BCHS honors

pioneer women

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM - With New Ulm's 150th birthday arriving this summer, many local organizations are looking to tell the city's history through their own eyes.

The history of many parts of Brown County--not just New Ulm--were told by six women representing six other women of the past at a luncheon at St. Paul's Lutheran Church on Saturday afternoon.

The Brown County Historical Society sponsored the luncheon, which seeks to give women's history greater public exposure each year.

Some of the first women in this area's history had their stories told through costumes, acting and props.

The society chose to honor Brown County pioneer Catherine Sehr Dambach, New Ulm school teacher Katie Gropper Baehr, Dakota Hotel owner Helena Erd Seiter, Sleepy Eye physician Dr. Mary Ranson Strickler, Dakota Conflict heroine Sna-Nah-Win and Anna Bruckbauer Aron, a German immigrant who taught Sleepy Eye that it's okay to eat tomatoes.

"The theme this year was pioneer women to tie in to New Ulm's 150th (anniversary)," said Darla Gebhardt, a librarian for the Brown County Historical Society. "In the past, we've honored women in the media and law and individual women. The point is to make people aware of women in Brown County."

"Without her commitment and sticking it out, we probably wouldn't be here today," Denice Evers said of Dambach.

Dambach was born in Germany in 1835. She was the oldest of six children. She immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 17 after a rough, 60-day voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. She met her husband, Joseph Dambach, when Dambach stopped at her father's smithy in St. Paul. Their marriage was arranged through a conversation the two men had. Joseph Dambach and his new wife returned to Brown County, where Catherine gave birth to the first child born in Brown County on Dec. 21, 1855. Catherine's family later joined her in Brown County.

During the time she lived near New Ulm, Catherine Sehr Dambach had some experiences with the Dakota. She was once rescued from a house fire by some passing Dakota but later sought refuge in New Ulm and helped treat the people wounded during the Dakota Conflict of 1862. The Dambach's returned to New Ulm two years after the conflict to find the same log cabin they had left intact and a New Ulm that was changing and growing. She died in 1920 at the age of 85.

Anna Bruckbauer Aron was also German-born and left her parents to go to Minnesota. According to Pam Krzmarzick, who portrayed Aron on Saturday, she was relieved to find that so many people in New Ulm spoke German and later found a job at a hotel in Sleepy Eye reading German newspapers to people.

In her own words, Aron described Sleepy Eye as a prosperous town, in which people were originally afraid of tomatoes and called them "blood apples". But Bruckbauer's curiosity was aroused by food articles in newspapers from Ohio and Milwaukee and she planted a few tomato plants behind the hotel and sometimes sneaked them into people's salads, which prompted some of the hotel's guests to ask why the salads were so delicious. After explaining the tomato to them, they came to accept the fruit and Bruckbauer was eventually promoted to work as the hotel's cook. She later married a man named Aron, who bought a farm near Hanska. The family moved to California a few years later.

Sue Ullery portrayed Katie Gropper Behr, who was the first school teacher in New Ulm.

As Behr, Ullery reminisced about her childhood during the Dakota Conflict of 1862. At the time of the uprising, New Ulm was a growing community and the young Katie Gropper was sitting in her afternoon class with one of her best friends when the wife of the schoolmaster flung open the schoolhouse door and came in with no shoes on. The schoolmaster, Mr. Kretsch, told the students that there were Dakota attacking the settlers and they were to go home at once.

Once Gropper came home, she found her father was already there and had grabbed his shotgun and headed off to fight with Jacob Nix. Gropper and her friend headed towards a barricaded building where women and children were being gathered. Her friend was killed by a stray bullet during the attack, making her the first casualty of the conflict.

Gropper's family was evacuated to St. Peter, where they stayed for six weeks until they returned to New Ulm.

"I'll never forget that terrible week in August," Ullery said.

Anne Makepeace portrayed Helena Erd Seiter, who ran the Dakotah Hotel with her husband. The hotel, which used to stand on Minnesota Street, served as a hospital during the Dakota Conflict of 1862 and was a popular place for famous people like John Philip Sousa, WIlliam Jennings Bryant, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman and Hubert H. Humphrey to stay during their visits to New Ulm. The Dakotah Hotel was also a popular place to eat. It was known mainly for its broasted chicken dinner and Helena's homemade pies.

The society also chose to honor Sna-Nah-Win, a Dakota woman who rescued a 14-year old German girl during the conflict. Sna-Nah-Win was married to Good Thunder and both were the first two Dakota to become members of the Episcopal Church mission. Both of them favored peace with the settlers.

Sna-Nah-Win protected Mary Schwandt until she was forced to turn her over to Gen. Henry Sibley at Camp Release after the conflict ended. Sna-Nah-Win, who was portrayed by Penny Purtzer, said that she asked her uncles, who had gone out to join the uprising , if they would not harm any of the girls they found but would bring them back to her instead. As the Dakota lost more and more men and women in battle, they began to kill more of their captives. Sna-Nah-Win dressed Mary Schwandt in a Dakota dress to protect her and dug a hole in the floor of her tent that she used to hide Schwandt and two other girls.

Mary Schwandt and Sna-Nah-Win didn't see each other again for 32 years until Sna-Nah-Win visited Schwandt in St. Paul in 1891. In her own account, Mary Schwandt credited Sna-Nah-Win for saving her life.

Sleepy Eye physician Dr. Mary Ranson Strickler, as portrayed by Fran Heymans, was the last woman honored Saturday afternoon. Strickler was a Hamline University graduate who went into medicine despite her father's objections. She first came to Sleepy Eye in 1901. Heymans told the group about a time when she was called to deliver a baby in Evan during winter. She had to convince a farmer to give them a ride on his manure cart. After some time, the farmer put down lots of straw and gave the women a ride.