FEATURED RESIDENT-NOVEMBER- 2008

Way back in the forest off one of the roads here in our little township, in an off-the-grid,one-room cabin lives a 65 year- old woman who “took to the woods” back in the early ‘70s and has never regretted it.

Jan Streiff was born in LaCrosse, Wisconsin (yes, she proudly admits to being a “cheesehead”), on July 29, 1943. Her parents were Darlene and Mel Streiff and she has one brother.

Jan’s dad served in World War II and while he was gone, the family moved to Rochester to be near his family. Jan attended all 12 years of school there.

Upon high school graduation in 1963, she served with the Peace Corps in Mexico, where she was a community organizer- teaching women how to cook nutritionally, giving medical shots, etc., and even, shooing the chickens out of the kitchen.

After that she attended Mankato State University for one year, but, succumbing to an urge to travel, she spent a year and a half in Europe and Israel, where she lived on a kibbutz.

Upon returning to the States, it was back to Mankato State where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in education. She taught first at a private Unitarian Church school (grades 4 and 6), then taught science, civics, AP English, and health at the Diver-Eyota School just outside of Rochester.

After realizing that she wasn’t satisfied with teaching, she followed a dream of always wanting to go into anthropology. It had always, she says, been in the back of her mind.

In 1968, she signed up for the Archaeology Field School at the University of Minnesota, always thinking she would be the next Margaret Mead. After one year in this program, Jan was hired as a teaching assistant at the University. She eventually was made the permanent director of the U.of M. School of Anthropology. It was shortly after this that Jan discovered that she liked “dead” people more than” live” people- their bodies anyway. She wanted to dig up artifacts and become an archaeologist.

She spent 25 years, off and on, as an archaeologist, mostly working in the Upper Midwest. Two of those years were spent with the Army Corps of Engineers.

It was in 1972 while working with a field crew at an archaeology site west of Pine City on the Snake River that Jan met a realtor who introduced her to some land for sale in New Dosey Township. She was amazed by the beaver pond and trees on the 40 acres that she saw. She snatched it up on a contract for deed, quit the Corps and lived in a tent on money she had saved, for 2 years and built her cabin. She used her home in Cloverton as a weekend get-away for many years before moving up here permanently in the 1990s.

Jan has always been an athletic, outdoors person. She lettered in 5 sports in high school. While in Europe, she skied the Alps. She has gone on camping and canoeing trips for 48 years to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

In October, 2000, just after returning from a kayaking trip on the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, a “bit of a blow” ( her words) was delivered to this intelligent, active, and fiercely independent woman. She had her first symptom of unexplained dizziness and was eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her cabin had burned down 2 days prior to this.

Jan had been working weekends for Target Stores in Minneapolis and, even though she worked only part time, they kept her health coverage going.

She rebuilt her home and continued working for Target for another 3 years. During this time, she also worked as the director of Community Education, first for the East Central School District, then over at Pequot Lakes. She fully retired in 2003.

Jan is one of the strongest people in our community. She has fought her disease with determination and grit- doing everything from chemotherapy to swimming laps weekly in order to keep her muscles working.

She is tenacious, bright, and abrasive at times, but she has insisted on living her life by her own light and our community admires and respects her for that.

FEATURED RESIDENT-OCTOBER- 2008

An interesting and charming person lives out here in Cloverton at the intersection of Hay Creek and McDermott Creek roads.

Alan Holter was born in Chicago, Illinois, on February 19th, 1941. He was the only son out of 4 children born to Edna and Les Holter. At the age of 3 Alan moved with his family to Genoa, Wisconsin. Al remembers Genoa as a “lovely little town ” and he can still remember the smells and sounds of fishing life on the Mississippi River from his few years of living there.

The family moved to Sandstone when Al was not quite finished with the first grade. His dad worked at a printer in Minneapolis, where he stayed during the week, and came home to Al and the rest of the family on weekends. At that time, gas cost 12 cents/gallon.

Al went to school in Sandstone through the 7th grade. Like so many young boys at that time, he dropped out of school. He got his first job working at the Forum Cafeteria in Minneapolis. He experienced a few years of “off and on” unemployment during which time he had moved to Montana.

