FEATURED RESIDENT-AUGUST-2009

Picture this.  In 1963, a man from St. Paul brings his twelve-year old son up to this area to hunt about one mile from Tamarack Lake.  This young lad instantly falls in love with the countryside and from that time on has only one goal in life- to live up here by the time he is fifty years old.  That little boy was Cloverton resident Don Eddy.

Donald Keith Eddy was born in November of 1951 to Jack and Gloria Eddy.  He lived all of his growing up years in the West 7^th Street area of St. Paul.  He attended Adams Elementary School, and graduated from Monroe High School in 1970.

Don’s first job was working on the barges on the Mississippi River.  He hated the work, but at that time, the $3.40/hour wages were rather enticing.  Don was drafted into the army in 1970, spent most of his tour of duty in Germany and was honorably discharged in 1972.

He moved home, went back to work on the river, drove truck for two years, then took the test for the Fire and Police Departments. After passing with flying colors, he started working for the St. Paul Fire Department, holding the job for 27 years.

This was a very interesting job, to say the least.  Don was involved in some exciting, high profile rescues.  One such event, the rescue of a man from a train wreck on February 14, 1997, was featured on both NBC’s Dateline Show and as an article in Reader’s Digest Magazine.  The magazine crew actually came to Cloverton to interview him and took a photo of Don down by the Hay Creek.

Right off the bat into his firefighting career, Don went for paramedics training, then took on a second job.  Remember, in his mind,was still the need to accumulate the funds to buy land up here. By the time he was 23 years old, he had purchased land in New Dosey Township.  It was 40 acres across from the Tony Fornengo homestead.  He eventually found land he liked better- land with a stream.  In 1986, he built his dream home off White Tail Lane.

In 1972, at a “social club”, Don met the girl who would become his wife- Jeannie Nash.  She had been a longtime friend of one of Don’s neighbors.  They were married in 1976.  They have two sons- Nick (34) lives in Coon Rapids and works as a CNC programmer, while Jack (29) lives in Eagan and works as a realtor and president of “Wake the World” Records- an environmental music company.  Jack has two young sons who are a great joy to grandparents Jeannie and Don.

Don had taken the firefighter job because he liked the fact that he could retire at age 50.  However, at age 49, Don fell through the floor at a fire.  This accident caused a clot which precipitated a mini-stroke.  This effectively ended his career as a firefighter.  He took his retirement at age 50 and headed north.

Managing his property for wildlife has been an integral part of Don’s life.  He was doing quality land management long before it became popularized.  After researching and experimenting on what kinds of grass certain animals liked to eat, Don planted just the right pastures for the deer, turkeys, grouse, etc that roamed his property.  It was probably because of this, when, in 1999,  then town chair John Fornengo was asked to rename all town roads with “Nature” names,  he suggested White Tail Lane for  Don’s road.

Another passion of Don’s is wildlife photography.  He takes photos of animals on his land- bears, deer, bobcats, wolves, minks and otter have all been beautifully placed on film.  Some of his photos are on display at the Hay Creek Outpost.

Kayaking is the third avocation on which Don thrives.  He occasionally can be seen”running a fast stream” in his kayak.  Hay Creek is his favorite place.  For four years now, Don has been a monitor of the Hay Creek for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. He measures the water levels for them.

To stay in shape, Don Eddy, like Don Mishler, walks or jogs daily.

Claiming that the last 7 and ½ years have been the happiest of his life, Don says, “ I actually look forward to going to bed at night because I know when I open my eyes there will be a brand new day to live out my childhood dream”.

FEATURED RESIDENT- JULY 2009-VICKI ELLIOTT

Everyone out here in the little township of New Dosey knows and likes Vicki Elliott.She and her husband Todd are the busy owners of the convenience store, gas-station, bar and restaurant known to all of us as the Hay Creek Outpost.

Victoria Lynn Fleury was born on September 13^th, 1965, to Karen and Bill Fluery. She has 2 sisters, 1 brother, and because her parents divorced and married other people, she also has 5 stepsisters and brothers.

