In Touch with Prairie Living, March 2025
By Michael M. Miller
On March 11, 2025, we celebrate the 122nd birthday of Lawrence Welk who was born in a sod house near Strasburg, N.D, in 1903. He died on May 17, 1992, at the age of 89 in Santa Monica, Calif. Lawrence’s parents, Ludwig and Christina (Schwahn) Welk, were married in the village of Selz, today near Odesa, Ukraine. Christina was pregnant when they immigrated to the United States in 1894 and homesteaded near Strasburg.
“The Lawrence Welk Show” appeared on national ABC television from 1955 to 1982. Today the show continues to be re-broadcast on PBS stations including Prairie Public. In 1961, Lawrence was awarded the first Theodore Roosevelt Roughrider Award from the State of North Dakota. In 1965, he received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from NDSU. In 1993, the family donated the Lawrence Welk Collection to the NDSU Archives. Johnny Klein, native of Strasburg, was a drummer on the show from 1955 to 1976.
The State Historical Society of North Dakota provides this information, “An immigrant farm family balancing old ways and new – whether family on the homestead or, in the case of Lawrence Welk, hosting one of the most successful TV shows in history, the Welks made daily choices between old ways and new opportunities.” The SHSND established the Welk Homestead State Historic Site in July 2015.
Ludwig and Christina Welk raised eight children, including Lawrence, who lived at the farm from 1903 until 1924. Although the Welks shared a common German dialect, music, food, religion and other traditions with the surrounding German-Russian farm community, life in America led to change. For example, they merged longstanding farm traditions with new mechanical equipment.
North Dakota State University Press will publish a three-volume biography of Lawrence Welk titled, “Champagne Music: Lawrence Welk and His American Century,” by Lance Richey. The book will be released on May 31. Prairie Public will have the world premiere of the Welk Homestead documentary at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 31, at the Heritage Center in Bismarck. On Sunday, June 1 at 2 p.m., a life-sized bronze statue of Lawrence Welk will be unveiled at the Welk Homestead State Historic Site near Strasburg. Watch for more information about these events this spring.
In March 2015, I received a most interesting letter from Verna Fischer Green (1926-2020), Hastings, Minn. Verna passed away in 2020 at the age of 93. Verna grew up in Hague, N.D., and graduated from Hague High School in 1943. She then studied at St. Catherine’s College, St. Paul, Minn., with the U.S. Nursing Cadet Corps Program to receive a nursing degree. Her parents were Karl E. and Lena (Kocher) Fischer. Verna’s grandparents immigrated to Hague from the Catholic Black Sea German village of Selz, Kutschurgan District, South Russia, today near Odesa, Ukraine.
With Verna’s correspondence, she included an original typewritten letter dated February 7, 1948, from Lawrence Welk to her father, Karl Fischer. Lawrence wrote, “We are playing at the Trianon (in Chicago) but got permission to go to Madison [Wisconsin] to play the biggest prom of the year. Everyone dressed formal and it was possibly the highest class dance I have played in years. Look and Life magazines were there, and I took some pictures with the governor. The family now consists of two girls and a young boy – Shirley Jean, Donna Lee and the youngest child is Lawrence Jr. We are closing at the Trianon tomorrow and will then be working out of Chicago before going to the Chase Hotel in St. Louis, and then to the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City.”
Verna’s father, Karl, wrote a Letter to the editor of the Emmons County Record detailing a drive to Strasburg to watch a baseball game. “I always looked for Lawrence Welk, and we sat in an open Model T to watch the game. We would not see much of the baseball game because we talked about music, in German of course.
“When Lawrence had a job in Hague, he would come down on the train sometimes (from Roscoe, S.D.). We walked down the main street together to advertise the dance he was to play in the evening. Some people came just to hear the accordion. After the dance, if he could not get a ride home, I invited him to stay with me. After breakfast, we went to the living room to practice on my dad’s pedal organ. Lawrence always carried some sheet music with his accordion. I already had some music lessons from the Hague Brass Band director, Franz Neiharz. I played some of the sheet music with one finger.
“Lawrence taught me some of the fast waltzes. When we were tired, he would pack up his accordion and walk to the train station to go home. Lawrence told me to buy a set of drums and play with him. It would take a while before I finally did buy a three-piece set. I also had an old Model T Roadster to get around with.
“I played with Lawrence in Hague at a Werlinger barn dance, some basket socials, and a green farm school. Once he called me and made a deal with me. He had a job to play near the Missouri River, northwest of Westfield. He came down on the train, we tied up our equipment on the back little trunk of my car and headed to Westfield. Later in the evening when Lawrence was tired playing, he told me to play a number and I would play the drums. In the morning, we had another session on the pedal organ. In 1920, I left Hague to go to school. Lawrence made mention of me on page 30 in his book, ‘Wunnerful! Wunnerful!’”
The Verna (Fischer) Green Collection was donated to the GRHC and includes valuable black and white photographs of Hague, N.D., taken by Karl Fischer. They include detailed typed captions and genealogical records of the Fischer, Schneider and Senger families.
For more information about donating family histories and photographs, or how to financially support the GRHC, contact Jeremy Kopp, at jeremy.kopp@ndsu.edu or 701-231-6596; mail to: NDSU Libraries, Dept. 2080, PO Box 6050, Fargo, N.D. 58108-6050; or go to www.ndsu.edu/grhc. You may also contact me directly at michael.miller@ndsu.edu or 701-231-8416.
March column for North Dakota and South Dakota weekly newspapers.