Christmas season, when they tried to fool their neighbors about their identity. Hence, the tradition of julebukking, or Christmas goat fooling, was born.

 

As years passed, this “fooling” took on the form of a game as the neighbors had to guess who their visitors were. Masks and costumes of many kinds, not just goats, became part of the fun. The hosts were expected to serve the guests holiday goodies, and sometimes even a spirited beverage or two, until they could identify the intruders. As more time passed, Christmas caroling added to the fun and the hosts would even sometimes join their friends and travel as part of the fun to the next house. For many years, Norwegians would carry on this tradition during the week between Christmas and New Year’s.

Norwegians who immigrated to this area from the 1850s through the 1920s brought this tradition with them. Today, another way to explain julebukking would be to compare it to a form of Christmas “trick-or-treating” but for grownups only. The alcoholic element to this event would define the parameters for age groups.

 

To this day in Scandinavian countries, goats are still a strong Christmas symbol, appearing as straw Christmas ornaments to hang on the tree or perhaps as patterns in the Christmas table linens even though few people still go julebukking. There are some folks in the Westby area who can still tell you tales of their own fun as julebukkers. My parents went julebukking when they moved back to Westby in 1991 after Dad retired. They went for several years to visit their friends and relatives, hunching over to appear shorter, disguising their voices or perhaps remaining silent when they thought they would be too easily recognized. The costumes were very primitive but the fun lasted well past the experience. My dad would always laugh when he retold the story of surprising someone. It was easier for them than most to go unrecognized because they weren’t expected, having been gone from Westby for 40 years.

 

Christmas is a time of traditions for friends and families, some carried on since before anyone can remember and others started anew as additions come to families and circles of friends. The Westby Area Historical Society hopes that you look back to your happiest Christmas occasions and bring those traditions to your celebration this year. 

Twins, Catherine Johnson Schlicht (l) and Christine Johnson Anderson (r) with Catherine's
husband, Walter, went to see Aunt Olga Blihovde Dreves when they were julebukking..

Bound by Love

by Kathy Anderson 

 Mother’s Day is in the past, Syttende Mai is this weekend, Memorial Day is right around the bend and spring is finally here! There is something comforting in knowing that even though we expect the seasons to change, each season brings with it events we wait for year after year. We watch flowers bloom and annually receive invitations to weddings. I recently talked with Karen Rudie who despite the loss of her husband years ago still fondly celebrates their wedding anniversary, every year on May 23. 

Karen, pronounced ‘karn’ in Norwegian, was born Aug. 11, 1923. She was baptized the same year on her mother’s birthday, Aug. 30 at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church and is proud to have been named after her great-grandmother, Karen Elizabeth Hagen, who donated a stained glass window to the church. Karen was also confirmed at Our Savior’s, on June 5, 1938. Karen and her husband, Grant Rudie, Jr., met in kindergarten. They dated on and off in high school, broke up when they got mad at each other once in awhile, but always quickly got back together. She “kind of always knew” they would get married one day. She graduated from Westby High School in 1941, “the big year,” she said, when Pearl Harbor was bombed.

When Grant graduated from college, he was ready to go to pharmacy school but enlisted in the Navy to avoid the draft. He made a phone call to Karen from Florida, where he was stationed, and told her to come right away. He was getting shipped out soon and he wanted to get married. It “wasn’t exactly” the plan she had but that’s just what happened. She bought a summer-wool, cream-colored suit in Madison and off she went. She had two hundred dollars, half came from each set of parents as a wedding gift. She bought a train ticket and traveled farther than she had ever ventured. 

When asked what her parents thought about all of this, her traveling alone, getting married so quickly, and without her family in attendance…. Karen’s simply said, ”They didn’t have much to say about it,” because it wasn’t their wedding.” It took her a day and a half to get to Ft. Lauderdale where she and Grant married in a church, surrounded by seven of Grant’s sailor friends. After a few months in Florida, she returned to Wisconsin and Grant went to California. Years later, Karen reworked that wedding suit into a pretty little spring coat that was even worn this past Easter by one of her eight great-grandchildren, Lanie Kathleen Tainter. Karen also has seven grandchildren. 

Grant went to pharmacy school after the Navy and took over the pharmacy that his father started. Karen would often help by cashiering, cleaning, doing the billing or whatever else needed to be done. In addition, she raised three daughters, belonged to the PTA and bowled in a league with special friends Hazel Anderson, Charlene Pederson and Gerda Aarness. Karen had fun but says she “wasn’t that good.” It was “a streak of luck” the night she actually won a bowling trophy. She was also very active at church, was part of the ladies’ circle, taught Sunday school, belonged to the church quilting group, and attended the bible study class. 

Karen shared that cooking wasn’t at the top of my list, but “I kept my family alive,” she said. She had a large vegetable garden of radishes, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, rhubarb, raspberries “and weeds,” but what her own family couldn’t use in any given year, she shared with friends. 

Karen and Grant were married just shy of 60 years when he died on Aug. 6, 2004. They enjoyed many years of retirement, particularly their many bus trips with Kinky and Gerda Aarness, plus lots of trips back to Ft. Lauderdale during the winter. She showed me a favorite photo of a pelican she saw on the beach the year she and Grant went to celebrate their 20th Anniversary. 

Winter may change to spring, but robins returning and lilacs blooming stays the same. Westby, too, will always be changing but we hope people like Karen, who work hard, have strong marriages, are good parents, and even raise gardens, will also be with us year after year. When I asked her what she did for excitement in Westby, she said “well, not much.” She had a pretty ordinary life, she told me. For at almost 95 years young, it is comforting to know that her sense of humor hasn’t changed a bit.

Karen Elizabeth Hagen Rudie
August 11, 1923 – December 5, 2020

Coon Prairie Church

 by Sheri Neprud Ballard, 2016

The Vernon County Censor, Oct. 19, 1910, reported that on Oct. 16, 1910, more than 2,000 people gathered at the new Coon Prairie Lutheran Church on Coon Prairie for the Sunday morning service! The occasion: to dedicate their beautiful new house of worship. Officiating at this event was acting bishop, Rev. A. H. Eikjarud of Cashton, who conducted the dedicatory service. Other clergy in attendance were Rev. John Hendricks of West Prairie; Rev. E. Berrum of Holmen; Rev. Holden Olson of Madison; Rev. A.O. Stub of Stoughton; Rev. N.E. Halverson of Big Rapids, Mich.; Rev. Lars Kalvestrand of Denver, Colo., as well as Coon Prairie’s own Rev. Halvor Halvorsen.

