Wabasha County News Items
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Cruisin'
From the left:
First Car: Rudy Averbeck, unknown,
Second Car: Lydia (Averbeck) Gosse, Anthony Gosse, Katie(Averbeck) Welter, Alfred Rosenow, Francis Averbeck, Hattie (Rosenow )Wilk
Third Car: Luella (Averbeck Passe, Esther (Averbeck) Gosse, Sylvia Rosenow
Fourth Car: Earl and Samuel Herold, Oscar Averbeck, and Alvin Averbeck.
This photo was reprinted in the Buffalo County Journal on Thursday, January 20, 1977. Some are Wabasha people. It is a really good example of how closely related Alma and Wabasha are. Years ago, before the dams and bridges, you could go across the Mississippi on the ice in the winter.
Contributed by Linda Noll
Gertrude Geers
Widow of Grocer Slain by Thug is Winning Fight Against Illness Contracted in War(Mrs. Orville Walby was Gertrude Geers, daughter of Benedict Geers and Margaret Schuth, whose husband was killed by a bandit in December, 1922)
Mrs. Orville Walby, Who Served as Nurse at Fort Leavenworth, Says She Appreciates Efforts to Find Muderer
Mrs. Orville Walby, whose husband was shot and killed in his grocery store Christmas Eve by a bandit while she lay ill at home, is greatly improved from the affliction that has kept her in bed for the last six months, according to her physicians. Walby was a war veteran and prominent in the activities of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Minneapolis. Mrs. Walby was a nurse at Fort Leavenworth and pneumonia and influenza, from which she never fully recovered, contracted after 18 months of strenuous nursing duty at the hospital in the war, led to the illness against which she now is making a successful fight.
Mrs. Walby was graduated as a nurse from the Minneapolis General hospital in 1916 and entered government service early in the war. She was an indefatigable worker at Fort Leavenworth and a rundown condition led to pneumonia and then influenza. Her present condition was traced to her wartime activities and she now is receiving compensation from the government.
"I am anxious to improve so I can get out," she said last night. "I have been in bed for seven months. I was getting along splendidly until Mr. Walby's death. I could read and amuse myself. I listened to the radio a great deal. But the morder of my husband was announced over the radio and now I can't bear to pick it up. But I have gained 20 pounds recently and I am trying hard to improve my mental attitude. I appreciate the efforts of my husband's friends to solve the mystery of his murder and want them to know that."
Verne Lane, aged 22, is in jail awaiting a preliminary hearing, charged with Mr. Walby's murder. He was arrested with Arne Niemi after detectives had waited for 24 hours for him to come back to an abandoned automobile. Lane is reported to have been identified by children as the man who entered the Walby store and shot the young grocer when, it is alleged, the bandit's mask slipped and he was recognized.
Contributed by Linda Noll
[Editor's note: Verne Lane was found guilty of Walby's murder and sentenced to life in prison. - Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 17, 1923]