The J. F. Club was organized in 1910. The members were all young teachers with the exception of Clara Iverson Britson, Clara Grove Worsely and Bertha Erickson Teigland. They met once a week for gab-fests relating school experiences, sewing, skating parties and what not. This was a good lively group.
A number of women, concerned about the neglected cemetery where loved ones were interred, decided to take action to improve and care for the cemetery. Mrs. Mike Hegland and Mrs. John Evenson encouraged other women to join them whom they felt would be dedicated in service on the board with the hope that together they would bring interested citizens into the circle and would stir indifferent ones to action. Those women who made up the original board included Mrs. Torres Thompson, Mrs. Michael Hegland, Mrs. John Evenson, Mrs. Amond Enge, Mrs. B. A. Rasmussen, Mrs. Rasmus Rasmussen, and Mrs. Peder Solem (who much later became Mrs. John Handeland. Mrs. Hegland was chosen as president, and Mrs. Evenson vice president.
This group numbered among their accomplishments hiring a gardener and keeping their man on the job. They personally spent day after day planting flower beds, having trees planted, and carrying pail after pail of water from the hand operated pump. They bought more land, had a fence installed, arranged laying of sidewalk and installation of hitching posts. They were needed, as horses and buggies were the most usual means of transportation.
Even after the introduction of the automobile, horses were needed during the spring thaws as well as after rains, as many of the roads were plain mud at such times. Peder Solem, the first undertaker, used a beautiful pair of shiny black horses hitched to his black hearse even after automobiles became fairly common.
These women also started the tradition of serving ice cream and cake to the hot and tired group who returned from the long parade to the cemetery and the walk back. At that time, all the school children marched in the Decoration Day parade. They carried flags, except for the girls chosen to decorate the graves of the veterans, and they carried wreaths and bouquets of flowers. The veterans who were well or not handicapped among those from the Spanish American War, as well as the Civil War veterans, paraded--the others rode.
Over the years, the Roland Cemetery Association has taken good care of the cemetery grounds which have been expanded and improved. Work recently completed includes piping of water to the west area, making it available at several locations through the cemetery. Two and one-half acres has been added and is in the process of being improved at this writing. Additional driveways are also planned for the near future, as is the planting of new trees.
Present members of the cemetery board are Dr. Borg Holen, Raymond Sande, Mrs. Max H. Larson, Mrs. J. O. Twedt, Mrs. Twedt Hanson, Mrs. Gertie Bacon, and Mrs. Vere Bielefeldt.
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