Water Cooler VII: School Memories - Bullying

Humboldt-St. Vincent School, like any other school, had its share of bullying and bullies...

Michael Rustad: I remember when Dave Boatz sang the Beatle's song, "He is a real nowhere man." He adapted it to Walter Petruska. "He's a real no-hair man!" Dave was a comedic genius. When we were altar boys together, he did his best to get me to laugh at the most inopportune times. He would have a running commentary on the qualities of the tongues at communion time. When Mrs. Friebohl (Grandma) and Toots Ryan went for communion, he had me in stitches with his descriptions!

Dave was never mean-spirited but did these pranks always in a spirit of fun. Ok, he went a step too far in dropping cherry bombs in the boy's toilet or putting Elmer's Glue in Martha Roberts lotion bottle. Martha would often use moisturizing cream and then wipe with her hanky She did this by habit not realizing that Dave had substituted glue for lotion! The class did not dare laugh, but did after class. He would also pick vegetables and flowers from neighbor's gardens and then with his angelic smile try to sell them back! I can tell you so many stories about Dave. Dave had a moral compass in always sticking up for any person with a handicap,. His brother Stevie was profoundly developmentally undeveloped and I think that his love for his brother was key in being empathetic. Randy Younggren, who as deaf and had difficulty speaking, was a case in point. Dave was so good to Randy and he had Randy drive out to our farm on his motorcycle nearly every evening. He was just happy to see us and it did not matter whether he could not speak many words.

Steve Ritter: No Way! Dave never did any of those things! Lol! Dave is one of the best...He has a heart of Gold!

Michael Rustad: I also think that Velma Isely did a great deal to stand up for those being bullied. There was bullying in Humboldt. When we moved to the farm when I was 7, I had to ride the bus and it was an ordeal. They took my stocking hat, did not leave a seat open, etc. It was relentless until around 6th grade. I could name each of the bullies and some were older girls with no moral compass.

Trish Short Lewis: You are so right, Mike. I was bullied a LOT by both peers and older kids, when I was little and up until junior high. My mom went to bat for me, but she also told me to ignore them, which was very hard but I did it so they had no satisfaction. To cope, I withdrew into myself, humming tunes, saying words or phrases over and over, closed my eyes, plugged my ears, read books, etc.

Michael Rustad: Our school bus was parked outside the Post Office and everyone was picking on Barbara Norberg. Mrs. Isely boarded the bus and essentially told everyone how ashamed she was and gave a long speech about compassion. She eluded authority and people stopped bullying her after she deboarded the bus and were off to Lake Bronson. I remember well how I dreaded the bus because Tony and I were bullied.

Steve Ritter: I think when we're young we all say things a little quickly. I am certainly not innocent. Sometimes it's a misunderstanding between young kids. Sometimes the physical side is how many of us have learned to deal with issues. I know that some of the meanest things I've heard came out of the mouth. I remember recesses when I was young being tormented by older kids. Being dogpiled and being on the bottom of several. It was not as much fun as people would think. I finally stood up and took on one of these people. I knew it would let my parents down if I got into a fight because my father and mother didn't believe in physical violence of any kind. But I'd had enough. I did get in trouble and was grounded for a period of time. but no one bothered me again. No one dogpiled me again. It's too bad people treat others in a negative fashion but sometimes and for whatever reason it happens. Most of the time it happens just straight out of ignorance and sometimes pain. Mrs Isley was a wonderful person!!

Trish Short Lewis: I agree with *most* of what you say, but I also think some people are just plain mean. Many who are mean got it from their role models, i.e., their parents. Either their parents are authoritarian, or abusive, or both. I wasn't perfect - I was a chatty girl who never knew enough to keep her mouth shut sometimes (not always) and that would get me in 'trouble' - it wasn't being mean, it was being inappropriate, interruptive, and/or loud. I definitely feel that is a LOT different than saying unkind and downright mean things to someone, or physically hurting someone, etc. That's a horse of another color entirely. So the bullying I and others suffered was mean and wrong. Period.

StVHS Sports: 1927/28

Vintage St. Vincent High School pennant from 1920s

[Guest article by Michael Rustad, originally from nearby Humboldt, MN]

In the summer of 1999, my daughter Erica and I visited the town of St. Vincent.

