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Merle Sjostrom, Contributing Writer

July 2008

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LYDIA BERKTOLD

FORMER MAIDEN ROCK

PRINCIPAL IS 102

Lydia Berktold was born on January 1, 1906. She is presently 102 years old, and when Evy Johnson and I visited her this week, she was thrilled to see us and to talk with us. She was born in Goodhue County on that New Years Day, out on a big farm. She was one of eleven children in her family, and she named each of her siblings. Growing up, the children all had jobs they had to do. The children milked the cows, as her dad did not like to milk. He checked the fields, and did other work.

Lydia and Ed were married on January 5, 1935 in Ellsworth. Ed grew up in Lake City, not too far away. Ed and Lydia farmed in rural Ellsworth, where they raised two children, Ed and Mary. Son Ed now lives with his wife Phyllis in Red Wing and has a daughter and a son. Mary and her husband, Gerald Bristol live in Ellsworth and have two sons.

Lydia attended Red Wing Teachers Training School which was a one year course, with Rosalie Youngdahl as her teacher. She was the only one in her family to go on to school. Then she started her teaching career. Later she went to summer school in River Falls, took night classes, wrote papers, and she wishes she could read the papers now and see what she wrote. She first earned her two year license, permitting her to teach elementary grades. In 1964 she graduated from UW River Falls with her 4 year degree.

She first taught school in Goodhue County for 11 years, beginning in 1924. Then after her marriage to Ed, she could not teach, as at that time, married women were not allowed to teach. When daughter Mary was in first grade, and son Ed in third, Lydia taught rural school at the Drake School, also teaching both of her children. Next she taught at the Lindgren School and the Conroy School where she had all eight grades, and her two children went with her to those schools. At the rural schools she usually had at least 20 students. Her days were long, as she arrived at school early to start the fire, sweep, clean, and prepare for the day, and left about five in the afternoon. The older boys carried water for the school from a neighboring farm. This was put into a water cooler with a button to press for a drink. Everyone carried their lunches. At Christmas time, the school always had a special program for parents and everyone to attend. The children had recitations, plays, and songs. Lydia’s teaching contract for 1933 was for $60.00 per month and it stated, “Build your own fires.” Later in 1966 she received the sum of $500 monthly.

Her last school was Maiden Rock where she stayed for nineteen years, beginning in 1952 and retiring in 1971. At first Lydia stayed at the Ed Bengtson home and walked to the school. Later she drove from rural Ellsworth. She would leave her Model A Ford parked away from the school, because there was so little room on that street with the buses coming in. She taught grades seven and eight, along with being principal. Mildred Julian had fifth and sixth, Frances White had third and fourth, and Madolyn Brown had first and second grades. She loved teaching math, so she traded classes with Arnold Falkofski and taught his math classes, and he taught social studies classes for her. Lydia remembers when Myrtle Horning, who was on the school board, wanted her for the Maiden Rock principal, so she got the job over a man teacher.

When she taught in Maiden Rock she taught grades seven and eight. As a school project, her students compiled the annuals for the school. Due to consolidation, the seventh and eighth went to Ellsworth, so Lydia then had grades five and six. After that, there were no more annual for the Maiden Rock School. While teaching in Maiden Rock, she also enjoyed working with Melvin Carlson, the custodian, and Marg Gray, who was the cook.

After her husband Ed passed away, she continued living in her farm home until 1994 when she moved to an apartment in Ellsworth. Currently, Lydia lives at the Ellsworth Care Center, and has a very pleasant room. She likes playing cards, especially playing euchre games. She said “This is a good place to stay, and they have things for us to do. We play fly swatter volley ball, and sometimes a couple people come in to play cards with me.”

Lydia attended the “Maiden Rock All School Reunion” in 2005 and enjoyed so much talking to some of her former students about things that she remembered about them. Lydia toured the old Maiden Rock School, and climbed up all those stairs again to see her old classroom. She said she often dreams of Maiden Rock as she has good thoughts and enjoyed Maiden Rock and the students there. The kids were good kids, and tried lots of things. The Maiden Rock parents were very supportive in whatever we did. Lydia told us, “The love of my life was teaching in Maiden Rock.”