Category Archives: Featured Residents

February 2008 – Jim Allen

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FEATURED RESIDENT
FEBRUARY 2008

Jim Allen lives, with his wife Helen, in a charming little home tucked behind some pine trees right on Rutabaga Road, the main thoroughfare going through our little township.

Jim was born 72 years ago in St. Paul where he attended St. John’s Catholic elementary school, then high school at Harding High. His main memory of high school, he says, was “sneaking off to go hunting and fishing” whenever he could get away with it.

He worked on machinery at IBM for a couple of years- right at the beginning of the computer era. From there, he went to work for Blue Cross as a claims manager for 10 years, then as a salesperson. Preferring claims work to selling, he moved to another insurance agency and resumed his work in claims management.

Jim and the former Helen Rossbach were married in 1956. After buying their land and small home in Cloverton, Jim spent a considerable amount of time adding on to it. They moved up here permanently in 1977 and Jim accepted a job at the St. Croix Camp in 1982. He fully retired in 1997.

Since his entire purpose in moving to our serene rural area was to gratify his lifelong love of the outdoors, Jim spends a lot of time walking the roads and forests. For several years, he and Pete Fornengo, whom Jim describes as the best friend he ever had, enjoyed annual trips to Montana where they hunted prairie dogs, antelope and elk. The fishing that Jim so enjoys is done on Big Lake in Wisconsin, where his brother had a cabin for many years.

Jim and Helen have 2 grown sons. Jeff is a registered nurse living in Stillwater and working in St. Paul, while Mark lives in Blaine and works for United Rental. The Allens have 4 grandchildren.

Jim is a former member of the New Dosey Town Board and currently serves on the Planning Commission.

His wit, intelligence, and all-around goodness make Jim Allen a treasured member of our community.

Jim Allen passed away May 17, 2009

January 2008 Deloris Schirmer

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January 2008 Featured Resident

Deloris Schirmer lives in a beautiful home she had built on Squib Creek Drive in the summer of 1998. After the death of her beloved husband Norm in 1992, she had to decide between staying in her home in Roseville or building her dream home alone up here in New Dosey Township. She opted for the woods, country roads, and quiet living to be offered here.

Deloris was born on a farm near Groton, South Dakota, in 1931, and lived there until she was 14 years old and her parents bought a different farm near Westport, SD. She graduated from high school in Westport, then worked for several years in Aberdeen as a waitress and fry cook at a truck stop. It was there that she met the trucker who would become her husband and the love of her life. They were married in 1958 at the Little Brown Church in the Vale in Nashua, Iowa.

It was during her thirty-year tenure as a school bus driver in the Cities, that she and Norm decided to look for land up North. She was intrigued by an ad that John Regenold had for “forty acres of sugar maples”, so they made that purchase, then eventually bought 40 more acres.

Aside from hunting and fishing, which Deloris thoroughly enjoyed for any years, her main interest has been the raising, training and showing of her Chesapeake dogs. She has shown her dogs as far away as Sault St. Marie, Michigan, and many other sites in the U.S. and Canada. She has retired from dog shows now also, but still has one dog, Little Bit, living with her. Doloris is also an oil painter and likes to spend some of her long, winter days at her easel painting her specialty of outdoor scenery.

Deloris has three sons- Mike, who lives in Brandon, SD, Del, who lives in Roseville, and Don, who is now an official resident of Cloverton.

Deloris is a member of the New Dosey Board of Adjustment and the Seven County Senior Federation.

Those of us who know her appreciate her feistiness, her candor, and her kindness.