There is no longer a bridge connecting the central business districts of Pembina, North Dakota and St. Vincent. The old bridge connecting the towns that I remember as a child has long been dismantled. The places that I remember in St. Vincent have long since closed. Short's Cafe, Sylvester's Store, the Curling Rink, St. Ann's Catholic Church, and the St. Vincent Fairgrounds. The curling rink is now neglected and in state of decay. The Church is a private residence. The St. Vincent School, too, is in a state of benign neglect. The school is in disrepair and the fire escape slide detached.

It was difficult for me to explain to my daughter that St. Vincent was once a bustling community. We attended catechism each summer in the basement of St. Ann's Catholic Church. We had a large number of ball games in the yard outside the church which is now overgrown and marred by abandoned cars. When my sister and I visited the Kittson County Museum in Lake Bronson, I was amazed to find some high school yearbooks [called Borderlines] from St. Vincent High School. St. Vincent High School closed in the late 1930s and never reopened. Instead, it eventually consolidated its school district with Humboldt from 1957 to 1991.

[Note from Trish:  In-between StVHS closing and St. Vincent consolidating with Humboldt, students had the choice of attending Pembina High School, or other schools in Kittson County like Hallock...]

It was an unexpected joy to find yearbooks from the St. Vincent High School from the 1920s. This was a yearbook from a small town in NW Minnesota prior to the Depression. High school life in St. Vincent was marked by lots of school spirit judging from the many activities. St. Vincent fielded a football team, basketball team, hockey team, track team and baseball team in [school year] 1927/28.

"If you could walk or run, you were in the starting line-up."

Lyceum: Syrian Yankee

"...Humboldt always had outside presentations called lyceums. One lyceum featured three black singer singers. Another lyceum displayed a computer. The computer was about the size of a refrigerator (I still call refrigerators ice boxes which shows my age.) Another lyceum was by the author of Syrian Yankee. This autobiography was about a Syrian trader who came to the US to make a fortune. Shortly after the Syrian Yankee presentation, a man came to Humboldt and claimed to be the cousin of the Syrian Yankee and wanted to start a business processing straw in Humboldt. He came to our farm and asked my dad if he was interested in making an initial investment in the project in return for stock. I often wonder whether area farmers were defrauded by the project or whether it was a legitimate effort to industrialize Humboldt. Door-to-door investment schemes do not enjoy a good reputation in this county..."

- Michael Rustad

Last Hurrah for a Rural School

Controlled Burn:  Older section of school

There were no girls in the senior class of 1987, forcing Humboldt-St. Vincent to do without a homecoming queen. Things improved this year, when all three girls in the class vied for the honor.

Classes don't come any smaller than in Humboldt-St. Vincent. It's a school with 65 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, including one fourth-grader. The average grade has five students.

That's too small for state officials, who see nothing romantic about the arrangements and are happy that the school district is finally ready to close shop. For Education Commissioner Gene Mammenga, the tiny school in Kittson County is a prime example of public education gone awry.

Humboldt-St. Vincent, 410 miles northwest of the Twin Cities, ranks as the state's smallest K-12 school district and spends $11,381 each year to educate a single student. That's the highest of any K-12 district in Minnesota and more than twice the state average. A state study called the spending astronomical.

Moreover, the district holds classes in an 85-year-old school that violates state codes and is faced with a financial crisis after piling up debt for four years. A lack of money and students makes it difficult to offer many electives.

"It's a waste of money, but more important than that, it's a waste of human potential, with young people who had a limited academic experience," Mammenga said.

Those are fighting words for those who farm the flat, rich land of the Red River Valley.

"Typical bureaucrat sitting in the white ivory towers, totally removed from the realities of rural America," said Humboldt Mayor Curtis Miller, who grows wheat, barley and sugar beets on 2,100 acres. "The way of life in rural America is very sacred to us."

That's why these are sad days in Humboldt, where farmers need rain and school ends for good on May 30. It's the end of a long era that began in 1882, when the district was created.

A Tale of Two School Buildings

St. Vincent (left) & Orleans (right):  Built using same plans...?

School districts were especially numerous in the early history of Minnesota, and were much smaller than the township - often within the 26 square miles there would often be a half dozen or more.

Such was not the case in sparsely-populated Kittson County, however.

Stats for St. Vincent:

• St. Vincent's first school board was organized on January 7, 1880.
• The first schools in the county were on or near the St.Vincent village. 
• One of the first teachers was Eliza Moore, who taught all eight grades in a little one room school on the west end of St. Vincent. 
• The final St. Vincent school - located conveniently in the center of town - was built in 1903 (Orleans school was built in 1905).