 

There were two services that day, one in the morning and the next one at 3 p.m. As with the first service, not even half the guests were able to be admitted to the services. The ladies of the church were busy all day preparing and serving food to the many guests. What a wonderful day it must have been!

Undated postcard of the Coon Prairie Church shortly after construction finished.

This congregation is believed to have been originally formed in 1851, when it only had an annual visit from a mission pastor. Several of the Norwegian settlers had been worshipping together for some time without the benefit of an ordained minister. Five little children were baptized by Pastor Nels Brandt on Nov. 2, 1851, during a visit to Even Gullord’s home. On July 1, 1852, Pastor Brandt conducted the first confirmation and 91 people celebrated the forming of a new congregation by taking communion the next day.

 

The people of Coon Prairie felt so strongly that they wanted their own church for worship services. Even Gullord’s sister, Marthe Olsdatter Gullord and her husband Nils Hansen Neperud, owned 80 acres of land and a small house and were persuaded to sell it to the congregation for $500. It remained in Nils Neperud’s name until the articles of incorporation were written and registered. So, when Pastor H. A. Stub answered the call to serve he moved to the little house and became Coon Prairie’s first pastor. There was no church at that time, so Even Gullord’s barn was used for church services that first year.

The first Lutheran church was erected on this site in 1858 at a cost of $4,200. The majority of the funds needed for building this church were raised from the church members by an assessment whereby they were asked to pay 3 1/6 percent of the worth of their property. That first church measured 56 feet by 34 feet by 20 feet high. In spite of the church members’ self-sacrifice, not enough funds came in to build the church and pay the current bills, so in June of 1856, it was decided to borrow $1000 for nine months at 20 percent interest to complete the church without delay.

The church soon was unable to hold the growing numbers of the congregation and it was decided in 1875 to build a larger church. A stone church, for which the stone was hauled to the site by the men of the church in horse and buggy. Work on this new church began in 1875. It was finished at a cost of $25,600 plus many volunteer hours, and was dedicated in 1884. At the time, this was the grandest church building in Vernon County and one of the finest Norwegian churches in the country. The church was built in the gothic style of architecture. Sadly, that church was destroyed by lightening on Easter Sunday in April 1909, and burned to the ground.

Much discussion occurred as to where a new church should be built. Since the congregation could not come to an agreement as to location, construction began almost immediately on these two churches, one on the old site and one in the growing little town of Westby. The architectural firm of Parkinson and Dockendorff of La Crosse was chosen. Albert Parkinson drew up the plans for both churches.

The cost for the town church was $21,000 and the cost of the Country Coon Prairie church was approximately $15,000. The outside appearance and shape of the country church was quite similar to the sister church in Westby, aside from the beautiful and imposing twin towers. The length of the Coon Prairie church was 90 feet, the width was 42 feet, and the towers were 12 feet square and 80 feet high. Sharing the honors of planning and building were the committee of J.A. Moen, Gustav Theige, Rudolph Nustad, Henry Johnson and Henry Swenson, as well as the pastor and contractor.

This beautiful church, the third one on this site, still stands proudly on Coon Prairie and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Christmas in the 1950s

by Sheri Neprud Ballard, 2016

The little girl got ready for school, slipped into her warm winter coat and her winter boots. She gathered up her books and her lunch pail and waited for her brother. Shortly they were out the door and braving the December winds and the snow flurries.

Never mind that the temperature hovered around zero degrees and the roads were already full of ice and snow. The little girl and her brother lived 1.75 miles from their school, so there was no transportation for them to their school. Most of their classmates walked to school as well, except for the neighbor’s boy who was driven in by his father with a horse and sleigh.

The little girl was anxious to get to her school, since it was getting close to Christmas, and there would be rehearsing for their annual Christmas program.

Sheri Neprud Ballard in 1952; 8 years old

The teacher greeted the children as they arrived one by one or by families. She had already been up quite a while because it was up to her to get to school early to start the furnace, so that it would be warm by the time the children arrived. She boarded at the little girl’s Aunt Alice and Uncle Elmer’s farm which was a short distance from the school. That is, she had a room in their farmhouse where she went every night after school until Friday when she would return to her own home. She was fed breakfast and supper and brought her lunch to school as did the children.

The children’s mothers had prepared homemade soup in Mason jars for the children. The teacher took the jars of soup from the children as they arrived and put them on a shelf where they would remain until lunchtime. At lunchtime, they would be heated on a hot plate.

After the children’s lessons were done, it was time to rehearse for the annual Christmas program. Everyone took part as a group, singing wonderful old Christmas carols, being in a skit or for the little ones, speaking a “piece.” Sheets had been hung at the front of the school room to set the stage and the back-stage area. The teacher could play piano and accompany the children. Sometimes, the singing was a cappella if the teacher could not play piano. That was alright too, as there is nothing sweeter than the sound of children singing.

The little girl and her classmates helped to trim a tree in the schoolroom. They also worked, with the teacher’s guidance, to make gifts for the mothers. Soon, all would be ready for the big day, the long-awaited day of the Christmas program!

The little girl and her friends felt so special that night, as they all had new dresses purchased or sewn by their mother, just for this special occasion!

The children’s parents, the school board, even the neighbors who had no children, attended the Christmas program. The community, at that time, revolved around the one room school, and so the Christmas program was looked forward to with much anticipation.

The Christmas program went on as planned, and was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended. The highlight of the evening for the children, of course, was a visit from Santa. He gave all the boys and girls a brown paper bag of treats. Inside were peanuts in the shell, hard candy, an apple and an orange. The children were all very happy and made to feel special by the visit from Santa.

What a simple life it was back then! And so, that was Christmas a long time ago. The year was 1952 and I as that little girl. 

WAHS Burns the Mortgage

by Kathy Anderson, 2016

“Something’s Burning” was the Westby Times headline in August 2006, because plans were being made to light a fire! The Westby Area Historical Society was going to “burn the mortgage” of the Thoreson home that they had purchased in 1993. A lunch, program and, of course, cake and coffee, were being planned for Sunday, Aug. 13, to celebrate this accomplishment and show appreciation to the many donors and sponsors who made it possible. In 13 years, the society had raised enough money through fundraisers, events and begging to pay off the $65,000 loan. Quite an accomplishment for an organization that was founded in 1989, only four years before the purchase. 

