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  Frank Anderson Interview, ca. 1975

  Frank Anderson

  Frank Anderson was 86 years old and was born in Traverse County where his parents emigrated from Sweden to homestead.

  In this interview, Frank Anderson discusses Swedish Christmas customs. He remembers the town of White Rock, Minnesota when it was a trading center. He is a former teacher, farmer, and painter. He reflects on early automobiles and farming practices.

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  Harold Anderson Interview, ca. 1976

  Harold Anderson

  Harold Anderson was 76 years old and was born in Clarkfield, Minnesota. He was a former high school teacher in Granite Falls and Cokato.

  In this interview, Harold Anderson discusses sports. He was a high school and college athlete. He signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1927, and was a pitcher. He discusses playing semi-professional baseball in Minnesota and his pitching skills. He also discusses his years teaching and coaching in schools in Minnesota, as well as the differences from when he played sports compared to schools sports at the time of the interview.

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  Jacob Bauer Interview, 1980

  Jacob Bauer

  In this interview, Jacob Bauer talks about rural and small community life during World War II. Mr. Bauer was born on Oct. 10, 1894 in Adrian, MN.

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  Helen Burfiend Interview, 1973

  Helen Burfiend

  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.

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  Helen Burfiend Interview, 1973

  Helen Burfiend

  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 great grandfather Major Joseph Brown at Lake Traverse, Native American relations, her family history, the Wheaton-Browns Valley fight for the county seat, Fort Sisseton, and her father George Allanson.

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  Agnes Cunningham Interview, 1973

  Agnes Cunningham

  In this interview, Agnes Cunningham discusses her family and personal history, her family in the early days of Big Stone County, school in Big Stone County, the effects of the Depression on teaching, differences in teaching from 1935 to 1955, World War II, and diseases and health problems, including polio.

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  Mrs. J.A. Dalziel Interview, ca. 1977

  Mrs. J. A. Dalziel

  Mrs. J.A. Dalziel was born in Illinois and was 83 years old. Her father brought her family to Minnesota because of the cheaper land prices in 1907. She taught in rural school for five years.

  In this interview, she describes travelling by train and her experiences teaching in rural schools.

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  Alice Feldick Interview, ca. 1977

  Alice Feldick

  Alice Feldick was 69 years old and resided in Graceville. She spent most of her life in the Wheaton area.

  In this interview, she discusses farm life, threshing, and the Depression.

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  Rosie Garberick Interview, ca. 1977

  Rosie Garberick

  Rosie Garberick was 81 years old and he came to Morris in 1911 from Sheldon, Iowa.

  In this interview, he talks about the different jobs he had. He worked for the railroad as a cook on the B&B Gang. He also tells of his dealings with the National Guard and his time in Europe during World War I. Then he tells of his adventures as a postal worker and transferring to Browns Valley and retiring in 1966.

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  Herbert Hanson Interview, ca. 1977

  Herbert Hanson

  Herb Hanson was 94 years old and was born in Morris. He was involved in the mercantile business, which his father had been owned before him.

  In this interview, Herb discusses a business course he took and talks about selling clothes, and the types of clothes that were sold. He mentions the operation of the store he ran in Browns Valley and his membership in the Masonic Lodge. He was, at that time, the longest member in the state of Minnesota in the Freemasons.

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  Herbert M. Hanson, Linda Hanson, and Neil Harcum Interview, 1978

  Herbert M. Hanson, Linda Hanson, and Neil Harcum

  Herbert Hanson was born in Morris, Minnesota in 1884 where he worked until 1922 in his father's dry goods store. He met Linda there and they married in 1922, then moved to Browns Valley to take over his brother's dry goods store. They operated the store until 1951 when he and Linda retired.

  Neil Harcum lived all his life in Browns Valley and worked for a monument company for over 50 years.

  In this interview, these long-time friends discuss the early Republican Party, the Non-Partisan League, the social and civic clubs in Browns Valley, the Corn and Alfalfa Exposition in Morris in 1912, the Farm Bureau, and operating a store in West Central Minnesota.

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  Neil Harcum Interview, ca. 1977

  Neil Harcum

  Neil Harcum was 77 years old.

  In this interview, Neil talks about the history of Browns Valley. He discussed how the town got its name from Joseph R. Brown and his son. He tells some tales about them. He discusses the Native Americans in the region and the fair William Palm set up. He finally discusses the grain elevators and how people would haul their grain on barges and, in the winter, on sleds. He also discusses the dry weather at the time of the interview and the 1930s.

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  Reuben Heggen Interview, 1973

  Reuben Heggen

  Reuben Heggen's father, Thomas Heggen, was involved in the moving of the Traverse County seat from Brown's Valley to Wheaton. Reuben Heggen was a long-time resident of Wheaton.

  In this interview, Heggen discusses the moving of the county seat from Browns Valley to Wheaton. He discusses why Wheaton wanted the seat, the raiding of the Browns Valley Courthouse, and animosity between Browns Valley and Wheaton.

