worked as an aircraft designer and trouble shooter
on B-47 and B-52 aircraft.
In Wichita I met Leah Ellington. We were mar-
ried in 1956 and have four children, Allan, Janet,
Carol and Trudy. Their interests and ambitions
are widely separated.
We lived For a short while in Dayton and then
moved to Fort Worth, Texas, to work on F- 11 air-
craft. Nine years later we moved to Los Angeles
area to work for North American Rockwell on B-I
aircraft.
My career has been to help design military jet
aircraft and to be a primary trouble shooter during
operations of these planes.
My hobbies are stamp collecting, lapidary work,
amateur astronomy, automobile repair and serious
woodworking. By: Robert LaBarge
HENRY LADD FAMILY
HISTORY
Henry Ladd was born at Pittsville, (Wood
County) Wisconsin March 6, 1894. His parents
were Henry and Frances Ladd. He had two
brothers and two sisters. One of the sisters went
down with the Titanic.
He came to Rusk County in 1915 and started
working at the Flambeau Mill in Ladysmith.
While boarding at Sabin Avenue with Louise
Gokey he met Bessie Ducommun. Bessie, a sister
of Louise, worked at the boarding house helping to
rovide meals for the men. They also had to pack
lunches for the men to eat at work. All the
boarders worked at the Flambeau Mill. Henry
later worked at the paper mill in Port Arthur.
Henry Ladd and Bessie Ducommun were mar-
ried on December 15, 1917. A year later he
entered the army in Ladysmith and was assigned
to the 159th Depot Brigade. They trained at Camp
Taylor, Kentucky. Later he was transferred to the
2nd Reg. S.A.R.D. He became ill with the flu Oc-
tober 10 to the 26th 1918, at Camp Taylor. He was
mustered out December 11, 1918.
After his return to Ladysmith, Henry and Bessie
operated a tavern on Highway 27, about a mile
north of town. A son, Eugene Henry was born to
them September 9, 1918.

Henry and Bessie Ladd

Eugene Henry Ladd spent 6 months in a C.C.C.
camp when he was a teenager. Later he worked at
various jobs in Ladysmith. On October 15, 1938 he
married Jessie Marie Canfield. Two children were
born to the couple, Dale and Robert. Dale was kill-
ed overseas while in the air force, three weeks after
his 21 st birthday.
Jessie Marie Ladd was well known in Ladysmith
as she worked at Schultz's store for 13 years. She
died October 19, 1981.
Eugene still lives in Ladysmith working for the
Ladysmith School District. Their son Robert lives
in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
Henry Sr. died of a stroke in 1944 at the
Veteran's hospital in Madison.
Bessie Ladd died April 26, 1940 of cancer.
Henry and Bessie are both buried in the River-
side Cemetery, Ladysmith, Wis.
214

PEARL G. LAIDLAW
Pearl G. Flohr Laidlaw was born April 8, 1923
to Gustave F. Flohr and Mae Cotton, their first
child born on their first wedding anniversary! They
lived on a small farm near Catawba, Wis., at that
time. During the financial crash of 1929 the family
moved to Mohawk, Mich., where Pearl's father
worked in the copper mines. A son was born in
1930. Then came a series of moves during these
depression years. From Mohawk, Mich., to
Calumet, Mich. From Calumet to Bruce, Wisc.
From Bruce to New London, Wisc. in 1931. Her
mother died of cancer in 1933. Her father kept the
family together, which put a great deal of
housekeeping responsibility on Pearl. In 1939 they
moved to the Port Arthur community where the
children stayed with their Aunt and Uncle, Emma
and Win. Hebner. Pearl met her future husband as
he was a neighbor and classmate at Ladysmith
High and transported the neighborhood high
school students to town each day. The following
year the family moved to Bruce and Pearl
graduated in 1941. She worked as a waitress in
restaurants in Bruce until she and Percy were mar-
ried in 1942.
Pearl has beei"active in local and school politics,
serving as clerk of the Glen Flora Dist. for 10 yrs.
until the consolidation with the Tony Dist., when
the present Flambeau Dist. was created. She also
served as treasurer of Lawrence Twp. She worked -
as a bookkeeper from 1959 until 1980. Her last
employment was at Sheldon Co-op Services at
Sheldon. Submitted by daughter: Mae Heise
(Mrs. Curt) Muscoda, WI
PERCY D. LAIDLAW FAMILY
HISTORY
Percy was born Jan. 4, 1922, the first child of
Harold A. and Emma W. (Busse) Laidlaw. He
was born in the small house on the farm his father
was clearing in the Port Arthur community. The
wild land had been purchased after his father
returned from service in WW I. He was joined by
five brothers and five sisters (one brother and one
sister died at birth), while the family developed
this farm.
Percy attended Port Arthur Rural School and
Ladysmith High School, finishing in 1941. Soon
after graduation he began working in the Menasha
Woodenware until it burned in 1942.
He married Pearl G. Flohr in June 1942. She
had been a neighbor and classmate when she lived
with her aunt and uncle, William and Emma
Hebner at Port Arthur. Their first home was at the
Nelson Apts., which stood where the new Merriam
& Weiler law office is now located. In October
1942 he entered the army and served in the 103rd
Ord. Div. on Oahu and Saipan. He was discharged
in Nov. 1945 and returned to the Port Arthur com-
munity, where his wife and daughter, E. Mae,
lived in the house they had purchased before he
left for service. E. Mae was born in 1943. His
prents had sold the farm in Port Arthur and the
family moved to the Grove City, MN area to farm
until they retired in 1955 and moved back to
Ladysmith.

