Saturday Pictures

Saturday Pictures

December 26. 2015

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It snowed, oh maybe five times this last week including Christmas day. But here the day after the sun came out and it was a beautiful day for a walk. Walk we did. Here are some of the snow covered sights in the hood.

Merry Christmas!

As you all are roasting back East just think of us here, opening presents,

Enjoying a white Christmas,

And skiing in powder.



A very Merry Christmas to all!

On The Road to Bathgate Act 4i: Aunt Charlotte Nancy Foster Von Alman on Fire

Charlotte Foster and Arnold Leroy Von Alman,
Glendive, Montana, wedding photo, March 29, 1930.

We have relied on Charlotte Nancy Foster Von Alman's writing and storytelling many times. But up to now we have not written a post featuring aunt Charlotte. We rectify that here with additional passages from her family history and vignettes on her long and well-lived life.

Charlotte Nancy Foster Von Alman was born in Bathgate, North Dakota (population 43, 2010 census), November 22, 1906, the tenth of eleven children of I. J. and Laura Elizabeth Armstrong Foster. Charlotte was immediately preceded in birth by her brother Jimmy who was born on September 16, 1905. My father, George W. Foster, the eleventh and final surviving child, came into this world almost three years after Charlotte on August 27, 1909. 

After growing up in Bathgate Charlotte left to attend college, earn her teaching certificate and become a teacher in country schools in North Dakota and Montana. She married Arnold Leroy "Roy" Von Alman in Glendive, Montana on March 29, 1930. The newlyweds returned east to Littlefork, Minnesota shortly thereafter, where their offspring, Bob, Marge and Lyn, were born and raised. Marge lives in Littlefork to this day. Charlotte died at Littlefork on May 2, 1988. 

Foster family of Bathgate, North Dakota, 1910 Federal Census.

Charlotte Nancy Foster, December, 1906

Note the treadle (foot powered) sewing machine in the background of Charlotte's baby picture. As was typical in the day the machine was located near a window to permit entry of natural light to illuminate the sewing surface.

Charlotte bequeathed us fascinating snippets of family lore in the form of an 18-page, typewritten history on the Isaac Jarvis (1862-1934) and Laura Elizabeth Armstrong Foster (1870-1934) family. The history is jam packed with stories about Bathgate, her parents and ten siblings, and the life and times when the children grew up in Bathgate between 1890 and 1930. We sliced and diced, and then spliced the typewritten history into various Foster family ancestry posts, including on her sister Bina, her father Ike and mother Laura, her brothers Adams and Lyn, and her uncle George Sanderson Foster. 

My Three Favorite Songs

So good that my kids don't care when I sing along.


1. American Pie, Don Mclean. 




They say it's the anthem of a generation. So be it, then the generation is mine. Don McLean once said American Pie means "I never have to work again, if I don't want to." Of course, there is more than that. Other McLean classics not to be overlooked include Crying, Castles in the Air and Vincent (Starry Starry Night). The man knew how to draw from the world around him and paint with words -- a seemingly simple yet mostly impossibly complex task.

2. Brick in the Wall, Pink Floyd.



This has always been a favorite but the song has taken on special meaning for me as a parent (currently of high school, middle school and elementary school students). I play it for inspiration whenever I am preparing to wrangle with a member of the school board, read the riot act to a school administrator or disabuse a teacher of the notion that there is anything sufficiently common and standard about the many diverse children under their tutelage to justify adherence to a common core regimen. 

This version is performed by Pinky and the Floyd, a fabulous tribute band here in Bozeman. I mean, there are what, thirty-five or forty thousand people in town, and that much talent? They are backed up by the Bozeman High School choir which performs this particular song with gusto you can only get with a decade or more of frustrating experience in the public school system. I think our eldest daughter's piano teacher is somewhere on the stage. If you look carefully, you can see the back of my head (with the open program to the right of our oldest two girls and exchange student) at seven seconds into Pinky and the Floyd's promotional video. Our kids' guitar teacher says he won't go see Pinky and the Floyd because he knows they are so good he would want to join the group and might never try to leave Bozeman again.

