Monday, October 29, 2007

Searching for more DHS Cannon history ~ Rev. 10/31/07


The first image (courtesy of the Deadwood Magazine and the Deadwood City Archives) is a 1899 letter from the Commander USN Inspector of Ordnance to Deadwood Mayor Sol Star. It describes the pedigree of what we call the DHS Cannon.

The second is an obscure web source picture of captured cannons in 1898. The picture is an Spanish American War image in the Cavite Amory on Manila Bay, Philippines. I believe that one of the two cannons in foreground is the DHS Cannon. In a frustrating search on the web I think that the second of the cannon twins went to Fort Wayne Indiana and installed in a park around 1900 which is the same time frame as the DHS Cannon.

The general DHS Cannon history is well researched by Laura Floyd and documented in the Deadwood Magazine http://www.deadwoodmagazine.com/article.php?read_id=156.

Andy Gomez DHS47 is looking in the SD State Archives but has no leads yet. If anyone has anything to offer in this information and history search please let me know.


~~~ Carole Rypkema Hillard DHS54 always found time to stay connected to friends. Her Memorial Service this Thursday will demonstrate those she touched directly and indirectly. She found my cannon information "fascinating" but did not have time for research.

A classmate and close friend observed of Carole, "At this point about all I keep thinking is that she is on the biggest "adventure" of all. Just too soon!!! "

Revised 10/31 In her own words posted on her refrigerator Carole states "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely at Heaven's gate in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways... with a wine glass in one hand and a tennis racket in the other, body thoroughly used up, and proclaiming, "WOO HOO, THANKS GOD, WHAT A RIDE""

Friday, October 26, 2007

Report of 2007 DHS Reunion final meeting


The first Reunion Committee picture shows L-R, Karen Shackey Balderson, Sandy Gravelle Beshara, Jim Veitl, Hank Frawley, Roz's friend, Roz Stalder Purchase, Chairman Bill Beshara, Janet Chyba Thoresen, Marcia Moore Darland, and Carolyn Johnson Dirksen.

The second picture is L-R, Darlene Lester Thacker, Roz Stalder Purchase, Hank Frawley, Jim Veitl, Jan Chyba Thoresen, John Fillmore, Sandy Gravelle Beshara, Marcia Moore Darland, Larry Ryan, and Carolyn Johnson Dirksen. In this picture they are all stuffing reunion notice envelopes and putting on stamps. It took a full day for Bill to hand feed the envelopes through the address printer process. All the committe members put in allot of hours doing all the tasks to deliver a successful reunion.

The committee met yesterday afternoon in the Deadwood City Hall to finalize the business of the Reunion.

The major item addressed is the proceeds left over from the final accounting. It was decided to establish 3 or 4 scholarships to a worthy Deadwood high school student to attend vocational/technical school. One scholarship will be given yearly for the total number. The remaining amount will be donated to a school administered fund and process to provide food to needy children on week ends. It is known as the "Backpack" program and kids are given a backpack of food to take home for the week end.

It was also decided to pass along the DHS Roster to someone to maintain. There are some prospects so watch for update information in the future.

The Reunion Committee has done an excellent job and certainly have a Noble plan for the reunion proceeds that shows the DHS Spirit. If you have compliments or observations about the reunion to share please send them to me. Carole Hillard complimented the reunion committee in an email to me. She too recognized organized effort and "people power" (see post of her death that follows).

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Carole Hillard DHS54 dies of accident complications ~ Updated 10/26/07.

Carol died peacefully today (10/25/07) at the University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, said her son, Todd Hillard. After her accident and surgery she suffered pneumonia, a bacterial blood infection and a series of strokes, which claimed her life.

I will greatly miss Carole for the personal information and support she has provided to me and the DHS54 Class in recent years. She gave a "state-of-the-world" presentation at our DHS54 50th Class Reunion, September 2004. It was very thought provoking and timely. Notice of Carole's induction into the South Dakota Hall of Fame was the very first posted item on dhsclassmates in June of this year. Our DHS54 classmates are in shock and are sharing email of our loss of Carole. I took the candid picture of Carole as she pondered a question at the 2004 DHS54 Reunion.

10/26/07

She understood the risks of traveling to some remote regions, Todd Hillard said."She was not afraid of dying," he said. "She was afraid of not living."

