on the Green River and worked as carpenters. This
was a government job. Later I left there and
worked as a painter for Lane Tank Company,
painting water tanks for towns. I worked painting
the water tower at Bruce and at Hawkins. When
the strike was over I went back to Silver Bay where
I have worked on maintenance ever since.
I was 5 years old when I caught my first weasel
along the Flambeau River. Pelts were worth $2.00.
I have always enjoyed trapping and still trap
beaver, marten, fisher, and mink. I fish a lot; Rain-
bow trout come in from Lake Superior in the
spring.
I won a bow and arrow contest at Trail's End 4-
H Camp; now I hunt deer with the bow. I prefer
the bow to the gun.
My two sons, Jerry and Randy, like to hunt and
fish. My home in the Silver Bay countryside with
excellent hunting and fishing is my kind of life.
James LaBerge

Jim and Gene LaBerge

THE LIFE STORY OF JOHN
LaBERGE
I was born May 17, 1926, the 5th in a family of
12 children. I started school 1932 at Maple Hill. It
was a difficult year because I had a speech prob-
lem and was often laughed at. We had a fine soft-
ball team there, providing good competition for
other schools.
I entered high school in 1940. I continued play-
ing ball and in my senior year made the City
Team. I was the first high school boy to make the
Team.
High school years were fun. Dancing at Con-
rath, roller skating in Ladysmith and the county
fairs stand out. As a senior, I was a mile runner for
our track team, but didn't do very well at the meet,
coming in 3rd among 20 runners. Only the first 2
places counted.

Janine, Viola, John and Linda LaBerge

The years spent on the farm were great. Besides
farm chores, I helped test milk for butterfat,
learned about fertilizing crops, treating grain seeds
for disease and, of course, ice skating on the
pasture ponds. In a large family there was much
work to do. You learned how to saw wood, plant
and tend garden, take care of animals and do the
maintenance on building, machines, tractors,
fences, etc. There wasn't money to hire this work
done.
The toys we had were simple. We had as much
fun with broken toys as new ones. We played
games - "Red light, Blue light", "Ma Ma Dow,"
"Prisoner's Base." In a large family you had
enough participants.
I graduated from high school in 1944. I went in-
212

to the army in August the same year, trained at
Fort Hood, Texas, going overseas (Germany) in
January 1945. I was in combat but never fired a
shot. A few mortar shells dropped around, nothing
close. I returned to the States in July 1945, was
stationed in several army camps in the south and
west until my discharge a year later with the rank
of corporal.
In January 1947, I took employment at Los
Alamos National Laboratory at Los Alamos,
N.M. I was married to Viola Drevland a year later.
My father died in 1950, so we returned to
Ladysmith to help run the farm. Our first son was
born in Ladysmith, August 1951. We left the farm
in September, moving to Wichita, Kansas, where I
worked for Cessna Aircraft while waiting to rehire
into the Los Alamos Lab, which I did in March
1952. The other 3 children were born here at Los
Alamos, Ronald in 1953, Linda 1958 and Janine
1963. The children are excellent snow and water
skiers.
We built our own home and moved into it in
1965, where we still live. Tragedy struck our fami-
ly in 1976 when our son Ron drowned at Elephant
Butte Lake due to an electric shock under water.
Our first son David and his wife Beatrice live in
Albuquerque, N.M., and have 2 sons. Daughter
Linda and husband Frank Maes are living in
Dillon, Colorado, and have 2 little girls. Janine,
our younger daughter, attends college at Eastern
New Mexico University, in Portales, N.M.
I retired from Los Alamos Lab in January 1983
with 37 years of service and that's where I am to-
day. John LaBerge
LEON FRANCIS LaBERGE
Born June 29, 1890 Warner, Wisconsin attend-
ed grammar school in a building constructed by
father, Ludger LaBerge, on land adjoining the
LaBerge home. He attended Ladysmith High one
year. Mrs. Bozell was a teacher. Illness forced him
to leave school for one year and when he returned
the principal refused to give him credit for the year
attended. This made Leon resentful and he quit
and went to work at age 15.
He joined a logging crew as a sawyer and also
worked on log drives. When not doing this, he
worked for Canadian Pacific Railroad Company
building railroad bridges. He spent one summer
working near Portland, Oregon. He paid $25 for a
round trip fare on the Great Northern Railroad.
He worked at different railroad jobs in the West
and at Lake Louise. He was injured when a pile of
railroad ties fell over and fractured his heel. He
returned home to recuperate and remained to help
his father in logging; working as a teamster for the
next 5 years.
The Toepfer family were neighbors. October 22,
1913 Leon married Pearl Ella Louise Toepfer in
Ladysmith. The newlyweds lived in Ladysmith un-
til a small house was built on an 80 acre parcel
Leon purchased from his father. He logged and
farmed for a couple of years.
Their first child, Margaret Augusta, was born in
this house September 4, 1915.
Work was scarce and many men left to head
west. Pearl's parents, Jake and Mary Toepfer,
went to North Dakota to work in the grain
harvests. He drove team and Mary was camp cook.
Leon loaded two teams of horses and other equip-
ment and furniture into a freight car and headed
west on March 16, 1916. In June, Pearl and baby
packed belongings and joined Leon in New
England, North Dakota.
Then Leon moved to Rudyard, Montana, where
he helped build a grain elevator. He became
manager. He built a home and lived there a short
time when he was transferred to Malta, Montana.
Here he filed for a section of land to homestead.
He built a log cabin here. During this time Leona
Eleanor was born April 13, 1918 in Lewiston,
Montana. Grain was hauled to the elevator by dou-
ble teams of horses.
Schooling was a problem. Unless there were five
children, no teacher was available. Three neighbor
children, Margaret, and Leona made up the
school. Leon moved a cabin to a central location.
The teacher boarded with one of the farmers.

