The historical photo this month features one of the Museums of Story City. The Bartlett House Museum is a Queen Anne style home built in 1903 for Henry Torkel Henryson and his family. H. T. was the son of Torkel Henryson who brought early settlers from Norway to this area in 1855. H.T. was born in Story City in 1865. He worked in various trades - farming, shoe store clerk, and had an interest in the S.R. Corneliusen store. H.T. became president of the First National Bank in 1908, continuing there until his family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1913. This home was purchased in 1996 by the Story City Historical Society with a generous gift from Dr. Frances Bartlett Kinne. It has been restored and furnished from the 1903-1920 era. The museum is dedicated to Dr. Kinne's parents, Charles M. and Bertha Bartlett and her brother Charles. The home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. All of the Museums of Story City are open extended hours during the summer, Sundays from 1-3 pm.
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Its that time of year, graduation in Story City is almost here. This photo is one of the oldest Story City High School graduation photos we have in our collection. This is Bertha (Olson) Bartlett's high school graduation photo. Bertha often told her daughter, Frances Bartlett Kinne, that the class was upset when a man joined the class in the 12th grade. Back row: Inger Grotness, Carrie Larson, Bertha (Olson) Bartlett, Alonzo Donhowe, Edith Ericson, Martha Gravdahl. Front row: Ellen Jorgenson, ___, Hagen (teacher), Neah Paulsen.
From the June 2, 1905 Herald: Commencement exercises of the high school were held in the opera house last evening and a class of seven girls and one boy finished the course. They have been hard and enthusiastic workers the past school year and are deserving of much credit. The orations were well delivered with fine elocutionary effect, and in a manner that displayed excellent training. The efforts of the class were highly appreciated by the large audience present and each oration was loudly applauded. In honor of spring and the baseball season beginning, the Historical Society's photo of the month for April is of Hank Severeid. Hank was born in Story City in 1891 and grew up playing on the local teams. He went on to play on a few minor league teams in the Midwest and in 1911 he made his major league debut with the Cincinnati Reds. Hank played for three other major league teams after the Reds including the St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators, and the New York Yankees. During his time with the Yankees, Hank played with big names like Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. Hank's last season in the majors was in 1926. This photo is of Hank and his wife Adele visiting Story City after he finished his last season. The sign on the back of the car reads "Welcome Home Hank" and the two boys in the back seat of the car are Harris and Charles Hill. Join us at the Carriage House Museum on April 28th at 5:30 pm for a ballpark themed dinner and a presentation by Don Doxsie on his recently published book Iowa Baseball Greats, which includes Hank Severeid. In the early 1900s Julia and Anna Mathre opened a millinery shop which was located on Broad St about where the Post Office is today. In this photo the sisters are posing with some of their millinery products. Their hats were made out of felt or straw – materials that were malleable and could be molded. The material chosen would be shaped over carved wooden hat blocks – different blocks for different head sizes. Once dry, they would hand stitch the brim and hatband on and add adornments of ribbons, flowers, feathers and bows. The Mathre sisters were probably quite busy this time of year with spring just around the corner and Easter fast approaching. The main project for the Story City Historical Society in 2015 was the exterior rehabilitation of the Bartlett House Museum, our Queen Anne style historic home. There were several areas on the exterior where the woodwork had begun to rot and the whole exterior needed to be repainted. The rehab for the Bartlett House began in June with a hand sanding and scraping volunteer day. The Historical Society worked with local contractor Ron Cook for the woodwork repair and painting. Ron did a wonderful job with all of the detail work needed to complete this project. The Historical Society received multiple grants for the exterior rehab on the Bartlett House Museum. Our two local Questers chapters, the Hook & Eye Questers and the Praeri Rail Trail Questers, applied for a grant through the Iowa State Questers organization on behalf of the Historical Society. We received a $7,000 grant courtesy of the Iowa State Questers organization. We also received an additional $1,400 from the local chapters over the last two years for the Bartlett rehab project. The Historical Society was also one of the recipients of the Paint Iowa Beautiful grant for 2015. We received 10 free gallons of paint through the Diamond Vogel company. We would like to thank the Hook & Eye Questers, the Praeri Rail Trail Questers, and Diamond Vogel for their contributions to this project. We would also like to thank all of the volunteers who came to help out on June 14th with our hand sanding and scraping event. It’s wonderful when local people, companies, and organizations support the Historical Society as we continue to preserve Story City’s heritage. As the weather has turned cooler with fall here and with school in session, it seems like an appropriate time to look back at the early schools in the Story City area. P.A. Olson, the editor of the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Book, included an article written in 1890 about the public schools and the country schools, plus articles by W.A. Wier and J.H. Frandsen also mention memories from early school days. To begin talking about schools in the area, we have to go all the way back to 1856, which was the first year school was taught. The first teacher was Ann Sutlief and the log house of Richard Jenness was used as the school. In 1857 a schoolhouse was built on the public square in Fairview. According to W.A. Wier, the building was 20 by 24 feet, and was for some years the finest schoolhouse in the north half of Story County. The schoolhouse was also used as a place for religious services and other public gatherings. The article written in 1890 gives details about the third school building in Story City. It was completed in 1881 at the cost of about $3,500. The building was a frame structure consisting of two stories with four rooms. It was located at approximately 627 Elm Ave. The school employed three teachers and a principal and according to the 1890 article, “in 1889 the enrollment was 62 in the principal’s room, 32 intermediate, and 70 primary.” The 1890 article also gave statistics on the country schools in Story County based on a report from 1889. The report showed an average attendance of 3,109 of a total enrollment of 5,027. These school children were attending in 27 independent and 116 sub-districts, with 35 rooms of graded and 133 ungraded schools. The schools employed 79 men and 233 women teachers, at average monthly salaries of $43.80 and $29.01 respectively. The total amount paid to teachers in 1889 was $41,713. In his article, J.H. Frandsen shared a memory from one of these country school districts, the Copenhagen district school. O.B. Peterson was Frandsen’s first teacher at the school in the early 1880’s. During this time the “country youngsters were raised mostly on homegrown foods and carried our more or less dry sandwich lunches to school. O.B., on the other hand, often brought a whole tin can of pears or peaches in his lunch. I can still see the appealing, beautifully colored labels on those tin cans. Then one day, to my astonishment and delight, he pulled out with his jack-knife a whole pear and marched down to my seat with it and and asked me to try it. Oh boy, was that good! It was my first taste of a canned pear and never have I had one that tasted better.” Fifty-five years later Frandsen wrote a letter to Mr. Peterson telling him of the goodness of that pear and that his act of generosity and kindness lives on in his memory. We hope you have enjoyed this brief look at early schools in the Story City area. The Historical Society is fortunate to have a wonderful example of an early one room country school in our Sheldall Schoolhouse Museum, which was once located just a few miles north of Story City in southern Hamilton county. Several of the teachers mentioned in these articles in the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Book also taught at the Sheldall Schoolhouse, including O.B. Peterson and W.A. Wier. If you would like to tour the Sheldall Schoolhouse, please contact the Historical Society. In honor of the 137th Iowa Firefighters Convention being held in Story City this month, I wanted to share an article from the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Book about one of the earliest fire related incidents on record in our part of Story County. P.A. Olson included an article from June 2, 1938 in the Anniversary Book on the Schweringen Family monument being dedicated and the tragic story of the family perishing in a prairie fire. In October of 1860 the Schweringen family was traveling by covered wagon from Ohio to take a claim of land near Fort Dodge. When they had come as far as Nevada, they were foot-sore and tired and decided to rest a couple of days. While in Nevada they bought a few household necessities such as cotton