Life Story

 

SAUK CENTRE HOME SCHOOL FOR GIRL’S HISTORY

This short history is condensed/taken from information that was included in the book “OUR CENTURY” that was created by Rosalind Gilbert with Harry Hanson and Dave Simpkins and published by “The Sauk Centre Herald” in 2000.

In the first decade of the 20th century the city got the bid to have the Girls’ Industrial School and the state set aside $125,000 to build it, and “Morell and Nichols” was the landscape firm hired to plan it, and Mrs. Fannie Morse was named superintendent.  Building was started in1910, and the contract for the first four cottages was $122,697.00.  At this time the girls were at Red Wing and Fannie Morse was running the girl’s program there.  The Red Wing paper attacked her for “lack of discipline” because she believed in treating them with kindness and building trust and responsibility rather than a punitive approach.  The board of control vindicated Morse.  This issue would come up through the decades.

By the end of 1910 the four cottages were about finished and in May 1911 some girls were brought in to help with organization and in June more girls arrived, and the cottages were crowded with 100 girls.  The cottages were run by “house mothers”.  In 1911 the administration building, hospital, farm buildings, and two more cottages were to be built.  Through the efforts of legislator F. E. Minette, the name was changed to Minnesota Home School for Girls.  Morse tried to use the community resources, so some girls attended school and worked in the community, and all 250 marched in a Red Cross parade during World War I.  The girls also worked in the fields and gardens and had a dairy herd which ranked among the best herds in the state.  Governor Hammond visited the Home School and was very impressed with it all.

In the Twenties there were some changes; good and not so good. The legislature cut funding so some of the building had to be done by the girls, and at times there were over 300 girls at the institution.  Six cottages were built and three burned, two by accident and one intentionally by three girls.  Brookdale cottage was an accidental one. Some of the cottages were not built on the home campus, such as the ones on the south-east corner of Sauk Lake and the one called Brookdale Farm on what is now named 390th St.  The Brookdale cottage and farm was not so affectionately called “Siberia” by the girls because of its separate and distant location.  It also became the location of the Brookdale Cemetery that was used for stillborn and deceased babies born to the girls.  Fannie Morse moved to an institution in Washington D.C.  Governor Preus said of her that “No one has done more to break down the cruel tradition of the reformative institution than has Mrs. Fannie Morse.”  Dr. Lena Beach replaced her.  She did not feel the girls should be going to Sauk Centre Public School, so a new school building was built on the grounds.  She stressed education and developed a good educational program.  Then she left the Home School and was replaced by Mrs. Mary Stewart, who was not as forward-thinking as Morse and Beach.

In the Thirties the Home School was not much mentioned in the Herald.  It was given $10,000 to remodel the dairy barn.  Mrs. Stewart resigned due to illness and Ms. Inez Patterson took over as superintendent.

There was no mention of the Home School in the “Our Century” book’s section about the Forties.  Apparently, World War II and other activities overshadowed what was happening at the Home School.

The Fifties started out with low numbers, perhaps because the Director of the Youth Conservation Commission found that it could place 36% of the boys and girls committed to it on probation.  As a result, there were suggestions made about how to best use the institution, including using it for “mentally defective boys.”  This did not happen.  There were issues with discipline and Miss LaVonne Berg, who was president of the Home School teacher’s organization, said that staff-caused troubles were as much a part of it as the girls were.  There was a turnover of superintendents with four different ones in four years.  That ended when Mrs. Betty Smith became superintendent and stayed for six years.  She made freedom and responsibility the theme of the program.  As written in the Herald; Under the relaxed but shrewd surveillance of Mrs. Betty Smith and her staff the girls have been encouraged to think for themselves and follow an honor system in many parts of their schedule.”  “An extensive recreational program, directed by Hank Miller, is also part of the cure.”  The most common offenses that brought the girls to the Home School were listed as:  incorrigibility, persistent truancy, drunkenness, shop lifting, forgery, sex offenses, and occasionally assault.  Pregnancy is not listed unless it falls under the category of sex offenses.  It had been a common reason in the early days of the Home School.  A headline in the Herald read that Eighty percent of Home School girls are never at odds with the law again.  The article went on to state that there were 236 girls in residence but the school was only funded and staffed for 170 with a budget of $450,000 a year.  When girls were caught after running away, a Herald article stated Overcrowded conditions and a lack of staff personnel are the major problems that have caused a series of escapes according to the superintendent.

The Home School started the decade of the 60’s with controversy over lack of staff, physical facilities, overcrowding, low wages and long working hours for staff.  In 1951 there were 132 girls there and by 1960 there were 240 girls but only six more staff. Housemothers were paid $240 a month and often worked 60 to 100 hours per week.  Outside persons had differing opinions on how it should be run with some saying that we must deter criminal behavior by making them fear the resulting punishment, and others saying these young girls will going back to society so it makes no sense to lock them up one day, then turn them back loose without helping them grow and change their behavior patterns.  The first Citizens Advisory Committee met in 1964, and they helped to support and improve the institution’s programming.  By the mid 1960’s the legislature finally allocated additional funds and with this additional funding things started looking up.  In the fall of 1965, the first cottage of boys was opened when some 12–14-year-old boys were transferred from Red Wing to Sauk Centre.  The name was then changed to the Minnesota Home School.  Some of the staff then worked to create activities that were both recreational and good for teaching social skills.  The legislature helped by appropriating $482,000 to build a new cottage and a food service building as well as remodeling some other buildings.

