The Sheriff launches his memoir

The Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery in partnership with the Reid-Thompson Library hosted a book launch at the Gallery on Apr. 28.

Arthur Denis, who is called “The Sheriff”,  brought his newly written book Memories of the Sheriff of Champêtre County to the gallery for the launch as well as a reading.

Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery Cultural Programmer, Leah Terry, thought the evening went really well and said he shared some real interesting stories.

“It was great to have him here to share his stories and it’s great publicity for the author and great for us to be hosting the event here.”

The book is a memoir about his life starting during the days of the horse and buggy moving all the way to recently.

It tells of various stories about major events that happened throughout his life including the time he was nearly shot by some kids who were goofing around one night.

As well the book includes people that spent a lot of time with Denis, including his grandson who has says was almost always with him from the time he was a few months old until he was 15 years old.

He says his grandson left an impression on him because he was very quick witted. One time he told his grandson that everybody was a prophet to which he responded by asking him if everybody was a prophet who were they going to prophesies to.

Denis says he started writing the book one winter after he suffered an injury and was unable to do much. To pass his time he began writing.

Denis says he hand wrote the book and used up four ball point pens to finish it.

“That also complicated my life because then we had to put it into the computer so we had to find somebody that was able to understand my handwriting.”

He says the early years were obviously the most difficult for him because they were the most difficult to remember but said the book overall was the perfect speed for him because they were all short stories.

“The beauty with short stories, you don’t have to go a,b,c,d. You can write any story and once you’re finished then you put them in the right order.”

Denis hopes the book can be used as a way for his family to remember his life further as well as provide them with an opportunity to hear more of his life’s story.

He even noted that some of his children have mentioned to him that they have read things in his book that they still did not know about him.

In the short time Denis’ book has been out he has already experienced a great deal of success noting that the French version of his book, since he wrote it in English and in French, is being used as part of the curriculum at École Providence in Vonda for the grades 7-12 students.

“That was very surprising and I was really pleased… proud but in the right sense… for me it was something that I never dreamt of,” he said.

Reid-Thompson Librarian, Rose Ward, says it is important to recognize local authors and entrepreneurs like Denis, who established Champêtre County, a western themed vacation farm located north of St. Denis in 1995.

“Arthur’s story is a local success story worthy of sharing…Arthur is a community oriented person always giving without expecting anything in return.  He enjoys making folks happy through his storytelling and friendly nature.”

She says she has read his book and calls it “a very good read.”

“His story is something many can relate to: hardwork, perseverance, faith, and many helping hands.”

The gallery and library are continuing their partnership with the next reading being planned for June 2 when Muenster native, Brent Loehr, will read from his book, The Global Baseball Classroom.