One of the early political and business leaders in North Dakota was tried for violating the Espionage Act during World War I.

If guilty, he could have been sent to federal prison for 20 years. John H. Wishek was a founder of the towns Ashley and Wishek. He also was a legislator, attorney, banker and business leader who did more than anyone in south-central North Dakota to welcome 10,000 German immigrants to the region. He also was politically active and, as a result, made some enemies who were happy to find John Wishek vulnerable to legal wrongdoing during the "Great War."

Wishek journeyed to Dakota Territory in the winter of 1883-84. On his first trip to Dakota by horseback, he got lost in a blizzard and ended up fighting off a pack of wolves with his pistol.

In 1884, he settled on the shores of Lake Hoskins and, together with George W. Lilly and Charles C. Morrell, founded the town of Hoskins in what is now south-central North Dakota. The year before, the Dakota Legislature had created McIntosh County out of the southern half of Logan County.

Except for a few trappers, the county was devoid of white settlers. Hoskins was named county seat, and Wishek and Lilly formed a partnership to set up a land office that would assist emigrants coming into this new county. Wishek also served as county secretary and land registrar. When the railroad survey crew came through in 1887, it was determined that the tracks would run three miles to the east so, later that year, he and Lilly plotted a new community called Ashley that would become the new county seat.

Wishek married Nina Farley, 14 years his junior, the day after Christmas in 1891.

North Dakota became a state on Nov. 2, 1889, and Wishek established himself as one of the political leaders. In 1892, he successfully ran for the state House and was again successful in his 1894 run for the Senate. In the meantime, he was also working hard to bring the Soo Railroad into McIntosh County. When they ran their tracks to the northwest of Ashley in 1898, a new town was formed and the railroad named it Wishek in his honor. John took a personal interest in this new city and soon set up a bank and several other businesses in Wishek.

By 1910, Nina and John had eight children ranging in age from 2 to 16. In 1912, when Gov. John Burke decided not to seek re-election, Wishek was persuaded to fun for office. He was defeated in the primary by Louis B. Hanna.

Wishek was very proud of his German heritage and, through his land office, brought 2,053 German Russian settlers into McIntosh County by 1890. Wishek helped these people get settled, establish land claims and find employment.

To promote pride in their heritage, he often passed out books or pamphlets praising their German culture. In 1916, German historian Rudolf Cronau published a pamphlet titled German Achievements in America, which focused on the accomplishments of many Germans living in this country.

Wishek gave several copies of this pamphlet to people living in the area. This deed would soon have serious implications for the life and influence of Wishek.

The opportunity to bring Wishek down would present itself to his opponents during World War I. In 1917, the U.S. declared war on Germany, and Congress passed the Espionage Act, which prescribed a fine and 20 years imprisonment for interfering with the war effort. In 1918, Wishek’s enemies secured an indictment against him under The Espionage Act, and a trial in federal court was held in Bismarck.

The prosecution put on a long list of witnesses and the trial dragged on for three weeks. At first, the situation looked grim for Wishek. Anti-German sentiment was high and there were a number of people who wanted to see Wishek punished. However, Wishek’s defense team showed that the booklet he gave to friends also was found in most large libraries. The issue of Wishek being unpatriotic also was thoroughly discredited. The jury deliberated for more than 40 hours before they voted nine to three for acquittal. The charges were dropped, but for an embittered Wishek, life would never be the same.

He returned to McIntosh County, gradually turning over many of his businesses to his four sons, who all became lawyers or members of the banking establishment. He also became active in philanthropy by donating land to churches. Wishek died at his home in Ashley on Jan. 13, 1932,

(Written by Curt Eriksmoen; edited by Jan Eriksmoen; published in the Bismarck Tribune on June 12, 2005. Reach the Eriksmoens at cjeriksmoen@cableone.net.)