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  Chester Johanson Interview, ca. 1979

  Chester Johanson

  Chester Johanson was 83 years old and was born near Wheaton, Minnesota in 1896. His family homesteaded in the area in 1880, before the railroad arrived in the area or Wheaton was founded. His parents immigrated in 1879 from Sweden to the United States.

  In this interview, Chester discusses his family being stuck in the blizzard of 1880 in Minnesota shortly after they arrived. He talks about his family homesteading in the area. He discusses the rural school he attended. He talks about the founding of Wheaton and life on the farm as a child. He then talks about farming as an adult, and about his job at the farmer's cooperative in Wheaton. He discusses pricing of various items at the store, and the change in the price of land. He also discusses the founding of the senior center in Wheaton, Minnesota.

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  Mildred Young Meyers Interview, 1978

  Mildred Young Meyers

  MIldred (Young) Meyers was born in Beardsley, Big Stone County in 1910. She attended nurse's training in Graceville and lived in West Central Minnesota until 1939 when she moved to Rutland, North Dakota. She lived there until 1961 when she returned to Wheaton, where she was living at the time of the interview. While in Rutland, she organized a maternity hospital, was active in school board politics, secretary to the health association, and active in the Republican Party. In Wheaton, she continued her nursing activities and served as Traverse County Republican Party chairperson from 1966-1972.

  In this interview, Mildred Meyers discusses her family history, her life biography, organization of the health association and maternity hospital, the Republican Party, a comparison of North Dakota and West Minnesota, and many refelctions on her activities in the health care field.

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  Mamie Norsen Interview, ca. 1977

  Mamie Norsen

  Mamie Norsen was 90 years old. Her parents came from Sweden and came to Lake Park, Minnesota, then the Wheaton area. Her father built their house and picked out the land there because he felt more at home there. She has lived in the house ever since 2 1/2 years ago in which she spent time with her aunt in Duluth.

  In this interview, Mamie discusses her father, blizzards in Minnesota, farm life, and her father starting a rural telephone company.

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  Katie Lupkes Randolph Interview, ca. 1977

  Catherine Lupkes Randolph

  Katie Randolph was 74 years old and was born in Rushmore, Minnesota. She moved with her family near Wheaton when she was 2 years old.

  In this interview, she discusses her mother's death and helping to take care of her younger siblings. She talks about her various jobs working in hotels, as a waitress, and a manager at hotels and motels. She discusses meeting various famous people during her time working in customer service at hotels and restaurants. In particular, she discusses meeting Laurel and Hardy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lucille Ball.

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  Jacob Schmitz Interview, ca. 1977

  Jacob Schmitz

  Jacob Schmitz was 81 years old and was from Wheaton, Minnesota.

  In this interview, Jake discusses the first Schmitz moving to the Wheaton area in 1876. He also discusses his father's journey from Germany to the United States. He talks about his father's work as a blacksmith and his father moving to homestead in the Traverse County area. He discusses the conditions and life his father had homesteading in the area. He talks about his parents collecting buffalo bones to sell.

  In the second part of the interview, he talks about his father helping to start a school in the area. He discusses the smallpox epidemic in the area during his father's life, and the neighbor who had his own method of smallpox vaccination. He talks about the blizzard of 1880. He then talks about his own experiences farming in the area. He talks about his family (he and his wife had 20 children) and about how one of his children made a record for the largest baby born at 16 pounds and 24 1/2 inches long. He talks about the newspaper publicity of the story of his son being the largest baby.

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  Roy and Frieda Simpson Interview, ca. 1977

  Roy Simpson and Frieda Simpson

  Roy and Frieda Simpson were both born in Janesville, Iowa and met in school. Roy was 97 and Frieda was 95. They had been married for 77 years.

  In this interview, they talk about farm life, canning and washing clothes, early town life, and the "dirty thirties" (aka the drought back in the 1930s).

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  Ann Swanke Interview, 1973

  Ann Swanke

  Ann Swanke was a teacher in Browns Valley for many years. Her husband moved to Browns Valley in 1886 at the age of six months.

  In this interview, she discusses the presidents from McKinley-Nixon, roads, electric lights, radios, automobiles, storms, World War I and II, fires, and the Depression.

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  Ann Swanke Interview, 1973

  Ann Swanke

  Ann Swanke was a teacher in Browns Valley for many years. Her husband moved to Browns Valley in 1886 at the age of six months.

  In this interview, Ann Swanke discusses her early family history, her education, her early teaching experiences, World War I, her home and social life as a child, her family's bakery, her church, going to college, the methods she used in her teaching, and her writings.

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  Lorence Winter Interview, 1980

  Lorence Winter

  In this interview, Lorence Winter reminisces about life during World War II. Mr. Winter was born in May of 1906 in Hoffman, MN.