Group photograph of the Alpha Delta Society at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota. Julia Rognlie is picture in the third row from the bottom, second from the right.
Studio protrait of the Thief River Falls City Council. Standing: G. Halverson, M.V. Evenson. Sitting: T.P. Hamre, Ed Evenson, Olaf Ramstad, W.W. Prichard, Milton Forder, Lars Backe'
Expansion of Monastery (1880-1909). Mother Cecilia (Mary) Kapsner born in Prussia in 1859, came to America at age 15 with her family who settled in Pierz. Two years later, Mary entered St. Benedict's Convent and professed vows in 1878. In 1901 she was elected to serve as prioress, a position she held for three consecutive terms. Mother Cecilia was the first prioress whose background was similar to the majority of the members of St. Benedict's Convent as well as the people in the St. Joseph area. With keen perception and ready judgment she led the community through considerable building expansion. Especially noteworthy is the construction of the Sacred Heart Chapel and the Teresa Hall addition to the college, both having been in the planning stages as early as 1909 (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Orgins of St. Benedict's Monastery (convent), St. Joseph, Minnesota. Mother Willibalda Scherbauer, OSB, led four sisters and two candidates, ranging in age from 18 to 26, from St. Marys, Pennslyvania, to the Midwest frontier (St. Cloud, Minnesota) in 1857. Mother Willibalda (Franciska) was born in Kastel, Bavaria in 1831. At an early age, her family took her to St. Walburg Convent in Eichstätt to be educated. There she professed her vows in 1851; four years later, she volunteered to join the sisters in America. Then in 1857, she volunteered to venture to the Northwest Territory and was appointed prioress of the St. Cloud community by Boniface Wimmer, OSB. Mother Willibalda was an accomplished musician of whom Jane Swisshelm, editor of a local newspaper, wrote, "The Lady Abbess is small, slight, delicate, graceful, and as accomplished a lady as you could meet in any circle...waking the first echoes of those broad prairies in a call (daily ringing of the church bell) to bow regularly at an altar of Christian worship..." (McDonald, page41). Mother Willibalda's able administration as leader gave the Benedictine sisters a firm monastic foundation, not only in St. Cloud, but also in St. Joseph, the nucleus of St. Benedict's Monastery. She is lovingly remembered for accepting Mother Benedicta Riepp into the St. Cloud community when she was misunderstood by authorities and some community members for upholding the rights of the sisters in America (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, pages 12, 15-16, 19).
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Schmidt and their son, Henry Schmidt at age 12 years. Picture was taken in Germany before they moved here. Henry Schmidt became a doctor in the Westbrook area of Cottonwood County, Minnesota
Miss Wilma Johnson, a superintendent of nurses from Chicago, was engaged by the Sisters of St. Benedict to serve as the first director of the St. Raphael's School of Nursing in St. Cloud from 1908 to 1910 (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives, McDonald, page 258).
Black and white photograph of Myrtle Huntley dressed in a long dress with elbow length sleeves. Dress has a train in the back and a drop neckline with a snowflake or star pin at bottom. Pearl capulet on head with hair in curls with a lilac at temple. Signed by Myrtle E. Huntley "Acknowledging your admirable sense of "the fitness of things" about a theater.
Formal studio portrait of Napoleon B. Merritt, his second wife Mathilda Tilly Cronston Merritt, with Napoleon's adult children, spouses, and grandchildren.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Schools in south-central Minnesota (1876-1909). In 1877, the sisters of St. Gertrude's Convent in Shakopee* were asked to care for orphan children in temporary quarters on Ninth and Robert Streets in St. Paul. Sisters Benedicta Klein and Agatha Nachbar assumed the responsibility for six orphans. For this they received a salary of $10.00 a month. When this photograph was taken in 1880, Sister Placida Heine had replaced Sister Agatha Nachbar. Because the number of orphans grew to 17 by 1879, a new building was constructed near the Assumption parochial school so that the orphans could be educated there. After St. Gertrude's Convent was amalgamated with St. Benedict's in 1880, the orphanage came under the jurisdiction of St. Benedict's Convent, St. Joseph, MN. For information about St. Gertrude's Convent, see SBM.03e or sbm00016 (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Formal portrait of Parelius Rognlie with his wife Marie's family. Pictured left top: Hans, Olaf, Mina, Julia, and Grandpa Gullerud. Bottom row from the left: Melvin, Clara, Parelius, Marie, and Grandma Karen.
Group portrait of the Pope County Commissioners of 1910. Dana Hoyt, Westport; Ed Homstad, Ben Wade; Halvor Halvorson, Hoff; C.C. Gorder, White Bear Lake; Ole Irgens, County Auditor; Ole E. Nelson, Rolling Forks.
Group portrait of the Pope County Commissioners of 1915. Back row: Alford R. Anderson, Nora; Charlie Kittelson, Lake Johanna; Iver I. Hippe, New Prairie. Front row: John P. Rooney, Grove Lake; Ole Irgens, Auditor and Simon Swenson, Blue Mounds.