   Lloyd E. Rigler was born on a farm near Lehr in 1915.  When he was 4 years old his family moved to Wishek.  His father opened the General Merchandise Store, and Lloyd, at age 11, operated the gift and greeting card shop in his parents’ store.  He also found time to be active in scouting, rising to the rank of Eagle Scout in 1931.  Rigler graduated from high school in three years and began saving up money for college.  However, the Depression caused the family to lose their store.  Lloyd was forced to look elsewhere to try finance his college education. 

   In 1933 Rigler headed for Chicago where he stayed with relatives.  His first job was selling electric irons with the Edison Company, and he later became a shoe salesman at Marshall Fields.  By 1935 Rigler had saved enough money to enroll at the University of Chicago where he graduated in 1939 with a degree in marketing. 
   With his striking good looks and outgoing personality, Rigler decided to try his luck at acting and, in the fall of 1939, he ventured to New York.  As a means of financial support, he worked as an interviewer for a market research agency.  He did not find success on the stage but, in 1940, was hired by RCA to introduce television in their exhibit at the World’s Fair.  In 1941 he traveled to Los Angeles and became a salesman for Decca Records.  Then, with the outbreak of World War II, Rigler enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as an officer until the war ended in 1945.  Back as a civilian he tried his luck as a motion picture agent and had the actress, Claudette Colbert, as one of his clients. 

   After answering a newspaper ad, Lloyd found himself with $250,000 worth of sheer brassieres.  He tried to sell them through a contact in Hong Kong, who did not realize they were undergarments, and was told, “They are too light for clothing.”  Undeterred with that setback, he inquired as to what was the most practical item used in Hong Kong.  The reply was “rice bowls”.  As a result, he became the first supplier of plastic rice bowls for that colony.  Rigler also became a food broker specializing in mushrooms, but he had no place to store them.  Finally, he was able to rent a room behind a local dry cleaners shop.  The manager of the dry cleaning chain was Lawrence Deutch and the two soon became business partners.  The two hit it off since Deutch had also been involved in the arts.  For a time he had served as assistant director of the New York City Opera. 

   In 1948 Rigler and Deutch dined at a restaurant in Santa Barbara owned by Adolph Rempp.  Intrigued by the tenderness of the steaks, they persuaded Mr. Rempp to sell his tenderizing recipe for $10,000 and they then marketed the tenderizer under Adolph’s name in southern California.  Their big break came in 1953 when Reader’s Digest featured a story on Rigler and Deutch and their miracle steak ingredient. 

   As soon as they started accumulating money, they established the Lloyd E. Rigler-Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation and became heavily involved in philanthropy.  Their foundation contributed to the creation of the Los Angeles Music Center and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. 
 

   They continued to market their tenderizer until 1974 when they sold their company to Chesebrough-Ponds, later part of Lever Brothers and Unilever Best Foods.  Mr. Deutsch died in 1977 and willed his holdings to the foundation.  Lloyd Rigler continued to serve as president of the Foundation until his death in December 2003. 
 

   Among the many beneficiaries of millions of dollars from Rigler’s Foundation are Amnesty International, Greenpeace, the American Ballet Theater, the Joffrey Ballet, ACLU, hearing-loss programs, AIDS research, and the refurbishing of Carnegie Hall.  Rigler also served on the board of directors of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for more than 20 years and was co-chair of the New York City Opera. 

   Rigler assisted Public Broadcasting financially by showing them how to market programs to European television and sell VHS videos directly to the public and schools.  His biggest project, which took two years to complete, was indexing all of the commercially recorded music from the first Edison cylinder up through 1946 (17,800 recordings located in 5 different libraries). 

   In the 1990s Rigler crossed paths with his old schoolmate, Ted Mann, when Rigler sponsored the restoration of Sid Grauman’s Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.  This theater was owned by Mann’s subsidiary of Gulf and Western. 

