My Town, USA Part 2

I am going to share more today about my town and it's history. I went to the public library  and asked if they had any history about my town. I was given a book to read that is the complete history of the county in which I live. My town was included with a lot more history than I had known about before. I am going to quote often from this publication.

A dam was built early in my towns history and a mill next to the dam. Taken from the 'History of Barron County' it states 'In the spring of 1879, Mr. Anderson (one of the founders of the village of Dallas and the builder of the dam and mill) interviewed Mr. Foster, in regard to moving the store and post office up near the mill. the suggestion was heartily received and Mr. Foster and his family, the store building, and the post office were in a short time transplanted to a beautiful spot directly across the square from the mill. All this was on the west side of the creek, which by damming had become a pretty lake. Business on the east side of the pond was started by Knute Espeseth, who started a general store.'

Mr. Anderson's mill was at first a grist mill, but later rollers were installed. In 1915 power was generated from the mill for the village electric light service. In 1880, Mr. Anderson started a sawmill, and later added planing and shingle departments.

With the dam built, the mills established, the post office located and the Foster and Espeseth stores running, the village began to grow. Blacksmith shops were established at various times by various residents. Pelton Brothers opened a hardware store, Torger Olson a harness and repair shop, Ole Christianson a shoe shop, William S. Foster, the Foster house, Martin Grannis a cabinet shop, and two more general stores were opened.

In the early days of the village, the Patrons of Husbandry was a strong organization, and a Grange was established. (like the Grange Charles Ingall in House on the Prairie belonged to.) Dallas had grown into quite the town. My grandma Lillian used to tell me that when she was a young girl if you wanted to go where things were really happening, you would visit "my town.' On Friday evenings she said there would be free movie showings.People that attended would bring their own chairs and a big white sheet would be put on the side of a building. After dark the the movie would be shown and grandma said practically the whole town would show up. I always loved to hear her stories about her wonderful life as a young girl growing up in the country.

Well, there is more history to tell about my town so I guess at a later date we will have 'My Town Part 3'.
As I have been telling this story it makes me love my community even more.

Our village dam.

 The pond in front of the dam where lots of wildlife come to feed and drink.

 

Donated bench at the park where my husband and I love to sit and watch the wildlife and birds.

 

The beautiful view from the park bench.

Family Reunion Craft Swap

I am leaving soon to go to a family reunion in North Dakota. It is family on my dad's side. He had 24 brothers and sisters. (12 of which are half brothers and sisters). One of the fun things we will be doing is having a craft swap. Everyone that signed up is bringing 15 items they have made to swap with the others. I decided to make hand made cards. (imagine that!) I will package three cards in a cellophane to be given away. The grand total I made in the past two days was about 60 cards. I wanted to keep it simple since I had to make so many, but I am pleased with how they turned out. As I created my cat Annie slept in the chair next to me. She loves being where I am all throughout the day and I enjoy it too except when she decides to lay down in the middle of all my creating and it is usually on top of my scrapbook paper. She is quite' the cat' and my husband says 'spoiled rotten'. I say, 'I have no idea what he is talking about'.  :D

One of three cards for swap.

Card two for swap.

Card design for the third one was  borrowed from www.simplicitybylateblossom.blogspot.com

She has an awesome blog and she creates cards very simplistic using white cardstock and ink.

Sleepy Annie.

Annie 'zonked out'.

My Town, USA Part 1

Boy time flies when you're having fun! It has been a while since I posted. My husband has a new shift than what he has been working for the past  5 years so my time is spent different than it was. We are both trying to get used to the time change and little sleep as our routine is all changed around. We do like him being home at the different time though. :)

Well, yesterday I decided to take my camera around town and snap some photos of the place I love best...my little town. We have lived here for about 38 years in the same house. We raised our 3 children here, 2 boys and a girl and after all this time I am still in love with my town. (recognized as a village). It is one hundred and forty years old and was settled in 1870 when three men came to this area from Norway and liked what they seen. They brought their families, built homes and began to farm near a creek. The men were Ole Knutson, his brother-in-law Nels Tollefson, and his son Tollef Nelson. (do you notice anything interesting about their names?) I am going to quote from the 'Cenntennial' book. "Nels Tollefson is said to be the first Norwegian settler in the Township. He settled on the west side of Pine Creek. His homestead consisted of 160 acres. Mr. Tollefson cleared 100 acres and built a set of log buildings which he later replaced by frame structures. Supplies had to be hauled by oxen or carried on foot from the next big town which was 50 miles away. (remember we didn't have much for roads back then and certainty no interstate highways.) On trips to the city he would influence friends to come join him in his newly found paradise. Often the family would awaken to find someone camping on their doorstep, and there was wall to wall people while another home was hewn out of the woods."

"Another pioneer who came to Dallas the same year was Knute Stenseth Amundson. He took a homestead of 160 acres of wild land in Section 2. In 1903 he sold part of his place to his son, John. In 1913 the house was destroyed by fire and a modern home was built in its place. He was married to Anna Wintrone and had nine children. they were Clara, Genard, Herman, Lloyd, Wallace, Griffin, Ben, Kenneth, and Lawrence."  (my friend, Judy, I think the homestead was where you live now.) There is a lot more history to tell about and I will do so in the next part of the story in a future post. I am including photos of my town here.

My photo walk started out here. This house is one of the first homes built on our side of town in the late 1800s. It has had a few add-ons since that time. It is situated along the pond. This is a nice neighborhood with very friendly neighbors that you can count on.

Our flags flown from Memorial day until after the 4th of July.

One of many stain glass windows in the Lutheran Church.

Memorial Gardens at the church.

The old Farmers Store which now sells antiques.

Old wringer wash machine planter in front of the store.

Some of the old advertising on the side of the store.

Our community garden. The boxes are what some of the children planted. They even painted them. So cute!

The old egg factory which is now a brewery.

Well that is all for now but will post more photos as the story continues. It is so nice living in a town that you love so much, you could not imagine living any where else...like my town.