[Click to enlarge & read details]

From my research it appears that schools like these were very common in smaller communities, and many were built across the country in the early 1900s.  Some were two-story, two-room, while others like those above were two-story, four-room.  You could buy standard plans, and have local carpenters, like St. Vincent's Ed Cameron and Al Fitzpatrick, build it for you.


Sources:

• The Minnesota Community: Country and Town in Transition, by Lowry Nelson
• Orleans:  Once, but No More, by Craig Wiese
• St. Vincent, by Barbara Bostrom
• The Fall of St. Vincent, by Faye Turner
• St. Vincent: From Lively Village to Near Ghost Town, by Carrie Nordstrom
• The Schoolhouse, by Joseph Augustus Moore
• Albert & Elizabeth Fitzpatrick 50th Wedding Anniversary Diary, by Harriet Fitzpatrick Short

Mystery Woman

These two photos were taken in the same general area of St. Vincent, around the same general time period (early 1900s). There appears to be one or more areas used for pasture and/or gardening/orchards in the central part of town just off of the main road. In both photographs, you can see the St. Vincent School in the background. The photo below features my grandmother and great grandmother (both Fitzpatrick). The photo above is a mystery on who it is. I have scanned it large, so if you want to try identifying the woman, click on it to see it full-screen. I'd appreciate any assistance you can give on who she is - even guesses are welcome!

NOTE: A working theory I have about these is, they may have been taken on the same day, by the same person. They both feature women working, and both feature a bit of humour. The mystery woman looks like she was trying to say don't take my picture by leaning back with her hand in front. Regarding the broom - one thing they sometimes used old, worn-down brooms like this one appears to be, was to use outdoors for things like brushing dirt off shoes and boots. Maybe she was trying to do that when the paparazzi caught her!

Profile: Velma Isley

This is a memory of Margaret Matthew Patzer about the St. Vincent Fair around 1928. Margaret is referring to Velma McCrystal Isely who was a great teacher and a wonderful person. Velma Isely was the Mother of John (Class of '63) and Elizabeth (Class of '57). She was a woman of great intelligence and compassion. I remember her silencing a group of bullies harrassing a mentally retarded girl with her great moral compass. I think I learned so much about social justice when she stood up for the weak and oppressed that summer day in 1957. I think that I was so impressed by Velma Isely's strong sense of ethics and she was a profile in courage. I have tried always to follow her example in being an advocate for the consumer in my work in law.

- Michael L. Rustad

My cousin transported my pet lamb along with some of his animals to the St. Vincent Fair. The afternoon I was to show my lamb, I convinced a friend to skip afternoon school with me and find a ride to St. Vincent so I could show my lamb. As we entered the gate Velma the lady in charge of registration and who knew me asked what I was doing there on a school day. When I said "to show my lamb" she said it was not registered so she registered it immediately. When it was time for me to show my pet lamb I found us moving closer to the front and finally in first place! I had won a trip to the St. Paul State Fair. When I left later that year my dad emptied his wallet to give me money to help buy food while there (this was about 1933 at the peak of depression) and I felt badly that he had to give me the only money he had.

- Margaret Matthew Patzer

Mrs. Isley was the wife to the agent at the depot in Noyes where my Dad worked. She was also my Kindergarten teacher.

The things I remember about Kindergarten are:

- Mrs. Isley singing Button Up Your Overcoat and encouraging us to sing along

- Learning the letter U's "short" sound - she taught us by using the example of what happened when you tried to lift a bucket full of sand - "...ugh" She had me demonstrate it in front of the class.

School Days

Class Photo, circa 1911.  
Far Left:  Ed Gooselaw, Ted Ryan, Dick Lapp, and John Gooselaw
Back Row:  Eliza Stranger (later Ma Short), Emma Godon, Christina
Stranger, --, Mary Ryan (teacher), Eva Bouie, and Henry Gooselaw
The rest of them listed on back of photo, but unknown who is who,
are:  Marie Parenteau, --nita Lucas, Wilma Cameron, Allen  Gamble,
Margaret Ryan, M--- Hutchinson, Lenora Lucas, L--- Gamble; there
are a few children whose names are no longer known, sadly...
[Photo Courtesy:  Margaret Gooselaw Cleem]

A Glimpse Inside

Simone Cameron baked homemade buns and
bread for the St. Vincent School children ...

A shot of a class descending the staircase at
the end of the day, at the St. Vincent School...

