April 2014 Newsletter
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Palmer Historical Society Preserving Our Past * Sharing Our Stories * Making History for Future Generations Volume XXX No.4 April 2014 Newsletter PO Box 1935 Palmer, AK 99645 * 316 E. Elmwood Ave. (facing Colony Inn) [email protected] * 907-745-1935 Your PHS Board and Support Team Sheri Hamming President/Secretary 746-1295 Greetings from your PHS President: Barb Lentz Thomas Wonderfully warm spring sunshine calls all Alaskans to get out and enjoy! Beautiful V.P. / CHM Docents 376-5802 Bluebird skies! Can’t stay inside the house! The dust will be there tomorrow. “No Joan Campbell complaining allowed”, I remind myself as I tend to spring yard duty after a winter with three Treasurer/Membership 745-4157 dogs. I imagine my summer lawn - lush and green, the roses and lilacs in bloom and dogs picking up after themselves. A girl can dream Gerry Keeling I gravitate toward my small greenhouse just to stand inside and absorb the heat. I Trustee/CHM 745-3703 look around at the remnants of last year’s tomatoes, peppers and hanging baskets. I’m anxious to get my hands in the dirt, in the gardens outside the windows, to uncover new Carol Strouse growth of perennials pushing against the blanket of mulchy leaves. My mind snaps back Trustee 745-3532 to the task at hand, first things first. Dogs don’t pick up after themselves after all. The unglamorous work of cleaning must be done, with no other volunteers. I pick up the scoop John Stuart and push the wheelbarrow to the next spot. At least I’m outside. The sun is shining, so no Trustee/Go-To Dude 745-3462 complaining. Spring cleaning at our colony house, my mind is consumed with thoughts of Onabel Carol Lombardo Campbell and Lulubelle Bouwens, two colonist women who proceeded me in cleaning this Trustee/Archivist 745-3118 cozy dwelling. I sweep and mop the beautifully restored wood floors - did they wish for carpet? I vacuum the Matanuska glacial silt - did they tire of the cracks in the siding (now Jean Krupa filled with insulation) letting in streams of dust? Did they sit on the front porch gazing at Program Chairperson 746-5770 Pioneer Peak as I do, waiting for the linens to dry on the clothesline? Did clotheslines even work in the dusty yards of the 1930’s? Did they shake their rugs out the front door and look JoAnn Utt at the same cottonwood tree? As I make the beds in the two upstairs bedrooms, I imagine Door Prizes 376-4938 the Bouwens family with their large brood. Who slept where and with whom? How many little boys in each bed, how many girls in a bed? I wonder if the lazy flies buzzing through Sharon Benson the open front door make the same path they did years ago. I see in my mind’s eye the Publicist 745-4913 unending children’s footprints on wood floors, stacks of shoes, galoshes, and work boots Clyde & June Oberg gracing the back door… Hospitality 745-3567 I talked with Wayne Bouwens this morning and shared my thoughts with him. I wondered out loud if some of the scars on the wood floors were from his family. He told Barbara Hecker me about his dad butchering moose on the kitchen table. He told me that Norman Campbell called him this morning and he’d shared the story of the Campbell home with him. Norman Newsletter 746-0545 just moved back to the area. He probably can’t imagine his childhood home is now a vacation rental known as the Campbell House, and that people from around the world come to Palmer to stay there and learn the history of Palmer and the Colonists. Now Campbell House guests sit on the front porch in awe of Pioneer Peak, looking past the old cottonwood tree, and make their own memories. Onabel and Lulubelle, two historic colonist women, you consume my mind every time I clean your house. If only these walls could talk… ~ Sheri Hamming Palmer Historical Society Newsletter * Vol XXX * No 4 * April 2014 P a g e 1 | 6 th April 16 - Talis Colberg: “Abraham Lincoln, Martians, and the Alaska State Fair” Which statement is correct? The Experiment Station; nearing its 100th birthday, was a legacy of Abraham Lincoln. Notes & Reminders The farming community preceding the Experimental Station benefitted from the Experimental Station and Barb Lentz Thomas, V.P. Docent Wrangler: founded the local chapter of the Grange. As part of Spring Cleaning, the Colony The Grange became the energy source for the creation House Museum sent an all-call for a of the Matanuska Valley Agricultural and Industrial Fair volunteer to wash the CHM windows. Association which in turn became the Alaska State Dawn Campbell volunteered and, oh-my!, Fair. do the windows look shiny and bright! All the above. Thank