Alexander’s Old Settler’s Celebration This Weekend

Sixty-seven years ago the friendly gesture of providing beef for a neighborly picnic following harvest started a long time tradition of good eats, good fun and good old western styled hospitality.

This year, the tradition Len Burns created all those years ago continues with something for everyone at the Alexander Old Settler’s Celebration including a beef barbecue picnic, parade, street dance, rodeo roping, chili cook-off, activities for youth and more.

The fanfare kicks off on Aug. 31 and continues through Sept. 2 in the Alexander City Park.

Over the years, in keeping with the tradition of giving, other community members and families have donated beef for the event. This year, Barb Fixen, of Alexander, and other family members of the Carlson and Heinz families are sponsoring the beef while honoring her late parents, Ruth and Valentine Heinz and her late grandparents Florence and Folke “Jack” Carlson.

“My parents and grandparents were very well known community members. My mom and dad were partners in an implement dealership and it gave them a great opportunity to work with many of the people in the community. I just think it’s great that we can share and give something back to the community by honoring them,” Fixen said.

On Friday, the barbecue will get started at 12:00 p.m. and once everyone has been served, the Fixen family will take a moment to tell the story of the families being honored. Several members are planning to perform Swedish dancing to showcase some of their heritage.

Jack Carlson was born in Toresbo, Sweden in 1905. He was one of nine children and his parents were dairy farmers and foresters. In 1924, at 19 years old, Jack and his brother, Harald, immigrated to Canada, booking passage on the Kungsholm as third class passengers. Arriving in Nova Scotia, they then traveled to a friend’s house in British Columbia. A year later they requested permission to enter the United States and settled in Washington. There they met a man who promised them work in North Dakota if they were interested in farming on the vast prairie. So, they settled in Alexander and began shocking wheat.

In 1930, Jack met his bride-to-be, Florence at a dance in Grassy Butte. She was a Minnesota native of Norwegian descent whose family had moved to North Dakota.

After their marriage, they rented a farm four miles north of Rawson, N.D., called the Fixen place. In the winters of 1935-1938 they worked in the forest for some extra income. In the summers they raised huge gardens. During that time, the couple had three children, Ruth, Judith and Aileen.

The couple purchased the Arne Loken farm in 1943 which became the family homestead. Florence became a teacher and spent many years teaching, including for the Patent Gate School where three of five students were her own children.

Jack died in 1964 at the age of 59 from heart related problems and Florence farmed for one more year with the help of her son-in-law, Valentine, and her daughter, Ruth who had returned from living in Oregon to help with the family business. And that is where the Heinz family story begins.

Before getting married in 1960, Ruth attended college at Valley City, became a teacher and moved out west where she met her future husband. After getting married, the couple had four children, Valarye, Randy, Barbara and Jacquelyn. Valentine went to work building bridges and doing construction while Ruth was a stay-at-home mom.

Uprooting and moving to North Dakota, life centered on the family farm and Ruth continued to stay home with the children. Eventually, they took on another venture and partnered with another couple to start an implement business. With the children older and not needing as much care, Ruth worked side-by-side Valentine in the shop, selling parts and doing bookwork. After they sold the business, they continued with the farm up until the early 1990s.

Ruth passed away in 1995 and Valentine in 1998.

Today, Fixen lives on an 80 acre portion on the same plot of land her grandparents staked a claim to some 10 miles Northeast of Alexander all those years ago. She also owns the original house and outbuildings. She and her husband no longer farm and most of the crop land was sold several years after her father passed away.

“I think it’s nice that one of us has been able to retain the farm. That way, when anyone wants to come back, they have a place they can come to, a place they call home. I, along with my siblings, have wonderful memories of living so close to my grandmother and being able to run to her trailer for an afternoon of card games or hot cup of cocoa. My children were able to do the same with my parents before they passed away and created some lasting memories,” Fixen said.

Fixen said that today, most of her family lives in other states and is no longer in the area. Together with husband, Kurt, she has two grown children, Jami Murie and Joshua Fixen, both of Alexander.