The property was first deeded to Hans Knudtson by the U.S. Government in 1872. Knudtson sold the land to Theodore and Katherine Thoreson in 1881. They began building the home in 1892 and moved in 1893 with their three sons. Bennett, the oldest, raised his family of five in the home and Bennett’s son, Myron, was the last of the Thoresons to live in the home. In 1971, John and Leah Walker bought the property from Myron and two of their three children graduated from Westby High School while living there. Upon retiring, the Walkers decided to sell the house to downsize and do more traveling.

  

Elaine Lund, a founder of WAHS, had earlier talked with John about the possibility of purchasing the house if ever he decided to sell. Elaine recognized the same value of wainscoting in the kitchen, inlaid wood floors, exquisite natural woodwork and sound construction of the four-square design of this historic home. John gave Elaine first opportunity to purchase, as he had promised, and documents were drawn by Attorney Tim Gaskell. On Sept. 24, 1993, John and Leah Walker signed in the presence of Verna Oliver, Collette Radtke, Orin Larson, Margaret Garlick, Eileen Constalie, Elaine Lund and Margaret Gulsvig to sell the home to the Westby Area Historical Society.

 

For the next 13 years, the society held pie and ice cream socials, stone soup suppers, bridal gown shows, spaghetti dinners, flower sales and even a Rock-A-Thon, to raise enough money to support the house and pay off the mortgage. Many of these fundraisers, lefse/pølse at Syttende Mai being the most well-known, still continue on an annual basis. Reaching the mortgage payoff benchmark in August 2006 was a huge confirmation to WAHS that their efforts were appreciated, but also determined a new set point for restoring the home to museum quality and for managing the collections.

 

Projects have been ongoing since that celebration day 10 years ago and we have recently completed siding and new windows on the Thoreson House Museum. Our next venture will be to spruce up the interior and we are constantly working to improve the displays of our beautiful collections.

Thorson House Museum
111 Bekkedal Avenue
Westby, WI  54667

 

 

Sanborn Insurance Maps

by Blaine Hedberg, 2015

Do you recognize this part of Westby on the 1938 Sanborn Fire Insurance map? 

In June 1904, representatives of the Sanborn Map Company of New York visited Westby and Hillsboro to prepare fire insurance maps of these Vernon County cities. They returned to Westby in 1911 and again in 1938, and during each visit prepared detailed maps of the city businesses and homes. 

The Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, created for assessing fire insurance liability in urbanized areas of the United States, exist for approximately 13,000 locations. Daniel Sanborn, a civil engineer and surveyor, began working on fire insurance maps in 1866, preparing maps for areas of Tennessee and for Boston, Massachusetts. Seeing a lucrative market for these types of map, he established the D. A. Sanborn National Insurance Diagram Bureau in New York City to develop and sell maps. Regional offices were located in San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta. The Sanborn Company sent out hundreds of surveyors throughout the United States to record the building footprints and relevant details of buildings in all major urbanized areas regarding their fire liability. In the 1920s and 1930s, the company employed about 700 people, including approximately 300 field surveyors and 400 cartographers, printers, managers, salespeople, and support staff. 

 The Sanborn maps themselves are large-scale lithographed street plans at a scale of 50 feet to one inch (1:600) on 21 by 25 inches sheets of paper. Updated maps, made available to previous customers, would include drawings of new or altered buildings or lots. Sanborn maps contains an enormous amount of information, such as a decorative title page; an index of streets and addresses; an index with the names of public buildings, churches, schools, and businesses; and a master index indicating the entirety of the mapped area. General information such as population, economy and prevailing wind direction. Fire insurance maps often include outlines of each building and outbuilding; the location of windows and doors; street names; street and sidewalk widths and property boundaries. Natural features; railroad corridors; building use; house and block number; as well as the composition of building materials including the framing, flooring, and roofing materials may also be noted. The strength of the local fire department; indications of sprinkler systems; locations of fire hydrants and location of water and gas mains are generally included. With the aid of waxed paper stencils, Sunburn employees colored each map by hand. 

 An inventory of the largest collection of Sanborn fire insurance maps, found in the collection of the Library of Congress, is available through their website http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/sanborn/. The archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison hold the original Sanborn Fire Insurance maps for 251 Wisconsin communities, generally dating between 1883 and 1930. It also has a complete microfilm edition of Wisconsin Sanborn Maps (in black and white). In 2014, the Wisconsin Historical Society completed a digitization project of 901 maps (7,720 page images) and lower resolution images are available through their website at http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/. The Wisconsin Historical Society can also provide high quality images from the Wisconsin Sanborn Map Collection for a small fee. Photocopies of the 1904, 1911 and 1938 Westby Sanborn fire insurance maps are available at the Westby Area Historical Society. We are indebted to David and Vanessa Mills for making these photocopies available to the Westby Area Historical Society archives.

Evelyn Larson and the WAHS Logo

“History is an open book, not a closed one.” That quote from Westby’s nisse lady, Evelyn Larson, about her design for the lamp logo for the Westby Area Historical Society, reflects Evelyn’s passion for Westby history. The minutes from the WAHS meeting for June 25, 1989, state that Evelyn Larson was asked to develop a logo for the society. The minutes from the Nov. 6, 1989, meeting show that the logo committee accepted Evelyn’s very well-fitting design. This logo, which was a lamp sitting next to a stack of closed books, was used for many years. In the April 2000 issue of the WAHS newsletter “History Keepers,” editor Rita Wells wrote that she asked Evelyn to design a new drawing of the logo because the first one was becoming difficult to duplicate. This time Evelyn designed a logo with a lovely Tiffany-style lamp next to an open book with a pair of eyeglasses on top of the book. This logo reflected her feeling that history is indeed an open book and not a closed one. This design was absolutely perfect for the Westby Area Historical Society. In honor of the 15th year of our current logo, WAHS would like to thank Evelyn for the years of service that her logo has provided. She is shown here holding her original copyrighted design, photographed beside a real life re-creation of the image with a Tiffany-style lamp, an open book and a pair of rimless eyeglasses at the Thoreson House Museum. Along with the logo design, Evelyn and her husband, Orin, who are lifetime members of the historical society, have generously donated many lovely items to the society. The Westby Area Historical Society is so grateful for their support.