In her last e-mail to her family, written after her surgery in Zagreb, Carole Hillard talked about her luck being able to walk out of the hospital despite nearly severing her spinal cord. And she noted the irony of her boat accident. "Ponder this -- I go hang gliding over Rio, sky diving with the Blue Angels, did a 300-foot bungee jump over Victoria Falls and I walked away with just a huge smile on my face. Last week however, I was thrown off a 3 foot step into the galley. I broke my neck (literally), broke 3 ribs, cut my face and totally blackened one arm. "So the question is -- are we not safer living the daring life?" she wrote. "Is it better to be bird than a turtle as we sojourn thru life?"

Hillard's body will be cremated and returned to Rapid City, where a memorial service will be held on Thursday, Nov. 1.

Memorial services for Carole Hillard in Rapid City will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, in the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center theater. A reception will follow.

Condolences, memories and thoughts may be sent to her family at gocarole@aol.com .

In lieu of flowers, Hillard's family asks for contributions to:

The Hillard Mozambique Endowment
c/o Heifer Foundation
P.O. Box 727
Little Rock, Ark. 72208

Or

Black Hills Children's Home Hillard Memorial
24100 Rockerville Road
Rapid City, S.D. 57702

There are so many comments and observations in addition to her last written words and life thought. The one that strikes me is that in the dictionary under "class" they should have a picture of Carole.

Here are the last emails I received from Carole:

~~Date: Fri. 27April2007 13:01:26 EDT

Subject: Re: 2007 DHS Reunion Committee


Hi Dick,

What great organization and "people power." You all are appreciated.

I h
ad originally responded that I would attend. Since then some good news-bad news events. I won't be in attendance, the reason being that I was inducted into the SD Hall of Fame and the ceremony is that weekend. Bummer conflict.

Carry on.

Carole

~~Date: Thu. 3May2007 19:51:40 EDT

Subject: Re: The DHS Cannon


Hi Dick,

I am back in Nigeria and will go from there to Azerbaijan for a State Department assignment. No time to research right now, but keep me posted. VERY fascinating!

Carole


For more reporting details see the following. The Wikipedia information is a fitting free world encyclopedia tribute to Carole's importance and passing.

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/shared-content/search/index.php?search=go&o=0&l=25&s=&r=&d1=&d2=&q=carole+hillard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carole_Hillard

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Remember the Exquisite Aroma and Taste of a Pasty?

Thanks to Janet Thoresen for pointing out this reference. She made some as directed with suet and she said they were great!

King the pasty queen
By: Jomay Steen, Rapid City Journal staff, 10/17/07
Contact Jomay Steen at jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com

LEAD -- Bonnie King is the queen of the pasty. The Lead woman mixed, prepared and baked her first million pasties a decade ago and is now close to the 2-million mark.

It’s no surprise, then, that the Food Network recently sent a camera crew to film her and her husband, Wayne, as she made the culinary favorite of former gold miners and new fans.

Last summer, the “Emeril Live” film crew followed King as she went through the steps of preparing the pastry, peeling and dicing the onions and potatoes and cutting up the meat for a half-dozen pasties.

The camera crew stood outside of her pasty workshop, filming through her storefront window as she rolled out the dough at her worktable and added filling before sealing the pasty’s edges. “They had asked that I have a pan of pasties ready to come out of the oven as I put the other ones in to bake,” she said.

The switch was flawless, displaying the golden pasty with hot steam drifting from the vents made at its top. The tender pastry parted to reveal the hearty meat and potatoes lunchtime fare for viewers of chef Emeril Lagasse’s cooking show.

Although the Kings haven’t had any contact with Lagasse, they filled out release forms and were told that the episode would run sometime in November. The Kings are still somewhat bewildered how they became a feature for the New York City-based cable network.

“We don’t watch the Food Network, so we really didn’t know who Emeril Lagasse was,” Bonnie King admitted.But sample one of her fresh, handmade pasties, and it isn’t a surprise that the food show producers would come calling.

Over the years, the store at 622 E. Main St. has evolved from a food market to Kings Pasties, which supplies 150 to 300 pasties daily to area grocery and convenience stores in South Dakota and Wyoming. Opened in 1959, Wayne and Bonnie King’s grocery store, Kings Grocery, served the community.

More than 23 years ago, a newly widowed matron, Bessie Harrison, walked into the store offering to make pasties to supplement her income.