   Rigler’s last major project, the “Classic Arts Showcase,” was launched in 1994.  It provides 24-hour non-commercial archival video clips featuring the classic arts.  It is free to over 50 million viewers in the New York City area through a satellite programming service.  It has been called “MTV for classical music fans.”  Rigler was proud of his North Dakota roots and always told people about the good life he had there. 
 

(Provided by Retired & Senior Volunteer Program and Curt Eriksmoen. Published in the Bismarck Tribune. Reach Eriksmoen at cjeriksmoen@aol.com.) 
 
 

The person who undoubtedly had the greatest involvement in all aspects of the movie industry was born and raised in North Dakota.  Ted Mann made popcorn, served as usher, ran the projector, owned a chain of movie theaters, wrote scripts, and produced and appeared in motion pictures.  He was also married to Rhonda Fleming, one of the most glamorous actresses in the business. 

Mann was born in the primarily German farming community of Wishek on April 16, 1916.  He spent many evenings and Saturday afternoons watching movies at the local cinema.  After graduating from high school at Wishek, he headed off to the University of Minnesota and worked in movie theaters to help finance his college education.  When the Selby Theater in St. Paul ran into financial trouble, Mann leased it for $100 a month and put it on a sound financial footing.  He soon began acquiring theaters and drive-ins throughout Minnesota and by the mid 1950s, Mann owned 26 movie theaters in the state.

Ted Mann received his first opportunity to get directly involved in the movie industry in the late 1960s.  Ray Bradbury had just written the highly popular science-fiction book, The Illustrated Man.  An acquaintance of Mann’s, Howard B. Kreitsek, had purchased the movie rights.  Mann jumped at the opportunity to co-produce the movie with Kreitsek.  They cast Rod Steiger in the title role, and today the movie is considered a cult classic.  Wanting to be more intimately involved in the action, Mann sold his successful Minnesota theater chain to General Cinema Corporation in 1970 and moved to southern California.

In 1973 Mann purchased the troubled National General Theater chain, which he renamed Mann Theaters.  He launched a massive expansion increasing his operation from 276 screens to 360 across the U.S.  One of theaters in this chain was the famed Grauman’s Chinese Theater in downtown Los Angeles.  Outside of this theater is the sidewalk that contains the handprints of all of the movie greats since 1927.  After its purchase it was renamed Mann’s Chinese Theater.

For the next ten years, Mann began producing successful motion pictures such as Buster and Billie, Lifeguard, Maxwell Smart and the Nude Bomb, and Krull.  It was during this time that Mann met and married actress Rhonda Fleming.  Fleming, a leading lady of the 1940s and 50s, was reportedly Ronald Reagan’s second favorite actress, next to Nancy Davis Reagan.  Fleming co-starred with Reagan in four motion pictures.

Mann wanted to expand his direct involvement with show business, spend more time with his wife, and become involved in philanthropic pursuits.  However, he realized much of his time was taken by running his chain of theaters.  In 1983 Mann sold his company to Gulf and Western, predecessors of Paramount Communication.  He continued to serve as chairman to the chain.

Ted Mann then turned to a new aspect of show business - writing.  He began cranking out scripts for a number of popular television series including Miami Vice, Wiseguy, Civil Wars, NYPD Blue, Millennium, Brooklyn South, Judging Amy, and Andromeda.  He not only wrote scripts for NYPD Blue, but also produced several episodes and even appeared on the series. 

In the area of philanthropy, Ted and Rhonda Mann have donated millions of dollars to their favorite charities, cancer treatment facilities, and the theater.  Mann put up the financing for the Ted Mann Concert Hall located on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota.  This facility, with a seating of over 1200, provides some of the best cultural entertainment in the region for orchestra, opera, jazz, choir, theater, and dance performances.

The Manns became involved in cancer care while Rhonda was caring for her sister who was battling ovarian cancer.  They were unable to find an effective means to care for the emotional, spiritual, and psychosocial aspects of cancer.  In 1991 they established the Rhonda Fleming Mann Clinic For Women’s Comprehensive Care at the UCLA Medical Center, and the Rhonda Fleming Mann Resource Center For Women With Cancer, which opened in early 1994.

