Churchill Quote

"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it." —Winston Churchill 1874-1965








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The Guilty Conscience

(Yet Another Connection Between the Vern Ducklow and Gideon Arneson Families)

[Published January 9, 2011]

This weekend I told my mother about the old postcard I purchased on eBay showing the spoke, stave and heading factory that was located in the “flats” between St. John’s Cemetery and the Eau Galle River in Spring Valley.  We discussed how funny / odd it was that the 1909 postcard was addressed to Mrs. Gideon Arneson—the wife of the man who was in a race of sorts to be married before my Grandfather Vern Ducklow.  To learn the full story of that check my prior posts here and here.

I asked my mother if she recalled what Gideon Arenson did for a living.  At first she couldn’t recall, but then an old memory surfaced that he was once in the mercantile business.  The reason mom remembered was due to a conscience-clearing letter sent from Vern’s daughter Audrey in the 1960s.  

Victor "Vic" Neil Ducklow

Smiling over the  counter of the "new" post office
Son of Vern and  Mina Bowen Ducklow

Circa 1969, age 47

Around 1964 Gideon stopped in the Spring Valley post office to pick-up his mail.  My father, Vic Ducklow, was a mail clerk there.  Dad retrieved his mail as Gideon purchased some stamps. As Vic handed Gideon his mail, he noticed one of Gideon’s letters had a return address of A. Thompson, Phoenix Arizona. He recognized the handwriting as that of his sister Audrey Thompson Ducklow – but had no idea why she would be writing to him.  He kept his professional poise making no note of the letter from his sister.

Audrey Ducklow Thompson
Daughter of Vern and Mina Bowen Ducklow

Circa 1960, age 56

Gideon looked through his mail and was immediately confounded by this letter from “A. Thompson Phoenix.”  He had no idea who this was and why anyone from Phoenix would be writing – so he opened the letter right in front of my father to discover its contents. After reading the letter to himself, he shared it aloud.

The writer said that when she was a girl she had stolen a 3-cent pack of gum from Gideon’s store (likely sometime in the 1920s). As she looked back over her life she had developed guilty conscience about swiping the gum and wanted to make restitution.  Enclosed was a dollar bill.  She did not sign the letter or offer her maiden name.  The only name was on the return address – A. Thompson.  To my mother’s knowledge, Gideon never did discover that A. Thompson was Audrey Ducklow.  My father too kept her identity hidden from Gideon – figuring that if she had wanted to share her complete identity she would have. Hearing this story gave me a better appreciation of the character of my Aunt Audrey.  If stealing a pack of gum was one of the worse sins she committed, and then writing a letter of apology some forty years later, she certainly ranks among the saints in the family!

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Footnotes:

Like Great Grandfather George Ducklow, Audrey suffered with asthma.  She and her husband Hank Thompson moved to Phoenix in the 1950s for the clear air and dry weather.  She died of complications of asthma in 1967.

So the answer to my original question to my mother was implicitly answered by this story – Gideon was, at least for a few years, a mercantile man in Spring Valley.

Upon receiving the dollar, it appears that Gideon received about 8% return on his 3-cent pack of gum over the 40-some years. 

Dad never brought up the story with anyone in the family, except my my mother.  I had never heard the story before she shared it with me on Jan. 9, 2011.

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Bill Holman Passes

Great Grandson of Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow

(Published January 2, 2011)

Bill Holman, who lived his entire life in Fargo, North Dakota, died on December 29, 2010. Bill was son of Anna Ostenson Holman and was the grandson of Lucinda and Gunder Ostenson.  His obituary follows:

William “Bill” Holman age 76, Fargo, North Dakota, resident of Bethany Towers II Living Center, passed away on December 29, 2010. He was under the care of Hospice of the Red River Valley.  

