USA > Minnesota > Renville County > The history of Renville County, Minnesota, Volume II > Part 9
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Wolfgang Preisinger was born in 1828 and died at New Uhn, Minn., in 1898. Ile came to America with his parents in 1861 and settled near New Ulm, where he engaged in farming. In 1862 he enlisted in the Second Battery, Light Artillery. Minne- sota Volunteers, and saw service in Kentucky and Tennessee under General Rosecrans. During the year of his enlistment he received word at Frankfort, Ky., of the Indian outbreak at his home and asked for leave of absence to go home and look after his folks. Ile was refused and a few days later deserted, but before reaching home was taken prisoner by the Confederates. He escaped and went home, instead of returning to his regiment. On his arrival he found that the country had been laid waste. After spending two weeks in hunting for his folks he found them all safe at Mankato and St. Peter. Returning to the farm they rebuilt their houses and barns and in the fall of 1862 Mr. Preisinger went to Wisconsin and enlisted in the Thirty-eighth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry under an assumed name. He was with Grant before Vicksburg and Richmond. He was mustered out at the close of the war. Returning home he married and took up a homestead near New Ulm where he lived until 1897 when he sold his farm and moved to New Ulm. Six children were born to him as the result of his marriage in 1868: Mary, now Mrs. A. J. Fisher, of Brown Co., Minn .; Annie, the wife of
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Frank Bartl, of Stirum, North Dakota; Frances, widow of George Dauscheck, of New Ulm; Joseph, of Renville; Sophia, who resides with her mother; Theresa, who died in 1887.
Peter Wigdahl was born in Wisconsin in 1859 and his wife was born in the same state in 1861. They had fifteen children, thirteen of whom are living: Carl, George, Mabel, Nordahl, Ella, Jeanette, Edward, John, Myrtle, Ilazel, Esther, Lloyd, and Emer- son. Two died in infancy. Mr. Wigdahl is a farmer and for several years has lived on his farm in Crooks township, Renville county.
Edward Carle Adams received a certificate from the Medical Examining Board Oet. 13, 1905, and offered it for record Nov. 17, 1908.
Allison W. Lumley received a certificate from the Medical Examining Board Oct. 5, 1894, and offered it for record, Oct. 1, 1895. In about 1912 he left for Ellsworth, Wisconsin.
L. T. Francis has practiced in Renville since Nov. 23, 1909. He studied medicine in the Bennett Medical College, of Chicago, in 1881-82, and then became associated with Dr. L. Pratt, of Wheaton III., who proved a most excellent preceptor. It was through his influence that the young student adhered to the Homeopathie school of practice. In the spring of 1884, Dr. Francis took his degree from the Chicago Homeopatic Medical College. Then he practiced with his preceptor for another year, subsequently going to College Springs, lowa, where he remained for a year and a half. Ile then found himself compelled to come north on account of the malaria. Sept. 2, 1886, he located in Wasioja, Minn., where he practiced for some seventeen years, moving from there to Hammond, Minn., from which town he came to Renville for the purpose of placing his three sons in the Renville Iligh school, from which institution all three have since graduated. In the winter of 1889-90, Dr. Francis took a post-graduate course in the Chicago Polyclinic College. Since that time he has not confined his practice to the Homeopathie school but uses those remedies which he believes for the highest interest of his patients.
John R. Peterson received a certificate from the Medical Ex- amining Board June 10, 1897, and offered it for record August 2. 1897. He then located at Renville. In 1900 he went to Madison, Minn., and left there for Wilhar in 1904 or 05. In about 1910 he moved to Minneapolis where he is still practicing.
Rebecca Shoemaker received a certificate from the Medical Examining Board Dec. 31, 1883, and offered it for record Janu- ary 19, 1884
Willis Clay was born in 1854, in Chicago, Ill. About four year later he went with his widowed mother to New York but one year after removed to Minnesota. Dr. Clay attended the
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high school at Plainview and began the study of medicine there in 1877. with Dr. J. P. Waste. Two years after, he entered Rush Medical College of Chicago, and after graduating from there in 1880 was in practice in Renville. Dr. Clay taught school while studying medicine. In 1900 Dr. Clay moved from Renville to Iowa, where he remained about two years and then moved to Waterville, Minn., where he operates a drug store and practices medicine.