I remember ..... with Elnor Haugen

            Written by Kathy Anderson

                     

                      Memories can recall happy, sad, and even monumental moments of an “ordinary” life. Memories of

                     veterans are especially poignant, yet rarely shared. It is vital that we hear their stories, for us, for 

                     those to come and even for the vets themselves. In honor of Veterans Day today, we are posting 

                     this 2016 interview with one of our local WWII veterans:

     

Elnor Haugen, “El” to his friends, was born on July 7, 1923. His proud Norwegian roots are similar to many in this area. Sigord, El’s father, immigrated to the United States in 1916 with his widowed mother and three brothers, to join a sister and brother who had come earlier. El and his brother Raymond grew up on a farm in Coon Valley, close to where his four uncles settled in Coon Valley, Chaseburg and Southridge. El’s mother, Minnie, was from Spring Coulee so there was always family around. Both his parents spoke Norwegian and taught him. “It’s hard to find people who can speak Norwegian now,” he told me.

 

On the farm, Elnor remembers having horses and cows, raising hay and corn, and of course, working tobacco. Manure was the only fertilizer used. “Back then, we hoed the corn to keep the weeds down.” El was only 7 years old when Adolph Brye gave him $1.00 to start a bank account. “That’s how I started to learn to save my money.” El’s mother died when he was only 11 years old. He and Raymond were raised by a single father who never remarried and Elnor got the job of caring for the chickens. He kept the egg money but had to pay all the expenses. “What I got from the chickens, I could slip some of that away.” Elnor said it was a good life lesson. 

                

So far, this story is like many in the area, Norwegian immigrant grandparents, farmers, hardships as a family, but this is no “ordinary” story. After graduating from Westby High School, El was attending vocational school in La Crosse when he and four friends decided to join the service. In the fall of 1941, “Tug, Howard, Erling, Leland and I went to the recruiting office to join up.”  All five left for basic training in the Army Air Corp on November 4^th. They stayed together that first year in Milwaukee; then Fort Sheridan, Illinois; then Keesler Field, Mississippi; and finally Fort Logan, Colorado. But the army wouldn’t keep that many boys from the same town together for overseas missions so then they were separated.

El Haugen in uniform, circa 1942

El remembers that monumental Sunday, December 7^th, 1941, when he was on his bunk at Keesler Field (Mississippi) and heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on the radio. “We beat it in to Biloxi because we were afraid they would quarantine us” and that meant they wouldn’t get off the base for awhile. It was only four weeks after he had left Coon Valley. 

           

After Pearl Harbor, with the United States so involved in the war, El had to finish his training and was sent to Colorado before he could be put to task on a mission. Finally, he left the United States on December 13, 1942, on a boat that took him to North Africa. Crossing the Atlantic was very stormy; everyone got sick. Elnor was ok because he stayed “on top,” on the deck of the boat, for the fresh air. The waves were high, taller than the boat. But he lost his balance and slipped to the edge of the deck before he caught the rail. “I went back down. I didn’t want to fall off the boat.” He chuckled.

 

When they got to Africa, the men had to walk seven miles with their gear and supplies. El remembers the strings on the bags were sharp and hard on the shoulders so after awhile, they just dragged everything. They finally arrived about midnight on Christmas Eve and slept out in an open field. “What a Christmas Eve!” he remembers. The men took over a couple of airplane hangers to do their work but had to build a dining room and the barracks. He remembers January and February were quite rainy.

              

In 1942, US WWII airplanes were transported in pieces by boat to Africa. Elnor had all the information about every airplane and how to put them together. He helped assemble more than 3,000 planes in three years, P-38’s, P-47’s, P-63’s, all fighter planes. He was surrounded by a mixture of many nationalities of people – Spanish, Arab, so many countries. A flatbed truck would take the men from a hanger to the dining hall. It was a very different way to live than what he grew up with in Vernon County. “I enlisted when I was 18, I’d never been out of Coon Valley before this.” Implying that when living in Coon Valley he was young and inexperienced, his adventure in Africa was an eye opener. The servicemen, a company of over 900, had their own radio station.  El remembers that they played “Little Brown Jug” to both open and close the daily broadcast. He explained that they listened to “decent music” on the base, like Les Brown, Tommy Dorsey, other big bands. Today, he likes to listen to Gary Gilbertson on the radio at lunchtime because “he plays good music.”  

                

Elnor’s assignment wasn’t dangerous in terms of battle but it was certainly critical to the war effort. El remembers only once when there was a bombing near the airport. He has many memories of his almost three years spent in Africa. He was stationed very close to Casablanca but the taverns there “were nothing like those” in the Humphrey Bogart movie. Mostly the men went to Fez when they got some time off. He saw many entertainers including Martha Raye and Bob Hope. He got Joe Lewis’ autograph on a French franc note – it was the only paper he had at the time.  He remembers the time the team “took” a B-17 bomber to Marrakesh, about 150 miles south of Casablanca, to play baseball.  He recalled that on the way back, it was the worst airplane ride ever. “We kept bopping up and down like a cork” flying over the desert. Maybe that was payback for taking the plane? Elnor came home to the United States and was discharged just before Thanksgiving in 1945. They all came home after the war ended, all five of the friends who enlisted on that day in 1941. 

                

After El finished college, he went to work for the Farmer’s Union Co-op as an auditor. He tired of traveling so after a year, went to work at Trane in LaCrosse for twenty years, and then Norplex for twenty more years. Elnor and Marjorie Steenberg were married on May 28, 1948. They did quite a bit of traveling in their sixty three years together and greatly contributed to the community as a huge part of the volunteer work force. They spent many hours as charter members of the LaCrosse Good Shepard Lutheran Church, at Norskedalen, at the Westby Area Historical Society and at the Country Coon Prairie Church. Marjorie died 3 years ago, around Christmas, so now El is on his own. At 93, he still drives and keeps busy with mowing his yard.  “You gotta have something to do’” he tells me.  Norskedalen still gets his help making lefse and he is a regular at the Upper Coon Valley Lutheran Church. When I asked him to comment about his life, he said he didn’t think he would change much. “Joining the army was ‘the smartest move I ever made – I never hardly heard a shot.” Lucky for us that he didn’t. Thank you for your service, Elnor! 

El and Marjorie on their wedding day, May 28, 1948.

