| Presentation discusses orphanage life |
By: Clare Kennedy
|
Posted: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 11:01 pm
|
 Email  Print
|
Five Parish youth group student Mary Solarz writes in her journal at the Orphanage Cemetery at West Hills. The group from Holding Ford, near St. Cloud, visited the Orphanage Museum Tuesday and placed flowers on the graves.
|
|
By CLARE KENNEDY
ckennedy@owatonna.com
OWATONNA — Orphanage life wasn’t easy, as St. Cloud area youth group members learned during a tour of the Minnesota State Orphanage Museum.
At one point in his presentation, Harvey Ronglein brandished the infamous wooden radiator brush.
“(Back in the 1930s) we had steam heat, and these brushes were supposed to clean behind the radiators. In my eleven years here I never once saw it used for that, but I felt it on my back,” Harvey said, much to the shock of 31 Catholic youth group members in attendance.
Harvey was explaining the ups and downs of orphanage life to the Five Parish youth group, which took a special tour of the museum that memorializes the Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children. The orphanage was open from 1886 to 1945. After 1945, Minnesota dismantled the orphanage and began using the foster care system still in place today.
The school building is now the West Hills City Complex.
From 1932 to 1943, Harvey was a ward of the state. For most of that time, he lived at the school — the third largest state-run orphanage in the U.S. at the time.
His mother came from Norway. She immigrated to Appleton, Minn. in her teens where she married and had nine children. Her husband turned out to be a drunkard and after many hard years of running the farm, Harvey’s mother succumbed to tuberculosis.
Within eight months of her death, Harvey’s father was taken away in handcuffs to Stillwater Prison. His arrest is Harvey’s only memory of home.
Benson County Commissioners found families to take most of Harvey’s siblings. Harvey and his brother Oscar were the only ones left without a home, and they were sent to the school.
On the upside, Harvey and his compatriots were clean, well-fed, and educated. On the other hand, Harvey said, he knew many boys who had to sleep in the barn because they weren’t allowed in the house. And he knew many girls who were sexually abused by both the father and the sons in their adopted home.
“You have to understand in the 30’s they couldn’t even spell ‘child abuse.’ Whoever heard of such a thing?” Harvey said. “In those day especially, who would ever believe an orphan over an established family. They just had to zip it up and put up with it.”
Many of the kids gathered there were unable to imagine life without their parents, but some crowding into the Arts Center banquet room could personally relate to Harvey’s story.
One was Eric Hartung, who was himself a foster child until he was adopted.
Like Harvey, he knows little about his birth parents. He’s heard that he was born in Eagle’s Pass, Texas and his brother was born in Berlin, Wis. The two were taken away from their parents at a young age. At the time the children were suffering from malnutrition.
The brothers were adopted when Eric was three years old.
Harvey’s story offered Eric a new perspective on his own past.
“I feel lucky that we didn’t have to go through that,” Eric said. “It could have been a lot different.”
To cap off the visit, the youth group went out to the cemetery, a lonely patch of grass at the far end on the West Hills Campus.
There over one hundred small bodies are buried: The State School’s forgotten children. Some have head stones carved with their full name and age. Others didn’t live long enough to have names. They are simply marked “Baby.”
The youth group spread out over the grave yard, sitting between the head stones and underneath the trees. After a period of reflection, they placed roses on each child’s grave.
Clare Kennedy can be reached at 444-2376.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Top Jobs | Top Homes | Top Cars
| Top Jobs | General
Detention Center Social Worker
South Central ... | Healthcare
Chemical Health Counselor
Connections and
... | Healthcare
Lake Shore Inn
has the following
position... | Trades/Construction
Ellingson Companies
is now hiring ... | Master\'s level
Mental Health
Clinician Wanted
Part - ... |
| Top Homes |
WELCOME TO YOUR NEW HOME
WOODBRIDGE
APARTMENTS
1... | LOGISTIC COORDINATOR
TRYSTAR is looking for a full time Log... | Available 2 BD
Upper, $650/Mo. Owatonna
507-213-9862... | 1 BD w/garage, hardwood fls, ground level, laundry on site ... | Large 1 bdr $545 or
Large 2 bdr $625
Balcony, A/C, Heat,
... |
| Top Cars | 1997 Ford F350
1 ton dually , white recent brake, tires a... | 1995 BONNEVILLE SSEI Red, super charged & pretty 1 small rus... |
|
Digg
Del.icio.us
Facebook
MySpace
StumbleUpon
Google
Yahoo!