William Alan Holman was born in Fargo, North Dakota October 26, 1934 to Anna Elizabeth (Ostenson) and Willard William Holman. As a young boy he was very active in sports. Bill played hockey, baseball and football. In the ninth grade Bill and Roger Maris were teammates on the Roosevelt Junior High School football team. Bill was also a teammate of Roger Maris’ on the 1951 American Legion Post #2 baseball team as a pitcher.  Bill graduated from Fargo Central High School in 1952. While attending North Dakota State University, Bill worked at the NDSU experiment station. In January 1955, he joined the United States Army. He took his infantry training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Several months later he left for Europe. He was stationed in Germany and France. He attained the rank of Staff Sergeant. Bill was discharged January 1, 1958. Bill was also a member of the North Dakota Air National Guard 178th Fighter Squadron for two years.

Bill started working for Northern Drug Company in July 1958. He then left Northern Drug Company in March of 1969 to begin working at the NDSU Varsity Mart in April of 1969. He retired from NDSU March 31, 1997.

Bill was a member of the American Legion Post #2, AMVETS, Pheasants Forever, NDSU Team Makers Club, and Gethsemane Cathedral. Bill was an avid pheasant hunter and outdoorsman. Bill enjoyed lake time in the summer with his brothers and spending time with nieces and nephews for birthdays, holidays and special occasions.

Thanks to Dr. Glenn Mastel and Dr. Michael Segal, Sanford Medical Center, Bethany Homes and Hospice of the Red River Valley employees. You were all special to Bill.

Visitation: 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. with prayer service at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, January 3, Boulger Funeral Home, Fargo, ND.  Funeral: 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, January 4 with visitation one hour prior, Boulger Funeral Home, Fargo, ND

Burial: Riverside Cemetery, Fargo, ND

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Fruit Bowl Bet Revisited

(Posted December 31, 2010)

You may recall my story from October 2009 about the fruit bowl wedding gift.  This story describes a bet my grandfather Vernon Ducklow made with his buddy Gideon Arneson circa 1907.  They agreed that whoever married first would buy the other an expensive and ornate fruit bowl – the one they had both admired in a display window of a Spring Valley merchant.  Grandpa won the bet by marrying Mina Bowen in July of 1907. Vern and Mina received the bowl as a wedding gift from Gideon. It has been a family heirloom ever since. Click here to get to my original post.

Left: Fruit bowl wedding gift from Gideon Arneson to Vern and Mina Ducklow. 

Stay with me now as it may seem that I’m going off subject.  I have an interest in artifacts related to Spring Valley from the 1850s to the 1970s, including collecting old post cards.  Earlier this month I won an eBay auction for a used post card from Spring Valley picturing the spoke, stave and heading factory.  This mill had been located just a few hundred yards from my boyhood home, straight east of St. John’s Lutheran Church.  The postmark on the card is May 21, 1909. I thought it was an interesting colorized card that showed an important business in Spring Valley from the early 1900s.  The eBay auction only showed the front of the card, not the reverse.  It really didn't matter to me what was on the back.

Above: Postcard image showing the Spoke, Stave & Heading Mill located in Spring Valley circa 1905.  Note St. John's Church steeple just to the right of the factory's smoke stack.  

When the card arrived  I first viewed the picture on the front and admired how great of shape the card was in being over 100 years old. Then I turned the card over.  I nearly dropped to the ground laughing with surprise when I read whom the card was originally addressed to: Mrs. Gideon Arneson!  Yes, it was sent to the wife of the man who would have won the fruit bowl bet if he had married before Grandpa married Grandma.  How spooky odd is that!?  Do you think it was destiny that this postcard ended up in my collection?

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Footnotes:

(1) The card is from Mrs. Arneson’s sister, Blanch.  It reads:

Dear Sister –

How you was 

I suppose you remember where you were a year ago today.  I am still trying to settle and fix things up. You had better try to come over Sunday.  I may go to the city next week what can I get for you love to you both, Blanch

(2) I purchased the card from an large volume seller of collectables based in Duluth, MN via Ebay auction.  It’s a mystery of how it may have ended up there.  The card was mailed to Mrs. Gideon Arneson, Martell, Wisc.