batting, cloth, and groceries including lard. When the Schweringen family started out from Nevada, they were happy and thankful they were within a day or so of their future home. The wind was from the southeast and as they were traveling northwest, they considered this in their favor. After traveling a few hours they noticed a hazy condition behind them, but they didn’t pay particular attention to it. Mr. Schweringen did not know of or had never had any experience with prairie fires. When the family came to the southwest corner of section 10 in Milford township the prairie fire overtook them. The wife and three little girls were enveloped in the fire, the flammable cotton and lard burned fiercely. “Mr. Schweringen fought valiantly, but lost against the demon of the prairies.” He crawled to the Hoover home, over a mile away. As soon as the fire had burned out, the few neighbors gathered up the charred remains of the wife and two children and buried them in the Sheffield Cemetery. Within two days Mr. Schweringen died and was buried with his family. The skull of the third child was found the next spring and buried where it was found. The exact spot is not known. In 1938 L.J. Tjernagel headed a project to get a marker placed in the cemetery for the Schweringen family. On May 29, 1938 several hundred people attended the dedication of the monument at the Sheffield Cemetery. A rock was taken from the Henry Jacobs place to serve as a tombstone and a suitable bronze marker was placed upon it. The bronze marker tells a brief description of the tragic deaths of the Schweringen family and lists the names of those who contributed to the monument. This monument can still be seen at the Sheffield Cemetery just southeast of Story City. The Historical Society has recently installed an exhibit on the Story City Fire Department, including a timeline that goes back to 1860 and the Schweringen family. The exhibit is located at the Carriage House Museum which will be open from 12-2:30 pm on Friday and Saturday September 11 & 12 during the Fire Convention. If you would like to see vintage firefighting equipment, uniforms, and learn more about the history of the Story City Fire Dept. please stop by the museum. P.A. Olson, the editor of the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Book, asked several people to write articles about their memories of Story City in the old days. In these articles, the contributors wrote about Story City between 1870-1900. One of my favorite articles was written by Fred Barkhurst and tells of his first impression of Story City. Barkhurst first arrived in Story City on May 23, 1892, on the Des Moines-Sioux City passenger train on the Chicago & Northwestern railway. He was traveling with his brother-in-law W.A. Kelley and their purpose for visiting Story City was to inquire about purchasing the newspaper. Barkhurst’s hometown was Altoona, whose population at the time was 326. Des Moines, the only other town with which he was familiar, had a population of 35,000. By comparison, Story City’s population in 1890 was 536 and by the 1900 census had more than doubled to 1,197. During their journey north, the train had stopped in Polk City and Ames, neither of which Barkhurst was enthusiastic about. Being only familiar with Altoona and Des Moines, when Barkhurst arrived in Story City, he was excited to see what this town had to offer. He was surprised to learn that Story City had a drayline and two hotels. “A drayline and two hotels – Story City must be some town! You see, Altoona hadn’t any drayline–the hotel boy lugged the luggage to and fro–and only one stopping place for man and beast. I realized that I had come to a metropolis.” Barkhurst and Kelley had lunch at the Allen House, one of the two hotels. Later that day Kelley bought the Herald newspaper and according to Barkhurst, “I am sure my brother-in-law never regretted having been the fortunate purchaser of the property. It was the means of our becoming residents of what truly was, has been, and always remains a good town.” Barkhurst goes on in his article to describe the various businesses in Story City at the time. “There were two banks, with T.T. Henryson heading one a John Swan the president of the other. E.L. Ericson operated a lumberyard. Boyd and Henderson had the hardware store–a big one, too. S.R. Corneliussen & Company owned the large general merchandise store, Halleland & Hill had a stock of dry goods, Henryson & Jensen owned an exclusive shoe store, and the Donhowe Bros. handled clothing. A.N. Torp was the photographer, and because housing was hard to get, we found temporary residence in an apartment in the second story of his studio –our newspaper office being next door. T.J. Moses had a meat market. D.A. Darrow had a general store too, and W.D. Gandrup was the druggist –assisted