Richard Randall practiced in Renville in the early days. He was educated in the college at Keokuk, Iowa, and came to Ren- ville from Le Sueur county, this state. He afterwards returned to Le Sueur county and died there.
Sacred Heart. O. K. Bergan received a certificate from the Medical Examining Board Oct. 9, 1891, and offered it for record Nov. 4, 1891.
F. L. Hammerstrand was born on a farm in the vicinity of East Lunn, Ill .. Oct. 11, 1881. He received his early education in the grammar school in the country and then worked on his fath- er's farm until fourteen years of age. Next he attended the Au- gustana College, at Rock Island, Ill., taking up a business course and for the next three years was bookkeeper with the Northern Milling Company of Chicago, IN. In 1903 he again entered the collegiate department of Augustana College with the intention of preparing for the medical course. In 1905 he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Medical Department of the University of Illinois, from which he was graduated in 1909. He then served as interne for two years at the Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago. Ill. In the fall of 1911 he located at Sacred Heart, where he has since practiced medicine.
E. O. Lyders was an early physician of Sacred Heart, practic- ing there in the early eighties.
John B. Setnan received a certificate from the Medical Exam- ining Board, June 9, 1896, and offered it for record Dec. 23, 1897.
Otis O. Benson received a certificate from the Medical Exam- ining Board April 11, 1902, and offered it for record August 4, 1906. Dr. Benson is now in Tower, Minn., engaged in the govern- ment service. He practiced at Hector before going to Sacred Heart.
Olaf E. Krogstadt received a certificate from the Medical Examining Board, April 8, 1892, and offered it for record March 15, 1901.
Carl Henry Laws received a certificate from the Medical Ex- amining Board July 5. 1911. and offered it for record August 14, 1911.
F. F. Laws graduated from the Chicago Medical College, Illi- nois, in 1874, received a certificate from the Medical Examining
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Board July 16, 1886, and presented his certificate for record Ang. 14, 1911.
Jerome H. Titus received a certificate From the Medical Exam- ining Board, Jan. 24, 1901, and offered it for record, Nov. 25, 1901.
William H. Welch graduated from the Medieal Department, University of Vermont in 1880, received a certificate from the Medical Examining Board Dec. 31, 1883, and presented his certifi- cate for record Jan. 2, 1889.
Eriek Linger practiced in Sacred Heart for a while.
Fred Foss is another physician who has practiced in Sacred Heart.
Miscellaneous. John Edmund Doran received a certificate from the Medieal Examining Board Inne 16, 1898, and offered it . for record July 10, 1902.
Lauritz Fop graduated from the Eelectric Bennett Medical College, Illinois, in 1872, received a certificate from the Medical Examining Board Dee. 28, 1883, and presented his certificate For record Jan. 10, 1884.
William Davidson Rea received a certificate from the Med- ieal Examining Board June 16, 1898, and offered it for record Sept. 19, 1907.
Howard S. Clark received a certificate from the Medical Ex- amining Board June 10, 1897.
The Camp Release District Medical Society comprises the fol- lowing counties: Renville, Chippewa, Lae qui Parle, Yellow Medicine, and Sibley. Regular meetings are held every third Thursday in January, April, July and October. The president is Dr. E. M. Clay, of Renville, Minn. : the secretary is Dr. H. Kern of Granite Falls. The members are: R. C. Adams, Bird Island; F. H. Aldrich, Belview : R. S. Bacon, Montevideo; W. M. Beck, Clarkfield; L. N. Bergh, Montevideo; F. W. Burns, Montevideo, M. A. Burns, Milan ; M. E. Bushey, Arlington ; II. B. Cole. Frank- lin; F. J. Cressy, Granite Falls; J. A. Duelos, Henderson; H. Duncan, Marietta ; James B. Ferguson. St. Paul ; Thos. E. Flinn, Redwood Falls; Ward Z. Flower, Gibbon ; H. W. Gammell. Mad- ison : E. O. Giere, Watertown, S. D. ; F. L. Hammerstrand, Sacred Heart ; M. M. Hauge, Clarkfield : J. W. Helland, Maynard: L. J. Ilolinberg. Canby ; A. E. Johnson, Watertown. S. D .; Carl M. Johnson, Montevideo ; H. M. Johnson, Dawson ; D. N. Jones, Min- neapolis : C. W. Kane, Arlington; J. S. Kilbride, Watertown. S. D .; F. Koren, Watertown, S. D .: L. Lima, Montevideo; M. H. Marken, Boyd; G. Il. Mesker, Olivia ; N. A. Nelson, Dawson, A. A. Passer, Olivia ; G. R. Pease, Redwood Falls : F. W. Penhall, Mor- ton ; T. Peterson, Gaylord ; F. L. Puffer, Bird Island ; J. P. Schnei- der, Minneapolis; A. A. Stemsrud, Dawson; G. E. Strout, Win- throp; G. H. Walker, Fairfax; R. D. Zimbeck, Montevideo.
