A SHORT HISTORY OF THE HAMLET OF VALHALLA CENTRE

Excerpt from: Pioneer Round-Up: A History of Albright, Demmit, Goodfare, Hythe, Lymburn, Valhalla. Published by: Pioneer History Society of Hythe and Area. Printed 1972 by D.W. Friesen & Sons Ltd., Calgary, Alberta.

(Style and sentence structure edited for posting on this web site.)

The reasons behind the two names — Valhalla and Valhalla Centre. Rev. H. N. Ronning had in mind a home farming area and church for the Norwegian settlers — in other words a Valhalla — a Norse heaven. When the first Post Office named Valhalla was opened, it was located several miles northwest of Ronning's land and what later became thickly settled area. H. N. Ronning felt that the area where the hamlet sprang up should he called Valhalla and have Valhalla Post Office. The people to the northwest would not relinquish the name. So the Postal Department decided to call the hamlet Post Office Valhalla Centre.

Valhalla School No. 3130 was built in 1915 and opened in January, 1916.

In the spring of 1918, Anthon Horte opened a little office where he took orders for custom made suits and sold De Laval Cream Separators, the same building that later housed Olaf Horte's hardware business, Hanson Hardware, and still later the Coffee Shoppe.

In August, 1918, Charles Abdo moved the store he had opened two miles west and one mile north of Valhalla Centre, to the Centre, locating it near the crossroads on the present site of Joe Gray's hardware store. He and Alex Amsey (cousins) operated it for a time.

        In 1919, Anthon Horte operated a lumberyard, selling lumber from the Hortes' mill. He closed this in 1922 when the mill was sold to Lee Borden.

       The Valhalla Co-operative Creamery was built and began operation in 1920. In the same year, Gust Nepstad opened a store just where the Valhalla Garage now stands (NW corner of #59 and #723). It burned down in 1921. Also in 1920, John Maaland and Ed Oland bought Charlie Abdo's store. Oland bought Maaland's share later.

     The hall was built in 1921. Victor Granstrom was in charge of construction.

      Gust Nepstad bought Oland's store in 1922. Later, in 1925, he sold the stock to R. V. Roberts. Lars Flom bought Nepstad's store building about where Grey's Hardware now is. Mr. Flom had the agency for Oliver Machines, Renfrew stoves and cream separators. He succeeded 0. M. Melsness as secretary-treasurer of Valhalla Co-op Creamery.

Hans Tveter came from Dawson Creek, B.C., in 1923 and built a two-storey house at the road intersection, using it for a restaurant, rooming house and residence. Mrs. Mabel (Olson) Severson now owns it. In 1930, Evensons bought the place. Then Kosbergs became the owners for several years. The business changed hands several times. Amongst the various owners were Gene and Alex Gunderson, brothers-in-law of Gust Nepstad. The Gundersons' culinary specialty was the "bot-of-them" which was a sandwich spread of both peanut butter and strawberry jam. Mrs. Mabel Olson served meals later on.

Mr. R. V. Roberts, a Welshman, hired George Jensen to construct a large two-storey building in 1925. The ground floor was used as a store, and the second story made living quarters. Mr. Roberts managed the business, but his mother, Mrs. A. Davies, owned it.

During this time (1925-25), Frontier Lumber Co. opened a lumberyard where Valhalla Co-op store now stands. In 1927, Wolfe Lake Lumber Co. bought this yard. The Company owners were Ole Heggeland, Olaf Hanson, Hans Haakstad and John Eide.

  The Valhalla Brass Band was organized in the winter of 1925. The members paid part of the cost of their instruments out of their hard-earned money, and the balance was paid from collections or payments made by the communities which hired them to play. The Band played at sports days and on the social occasions at Valhalla, La Glace, Buffalo Lakes, Sexsmith, Clairmont, Grande Prairie, Beaverlodge, Hythe and other centers. Once it played for three days at sports near Berwyn. In the summer of 1926 the band played for 30 days. The first bandmaster was Harry Horte. Other members were Peter Melhus (who became leader some years later), Albert and Leonard Nepstad, Joe Hegberg, Ole Heggelund, Arthur and Olaf Hanson, Chris and Olaf Horte, Olin and Merlin Homeland, Elmer Flaten, Enion Jones, Roy Olson, and Roy Kochendorfer. The members who made up the band changed somewhat from year to year as new ones joined and others left. The youngest ever to join was Obert Haugen who joined in 1928 at the age of twelve years.

On one occasion, when Harry Horte was taking some of the band members and their instruments to Beaverlodge sports, he was quite startled to see one of his Ford truck wheels roll past him down the hill. He quickly tried to pull to a stop, but the vehicle tilted over on its side throwing out the men and their instruments. The drum rolled down the hill. No one was hurt. Some of the brass pieces were somewhat dented. But the men went on to play at the sports.  