 

Westby Tobacco and M. H. Bekkedal

 Written by Garland McGarvey

If you want to know anything about tobacco farming in the Westby area, you probably have to go no further than to a local restaurant or community gathering with someone in attendance greater than 40 years old. There are thousands of stories of the backbreaking work and the manual processes involved with tobacco production. People have even gone as far as to writing poems about the experience. But the story for most people probably ends with “Delivery Day”, receiving that annual check, getting a special meal or treat as the reward for a job well done, and looking forward to the process starting all over again in five or six months. Other people may go a little further and talk about taking the check to the bank and making that payment on the mortgage or paying the property taxes. “Delivery Day” is where this story starts. The stories of the tobacco warehouses and the significance of them in the Westby we know today.

 

We begin on August 13, 1879, when the first Chicago, Milwaukee, Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad cars roll into Westby. The railroad tracks were vital for the transportation of grains to the eastern grain markets. Lumber, along with wheat, oats, corn and barley were the first cash crops of the early Norwegian farmers. But soon, these tracks would become part of a much more important piece of Westby history and the primary cash crop was about to change. In the 1870’s, tobacco was first introduced to the area by Norwegians with ties to tobacco growing in Dane County, Wisconsin. Tobacco was not grown in Norway, so it was a new experience to the hardworking Norwegian families. By the 1890’s, tobacco warehouses had begun appearing along the railroad tracks on the southeast side of town. Early warehouse owners’ names included Golberg, Neprud, Eckert, Hanson, Johnson, Shannon and Bekkedal. In 1900, five tobacco warehouses were present in Westby. By 1904, the number had grown to six. In 1911, while still at six warehouses, the names on four them had one thing in common, M.H. Bekkedal. In the next few years, the Bekkedal name would appear on all six warehouses in Westby and a total of 19 warehouses in southwestern Wisconsin. The tobacco empire of M.H. Bekkedal and Son had begun.

 

While there are a few stories to be shared regarding all the early tobacco warehouse owners, the stories of the Bekkedal warehouses and the impacts to Westby history are many. It is fair to say that the Westby that is here today would be far different if not for Martin H. Bekkedal. Only one of the warehouses still stands today, but the Bekkedal Mansion and the Bekkedal-Unseth Building are also reminders of the Bekkedal legacy. At the height of the Tobacco Industry in Westby, Bekkedal employed nearly 300 people, with a majority being women. He provided a market for many tobacco growers and made it the source of cash to pay for many farms. Today, you will find that many of those farms belong to descendants of the original owners.

 

 

Bertha Dahl

Written by Madeline Neprud Anderson

Photo on left:  1983 ground breaking for Bekkum Memorial Library. Left to right:  Bertha Dahl,
Paul Schoenberger, Rev. Hubert Groves, Owen Bekkum with the shovel, and Leif Mikkelson.  
Photo on right:  Bertha Dahl, circa 1996  (Bekkum Memorial Library photos) 

 It has been said that Bertha was a driving force, a tireless volunteer, an exceptional teacher, and altruistic, yet quiet, soft spoken, mild-mannered, and modest. That list of wonderful qualities and talents shined best when Bertha was advocating for her love of the library. She was a long-time Westby library user and, when the library was located upstairs of what was then City Hall on West State Street, she would climb the 32 steps feeling sorry for those who couldn’t. Bertha felt strongly that libraries should be accessible to everyone. Bertha is the one who started the campaign to have a new library built in Westby. Undaunted that a referendum to do so did not pass, she set to work organizing citizens’ committees and making signs such as, “Dream with us…hope with us…plan and work with us for a new library in the sometime future.”

Bertha served on the Library Board of Trustees and spent countless hours contacting people for private support to build a new library. Her efforts were kick-started by a generous donation from Westby High School graduate, Owen Bekkum, and his wife, Dorothy. Other generous donations followed. The Bekkum Memorial Public Library, dedicated in 1984, is a testament to her hard work. Bertha served on the library board for 38 years, was president for 37 of those years. Margaret Veum, who served on the library board with Bertha, said that “Bertha worked tirelessly providing positive library experiences for all ages.” Bertha retired at the age of 88, only because she felt that her declining health would not permit her to be her best in working for the library. She believed that “a library brings a community together. It is a key educational tool and broadens the aspect of a city.” She worked with librarian Joan Dahlen for many years, and finally stepped down from the position of library Board President in 2004. Unable to attend Bertha’s retirement-from-the-board party, Paul Schoenberger, Westby school district administrator at that time, sent a letter where he shared that “Bertha is a true progressive leader, always trying to make things better for people and never putting herself first. She is a great treasure to the Westby area.”

 

On a personal note, Bertha was my father’s cousin and often came to our home in La Crosse for visits. She was our family historian extraordinaire, making hand-written genealogy charts, and keeping notebooks filled with family histories and family documents. Her research and annotations were the key for me discovering ancestry and family lineage information that could have been lost forever. She knew who was related to whom, and never forgot a birthday. She stayed in touch with relatives and family, and would drive for miles to visit those who did not live in Westby.

Bertha loved classical music; when you visited with her, an opus from Bach or Beethoven would often be playing in the background on Wisconsin Public Radio. She loved to grow things and kept fantastic flower and vegetable gardens. She would always share her bounty with others. She had remarkable energy and agility. She was kind, generous with her time, and an extraordinary example to follow for serving a community and giving back.

 

Bertha was never a wife or mother but she had a family of schoolchildren, her community and her very special “baby” – the library. She passed away on Aug. 21, 2005 at the age of 89 and is interred in the family plot at Westby Coon Prairie Cemetery. She was a very special person and we are sure that there are many stories to hear.

Westby Becomes A City In 1920

Written by Kathy Anderson; published in The Westby Times April 3 and June 5, 2020

Bennet Thoreson, circa 1927

In early 1920, there was an undercurrent in the Village of Westby, a rumbling of things to come. The federal census had been taken in January and showed the Westby population was exploding; businesses were cropping up or being planned as fast as ideas and capitol could be generated; and, because of all this excitement, there was a natural next step that the community was hoping for. 

According to minutes from the February 20th Village Board meeting, a petition signed by 111 electors and tax payers was presented for consideration. A motion was made by A. J. Flugstad on the “petition of J. T. Hage, Eiel Eielson and others for the Incorporation of the Village of Westby with the adjacent Territory as a city be accepted. Motion carried.” This first action set in motion the many requirements necessary to legally change the status of Westby from a village to a city. City limits had to be identified. Wards had to be drawn. A census had to be taken. Then a special election had to take place. 