you, Dawn! None of the above. Barb also reminds all Docents (and interested parties) of the Docent gathering The Palmer Historical Society on April 16th will feature speaker Talis Colberg, who serves on Monday, April 14, 1:30 p.m. at the as Director of the Matanuska-Susitna College. He graduated Palmer High School in 1976, Colony House Museum. They will be Pacific Lutheran University in 1979, and Pepperdine University School of Law in 1983. His Ph.D. organizing for the 2014 season and was earned in Northern Political History and Culture from the UAF in 2008. Colberg’s forming the docent schedule. “If we don’t dissertation title is "M.D. Snodgrass: The Founder of the Alaska State Fair". The core of his eat, we don’t meet,” says Barb, so research came from the substantial files of Snodgrass’s personal correspondence that are munchies and sippies are in for you. archived at the Rasmussen Library at UAF. The topic for his PHS presentation will be, “Abraham Lincoln, Martians and the Alaska Joan Campbell, Treasurer and Membership: State Fair.” Colberg will speak to the origins and growth of three enduring Valley institutions: I’ve received a gratifying number of new the Matanuska Valley Federal Experiment Station, the Grange and the Alaska State Fair. and renewing memberships in the past Colberg was appointed Attorney General for Alaska in 2006, twice elected to the Matanuska- few weeks. Hoorah! (A little reminding Susitna Borough Assembly and twice elected as borough mayor. He’s presided over the Alaska goes a l-o-n-g way!) Dues-paying State Fair Board and the Palmer Rotary Club. He chairs the Alaska State Humanities Forum members not only have the satisfaction of and serves on the Board of Directors of the Alaska Sea Life Center. sustaining the goals of PHS’s mission, but A striking resume such as Colberg’s indicates an upbringing rich in story, achievement and also the choice of a print copy, and/or an community service. Indeed, his grandfather, Dr. Arthur J. Colberg, served as a medical electronic copy of the newsletter. (Our e- missionary for the Augusta Lutheran church in China. His grandmother, Ethel, met Arthur in Minnesota and followed him to China where they were married in 1922. Dr. Colberg practiced newsletter is sent free for the asking medicine, first as an intern at the Rockefeller Peking Union Medical Institute, and then for thirty without charge or obligation of years in central China before coming to Palmer in 1949. Already at an age when retirement membership – just contact me at seemed plausible, Dr. Colberg left Palmer in the mid-1960s for further service in the Pribilof [email protected] or Barbara at Islands. From there the couple worked at a mission hospital in Cameroon, Africa for another [email protected] with your email three years. address.) Talis’s father was born in China. When Jim was 15, the family made an unplanned Dues cover the calendar year, Jan – departure due to civil war. Jim taught at various locations in Alaska and served as a principal for Dec. You may pay by check through the State Operated Schools. He became principal of Palmer Junior High when it was still located in mail at PHS, PO Box 1935, Palmer, AK Central School (now the Borough Building.) He is an avid pilot and continues to fly regularly. Jim 99645, Attn: Joan Campbell, Treasurer. and his wife, Dzintra, have three children. Dzintra and her family sought refuge from the Soviet You may pay by check, credit card, or Occupation of Latvia. After a time in a German refugee camp, the family was relocated by the cash at our monthly programs. American Lutheran Church to the U.S. Arriving at age 13, Dzintra learned English as a Individual Dues: $25.00 teenager. She completed her teacher training at UAA, though she spent most of her life raising Household Dues: $40.00 her three children. Patron (business): $100.00 Talis met and married his wife Krystyna in London where they were graduate students. Lifetime: $500.00 Married since 1982, they have two grown daughters. Besides his Directorial duties at the Mat-Su College, Colberg enjoys teaching a class on Barbara Hecker, Newsletter: campus each semester. He is the only Director to have ever done so. In the March newsletter, in clumsy Please join us at Wednesday, April 16th, at 7 p.m. in the Palmer Library. Refreshments will honor of Margaret Lucas’s 100th birthday be served and Door Prizes awarded. celebration, I mistyped her surname. I apologize for my oversight, as well as my errant left pinkie… Palmer Historical Society Newsletter * Vol XXX * No 4 * April 2014 P a g e 2 | 6 Mark Austin, Director of Palmer’s Musk Ox Farm, spoke to PHS members on Wednesday, March 19th, 2014.