3. Tuesday Afternoon, Moody Blues.



It's from  the album Days of Future Passed. Best known from the album is Knights in White Satin, but I did not need to get there. I fell in love earlier in the day.

Let's finish with some more Pinky and the Floyd.

Saturday Pictures

Saturday Pictures

December 5, 2015

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We woke up this morning to a fresh coat of pure white snow and bright sunny skies. I got the old heart pumping and the blood flowing clearing the driveway and sidewalks, then I took advantage of the conditions to shoot scenes around the homestead. We finished our picture taking early afternoon.with a Christmas card photo (see the end). 

Way To Go Hawks!

Bozeman High School is known not only for dropping Michelle Obama's national school lunch program, it is terrific academically, rated first in the state. It has great opportunities for college bound kids, technically inclined students, students bound to remain and thrive in agriculture, and those seeking vocational training. The school's administration is creative and inspired, the teachers aspire to help every student be the best than he or she can be, and it has an activity or organization styled to suit virtually every type of student, bent or interest (it has a fantastic, broad-based music program). The alternative program is fantastic and fully supported by the community. I swim and share the pool mornings at the Swim Center attached to the school most every weekday during winter months so I get a pretty good sense of the vibe and school spirit. They are high, very high. Bozeman High is better on virtually every level than the school our kids would have attended if we had remained inside the Beltway in self-proclaimed "World Class" Arlington, Virginia.

Bozeman's Balue Chapman breaks a tackle
at Friday night's football game.

This week, congratulations are in order to the Bozeman Hawks High School football team which downed cross-state rival Billings Senior in the AA championship game last Friday night at frigid Van Winkle stadium in Bozeman. The Hawks scored two touchdowns in the third quarter to set up a 35-23 victory. Bozeman finished the season with a 12-1 record, bouncing back from a 5-5 finish in the 2014 season. On the home front, we recognize our eldest daughter who performs with the school's jazz band, for braving the elements to root and drum the Hawks gridiron warriors to victory.

Earlier this month, the Bozeman girls volleyball squad won the first state high school volleyball title in school history. 

[T]he Bozeman Hawks captured the 2015 Class AA State Volleyball Championship in a hard-fought victory over Missoula Sentinel.The win gave Bozeman its first high school volleyball state title in history.

"We've been working on this since day one of tryouts, and we tried everything we could during practice," said senior outside hitter Caitlin Lonergan. "We gave it our all, all the time. We left it all on the court, mostly us seniors. We knew this was going to be out last time in these jerseys. So we left it all out there."

"I'm really proud to have coached these girls and been a part of it," said head coach Erika Gustavsen. "To make school history is just icing on the cake."

Way to go young ladies!

Bozeman High School boy harriers hanging at Mandeville
Creek outside the high school. We last featured Bozeman HIgh
at Along the Gradyent to report the bear intrusion in Long Hall..

In mid-September the neigbor boy across the street stopped by to fund raise for the Bozeman High School cross country team. As I retrieved my wallet I asked the young man what his best times were for those 5K races. He said high 15's. "Wow, that's really motoring," I said. Since then I noted the cross country squad loping down Main Street, rain, wind or snow regardless, at 7:30 am most every weekday morning. Two weeks ago the Bozeman High School boys and girls won their respective state high school cross country championships. The next week the boys team placed in the Northwest regionals, which qualifies them for the national championship. Congratulations Chase Equall and your squad; best of luck on December 5th in Portland.

The girls team is headed to Portland too!

Also this week, four graduating Hawks committed to NCAA Division 1 athletic scholarships, one in baseball and volleyball, and two in basketball. With 17 seniors on the state championship football squad there will certainly be more.  Congrats to all the Hawks and best wishes in your future endeavors.

Stanford freshman and last year's Montana state soccer player of the year at Bozeman High School, Averie Collins, scored three goals and an assist so far for Stanford this year. The Cardinal are hosting an NCAA quarterfinal game this Friday versus Duke. 

On the Road to Bathgate: Great-Great-Uncle George Pringle Sanderson -- Blacksmith, Locksmith and Safecracker, Part 3.

George Pringle Sanderson,
Councillor refers to his service
as an Edmonton alderman.