The first petition presented and accepted at the February 20th board meeting not only provided more than the required one hundred signatures, it also proposed city limits. The next step was to identify “wards” of the proposed city. As a village, all elections take place “at large,” meaning that board members could live anywhere within the village. That also meant if a village had six board members, all six could live on the same block. City government rules would change that, making representation more equitable. Councilmen in the new city would have to be decided from areas of the city called wards, based on population. That way, each area of the city would have its own representation and everyone would have a voice. From Village Board minutes on February 24th, “pursuant to adjournment the Village Board met with all members present.” At this meeting, a motion was made by O. P. Anderson and the board approved three areas of the city to be identified as wards. 

On March 5, the Westby Times ran a “Notice of Special Election” to be held at the Village Hall on April 6th at the same time of the regular election. This special election was held for taxpayers and electors to vote if Westby should be incorporated as a city. 

On March 19, two weeks after the notice of the special election, the Westby Times published the results of another census taken the prior week by Ole Fredrickson. It is interesting to note that the official 1920 federal census taken two months earlier was not adequate for the purposes of the special election. These census results showed a growth of 47% during the ten years between 1910 and 1920. Not even Milwaukee, with a growth of 22%, could compete with the boom that was happening in Westby. 

When the election day came on April 6, 1920, there were no surprises. The vote carried overwhelmingly 169 for and only 14 against incorporation. Just a bit more paperwork and a few more decisions were needed for Westby to become an official city in the County of Vernon, State of Wisconsin! 

On January 23, 1895, incorporation papers were filed with the State of Wisconsin to designate Westby as a village but, in 1920, residents felt that was not adequate for the booming population. The significance of becoming a city meant that residents would be more equally represented in their local government. A mayor, instead of a president, would be elected but the bigger change would be that alderman would be chosen from wards instead of “at large.” Designated wards meant that aldermen would be elected from different areas throughout the city instead of possibly all living on the same block. Representation would cover the entire community, not just the part of town where “the big houses were located.” 

Early in 1920, wheels were set in motion for a census to be taken, for wards to be drawn, and for an election on April 6 when citizens could vote if they wanted Westby to be designated as a city or stay a village. With an overwhelming 169 to 14 majority, the reality of the status change was getting closer. On May 7, the Village Board passed several resolutions regarding the next necessary steps and, on May 28, 1920, a special “Notice of City Election” was published in the Westby Times. June 3rd (100 years ago this week!) had been set as the date when a Mayor; City Clerk; City Treasurer; Assessor; Aldermen from three wards; Supervisors from the same; and a Justice of the Peace would be elected. The polls at City Hall would be open from 9:00 am until 5:30 pm. 

Quickly, on June 4, the Westby Times reported “a very light vote (152 ballots) was polled in all three wards.” Bennett C. Thoreson, who had been serving as village president, was elected to serve as the first mayor. Chosen aldermen, two from each ward, were names still familiar in Westby – Flugstad, Ramsland, Hagen, Halvorsen, Anderson, and Eielson. 

The final step necessary for the Village of Westby to become the City of Westby was to file incorporation papers with the State of Wisconsin. The twenty-seven page document, dated June 21, 1920, was received and filed at the State Department in Madison on July 1. Those papers, filed by Village Clerk Ole L. Leum, included the exact number of votes cast and the results of the June election; the description and boundaries of the three adopted wards; a copy of the May 7th village board resolutions mandating these wards and the election; and finally, the entire census roll taken by Ole Frederickson on March 31, 1920. Berndt Smerud was listed as the first and Alfred Johnson as last of the 1,235 residents in what would be the new City of Westby. 

The Letters Patent, or charter, issued to the City of Westby, was signed on July 1, 1920 by Wisconsin’s governor, Emanuel L. Phillip, and on July 28, the Vernon County Censor’s front page offered congratulations that “Westby has received her charter and is now officially a city with three precincts.” It was done, all the requirements had been fulfilled. 

The next August 6th City Council minutes were written as “The regular meeting of the Village Board was called to order by the president.” The August 20th minutes were written as “Meeting of the common council of the city of Westby call to order by Mayor Thoreson.” Why weren’t the minutes on August 6th noted as “city” minutes since the charter had already been received? Was the clerk just so used to the format he forgot to make the adjustment? No matter, by August 20, everyone recognized that each step and every requirement had been fulfilled and completed accurately, that the status of Westby had officially and completely changed from village to city. 

As a note to our readers, in 1892, Bennett C. Thoreson’s parents built what is now the Westby Area Historical Society’s Thoreson House Museum when he was eighteen years old. In 1900, Bennett married Matilda “Tillie” Jefson. All of Bennett’s siblings died as young children so he grew up mostly as an only child. Having five children with Tillie was quite a different family experience for Bennett and we have heard from many of their descendants who have reported stories of living in or visiting the house. Complete records are not available but it is known that Bennett served as Village President for some time before serving as Westby’s first mayor from 1920 until 1925. At WAHS, we like to believe that he accomplished his goal of seeing the village through to city status then stepped down for the next generation of movers and shakers to take the community forward. In 2020, we say Happy 100th Birthday to the City of Westby!

World War I Veterans

Coon Valley brothers, Charlie and Gilman Johnson, at Multnomah Falls on the Columbia River near Portland, Oregon. July 7, 1918.

Remembering Heroes: Veterans of WWII

Written by Kathy Anderson; Published in The Westby Times, May 2017

Hilmer Anderson (L) and Howard Johnson (R)

   

Do you have a hero in your life? When asked to list one, I suspect that most people, like myself, will tell you first about their father. My dad, Raymond “Dill” Anderson, died in May 2000 and I miss him every single day. But I am lucky because  I have two additional real-life heroes on my list who have also helped me in more ways than I can tell you. This weekend, our country will recognize Memorial Day and the heroes that have served our country. I have two uncles who are not only my personal heroes, but they are genuine WWII heroes.

You may have heard the story of Howard Johnson, my mom’s brother, who joined the Air Force in 1942 after graduating from Westby High School.  He was trained as a B-17 pilot and on his 23^rdmission, on October 29, 1944, was shot down over Brux, Czechoslovakia.  After being captured, the Germans escorted him to to Budapest, Hungary, where he spent the first two weeks in solitary confinement. In mid-January 1945, Howard was taken by train, in a cattle car no less, to a POW camp just east of Nuremberg, Germany, where he was held until April 3, when the Nazis evacuated the Nuremburg camp. The POWs were then marched to Moosburg, Germany, a distance of nearly 100 miles.  While on that march, Howard escaped, was recaptured in a church, and held in a POW jail for several days until he was forced to rejoin the march. On April 29, 1945, only 15 day after their arrival in Moosburg, Howard, then 20 years old, and the other prisoners were liberated when General George C. Patton arrived at the camp. 

