Manfred History & Preservation, Inc.
Wesley and Esther Boese
Husband's Full Name: Wesley Boese
Husband's Place of Birth: Manfred, ND
Husband's Father's Name: Louis Walter Boese
Husband's Mother's Name: Ella Mennegar
Husband's Siblings' Names: Richard, Raymond, Harley,
Mildred, Ervin, Louella, Violet
Wife's Full Name: Esther Bailey Boese
Wife's Place of Birth: Hiattsville, KS
Wife's Father's Name: Jesse Bailey
Wife's Mother's Name: Mattie Barker Bailey
Wife's Siblings' Names: Oliver, Leslie, Robert, Gladys, Gracen Evelyn and Shirley
Children's Names: June Farias, Norman, Mark, Kevin
Wesley was born to Louis and Ella Boese on a farm southwest of Manfred.
He attended Manfred School. In July 1953, he married Esther Bailey in the Asbury Methodist Church, Wichita, Kansas.
Wesley has served on the Manfred elevator and township boards, and the Fessenden Nazarene Church board.
Source: Fessenden Centennial Book 1893-1993
Esther was born at Hiattville, Kansas. Her family moved from the farm to Wichita during World War II and she graduated from Wichita High School East. She was a bookkeeper at Kraft Foods when she moved to North Dakota to be a farm wife.
Esther has served the church in various offices and has belonged to the Manfred Homemakers since 1953. She was a leave replacement at the Manfred Post Office from December 1979 until it’s closing in October 1992.
Four children were born to this union: June, a music teacher near Wichita, KS. Norman lives in Winter Springs, FL and is employed at Wescam, Toronto, Canada. Mark, a consultant for Medtronic, a pacemaker firm in Minneapolis. Kevin, is an electrical engineer at Ceridian in Minneapolis, MN. They attended Manfred Grade School and graduated from Fessenden High School. All are married and have families.
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Wesley and Esther Boese are buried at Hillside Cemetery in Fessenden, ND.
Wesley Boese Obituary
Wesley Roger Boese, 84, of Manfred, ND died July 18, 2017 at the St. Aloisius Medical Center Nursing Home in Harvey, ND.
Wesley was born to Louis and Ella (Mennegar) Boese on November 6, 1932 at home on his parents’ farm, section 32, Manfred Township. His older brother, Richard, went with horses to get Dr. Matthaei but he couldn’t come so Mrs. D. W. Mattaei, his nurse, delivered the baby. Wesley was the youngest of 8 children.
Wesley’s family purchased a farm north of Manfred and moved there in 1938. In 1939, he started school in Manfred and graduated from 8th grade in 1947. He helped with the farming and continued with the operation when his dad died January 8, 1953. On January 23, Wesley took the train to Wichita, Kansas and spent a month getting acquainted with a pen pal. Esther Bailey and Wes had been pen pals since the 7th grade—an English assignment in letter writing. He returned home on February 23rd and started planning for the coming farm year. Wesley and Esther continued to correspond by letters and phone and in April, Esther took the bus to Jamestown. Esther lived with Ervin and Evelina Boese in Manfred and worked for the First State Bank of Harvey.
In July, they drove to Kansas to finalize their wedding plans a week prior to their July 26th wedding. They drove home and checked the crops on the way to Manfred. When the fall work was done, they went to Esther’s folks in Wichita where Wesley worked in the catalog department at Sears. After the first of the New Year, they returned to North Dakota. June, the first child, was born in 1954. For several winters, they traveled to Kansas for a month or six weeks. Wes worked for the Christmas tree stand a couple of years and another year helped on house construction. Norman was born in 1957 and the trips had to be curtailed when they had children in school.
With a growing family and chickens, cows to milk, a large garden and the farming, they were busy. Mark was born in 1960 and Kevin in 1964. In 1967, as a family they did the janitor work at the Manfred school and worked there until it closed in May of 1973. Esther was Leave Replacement at the Manfred Post Office from the end of 1979 until it closed on October 2, 1992.
The 2002 crop was Wesley and Esther’s last harvest. They rented out the land in 2003 and spent some time on the road. The kids had a special gathering in Minnesota for their 50th anniversary where all the family of their four children, their spouses and nine grandchildren and one grand son-in-law were present.
Wesley served on the Manfred Elevator Board and the Township Board and they spent many years working at the Manfred Museum. He was a member of the Church of the Nazarene in Fessenden.
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Esther Boese Obituary
Esther Boese, 84, rural Manfred, passed away Thursday, February 15, 2018 at the St. Aloisius Nursing Home in Harvey. Visitation will be held one hour before the service at the church on Tuesday. Arrangements are with Nelson Funeral Home of Fessenden.
Esther Geraldine Bailey, daughter of Jesse and Mattie (Barker) Bailey, was born December 11, 1933 on a farm near Hiattville, KS. She lived with her family on various farms near Hiattville until they moved to Wichita, KS during WWII. She graduated from Wichita High School East in 1951 and then worked as a bookkeeper for Kraft Foods. In 1953, Esther moved to North Dakota. She lived in the Manfred area and worked at the First State Bank in Harvey.
On July 26, 1953, Esther was united in marriage to Wesley Boese at the Asbury Methodist Church in Wichita. They made their home on the Boese family farm north of Manfred where they lived and farmed nearly all their married lives. Since 2015, Esther had been a resident of the St. Aloisius Nursing Home in Harvey.
Esther was a member of the Church of the Nazarene in Fessenden until its closure in 2010, where she taught Sunday School, Bible School and served on the church board. More recently, she attended the First Baptist Church and the Living Stone Church of Fessenden.
She was a member of the Manfred Homemakers Club since 1953 and served as secretary of Manfred History and Preservation for several years as well as working as a volunteer.