Welcome to Part 3 of our three part series on George Pringle Sanderson, 1850-1940. Part 1 focused on George's early years. Part 2 reviewed his blacksmith years. Here we recount reports of his locksmith career and the extraordinary tales that accompany it.

George was born in Eastern Canada and moved west across the Canadian prairies, ultimately to Edmonton, Alberta, nee North West territory. From 1878 into the early 1900's George's principal occupation was blacksmith. But with the proliferation of steam powered locomotion and massive growth in the use of internal combustion engines, demands for shod workhorses and oxen were waning. George turned to the locksmith profession to maintain body and soul.

Metalworking and fabrication skills learned at the forge facilitated George's transition into the locksmith trade. In the beginning George was more or less a traditional locksmith. He copied keys, serviced locking mechanisms, fabricated locks and hasps, reset tumblers and adjusted combinations. But his locksmithing skills evolved further with the proliferation of safes that ensued after the establishment of the province of Alberta in 1905.

George P. Sanderson was long-living proof of the adage about the man who builds a better mousetrap. Right up to his departure from this life in 1939, at any hour of night or day, Edmonton's finest would beat a path to George's door, seeking help opening a blaky safe -- or a safe whose owner was balky about opening. 

George said his talent was no secret; it was a gift, a special present from Santa Claus for being born on Christmas Day -- which occurred in 1850 at Carleton Place, Ontario.

We know, of course, that George Pringle Sanderson was actually born on Christmas Eve. But he wasn't the sort of a fellow to let a day or two get in the way of a good story -- and there are good stories aplenty about George and his safecracking escapades.

On the Road to Bathgate: Great-Great-Uncle George Pringle Sanderson -- Blacksmith, Locksmith and Safecracker, Part 2

George Pringle Sanderson, 1850-1940.

Welcome to Part 2 of the three part series on George Pringle Sanderson. George was my great grandmother Margaret Sanderson Foster's (1840-1871) youngest brother. 

To summarize from Part 1:

George Sanderson was born December 24, 1850 in Carleton Place, Ontario. He moved to Winnipeg in 1877 to work as a blacksmith before moving further west, to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan by ox cart. He came to Edmonton in 1881 by buckboard. He became the settlement's second blacksmith and first locksmith. He returned temporarily to Winnipeg in 1883 to marry Julia Simpson, with whom he had four children.

Uncle George was a true pioneer. When he ventured across the Canadian prairies to Edmonton (established by Hudson Bay Company as Fort Edmonton, a trading post) the fledgling community's population was a couple of hundred residents, compared to near 900,000 today.

Edmonton's early days are celebrated in vignettes at reconstructed Fort Edmonton Park, which is operated much in the style of Colonial Williamsburg down in Tidewater Virginia.

One of Edmonton's premier attractions, the Park represents four distinct time periods, exploring Edmonton's development from a fur trade post in the vast Northwest, to a booming metropolitan centre after the First World War. The park features over 75 structures, many of which are the originals. Costumed interpreters operate the site and live the way of the past. Exploring each building, each room, and talking to the 'inhabitants' makes for an extremely enjoyable recreational visit. This attraction can be viewed in a few hours or may take many return visits to appreciate the sense of the past.

Blacksmiths were critical to the local economy in frontier Edmonton.

Before the horseless carriage age, the most essential persons in the community were the blacksmith and carriage maker. In their shops horses and oxen were shod, iron tires reset on wooden wheels, wagons and carriages made, and a great deal of wrought iron work such as hinges, hasps, and tools were fashioned. Today, the shops with their blazing forge, bellows and anvils, with the many tools, the noise and the smells would be a fascinating place.

An establishment in 1885 Edmonton combined both essential trades under one roof. George Sanderson and Edward Looby worked as partners for a number of years providing those services without which much of the community could not have survived. George P. Sanderson left Ontario in 1877 with the intention of settling in Winnipeg. After working four years as a blacksmith there, he and his friend and new partner Edward Looby, headed further west by ox cart. They arrived in Edmonton in October, 1881, and at once proceeded to set up a combined blacksmith and carriage making business.

