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Mabel Gregerson, Badger
Minnesota's "Hello Girl" Part II
This week we continue
the story of the faithful service of the Badger telephone exchange
“Hello Girl” Mabel Gregerson. Mabel’s parents, Gust and Sophia
Gregerson, came to Roseau
County
in 1900, settling in Nereson Township.
In 1913 her father moved the family to Badger to manage the telephone
exchange but due to a family illness the family returned to the farm
in Nereson. In 1918 Mabel began a life of service to the residents of
the Badger area. Mabel operated the Stokes, Nereson, and Barnett
Telephone company for 51 1/2 years.
“Words alone are far
too inadequate to describe and give due credit for the many services,
far beyond the call of duty, she rendered during her career as
telephone operator. If Mabel was to write her memoirs, it would not
be a small book, if she “told it all.” But of course, she would never
divulge what went on over the wires, and was too modest to (take)
credit (for) the countless ‘extras’ as anything more than doing her
duty.
“When the big
blizzard in March 1941 hit and resulted in the loss of scores of lives
in the Red River
Valley,
arrived in our area very suddenly and without warning. Many people
were trapped wherever they happened to be. It struck Badger during
the Sam Mork - Ella Haugen wedding at Our Redeemer’s Church at about 8 p.m.
As a result, Mabel had many “guests” for the night, including the
bride and best man of the wedding party. The groom, not realizing the
intensity of the storm, attempted to take his mother-in-law home about
eight miles in the country. About 4 miles out, with visibility
absolutely nil, they got stalled in a snowdrift and had to spend the
night there. At the time it was anything but humorous.
In an REA newsletter,
Forest Ammerman wrote, “Mabel was the pioneer Badger Telephone
Operator and for many, many years was our ‘Two Way Connection’ during
REA line outages. She was our first source information. Her
switchboard would light up, frightfully, during electric storms and
she could somehow tell the areas that were having trouble. She would
stay on during the night so we could make our contacts. Although we
always thank her, we couldn’t than her enough. God bless the memory of
Mabel.”
Mabel was the Badger
hello girl from 1918 until 1969. Many tributes were given to Mabel in
the Badger book, Pioneers and Progress. Information taken from
Pioneers and Progress and Roseau County Heritage, Gladys
Paulson, 82306)
RCHS Footnotes
The Roseau County
Historical Society serves the public by collecting, preserving, and
exhibiting the history and heritage of Roseau
County.
We do this by exhibiting in the museum, through a RCHS county fair
exhibit, outreach programs to nursing homes, school tours and
educational programs, and other community programs. This past spring
RCHS participated in the Greenbush Women of Today Spring Tea.
Clothing from the past were exhibited by some of Greenbush’s young
ladies. Some clothing was from the collection of RCHS.
We would like to do
more outreach programs, but the cost can be prohibitive. With your
financial support we can offer more of these services to our
residents. Funding for programming is made possible through county
funding and memberships in the Roseau County Historical Society.
Contact your county commissioners and express your appreciation to
them for supporting the Society, remind them that collecting the
county history is important for future generations, then become a
member and support the ongoing collecting and exhibiting of Roseau
County
heritage.
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