This sound clip highlights the Oscar and Tilda Lauring Family of Roseau MN. The Roseau County Historical Society prepared this radio script to share county history through broadcasts on KJ102 FM in Roseau. The topics highlight the history of Roseau County and the people that lived there.
Sebastian Hernandez was born in 1930, served in the military, taught in St. Paul schools from 1961 to 1971 and became the Mexican-American consultant to the school system in 1973.
Jagadish Desai was born in India and came to the United States in 1959 to study chemical engineering. He came to Minnesota in 1962. He was one of the founders of the India Association of Minnesota [IAM], formerly known as the India Club. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Coming to the United States to study chemical engineering - initial difficulty finding a job - meeting and marrying his wife - moving to Minnesota - first job with Gould-National Batteries - housing and job discrimination - meeting other Indians through the University of Minnesota's Indo-American club - involvement with the International Institute, and subsequently the Festival of Nations - involvement in the foundation of the India Club - process of inviting speakers, musicians, artists, and others from India to speak and give performances in Minnesota - involvement in Bicentennial activities - meeting people of various ethnic backgrounds in Minnesota - becoming a United States citizen and involvement in politics - obtaining his law degree - and retirement.
Charles Goldfus was born Oct. 1, 1897, in north Minneapolis. Both parents were from Lithuania. In 1929 he married Sylvia Jacobs of St. Paul. Goldfus opened a liquor store in downtown Minneapolis in 1934, and in the 1940s he became a partner in the Dorset Hansen Catering Company. In 1947 he sold both businesses and moved to California. At the time of the interview, he and his wife lived in Palm Springs, California. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: His family's house on Lyndale Place, near 6th Avenue North and Lyndale Avenue - many north Minneapolis businesses and people in the Jewish community - receiving liquor license number 1 after the repeal of Prohibition, and opening his liquor store in February of 1934 in the Plymouth Building, 523 Hennepin Avenue - developing his own private brand labels, such as King's Favorite scotch - and entering the catering businesses.
Hector Garcia was born in Mexico and raised in Mexico City. Garcfa graduated from the Instituto Tecnol=gico Aut=nomo de Mexico studying business administration. He moved to Minnesota in 1973 and later created MEX-US, a consulting company. Garcia worked as executive director for the Spanish Speaking Affairs Council and the National Conference for Community and Justice. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Family background - campesino movement - childhood - pollution in Mexico City - poverty - racism - education - Latino culture - lack of diversity in Hawthorne, California - Minnesota weather - jobs held - businesses opportunities explored - North American Free Trade Agreement - decline of Mexican peso - anti-Semitism - wanting to help the lower class - organizations - Latino community - and the Legacy Fund.
This sound clip highlights four Pencer Column written in 1945-1946 bu Robert Wicklund, the Pencer Philosopher. The Roseau County Historical Society prepared this radio script to share county history through broadcasts on KJ102 FM in Roseau. The topics highlight the history of Roseau County and the people that lived there.
This sound clip highlights the History of Polaris Industries written by Mitchell Johnson for the Roseau County Centennial Book 1995. The Roseau County Historical Society prepared this radio script to share county history through broadcasts on KJ102 FM in Roseau. The topics highlight the history of Roseau County and the people that lived there.
The Roseau County Historical Society prepared this radio script to share county history through broadcasts on KJ102 FM in Roseau. The topics highlight the history of Roseau County and the people that lived there.
Interview with Charles Norman Hicks. Charles was born in 1906. His wife was Dorothy May Haines. He was the grandson of William Everett Hicks and Theresa Thomas Hicks, early founders of Alexandria, Minnesota. The Hicks family donated the land for the courthouse, as well as the land for the Methodist and Congregational Churches. He recounts his early childhood in Alexandria, Minnesota. He also discusses his later life events in California, including his education at UCLA, USC and his later teaching career.
Stan Cowan was involved in the communications field in Moorhead and Fargo from 1921 until 1967. He started the business section of the Forum in 1949, which he continued for 17 years. He held an interest in aviation and saw Hector Airport instituted. He was the first president of local PTA, active in Trinity Church and other civic organizations.
Robert "Bob" Wallace (1923-2007) presents the history of the foundry in Lake City, Minnesota including its many name changes from H. Gillett and Sons to Gillett & Eaton and eventually to AE Goetz.