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The Tubercular Sanatorium. September 10, 1913, a request was made by the Minnesota State Sanatorium Board to have the county of Renville in connection with adjoining counties build a sanatorium for tuberenlar patients. After considering the prop- osition some time it was deeided to employ a traveling nurse in the county for six months. The board directed the county anditor to transfer $8,905.35 from the county revenue fund to the joint sanatorium fund and to forward the amount of $8,905.35 to the state treasurer to the credit of the state of said sanatorium fund. Oct. 14. 1913, Dr. Robertson Bosworth of the Minnesota Advisory Sanatorium Commission appeared before the county boards of Renville and Redwood and presented the matter of erecting a tuberculosis sanatorium jointly by the two counties. Besides the ยท board members the following were also present : Dr. E. M. Clay. Dr. F. W. Penhall, Dr. H. B. Cole, Dr. II. L. D'Arms and other individuals. The Renville county board decided to appropriate the sum of $5,000 for a tuberenlosis sanatorium provided that Chippewa and Yellow Medicine counties would also join with them with a similar appropriation for a joint sanatorim of at least three counties
The results may be seen in the following article from the Granite Falls "Tribune." "A year from now there will be located a mile east of this city a tuberculosis sanatorium that will rank second to not one in the state; a place where the counties of Lae qui Parle, Chippewa and Yellow Medicine may have their people who are afflicted with this dread disease treated in a man- ner that will effeet, if possible, a cure.
"On Tuesday, Aug. 24, 1915, the bids were let for the eon- struction and finish of the buildings that will comprise this sani- tarium. In letting the bids the Board of Control acted largely npon the advice of the committee composed of D. A. McLarty and Ole Flaten, of this city, and Dr. Smith, of Montevideo, who have had the preparatory work in charge. The lowest bidder for the general construction work was the firm of C. Ash & Son, of St. Paul, the bid being $37,500. The highest bid was $52,000. The plumbing contract was awarded to the Worthingham Com- pany, of Minneapolis. for the sum of $3,781. The heating con- tract was awarded to the Healy Company, of St. Paul. the con- sideration being $8,399. The electric wiring and fixtures will in all probability be let to the Twin City Electrical Company, for $1,380, that bid being the lowest. The General Concrete Con- struction Company will build the mammoth chimney for the power house, for which it will receive $895.
"There will be three buildings upon the grounds, for besides the main building and power house, the former Jannnsch honse will be rebuilt for the use of the nurses.
"The main bulding will be two stories in height with a full
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basement, built of pressed brick. The building will have a capac- ity of 44 beds, besides the necessary room for the medical staff.
"It is thought that this sanatorium will be able to take care of the tuberenlars of the four counties. Admission to the sani- tarinm will be gained through the Commissioners of the appli- cant's county. As we understand it, if the patient is able to pay, a moderate charge will be asked ; if not able to pay, the state and county will bear the expense, the state's limit being $6 a week for each patient."
The care and governorship of the building will rest with the general committee of nine appointed from the four counties. Sit- uated as this sanitarinm is on the bank of the Minnesota river the place can be made very beautiful and attractive, and in being such can aid those who seek health through it.
The River Side Sanatorium will be completed early in 1916 at a cost of some $65,000. It is located in Chippewa county across the river from Granite Falls. The president of the board is D. A. Mebarty of Granite Falls, and the secretary is O. P. Flaten of the same place. The board is constituted as follows: Chippewa county, O. P. Flaten, Granite Falls; Dr. L. G. Smith, Montevideo; Fred Bakke, Granite Falls; Yellow Medicine, D. A. MeLarty, Granite Falls: Dr. W. M. Stratton, Granite Falls: Lae qui Parle connty, Dr. M. H. Marken, Boyd : J. R. Swan, Madison : Renville county, Timothy O'Connor, Renville ; Darwin S. Hall, Olivia. Dr. Stratton is dead and his place has been filled by K. E. Neste, of Granite Falls. Mrs. Sara W. Dunton has been appointed super- intendent.
