Dusting off the Archives
News from Verndale's Past
75 Years Ago, August 11, 1949
• Milford Dague and Robert Broker were called to Little Falls on Tuesday where the Morrison County sheriff held two young men connected with stealing cattle in Wadena, Todd and other counties. The two young men who were from Motley, one 21, and his nephew, 16, admitted to stealing three yearling heifers from the Dague farm last Thursday morning. They confessed to picking up nine head of cattle, and having sold them to a buyer in St. Cloud for 12 cents a pound, far below the market price.
• T.J. Filla, owner and authorized dealer for Verndale’s new Gamble store is all set for his grand opening days on Friday and Saturday of this week after several week’s of painting, remodeling and installing the latest fixtures and merchandise. Mr. Christenson of Detroit Lakes, supervisor of the Gamble stores in the division who has been with Mr. Filla helping him arrange fixtures, stock, etc., stated that the Verndale store will be one of 1700 stores now connected with their popular chain throughout the United States.
• Three Verndale businesses were broken into on Thursday night of last week: the Farmer’s Oil Station, Kopp’s Barber Shop and Andy’s Place. At the oil station they stole about $4 in change and an electric razor, at Kopp’s about $15 in change and at Andy’s, nothing seemed to be missing, only the evidence of the breaking-in. Ted Weber, however, got his razor back as the robbers had dropped it in back of the barber shop when they were climbing in or out of the back window.
40 Years Ago, August 15, 1984
• Last week Wednesday, the River Trail Riders Saddle Club hosted one of the seven area shows of the 16th annual run of the Minnesota Horse Show Circuit. Hundreds of horses and riders were entered in the 46 events held that day. Pictured looking over the schedule are Show Manager Russ Birch, Miss Verndale Erika Schenk and Mike Hay of Galva, Illinois, who was the judge for the day.
•The Verndale Boosters ran a truckload of sand and coins through the parade to advertise their coin hunt scheduled for after the parade. Pictured are youngsters sifting through the sand in search of the hidden treasure while two of the boosters, Jim Runyan and Armond Swanson, watched the event.
• The special event that had been advertised to take place at the 10 p.m. intermission of the street dance was a spin-off of Michael Jackson’s thriller dance, featuring all local talent of people who had been involved earlier this year in the queen pageant. The lead couple was played by Pauline Colby and John Efraimson.
15 Years Ago, August 13, 2009
• The Don and Barb Johnson farm, located just outside of Verndale on County Road 23, is the kind of picturesque farm that stories and odes are written about. The tranquil setting, the well kept yard and the fields are all evidence that hard work is an attribute of the Johnsons and contributes to their success. Perhaps these are some of the reasons that they were selected as the Farm Family of the Year for Wadena County.
• Justin Sperling has now taken over as Verndale School’s Dean of Students. He has been a third grade teacher at Verndale for five years. After teaching, Sperling wanted to see if he could make a bigger impact on the students that attend school there. He started a three year long journey to acquire his master’s degree and a principal’s license.
• Katie Wegscheid and her dog Rascal, who ran the dog agility course at the 4-H dog show, are in the running to represent Wadena County at the Minnesota State Dog Show in October. Dusty Bertram of the Leaf River Builders Club and his dog Diego also participated in the elementary dog agility class during the 4-H dog show.
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