The Many Miles Travelled by Polk County's First Car

After several owners, a 5 and 1/2 year restoration, a cross country trip, and a visit to Frederic, Polk County’s first automobile, a 1902 Oldsmobile, has moved to Europe. The late Gary Hoosbeen, founder of the Curved Dash Olds Club, and his wife Nancy, visited Frederic when he owned the Olds in 2012, stopping by the 1901 SOO Line Depot.

The article below by Hoonsbeen, describes the interesting history of this car, from being possibly Polk County’s first car, purchased new in 1902 for $650.00 to its March 2016 sale by Bonhams Auctions, to a European collector for $51,250.00. Thanks to Mark Hoonsbeen, Minneapolis, MN for information offered.

William Johnson, Frederic Area Historical Society

1902 Curved Dash Oldsmobile

Gary and Nancy Hoosbeen driving the 1902 Olds in Frederic, by the 1901 SOO Line Depot

1902 CURVED DASH OLDSMOBILE, The first car in Polk County.

It was in the summer of 1902 that Balsam Lake’s town doctor, James D. Nickelson, purchased a new Curved Dash Oldsmobile from the A. F. Chase agency in Minneapolis for $650.00.  It was likely the first car ever brought to Balsam Lake and maybe even to Polk County.  This is Dr. Nickelson’s original car.  It was restored in 1980.

A former Milltown resident, Clarence Nelson, recalls in a December 30, 1978 interview, that one day in grade school, about 1904, they heard a strange noise outside on the road.  The teacher, Martha Nelson, from Star Prairie, took the kids outside to watch Dr. Nickelson drive by in this little 1902 Oldsmobile.  He remembers the teacher commenting they may never have another chance to see an automobile! 

Dr. Nickelson had two daughters, Dorothy and Helen.  Dorothy married Walter Anderson and Helen married Mr. Parks from Centuria.  The Parks family were funeral directors.  Helen’s husband was an auctioneer and hardware dealer.  The doctor later became Milltown’s postmaster and lived in a converted Shell station in that town.

Clarence recalled that Dr. Nickelson had the Oldsmobile when he moved from Balsam Lake to Milltown in about 1906 or 1907.  About 1908 the Oldsmobile was sold to the Milltown depot agent, Olaf Martin Lund, uncle to the man who years later founded the famous Lund Boat Works.  Olaf left Milltown under some controversy that same year, driving the Oldsmobile back to his home town of Twin Valley Minnesota.  In a 1985 letter, Olaf’s brother, 92-year-old Oscar J. Lund, recalls the trip across Minnesota, “The drive from Milltown must have been at least 500 miles and then mostly on dirt roads.  I have gathered that my brother had driven to Wanamingo and then drove to visit my Dad’s brother, Rollof Lund, northeast of Wanamingo.  I recall my brother mentioned that he had driven through farm fences and what-not to get there.  Then I surmise that in doing so he had to drive over the covered bridge on the Zumbro River which has become a historical site”.

Olaf Lund continued to drive the 1902 Oldsmobile until about 1912 when it was replaced with a newer vehicle.  It sat in the family barn until about 1918 when it was sold to a junk dealer as part of the scrap-metal drive for WW1.   His brother Oscar was not happy about this so retrieved it from the junk yard for $2.00 and put it back in the barn where it sat until 1965.

The Lund’s sold their farm and auctioned off the equipment in 1965 and the little Oldsmobile was purchased by then state Senator Norm Larson, of Ada, Minnesota, for a sum of $125.  Still in deplorable conditions from old age, the Oldsmobile again changed hands and moved to Oslo, Minnesota, selling this time for $2100.

In 1977 Gary Hoonsbeen, Minneapolis, purchased the car and after 5-1/2 years of work, restored it to near original condition.  In 1985, Hoonsbeen drove this Oldsmobile from San Francisco to New York, a distance of 3844 miles, over a 38-day period.  The Olds averaged 12 MPH traveling about 100 miles each day, including several hundred miles on the Interstate system in the Western United States.  The car was appropriately named “OSCAR” for this trip, and it has the record of being the oldest model automobile ever cross country.

