Voices from the Past

September 5, 1924

Popular School Teacher Keeps Marriage Secret Three Months

When the teacher of the upper grades in the Broadus grade school left for her vacation in Minnesota this summer, she kept inviolate the secret of her marriage so that not even her most intimate friends knew of the important event. All continued to know her as Miss Bernice Peaslee. Somehow or other the news leaked out just prior to her return here last Friday. She had knelt at Hymen’s altar with Ian Thompson of Broadus, the two being united in conjugal bliss at Terry, Mont., on June 2. The bride has resumed her teaching position in the school here while her husband at present is associated with Contractor R.E. Nalley in construction of a school house on the Mizpah in District 28.

Powell Bros. Threshing Rig Explodes, Destroyed By Fire

The threshing machine owned by the Powell Bros., exploded Tuesday on Ranch Creek at the place of Ed Taack. Almost immediately afterward, fire started and consumed the separator’s wood work and leaving a mass of bent and ruined metal parts. The explosion was attributed to an electrification of spontaneous combustion of dust particles.

Enrollment of 96 Public Schools Here

The Broadus public schools opened on Tuesday morning with a most encouraging enrollment, the total of which is now ninety-six pupils, showing an increased enrollment of ten from the previous year.

The high school faculty consists of Miss Helen E. Featherstone, principal; Harlow Thompson of Crookston, Minn., department of science and history, and William Richardson of What Cheer, Iowa, department of mathematics and Spanish, and athletic work.

The high school has an enrollment of forty-six, with a freshman class of twenty-one pupils.

The grade school building has Miss Geraldine Torguson of Valley City, N.D. in charge of the primary department and play ground work, with twenty-one youngsters enrolled in grades 1, 2 and 3. Fred Thompson of Wisconsin will teach the 4th, 5th and 6th grades in the room previously occupied by Mrs. Ian Thompson (nee Bernice Peaslee). Mrs. Thompson now has the 7th and 8th grades in the large room on the first floor of the Peterson building and her enrollment is sixteen. Miss Veronica Brown of Dickinson, N.D., teaches the Sand Creek School which is part of the Broadus school system and her enrollment thus far is fourteen.

September 2, 1949

Repaving of Highway Finished Last Week

Repaving of Highway No. 212 for 3 miles west of Broadus was accomplished last weekend by a maintenance crew of the State Highway Department. This piece of the highway was originally oiled in the summer of 1936 and has been kept in repair since that time. The repavement is from the hotel corner in Broadus to the junction with the Ashland road 3 miles west of town. Additional gravel was placed on the highway and this was oiled and worked into the surface of the road with the use of maintainers.

Senate Committee Cuts Moorhead Dam Funds

The Senate last week passed the Interior Department appropriation bill containing the O’Mahoney amendment which cut the appropriation for Moorhead Dam to $500,000 and stopped further construction on the dam. The bill now goes to the conference committee where an effort will be made to strike out the amendment. The Bureau of Reclamation, believing that the amendment will remain in the bill, has issued the following statement regarding the immediate future of the dam:

Plans to close the Bureau of Reclamation’s Moorhead Dam government camp near Moorhead, Mont., as soon as current camp construction contracts have been completed, are being made in order to meet requirements contained in the Interior Department appropriation bill for Fiscal Year 1950 now being considered by the Senate, according to a statement received by K.F. Vernon, director of the Bureau’s Region 6, from D.C. Ketcham, manager of the Yellowstone District, in which the proposed Moorhead Dam in located.

The Committee on Appropriations of the Senate recommends $500,000 for the Fiscal Year 1950 budget for the Powder Division, of which Moorhead Dam is a part. The committee recommended that a provision be added to the bill reading, “Provided, that no part of this or prior appropriations shall be used for construction, nor for further commitments to construction of Moorhead Dam and Reservoir, Montana, or any feature thereof until a definite plan report thereon has been completed, reviewed by the States of Wyoming and Montana, and approved by the Congress.

(The Interior Department appropriation bill for Fiscal Year 1950 as passed by the House of Representatives contained an allocation of $3,400,000 for the Powder Division of the Missouri River Basin Project in Montana and Wyoming.)

Vernon said that the District Manager’s report stated that current camp construction contracts will be completed by about September 15 and at that time assigned personnel would be transferred to other work, the buildings would be fenced and boarded and the camp abandoned except for a caretaker. All other preconstruction work, except for some phases of materials testing, will be completed by mid September. Preliminary surveys of the irrigation facilities planned downstream from Moorhead Damsite will be completed the following month and the definite plan report will be finished by January 1950 or sooner if weather conditions permit field work to continue without interruption this fall, according to the report from the District Manager.

Ketcham explained in his report to the Regional Director that in Fiscal Year 1950, work on the Moorhead Unit will be confined to the preparation of the definite plan report and final assembly of preconstruction data. Designs and specifications for Moorhead Dam are being completed in the office of the Bureau’s Chief Engineer in Denver.

In the upper reaches of Powder River Basin, land-classification work and surveys are under way and expected to be completed this fall. Preliminary field work on the Piney and Kaycee Units of the Powder Division will be completed before winter and similar work will be performed on other Powder River Unites in Fiscal Year 1950. Also in process at this time on the Powder Division are surveys and exploratory drilling on the Willow Park, Clouds Peak, Lake DeSmet and Middle Fork Reservoir sites, Ketcham told Vernon.

September 5, 1974

Music Boosters to Sell Birthday Calendars

The Music Boosters Club announced that the organization will be selling the Community Birthday Calendar again this year.

Anyone in the area wishing to buy a calendar and have their birthdays and anniversary placed on the calendar should write the information down and send it with a check for $2.50 (made payable to the Music Boosters Club) to Illa Dee Talcott, Box 391, Broadus Montana 59317.

The deadline for information to be placed on the calendar is September 12, 1974.

September 9, 1999

Gardner Receives State 4-H Award

“I have researched different woods, finishes and techniques to make a wood project, and have enjoyed being creative and doing my own design work,” explained Ren Gardner in his application for a State Award in the 4-H Woodworking project. Ren was one of 20 youth from across Montana selected to receive this prestigious 4-H award. Ren is the son of Doug and Kerry Gardner of Hammond.

Ren’s growth and leadership in his woodworking project were significant factors in receiving this important award. Another key factor was Ren’s dedication to his community. Ren has spent many hours in service to his community picking up garbage along the highway, building benches for the softball field, attending the Governor’s Summit on Youth, building wooden mannequins to display 4-H garments at the fair, cooking hamburgers for the local 4-H club and sharing with others his love for working with wood.

As part of his application for a state award, Ren submitted a video for his creative work. The “creative work” was a new addition to the application process for a state award this year. The video demonstrated Ren’s learning and work completed in his woodworking project.