Returning to Minnesota, he worked in the machine shop trade for over 20 years and eventually moved from Minneapolis to Princeton, then spent 30 years as a beaver fur trapper for the Log Cabin Store in Danbury. While living in Princeton, his wife at that time had a sister Shirley who lived in Markville. She told him about a home for sale in Cloverton and Al ended up buying the home that Esther and Earl Vink wanted to sell. It was while in Cloverton that he began his career as a fur trapper. He had trapped his first beaver on the Kettle River in Sandstone when he was 12 years old. After all of those years as a trapper and hunter, however, Al says he no longer hunts. He has killed enough animals and will do it no more. These days, he “shoots” his animals on digital. Photography is a passion of his.

Al met his wife Rose when he was playing in a Rock & Roll band in the area. He played a lot at the Cozy Corner Inn in Wisconsin. The last name of his band was Hundred Grand. Al was the guitarist. He and Rose were married in 1995.

Al has 3 children from previous marriages- Kendra lives is Bremerton, Washington, while Alan is in Prairie Farm, Wisconsin, and Shane lives in St. Paul. Altogether Al has 10 grandchildren.

Anyone who lives in New Dosey Township knows that Al is a computer expert. He is currently involved in the Wind Meter Project for the township. He spends a lot of time on the Internet- says he has become his Uncle Frank who was literally glued to the TV when it first came out. Al is also the beaver control specialist for both New Dosey Township and Pine County

In addition to his Internet and photography, Al and Rose enjoy just sitting on their lawn chairs and enjoying the beauty of the forest that surrounds their home.

He is a friendly, charming man whom we all like very much.

FEATURED RESIDENT-SEPTEMBER 2008

Tucked up at the end of Loggers Lane going north off Rutabaga Road is the little farm where Maria Starowoitow has lived for the last 54 years of her life. The farm is no longer in use, but its charming little old buildings are reminiscent of a time long past.

Maria Zanosko was born in the small rural village of Kartuz-Bereza in Poland on December 10th, 1925. She was the 2nd oldest of 8 children.

At a dance at a camp for misplaced persons after the end of World War II, Maria was attracted to the accordionist, a young man named Feodor Starowoitow. They were married in 1948 and in 1951 a sheep rancher in the state of Washington sponsored their emigration to America. Seasickness made the 4 month trip over the ocean a terrible experience for Maria. She and Feodor took the train from New York City to Spokane where they worked on the ranch of their sponsor. In order to pay off their indenture, Feodor worked with the sheep, while Maria was a cook at the ranch.

Maria was very lonely in Washington and longed for other family members who were emigrating to Minneapolis. They moved to Minnesota and worked at a Chinese café until 1954 when they purchased the dairy farm here in Cloverton. They also bought a farm 3 miles down on Pine County Highway 24 where grandma Starowoitow lived for many years.

Their daughter Lucy was born in Mora in 1954. Lucy and her sister Tania, born in 1961, attended the Cloverton School until it closed, then went in to Sandstone to finish their local education.

Maria worked at 3 different jobs during her younger years. Her first job , of course, was working side by side with her husband on the farm. She also had a job for 2 years in the rutabaga fields in Askov and Sturgeon Lake. She was paid one dollar per hour. From 1967 until 1974, she worked at the Duxbury Store. To this day, she talks about how much she enjoyed working with Dorothy Dumas and Mabel Burson. Mabel, as most of you know, is the mother of Eleanor Elliott from the neighboring community of Markville. Mabel now lives in the Pine Medical Center in Sandstone and dear Dorothy passed away a few years ago.

Cross stitching, knitting, crocheting, and making braided rugs were all hobbies of Maria’s throughout the years. She speaks both Polish and Russian fluently.

Maria is grandmother to 3 children- Sasha, Angelina, and Tasha, and great-grandmom now to little Serenity, who was born on July 5th of this year.

Feodor died in 1986 and Maria still lives on the old farmstead where, as her age creeps up, she enjoys watching the deer, feeding her hummingbirds, and battling the red squirrels. She is indeed a New Dosey treasure!