WAUPACA COUNTY POST

July 1, 1976

Early Teaching Days of Martha Cecelia Jensen

            Martha Cecelia, only child of Carl Edouard and Karen Hagendahl, was born October 31, 1859, in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark.

            On June 5^th, 1865 with her parents and two other families she sailed to America arriving at Waupaca, Wisconsin on July 6, 1865.

            “As I came to Waupaca at the age of five and a half years, I was seven years old before I began to attend school and was fourteen when I entered High School. A few of us girls thought it quite smart to attend the Teachers Examination held at the High School twice a year, and at the age of 16 I received a Third Grade Certificate from the County Superintendent of Schools.  I had taken the exams for Algebra, Physiology and Physical Geography, which were required for the Second Grade Certificate but was not granted that certificate until I had taught a year.  Then I held that Grade Certificate all through my teaching career.

            I was lucky to get the Helsted school, one and a half miles south of Scandinavia, at $24 per month. This was in the Spring of 1876.  I shall never forget the sensation I felt when I rang my school bell the first morning to think that my dreams were at last realized and my teaching goal was reached, for when I was quite young I had made up my mind to be a teacher. This school was in a pleasant place on a hilltop, the building in good condition, the seats in rows with two pupils to a seat, the same as in Waupaca.  I opened school by requiring them to get into position with folded arms and then read them a short chapter in the New Testament, after which we repeated the Lord’s Prayer in concert, then sang a song. I followed this same opening every day during all my teaching years.  I can remember so well when taking their names that day, there were so many by the name of Olson, asked if they were all brothers and sisters and was answered by a hearty laugh. There were several families of Olsons represented.  I programmed my teaching all before hand, so every class had to be conducted just to the minute in order to get through so many different kinds of books. I had thirty or more registered pupils and got along fine those two months.  A six year old boy played truant a few days, but had been seen by the pupils hiding in the woods along the road so one morning I was rather frightened by finding the School Board and the boys father waiting for me, they ust wanted to know from me if it was so he had not been to school.  I showed them the register as proof, that was all.  He came regularly to school after that.  Another incident I won’t forget one day the girls picked a lot of wild flowers and crab apple blossoms.  They were from a nearby tree and made a wreath which they insisted I wear that afternoon, which I did to please them, but during the afternoon there was a knock at the door and when I answered it who should be there but the County Superintendent, C.M. Bright.  I was certainly embarrassed.

            “In the fall of that same year I obtained the school in Joint District of Scandinavia and Amherst at he same wages, $24 a month.  On my way to school the first morning a young man caught up with me and asked if I was the new School Mar’m – then proceeded to tell me all the terrible things that had ever happened there the last teacher having been thrown out the door, and the door locked on him needless to say I was really scared, wondering what I had gotten into.  Not a very pleasant situation met my view.  The school house was in a lonesome place, the building small with the door in the North and two windows on each side with several of the panes smashed.  There were three long desks on one side and four on the other with one end fastened to the wall.  A small table and chair, and a box stove stood in the middle of the room with a drum above it.  Said drum later proved such a nuisance by always falling down, that I finally had it removed.  The blackboard was not fit to write on, the ceiling and walls were just plain boards that had never been painted and they were brown with age.  There was no key for the school door.  I had only five pupils the first day but gradually attendance improved until we were pretty well crowded. I made the best of everything, trying to brighten up the place by putting plain white curtains over the upper windows, pictures on the walls, made charts, held a scrubbing bee and soon had everything in good shape. I taught here for four years.  Spelling Schools were the rage in those days, we put on good programs of singing, speaking, and dialogues, then had Spell-downs.  We did not think anything of going many miles to the neighboring schools to attend their Spelling Bees.  Murray Eledon taught in the Petersen Mill District. I took several of my pupils along with me to one of his Spelling Bees.  We sang several selections with me accompanying them on a small organ he had borrowed from some neighbor.  My pupils sang very well and were proud to throw off their talents, and their teacher.

            “The County Superintendent, L.L. Wright, in my second or third year, finally found the school after driving around the country for half a day looking for it.  As he came late, after recess, when the spelling classes were on and knowing how much he liked music, I had them entertain him for a half hour with songs I had taught them – many with actions and they surely did fine.  He was so pleased he praised us all highly.

