25 Years Ago - 1985

Jill Hedquist, a 1985 Staples High School graduate, was crowned 1985 Region III Dairy Princess last Thursday at Alexandria. She will compete for the Princess Kay of the Milky Way title August 21, just prior to the state fair.

Dr. David C. Evans rec eived his degree of Doctor of Chir opractic (D.C.) during June com- mencement mencement exercises of Palmer College of Chiropractic, Davenport, Iowa. A native of Staples, Dr. Evans is the son of Mark and Marge Evans of Staples. Dr. Evans, his wife, Dr. Katherine Tomsich-Evans, also a Palmer graduate, and their two children play to make their home in Castle Rock, Colorado, where the doctor will open a private practice in the Denver area.

50 Years Ago - 1960

Staples police and Northern Pacific special agent, Lawrence Bona, were credited last Thursday evening with the apprehension of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry stolen from a Rugby, North Dakota jewelry store. According to Chief of Police William Card, two men approached a local man to buy a watch. The local man was suspicious and notified the police. The that time the men had fled into the railroad yards. The men, dropped two suitcases and other bits in the darkness and hopped a freight toward Minneapolis. The following morning local man Bill Barus found four rings and a watch on the street that had been dropped by the fleeing men the night before. Mr. Bona (NP agent) was notifi ed that two suitcases had been found. Inside the cases were 208 rings and about a dozen watches valued at over $4,000. The men were found sleeping in a freight car near Fridley and are being held for pickup by North Dakota officials.

Another new piece of modern equipment was recently added to the facilities of the Staples Municipal Hospital as the Auxiliary purchased the Aloe Explosion Proof Infant Incubator.

REMINISCENCES: The Staples World is by far our most conclusive source for Staples recorded history. As a matter of fact, almost all other research sources quote the paper. In conjunction with the paper, I sometimes use the Todd County Plat Book of 1906 to clarify some of the locations mentioned in the Staples World. Other sources include the early newspapers from Wadena, Long Prairie, Motley and Verndale. This is mainly due to the loss by fire of the early Staples World issues. It is often like putting together a giant puzzle that has no picture. Bearing this in mind, I depend on many sources to try to “get to the bottom” of some topic. There’s always a story but sometimes it is told over a period of years or even decades. This week I’m going to add little tidbits to the topics we’ve discussed so far this year. As usual the sources are many and varied.

First of all an e-mail from a Staples High School Class of 1959 graduate contacted me by e-mail. He brought up the subject of Jakee’s and informed me that half his education (if I know what he means) came from there. He said that he and many others almost lived there in the summertime by riding his bike there or hitching rides with golfers. He said, “Someday before I die, I want to go back to Jakee’s and undress in the weeds and take one last jump off that old pier if it is still there.” Yes Mike, the pier is still there. Even before the time of our youth though, Jakee’s was a special place. This little tidbit was excerpted from the Staples World Looking Back column to 1935: “The old swimming’ hole out at Jakey’s on the Crow Wing River is about to be dressed up. Bath houses have just been completed, board walks have been built, and diving boards are about to be placed. The ground of the river is the property of Terrace Golf Course and has been turned over to the Todd County Recreational office for supervised swimming.” Shocked am I. It only had the pier for as long as I’ve been around.

I guess we found out the official spelling is Jakey’s as it is registered that way with Todd County. This makes me wonder if a story I heard from Mr. Dahl isn’t correct. He had his daughter contact me and said that the mailbox on the property by Jakey’s read, Jaquis Jacobson or something similar spelling wise. Thanks Mike for your input on this and your information on the open burning dump in Staples.

On another old subject regarding the Brickyard School, I was contacted by phone by Ida Marie Arndt Kolpack of Fargo. She said she was one of the final teachers there in the late 40’s and particularly remembers

a student named

Beatrice Haugen but called “Posie.” She said up until

a short time ago she had a roommate in her assisted living home by the name of Lenore Huff. Lenore’s nephew Chuck Huff visited and always brought a copy of the Staples World and read to Lenore and Ida Marie from the Looking Back and Reminiscences column. Apparently Chuck Huff still stops by with the Staples World even though his aunt has passed. (What a nice man you are, Mr. Huff.)

Mrs. Kolpack was able to describe the way the interior of the remodeled Brickyard School looked. She said upon entering the little porch area you were actually in a sort of wide hallway with an indoor bathroom on each side. Also on each side after the bathroom doors were coat hooks forming a sort of cloak room. The wide hallway led into the main “one room” school. She said there was a furnace in the basement but she didn’t have to go down there. Perhaps it was a gas or fuel oil furnace. Ida Marie was taught at Lincoln School’s Normal Training Teacher classes and lived across the street from the Lincoln school. She had a special memory of being evaluated by the Minnesota Board of Education committee at the Brickyard School where all of the committee members sat in the front of the school and watched her teach. It was Christmas time and she had decorated the borders of the blackboard with little paper Christmas trees and the committee didn’t like that. Otherwise she was fine. Thank you Ida, for being another source of information on the Brickyard School. At this time I will deliver your message. (To: Lorna Becker Anderson, friend from the class of 1949 - Hope to see you at the reunion this summer. From: Ida Marie Arndt Kolpack) Thanks for calling Ida Marie.

To contact Margo call

218 894-3742 or stevenmargo77@msn.com,

501 2nd Street, SW, Staples, MN 56479.