Harry Horte operated a feed mill in 1925 and did some car repairing. About this time Melvin Hagen built a livery stable just north of the present location of Valhalla Garage. This barn burned down in the early 1930's. Also in the spring of 1925, I. M. Brown and R. L. North built a store with living quarters at the back of it. Culver Gray now owns this building and had the Post Office in it in the late 1950's and 1960's.

The Valhalla Evangelical Lutheran Church was built in 1925-26 and was opened in 1927.

In the autumn of 1926, Peter Melhus built a blacksmith shop and woodworking establishment which he operated until his death in March, 1949.

Ole M. Melsness bought the Brown and North store in 1925 or 1926, and had the Post Office, too. According to Olaf Horte’s memoirs, he (Olaf) was the first postmaster in Valhalla Centre, but he did not say when he obtained this position. He may have had it in conjunction with his hardware store and turned it over to 0. M. Melsness when he sold out here. After Ole died in 1935, his daughter, Dolores, managed both businesses until 1943 when she sold the store stock to the Valhalla Co-op store. She kept the Post Office until 1951 when Mrs. Vera Severson took it over for a year. Dolores moved to Edmonton. Another postmistress was Mrs. A. Lyslo.

Arnold Floen was postmaster after 1952 until Mrs. Culver Gray took it over and kept it until her death in 1967. Culver Gray continued with the Post Office until 1970 and is still mail carrier.

In the spring of 1926, Olaf Horte and Joe Ormson (the buttermaker and general manager of the Valhalla Co-op Creamery) opened the Valhalla Hardware store. Olaf soon bought Joe's share.

Mikkel Homeland bought Olaf Horte's Valhalla Hardware in 1928 when Olaf moved to Hythe. Mikkel operated the store for about a year. Then his son, Maurice, managed it. Ole M. Melsness took over the Post Office.

In the spring of 1930, Axel J. Axelson bought the Roberts-Davies store and sold it in the fall to A. P. Turner who operated it until 1954 when he sold out and retired in Edmonton.     

In February 1932, Olaf Hanson, who sold his share in Wolfe Lake Lumber Co., bought the M. Homeland Hardware. In 1938-39 he built new premises.

Harry Horte opened the Valhalla Garage, S.E. of the intersection of the roads in 1933.

During 1937 to 1939, Olive, Martin and Alice Fimrite bought the building formerly housing the Valhalla Hardware store and opened the Coffee Shoppe. They had $75.00 in cash amongst them with which they bought tables, chairs, stools and all the other equipment.

Preparing to serve crowds on sports days took two or three days of baking by Olive and her helpers, Mamie Lyste and Anna Brekkas. On regular days, 5 gallons of ice-cream made with pure cream was frozen daily. The neighbourhood boys cranked the freezers and were rewarded by being allowed to scrape the paddle.

Olive soon bought out her brother and sister-in-law's shares. Her specialty was flapper pie. She recalls that a customer could get three sandwiches and a quarter of a pie with all the coffee he wished to drink — all for 25c. Harry Horte and John Somo were her two most regular customers.

In the spring of 1939, Olive sold the Shoppe to Alma Hanson who sold out to Mrs. John Overkil in 1940. She had it until 1945. The small boys liked her fancy "Doughnuts", which were simply the scraps of dough from between the doughnuts which were given a twist and cooked as were the regular doughnuts. But they had a fancy shape.

This business changed hands several times — Ingaborg Moe, Mrs. Elsie Rude, Mrs. Arnold Jensen and Mrs. Alma May, Mrs. Gertrude Wright and others. It finally closed about 1960.

In 1937 or 38, Arne Thoreson opened a shoe and harness repairs shop. He closed his business and left the community in the 1950's.

The Valhalla Co-operative Store opened in 1942. It bought the stock from Melsness store in 1943. The first three managers were Adolph Fimrite, Erling Walle and Martin Fimrite.

About 1946, Wallace Werely and Alex Purvis built the Central Garage, kitty corner to the Valhalla Garage. In 1948 Johnny Hoflin bought this business and sold it to Harry and Bruce Horte in 1964. They moved into the Central Garage building. In 1966 they sold out to Sheldon Horte who still has this business.

Ed Frederickson built a butcher shop just north of the intersection on the west side of the road in 1946. In about 2 years he sold it to Emil Magnuson, who sold to Joe Gray, who in turn sold the business out of the community to Atkinson of Valleyview.

Valhalla Co-operative Creamery was taken over by the Northern Alberta Dairy Pool in 1946. N.A.D.P. promised to build a bigger creamery here, but built in Grande Prairie instead — so another business was lost.

Our hamlet had at least 100 residents in 1946. It now began to dwindle in size.

Joe and Mary Gray bought the Hanson Hardware business in 1950. Grays closed the business about 1968 and are now in Kelowna, B.C.