            As this district had only five months of school a year, I had a chance to get in a term in other places so one year I finished the winter term, the present teacher having resigned and also taught the Spring term in the Block School between Ogdensburg and Manawa.  This was the winter of the “Big Snow,” when many roads were impassable.  The late Grant Lytle of Ogdensburg was one of my pupils.  One year I taught the spring term at the Gard School.  Here I got only $16 a month and had sixteen pupils registered.  I boarded at home them, waling the distance of a couple of miles each way every day.  During one night a dash of vandalism happened that I shall never forget.  On the morning of June 7, the children came to meet me and said something had happened in the school, the door was barricaded from the inside. I sent the children after Board Members and when they gained entrance such a sight met out eyes that I shall never forget. We had fixed up the school room so pretty with white curtains at the windows and flowering plants and pictures on the walls but this morning everything had been torn down, broken and destroyed.  All the ink put on the desks and smeared over the blackboards and books.  Pieces of my call bell were found in back of the school house.  It was a terrible mess, but strangest of all books of four children from one family were not touched.  Two boys from town had been seen on the rainy Saturday before going to the Lakes with their fish poles and as they were known, the School Board should have made some investigation … for no one could have done all that was done without getting ink on their hands and clothes … but nothing was ever done.  I often see some of the pupils who attended that School … Mrs. Eva Boyce, Fred Jorgensen still live in the District, and Alderman Elias Durant and the painter Albert Nelson. After finishing four years in that joint district I went back to the Helsted school and taught there another year.  (The same school house on the hill is still in use - in 1960 - at the time of this transcription many years after it was written by Mrs. Jensen).  I had a larger school this time with so many older boys and girls.  I have a pleasant remembrance from that year.  We put on good programs in Singing and Speaking and One Act Plays using shawls for curtains when we had the Spelling Schools  .. which drew such large crowds.  I recall several of the pupils shed tears their last day of school. I must say a word about the people in these Norwegian Districts .. the esteem they had for their teacher was next to that of their minister, and their children were taught respect and obedience at home.

            “I always aimed to be nearer home so in the fall of 1881 I took the contract to teach the Granite Quarry School which was only four miles from Waupaca.  I walked home every Friday night, rain or shine, during the years I was there.  I had been told it was a hard school but I had no trouble at all, and stayed there four years. O.E. Wells was County Superintendent then but he never visited during that time.  The School house was larger than the others, was in good condition, had pleasant surroundings, modern seats, good blackboards and maps, and uniformity of text books.  This school has many pleasant remembrances and is really endeared to me.  I have been in touch with them in later years … attending their social affairs where many of my former pupils were present, and one of them would always make the remark “You can call school anytime, now .. we are all here.”  They were nearly all of them Grandmothers and Grandfathers then. The last time I met with them, I had a picture taken of the School house and all the pupils, which I highly treasure.

            “In the Spring of April of 1885, I was married  .. having reached the age of twenty-five when unmarried women were classed as Old Maids, but I still taught the Spring Term after I was married.  I had fifty-one pupils registered that last year.  My wages were $25 per month the first year I took that school, and a dollar was added per month each year I was there, so I was getting my highest salary of $28 per month when I stopped teaching.  Through all these years of teaching I carried my dinner, did all the janitor work myself and wrote all their copy books. Perhaps I shouldn’t have quit, but somehow you can’t go against Fate.”

            Note …  This was written years later by Mrs. Jensen .. “I feel greatly honored in being requested by Mr. O.G. Anderson to contribute to his book by relating my experiences in the old days of teaching. Although it is long ago .. the days of our youth are always fresh in our memory.”

            Martha Cecelia Hagendahl began her teaching at the age of sixteen and continued for nine years.

            On April 9, 1885 she married Niels G. Jensen of Oshkosh, Wis.  To this union three children were born:  Elizabeth D, March 28, 1886; Nellie R., June 1, 1889; and Frank W., July 27, 1898.  During the years between 1888 and 1894 and from 1907 to 1912 the family resided at Oshkosh.  Otherwise she has always lived here in Waupaca and kept her home on North Street … next door to the home established by her Father, Carl Edouard Hagendahl when they came from Denmark.

            Martha Cecelia Jensen passed away July 21, 1940 at the age of 80 years, 8 months and 21 days, leaving to mourn one daughter, Elizabeth, Mrs. B.M. Barnes of Waupaca; and one son, Frank of Oshkosh; and two grandchildren, Carmen Barnes of Los Angeles, Calif., and Roger Jensen.