Barnes County: A Moment in Time

1923 100 Years Ago...

Blinding light causes bad automobile accident

Three persons are badly injured and one shaken up as a result of an automobile accident six miles west of the city last night. Blinding light cause.

The Times Record tries to give all the facts in matters of this kind just as they happened, but when people are reluctant to give the details, it is hard work to be accurate. We endeavored to get the names of the parties participating in this accident from Riverside Hospital, but were told by some one over there that the people did not want to get their names in print, and were refused, so we managed to “squeeze” a little information out of one of the party. We think it is foolish policy for officials to surprise facts that the public is entitled to. However, this accident occurred last night about ten-thirty, a mile west of the Hugh McDonald farm at the turn as you go north. In the party were M. E. Thoreson, a real estate dealer who lives we are told at Fargo; F.A. Mitchell, a barber who has a shop at Hannaford, N.D., and two school teachers, Miss Rekstad and Miss Skogstad - these are the names given to us personal by Mr. Mitchell. We presume that they are correct. Two of them are in the hospital badly damaged. One is out with a broken collar bone and the other escaped with a bad shaking up. The party were coming from Hannaford in a big Essex car and when approaching the corner one mile west of the Hugh McDonald farm met another car coming at the turn, the blinding lights on the car from the east bewildered the driver of the Essex and before the party knew what had happened to them they were rolling over and over in the ditch. The car was smashed up very badly, Thoreson had three ribs broken and his ankle broken, Mr. Mitchell had his collar bone broken and some other bruises, while one of the teachers, we are not positive which one, had two or three ribs broken besides other bruises, while one of the school teachers escaped with a good scare and a bad shaking up. Clifford McDonald happened to be driving home from the country about that time and discovered the party in that predicament. He stepped on the gas and came to town for aid and a doctor and secured Dr. A. C. MacDonald, who went out with Clifford to render first aid. The injured were brought into town and taken to Riverside Hospital where they were taken care of. The party got out very lucky at that, we should say, and can thank God that they are alive to tell the story.

We do not know what they were coming for at that time of night, but as they seemed unwilling to give the newspaper the single and straight facts, we will presume they were out for a joy ride, and if so, then their joy ride has been turned into sorrow. We are glad that they escaped as well as they did, but in the future if they ever happen to get into any such trouble we would advise them to tell the newspaper man the truth. It will sound better in print and also ease their consciences.

Young men make thrilling rescue

Docs give way at Chautauqua Park carrying scores of co-eds into the Sheyenne

Did you ever go to a picnic where someone didn’t fall in or capsize a boat or experience some thrill or other? Well, the all-school picnic was no exception to the rule. This is the way it happened. Practically all of the students were down at the boys’ swimming hole, watching “Bocco” Feldman and other young men perform on the springboards and stands. Prof. Meyer was announcing the men and stunts and was rushing them off with his prize rifle. Many of the young ladies were sitting on the docks and stands. Suddenly out of a blue sky, there was a crash and then screams of voices, as the docks gave way. A few young men standing in the background knew instantly what had happened and hurriedly made their way through the excited mob. The quick work of the rescuers was due to Prof. Meyer and his bass voice. “Back! Back! Let the men save them”, cried he. Altogether, the girls received only a scare, and a dunking. This accident might have been worse had it not been for the determined action of McClure, Hutchinson, Luesson, Soroos and Larson. However, the girls were not to be cheated out of the eats and ice-cream and were rushed home by Mr. Lee, and back again in time for lunch.

1948 75 Years Ago...

Body of Sgt. Leo Peyton arrives today

Former Company G members and other military personnel of World War II were at the Northern Pacific depot this afternoon to greet the remains of Sgt. Leo J. Peyton, who died of typhus while in service in India. His body was recently returned from overseas and came here from Kansas City.

A military escort accompanied the body and will remain here for the funeral service and interment. There was little of the excitement and the fury of was as the men in uniform escorted the flag-draped casket to the Hub Peterson Funeral Home where it will remain until the final rites.

Funeral Mass was held May 28 at St. Catherine’s Catholic Church with Father James Dawson officiating. Burial in the St. Catherine’s cemetery with full military honors being accorded him.

Sgt. Peyton was born October 12, 1919 at Alexander, N. Dak. and received his education in Valley City. When war came to these United States it found Leo a member of Co. G of the 164th Infantry and ready to serve his country.

