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December 2018
VOLUME 1 | NO. 5
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Howard Lake woman celebrates 100th birthday
DEB COX-JOHNSON
Correspondent
Alice Wolfstellar told family members she
“didn’t want a big fuss” to celebrate her birthday
– certainly nothing like the last big birthday par-
ty. That party celebrated her 90th birthday, and
included her fi rst-ever motorcycle ride.
But, that was not to be, as more than 200 fam-
ily members and friends joined her Oct. 28, in
the gym/fellowship hall at St. James Lutheran
School in Howard Lake, to help her mark this
milestone. The party was planned and organized
by her nieces and nephew.
Early on, Wolfstellar received a surprise in the
form of a ride in a horse-drawn carriage decorat-
ed to resemble the carriage made for Cinderella
out of a pumpkin. Her nephew, Theodore Woyke,
created the one-of-a-kind carriage.
Wolfstellar has had a decades-long relationship
with St. James Church and School, which began
in her childhood before she was even a Howard
Lake resident.
She was born on her family’s farm in Silver
Lake, and attended the two-room schoolhouse in
Hill Township. Later, she boarded with a family
in Howard Lake, so she could attend eighth grade
at St. James and be confi rmed there.
Alice Wolfstellar celebrated her 100th birthday in grand style, beginning with a ride in a Cinderella carriage.
Senior
Connections
When she was 17, she met her future husband,
Carl Wolfstellar, “an Annandale boy,” at a local
dance. They married on her 20th birthday, Oct.
20, 1938. Both of them loved to dance and con-
tinued to follow the bands they loved “well into
the 80s.”
Carl’s family had two farms, and the newly-
weds purchased the smaller farm of about 70
acres from his parents. They built the house and
all of the outbuildings from start to fi nish.
They loved their farm and that way of life, but
in the 1950s, farming methods began to change.
Threshing machines were replaced by combines,
and tractors replaced earlier equipment.
The Wolfstellars, having no children
to pass the farm down to, were faced
with a diffi cult decision.
They weighed the expense of mod-
ernizing their equipment and methods,
and decided that, at that stage of their
lives, the costs were too high. Reluc-
tantly, they decided to sell the farm and
move into Howard Lake.
Alice was saddened to leave the farm
and all they had built, but never talk-
ed about it. She didn’t want to make it
“harder on Carl.”
By then, they had been members of
St. James Lutheran Church for all the
years of their marriage, and they de-
cided to build a new home just a few
blocks away.
Both immediately found jobs in the
community. Carl went to work in the
creamery. He never missed a day of
work until his retirement.
Alice started working right away at
the bakery, but was soon forced to look
for something different, due to her pre-
SUBMITTED PHOTO
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