Interview: Beth Lapp

Elizabeth Lapp in 1948
[Courtesy:  Digital Archive, UMC] 

Thanks to Kristine Baldwin Ohmann, who facilitated our get together, I interviewed one of the oldest living natives (and a resident) of St. Vincent last weekend.

Elizabeth Lapp, better known as Beth, was raised in St. Vincent.  Her parents, Richard (Dick) and Lillian Lapp, met in 1926 when her mother came to town to teach at the school. Dick's parents were early settlers of St. Vincent, arriving in 1879 from Canada.

I share with you here the interview in its entirety, as it happened.  As you will read, there are a lot of clues for further stories, which I intend to explore in future posts...

1. Her earliest memory is of getting ill and vomiting on her workbook at school. In those days, you only got one workbook to use for your schoolwork, so she was mortified. She was sitting near chalkboard at the time. Her teacher was Miss Penovich.

2. Some of her other teachers were: Elaine Bergh, Gunda Hanson, Mrs. Isley, and Mrs. Monte(gue) Clinton.

3. The year she had Mrs. Clinton, “we didn’t learn anything”. Math and Science were "sacrificed for art". All she remembers is Mrs. Clinton having the class place chairs facing west and looking out towards Christ Church and drawing what they saw…

4. When it came time to go to high school, students during her time had three choices: Hallock, Pembina, or Crookston. Hallock and Pembina were public school (free) while Crookston was a boarding school and charged tuition. This was during the 1940’s and into the 1950’s.

Northwest School of Agriculture Crookston MN
[Photo Courtesy Digital Archive, UMC]

5. Crookston was called the ‘Ag School’. It's actual name was the Northwest School of Agriculture.  Several area natives attended it, including Beth and her siblings.

Joe River School 1939-40

Back Row:  Ronald Cox, Phyllis Brown, Wilbert Clow, William H. Ash 
Middle Row:  Donald Shaw, Roy Webster, Hugh Griffith, Jim Griffith
Front Row:  Leo Ash, Kathryn Griffith, and Laurance Shaw
Teacher (not shown):  Lillian Bill
[Courtesy: Raymond Ward Photo Collection]

Not far from St. Vincent, is an area called Joe River. As the crow flies, it's east of town.  The Joe River winds its way through the countryside there, several families settling in that area.  In fact, my own great grandparents originally homesteaded out there, before moving in to St. Vincent itself.

The school was located east of the North Star Church, near where the county road meets the railroad track - which when you come to think of it, seems a dangerous place to build a school where children will be playing, but that's what I'm told.

Joe river derives its headwaters from St. Joseph township [and its name...] - "Minnesota Geographic Names: their Origin and Historic Significance", by Warren Upham

1927-28 Girls Basketball Team

Front: Eileen Twamley, Mamie Cleem (Captain), Mae Gamble
Back: Isabelle Fitzpatrick, Verlie Cameron, Fidessa Wilkie, 
Dick Lapp (coach), Leila Davis, Violet Cleem, Fern Fitzpatrick.
ARE THE NAMES in the RIGHT ORDER?
[Photo Courtesy:  Kittson County Historical Society via Perm Diamond]

When growing up in St. Vincent, I regularly heard stories told by my mother, father, and grandmother (not to mention other village and county residents) about our hometown.  They ranged from tales of what the town looked like in the past, its businesses, the railroad, the churches, the roads and sidewalks (or lack thereof), to the lives of the residents themselves - their dreams, their families, and yes - their trials and woes.  More often than not, it was the tragedies and disappointments that were remembered.

However, there were also many happy memories shared.

Among them, was a passing reference to my Uncle John being an athlete in high school.  Not a lot to go on, and nothing about the fact that around the same time as John was participating in sports, the entire school had blossomed.  Except for the first years following incorporation and the initial surge of immigration, the time period we're talking about had the highest population.  There was a wide variety of extra curricular activities being offered for a small school, including sports.  I found all of this out many years later.  Even still later, I began finding out details to put on the skeleton of the bare-bone facts.

Recently, I was sent an image of the 1928 Girls Basketball Team from the St. Vincent School.  You can make a fairly safe conclusion, with the inconsistency of design, that the girls are wearing homemade uniforms. But bless them, they did their best.  My guess is that the girls made their own uniforms, at least the appliques - they show an immaturity that their mothers would have overcome had they created them.  It's sweet to see their efforts, though - the students and their community may have been humble, but they had school spirit!