Because of severe winter weather, school was held
during summer months. Mosquitoes were so bad,
the girls wore long black stocking with newspapers
wrapped inside to prevent mosquitoes from biting.
Sometime during this period, Leon and family
lived in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. Ludger
LaBerge, wife and daughter, Ruth, drove from
Wisconsin to spend a couple of weeks. The guest of
honor at the Belle Fourche Rodeo was President
Calvin Coolidge, who was driven around the race
track in an open auto.
After many crop failures and hardships, Leon
decided to go on west. They sold all their stock and
furniture to a neighbor for $200. They loaded their
belongings and family and a pregnant rabbit into
the Model T touring car and started west. At the
California border they had to have all their belong-
ings fumigated so as not to transport plant diseases
into California.
Toepfers settled in Oakland, California.
A son, Harold, was born in 1930.
Leon and Pearl stopped at Eureka, Calif. where
he worked falling redwood trees. Later he followed
construction whenever he could find it. He built
the first motel in Leadville, Colorado, which he
called "Top of the World Camp Ground." In 1934
they sold this business, packed their belongings in-
to a homemade trailer, a Chevrolet and headed
back to California where he had several jobs.
At the outbreak of World War II, he went to
Napa, California to work as a millwright setting
machinery on naval ships.
In 1952 he purchased 57 acres of land near
Napa where they built a home. They planted an
acre of red raspberries which produced enough
berries to sell to pay off the mortgage in 4 years.
They started the first patch of Olaliberries in the
Napa Valley.
The family still lives on this land. In October,
Leon and Pearl will celebrate 70 years of marriage.
Leona LaBerge, Leon and Pearl LaBerge

Leon LaBerge Family
Pearl, Leon, Leona, Harold, and Margaret
LUDGER LABERGE
Ludger LaBerge was the son of Leon LaBerge, son
of Antoine LaBerge, son of Joseph LaBerge 1762,
son of Guillaume LaBerge 1721, son of Jacques
LaBerge 1697, son of Guillaume LaBerge 1674,
son of Robert de la Berge 1638.
Ludger LaBerge was born in Chetaquay,
Quebec, February 27, 1858. He had one brother,
Antonine, who lived in Quebec; a sister, Lazette,
married Alec Loiselle. After coming to Chippewa
Falls in 1878 he made one trip to Montreal 45
years later.
Pierre LaBerge, an uncle, discovered a lake in
the Yukon Territory. The poem "The Cremation
of Sam McGee," makes reference to Lake
LaBerge.
As a young man in Montreal he attended Mon-
treal Business College, and was an accountant or
bookkeeper for an exporting firm before coming to
Chippewa Falls. Because of his education he was
hired as a scaler and timekeeper for the Daniel
Shaw Lumber Company.
His wife, Elizabeth Beranek, was born in
Bohemia in 1853. At age 5, her family came to the
United States and settled at Chippewa Falls. Her
father was a farmer.
Mr. LaBerge and Elizabeth Beranek were mar-

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