The Kings hired Harrison, a first-generation American with English roots, to come in on Tuesdays and Thursdays to make pasties at the grocery.

Harrison’s relatives came from the mining communities of England, where pasty-making was a traditional meal. “It was a mining traditional food for hard-working people. When her family moved to America, they brought their traditions with them,” King said of Harrison’s signature dish.

Usually, a pasty was made with a barley crust, steak, potatoes and onions. Along with a bit of salt and pepper, a pat of suet was used to add taste. For the most part, she follows that recipe except for the beef fat. For that, she substitutes margarine. Sometimes, carrots, rutabagas, other vegetables and even fish were added for a change of pace in other mining communities.

King said if people request gravy with their pasty, they’re probably from Butte, Mont., where copper mining was once its biggest industry. “Bessie used to serve hers with a chili sauce. I’ve seen people use ketchup, too,” King said.

But requests from a few regular customers inspired King to invent recipes for two breakfast pasties that include ham and cheese — a personal favorite — and link sausage and eggs. She also has incorporated Polish sausage and sauerkraut in another hometown favorite.

In 2000, the Kings closed their grocery store. At that time, they decided to go into business making pasties fulltime. State and federally inspected, they run a pristine workplace where they use the freshest ingredients which limit the shelf life in stores.

But the demand for their pasties keeps the couple busy. Arriving at their workshop at 6 a.m. weekdays, they begin mixing dough in a huge Hobart mixer that makes enough dough for 75 pasties at a time.

Wayne King does the meat cutting for the day’s orders. By noon, they’ve completed their work and shut down for the day. The long hours at their modest store helped them raise their four children, buy their business and keep plenty of gold miners happily fed. A good life, she said. Yet her children aren’t interested in making pasties for a living. “We need to pass the tradition on to someone else,” King said.

Miners fed on pasty folklore. According to Bonnie King, miners created plenty of folklore to feed on while enjoying their pasty. One superstition miners adhered to was a practice of breaking a portion of the crust from the pasty and leaving it at the mouth of the mine to appease the evil spirits. “The spirits ate first,” she said. As miners had big appetites and were apt to eat anything, it kept the devil away because he was afraid he might be cut up and baked into a pasty.

The miners also knew that they had a good pasty if they could drop it down a mine stope (an excavation made in a mine) and it landed in one piece. “If the crust didn’t break apart, it was a good pasty,” King said. ~~Want to prepare and taste this memory dish then see the following:

Pasty Recipes:

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Interesting Story of Deadwood School by Dr. Howe

Dr. Howe's photo and the politics extract are from the book "Deadwood Doctor" by Dr. F. S. Howe MD (1876 - 1960). These are his words and a true story from a doctor who practiced in 1901 Deadwood, one of the last gold rush towns. He also gave to the community in many ways other than medical. We can thank him for being a part of 1922 vision to build a new school building that became our DHS home and was dedicated in 1924. The book is available from the Adams Museum http://www.adamsmuseumandhouse.org/ .


Chapter VII of the book reads in part:


DEADWOOD POLITICS

I got into Deadwood politics accidentally and stayed in for 19 years because I’ve never believed in backing away from a good fight.

In 1917 I was appointed on the city council as an alderman from the third ward to take the place of a member of the council who had left Deadwood. I was a member of the council for 7 years. During much of that time I was president of the council and chairman of the finance committee.

About 1922 the Board of Education of the Deadwood School District decided that our old out-dated building must be replaced by a new and modern building. In order to get the necessary public support to pass a bond issue, they called public meetings. For a time these public meetings were a regular love feast. It seemed the unanimous opinion that Deadwood must have more modern school buildings. George V. Ayres proposed that we ask for a $250,000 bond issue. That almost took my breath away, but I thought if a man of Mr. Ayres’ experience believed that was what we needed, who was I to oppose it? At a later and I believe the last meeting, W. E. Adams, who was then mayor, got up and said, $50,000 and not one cent more.” Being mayor and the leading citizen of Deadwood at that time, that certainly threw a monkey wrench in the machinery.

This meeting really became hot. The late Charlie Keene who was enthusiastically for the new school facilities immediately got up and shook his finger in Mr. Adams’ face and said, “What this here town needs is some first class funerals.” Then the fight was on.

