Arnold M. Beihoffer

  General Notes:

Life begins at 80: Octogenarian recalls life, starts new job

By Judy Wiff

SOMERSET _ His mother died when he was a baby. He was adopted and didn't see his six siblings again for 53 years. As a teen-ager he was shot by a robber. He survived the bombing of an aircraft carrier during World War II. He's been married four times and was treated for cancer twice.

These days Arnie Beihoffer, 81, is a woodworker specializing in building cases for casket flags for deceased veterans and others who are buried with honors.

"I don't think most people would have survived the life that I lived," said Beihoffer, relaxing in his home along the Apple River.

The sixth of seven children, he was born in 1916 in a log cabin north of Remer, Minn. When he was 1 1/2 years old, his mother, who was pregnant, died of flu.

"The welfare decided Dad Menton could not take care of seven kids so they put us in the Children's Home Society orphanage in St. Paul," said Beihoffer. He was adopted soon afterwards. All of that he knows because he was told later.

Beihoffer's first memory is of sitting on a bench on a store balcony with a woman who seemed very large to him. In his memory he is fascinated with his boots, trimmed with gray fur and a cross-check pattern. As he and the woman wait, two other women approach, waving, smiling and carrying packages.

The women are his adoptive mother and her sisters. The boots are new, and the packages are full of new clothing for him.

His new mother, Alice Beihoffer, took him by train to Glencoe, Minn. His new father had invited all his friends to the train station to meet them.

"He was the finest man I ever knew and the best Christian even though he never went to church," said Beihoffer.

His father and another man went into partnership in a construction company, using horses and laborers to build roads. The young Beihoffer hung out with the men, picking up their rough and tumble ways.

"By the time I got into first grade I could lick anybody and I could out-swear everybody," he said.

Later his dad was elected sheriff. Beihoffer's mother cooked for the prisoners, and it was the young man's job to deliver meals to the cells. "I got to meet anything and everything you could think of _ prostitutes, bank robbers and drug fiends," he said. "I got an early education in the pitfalls of life."

"I did a lot of his typing for him," said Beihoffer of his father's 12 years as sheriff.

But typing wasn't the most exciting part of his informal job as his father's assistant.

When a call went out that John Dillinger was robbing a bank in a nearby town, the young man and his father jumped in the car. His father tossed a double-barreled shotgun on the young man's lap and laid a .38-caliber pistol on the seat. The older man warned his son to watch out for himself if there was any shooting.

There wasn't. "He (Dillinger) was gone by the time we got there," said Beihoffer. His dad was, though, criticized for taking his son along on that expedition. The elder Beihoffer defended his actions, saying he trusted his son more than he'd trust another man.

Because of the complaints about the earlier incident, they kept it quiet when the younger Beihoffer was shot by a burglar. The young man, his dad and a deputy were called to a nightclub where thieves were holding hostages in the basement.

Beihoffer offered to go in the back door. As he started down the stairs, he slipped on a toy. One of the robbers shot, hitting Beihoffer in the chest.

His father took him to a doctor, who treated him for what turned out to be no more than a rib injury. "We never told anyone about that," said Beihoffer.

He tested for and became a Minnesota state trooper, a position he held for 10 years.

When World War II broke out, Beihoffer joined the U.S. Navy. "I thought it was getting to be a pretty good fight, and I never could stay out of a good fight."

Although he was trained to fire torpedoes, he spent most of his service time on dry land.

Bored with that duty, Beihoffer traded places with another man on an aircraft carrier. As luck would have it, the carrier was attacked, and all the torpedo men were killed. "Except for me," said Beihoffer. "I didn't get a mark."

"There's no reason I should be alive today," said Beihoffer. "I've been living on borrowed time for years."

Beihoffer has also worked as a telephone lineman, an electric company lineman, a mill worker, a filling station attendant and a livestock feed and chemical salesman.

Later he took a civil service test and did well enough to get a job with the post office in Minneapolis. "I've always been one of those people that could pass a test."

After working for a decade with the post office, he retired. He moved out of the Twin Cities and into his home on the Apple River. There he opened a small business sharpening tools and later began making cradles, children's rocking chairs and quilt racks.

Beihoffer was a senior in high school before he found out he was adopted.

"I beat the hell out of one guy that tried to tell me that years before," said Beihoffer. Later another boy asked him if he was adopted.

His parents heard of the incident, and when Beihoffer got home he found his mother crying. His dad told him the truth and that he had a sister living in Minneapolis.

Beihoffer drove to the Cities and called his sister from a phone booth. "I wouldn't have needed the telephone for her part," he said. When she realized she was talking to her brother, the woman screamed so loud Beihoffer was sure her voice could be heard for blocks.

He met that sister but had little contact with his biological family until 1972, when he got a long distance call at the post office. His brother invited him to a Fourth of July family reunion in Remer.

For the first time the siblings _ five men and two women _ were reunited with their father. The old man was 91 and living in a nursing home. He died a year later.

As the family shared stories of their lives, Beihoffer realized how fortunate he had been. An older sister and brother had been sent to a farm to work. Another bother and sister were adopted, but their family life was so unhappy the brother enlisted at 16 to get away. Another brother thought he was adopted but never had been.

"Where I grew up compared to where I would have grown up, I was much better off," said Beihoffer.

"I felt real lucky," he said. "The Beihoffers were great to me."

Beihoffer began his most recent undertaking _ the making of the flag cases _ about two years ago. He has sold over 100 of the cases. Since the first of the year he's gotten orders for about 35.

The triangular shaped cases, made of oak or black walnut, have a glass front and are sized to fit the folded flag.

The cases sell for $45, and Beihoffer markets them by going through newspaper obituaries and mailing postcards to families of deceased veterans. Most have been sold to people in Minnesota, but some have gone to Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon and California.

Flag cases can be ordered by calling (715) 247-5509.

Beihoffer's unusual personal life didn't stop with his biological and adoptive families. He's also been married four times. The first marriage ended in divorce. His second wife died. "The third one ran away," said Beihoffer.

Last November he married wife No. 4, Jewelle. "She is a jewel too," said Beihoffer. "She's the best one of the four."

Jewelle is 15 years younger than her husband and jokes that she agreed to marry him after he promised to live to 130.


...Hudson Star Observer ©1998

  Burial Notes:

Section 9, Site 443.

  In his life:

• He was counted in the 1920 US census for Glencoe, McLeod, Minnesota. ¹ SD 3, ED 87, Sheet 5b

• In 1920 he lived in Glencoe, McLeod, Minnesota. ¹

• Arnold was counted in the 1930 US census for Glencoe, McLeod, Minnesota. ⁴ SD 10, ED 43-5, Sheet 20a, ward 1

• In 1930 he lived at Franklin Street in Glencoe, McLeod, Minnesota. ⁴

• He worked as a Minnesota Highway Patrolman from 1941 to 1951. ⁵ Appointed May 1941, number 118; resigned 18 September 1951.

• He served in the military as a Torpedoman's Mate Second Class in the US Navy From 24 May 1944 to 10 January 1946. ⁶