Percy and Pearl Laidlaw 40th Wedding Anniversary

Percy then worked at the Ladysmith Creamery
until Sept. 1947, when they purchased a small
farm south of Ingram. They developed this farm
into a Grade A dairy with new buildings.
Donna Rae was born in 1949 and grew up on the
farm. She married James S. Cukla of Gilman, WI
in 1967. They have four children, Carey, Kimber-
ly, Jay and Dana. They now live near Ashland
where Jim is a lineman for Lake Superior Power
Co. (now a part of Northern States Power Co.)
E. Mae married Curtis G. Heise of Hastings,
N.D. in 1962. They have three daughters, Darla,
Maloy and Allison and live at Muscoda, WI,
where Curt teaches Industrial Arts and E. Mae is
Social Service Director in the nursing home.
There were many hardships along the way ...
eight babies that died at birth, a fire that destroyed
the milkhouse and equipment in 1979, a tornado in
1980 which damaged all of the buildings. Both
Percy and Pearl worked off the farm; Percy as an
artificial inseminator and Pearl as a bookkeeper.
Percy had heart by-pass surgery in 1979 and a
nonmalignant tumor removed and a broken heel in
1982. He is now ready for retirement from the
farm and will pursue his sideline of dehorning
cattle.
RAMONA KISLING LaMONT
The third of the 4 children of Dorothy Dost and
Roland Kisling, I was born in 1947 in Chicago. In
1952, our family moved to my maternal grand-
parent's former home in Ingram. My father stayed
and worked in Chicago, visiting when he could.
That fall we children attended the old white
wooden schoolhouse in Ingram until it burned
down later that year. After several months of
blanket-divided classes at the Town Hall (grades
4-6) and the Village Hall (grades 1-3), we were
fortunate to go to the new cement block school the
next fall, which was west across the street from our
house.
In 1954, my father found work as a diesel
mechanic in St. Paul, Minnesota. The entire fami-
ly moved there that summer, first living in a cabin
on the shores of Lake Owasso, then a rented floor
of a large house in St. Paul. The following spring
we moved to a brick farmhouse with 3 acres of
land, a well, a tractor and no indoor plumbing in
Dakota  County. Considerable    modernizing
disrupted our daily routines for several years.
Mother worked at Remington Rand to help with
the tremendous cost.
I lived there until I graduated from Sibley
Senior High School in West St. Paul in 1965. I
moved out of the farmhouse (it was torn down in
1967 to make way for a freeway), first to my
youngest sister's house in White Bear Lake, then
to an apartment in St. Paul.
I held jobs as a sales clerk, candy factory worker
and insurance clerk and married Jack LaMont, a
lieutenant in the U.S. Army and lifelong St. Paul
resident on May 27, 1967.
Shortly after our marriage, we moved to Ger-
many for a two-year tour, and our first daughter,
Rima, was born there in 1968. Mother came on a
European Tour that fall to visit us and see her
grandchild, while visiting Munich. We also took
our leave and enjoyed several cities in Italy with
her. In 1969, we moved back to St. Paul to a small
house inherited from Jack's grandmother. I went
to work for an electrical wholesaler. I left that job
and we all moved to a larger house in 1974, shortly
after the birth of our second daughter, Justine.
Our business, Princeton  Advertising, was
formed in 1975 to combine my graphic arts
abilities and Jack's writing and marketing skills. I
took an evening graphics art course at the Univ. of
Minn. to learn innovations. Our third daughter,
Larisa Elizabeth, was born in 1980 and died in
1981.
In this year, 1983, we are still living in the
Macalester-Groveland area of St. Paul and run-
ning our own business. Justine attends Groveland
Elementary, and Rima, Derham Hall High
School. We still make many trips back to Northern
Wisconsin to visit my mother, grandparents, aunts,
uncles, cousins.