The car has only 1 cylinder, 4 inches in diameter, developing 4 and 1/2 horse power.  Power is transferred to the rear axle with a block chain.  It has two speeds and reverse using a planetary transmission, implemented many years before Ford used it on his automobiles.   The top speed is about 25 miles per hour, maybe 30 with a good tail wind.  It burns regular gasoline and consumes about 1 cup of oil every 50 miles.  The tires have inner tubes with a size of 28 x 3 inches.  Originally, it had wooden spoked wheels but they were in very poor condition and were replaced with wire wheels, which were an option in 1902.  It is steered with a “tiller,” one of the last automobiles to use this type of equipment.  About 20,000 Curved Dash Oldsmobiles were built between 1901 and 1907 of which nearly 1000 still survive in collector’s hands today.  It sold originally for $650.  On good roads it will carry four adults but it takes several minutes to get up to “full” speed.  Two or three may be required to walk going up hills.

Clarence Nelson and Oscar Lund both lived into their 90’s-long enough to have rides in the restored 1902 Oldsmobile, making the restoration work all worthwhile. 

By:  Gary Hoonsbeen, Minneapolis, MN - June 10, 2004

The Life of Roy Jack Hennings, "Doc Squirt"

The Polk County Historical Society brings to you an interesting character and favorite son from Cushing. Doc Squirt is best know for his articles in local newspapers during the early 1900’s and is claimed to be the first person in the county to own a motorcycle. Here you will read about the life of Roy Jack Hennings.

Roy Jack Hennings aka “Doc Squirt” was born in Osceola on October 24, 1883 to Andrew and Lina Hennings. Roy had one brother and three sisters. While he was a young boy, the family moved to the pioneer town of Cushing and opened a hardware store.

Growing up in Cushing, Roy helped out on his father’s farm and delivered the mail. In Roy’s late twenties he started a Harley Davidson motorcycle dealership in Cushing and it is believed that he had the first ever motorcycle in the area.

Doc Squirt’s motorcycle created quite a stir around Cushing. He possibly had the first motorcycle in the area. He carried the mail on his rural route through wet clay and sand. Here is Doc Squirt, alias Roy Hennings, on the left, stunting on his motorcycle. With him is John Skone, a friend and cousin.

The “famous son” legend can be attributed to the nickname that evolved for Roy, “Doc Squirt”. Myrtle Smith Coyle, Roy’s sister tells this story, “Roy had not yet learned to dance, when a masquerade ball came up, and it seemed to appeal to him. He wanted so much to go to it, but he didn’t know what to wear.” What the boys came up with was a cutout white coat and a tool bag which they covered with black oil cloth and stenciled ‘Dr. Squirt’ on it as well as on the back of the coat. She goes on to say, “Throughout the evening, he was trying to operate on everyone and, of course, no one had any idea whom he was because he had never gone to dances, but he was sure having a ball and so was everyone else watching him. And, by the way he won the prize.” “From that night on, he was Dr. Squirt and he was known all over the country-side.”

There are many other stories by old-timers how the Doc Squirt legend began. One story is that he was at a bobsledding party running around with a squirt gun. Others say that Roy played a role in a play at school in which the character’s name was Dr. Squirt.

An example of Roy’s humor.

Roy was known to be quite the prankster. “The people that were on the receiving end probably never forgot,” a Dresser man stated, “No one was really safe with Squirt around, he was always looking for a chance to pull something.” One of Roy’s alleged pranks was placing carpet tacks on a car seat. Other incidents included lighting off dynamite after a wedding and also setting off the whistles at the town’s creamery and sawmill in the middle of the night.

Roy Hennings poses proudly at the wheel of his auto, “Silent Sarah” – or was it “Leaping Lizzie?” He made his mail rounds on the unpaved roads around Cushing in this vehicle for a time – it was about 1915. Horse and buggy and motorcycle made earlier “rounds”.

Dr. Squirt (Roy Hennings) who was managing the Cushing Tigers when this photo was taken in 1908, stands at the left. He gave the “Tigers” their name, according to Abe Skone, after the Detroit Tigers had won the championship despite being the smallest town in their league.