in his pharmacy by his three sons, William, Amiel, and Arthur. Dr. C.W. Allen was a physician, and there was a Dr. Haetlesaetter too. E.W. Harrington was Northwestern agent, and John Egenes directed affairs at the Iowa Central depot. J.A. Wellington was principal of the schools, his wife being also on the teaching staff. If I am not mistaken, there were three other teachers. I look now at the list of names making up the faculty of the Story City public school system and wonder if I am dreaming! No, I was right in the old days –Story City is a good town!” This week we are featuring a photograph of the 1907 Story City Baseball Club for our collection item of the week. The team photo was created by Hanson Studio, a local photography studio in Story City at the time. This is the first Story City baseball club that Hank Severeid played on. Hank references all of these players in his article that was included in the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Book. On May 15, 1911 Hank made his major league debut with the Cincinnati Reds. During his major league career, Hank also played for the St. Louis Browns, the Washington Senators, and the New York Yankees. As I mentioned in my last article, P.A. Olson, the editor of the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Book included quite a few articles about baseball. The section on baseball wouldn’t be complete without an article about Story City’s most famous baseball player Hank Severeid. And who better to write the article than Hank himself. Olson included an article that had been written by Hank a few years before 1940. Even though Olson titled Hank’s article “Hank Severeid Tells of Rise from Amateur Ranks to Big Leagues” in the Anniversary Book, I believe the theme of the article is more about Hank’s love for the game and the town in which he grew up. Hank begins the article by talking about his first recollection of baseball when the ball grounds were in Marvick’s pasture just west of the Northwestern depot. He recalls a game between Story City and Roland in which the umpire turned to watch a player attempting to steal a base and the ump got hit in the back of the head with the ball. From an early age Hank learned the lesson “always keep your eye on the ball”. Hank was about eight years old and the water boy at the time. By the time that Hank was getting big enough to play “funny man” for the team, the games were played down in the park. According to Hank, the “funny man” was a player who was not good enough to play any position so they let him play anywhere when they were in need of players. Hank needed a uniform, so he bribed his good friend Bert Hill to give him the red uniform he had. Hank had worn many uniforms over the years but he always considered that red one the “honey” of them all. The first Story City team Hank play on included the following players, Bert Hill, Oscar, Chris and Charley Severeid, Hank Jacobson, Carl and Tom Clayberg, Severin Hill, Ira Brattebo, Sig Fraland, with George Kramme as manager and Charley Bartlett as scorer. As he continued on with the team, Hank played on third base and in the outfield regularly. One day when they played Roland, the catcher didn’t show up so Hank tried catching and stuck with that. “You know they say all a catcher needs is a strong back and a weak mind, and sometimes one feels they are right; but seriously, if I had to choose, I would still choose catching, because it’s the most interesting of all positions.” After a couple of years with the Story City team, Hank was hired by the Nevada team. This was the first ball club on which he played every day. After Nevada Hank played with Charles City for a few weeks then went to Burlington of the Central Association in the latter half of 1909. According to Hank, the first professional game he ever saw he played in, which was Burlington against Quincy. Hank went on to play for Ottumwa in 1910 and the following year on May 15, 1911 he made his major league debut with the Cincinnati Reds. During his major league career, Hank also played for the St. Louis Browns, the Washington Senators, and the New York Yankees. To close, I’ll share this section of Hank’s article that shows his love for the game and his hometown. “Many things have happened since we took part in those games at the park, and while it may be a long jump from playing with the Claybergs, Hills, Knudsons, Petersons, Jacobsons, Boyds, Nordskogs and others to playing with Ruth, Johnson, Sisler, Williams, Peckinpaugh, and other major league players, but for sheer joy and pleasure it would be hard to beat the kid day games, and a victory in a World Series game was no sweeter than a 1 to 0 victory over Maxwell.” |
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February 2023
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