Roy M. Nordine (1904-1989) discusses his career working at the Jewell Nursery Company in Lake City, Minnesota, the Davey Tree Expert Company in the eastern United States, and at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. He discusses his collaboration with the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum on cold-hardy plants, and the impact of tree pests such as Dutch elm disease.
William Dosland discusses his years as a lawyer, including his involvement with the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association and his work for them during the acquisition of the American Crystal Sugar Company. His involvement as a Minnesota state senator, with the city of Moorhead and on the Board of Regents for the University of Moorhead. Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1927, William Dosland moved to Moorhead after World War II.
In 1904 Florence Karp's parents came to the United States from Russia, where her father was a university student, and Karp was born in New York City on May 28, 1906. After two years in New York, the family moved to South Dakota to raise sheep. Five years later they moved to Edmonton, Alberta, to take up another land grant, but they lived in the town. In 1922 they moved to Minneapolis, where Karp's parents became superintendents of the Jewish Home for the Aged (later the Sholom Home). In 1926 Karp graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in music. That year she also married Paul Kunian, and they had two children, Michael and Diana (Mrs. Bruce Lewis). She was active in Reform Judaism at Temple Israel and was a leader of the Zionist women's group Hadassah and of the Minneapolis Federation for Jewish Services. She also was an early supporter of Hubert Humphrey and a Democratic Farmer Labor Party activist and fund raiser. Paul Kunian died in 1964, and in 1973 she married Francis Schoff, a non-Jewish widower. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Early life on the South Dakota sheep ranch - working her way through the University of Minnesota - her courtship and marriage - her parents' background, motivation for emigration, and religious and political beliefs - her own religious and political beliefs and activities - the Depression - anti-Semitism - and Israel.
Hyun Sook Han was born in about 1938 in Seoul, Korea. She was the oldest of ten children in her family, only seven of whom survived to adulthood. Her parents grew up in a rural area of South Korea but moved to Seoul as young adults. Her father was an office worker for an electric company. In 1945, when she was seven years old, Korea gained independence after 40 years of Japanese rule, but five years later the Korean War began. It was a period of severe hardship for residents of Seoul, who had to evacuate the city in January of 1951 and move with United Nations troops to the south. With widespread starvation and illness among the refugees, the three youngest children in her family died, and none of the others could attend school until they returned to Seoul in October of 1952. Seoul in 1952 was the scene of continuing food shortages and lack of adequate shelter, and although her father had a job, he was not paid initially. In 1958 she entered Ewha Women's University, and remembering the many abandoned babies and children she had seen during the wartime evacuation to the south she decided to prepare for a career in social work. After graduation from Ewha, she married and had a daughter, and in 1964 she accepted a job with International Social Services, an agency that handled American adoptions of racially mixed children born in Korea as a result of the American military presence. In 1971 she was selected by the U.S.-sponsored Council for International Programs for a four-month period of study and training at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work and the Children's Home Society of St. Paul. After her return to Korea she applied for a job at the Children's Home Society, and in 1975 she immigrated with her husband and two children to take a job in the agency's Korean adoption program. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Hyun Sook Han discusses her family background in Korea - hardships of the Korean War period - and the place of adoptions in the Confucian culture of Korea. She also describes the changing roles of men and women in the immigrant community in Minnesota - problems of child-rearing - difficulties for Koreans in forming friendships with Americans - the role of the church - and problems of many Korean wives of American soldiers in Minnesota. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Hyun Sook Han is an articulate representative of the women in the Korean immigrant community and provides valuable information on the changing family structure and special groups such as adopted children and servicemen's wives.
In this interview, Arthur Weisberg gives an account of his life as a Jewish Minnesotan and legal practitioner. He recalls grew up on the North Side of Minneapolis and how his father was a dentist who ended up as an investor. Weisberg goes on to describe his time at North High, becoming a journalist in central Minnesota, working in the film industry in Minneapolis, and finally attending Minneapolis Law School (now William Mitchell) during the late 1940s. Weisberg tells about how he subsequently worked for Dorsey law firm and how he was active in community service. The two talk about notable people at virtually every stage of his life, with particular attention to Jewish culture in law and business in Minnesota. This interview was conducted by Linda Schloff as a part of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest Jewish Judges and Lawyers History Project.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Roy Axtell is interviewed by Tom Imes and Alice McLain about his life in the forest area of Lake of the Woods, specifically Bankton. He describes when his father homesteaded, the Resettlement Administration, and logging.
