From the first school in Schroeder to present day Birch Grove Community School, student life on the West End of the county will be on display at Cross River Heritage Center throughout the summer. This lovely painting of the Tofte School, which no longer stands, was created by school principal Virginia Wegstad.
“Where did you go to school?”, “When did you graduate?” or “Who was your favorite teacher?” are often conversation starters. Going to school is an almost universal American experience. The exhibit opening this spring at the Cross River Heritage Center explores how school was experienced by West End residents in the past and how it is experienced by students and teachers today.
The first school in Schroeder was held in the office building of the Schroeder Lumber Company and at Lutsen in the C.A.A. Nelson Hotel. Later residents built schools in Tofte, Maple, Hare Lake, Cramer, Lutsen, Thomasville and Cross River. These early schools were the center of community activity and children’s lives.
Christmas programs and end-of-the-year picnics were highlights for the whole community. Dora Allard reminisced about an Arbor Day picnic where everyone planted trees following strict instructions, but only two trees survived. Parents played baseball and ran races alongside their children and everyone enjoyed the special treat of ice cream.
Teachers were expected to teach multiple students and multiple grades.
Cook County historian Olga Soderberg wrote about how the older boys in the Tofte School led the young female teacher “a merry chase.” She was relieved mid-year by a stern male teacher. Soderberg wrote: “This was not uncommon on the frontier.”
Teachers taught more than reading, writing and arithmetic. Their commitment to education and to their students taught students important life values. Buddy Tormondsen admired his teacher Greg Wyley for snowshoeing all the way down from his homestead and having the fire built by 8 a.m. when the students arrived. Jack Alnes was impressed with Miss Fradenburg who rode her horse from her homestead several miles to Thomasville to teach.
Teachers were often expected to keep the school clean and heated. Nell Fradenburg’s teaching contract gave her a salary of $720 with payments of $80 per month. They paid her an additional $10 per month for doing the janitorial duties. Her teaching contract will be on exhibit.
Parents and community members placed a high value on educating the children. The first Lutsen school met in the Nelson homestead in what later was called the Birch Room. Carl Nelson, his sister and six Indian youngsters were the students.
Schroeder had two schools, one at Cross River and another in Thomasville. In 1929 and 1930 high school classes were held at the Thomasville School and elementary classes at Cross River.
Tofte had two schools prior to building a two-story, fourroom school in about 1912. The new school had the first electric lights, first steam radiators and first flush toilets in Tofte. Ted Tofte wrote: “There were flush toilets! Beautiful shining-white things, almost too nice to use for such prosaic purposes. The custodian complained that the first week the pump could hardly keep up with the demand.”
By 1936 the smaller schools closed and elementary students were bused to either Lutsen or Tofte and high school students were bused to Grand Marais.
In the 1950s when Erie Mining began building Taconite Harbor, the school population mushroomed. The Tofte and Lutsen schools were overcrowded. Taconite Harbor first graders met in a Hovland Resort building until it burned to the ground. Kindergarten children went to school in John and Virginia Tofte’s home in Tofte.
On February 10, 1964 Birch Grove School, built with the help of taconite dollars, opened in Tofte for all West End children in grades kindergarten to grade 6.
With a decreasing enrollment, the Cook County School District closed the Birch Grove School and sold it to the town of Tofte. In 2005 Birch Grove Community School opened as a charter school. Today the Birch Grove Community School meets in the Birch Grove Community Center building. Recent Birch Grove students and teachers will also share their experiences of school as part of the focus on schools.
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