CHAPTER XXXI.
RURAL SCHOOLS.
Indian Instruction-The Minnesota System-Pioneer Education in Renville County-First Districts-Growth of System in County-The Present Schools-Some Model School Districts -Prepared with the Assistance of Amalia M. Bengtson.
The instruction of the young is one of the elementary factors of human existence. The child of the lowest savage is shown how to get its food. The child of the highest type of civilization is taught to develop its mind, its soul and its body to the highest ideal possible. Every nation has its system of public schools : every nation has its institutions of higher learning. The people of Minnesota, from the earliest days, have devoted much care and attention to the question of education and, as the years have passed, have evolved, by much sacrifice and through toil and
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devotion, a most admirable system. In working out an amplifica- tion of this system, Renville county has taken an important part.
Indian Instruction. The Indians who ranged Renville eounty before the coming of the whites had no schools, but thorugh and extensive training was given the young Indians in everything that they were likely to find useful in daily life. Instruction in the relgion of the tribe was also given, and a few favored ones were initiated into psychie mysteries such as are little understood even by advanced philosophers of the present day.
The Indians held the wisdom of the aged in high esteem and paid respectful attention whenever an elder could be induced to speak of the traditions and knowledge of the past. Much ef- fort was given to educating the youth in the hunter's craft, and both boys and girls had much to learn to fit them for their sta- tion in life.
No one could be long among the Indians of Minnesota in the early days without hearing the elders giving to the children such instructions as would qualify them to take care of themselves. Whatever they did or made, it was the aim of the Indian to do everything well and in a workman-like manner. if nothing more than the making of a moccasin or a paddle for a canoe. They did not like to be thought bunglers, or to see their children, either boys or girls, do anything awkwardly.
There were many things to be learned about the habits of wild animals and birds, the best manner of approaching them, handling weapons of the chase so as to avoid accidents. setting traps, skinning animals and birds, cutting up meat, running. leaping, swimming, climbing, and the like. The making of bows and arrows, and their skillful use, was no easy task to learn. The following of a trail, a noiseless walk, and skillful methods of war- fare were all in the curriculum. The building of a smokeless fire, the creating of a smudge of the signal fire, correct personal adornment in accordance with custom, the curing of skins, and the art of oratory must be mastered by the youth. As a child he must be docile, good-natured, obedient, brave, and respectful ; indifferent to his own pain. As he grew older he must be coura- geous, sagacious and shrewd, a master hunter and a relentless fighter. He must be able to care for himself in the trackless woods away from his kind, or when matching his wits against a cunning enemy or a wily animal. He must face all dangers, even death, without flinching.
The control of the voice must be mastered. There were tradi- tional songs to be learned and hereditary danees in which to acquire skill. They took mueh pains to learn to imitate the voices of birds and beasts, and this was a necessary part of the education of both the hunter and the warrior. When near an enemy they could communicate with each other by mimieking the voices of
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the birds, without giving alarm, and they sometimes imposed upon the beasts which they were hunting by counterfeiting the voice of the mother or her young. In fact, they had discovered a great many ways of accomplishing their purposes of which none but a race of practical hunters would ever have thought.
The girls had much to learn. They had to cook, string beads and embroider ; they had to build tepees and look after the wants of the braves. They must at times even defend themselves from the enemy. They must gather wild fruits and vegetables, and know the wild herbs. They must know something of the rudi- ments of medicine.
The Indians took special pains to teach their chiklren how to guard against being frozen, and the young people profited well by these instructions, as it was a rare thing for an Indian child to be seriously injured by the frost. Both sexes must also learn the rudiments of counting, and many were taught to draw crude pictures. The knowledge of the difference between the edible and the poisonous nuts, fruits, berries, stalks, grains and roots must be carefully acquired.
Thus while the Indian children were not, until the days of the missionaries and the reservations, confined to the school room, there were plenty of hard lessons to occupy their youthful years.