Roy was also known to be a notorious “nicknamer”, in his columns he referred to F.D.R. as “Frank Deficit” others include a saloon outside of Cushing he referred to as “Hell’s Half Acre”, his friend Ed Smith “King Faithless”, and “Handy Pete” for Pete Peterson.

 In the early 1900, Doc was the manager of the Cushing Tigers baseball team. The team consisted of nine players and if one player got hurt the game was over. The team had a traveling musical band that played during the games.

Roy didn’t stay in one place for long. He worked log drives and then headed out West to harvest fields going as far as the state of Washington. For some time he was selling real estate from Texas to Canada. His brother, Norman Hennings stated, “There weren’t many place he didn’t live a while.”

Mrs. Severson of St. Croix Falls describes it as a sort of “Will-o-the-wisp” way of life.  She says, “One person would say he’d seen Squirt here, at the same time someone else thought he’s seen him somewhere else.” Legend lends that he may have been a spy or an agent for the Secret Service because of his constant moving.

Doc logged in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Canada in the winters. He referred to logging as “working in the woods”. His sister remembers, “when he came down with the other loggers on the drive in the spring he carried a peavey hood and wore cork shoes with nails in them.” Later, Roy would donate a pair of logger’s river drive boots with nails in them, a pike pole and a logger’s “Stetson” hat to the Minnesota Historical Museum. Roy was a huge admirer of Paul Bunyan. Below is one of Doc’s articles about a log drive.

Roy Henning may be best remembered as a free-lance writer. For most of his life he wrote newspaper articles for a variety of publications across the country. If he was not writing for local newspapers, he would still send his columns back home from where ever he was.

His first columns appeared as the “Cushing News” in 1909 in the Polk County Ledger. Doc was only 20 years old. “Doc Squirt Writes From the West, From The Pen Of Doc Squirt, By Heck’, ‘Prof Heck and Brimstone Bill” were other names of his columns. He briefly wrote for dailies in Milwaukee and St. Paul. While in St. Paul he had a run in with the police and for his punishment it is told that he taught the Minneapolis police how to ride a motorcycle on sand roads.

Here Doc offers his view on drinking in the March 1910 column:

“Three cheers to Taylors Falls for voting out saloons. Now is the time for St. Croix drys to agitate the question and they undoubtedly will. The argument the wets advance in St. Croix is that their saloons are run orderly. While that may be true, the fact remains that the people who really pay those licenses and keep those saloon keepers in luxury are, in some cases, doing so at the expense of their families. There is water in abundance for the brethren of the burning thirst; they will like it when they get used to it.”

Roy was involved in a lot of newspaper publications, “Henning had a hand in starting up a newspaper in Milltown in the early years of this century (1900).” “Thru Polk County on a Motorcycle” is the title of a small pamphlet from The Milltown Herald on June 10, 1915. Henning writes, “Four miles south of Alabama one meanders into the wide awake burg of Cushing, the home of Venerable Dubs, Handy Pet, Broncho Lewis, Hardware Sue, Hawkshaw the detective, and yours truly, Doc Squirt. With considerable pride I call your attention, dear readers, to the fact that Cushing is some town with the accent on the some. Anyone coming into Cushing and making a big noise will always find some one on the job there that can make just as much racket as they can.”

Dr. Squirt with his trademark, broad-brimmed hat, seated in the car at Nels Smiley’s farm. (EE Husband Collection -PCHS Archives)

Henning enlisted in WWI in 1918, he was assigned to be a motorcycle dispatch rider. However, the war quickly ended after his enlistment and he never went overseas. Roy spent the rest of his army career in Norfolk, VA as a military policeman, guarding the base supply depot. Years later he wrote this:

“A lot of people seem to think that there is another war brewing somewhere in the present time. They claim that all signs point that way but when one thinks back on the horrors of the last war one cannot but hope that the youth of today will be spared the making of the big sacrifice. War is a terrible thing and no amount of oratory that is spouted a good safe distance from the battle lines can make anything else out of it.”

— Doc Squirt

Doc Squirt is known to be the original promoter of the annual Polk County Picnic. This picnic started out as a gathering of friends and family of George Hanson into a countywide event. The picnic was usually held at a park in St. Croix Falls. The picnic was one of Doc’s favorites and “he would write it up long in advance, and afterwards, give accounts of those who attended and in time, these numbered in the hundreds.

