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The Victoria

GAZETTE

by Sue Orsen

         They don’t take life lightly yet find joy at every turn.  They do not suffer fools gladly yet have abundant friendships and loyalties.  They are gregarious in conversation yet don’t speak just to fill empty space.

         In other words, there is a gravitas to Kieth and Joan Geske, an engaging couple who have lived all their lives in or near Victoria but have expanded their horizons far beyond Victoria through particular interests and avenues including travel adventures around the world.

         Along with the gravitas they share a gratefulness to God and to each other, a deep gratefulness that can rise to the surface unexpectedly and sweep to shore in a wave of emotion.  It becomes evident that Thanksgiving is every day for the Geskes.

         Kieth and Joan played together as children but didn’t get married to each other until 1971.  “I was divorced and had four young kids,” said Kieth.  “Joan took care of them as though they were her own, and that’s how it is today.  Who would have thought I’d ever find someone to take me and four young kids ...”  His voice broke as his heart swelled.

         Said Joan, “When I married Kieth, they became our children.”

***

         Kieth was born on June 11th, 1934, to Alton B. (Sr.) and Viola Geske, who farmed east of nearby Lake Bavaria.  He grew up with an older brother Alton B. (Jr.) and younger brother Darel, both deceased in recent years.

         “My dad’s farm was on the north side of Lake Grace, which wasn’t a lake then, but a meandering creek that ran from Abraham Lake through the farms,” said Kieth.  “Henry McKnight dammed up the creek and named the lake after his wife.  McKnight was a state senator and he was buying up farms to develop into a new town called Jonathan.  Graham Investment Company out of Winsted was the front man for Henry McKnight.”

         “They bought my parents’ farm, about 80 acres, for $90,000,” said Kieth.  “Dad’s was the first farm that they bought.  I’m not exactly sure of the date because I don’t have the deed.”  It could have been in the 1960’s.

         “I had bought two acres in the southwest corner of the farm for a dog boarding kennel,” continued Kieth.  “I sold my two acres to Henry McKnight, personally, over a cup of coffee.”

         Who were some of the Geske neighbors at the time?  “George and Esther Bender and Herbert and Melvin Worm,” he replied.  “The Worms farmed by night, not by day.  Herbert got caught in a field harvester, all the way up to his shoulder, and bled to death.  They were making silage.”

         “I helped my parents farm all through school,” said Kieth, “but there was no way any of us three boys could have stayed on the farm.  It would have been economic suicide.  In later years my mother worked at Dayton’s.  You basically couldn’t make a living just farming anymore.  Couldn’t compete with the bigger operators.  Farming was changing dramatically.  Tractors replaced horses.”

         Kieth attended Chaska public schools, grades 1-12, all in one building, still located in downtown Chaska and operating today as the Carver Scott Educational Cooperative.   He graduated in 1952.

         “I didn’t like school,” he said.  “I was pretty good in math, but we lived in the country and sports were for the town kids.  We had chores and cows to milk.  All there was for country kids was the bus.”

 

Click here to continue Geske Gravitas.

        

November 2010

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