Mr. Adams lined up the Homestake Mining Company, both the C.B.&Q and C.&N.W.R.R. companies, and Horace Clark, the heaviest individual tax payer and property owner in Deadwood. Needless to say, this fight really became bitter. When election day finally came around, both sides were getting out every vote that could be found. Late in the afternoon, I found that the then Methodist minister and his wife had not voted. I made a trip to the house and the minister himself came to the door. I said, “Reverend K_________, you have not voted yet. We need your vote.” Much to my disgust, the Reverend said, “This is nothing but a down and out mining camp. You don’t need any new school.” I told him that he should go and vote against it if that was the way he felt.

We finally won out by a substantial majority in spite of all the opposition. However, our troubles were not over. Chambers Kellar, the Chief Attorney for the Homestake Mining Company, decided to go to court. A committee of which, as I remember, was headed by me, had a conference with Mr. Kellar and he finally agreed on a $175,000 issue instead of the $250,000 issue. We had the architects draw up new plans and sold the bonds. The best bid which we could get was $3,000 under par. Mr. Kellar stuck to his guns and said we had to get par for the bonds or make up the amount. In short order we raised the extra $3,000 and the contract was let.

Our present school was dedicated in 1924 and it now seems strange that we should have had such a bitter fight to get modern school buildings with gymnasium and auditorium. Chambers Kellar afterwards became one of my very best friends and up until the time of his death I admired and respected him . . .

Dr. Howe continuted his fight and became Deadwood Mayor for 6 terms. I wonder what that deleted $75,000 would have provided in those days?

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Carole Hillard Former SD Lt. Governor breaks neck in accident ~ SEE UPDATES

10/25/07 See notice of Carole's death above.

10/21/07 update: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/10/18/news/local/doc471837ec2803b512909635.txt

Both Janet Thoresen DHS55 and Dave Klein DHS54 sent this information on Carole Hillard's DHS54 tragic accident. Since her term of office Carole has traveled the world extensively for the US State Department and is considered an representative expert on Democracy, voting and women's rights. You can contact her by email gocarole@aol.com or snail mail at PO Box 9088, Rapid City, SD 97709.

News Post: Oct 15, 2007 10:03 AM

Former Lt. Governor Carole Hillard had a close-call, but it appears she will have a full recovery. The 71 year old broke her neck last week and is now recovering in a Croatia hospital. Hillard had been attending a conference in Turkmanistan. She had a bad fall on a sailboat and there was concern about paralysis. She was flown to a trauma center in the capitol city in Croatia.

Her sister, Joan Uhre, tells KOTA Territory News, "it's not close to the standard of care we have in the united states, but Carole had a good surgeon and the family is optimistic about a return of movement. "Right now Hillard is scheduled to begin the long flight home to Rapid City this weekend, to begin her long recovery.

We're told Hillard is in a lot of pain, feels isolated and bored and would love to hear from friends.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

The Martin & Mason Hotel ~ Deadwood's Newest Old Hotel Resoration

See the rooms:

Deadwood's Newest Old Hotel Restoration - The Martin& Mason Hotel

See the rooms:
http://www.martinmasonhotel.com/rooms.html
See the restoration information:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18912946&BRD=1300&PAG=461&dept_id=156925&rfi=6

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Deadwood High School Song from Jerry Pontius




Pictured with Jerry Pontius DHS57 on right is Dick and Yvonne discussing the above historical item that Jerry put together. Jerry captured the original DHS Song score view and recording on a CD. It is a limited edition and is shown here to share the views with interested classmates.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Bad Day Deadwood School Fire Sequence

The Deadwood Fire Department shared these images a few years ago. Here is a slide show, at the end back arrow to return to dhsclassmates site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rdunw/sets/72157602259310188/show/

Monday, October 1, 2007

Look who the shoes belonged to!







"Tell me again, why it is you are in my office."






The schools today should have a cloned Mr. Krug. But then our whole DHS taught ethic went hand-in-hand with his "guidance." Mrs. Elsie Krug had a long term effect too and she lived almost 100 years. What do you think? Mr. Krug's photograph is from the DHS54 Bear Log. The captions says he is reading the stats from DHS winning the State Class "A" Basketball Championship but looks like him in his office.

The first photograph is from the DHS51 Bear Log showing the Krugs and the Mintons at the Junior/Senior Prom and Banquet.