We know George Pringle Sanderson had a blacksmith and carriage business. But what does that imply? Did he work out of a stall, a stable, a studio or something more? What was the scope of his business? What did it look like? How are we to know? Certainly no living person has personal recollection of George's enterprise, and stories passed along through oral family lore would suffer the ills of fading memory and fractured communication. 

But look see here, can you believe it? We got it! An 1883 photo of that very blacksmith shop, including mustachioed, towering George pictured out front wearing his leather work apron (affording protection from glowing hot iron rods and fiery embers) in the foreground. It will be recalled that uncle George's occupation was listed as joiner in the 1871 Census of Canada. In the construction of the shop, George obviously had put his carpentry skills to good work.


Title: George Sanderson's blacksmith shop, Edmonton, Alberta. Date: 1883

Remarks: Located at corner of Jasper Avenue and Namayo Avenue, (97th Street).

L-R: John Kelly, engineer and machinist; John Blair, carpenter; James Wright, printer at "Bulletin"; John Looby, blacksmith and partner, Sanderson and Looby; John Brown, on horse, merchant; George P. Sanderson; Charles Stewart, stage driver.

L-R on balcony: Mrs. G. P. Sanderson; Lizzie Kelly; Kat Kelly. John Brown's store, extreme left.

Subject(s): Edmonton, Alberta - Buildings / Log cabins and buildings / Edmonton, Alberta - Personalities / Blacksmiths and blacksmithing / Work clothes

Barack Obama's Shared Values

Barack Obama said yesterday in a televised statement in response to the Paris terrorist attacks,

..... this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share."

No way, no how. That's not the world we live in. Obama either needs to clam up or he needs to learn to speak for himself.

Despite intersections here and there, and appearances of commonality, there are very different value systems at work. This is a story that reveals two sets of values, one set that I share and the other which I do not.

I once had a friend from Pakistan. We worked together at the Postal Service. Let's call my friend Mahmud, because, well, that was his name. 

About 1.5 million refugees escaped Viet Nam by boat.
It is unknown how man tens of thousands perished in the effot.

Mahmud was urbane, stylish, sophisticated and world traveled. He had a Ph.D in economics from an Ivy League school.

Reflecting family influence, Mahmud's career aspirations were more in business than academics. Mahmud had a gorgeous, intelligent, friendly and sparkling young wife, and two of the cutest little kids you would ever see.

We worked together in a part of the Postal Service that produced product cost and revenue data, and used, among other things, econometric analysis to analyze the data and produce forecasts. Mahmud and I were reformed minded. We both wanted the Postal Service to scotch its simplistic (and in our view, misleading) unweighted labor productivity metric in favor of an advanced weighted measure. We were determined to produce an alternative replacement productivity model on our own, in our spare time.

To help, we wrangled authority to hire a temporary employee -- she was an ESL Vietnamese refugee right off the boat -- to transcribe, organize and, at our direction, crunch reams of data that we had accumulated in hard copy over the years, so we could analyze it and establish baseline multi-factor productivity trends. Our hire and her family were sponsored by a local Presbyterian church.

Our refugee hire worked her tail off, so when a suitable vacancy opened we got her hired on to a full-time permanent job with its full panoply of benefits. I remember, years later, how proud she was when she tracked me down to brag on her daughter who had been admitted to Duke Medical School and thank us for taking her on when she despaired for her future. I said, no need to thank anyone, you earned it.

Anyhow, the partnership with Mahmud was one I enjoyed, where I could offer him insights and understanding of the data we were using, and counsel on how to wind his way through the bureaucracy, the regulatory system and the political climate (in those days, where merit still counted for something, one could actually do all that). And Mahmud could offer me on-the-job, one-on-one graduate school level training in matters statistical and econometric. While our planned approach proved to be too unwieldy to implement, we were part of a movement that was ultimately successful, and led to the Postal Service adopting a measuring called Total Factor Productivity (which was subject matter of a earlier post).

After a few years with the Postal Service, Mahmud was restless and impatient. He wanted a bigger stage and a more important position, so he moved on first to a consulting firm, and then to a very large corporation headquartered in New Jersey that we all know of, and most of us have been customers of at one time or another. Mahmud was a chief of one sort or another in that company's strategic planning department, came to wear thousand dollar suits, and was known to take us out to lunch on his expense account when business beckoned him to Washington, DC.