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George Ducklow – Spring Valley Real Estate Developer

Olivet Trumped by Booming Spring Valley

[Published December 31, 2010]

George Ducklow, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow, ran a successful mercantile business in the small hamlet of Olivet Wisconsin for many years.  But by the late 1890s Olivet was in economic decline. Selling implements and general merchandise had been successful for George, but it became clear by 1890 that Olivet was not going to grow into the city early settler’s dreamed of.  The long-hoped for railroad and associated rail station never materialized. The lumber men who had once created a demand for goods and services had moved to timber stands further north, along with the two or three active lumber mills that once called Olivet home.  The logged-off forestland had been taken over by farmers and their families.  George’s mercantile business evolved from serving lumberjacks and sawyers to serving men and families of agriculture.  He no doubt met this transition by offering merchandise to meet the needs of pioneer farmers (e.g., dynamite to blow out tree stumps, one-bottom plows by John Deere, seed planters, etc.).  But there was a fundamental issue with Olivet – with no train there was no dominant reason for area farmers to conduct business there. Farmers took much of their trade to Ellsworth or River Falls because these communities had rail service that offered them links to commodity markets in St. Paul and Minneapolis and beyond. 

While Olivet’s fortunes fell in the 1880s and into the 1890s, Spring Valley, the once quiet and sparely populated valley five miles to the north, had suddenly become a boomtown.  This was thanks to the discovery and subsequent commercialization of iron ore mining in the early 1890s by the Eagle Iron Company. Some hopeful prognosticators of the era felt that Spring Valley was going to become a large city, perhaps largest city in Western Wisconsin! Booming Spring Valley offered George new opportunity to renew his business so by1898, George decided to move his store from Olivet to Spring Valley.  Perhaps the key to George’s decision was the addition of the railroad spur in 1893 connecting Spring Valley to Woodville and the main rail trunk between Chicago and St. Paul.   The primary purpose of the rail line was to ship smelted iron to regional factories, but the new rail station also provided area farmers with a gateway to agricultural markets, and offered retailers efficient transportation to receive their merchandise.

Now because Spring Valley was a boomtown in this period, all existing buildings and platted land were in high demand.  All sorts of investors and opportunists where searching for a space to set-up shop.  Money and hope poured in Spring Valley in the early 1890s and continued up until the early 1900s. Practically speaking, if you wanted to open a retail business you needed to buy a lot (owned by early-on non-local investors) and build your own building. And this is apparently what George Ducklow did.  In 1899, in partnership with his relatively new son-in-law George LaGrander (he and Nellie Ducklow married in1895), together built a new general store on the corner of Glade and Central Avenues in Spring Valley (today this location is directly east of the City Municipal building.)  Not many details of this building have been discovered and the building was razed in the 1980s.  There is one photograph known to this author that shows a small portion of the front entry to the building.

It is not clear why, but after just one year of operation, George sold this Glade Avenue store to a man named Jerome Baker Smith. Mr. Smith used the building to retail shoes and grocery items.  A number of reasons seem possible for George’s decision to sell: Perhaps it didn’t have the traffic he expected, or he found it too small, or, most possible, he was made an offer during the boom years which gave him a nice profit.  Whatever his reason, George Ducklow sold his first building in Spring Valley after just one year of operation.

Left: Glimpse of George Ducklow's first building in Spring Valley, built in 1899.  Picture was taken circa 1965.  The building still appears to be an operating grocery store--with a sign for meat in the window and a "Hires Root Beer" ad on the edge of the building. The paper boy is the son of Beaula Thompson.  Picture used with permission frrom the photograph collection of Beaula Thompson.

Right: George Ducklow's second building in Spring Valley built in 1900. Picture taken circa 1958 while it was being operated by Clifford (CW) Arneson as a grocery store.  Picture from Doug Blegen's book called Spring Valley Early Days, used with permission. 

