In the cemetery at Rockport Colony, South Dakota, are the small, rectangular grave markers for Joseph and Michael Hofer, each bearing one of the brothers' names, his birth and death dates and, in capital letters beside each brother's name, the word "MARTYR."
The Hofers were so designated by their fellow Hutterites-a communal branch of Anabaptists-following their imprisonment at Alcatraz and what the church regarded as torture and death at the hands of the U.S. Army in 1918, at the close of World War I.
Mark your calendars now to attend "A Victorian Tea," sponsored by the Friends of the Bluffton Public Library. The tea will be held Thursday, April 12, at 5:45 p.m. in the Richland Room of the library at 145 S. Main St., Bluffton.
Christie Weininger, director of the Wood County Historical Center and Museum, will present "The Victorian Secret: The Secret beneath the Shape." The presentation will show examples of the ladies' fashions during the 1870s and 1880s. She will demonstrate how the changing roles of women in society prompted changes in the fashions during the Victorian Era.
Here's the state of things at the corner of Bixel and Pandora roads. Straw covers acres of strawberry plants waiting for consistantly warm weather. It's the Suter Produce strawberry field. In early June there will be a traffic jam with people interested in making strawberry jam.
By Mary Pannabecker Steiner
Have you ever noticed how there is always a long line outside the women's restroom at public events?
We wait. And wait. And wait...while the men zip in and out of their own, with nary a line in sight.
Of course, men translate this to mean that we women are taking our time primping. This is not true. Let's just say that the mechanics of emptying one's bladder are more time-consuming for women than for men.
