Memories

I would like to share one comment as I begin; Bill Lavell and Madlon Brence mentioned one individual, Lee Bair, recently in their articles and it brought back my memories of this man. As I remember, he had lost a leg and became a salesman. As Madlon reports, Lee sold for Minnesota Woolen. Around 1950 or 1951, he came to our apartment where he measured and sold me a pair of dress trousers from Minnesota Woolen, which were delivered later with a perfect fit.

I will now reflect on some past neighbors, Frank and Clara Nies, who lived across the street from us. Again, I found information in Shifting Scenes where Clara has three pages of her early life, her marriage to Frank, and information on their farm, ranch, family and friends.

Clara wrote a lot of interesting history information about her life and their family that I didn’t know, as I am sure is the case with many of you. I will share some history and highlights of her interesting family history.

Clara Berg was born in Superior, Wisconsin, June 14, 1896 and attended grade school and high school there. She went on to Superior State Normal School the summer of 1915. Her father died when she was only three and a half years old and a younger sister passed the same year. She had an older sister Anna who was eleven years older.

In the summer of 1915, Clara’s sister, Anna Rogers, who lived at Calumet, Montana encouraged her to come to Montana and teach. Clara’s mother came later to join them. Where was Calumet, Montana? Well, it was close to Plevna, as she states they went to Plevna to shop.

Like all areas, entertainment in those days was going to dances at different places in the country. She wrote that after a dance on a chilly night, the horses would be spooked with cowboys putting on a rodeo — lots of bucking horses.

Another teaching job came in the spring of 1916, when she went to Jordan to teach a four month summer school. In the fall, she came back to Plevna to her mothers place. Her mother had filed a claim along Milk Creek and had a house built. She raised a few head of cattle, pigs, and chickens. Clara was hired to teach at the Mackenzie school for the 1916-17 season. Sorry, I don’t know where that school was. She bought a saddle horse to ride to school which was a distance of about eight or more miles.

Among other experiences, she told of a boy who painted one side of her saddle white. Luckily, she found it before the paint had a chance to dry.

In the fall of 1917, she came over to teach at the Spring Valley School and boarded at the Charles Nies home, where she met her future husband, Frank Nies. This is the point in her writing where some people and places become more familiar. Clara reports that she taught the fall term and then went back to Superior on business after school was out.

She wrote, “at that time, Mrs. DeLoss Hall was superintendent of schools.” Shifting Scenes reports that Mrs. Hall was Carter County’s first superintendent of schools. My connection with Mr. & Mrs. DeLoss Hall was from 1948 to part of 1950, when we rented an upstairs apartment from them. Laura Hall was acting Carter County Superintendent at that time. Mrs. Hall was born in New York City and was crippled during her childhood by the explosion of a kerosene lamp, which resulted in the amputation of her left arm.

Next time I will write about the Frank and Clara Nies wedding, which is the next part of her life that she wrote about.