Then in 1900, sans a building to sell merchandise, George built yet another general store, this one on the main drag of Spring Valley—on the SW corner of First Street and McKay Avenue (directly south of the present-day Spring Valley Drug).  It is not clear if George LaGrander helped him again with this building project, but seems possible.  It was this McKay Avenue building that George continued his mercantile business for several years until his retirement estimated to have occurred between 1906 and 1910 (when he was between 55 and 59 years old).  George had chronic asthma and apparently the long store hours were taking a toll.  So with the profits from the sale of his main-street building, he bought a farm in Gilman Township and raised sheep.  He and wife Emma farmed in Gilman until his death in 1928 (see footnote).

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Footnotes:

(1) It seems odd that you would leave a relatively clean retail business and go into sheep farming due to asthma health reasons, but this what was reported in George’s obiturary.

(2) An estimated history of George Ducklow's second building (corner of First & McKay) is believed to be:

1901-1906 Ducklow Mercantile

1906-1920 Geving and Gaadner

1920-1950 Clifford Arneson’s Grocery Store

1950-1970 Hardware Hank Hardware

1970-Present Mark Anderson Veterinary Supply Offices / Warehouse

(3) The estimated history of George’s first building (corner of Central & Glade) is believe to be:

1899-1900 George Ducklow Mercantile

1900-1930 J.B. Baker’s Shoe and Grocery

1930 Alexander “Sandy” Anderson

McCardles

Geroge Breitinger

Gueldner

Stan Andeson

John Rosentreter

1980s- Torn-Down

(4) George continued in the real estate development vein for a while.  He was involved in building at least one home on Church Hill.  He also likely engaged his son Vern in the business of building as the 1905 Census lists Vern as a carpenter’s apprentice.

(5) Information gathered from Doug Blegen’s Spring Valley Early Days, Page 421, George Ducklow’s obituary and Emma Ducklow’s obituary.

(6) It is also notable, that the nation suffered a terrible depression from 1893 to 1896, called the Panic of 1893. In addition to the depression, many Midwest farmers were suffering through drought conditions. No doubt these facts too played a role in George’s decision to pull out of Olivet and try again in Spring Valley.


(7) Both the Glade Ave and McKay Ave buildings had similar entrances: The door framing was recessed into the building forming a nook; a post formed building's "corner" to support the weight of the upper level structure.   This recessed entrance appears to be an "architectural signature" of George's building design.  You can see the posts clearly in both photographs.

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Alois Ducklow, Jr., Passes

[Published November 28, 2010]
[Updated November 30, 2010]

Alois "Al" Ducklow, Jr., age 71, of Menomonie, died unexpectedly on Friday, Nov. 25, 2010, at his home in Menomonie. [Editor: He was 70.]

Al was born May 22, 1940, the son of Alois and Betty (Van Nortwick) Ducklow in Gilman Township, Pierce County. He grew up in the Spring Valley area and attended Spring Valley Schools, graduating with the Class of 1958.

After high school Al worked at Madson Lumber in Spring Valley until about 1963. He worked at Spring Valley Elevator for Floyd Klanderman for more than 10 years and then worked for Standard Battery in St. Paul, Minn., until retiring.

On May 25, 1963, Al married Lorraine O'Bryan at the Elmwood Methodist Church. They were blessed with two children: Lori and Mike. They lived in the Spring Valley area until moving to Menomonie in 1993 after retiring. He and Lorraine were caretakers for Memorial Heights Apartments for 17 years.

Al's favorite pastime was going to his brother's cabin at Grand Rapids, Minn., and spending as much time as he could with a fishing pole in his hand. He also enjoyed reading, puttsin' around the garage, and most of all spending time with his kids and grandchildren, who meant the world to him.

Preceding him in death were his parents and grandparents.

