Dusting off the Archives
News from Verndale's Past
75 Years Ago, July 22, 1948
• The good neighborly act was again brought to light last week when a group of friends and neighbors gathered at the Martian Horn farm south of Verndale and shocked seven or eight acres of rye for him. Mr. Horn has been in ill health and was taken to the Bertha Hospital last Saturday for medical treatment. Men who gathered at the Horn farm last Friday evening were: Henry Hoffer, Ted Weber, Quinten Kelzenberg, Cliff Horn, Bob Pilgrim, Wilbur Umland, George Schroeder and Lawrence Chase.
• Following a well established policy of providing good electric service, the power company has just completed a two way radio dispatching system similar to those used by police departments in big cities. The radio headquarters station is located between Brainerd and Ironton near Riverton. Trouble calls received at this station can be relayed by radio to service crews wherever they may be, thus saving time and in certain instances many miles of travel.
• The ten days of gospel meetings at the Wing River Gospel Tabernacle closed Sunday evening. It has been held there for several years. The attendance was good from the very first service, with three very large congregations on Sunday. There were 11 different local churches that took part in the services from the platform, and there were 14 ministers of the gospel who showed their interest and cooperation by being present at the meetings, representing six different denominations.
• Verndale’s softball team will get their first test of the season when they meet South Staples on the local diamond next Sunday. The Staples squad has scored five straight wins while the locals will be making their first appearance. Bill Pilgrim, captain of the Verndale squad, hopes that all available players will be on hand.
40 Years Ago, July 20, 1983
• Police Chief Oscar Forcier turned in all his equipment last week Tuesday after being told he could not take the squad car to Fargo for installation of an air conditioning system without council approval. According to Mayor Louise Otremba, he had told her he was putting in the air conditioning in the car right now or his resignation would be on the table. This left Verndale with a one-man police department in Patrolman Scott Miller, who had just completed his six month probation period.
• In a photo, Mark Scheller jogged pages of Verndale’s history book as they came off the WATCO web press in the background where pressmen were checking ink distribution and making necessary adjustments. Two skids and one bin hold nine of the 13 sections of the book which totaled nearly 400 pages. The final 13th run was completed about 7:30 p.m. last Friday. The skids were shipped out Monday to the Twin Cities where the pages are begin assembled and they should be returned early next week, in time for the kick-off banquet at which they will first be available to the public. Fifteen hundred books were printed.
• Bill Winkels of Nimrod, new soils district aide for the county ASCS office, replaced a cover on the Brillion seeder recently acquired to plant alfalfa seed. A trial run was held last Thursday at Dan Osborn’s farm east of Verndale. Oats were also planted to provide a cover crop until the alfalfa is established. In the photo, Dan, seated on the tractor, expecting to plant three acres an hour.
• The July 28 distribution of USDA surplus butter and flour has been canceled again according to Sheryl Polman of the Otter Tail-Wadena Community Action Council. State officials informed the CAC on July 14 that the USDA will not be able to deliver the 18 tons of flour in time for the July 28 distribution. After surveying the volunteers at the 25 distribution sites, it was decided to cancel the July distribution and put the butter in cold storage until August when the CAC is expecting to have cheddar cheese, butter and flour to distribute.
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