Lincoln Gada was born in India where he attended school and college. He worked in Singapore before coming to the U.S. in the mid-1990s. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Family background - education - experiences in Singapore - arrival and adjustment to Minnesota - Indian community in Minnesota - work experience in India and Minnesota - differences in work environments, promotional opportunities and resources between India and Minnesota - consulting work and traveling - prevalence of computers in India - marriage - differences between Indian and American parenting styles - family values - maintaining ties with family in India - participation in Indian associations - future goals - impressions of U.S. before and after moving here.
Gladys Jacobs was born in 1903 and raised in Minneapolis. Her father operated Jacobs Jewelry in Minneapolis, and her mother's family was involved in the G. Pflaum and Sons cigar factory in St. Anthony. Jacobs married Harold Finkelstein (of the Finkelstein and Rubin theater chain) of St. Paul in 1926. In 1936 they changed their last name to Field. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Growing up in a large German-Jewish family - her close relationships with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins - incidences of anti-Semitism that she experienced - her involvement with the Minneapolis Art Institute, the Walker Art Center, and community and Jewish organizations - and her feelings about being Jewish.
Marissa Theis was born in San Simon, Pampanga, Philippines. Subjects discussed include: Early life in the Philippines - her family - leaving the Philippines for Saudi Arabia to work - working as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia to financially support her family back in the Philippines - meeting her husband in an online chat room - coming to the United States and arriving in Baudette, Minnesota - running a business with her husband - her family coming to visit her in Baudette from the Philippines.
In this oral history by David H. Overy, Carl F. VanderHaar details his service experiences in the Minnesota National Guard and U.S. Army from 1931 to 1952. VonderHaar was born in Albertville, Minnesota on June 21, 1913, and was raised in Little Falls where he spent his adult life. His service includes early surveying and construction at Camp Ripley, motor repair during World War II, and later quartermaster duties in both World War 2 and Korea. VonderHaar served overseas in Ireland, Africa, France, and the Philippines. In Minnesota, he ran several successful businesses between his terms of military service. VonderHaar also discusses Japanese internment, Vietnam and the Gulf War. The father of four he died on April 27, 2014, at the age of 100 in Little Falls, Minnesota.
Edgardo E. Rodriguez was born in Puerto Rico. Rodriguez worked at Price Waterhouse as a senior accountant before being lured to International Multifoods as an assistant controller. Once retired, Rodriguez became the treasurer of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Chicano Latino Affairs Council (CLAC). He became involved with communities after joining the Metropolitan Economic Development Association (MEDA), a nonprofit dedicated in helping communities of color with their businesses. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Family background - religious influences - financial struggles - education - job history as an accountant - Minnesota weather and ethnic environment - MEDA involvement - Hispanic community and culture - Venezuela - helping Latino businesses - Small Business Champion of the Year for Minnesota and the Midwest - addressing education and documentation for the Latino community - importance of learning English and computer skills for Latinos - music and art - VocalEssence - and community participation.
Keith Ewing, Coordinator of Library Systems & Digital Services at St. Cloud State University, retired in July 2017. Graduating with an MLS in 1979 from University of Texas at Austin, Ewing went on to work at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Nagoya University of Commerce and Business Administration, and in system and digital services roles at St. Cloud State University. In his interview, Keith disccusses internet and digital library technology in libraries, the inception of the Minnesota Digital Library, work on the first Minitex MEIR task force, the building of a new library at St. Cloud State University, mentors, and dinner with Ray Bradbury. This interview includes an audio recording and full transcript.
This lecture is part of a series of lectures presented during Bethel University's Founders Week. The annual Founders Week conference centered around a contemporary theme. Invited speakers engaged the theme from divergent perspectives to an audience of pastors, laypersons, and Bethel college and seminary students. Note: The written transcript which accompanies this audio recording varies from the audio file. This written trasncript is the base test of the lecture; but slight variances in speech patterns and language will be found in the audio recording.
In an oral history, Oscar Gravdahl talks about growing up on a farm near Pequot lakes in the ealy 1900s, his schooling, his work in a logging camp and with the railroad, what Pequot Lakes was like and conditions that existed during the Depression, and his service with the fire department.