 

A lesser known, yet very courageous story is that of Hilmer Anderson, my dad’s brother, who joined the Navy in April, 1944. Hilmer once described to me, in his typically modest way, that “it was hard to get up at 4:00am but after the workout, a shower, and then breakfast, I felt so good the rest of the day wasn’t hard. Oh, maybe the first week, but after that it was easy.”  Basic training finished in mid-May and Hilmer arrived at Pearl Harbor on June 21, on his way to the Marshall Islands, in what became known in history books as “the Pacific Campaign.” On August 13, 1944, he was assigned to the USS Calvert, a troop transport ship, where he would spend the next twenty-two months.  On October 20, 1944, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed for the invasion of Palo Beach, Leyte, in the Philippines, Hilmer was there with the 7^thDivision of the 8^thArmy. The battle lasted for two months. A naval base had been established at Manus, New Guinea and Hilmer would be back and forth from Manus to Leyte then back to Manus three times before December 26, 1944, when the US and Philippine forces took back the Philippine Islands from Japanese occupation. 

As I continue Uncle Hilmer’s WWII Navy service story, I can’t imagine the courage and bravery it took from a small-town Westby boy. On November 5, 1944, Hilmer was there to load the 41^stDivision of the 8^thArmy and head for Leyte. On December 10, the H Airborne Division was loaded in Biak, New Guinea and headed back to Manus. The final intense battles in the Pacific had begun. On January 9, 1945, Hilmer was there for the invasion of the Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines. On January 23, he arrived in Cape Gloucester, New Guinea to load more troops, and on February 17, 1945, on their way to the Caroline Islands, north of New Guinea, according to his diary, the ship had to “standby” for the infamous battle on Iwo Jima. From August 13, 1944 until February 1945, the USS Calvert left port 21 times, moving throughout the Philippines, New Guinea and finally Japan. Then April through June of 1945, the USS Calvert was kept busy transporting troops during another infamous combat, the Battle of Okinawa. Although Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945, Hilmer continued on assignments to Pearl Harbor and the Marshall Islands; back to Leyte, Zamboanga, and Butuan, all in the Philippines; then to Japan, to Hiroshima on October 6, 1945, Yokohama, and then Tokyo, where they “dumped Admiral Rodger’s staff and loaded troops for the states” on November 5, 1945. Shuttling between Pearl Harbor, San Francisco and Nagasaki, Japan was how Hilmer finished his service during his final six months. Atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively on August 6 and 9, 1945, and Hilmer was in both cities to see the aftermath and horror. He was honorably discharged on May 6, 1946 when his service was credited as 2 years, 2 months and 5 days. He earned the American Arena Ribbon, the Victory Ribbon, the Asiatic Pacific Ribbon with 3 stars, the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with 2 stars, and the United States Navy Occupation of Japan Service Medal. Remarkably, he was only 19 years old.   

 

Telling Howard and Hilmer’s stories last week and this, you can see that heroes like them were few and far between; after they returned home, neither of them was much for conversation about the war. Howard died January 21, 2014 and hearing him tell his story on the Fourth of July weekend in  2013 was a privilege for me and our family that will never be forgotten. Hilmer’s story came to me from the few things he shared, mostly after his Freedom Flight trip on May 2, 2015, and from a diary he wrote about his service. He was a man of incredible integrity and I am grateful to have had him until August 29, 2016.   

A page from Hilmer's diary.

      

 

 

                                                         

June is National Accordion Awareness Month

Written by Kathy Anderson. Published in The Westby Times; 6/2016

    The internet can be a wonderful thing! So much information at your fingertips. For example, did you know that June is National Accordion Awareness Month?From the website “Accordions Worldwide: History of the Accordion in Norway,” they tell that the accordion was introduced to rural areas of Norway around 1850, the time that many Norwegians started immigrating to the United States. In Vernon County, this should be a big deal. Accordions  are a major part of folk music and the quality of folk music available in this area is quite outstanding.

     Accordions are instruments that were invented in Italy where, today, the best instruments are still handmade. An accordion can cost anywhere from $100 for a used one to an incredible $30,000 for a Hohner Gola and even more for a Pigini model at $40,000. Myron “Buddy” Rundhaugen, an exceptional and very well-known accordionist in the Westby area, got his first accordion when he was just 9 years old, 70 years ago. It came on the train as a Montgomery Ward catalog purchase. An accordion, a box shaped instrument, is made of  bellows and reeds. It is played by expanding or compressing the bellows at the same time the keys, or buttons, are pressed. Valves open, air flows across the reeds and sound is produced. 

      Buddy is a self-taught musician who can’t read music. “I know where middle C is,’ he said as we were talking at the Old Time Music Show. On Friday, May 13 at the Syttende Mai program, Buddy entertained the audience by playing and singing.   That day Buddy played a piano key accordion, the one from Montgomery Ward, the first of five he now owns. The melody is played with his right hand, the bass with his left and there are 3 major chords in his tunes, C, G and F.  Back in the day, the Avalon Ballroom in La Crosse played an important role in entertainment for the Westby locals where there would be dances every Sunday.  Buddy played in a 5-piece band but now plays alone “whenever anyone asks, I never say no” for anniversaries, birthdays, mostly Norseland and other assisted living places. Buddy plays waltzes and polkas, like “The Green, Green Grass of Home.” He has an unbelievable number of songs memorized.

     Tip Bagstad was MC on Friday, May 13, at this same music show. Tip shared how the Wisconsin Fine Arts Board traveled our state for 2 years to find musicians that most represented authentic folk music. The Norskedalen Trio, Tip, his wife Eleanor and Beatrice Olson, were chosen as one of six Wisconsin groups to appear at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival in 1998, where they performed 19 times in two weeks. Beatrice was the accordionist of their group.  Many women have been known for playing the instrument, which can weigh as much as thirty or more pounds. 

     The accordion reached the peak of its popularity in the 1960’s but is rising again these days because rock and roll, Cajun and even jazz bands can incorporate electronic accordions into their music.  

