Living History: County sheep brings fancy price at sale

5 years ago

Excerpts from the Jan. 29, 2009 Pioneer Journal

• Eagle Bend man gets five months for kidnapping

After a violent fight with a woman, an Eagle Bend man faces 150 days in jail on a kidnapping charge.

Dean Melvin Raymond Shamp, 21, was sentenced Jan. 20 for kidnapping - to facilitate felony or flight, and will face 150 days in jail, and had a suspended sentence of 27 months in prison stayed for 10 years. He also faces 10 years probation and fees and restitution totalling $1,819.95.

According to court records, a female acquaintance of Shamp called police July 13, 2008 to report an assault near Staples. The victim said she and Shamp had been arguing and she left on a bike. She said Shamp found her and swerved his Ford Mustang to stop her in the road. He then pulled her body through the driver's side door, she said, causing her head to strike the top of the car. She said she tried to leave but Shamp wouldn't let her. When she tried to scream for help, she said, he rolled up the window and held her mouth and choked her. When she able to escape from the car, he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her body to the ground. At one point, she said, Shamp tried to shove her into the Crow Wing River.

Shamp was on probation in both Otter Tail County and Todd County for incidents in 2007 and early 2008. Charges of kidnapping - to commit great bodily harm/terrorize and domestic assault by strangulation were dismissed at sentencing.

20 years ago

Excerpts from the Jan. 27, 1994 Pioneer Journal

• Report: Wadena Police solve two-thirds of crimes

The Wadena City Police Department solved just over two-thirds of all crimes reported in 1992, according to the most recent data released from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS).

In 1992 the department cleared 67 percent of cases, down from 79 percent in 1991, then the third highest in the state.

Not including traffic cases, the department arrested 439 persons - 324 adults and 115 juveniles - from 654 offenses reported in 1992. In 1991, 749 offenses resulted in 591 arrests.

Sixty seven percent is still good, a DPS spokesperson said. It is still above clearance rates for other towns in the area and above Twin Cities area cities.

The department was also able to recover almost 75 percent of items stolen. According to the DPS data, a total of $78,635 worth of items was stolen in 1992. The police were able to recover $56,969 worth of items.

What puts a small town like Wadena ahead of larger cities with larger police forces?

"Well, I think it is the men themselves," Police Chief Lane Waldahl said. "They are really dedicated. We have a great investigator (Bruce Uselman)."

Being a small department in a small town had its advantages, Waldahl said. "The guys (officers) know who is out there, what is supposed to be happening and where. I think they work together well. The figures prove that."

The city of Wadena has six full-time officers and three part-time officers.

Comparison rates for other police departments across the state will be available in a few months.

40 years ago

Excerpts from the Jan. 31, 1974 Pioneer Journal

• Plans readied for Aldrich school reunion this summer

Plans are presently being formulated in Staples for the holding of a school reunion of those persons who formerly attend the old Aldrich School in Aldrich.

The committee announced that many persons throughout this area and other parts of the state attended that school in grades one through ten, then later one through eight, prior to its closing many years ago.

The old school was a stucco two-story building located on the south edge of Aldrich.

Former students of this school who are interested in having an Old Aldrich School reunion this summer are asked to write to Mrs. Louis Thorn at Route 1, Staples.

Additional details concerning the reunion will be published in future issues, depending upon the amount of interest shown by former students.

70 years ago

Excerpts from the Jan. 27, 1944 Pioneer Journal

• County sheep brings fancy price at sale

J.B. Conley, well-known farmer and sheep raiser east of Verndale, attended the Minnesota Sheep Breeders meeting held last week at the University Farm and entered one purebred Shropshire ewe in the breeders sale. Twenty purebred breeders entered ewes in the sale in which Zavoral and Truman, well-known Minnesota breeders, topped the Hampshire breed. Their winning ewe sold for $60, but Conley's brought $62.50. There were 64 ewes in the sale.

Freda Schleuter of Hutchinson and John Voss of Jackson were named Minnesota 4-H Club champion pork and beef breeders by the Minnesota Livestock Breeders Association at University Farm.