BARUM CHURCH — Tilly, a German shepherd dog owned by Vernon Hanson, waits on the steps of Barum Lutheran Church. When Tilly is alone at the farm, she goes to church. Also pictured with Tilly is Joel Berg, the grandson of Dr. David and Ethel Frogner of Colfax. The Frogners have a long family association with Barum Lutheran Church. —photo courtesy of Dr. Frogner
By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — Vernon Hanson misses his dog, Tilly — and the feeling is apparently mutual.
Hanson, who lives on a farm northeast of Elk Mound in the Town of Elk Mound, has been in rehabilitation therapy at the Colfax Health and Rehabilitation Center for the past few weeks.
And while he has been gone, his German Shepherd dog, Tilly, has been waiting at Barum Lutheran Church for him.
Well, Tilly does not wait at the church all of the time.
But if Hanson’s wife, Ruth, leaves home, then Tilly goes to church.
“Tilly is a good dog. But when no one is home, she sneaks off and goes down to the church because she knows on Sunday morning there is going to be someone coming out of church for her. So she’s used to that, going to the church when we’re not home,” Hanson said.
The Hansons have had Tilly for about 10 years.
Tilly started going to church right away when they first got her.
“She didn’t follow the car, but she knew where the car stopped. She still does that. She goes down to the church and sits and waits,” Hanson said.
The first time Tilly went to church was during Sunday school.
“The kids would open the door to go in the church and go down the stairs. She snuck into the church. Then she went up to where the preacher was preaching. She didn’t pay any attention to him. He mentioned her, though. ‘She’s even coming to church now,’” Hanson recalled with a smile.
The Hansons live about a quarter mile from the church.
“She can’t see it from home, either. There’s a little hill in between,” he said.
Colfax resident Dr. David Frogner provided a photograph to the Colfax Messenger of Tilly waiting on the steps of the church.
Dr. Frogner said his grandparents attended church at Barum and that his father had been confirmed there, and while he was visiting the church with his grandson, Joel Berg, who was home from Hawaii for a visit, that’s when Dr. Frogner was able to get a picture of Tilly.
Joel is the son of the Dr. David and Ethel Frogner’s daughter, Lynn. Joel Berg works out of Pearl Harbor and is a contractor for the U.S. Navy, hauling supplies to naval ships.
No rides
One thing about Tilly is that she does not like to ride in vehicles.
“She won’t get in a car. She has other things she’d rather do,” Hanson said.
Tilly, who is strictly an outside dog, is always with Hanson when he is outside.
“When I used to work in the fields, she’d run alongside the tractor all the time. Until she got all tuckered out. Then she’d lay down for a round or so and rest up and then she’d start in again,” Hanson said.
“When we got her, I didn’t let her ride. I figured if I let her [in the vehicle] she’d want to ride everywhere,” he said.
Hanson is perhaps a little sorry now that he did not let Tilly start riding in vehicles, otherwise she could come to the nursing home to visit him.
“Ruth comes up to visit me all the time, and I asked if Tilly is staying home now that I’m gone. She says she is. I don’t want her to start running,” Hanson said.
“She was close to a year old when I got her. I got her from somebody up by Chippewa. They left her on the overpass where the town road goes over 29 west of Chippewa. That’s where they left her, and that’s where I picked her up. They told me that’s where she was going to be. And that’s where she was. That’s where I picked her up and took her home. She’s been with us ever since,” Hanson said.
While Tilly is a friendly dog and has never acted aggressively toward anyone, she will bark when someone drives onto the place, he noted.
Tilly has a soft spot in her heart for children, too.
“She will always come and sniff them out,” Hanson said.
“It bothers me that I can’t be home. And I think she’d like it better if I was there. My wife comes here to visit, or she’ll go to Eau Claire, and then Tilly will go to the church,” he said.
Vernon Hanson was chair of the Town of Elk Mound for close to 40 years.
“It was a long time, but to me, there wasn’t anything hard about it or difficult. We really didn’t have any big problems [in the township]. And people seemed to understand what we were trying to do. As long as they know what you’re doing, that helps, and as long as you’re not trying to fool them about anything,” he said.
Picture-perfect
Vern, who said he is 85 years old, has a picture of Tilly on the wall at the nursing home.
“When the grandkids come out, she thinks the world of them. She will run around and have fun with them,” he said.
“I gave her the name Tilly right away. I named her Tilly right off the bat,” Hanson said.
The Hansons held an auction earlier this spring and sold all of their machinery. They do not have any livestock, either, and the fields and the pastures are being rented out.
On the day the Colfax Messenger spoke with Hanson, he had been at the nursing home for a few weeks, and he was anticipating going home again in another few weeks.
“Tilly has been a dandy. I think the world of her,” Hanson said.
