Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 19, 2008)
Morrow County Museum dedicates parlor to Balsiger family ..... i u ji Bessie VVet/eli vu, d iv ers,t> o f 0rJ 07 a^ L ,b rary Eugene, OR 97403 VOL. 127 NO. 12 10 Pages Wednesday, March 19, 2008 The Morrow County Museum recently celebrated the grand opening o f the Balsiger Parlor. Minette Si- card o f Glen Rose, TX and her brother Allan Learned of Irondale, WA were on hand for the dedication. They are the grandchildren o f Paul and Lydia Balsiger. Paul George Wash ington answ ered the call “Go West Young Man" when in 1895 at the age o f 21 he bought some tools, packed his trunk and traveled from Minette Sicard and Allan Learned sit in the parlor dedicated to their grandparents at the Morrow County Museum. -Photo by April Sykes Highland, lLto lone. He was met at the lone train station by his parents, Ferdinand and brothers Louis and Ar nold along w ith other family members w ho had preceded him in coming to Morrow County. Paul was trained as a water tank builder and established an implement business on Main Street to serve the farmers. He left behind his fiancée, Lydia Anna Mange, also of High land. Six years later, when he had the resources, he built her a new house at 2nd and C Street. They were married in Highland on February 10, 1902. After honeymooning in California they arrived in lone and settled into their new life together in the far west. As the years passed Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon by, three children were bom to them in their home, deliv ered by Dr. Chick o f lone, Arlene in 1904, Helen in 1907, and Alfred in 1910. During their school years, Helen learned to play the piano and organ, and at the age o f 16 began teaching piano. Alfred, at the age of 10 started repairing bicycles in his front yard, the first of many businesses throughout his lifetime. Arlene was the star o f the lone High School girls’basketball team. When little, the girls would join three others and all five would ride Ginny, the Riet- First ever Heppner boxing smoker a success The Heppner Cham ber ofCommerce and URock Radio recently organized the first boxing smoker in Hep pner. The event was held Friday, March 14 at Heppner High School. The smoker consisted o f 11 bouts. The F ig h t o f the N ight was Bout #11 be tween Brandon Davis and Cody Walton. The fighters went four rounds and each received a $100 check The Fighter o f the Night was Dimitar Dimitrov who received $100 check. Winners o f each bout re ceived a medallion. The event was put together by Daye Stone, „'SI,!. * Kurt Looslie (left) and Shad Jeffreys (right) participated in the boxing smoker last Friday night. -Photo by Dave Sykes principal o f Heppner High Heppner Chamber o f Corn- School. All proceeds o f merce. the sm oker benefited the mann white mule to school every day. Later the Bal siger children would drive the family car throughout the countryside. During the summer, they all enjoyed swimming in Willow Creek with cousins and friends. All the children graduated from lone High School and in 1924 Helen was valedic torian o f her class. Shortly after th eir school years, Arlene married Paul Koeh- ring and moved to Indiana. Alfred moved to The Dalles and married Esther Hutson. Helen graduated from the University o f Washington with a bachelor o f music degree. In her senior year on her birthday, March 25, 1928, she married her col lege sweetheart Allan M. Learned in the lone home. Rev. Head o f lone offici ated and she descended the stairway as a bride to music played on the organ in the parlor. Paul and Lydia were very active in the commu nity. Paul helped build the lone Congregational Church and made all the pews by hand, some o f which are still in lone with his signa ture. He was very musical and played the harmonica, guitar, accordion, French and baritone horns. Lydia also played guitar and they would often play and sing together in the parlor for family entertainment. Paul played in the lone City Band and always marched in the Fourth of July Parade. Helen was the Parade Queen w hen she was 10 years old, she always said it was because she had long hair. Lydia was very active in the Congre gational Church and every Sunday invited Rev. Head and his family for dinner. Helen became church organ ist w hen she was eight years old, and one o f her fondest memories was accompany ing her father to the church to light the candles on the Christmas tree for Christmas Eve Service. Paul’s business was very successful and many of the windmills he installed in Morrow County are still standing. The Balsiger fam ily continues to own wheat land north o f lone and is farmed by their cousin Ed Rietmann. Paul retired in 1937 and sold his business to his cousin Om ar R iet mann. He and Lydia moved to a home with a cherry or chard on the bluff at White Salmon, WA overlooking the C olum bia R iver