In 1954, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Judkins from Sexsmith bought A. P. Turners store. After about 2 years of a growing business they sold stock to Valhalla Co-op store. The building was sold and torn down.

THE VALHALLA CO-OPERATIVE CREAMERY

Conditions were very bad in Canada after the First World War, and the Peace country was no exception. Some wonderful pioneers decided to do something about this, so they began talking "creamery" until enough people were interested to have a meeting and discuss the pros and cons of a creamery. Grande Prairie had a creamery, and cream was shipped to it from Valhalla, so why couldn't the Valhalla district farmers, and others, have a paying one, as well?

In 1920, a meeting was held, and it was decided to go ahead. The first president was Peter A. Nepstad, and the first secretary.- treasurer was 0. M. Melsness. Some of the early directors were: Bjarne Thrones, Uri Powell, J. Johnson, Jergen Johnson, Mr. Pool, Mr. Anderson, Charlie Larson, Olaf Horte, Mr. Flom and Mr. Hanson.

A site was chosen, north of the stores, a flowing well was dug by Albert Nepstad and Merlin Hornland, and a deep sewer was dug to the west creek, for the waste flow from the creamery. The building was erected by donation work, and then all was in readiness for the machinery Mr. Nepstad took the train to Viking, Alberta, where the second-hand machinery was for sale by the Viking creamery. He paid for his ticket, no small thing in those days, and paid for the machinery, as well. He not only bought the old machinery from the creamery . . . he also hired, and took away, the expert butter-maker of theirs! What cared he . . . he was bringing back some mighty important items to Valhalla Centre.

When Roy Knight saw how sincere the people were, he loaned them the money, and took a chattel mortgage on the property. The worst seemed to be over, now, so stock was sold to the value of $200.00. All was not rosy, however, for the competing creamery offered higher prices, temporarily, in order to break the new creamery. Sad to say, many farmers sold to the other creamery, and indeed, fought against the construction of a creamery in Valhalla Centre. To quote from the 1925 newspaper "Dissension and competition were early at work, and painful were the results. Dissatisfaction with the grading, opposition to the site, and many other petty arguments were brought forth, that made success almost impossible." An event took place at this time that made the stout hearts of those grand men tremble. A shipment of butter was taken to the nearest railroad, Sexsmith, to be shipped to Edmonton. The car sent from Edmonton could not be used, since oil had been spilled on the floor, so Shannon let them use a storage shed of his that was near the livery stable. In the night this shed was set ablaze, and all the butter destroyed! The sturdy men took their medicine, and carried on. This was the turning point. Success followed success, the opposition weakened, and the only way was up.

The old die-hards who still opposed were still active, so a meeting was called, and as the men began coming in, the president called out, "All those who are opposed to the creamery, please sit in the first benches on the left side of the hall." Some felt a bit sheepish; others were angry, hut the opposition died out after that. The Banner Year, 1923, saw the Valhalla Creamery capture the prize for the best butter in Canada. Ormison won many more prizes through the years.

Sir Henry Thornton, President of the C.N.R. sent Joe a letter of congratulations.

H. Horte and other butter makers won prizes, in their turn. In 1923, less than a hundred pounds of cream were handled; in 1924, 172,000 pounds were handled and in 1925, 200,00'0 pounds were handled., About $45,000 were distributed among the farmers in 1925, 200 cords were purchased for firewood, and two men were employed on a full-time basis, which certainly helped the economy. A full-time secretary was also hired. One man was employed to take the butter to the shipping point, and two others were hired to bring the cream in from distant points.

The creamery was the direct cause of the growth of the hamlet. More people moved in with businesses (see story of Valhalla) and a wave of prosperity and great enthusiasm hit the districts. What a pity that the dreams, the incentive, and the faith of the pioneers died out with the passing of the pioneers.

In 1945, a representative of the Northern Alberta Dairy Pool came to a meeting, in Valhalla Centre, and offered to buy the creamery. Many were opposed to selling, and many farmers who had gone out of the dairy business offered to begin milking cows again, in order to keep the business. Everyone knew that if the creamery went, Valhalla Centre would die, and it did.

A quote from the Grande Prairie paper of 1945 . . . "The shareholders meeting was well attended, and the final vote was to sell out to the Northern Alberta Dairy Pool, the NADP taking over and building a new creamery here." Of course the new building was never built in Valhalla Centre, and very little money was ever handed over to the shareholders.

Mr. Skilletsky came with Mr. Nepstad, from Viking, to show them how to operate the machinery. Other men who were butter makers in the Valhalla creamery, beside Joe Ormison, were Harry Horte, Lyman Rorem, Alex Gunderson, Jerome Tappen, and Nels Hviid, also Martin Fimrite.

Mr. Thrones is the only director living of the grand men who played such a great part in the development of the creamery.