In 1935 Doc moved out West, but continued to correspond with friends in Polk County. Letters and reminders are on display at the Dr. Squirt County Historical Society, now the Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society in the Cushing Community Center in Cushing.

“Head-line Ed” Husband of Balsam Lake, was a good friend of Hennings. Here he holds the “Squirt Piano”, which is what Roy called his trusty old typewriter.

Also on display is Doc’s “piano”, his typewriter, at the Polk County Historical Society in Balsam Lake.  After Roy’s death, “no one else could make it work,” the typewriter was “literally tied together with string and rubber bands.” In 1941, Doc wrote, “Quite a lot of the readers have had a good laugh at our little old “Squirt Piano” as our portable Corona is called all over the Midwest and South. It’s the greatest and possibly the most tied together little writing device in the world…”

Roy Henning “Doc Squirt” passed away on Sept. 20, 1942, following an operation to remove a brain tumor in Portland, Oregon. A memorial was held at the Cushing Lutheran Church and his final resting place is at the Tamarack Cemetery. His obituary reads, “The death of Roy Henning is regretted by hundreds of friends who knew him better by his nickname “Doc Squirt”. Possessed with an unusually keen memory of people he became acquainted with, he numbered as a friend of hundreds in nearly every state in this union.”

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Resources

Braatz, Rosemarie, Hanson, Russ, Henning, Norman, Swanson, Lester. Doc Squirt, The Life and Times of Roy Jack Hennings, Cushing Wisconsin’s Most Famous Son. Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society, 2006

Hennings, Roy. Dr. ‘Squirt’ Moments. Roy Hennings, 1942

Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society. (2000). General format. Retrieved from https://sites.rootsweb.com/~wiselhs/index.html?fbclid=IwAR0VJsH-e0lTqIGjimVirUShreCq-FIJJ_B1r62PUO_hD5PpI0Zkz9tOo8Q

The Polk County Normal School

Wisconsin Historical Society, Alfred Isaacson, Pub., Polk County Training School For Teachers, Image ID 39462.

May 4 - 8, 2020 is Teacher Appreciation Week. Today we honor and respect our teachers more than ever! During this school year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when teachers have to remotely educate their students online and school closings have resulted in cancelled graduations ceremonies, we thought to bring you a story of the Polk County Normal School and its 1919 graduation ceremony. So cheers to our teachers, who for generations have shaped America’s future one child at a time!

““The exclusive purposes and objects of each normal school shall be the instruction and training of persons, both male and female, in the theory and art of teaching, and in all the various branches that pertain to a good common school education, and in all subjects needful to qualify for teaching in the public schools; also to give instruction in the fundamental laws of the United States and of this state in what regards the rights and duties of citizens.” ”

— Laws of Wisconsin Relating to Common Schools, Free High Schools & Normal Schools, Published under the direction of L.D. Harvey, State Superintendent. (Madison,WI - 1901)

The Polk County Training School was authorized by the Polk County Board of Supervisors in the fall of 1904 because there was a need for better qualified teachers.  “The aim of the school is to increase the quality of teaching in Polk county rather than the quantity of the teachers”.   At this time, the average student entering teacher’s training was 16 years of age. 

In August 1905, construction began on the Polk County Normal School in St. Croix Falls on a bluff above the village, on Madison Street.  The town contributed $5,000 towards building costs and the two acres of land were donated by the Comer brothers, John and Andrew, St. Croix Falls blacksmiths.  There were six students at the first graduation in 1906 and that number increased over the years to an average of about 28 graduates by 1934.   

The enrollment qualifications for potential students in the early years were for persons having a teacher’s certificate from another county, who were graduates of a state graded school or completed one year of high school, or had common school diplomas and were judged by the principal to be capable of a teacher’s education. The course of study was the Common School Manual and it was a one-year course until about 1939, when instruction increased to a two-year course of study.  The teacher’s college certificate qualified the student to teach and also counted toward a bachelor’s degree. 

