BCHS gets good news on finances

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

HANSKA--Those attending the Brown County Historical Society annual meeting in Hanska Thursday night were treated to a catered dinner, good financial news and the story of how Norwegian immigrants happened to wind up around Lake Hanska in the 1850s.

The society's executive director, Bob Burgess, reported revenues totaling $192,017 for the first three quarters of 2001 were running about $74,000 ahead of budget. Subtracting expenses totaling $111,889, more than $3,000 below budget, left a net income amounting to $73,981.

"You'll notice donations are high in the third quarter, mostly because of the Kitty Lieb memorial donation," he explained.

He also reported that the museum has had 7,000 visitors this year, including more than 41 group tours. More than 750 of the visitors were school-aged or preschool children. Visitors came from 32 states and 15 foreign countries.

In other business, the members elected four persons to the board for three year terms, including Ruth Anderson and Penny Purtzer as New Ulm representatives, Gail Christensen as Evan's first representative, and Peggy Tauer as Sleepy Eye representative.

The 62 attendees participated in a silent auction to raise money for the society and heard plans for a celebrity waiter/silent auction fund-raiser at Turner Hall on Saturday, Nov. 17.

Trudy Beranek said the event which begins at 6 p.m. with a social hour, followed by dinner at 7 would feature 20 Brown County residents who would act as waiters.

"Feel free to tip them well because it's for a good cause," Beranek said.

Joel Botten Jr., a Hanska native now living in Mankato, then traced the path of Norwegian immigrants, including a number of his family, from the fiords of Norway to the prairie grass of Linden Township and Lake Hanska and its companion lake, Omsrud.

Botten who is president of the Hanska Sons of Norway chapter and a board member of the county historical society showed slides depicting the mountainous terrain the immigrants left behind in Norway for the prairie southwest of St. Peter.

Botten told of the record kept by one pioneer in which he wrote that seven acres had yielded 59 bushels of oats per acre and that he had received $1.55 a bushel.

When Botten asked the audience if that was good, one man responded, "that's more than it's selling for now."

Botten showed a picture of a church built in 1859 in Linden Township; it was the first Norwegian church west of Goodhue County.

Then, he told the story of John Armstrong, the Linden Township clerk who was murdered in a grove of trees by three warriors one Sunday morning. He had managed to fire one shot, apparently wounding one of the warriors. His body, with the hand that held the gun cut off, was found beneath a pile of brush.

Botten also showed a video depicting much of the area's early development, particularly in the area around Lake Omsrud. It also showed an Omsrud millstone, used for grinding up grain, that had survived over the years.

Jumping forward from 1908 to the present, Botten showed slides of improvements around Lake Hanska, including preservation of a sacred Indian burial area, and the Lake Hanska Church.