He left Valley City with the company in February of 1941 and sailed from San Francisco on March 19, 1941, landing in Melbourne, Australia and then on to New Caledonia for final staging before entering combat in the Guadalcanal campaign. In September of 1943, Sgt. Peyton volunteered for duty with the famous “Merrill’s Marauders” and was accepted. The duty for which Sgt. Peyton offered his services consisted of penetrating behind enemy lines in Japanese held Burma and to clear the way for construction of the now famous Ledo road.

The Marauders were foot soldiers who marched and fought their way through insect and enemy infested jungles and over mountains. Sgt. Peyton, although small in stature, was truly a great soldier and won many honors for his group as well as himself. It was while on this operation that he became stricken with the dread typhus fever and died June 7, 1944 in a small station hospital at Dinuan, India. A military funeral was held for him at that time. In attendance were several of his soldier friends formerly of Co. G. who had volunteered and joined the Marauders with him.

1973 50 Years Ago...

Paul Fjelde to receive VCSC’s

Distinguished Alumnus award Recipient of the first Distinguished Alumnus award at Valley City State College Commencement May 25 is Paul Fjelde, North Dakota’s most famous sculptor.

Although he has not been in North Dakota since he left here as a young man to work in the studio of Lorado Taft in Chicago, there are several pieces of his sculpture in Valley City, Fargo-Moorhead, and around the state.

Now 81 years old, Paul Fjelde will be unable to

come to Valley City to receive the award because of the illness of his wife, but his son Dr. Rolf Fjelde, famous in his own right as America’s foremost Ibsen Scholar and translator, will accept the award in his father’s behalf.

Rolf Fjelde, also a dramatist, poet, critic and professor of English and Drama at Pratt Institute, is one in a line of distinguished artists and scholars. The first was Jakob Fjelde, the Minneapolis sculptor who did the Minnehaha sculpture in Minnehaha Park, Ole Bull in Loring Park, and numerous other works of art in Minneapolis and St. Paul including the bust of P. B. Walker in the Walker Art Center and of Charles A, Lindberg Sr., in the Minnesota Historical Society Building in St. Paul. Jakob Fjelde was a rising young sculptor in Norway before he came to America in 1888.

In spite of his fame Jakob Fjelde died destitute at the age of 36. A huge benefit was held for his wife and children in the Lyceum Theatre at which Cyrus Northrup delivered the eulogy and members of the leading families in Minneapolis were patrons.

Mrs. Fjelde moved with her children, Paul, Kathryn, Margaret, and Astrid to a homestead near Wing N.D. From there Paul went to Valley City Normal School to study art with Mary Deem, then art supervisor.

Recognizing his talent, she arranged for his move to Chicago to study with Lorado Taft. Later he attended the Beaux - Arts Institute of Design and the Art Student’s KLeague in New York, the Royal Academy of Art in Copenhagen and the Academic de le Grande Chaumiere in Paris. He became professor of art at Pratt Institute in New York in 1929 and remained there until 1958. He was also editor of National Sculpture Review for four years.

Now retired Professor Emeritus of Pratt Institute, Paul Fjelde and his wife live year around in Orleans on Cape Cod. Paul’s sister Kathryn taught music at Valley City Normal and still teaches music in Brooklyn, New York. His sister Astrid was at one time the leading soprano with the NBC Radio Grand Opera Company.

Paul Fjelde’s first significant commission (and one of his most important works because of its location) came in 1914 when he was asked to do a bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln for Frogner Park in Oslo, Norway as a gift from the people of North Dakota. Paul’s uncle, Dr. Herman Fjelde, pioneer Fargo doctor who spent his life in creating an interchange of culture between Norway and America, was influential in arranging for this gift. Visitors to Frogner Park today are amazed to find Lincoln among the expressionistic sculptures of Vigeland there. The original plaster bust from which the bronze was made is in the Valley City State College Library. There are replicas in Chicago and Hillsboro, N.D.

Paul Fjelde has been recognized for his accomplishments with an American Scandinavian Foundation Traveling Fellowship, an Eastern Arts Association Citation, the American Artists Professional League Gold Medal for Sculpture, the Pauline Law Prize of the Allied Artists of America, the Lindsey Morris Memorial Prize and the Herbert Adams Award from the National Sculpture Society.