NOTE:  Thanks to Kent Myrick (whose mother is in the above photograph, and who owns a complete, original copy of the 1928 Borderlines school annual), Lori Kohut Bianco (Gamble family descendant and whose great aunt is in the photo), and myself (who has two cousins in the photo), we know exactly WHO is in the photo, but we're still not entirely sure of the ORDER.  The ones we know for sure are the two Fitzpatricks girls (my cousins, one on each end of the back row), Leila Davis (Kent's mother, to the right of the coach), and the coach himself, Richard Lapp.  The other names are not conclusively matched to faces.  Personally, I think the girl second from the left in the back looks like a Twamley, but I could be wrong.  Also, Lori had heard oral family history about her great aunt having round glasses like the one girl does in the photo, at this time, but Kent says other photos showing a Mae Gamble with others doesn't show a girl with glasses.  VERY confusing.  Anyone reading this that can help clarify, I would love to hear from you!

A year later:  College Girl ID photo

St. Vincent Trivia:  My Aunt Pat (Alberta Fitzpatrick)  - who played on the St. Vincent Girls Basketball Team in high school - was in the final graduating class of the St. Vincent school, the Class of 1930.  Although the official consolidation bringing about District 352 didn't happen until the 1950's, evidently in the school year of 1929-30, the majority of the higher grade students began going to Humboldt.  My cousin (Aunt Pat's daughter) said her mother told her that she and three other boys were the only 4 to graduate from the St. Vincent High school in the 'last class' - Alberta, Fred Stranger, a Smith boy, and one other.  All others transferred to Humboldt.  The ones that transferred had to pay a tuition to do so.  The parents of the four students didn't have the money for it. So Alberta wasn't going to finish school. 

One morning she came downstairs and found my grandma (her mother) crying and when Alberta asked Grandma why she was crying Grandma said because I only had a 3rd grade education and you have a chance to graduate and aren't going to be able to do it. So my mother called the boys and asked them if they would be willing to go back to school and they agreed so they showed up in Prof. Good's class. Mom said he was so happy to see them he got tears in his eyes. From what I understand, the Professor made sure these four students graduated that final year...

Profile: Ruth Younggren

Ruth Younggren, a first grade teacher of poor children in Minnesota, yearly spent the first two weeks teaching the sounds of English and their corresponding letters. Then through the year, she taught 50 spelling words each morning to her first graders. These first graders were not only good spellers, they were excellent readers and creative writers...

- From How it Began

Ruth Younggren - or Miss Younggren as I knew her - has always been a person in my childhood memories that revives uncomfortable feelings in me.  She was a teacher who made strong demands on very young children.  Many children thrived on her challenges and literally blossomed.

However, even at the time, I instinctively knew she was being very unfair to certain classmates of mine.  If you were intelligent and were willing to work hard, she loved you.  If you had trouble understanding and didn't know how to ask for help...if you were shy and couldn't ask for help...then you might find yourself humiliated.

Miss Younggren used, among other things,
the Dunce Cap, as 'motivation' ...

I personally witnessed a fellow classmate be repeatedly denied permission to go to the lavatory.  He ended up urinating his pants while sitting at his desk, desperately trying not to.  Another time, a classmate tore her dress on the playground; instead of finding a less embarrassing solution, Miss Younggren made her remove her dress so she could mend it while the girl sat at her desk in her underwear, arms crossed and head down.

Some reading this may ask, why bring this up years later?  My answer:  While talking about this now can't help the children affected back then, it is important to acknowledge what happened, to shed light on dark events.  I have often felt bad for those who had to go through that, while I did not.  There were a couple of times I had to endure a lecture from Old Man Carelessness and stand in the corner, and once I even sat on a stool in the hallway for all to see, wearing the dreaded dunce cap.  It didn't permanent scar me, and I actually was one of the top students in the class.  But for the others who were literally humiliated, I felt bad.

It was a time where old practices still tenuously held on, but were soon to change.  I experienced a bit of the old, as many reading this might have, too.

Fire Escape Slide

Fire escape slide on west side of St. Vincent School
[Courtesy of: Cleo Bee Jones]

I am not sure when the fire escape was put in, but laws were proposed to mandate them by the state as early as the late 1880s.

The type of slide St. Vincent installed was a metal slide/chute, the type commonly installed in the 1930s...

Another shot of fire escape slide - Many times I crawled up it in
bare feet - metal hot -during summer breaks, just to slide down!
[From the Jamie Rustad Meagher Collection]

School District No. 2

"HISSSSssss..." - I remember well
the sounds of the radiators...

