More Voices From Tenney

I recently had the pleasure of participating in some email conversations with Rev. Chuck Cooper, who served the Tenney [and Norcross] congregations from 1978 to 1980. He had the distinction of following Rev. Vern Schendel, who was an “institution” at the Tenney Church for 40+ years. Rev. Cooper had fond memories of Tenney, and shared some of them with me. He stated that the “foreign” car he brought with him to Tenney – a Datsun – was met with a certain degree of suspicion, and no one in the area could fix such a vehicle, so he had to bring it to Willmar. He comically reflected on congregational meetings which consisted of him, as the minister, officially presiding, and the others listening as “the 2 Als” (Al Manthie and Al Hungerford) basically conversed back and forth and conducted the church business.

I have also visited with Elaine Humann when I had a book signing at the Victor Lundeen Book Store in Fergus Falls. Elaine, a delightful person, is a cousin of Idella (Voss) Vorwerk, and was in the Campbell class of 1937 with Victor Kath. Elaine reminded me of four other people (besides the names I mentioned on a previous post on this blog) whose names appear on the quilt and who are still living. They are Lois Wittman Tracy, who lives in Fairmount, ND; Doris Janke Wawers, who lives in Breckenridge and Arizona; Elaine Grans Halls, who lives in Arizona; and Gereta Kath, who lives in Breckenridge.

Elaine also helped me solve the mystery of one of the names that appeared on the quilt. The name that appeared on the quilt appeared to be Esther “Hanberg,” when in fact it was Esther “Hassberg,” who was from Campbell. This occurred with several names during the course of my book research. The names are either unclear as written (embroidered) on the quilt, or are simply spelled wrong by the person who did the embroidery. In a time when most communication was done verbally rather than in the written form, it was not at all uncommon for people to not know how their own neighbor’s name was spelled—only what it sounded like.

Shirley (Pithey) Schlecht, daughter of Harry and Mae Pithey, told me that she was in first grade in the Tenney School when she moved out of the area with her family. She shared that she had so many fond memories of Tenney and its people. I heard from Durelle Pithey, who was married the James Pithey, also the offspring of Harry and Mae Pithey. James is now deceased, but Durelle enjoyed reading about the names that he mentioned so frequently from his years in the Tenney area.

I enjoyed hearing the reminiscences of Doris (Janke) Wawers, who was the daughter of F.G. ("Jim") and Myrtle Janke, who farmed just west of Tenney. It was particularly fun to hear of her stories of my grandfather’s store, The Larson Store, in Tenney. Doris recalled the times when she went in to the store with her mother to buy groceries. My Grandpa A.N. would allow Doris to write up the grocery slip and add up the numbers, I suppose to make Doris feel very important, as well as to give her some practice with her reading, writing, and arithmetic. Doris said that, one time after they had returned home from the store, she recalculated the prices and learned that she had made an error. Horrified, she and her mother went right back in to town that moment and took care of the situation and Doris was mighty relieved that my grandfather took the situation in stride.

Doris reported that her mother Myrtle was an excellent seamstress and made all of her clothes. She never owned what she referred to at that time as a “boughten” dress until she was a sophomore in high School. Doris recalled her mother sewing dresses for some of the other girls in town such as Lois Wittman, Alice Jacklitch, and Lillian Iler. When the Tenney Ladies Aid was working on a particular project to make articles of clothing for the poor in Africa or some other benevolent activity, they would say, “Myrtle, you make the first one, and we’ll all copy it.”

Dawayne Novak, son of Fritz and Leona Kath Novak, recalled going in to the Larson Store where there was a gumball machine. If the kids putting the coin into the gumball machine were lucky enough to get a yellow gumball with red stripes, they could turn it in to Mr. Larson for a free nickel treat.

Thank you so much, all of you, for these and many other reminiscences of our little town of Tenney. Please keep them coming!