Westby High School Class of 1916

      Almost one hundred years ago, on Friday, May 26, 1916, WHS graduated a class of five men and eight women. A postcard photo taken during the 1912 – 1913 school year, when that graduating class would have been freshmen, shows the entire WHS student population of fifty-five students. In ten days, on May 28^th, Westby High School will graduate seventy-seven students – thirty nine men and thirty eight women from a student body total of 349 students. How things have changed in one hundred years! 

     October 25^thof their school year, the 1916 Seniors had a half-day off school to take pictures. It was the first of several they would have off to work on the SkiAnnual. One hundred twenty six pages were filled with poems, pictures and a diary of daily observances. It seems that would be a good club to join because they could skip classes and they did, all thirteen of them. However, appearing in that yearbook were lists of students’ faults, a few ambitions and even a saying attributed to one member of the Class of 1916 that would be “politically incorrect” if they were printed in the yearbook of today. So maybe things have changed a little. Today’s annual is still about the same number of pages but the pages are almost twice as big as those 100 years ago.

     Every class member was involved in one or more of the music programs. Page 88 of the 1916 Ski declares that music “is as essential to our souls as food is to our bodies.” Girls’ Glee Club, Boys’ Glee Club, Minstrels, Orchestra and Girls’ Quartette were offered and were all well-attended at that time. They were part of the foundation for the excellent music programs that continue at WHS. Today, almost 70% of the WHS student body participates in at least one of the music programs.  The drama department in 1916 was equally strong with 100% participation from the senior class in their play “The Professor,” with help from three more undergraduates.

     The girls’ basketball team won three of its four games that year while the boys’ won seven out of thirteen. The February 4^thschool diary entry reads “Our boys won the game with Viroqua, score being 25 – 18. At last Westby has succeeded in defeating its greatest rival, Viroqua.” Did I say some things never change? 

     As a bit of trivia, anyone who remembers him will not be surprised to learn that Lincoln Neprud was the only student from the Class of 1916 who was ever a cheerleader and never a member of the Literary Society. 

     Clothing styles of the day were very conservative and formal by today’s standards. Male student wore suits to school in 1916.  Their shirts had wide, high collars and vests were worn under their suit jackets.  Women wore long sleeves on dresses, ¾ length skirts or longer, and very often they wore huge bows in their hair.  

     In 1916, the Senior class colors were cardinal and pearl gray, the American Beauty red rose was the class flower and their motto was “Life is what you make it.” This class of thirteen students went on the next year to try to “make it.” In 1917, ten of these alumni were continuing their education at a college of some kind, one was employed, one had become a Mrs., and one young man was farming. How wonderful for Westby’s future to have such ambitious young people.

     The 2016 Class of Westby High School will soon graduate on May 28^th. Their class colors are red and gray, just like 1916, with the addition of the color black just for a little drama.  Their class flower is also a rose, this one white with a silver ribbon, and today’s class motto is “People who think they are crazy enough to change the world are the ones who do,” a quote from Steve Jobs. Sounds a lot like “Life is what YOU make it.” Congratulations Westby High School Class of 2016!          

Home Delivery... with Betty Nelson

                                                               Betty Nelson with her beloved doll.

On cold, winter days like we are having now, there are many warm and cozy babies wearing little hats made by Betty Nelson. She has been knitting since she was very young “when the minister’s wife taught me.” Betty has four or five patterns that she knows and she  tells me “it’s easy to do to keep busy” while watching ball games on TV. She enjoys both football and baseball. Betty gives the caps to the Bethel Buttik for Christmas, and of course, makes them for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She uses left-over yarn and makes up the Packer, Badger or random color combinations as she goes along, “to make the best of what you can.”

Betty Lou Johnson was born in April of 1928 and has “always lived in Coon Valley.” Her parents were Lloyd and Olga (Lindvig) Johnson. When Betty was seven years old, her mother died so you know she learned early to make the best of things. As a young girl, Betty would ride with her grandpa to deliver Johnson’s Dairy milk to homes in the Coon Valley area. “We went door-to-door to deliver milk. For just 7¢ a quart.” The glass bottles were heavy and they had paper “stoppers” on the top.”  Every day they delivered eight to nine dozen bottles that were packaged at night and delivered early the next morning. Her grandpa had a horse-drawn wagon. She would jump down to “get a ticket stub at each house for how much milk they wanted and I’d keep that stub.” A few years later, Betty knew a young man, Layton “Boob” Nelson, who would help her deliver milk. She remebers one time, by then she was using a car, when Boob fell on some ice. “He slipped in the street half way under the car,” she laughed. She drove and he “peddled,” as she called it. 

 

Back then, in the late 1940’s, kids would go ice skating and sledding in the winter. They were sledding “in a pasture close to where Dairy Supply is now. That’s where Lester Gilbertson got a scar – trying to get under a barbed wire fence and missed” she told me. They would play croquet in the summer, or watch the boys play baseball. Betty can remember when “Boob” played third base, three times a week! “The bleachers were filled and people were even sitting on the hillside” around the diamond. Lots of kids, so many families, were there to see the games. 

 

On a hot June 1^stevening in 1948, Betty married Boob in a candlelight ceremony. She carried white carnations and sweet peas. They honeymooned in Devil’s Lake and then went to Kenosha to visit Boob’s sister. She told me that in a successful marriage, you “give a little and take a little.” Betty and Boob raised two children in Coon Valley.  She now has four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Boob died five years ago and her son passed away in 2014. The biggest change that Betty sees from when she was growing up, and even from when she was raising her children, is that both parents are working now. “I think they could do with a little less” because it seems that everyone has so much. Betty still has a doll that she had when she was five years old. 

 

Betty’s story is typical of people growing up in the Coon Valley/Westby area at that time.  She hasn’t done anything special like fight in a war, or march for women’s equality. What she did was marry a man she loved, and stayed with him for 63 years, until he died. She raised 2 polite and productive children. She worked hard for her church and has contributed countless hours of volunteer service to many organizations in her community. Just hearing this witty 88 year old lady tell stories brings up my own  memories – the warm smell of grandma baking dinner rolls, the clink of the milk shute door opening and closing, the sight of neighbors on porches on warm summer nights, drinking a pop, or maybe a beer, as we kids played in the street. Keeping a marriage, a family, and a community together is special. Keeping babies warm is special. Betty is special.