School Bell from Polk County Normal (Old Manual Arts School), Polk County Museum

On June 21, 1919, sixteen students graduated to become teachers.  E. E. Husband was the President of the Normal School Board and gave the commencement speech.  Here are a few excerpts from his address:

“. . . The future is yours.  The way is open, if not, it is yours to open.  Great possibilities lie before you.  It is, to use a popular expression, up to you.  A world in full need of service is yours.

Tonight, you are thrown out upon your own resources, out upon a great sea of responsibility.  Polk County is proud of you and congratulates you upon your attainments thus far reached, but you stand in the same relationship to Polk County that the young birdslings in the nest stand to their parent bird.  You have developed to that stage where it is now time for your foster mother to crowd you out of the nest.  You are now being thrown out into an atmosphere where you must rely upon yourself backed up by the opportunities offered you by the Polk County Normal and from the diligence and patience of a painstaking and interested faculty.

 . . . Polk County has now done its best for you.  You are now going out into the world to render service.  And in that service, you must depend upon your own resources.  You are to be congratulated upon the kind of service you have chosen to render.  The teaching profession bears grave responsibilities.  The rulers of future generations will come under your instruction, under your training, and the destinies of the future generations will in part depend upon the kind of service you render, upon the channels into which you train the minds that come under your supervision, upon the kinds of character you help to form in others.

. . . It is said that a lobster when washed upon the rocks has not energy enough nor instinct to even wiggle its way back to the sea, but waits for the tide to turn and wash it back.  It frequently dies in this position when the least effort on its part would enable it to reach the waves that probably lie within a few inches of it.  In the affairs of men, remember there are no back-tides.

So while I compliment you upon your attainment and extend to you the best wishes of the people of Polk County for your success, yet I conjure you not to be lobsters, be self-reliant, be character builders, be doers, and these diplomas which we present to you tonight as evidence of your accomplishments in this institution will then have some significance.

In closing, I wish you all that your efforts deserve and remind you of Emerson’s words:

“So nigh is grandeur to our dust,

So near is God to man,

When Duty whispers low, 'Thou must,'

The youth whispers, 'I can.”    

Polk County Normal School – Class of 1919: Elsie Burch, Hazel Burch, Mabel Carlson, Signa Carlson, Mathilda Feske, Esther Gronlund, Clara Hanson, Gertrude Hanson, Gertrude Peterson, Nettie Lumsden, Myrtle Nelson, Clara Peterson, Anna Rogers, Celia Smith, Pearl Swanson, Mildred Will

In 1935, the original County Normal School was destroyed by fire reportedly started from a burn pile of leaves on the lawn on Arbor Day.  The school was then moved to the Manual Arts Building (1885) on the corner of Adams and State Streets.  That building was used until 1960, when the county board moved the school to Frederic.  The Polk County Teacher’s College was relocated to the upper floor of the Frederic grade school building and hoped to make college more accessible to students from both Polk and Burnett Counties.  The last class of the Polk County Normal School graduated in 1971. 

Resources:

Braatz, Rosemarie Vezina. St. Croix Tales and Trails. Rosemarie Vezina Braatz, 2005.

Larsen, Gloria. I Heard the School Bells Ringing. Inter-County Cooperative Publishing, 1999.

E.E. Husband. “To the Graduating Class of the Polk County Normal School”. Polk County Historical Society, 1919.

Dr. Mary Sorensen: Polk County’s Pioneer Doctor

Dr. Mary (Marie) Sorensen was a pioneer in medicine and one of the first doctors in Polk County, Wisconsin.  Perhaps her courage and drive came from her direct descendant, Vitus Bering, a navigator and explorer of the sea and strait near Alaska that bears his name.  Mary was born in Denmark on September 17th, 1839, the daughter of Morten Hansen Bering and Elizabeth Eleonore Carlsdotter. 

Mary moved to the United States at the age of 22.  She settled in Chicago, where she married Jens Peter Sorensen in the spring of 1863.  J. P. Sorensen was a carpenter and cabinet maker.  Mary and Jens had four children together, two boys and two girls.  Mary always dreamed of becoming a doctor, so after four children she decided to pursue her medical degree at Hahnemann College in Chicago.