Ted Mann always believed the work ethic he learned in Wishek helped him to become successful in ventures that caused people with lesser drive to give up.  He jokingly commented to a friend when referring to his success, “Not bad for a sod kicker from the sticks.”  On January 15, 2001, Ted Mann died as the result of complications from a stroke.

Written by Curt Eriksmoen. Published in the Bismarck Tribune. 
Reach Eriksmoen at cjeriksmoen@cableone.net.) 

A note from Ron Vossler: 

My own ethnic background is Dakota German, commonly known as the Germans from Russia; my grandparents were born in Ukraine; and I grew up on the edges of a dying, yet extremely rich, ethnic culture as transplanted from the steppe to the Dakota prairie. Much of my writing draws, in one way or another, on this past---the past on the prairie, and the past on the steppe—as it informs, as it shapes, as it still lives in our American present. I believe in the credo of the great American novelist William Faulkner: “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.” 

I also believe that art, that writing, is the highest form of human expression; that although man is a mystery, not only to others, but also, often, to himself, or herself, we should be occupied in exploring this mystery, in writing, in art; I believe that it is through local and regional art that we speak to others who know nothing about us, that we even speak to ourselves; in becoming better known to others, and ourselves, we delve further into the mystery that is man. 

- excerpted from www.ronvossler.com

The documentary film, The Germans from Russia: Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie, tells the story of one of America's most distinctive and enduring ethnic groups. Ron Vossler, the film's scriptwriter, traces his own ancestry to German Russians who claimed homesteads a century ago near Wishek, North Dakota, where he grew up.

Educated at Arizona State University, he has held various jobs, including farm laborer, archaeological fieldworker, small magazine editor, and high school teacher in Lahore, Pakistan. Currently a free-lance writer, and Senior Lecturer at the University of North Dakota he is the recipient of various awards, such as the North Dakota Council on the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, and more recently, the Larry Remele Fellowship from the North Dakota Humanities.

His publications include essays, book reviews, memoirs, and a collection of short stories. Most recently his short story "Frieda the Trowel Queen and the Lost Jehus of Gnadenthal County" appeared in Forkroads: A Journal of Ethnic American Literature; and two poems about travel in Ukraine and Russia were published in Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. He is currently translating Stalin era famine letters, for a collection entitled "The Crucifixion by Hunger of the Black Sea Germans." 
-excerpted from www.prairiepublic.org

Dr. Gall became an obligated volunteer to the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and was stationed at Fr. Belvoir, VA. Dr. Gall’s first academic position was at the University of Miami and during that period Dr. Gall completed a fellowship in Immunology and course work towards his PhD. His next academic position was at Duke University where he became a Professor and Director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. After 12 years at Duke, Dr. Gall moved to the University of Illinois in Chicago where he served as Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Acting Head. In 1989, Dr. Gall accepted the position of Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Louisville until he stepped down in June 2000.

Dr. Gall’s research efforts have centered on Immunology and Infectious Disease in Obstetrics and Gynecology. In the last 8 years the emphasis has moved toward clinical vaccine research. He is currently active with ongoing vaccine clinical trials with HSV II vaccine (Herpevac) and HPV trials. Dr. Gall has been involved with HPV trials since 2000. His special interest is in maternal immunization with the concept of protecting mothers from vaccine preventable diseases and protecting the neonate with passively acquired antibodies for the first 3 to 6 months of life.

Dr. Gall has had a long and distinguished career in the field of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, and was recognized in 1997 as being one of the top 400 physicians for women by Good Housekeeping magazine; listed in the volume "The Best Doctors in America" three times; Who’s Who in America seven times and Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare three times.

He is the son of Adolph and Wilma (Nickisch) Gall, both deceased. He graduated from Wishek High School in 1954.