After not hearing from Mahmud for a year or two, one peaceful Sunday morning I was at home. The phone rang. "Hi," the caller said "This is Mahmud, how are you doing?" "Fine," I said and we talked back and forth about work situations and old friends for a few minutes. Then Mahmud said, "Grady, I wanted to ask you a question because of your legal background." "Ok," I said. Mahmud asked "Is it against the law in the United States to assault your wife?" "It sure is!" I responded.

To think, I had vouched for the man when he applied for citizenship.

That was the last time I talked to Mahmud and conversed about our way less than universal values. I understand he left the country to evade prosecution.

We Salute Our Veterans

On this Veteran's Day, 2015, we solemnly salute all the military men and women who have served our country bravely and selflessly in the name of freedom, for there is no more precious commodity on this earth than liberty.

Today we single out for particular acknowledgement several of our forebearers who served in the United States Army during World War I, protecting us and our families and our allies from tyranny and aggression. 

The three men are Fosters of my father's generation, each of whom hailed from the tiny town of Bathgate, North Dakota, and sailed across the roiling waters of the North Atlantic to France, where they served on the blood stained battlefields on the Western Front. 

Let's start with uncle Lyndon R. Foster.

Fourth Infantry Division
Distinctive Unit Insignia

World War I was violently fought. Lyn was in the U.S. Army, Fourth Infantry Division, deployed to the western front, serving side-by-side with French and British troops. His division participated in the St. Mihiel offensive and the Muese Argonee offensives, phases 1 and 2. Elements of the division were gassed by German troops. The Fourth Division's authorized strength was 32,000. During World War I it suffered 2,611 killed in action, and 9,895 wounded. Records suggest that actual division strength was as little as 23,000 (13,000 regulars and 10,000 draftees) translating into a casualty rate of 54 percent, more than half of those who served.

Williston (N.D.) Graphic, February 15, 1917

Lyn enlisted on January 29, 1917 in Williston, North Dakota (currently the epicenter of the Bakken oil boom). He was sent to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri and served in Battery A, 16th field artillery to discharge. He was overseas from May 10, 1918 to March 24, 1919. Engagements were Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel, Meuse Argonne and defensive sectors were Vesle (Champagne), Sommedieu (Lorraine). He was discharged at Camp Dodge, Iowa on April 16, 1919, as a private with a surgeon's certificate of disability, 15 percent. He was single at the time.

Lyndon's service, along with that of two of his cousins, was honored in the post-war publication "Pembina County North Dakota in the World War."  

Private Lyndon R. Foster.

4. Private LYNDEN (sic) R. FOSTER, Bathgate, son of Mr. and Mrs. I. J. Foster, born Sept. 26th 1897. Enlisted in the service Jan. 29th, 1917, and served with Battery A., 16th F. A., 4th Division, in France.

Corporal Robert S. Foster.

5. Corporal ROBERT S. FOSTER, Bathgate, son of Mr. and Mrs. W.K. Foster, born April 7th, 1895. Enlisted n the service Oct. 27th, 1917. Made Corporal Dec. 1st 1917, in Co. C., 164 Regiment, 41st Division, and served with them in France.

Corporal William C. Foster.

6. Corporal WM. C. FOSTER, Bathgate, son of Mr. and Mrs. W.K. Foster, born April 4th, 1899. Entered the service July 1st, 1915, and was made a Corporal July 10th 1917. Served in France with Co. C., 164th Infantry, 41st Division.

Lyndon was my father's brother. Robert and William were near neighbors and first cousins to dad and Lyndon (second cousins, once removed to myself). After deployment to France, their 164th Infantry Regiment (which was an activated unit of the North Dakota National Guard) was fragmented to serve up replacement personnel to other divisions, so the war record of individual soldiers in the unit is difficult to trace. 

The 164th Regiment lost 278 men in the war. One hundred seventy-six died in battle, 62 died of wounds, and the remainder succumbed to disease.