The 70s started out with a new superintendent, Pat Mack, who continued the practice of naming the buildings to reflect contributions of women and Minnesota citizens.  Thus, the new food service building became the Senator Popps Building, and the new cottage was named in honor of Dr. J.F. DuBois Sr. who had been the institution’s doctor for many years.  In 1971, the Home School was granted money to develop a preschool nursery program to provide vocational training for residents with preschool children from the area participating in the 12-week program.  It was very successful.  A program created for the boys was using the Boy Scout format of working for badges and doing community service.  When Mack took over there were a lot of rules from the past that did not make a lot of sense in the 70s.  These were changed or eliminated and the school program continued to expand to improve academic and social skills.  In 1972-73 there were changes made at the state level of corrections and Mack was made deputy commissioner and Harvy Akerson became superintendent.  He continued with some innovative programs including New Focus—Arts and Corrections, a program designed to rehabilitate youth through art. 

At this time, because the women’s prison in Shakopee was overcrowded the state moved a cottage of women to Sauk Centre.  This led to having to make changes to accommodate adult women.  The state Department of Corrections decided not to add adult men to the facility, which then still had the problem of how to best use the facility with a declining population.

In 1981 rumors started that the Home School would close due to budget constraints as Gov. Al Quie had ordered budget cuts.  He then exempted the correctional facilities.  He toured the facilities in 1982 and in 1983 a group of legislators toured them.   Fifty Sauk Centre citizens went to the legislature asking to keep it open and their efforts were successful.  In 1985 Harvey Ackerson retired and Dale Ulrich became superintendent.  The institution was also placed on the National Historic Register.  Lavonne Berg retired after 35 years of service.  She became the education director in 1966 after joining as a teacher in 1949.  When she first came to the institution, they were still dunking the girls in tubs of ice water as punishment, but had quit shaving the heads of runaways, and forbidding the girls to talk to each other. Due process became the rule when discipline was involved, and she developed the education program into an innovative and “kid-friendly” program.  She also supported activities where the residents interacted with people in the community.  The worst accident in the facility’s history happened when a van taking residents to Alexandria for a movie skidded on an icy overpass on I-94 and was hit by a truck. One staff member and three residents were killed and others seriously injured.

By 1995 State Senator Kelly began to push to privatize the facility while at the same time it was selected as a model for a federal project to develop a state-of-the art corrections program.  Legislation privatizing the school failed in1996, but when Federal funds ran out in 1997 and State Senators Kelly and Larson again pushed for privatization saying it was a “Win-win situation for Sauk Centre” a bill was passed that made the institution a “fee for service facility” for county commitments.  The counties did not have the money to pay for this, and the Department of Corrections announced that the Home School would be closed as of July 1, 1999.  Over 80 staff members were laid off, and Sauk Centre was minus a six-million-dollar payroll.  After 90 years of service to juveniles, the Home School stood empty.

Over the century many good things happened at the institution because of dedicated and hard-working staff members.  They had created innovative programs and involved the residents in many community projects such as helping seniors and doing clean up projects on Fairy Lake Road and Highway 71, as well as the Lions Park at Fairy Lake and the Birch Lake State Campgrounds. Yes, there were times, like in the 1930's especially, when the prevailing thought in the U.S. about dealing with "delinquent" girls (and boys) was harsh and that made for difficulties and ill treatment, but the overall impact of the Home School on the community was positive.

When one looks at the reasons that girls were sent to the Home School, especially in the first half of the 20th Century one sees that the thinking of our society was reflected in its treatment of these girls.  The great majority were sent there because they had become pregnant, and they were the ones who had to pay for this "sin."  The circumstances that led to the pregnancy were not dealt with, but it appears that most of the girls came from home lives or conditions that were not ideal.  The male partners in these pregnancies seldom had to suffer any consequences, no matter if they were equally young boys, or older men who had used the girls for their own purposes. For more information about the home School, the booklet A History of the Minnesota Home School, 1911-1976, by Joan McDonald, can be found.  There is also the book Evidence of V, which is a novel that contains excerpts from state and other correctional institutions about the treatment of inmates as well parts of records from the School.  It was written by Sheila O'Conner, about her grandmother, who gave birth to her mother while at the Home School in the mid 30's.  It took hard research to find the "Evidence" because most of the records were sealed for 100 years.  The Minnesota Historical Society Library is a source of information, but it will require some digging.  The Sauk Centre History Museum is also a good source of information.At this point, information has not been found as to when Brookdale Cemetery was first used for babies.  An older couple were buried there, who may have been the original owners of the farm, and it may have been intended as a family plot when he died in 1904, but this is unknown at this point.  After the state quit using the Home School it removed all the markers in the cemetery.  Eventually the local Knights of Columbus council started to take care of Brookdale Cemetery and then decided to place this memorial stone here in St. Paul's Cemetery because even if people know about the cemetery it is now not easy to access.