He is survived by his wife Lorraine of Menomonie; his daughter and son: Lori (John) Songs and Mike (Yvonne) Ducklow all of Boyceville; two grandchildren, Michelle (Travis) Swenby of Wheeler and Troy Butler of Glenwood City; three great-granddaughters, Emily, Amy and Brandy Swenby; two step-grandsons, Shane Songs and John Songs III; four step-great-grandchildren; five brothers, Richard (Shirley) Ducklow of Glenwood City, Gerald (Collette) Ducklow of Spring Valley, Steven (Bonnie) Ducklow of Amery, Robert (Mary) Ducklow of Spring Valley and Duane (Mary) Ducklow of Spring Valley; two brothers-in-law, Bob (Bella) O'Bryan and Walter (Ann) O'Bryan Jr.; one sister, Betty Bohn and her friend Randolf Firman [Freeman]; many nieces and nephews; and other relatives and friends.

Visitation was on Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010, from 4:30 until 6:30 p.m. and followed by the service at the Congregational Church in Spring Valley with Rev. Jeff Holton officiating. Burial will be at a later date in Spring Lake Cemetery, Spring Valley.

Pallbearers were his five brothers and cousin Fred Schmoker.

Keehr Funeral Home, Spring Valley handled arrangements.

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My One Memory of Grandpa Vern Ducklow
[Published November 25, 2010]

Left: Vern and Mina Ducklow, circa 1946.


I have but one single memory of my Grandpa Vern.  In spring of 1961, Grandpa came for a visit at our home in Hudson.  This was a time when Dad (Vic Ducklow) was working as a mail sorter for the Post Office in St. Paul and decided that Hudson was reasonable commute to work, so he and Mom bought a home there in 1960.   We lived at 604 Sixth Street.  Our white two-story house was modest and fit right in with the other homes of the neighborhood.  There were lots of other young families that made the city block feel like a community.

A half block down from our house was a small corner grocery located on Sixth and Vine.  Besides carrying an assortment of milk, eggs, bread and other staples, the store had a vast (at least in my very young eyes) selection of penny candy.  On the day of his visit, Grandpa Vern loaded me into my red Radio Flyer wagon with a long black handle, and pulled me a half-block along the uneven cement sidewalk down to the corner store.  Upon arriving, I jumped out of the wagon and we walked in the cramped building.  Grandpa then gave me a nickel to buy five pieces of candy!  Tootsie rolls were my favorite (and still are) and so I picked out five and handed the nickel over to the clerk.  Grandpa bought some candy for himself too.  I stuffed four of the five pieces of candy into my pockets, and keep one out to eat on the wagon ride back home. I was happy to have been given a long ride to the store and eating sweets too!

As I visualize Grandpa on that day, I recall him being very tall and thin. I can’t recall his voice, but his demeanor struck me as being soft-spoken and kind, and perhaps a bit frail.  I don’t recall Grandma Mina being there that day, but she could have simply been in our house and my memory was all about Grandpa pulling me in my wagon and buying me sweets.  I wish I could recall more about him, but I was just too young (I think I was only about 27 months old). 

Grandpa Vern died in July of 1961, from complications of a broken hip.  He was 81.  Five weeks prior he had fell during a middle-of-the-night trip to urinate outside.  He slipped on the dew laden grass and lay helpless through the night until Grandma Mina awoke in the morning finding him.  Gradually, Grandpa’s body began to shut down, unable to recover from the trauma of the fall.  With today’s medicine, death from a broken-hip is uncommon, but fifty years ago an elderly person falling resulting in a broken hip was often a death sentence. Such was the case for Grandpa Vern.

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Footnote: Vern never learned to drive a car.  When he needed to travel around Spring Valley, he took a horse or walked.  The range of horse was all the distance he needed to go in most cases.  Mr. Rex Pearce, a friend of Vern’s had the need to conduct business in the Twin Cities.  He would on occasion take Grandpa Vern along, drop him off at our home in Hudson in the morning, and upon his return, pick him up and drive back to Spring Valley in the evening.

Footnote: I’m not sure how long this store remained a grocery. Not too many years after we moved from Hudson, it had been converted into a boutique flower shop.  

