Koochiching Museums

A gift of $150 from son Wesley allowed Violet to buy a new piano, but it didn’t come with a bench. Wes decided he would build one and got their gas powered saw and planer running. He wasn’t at it an hour when he burst through the door saying, “Mom I did it, I cut off my fingers”, three fingers on his left hand were gone. Violet was in her words “thunderstruck”, she wrapped his hand in clean dish towels and told Orrah Jr. to get a boat ready. Just about then, a neighbor th

It was early June of 1952 and Violet was expecting a new addition to the family but didn’t show it; however she never showed with any of the children before and had never had to wear maternity clothes. It wasn’t a good time for Orrah Jr. to come down with the whooping cough, all the children came down with it, including Violet. In her words, “it sure was awful, you hacked for two weeks, then whooped for two weeks and then hacked for the last two weeks”. Violet ruminated ab