Memories

I have written about “Bud” Asbury, including some information on his parents (Elmo & Bessie), his education, graduation from Carter County High School in 1928 and a small amount on his love for ranching, riding bucking horses and bulldogging.

The short article in “Shifting Scenes” about Bud mentions nothing about his marriage to Edna, but there is a lot of information on her family, where they lived, her education, teaching time, and yes, her marriage to Bud and some of their life on the Asbury Ranch.

Let’s share her article as I quote her and add a few comments.

“My father Griffith Pritchard was born in Brynrefail, Caernarvonshire, Wales and was brought to Ipswich, South Dakota by his older sister Hannah with his three small brothers, Thomas, Owen and Richard. Their father and an older sister Mary had come a year earlier to find land. Their mother died soon after, so the remaining children were alone. My mother, Marie Pfiefle was born on a farm near Humboldt, Nebraska where her parent,s who were of German parentage had settled after coming from Southern Russia near Odessa.”

Another example of individuals coming from a foreign country to the good old U.S.A.

Edna reports she was the second of six sisters born in Linton, North Dakota. They were Irene, Edna, Stella, a baby who died at birth, Margaret and Phyllis, who died of flu at age eleven.

It seems tragedy comes to almost every family as you read their history in the “Shifting Scenes” volumes.

The family moved to Inverness, Montana where her dad homesteaded and built a home where her only brother Forrest was born. Her father started one of the first garages on the high line where he sold cars like Dart, Briscoe, Overland and Studebaker. Studebaker is the only name familiar to me.

The family moved from Montana to Wishek, North Dakota where Edna finished high school and after graduating went to summer school for one quarter. She then taught a seven month country school that fall.

Edna returned to Valley City and by fall had finished one year of normal which qualified her for a town school and she taught fifth grade in Wishek for $110.00 per month. Board was $40.00 per month. Wages have been changed over the years.

When the depression of the 30s came, art and music were the first positions cut in school programs, so Edna came to Carter County to visit her sister Georgie Laird and took a job at a country school. The pay was $75.00 per month with 17 students in all grades.

She doesn’t name the school (and I am not going to guess because there were several schools in the area at the time) but she does name some of the students. She lists Richard and Alberta Yates, Gladys Gross, Houghton and June Burch, Thomas, Rosalie and Lawrence Johnson and a Naugle.

Her next teaching position was two years at O’Fallon Creek school with students including Ruth and Jean Malmquist, Gladys and Loraine Thompson, Charles and Dorothy Guyer, Thomas Gilleran and Alice and Adele Gilman.

Yes, yes, you readers and I knew and have precious memories of most of these individuals.

“The winter of 1935-1936 was really cold, more than six weeks below zero and deep snow. Not one student was late or absent in all that time. Many other schools closed because of cold and snow,” she wrote.

More to come in my next article as Edna writes of her marriage to Bud, their ranch life together and a little about her retirement.