Title
Helen Burfiend Interview, 1973
Files
Download Helen Burfiend Interview Transcript (4.5 MB)
Document Type
Book
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Interviewer
Joni Kennedy
Interviewee
Helen Burfiend
Date Recorded
7-17-1973
Date Digital
7-2-2020
Location Recorded
Key Row Apartments, Wheaton, Minnesota
County
Traverse County
Keywords
Schools--Minnesota--Wheaton; Families--Minnesota--Wheaton; Wheaton (Minn.); Allanson, George Gray; World War, 1914-1918; Depressions--1929; United States. Works Progress Administration; World War, 1939-1945
Description
Helen Margaret Allanson Burfiend was born on July 4, 1901 in the town of Wheaton, Minnesota to George and Bertha Allanson. Her great grandfather, Major Joseph Brown, was the founder of Browns Valley and Henderson, Minnesota.
In this interview, Helen Burfiend discusses her family history, including Major Joseph Brown and his wife Susan Frenier Brown, her grandfather John S. Allanson and his wife Ellen Brown Allanson, and her father George Gray Allanson. She discusses her father's storytelling, the family home, her grade school and high school experience in Wheaton, Minnesota, and social activities and sports. She discusses train travel, the Wheaton Post Office in the 1920s, organization memberships, World War I, and the Depression. She discusses her father's history, newspaper business, politics, jobs as fire chief and justice of the peace, and history collection and job with the Works Progress Administration. She discusses Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sinclair Lewis, World War II, and Hubert Humphrey. She talks about her father's illness and death, her own personal life, and her plans for her father's papers.
Run Time
01:14:45
Language
English
Original Format
Reel-to-Reel
Digital Identifier
TCBurfiend01
Repository
West Central Minnesota Historical Research Center (WCMHRC)
Local Identifier
283
Recommended Citation
Burfiend, Helen, "Helen Burfiend Interview, 1973" (1973). All Minnesota Oral Histories. 57.
https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/mnoralhistories/57
Primo Type
Audio