Footnote:  It’s hard to imagine today, but Grandpa and Grandma's home did not have running water and no inside toilet.  Water came from a manual pump located a few feet from the front porch.  Their toilet was an outhouse situated a few dozen yards away from their home, dug into the side hill.  There a worn path from between the house and the privy.  Not having inside facilities was an inconvenience in the spring, summer and fall, but must have been a real trial each winter! 


Footnote: The story of Vern's fall and Vern's rides to Hudson learned from a discussion with Pearl Ducklow on November 25, 2010.


Footnote: Pedigree back to Thomas & Elizabeth Ducklow:  Vern > George > Thomas Ducklow

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Birthday Roulette

[Published October 25, 2010]

Do you know ANYONE born on these dates?

October 31^st

February 29^th

March 10^th

June 28^th

August 19^th

In my database of over 1,700 descendants, spouses of descendants, and parents of spouses with known birthdays, no one was born on these five dates.  On average, with this size of group, every date would have four to five birthdays.  If the calendar where a roulette wheel, I wouldn’t place a bet on the little ball landing on any of these dates!   

Of course February 29^th is the rarest of days to have a birthday, because it only occurs every four years (due to leap year). Often people with this birthday celebrate it either on February 28^th or March 1^st.  Each of these dates in my database has six birthdays, making me wonder if some are actually February 29^th births.

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Size of the Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow Family Tree

[Published September 30, 2010]

How big is the Ducklow family tree today?  How many descendants do our common ancestral grandparents (Thomas and Elizabeth) have?  The short answer is that there are over 1,000 descendants.  Not all of the descendants have been identified, but the upper number is likely less than 1,500.  

Here is an update on the size of the family Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow / Dukelow family tree by generation as of September 2010:

1^st Generation: Thomas and Elizabeth had 13 children; 8 sons and 5 daughters

2^nd Generation: Those 13 begat 30 children

3^rd Generation: Those 30 begat 80 children

4^th Generation: Those 80 begat 205 children (so far)

5^th Generation: Those 205 begat 383 children (so far)

6^th Generation: Those 383 begat 303 children (so far)

7^th Generation: Those 303 begat 46 children (so far)

8^th Generation: None of the 46 has children yet.  The oldest four are between 17 and 24 years old—the 9^th generation will arrive soon enough.

Working on the family tree over the last four years has brought some perspective that this hobby will certainly be a life-long endeavor.  The number of descendants to identify becomes larger and larger over time.  As each generation comes into child producing years, the mathematics of geometric progression causes the numbers to explode. When the 7^th generation is completely done producing children there will be over 6,000 descendants forming the 8^th generation.  And when the 8^th generation is done having babies, their progeny, the 9th generation, will count over 15,000.    

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Footnote:  The average birthrate is estimated to be 2.51 children for each descendant. All numbers presented do include adopted children. The term begat is defined to mean, “Was the parent of.”  

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Did Christopher Columbus Need a Green Card?

[Published August 8, 2010]

Another recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune caught my attention.  On the front page of the August 6^th, 2010 edition was a story about St. Paul hosting The National Poetry Slam.  Think raucous wrestling-crowd behavior combined with rhyming in a competitive environment and you begin to get an idea.  This is a big deal to those involved and attracts spoken-word artists from across the country.  This weekend’s competition is the Super-Bowl event of the field.

While a national slam poetry contest is interesting in and of itself, it’s part of a poem recited by a New York man that caught my attention.  The Tribune article quotes Jamaal St. John, a New Yorker, giving a reading of a poem on immigrants and U.S. History, saying in part,

“Then ask them what their life would’ve been like if the Indians had had tighter immigration policies.” 

This line hit me hard.  I think he has a point. What would our world be like if the Native Americans had insisted that the first Europeans climb back upon their ships and sail back home?  Would there even had been an “us” to have this discussion if this had happened? 

When we debate immigration policy in America, we need to remember that our ancestors came to this land without an invitation and the first peoples of America did not ask us to see a “green card.”  

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