After writing about the St. Vincent School recently, I remembered coming across a mention once of it being assigned as District No. 2 under the early state education system.  I got curious, and went looking for more information...

According to an historical essay: 

School District No. 2 was organized in 1880... Its north boundary was the Canadian border; the west boundary was the Red River. It extended south along the Red River six miles, east from the river four miles. A schoolhouse was built in St. Vincent...

St. Vincent School closed around 1977, after a crack in the boiler was found¹. The cost to repair or replace it was prohibitive, so a hard decision was made to close the school, combining some lower grades in the Humboldt elementary.  It was the end of Humboldt-St. Vincent consolidation in name; consolidation in fact continued until even Humboldt closed.

¹ - The school was still using the same coal-fired, central boiler/radiator system they had been using when I attended the school...!

Back to School, 1903

St. Vincent Classroom, circa 1903: My great uncle Charlie is the boy
against the window shade in the far back, on right; my great aunt
Hannah is to his left - our right - in front of him, hair in bun...

I recently posted about the St. Vincent School.

After that post, a cousin of mine discovered this interior shot of the school that her Grandmother - my great aunt - had in her personal collection.

Amongst the room full of children, are two relatives of mine - my great uncle Charlie Fitzpatrick, and my great aunt Hannah Fitzpatrick.

When Hannah graduated high school, she went on to attend teacher's
college, which at that time was the state normal school in Moorhead, MN
 (now known as Minnesota State University Moorhead) - Class of 1913...
[Click to enlarge]

Breadcrumbs of a Life: P.N. Tri

From 1920 "Farm Boys & Girls Leader".
Organized in 1919, it was the start of what
would be known as the the 4-H club of the
same name.  It's fun to read the origin of
the club, and the meaning of the name...

I was recently told that "...P.N. Tri was a world renowned beekeeper and featured in apiary magazines. They shipped honey all over the world!"¹ Well, of course that meant I had to see what I could find out.

The online record is slim, but I did find one article where P.N. Tri was quoted as wintering his bees in a potato cellar!  Not much to go on, but interesting...

According to the Red River Valley website, P.N. Tri, or Peter Nicholas Tri, came to St. Vincent in 1915 to be Superintendent of Schools.

Later he worked at the Humboldt School, as you can see in the magazine article clipping at left.  In this 1920 article, the St. Vincent Fair is referred to as the 'county fair'.  I have never been clear if it was officially the county fair at one time or not, but this is one occasion where it appears it may have been...


¹ - The little birdie's name was Michael Rustad...

Grand Old Lady

So many children entered through these doors

The sign is blank.  The steps are mostly buried, a railing rises from the earth.  A gibbet of sorts protrudes from the front.

 It's obvious that just about everything needs help.  Roof, siding, windows, foundation.  The "Grand Old Lady" of St. Vincent, that housed so many young souls on their journey of learning, deserves better.

Early Church Ministries: Catholic

The Sisters of the Propagation of the Faith began working in Pembina, in the mid 19th century...

1856 - These sisters, seven in number, conduct an English, French, and Indian school, and by their knowledge of the languages used by different tribes they are particularly qualified for the instruction of persons of their own sex and of children. They have one hundred pupils in their schools. They receive boarders at the rate of $30.00 for six months. These sisters intend, as soon as circumstances permit, to extend their charitable labors to the sick.

1859 - This new order of sisters has been established especially for the instruction of children amongst the numerous half-breeds and the Indian tribes in the northern part of the diocese, as soon as their means will permit. They have now charge of St. Francis Xavier's Academy at Pembina, on the Red River of the North, Dacotah Territory.

From: A history of the Catholic church within the limits of the United States: from the first attempted colonization to the present time, Volume 4, by John Gilmary Shea

Even into the 1870's, St. Vincent Catholics were being ministered to by priests coming from St. Boniface...

In September, 1818, William Edge arrived at Pembina from Fort Garry to help construct a school as part of the St. Francis Xavier Mission. A log cabin was built adjacent to the first log church and served as the schoolhouse for many years...

From: The Challenge of the Prairie: Life and Times of Red River Pioneers by Hiram M. Drache

News from the Past: Schoolhouse Takeover

St. Vincent School in its early days...

A lot of tramps took possession of the school house at St. Vincent, Minnesota, and after getting drunk used the school records for making a fire. It took all the town police officials and a number of citizens to lodge them in jail.

From: Manitoba Daily Free Press (Wednesday, 19 February 1890)