In nineteenth-century Chicago, a medical degree was not always needed to practice medicine.  Many doctors learned medicine by apprenticeships or by reading medical texts. Other students obtained formal medical training by the newly developed medical schools at this time.  The Hahnemann Medical College in Chicago was one of these schools and opened in 1860.  Except for its focus on homeopathic therapeutics, the instruction was similar to other “regular” medical schools. 

American homeopathy had an early acceptance of women in medical training which was not accepted by many “regular” medical schools during this time. By 1900, it is estimated that 12% of homeopathic physicians were women.  In contrast, female physicians only numbered between 4 and 5% of the entire medical profession by the end of the 1900’s. The Hahnemann Medical College in Chicago began accepting women to its program in 1871 and was an early institution to become co-educational.  It was many years before all medical schools accepted women students. In 1904 there were 160 medical schools in the United States, of which 97 (61%) admitted women. In 1920 there were 85 medical schools, of which 64 (75%) were coeducational.  It wasn’t until 1960, when all medical schools became coeducational. 

Mary Sorensen completed her courses at Hahnemann Medical College, through sacrifice and hard work, and graduated with the degree of M.D.  She first practiced in Chicago, later in Racine, Wisconsin, and then in Tacoma, Washington.  During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when there were very few woman physicians, many big city hospitals were reluctant to hire female doctors.  For this reason, many of Wisconsin’s early woman doctors took their practice to small, rural towns.  It was in these rural communities where the talents of woman doctors where appreciated and welcomed.

The Sorensen’s settled in Polk County, Wisconsin around 1877.  Dr. Sorensen set-up her practice where the local newspaper reported she had opened a homeopathic and electrical office.  She opened offices in St. Croix, Taylors Falls, and Osceola.  In 1879 the family moved to Milltown, but her services continued to extend over a large part of Polk County.  She held the position of county physician for several years.  It was not long before she proved her ability and fitness for the hardships of this profession.

“They saw patients in their kitchens and made house calls on snowshoes.  Wisconsin’s first female doctors battled discrimination to make their mark in medicine, serving with particular distinction in rural areas. – Earl R. Thayer, Wisconsin Academy Review (2005)”

Dr. Sorensen truly lived the life of a pioneer doctor.  She wore bobbed (short) hair, which was uncommon at this time in history for women.  Dr. Mary had broken her arm and found it impossible to “put up” her hair. She also discovered that it was a time-saver when she was called to a sick bed in a hurry, so she kept it this way.  There were no telephones at this time, so when Dr. Mary was needed, someone would come to her farm home by horseback, buggy or lumber wagon to get her or the medicine she would prescribe.  This is also why Mr. Sorensen always kept two teams of horses ready, so there would be a fresh team when needed.

One time she was summoned to a logging camp outside the county, many miles away, to help a patient with a broken leg.  On these long trips, Mary’s husband went with her.  It was winter, so a horse and sleigh were used to make the trip through the snow.  When night came, they had still not reached the logging camp and found themselves in an Indian village.  The Indians blanketed and fed the horses.  They provided a wigwam for Dr. Sorensen and her husband to sleep in and keep warm through the night.  The trip was completed the next day, the fractured leg was set, and Mary and her husband began their long trip home.

Dr. Mary Sorensen was called into many homes where there were contagious diseases, but never contracted any, despite often working day and night during an epidemic.  Her payment was anything from vegetables to furs.  If she thought her patient couldn’t afford to pay, she would accept nothing.  She was remembered by older settlers of the area as “one of the finest persons ever to have lived there.” 

Both of the Sorensen’s sons followed in their mother’s footsteps and went on to medical school.  The oldest son, Martin, also went to Hahnemann Medical College, but died in his senior year.  Seward, the next son, graduated from Chicago Medical College and practiced at Prentice until he was stricken with tuberculosis and died in 1954.  The Sorensen’s also had two daughters.  Sarina, died as an infant. Elnora graduated from the Chicago Conservatory of Music and Valparaiso University in Indiana.  She taught in the public schools of Polk County and gave piano lessons for many years.  She married Nels Nielsen and lived in Milltown. 