The Minnesota Educational System. In the story of American civilization the establishment of the school and the church has been coincident with the building of the home. However, at the formation of the Union, and later, when the federal government was established, there was no definite line of action as to public education, although at the same time that the Constitution was adopted the last session of the continental congress was being held in the city of New York, and the ordinance of 1787 was passed, regulating the affairs pertaining to the Northwest terri- tory, including that portion of Minnesota lying east of the Missis- sippi river. In this ordinance much attention was given to the question of providing a means of public education by giving one section in each congressional township for educational purposes. Later, when the purchase of Louisiana had been effected, and after the due course of years, Minnesota sought admission to the Union, still further provision was made for education by giving two sections in each congressional township for school purposes. This gave impetus to the natural tendency toward educational matters, and in all the settlements one of the first efforts was to prepare to instruct the children. The church and the school building, when not one and the same, were practically always Found side by side. The hardy pioneers of the great Northwest, of which Minnesota was a part, did not even wait for a terri- torial government, but set to work at once to establish schools. The first school in Minnesota for the education of white children
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was organized by Dr. T. S. Williamson on the present site of St. Paul. At that time investigation demonstrated that there were about thirty-six children in the settlement of St. Paul who might attend a school. A log house, ten by twelve feet, covered with bark and chinked by mud, previously used as a blacksmith shop, was secured and converted into a schoolhouse, the school being taught by Harriet E. Bishop. Here, then, while the United States troops were gaining such signal success in the war with Mexico, there was begun the system of education which has be- come one of the best in this great nation. In this same little schoolhouse, in November, 1849. was held a meeting for the pur- pose of establishing a system of public education, based upon the congressional act of March, 1849, establishing Minnesota ter- ritory. Alexander Ramsey, of Pennsylvania, after being appointed territorial governor, proceeded at onee to assume the duties of his office. In his first message to the first territorial legislature in the fall of 1849 he emphasized the need of wise measures looking to the establishment of a system of public education. He said : "The subject of education, which has ever been esteemed of first importance in all new American communities, deserves and, I doubt not, will receive your earliest and most devoted care. From the pressure of other and more immediate wants it is not to be expected that your school system should be very ample, yet it is desirable that whatever is done will be of a character that will readily adapt itself to the growth and inerease of the country, and not in future years require a violent change of system."
In response to this appeal for legislation in school matters, suitable action was taken. A study of the changes in the school system between that date and 1867 is interesting. but as no schools were established in what is now Renville county until 1867 a dis- cussion of these changes is beyond the scope of this work.
Pioneer Education in Renville County. The first educational instruction among the whites in Renville county was given in the pioneer homes by the mothers, who, though they had come to a new country, did not desire their children to grow up in ignorance.
The early comers never lost sight of the idea upon which the possibility of founding and supporting a popular government rests-the education of the children-and as fast as the children arrived in the county, or became of school age, the best possible provision at the command of the people was made for their schooling.
An account of the various expedients resorted to that would meet the requirements of the eireumstances would, while some- times laughable, reveal the struggling efforts of a determination to bestow knowledge upon the rising generation in spite of all difficulties. Schools were often kept in a log dwelling, where
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the school room would be partitioned off only by an imaginary line from the portion occupied by the family. Sometimes an open shed as an annex to a house would serve the purpose in the summer. In other places a brush "lean-to" would separate the pupils from the elements. Deserted shacks were also often used for schoolhouses.
The usual method was for the neighbors to get together and organize a distriet and select a lot for a building. Of course, each one would want it near, but not too near, and sometimes there was a little difficulty in establishing a location which would prove to be the best accommodation of the greatest number. And then to build a schoolhouse a "bee" was the easiest way, and so plans and estimates were improvised, and each one would pro- vide one, two, three or more logs so many feet long, so many shingles, so many slabs, so much plaster for chinking, so many rafters, a door, a window, or whatever might be needed for the particular kind of schoolhouse to be built, and at the appointed hour the men would assemble with the material, bringing their dinner pails, and by night, if there had not been too much hilarity during the day. the building would be covered and practically completed. The benches would be benches indeed, often without backs, and sitting on one of them was about as comfortable as sitting in the stoeks, that now unfashionable mode of punishment.
Some of the first schoolhouses in Renville county were erreted and furnished by voluntary subscription and without waiting for the organization and tax levy. Often the teacher took turns liv- ing with the parents in the district, usually sleeping with the children. Many men and women since prominent in the affairs of the state were trained in some of these early Renville county schools.
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