Vicki was born in St. Paul and the family moved to Blaine when she was a toddler. She started school in Fridley, but in the 6^th grade, the family moved to Isanti and she graduated early from Cambridge High School in January 1984.During high school, her focus was on office courses- accounting, word processing, business, etc.

She continued working in restaurants after high school.Vicki married Brett Simonson in April of 1984 and their son David was born in 1986.

Vicki worked at the Volunteers in America “Bar None Boys Ranch” in St. Francis for 2 years. She was residential counselor for autistic children.Since she had had years of experience working with a developmentally disabled stepbrother, she was well-fitted for this type of work.

Her next job was with Cambridge Metals & Plastics where she did office work for 2 years.

Then, for 13 years, Vicki worked for Mo-Tech (Modern Technology), an automotive industry.She began as a receptionist, but eventually became the Human Resources Manager.She took some college courses while at this position.

Vicki and Brett divorced in 1992.Vicki had worked for many years with Todd Elliott at Mo-Tech and they were married in July, 1997.Todd brought 2 children- Candy and Clint to the union.

In addition to being co-owner and operator of the Hay Creek Outpost, Vicki has been the treasurer for New Dosey Township for 2 years.She is a voracious reader, with Stephen King novels being near the top of her reading list.

Vicki is a friendly, compassionate and out-going person and we are proud to haveher in our community.

Update January 30, 2012: Todd and Vicki Elliot moved to Cottage Grove, MN.  Todd is continuing as the road contractor for New Dosey Township.

FEATURED RESIDENT-JUNE 2009-DON MISHLER

It is doubtful that New Dosey Township would be governed and operated in the fine fashion that it is without the work that is done by Don Mishler.  As a town board supervisor, the grader operator, the township mechanic and the “go-to “guy in general, Don is responsible for most of the “nuts & bolts”, day by day functions of our township.

Donald Darold Mishler was born on his father’s birthday, February 26, 1939, to Joe and Lydia Mishler.  He was the middle child of three sons.  His parents lived in Cloverton at the time and he was born in the Pine City Hospital.  Don attended the first 8 grades of school at the Cloverton School, then went to high school in Sandstone, graduating in 1957.

Upon graduating from high school, he worked for one year on the Great Lakes as a seaman, then, in 1958, he worked for a few months at the only job he was ever fired from.  That’s right, Mr. Work Ethic himself was actually fired from a job.  It wasn’t his fault- he was in a  minor accident on his construction job in Sherbourne, Minnesota, caused by an inattentive driver in another vehicle.  But company policy was that one accident of any kind was a fireable offense.

In 1959, Don went to work as a lead-man setting up machines for Cornelius Company (later IMI Cornelius) in Anoka County.  He worked there for 42 years until his retirement in 2001.

Don married Adeline Oehrlein in 1959 and they had 2 children Diana and Brian and they adopted a third child Jason in 1970.  Don and Adeline had another child who only lived for four hours. Diana works for Anoka County, while Brian works in construction and Jason is at Central Sand Blasting Co.  Don and Adeline were divorced in 1980.

A young widow named Marlene Bowman had worked with Don at Cornelius for 12 years and in the early 1980s, a relationship was sparked. Don and Marlene were married in 1982.  Marlene had a daughter Pam who joined the family. Tragedy stuck the Mishler family in 1984 when Pam’s daughter Nicole at age 6 was murdered, and again, in 2004 when Diana’s daughter Cassie,18, died in a car accident.

Don and Marlene had been coming back to Cloverton for many years as weekenders in the cabin he owned next to his mom Lydia’s farm.  They worked on the cabin continuously to turn it into the beautiful home it is today.  They moved up here permanently after Don retired in 2001.

Don has been a town board supervisor for 8 years.  He is the Board delegate to the Tri-Township Disposal District meetings.  As mentioned before, he is also the town mechanic and grades the roads.

As a member of the Board of Directors for the East Pine County Wanderers, our senior group, he is also active in senior activities.  He is also a member of the Seven-County Senior Federation and the Duxbury Volunteer Fire Department.

As much as Don enjoys hunting, fishing and four-wheeling, he is an even more avid fan of both the Discovery and the History Channels.

All of the work done by Don Mishler for our community is very much appreciated.