Dr. Mary Sorensen was a true pioneer physician and practiced until she was 65.  She remained active in the Polk County community and spent her declining years on the farm she had inherited from her father, Morten Bering.  Dr. Mary died on July, 28, 1926 at the age of 87 and is buried in the Milltown cemetery.  Many artifacts and medical instruments used by Dr. Mary Sorensen are displayed in the Polk County Museum and donated by Mrs. Carl Sorensen, the granddaughter of Dr. Mary.

Learn More:

• Doctor or Doctress: Explore American history through the eyes of woman physicians (Drexel Legacy Center)

  • Doctor or Doctress presents primary source sets ("stories") composed of the sources left behind by women physicians from history. Complete with both student and teacher supports, each story may provide a valuable and engaging angle from which to study significant moments and themes in the historical timeline.

• First in their Class: Wisconsin’s Pioneering Women Physicians (Wisconsin Academy Review)

  • A discussion of early women physicians in Wisconsin and the trials and triumphs of breaking through the medical barriers. This article also includes a brief discussion of Dr. Mary Sorensen (spelled ‘Sorenson’ in this article).

Welcome to our Polk County History Blog page!

Today history is being made and we are all a part of it! During this pandemic of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), schools are closed across the country, including the state of Wisconsin and our local Polk County school districts. We are starting this blog to provide another place for online learning to occur for students and their families. Each blog will share a story about Polk County history with an artifact, document, or photo from our museum. We will also provide additional resources to continue your learning. We hope you enjoy the journey into Polk County’s past!

Picnic last day of school (June 1, 1900) - Cedar Lake School - District No. 6 - Alden Township, Polk County, WI - Miss Helen Nelson, Teacher

Rural Schools - Settlers arrived in Polk County in the late 1800’s and began building little rural (country) schools. Most were little one-room schools with students ranging in age from 7 to 14 years of age. Schools could have between 30 - 50 students. There was only one teacher in the school who taught all these students. Often the rural school was like a large family. The older students helped the younger ones and they all worked together.

The teacher had a busy job. She was the teacher, principal, janitor and community expert on education. She carried wood and made fires in the school to keep it warm. The teacher washed the blackboards, swept the floor, made lesson plans, made out report cards and planned school programs. The school had very little equipment to use for teaching. Teachers used blackboards, a few maps, a globe and very few textbooks. Most early schools did not have bathrooms! Outdoor toilets were in separate small buildings. The first bathroom (privy) at Ceder Lake School was 5 x 10 x 7 foot and cost $24.80 to build.

How did the students get to school? There was no buses or cars in the early days. Students walked to school in any kind of weather. The walk to school was a long one, over roads thick with dust or mud and deep with snow in the winter. Sometimes there was no roads at all and students followed simple trails to school. Many students had to walk several miles to reach school each day. There was no lunch served at school. Each student had to bring their own lunches, usually in a bucket or pail. During the winter, the lunches were often frozen by the time the students arrived at school.

Cedar Lake School (Students pictured above) - The Ceder Lake School began in 1877. The first school was built for a total of $729.63. On September 1, 1890, it was decided that all children in the district between the ages of 7 and 14 attend school at least 80 days (50 days in the winter and 30 days in the summer). Miss Helen Nelson was the Cedar Lake teacher from 1898-1900. Most teachers in rural schools were women. In 1921, the average teacher was a country girl of about 19 years of age with three years training beyond eighth grade. There were only seven men that taught at Cedar Lake School in its 106 years and none taught after 1903. School bus transportation was first started in 1915. It was only for students who were over two to two and a half miles from the school. Also in 1915, the porch on the schoolhouse was enclosed and indoor bathrooms were installed. In 1960, Cedar Lake became part of the Osceola School district and seventh and eighth graders began attending school in Osceola. In 1967, the third through sixth graders went to Osceola. The Cedar Lake School continued with grades one and two until the 1982-1983 school year when the Cedar Lake School closed and all students began attending schools in Osceola.

Learn More:

• Lesson Plans for the One-Room School (National Park Service)

• One-Room Schools of the Past (YouTube) This video is about country schools. It is geared to a 4th grade audience.