That's the simple history for the 164th. The thinly populated rural county of Pembina lost 32 men and women who served on behalf of God and country in World War I.

Uncle Lyn, cousins William and Robert, on behalf of all your descendants, thank you for your service to our country. We remember. We shall never forget.

Next year we shall honor an ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War.

Following are supporting documents that surfaced in preparation of this post.

Documentation.

Pembina County North Dakota in the World War, from
North Dakota State University, Digital Horizons.

Robert Sanderson Foster's World War I Draft Registration Card.

The service records of these three young men were published in ROSTER of the Men and Women who served in the Army or Naval Service (including the Marine Corps) of the United States or its Allies from the STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA in the World War, 1917-1918. Following are those entries plus the cover and the dedication page. The book was published by their uncle R. D. Hoskins, who collaborated with the author and the Bismarck Tribune, which had the state printing contract.

Roster of the Men and Women who served in the Army or Naval Service (including the Marine Corps) of the United States or its Allies from the State of North Dakota in the World War, 1917-1918 Volume 2 Flagg to Lark

Name: Robert Sanderson Foster 
Army #: 85,764
Registrant: yes, Pembina county
Birth Place: Bathgate, N. Dak.
Birth Date: 07 Apr 1895
Occupation: student
Comment: enlisted in Company C, 1st Infantry, North Dakota National Guard, at Grafton, on Aug. 27, 1917; served in Company C, 1st Infantry, North Dakota National Guard (Company C, 164th Infantry), to discharge. Grade: Corporal, Dec. 1, 1917; overseas from Dec. 15, 1917, to Feb. 26, 1919. Discharged at Camp Dodge, Iowa, on March 11, 1919, as a Corporal.

Name: Lyndon R. Foster Army #: 564,651 Registrant: no, enlisted prior Birth Place: Bathgate, N. Dak. Birth Date: 26 Sep 1897 Parent's Origin: of Canadian-American parents Occupation: plumber Comment: enlisted at Williston on Jan. 29, 1917; sent to Jefferson Barracks, Mo.; served in Battery A, 16th Field Artillery, to discharge; overseas from May 10, 1918, to March 24, 1919. Engagements: Offensives: Aisne-Marne; St. Mihiel; Meuse-Argonne. Defensive Sectors: Vesle (Champagne); Sommedieu (Lorraine). Discharged at Camp Dodge, Iowa, on April 16, 1919, as a Private, Surgeon's Certificate of Disability, 15%.

Name: William Carrick Foster 
Army #: 85,751
Registrant: no, enlisted prior
Birth Place: Bathgate, N. Dak.
Birth Date: 04 Apr 1897
Parent's Origin: of American parents
Occupation: farmer
Comment: enlisted in Company C, 1st Infantry, North Dakota National Guard, at Grafton, on July 1, 1915; called into federal service on June 19, 1916, for Mexican border duty and served there until discharge; discharged from federal service at Fort Snelling, Minn., on Feb. 14, 1917, and resumed National Guard status; called into federal service, World War, on July 15, 1917; served in Company C, 1st Infantry, North Dakota National Guard (Company C, 164th Infantry), to discharge. Grade: Corporal, June 1, 1917; overseas from Dec. 15, 1917, to Feb. 26, 1919. Discharged at Camp Dodge. Iowa, on March 11, 1919, as a Corporal.

Bismarck Tribune, November 14, 1932.

Uncle Lyndon R. Foster's National Homes for Volunteer Disabled Veterans record.

Predecessor of the VA.

World War I dramatically increased the population of the National Home branches, though this new population had different needs.  The World War I veterans were primarily younger men who needed short term medical care or help with psychiatric problems. After World War I, women veterans entered the National Home branches in low numbers. 


Uncle Lyn spent two months recovering in the national home from March through May of 1922.

Saturday Pictures on Sunday

Looking at the ominous hot and dry winter El Nino forecasts, we had been kind of hoping for a couple more weeks of golf, but it is looking more and more like it just wasn't meant to be. In fact, if we don't get a break this will be the earliest closing we've had since moving to the Treasure State. It sure is pretty all around though.

There is plenty of pre-season activity at Bridger Bowl. Who needs a lift?