Family History at the Heart of Muir Guest House

The Muir Guest House

One hundred years ago today if you’d knocked on the door of what is now the Muir Guest House in LaMoure, N.D., Bessie Muir would have opened the door and welcomed you into the front porch.

She might have been holding baby June, while little Donald, 4, played nearby. Neva, 7, and Margaret, 6, would have been in school, while her husband, Gale, was off doing carpentry. You might have spied her sewing machine near a window, with a piece of fabric still under the needle. In the kitchen, perhaps bread baked in the old-fashioned oven.

Last year, Bessie and Gale’s granddaughter and her husband, Nick and Judy Muir Meisch, purchased the property. Since then, Judy has invested much thought and energy in providing an attractive, comfortable place to stay for people visiting LaMoure.

We cousins share an enthusiasm for the Muir family history. Interest increased about 10 years ago, when Bessie and Gale’s son Wallace Muir (1921-2008) published The Muir-Kloubec Genealogy and History 1708-2005 and I was lucky enough to help him with the editing after he spent 20 years doing the research and writing.

My heart was captured by the story of Bessie’s early years. She grew up with one family crisis after another, so how did she remain unaffected and become a woman of kindness, humor and hardiness? How did she overcome the painful secrets she locked away in her heart? Based on Uncle Wallace’s research, I spent seven years writing Bessie’s coming of age story. One of these days I hope to announce that it has been published. Meanwhile, there’s the Muir Guest House story.

Some of the Muir cousins playing at Grandma’s house.

A few years ago Judy also purchased another house owned by Bessie and Gale. One they lived in for decades, located two doors west of the Muir Guest House. This is the house where we cousins remember enjoying many happy family gatherings. Bessie and Gale moved there in 1919 because they were outgrowing their “tiny” house. Ironically, this house isn’t much bigger than the other, but they managed to raise eight kids there.

I’m proud of our family history, not because anyone was rich, famous or powerful (although there is that longshot connection to the Muir Castle in Scotland), but because they were people of hope, faith and integrity. The kind of people who make America a good place to live.

Congratulations Judy and Nick on the opening of the Muir Guest House. See more photos at www.Facebook.com/Muirguesthouse. Photos of the house are courtesy of Leah Meisch Photography.

Here is one of my all-time favorite quotes: “Every life is the result of series of choices and crossroads—not only ours, but those of our ancestors for generations behind us. In the present, as in the past, each individual holds a key to the future. We stand at the crossroads of our personal histories and the decisions we make set into motion values and attitudes that affect not only our own development as men and women made in the image of God, but the choices and decisions that will face our descendants for generations to come.” Michael Phillips and Judith Pella in The Stonewyke Legacy.