and Mt. Hood. They lived there until 1957, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in 1952. They then moved to The Dalles at the age o f 90 and 94 respectively. Paul, Lydia and the fam ily love lone dearly and passed along many precious memories to suc ceeding generations. They were a pioneer family who worked hard and lived well. True to their Swiss heritage they worshiped God daily and were ever grateful for the blessings o f this won derful place that was their home. The Balsiger fam ily is deeply grateful to the Morrow County Heritage Museum for preserving so lov ingly this family history and memorabilia for the fu ture generations to enjoy. He did what? lone School Board approves management contract with Umatilla-Morrow ESD By April Sykes T he lo n e S chool Board approved a $ 169,388 management services agree ment w ith the U m atilla- M orrow ESD for educa tional services, including business services, human resources, including payroll and negotiations, an autism aide, other board services and operation and mainte nance services. The district will be billed in two semi-annual payments o f $84,694. Superintendent Bryn B row ning told the board that she has met with an ar chitect, engineer, contractor and a project manager with regard to the possible district bond projects. Information concerning different project costs will be presented at the April board meeting. Also at the meeting the board: -heard from Brown ing that the district has up graded their safety proce dures at the school. She said that decals have been ordered which will notify all visitors that they must report to the office; parents and other visitors will no longer be able to go directly to classrooms, but rather stu- dents will be sent to the of fice to meet with the parent or visitor; phone calls will no longer be forwarded to or made in the classrooms, but rather students will be sent to the office to make or re ceive phone calls; and other safety procedures which were outlined in a handout. -heard from Brown ing that the lone High School boys’basketball team placed first in the Dairy Farmers scholastic contest for having the highest grade-point aver age among 1A schools and the girls placed third. -heard from Brown ing that she had attended a small schools conference. Topics at the conference included legal issues, par ticularly requirem ents o f the school to provide child abuse identification and pre vention classes for staff, par ents and students. Browning also told the board that she viewed a demonstration of an interactive board that can be used in the classroom and said that the Echo schools had received the boards through a grant. -heard the follow ing report from Browning that new lockers have been installed; a propane heating unit has been installed at the Cardinal fitness club; student conferences are planned for April 10; an open gym will be held from 4-6 p.m. begin ning March 30 for kids and parents; International Club students will soon embark on their trip to G erm any and the Czech Republic; the long jump pit has been poured; greenhouse items will be available for sale the end o f April or the first o f M ay; student c o n fe r ences will be held April 10; an overpayment o f a salary was discovered and has been corrected. -approved the sec ond read in g o f p o lic ie s concerning students with disabilities and special edu cation students. -approved the first reading of required Title I policies. -accepted the follow ing resignations: Dick Allen, from the m iddle school boys’ basketball coaching position; Ryan Rudolf, from the high school head girls' basketball coaching posi tion. -accepted a recom mendation to hire Rudolf as the 2008-09 athletic director. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 RM. / . » City Manager Steve Bogart and Marsha Kemp catch up on their leprechaun gossip. See more pictures of St. Patrick’s Celebration in Heppner on page Five. Photo by Dave Sykes lone High School boys' basketball team takes first in OSAA/Dairy Farmers academic all-state awards The lone High School boys’ basket ball team took first place in the 1A div ision o f the Oregon School Activities Association/ Dairy Farmers Academic All-State awards. The IHS boys had a combined 3.66 grade- point average. The IHS girls’ basketball team was third in the 1A classification with a 3.84 gpa- The Heppner High School boys’ basketball team was fifth in the 2A clas sification with a 3.46 gpa and the HHS girls were 14th with a 3.42 gpa. The Riverside High School girls' basketball team was 11th in the 3A clas sification with a 3.44 gpa and the Irrigon High School girls’ team w as 22nd in the 2 A classification with a 3.24 gpa. 2 5 % OFF ALL P O L A R IS S N O W C L O T H IN G and G L O V E S Morrow County Grain Growers L e x in g to n 9 8 9-82 2 1 • 1 -8 0 0 -4 5 2 -7 3 9 6 For form equipment visit our w fb site at www mcKK net
