Jensen Verna01

Waupaca County Post

February 3, 1977

Verna Jensen, First Woman To Vote in Township

A Special Feature

Verna Jensen, a Senior Citizen of almost four score years, continues to lead an active and useful life. As one sits I her comfortable living room, he is aware of one of her interests.

On the walls are several attractive pictures which she has painted. She got the inspiration to paint nature scenes, especially rural scenes, after she joined the Senior Citizens group in Waupaca. She, like many “oldsters”, reaps a bountiful harvest in the last third of her life.

She graciously consented to the interview, which follows, by Kenneth Poulton, George Jeffers, and John Holzman:

“I was born March 4, 1897, in the town of Saxeville, on a farm on the north shore of Long Lake in Waushara County.

My parents, Peter and Minnie Jenson, homesteaded on this farm, clearing the land and making a productive farm home here. It was sold in 1908, and we lived in Waupaca until 1909, when we moved to a farm in Lind. Here I went to Lynwood School, completing my grade school education.

I attended Waupaca High School, taking part in various activities, such as playing basketball for four years. We played with girls’ rules. Each player had to stay in her zone. She couldn’t run all over the floor like the boys do. We played the other classes. I played center. I started in my freshman year. Mrs. Loberg was on our team, and so was Estelle Feragen. The first year we were tied. We held the high school championship for the next three years. Mable Gordon was our coach. We spent a lot of time practicing and we enjoyed it very much. Home Economics was a new subject in school that year.

In 1915-16 I attended Oshkosh Normal School, taking the Rural School Teachers’ Course. The school burned down the year that I was there, and many activities were curtailed. We didn’t even have as much practice teaching as we would have had if the school hadn’t burned. I borrowed money to go to Normal, and I paid it all back the first year I taught. I got $40 a month and I paid $5 a month for room and board, so you see there wasn’t much left. But I was very economical.

My first teaching job was at the Rainbow School, north of Clintonville.

The next two years I taught the primary grades at the Baldwin Mills State Graded School. While I was there, we had domestic science one day a week. It was mostly the eighth grade girls, who got something ready for hot lunch for everyone. Each pupil was supposed to bring something from home.

All this was put into a hot water bath and kept hot, and served as our hot lunch. This was in about 1918-19.

My last year I taught in the Maple Grove School. That year I got $80 a month, which I thought was good pay.

I usually hired someone to sweep the floor and get the fire going. I had one student who was very artistic. He put designs and calendars on the board for me. The students were very well behaved. They had a lot of respect for the teacher. I consider that they were well disciplined. One reason was that we got such good cooperation from their parents.

Robert Beckford, Manawa, was our county superintendent and E.E. Russell was one supervisor. He was from Ogdensburg. The other supervisor was Margaret Cuff, Manawa.

At Normal we had been taught to make out our own schedules. The supervisors wouldn’t allow this. They wanted every school to teach the same subject at the same time. I didn’t like that. I had up to 47 pupils in the eight grades in my room. My last year I had seven in my graduating class. Some of them still live around here.

On June 9, 1920, I married John Jensen. We lived for 47 years on the Cloverdell Farm in the Township of Waupaca. We were in dairying. We had 84 acres and 20-24 cows. We raised all the feed for them. This was in the Casey District, northeast of Waupaca.

Compared to today’s standards it was a small operation. Before we were married, my husband bought a milking machine. It was not a pipeline. I could use it, and later my children could too. I never had the pleasure of milking a cow by hand.

Two children were born of our union: Mary, now Mrs. A.M. Peterson, Bessemer, Ala., and Warren Allen, who died at the age of two years. Then in 1930 we adopted Donald, who lives in Weyauwega.

I took part in various community activities, such as Homemakers, church work, Red Cross, etc. I had the honor of being the first woman to vote in the township of Waupaca. This was right after the women were given the right to vote.

I have four grandchildren ad one great grandson. My husband John died in 1965. Then three years later I sold my farm and bought a home in Waupaca. I am active in the work of the Shepherd of the Lakes Church, of the Historical Society, and of Homemakers. My hobbies are braiding rugs, doing ceramics, chair caning, and oil painting. I lead a very contented life and enjoy my many friends.

Two years ago I took a Caribbean cruise with my daughter, Mary.

I enjoyed this so much that it inspired me to make more travel plans. Last November I went on a week’s tour of Florida, returning by way of Bessemer, Alabama, to visit my daughter’s family and enjoy two of the grandchildren from Seattle, Washington.

On July 6, my daughter and I joined an I.E.S. tour of 28 days in Europe, (I.E.S. stands for International Exchange Students tour, which starts from Salt Lake City). We went to Holland and West Germany and then spent 13 days in Norway, which was most interesting, then four days in England.

I am very fortunate to enjoy good health, so I lead a very contented life.

I am center chairman of the Homemakers in Waupaca and treasurer of the Historical Society. I am also a circle chairman in the church. The women of our church meet one day a month to make quilts and other materials to be sent to needy countries like Nicaragua, since the earthquake, and other foreign countries where children need covering. Men’s and children’s clothes are very much in demand. We do pretty well for a small congregation.

On a Sunday the congregation voted to sponsor a Laotian family. This family is Christian, and when the Communists came into Laos, most Christian families were put into refugee camps, and they have gone through a lot of hardships.

The United States has loosened the immigration regulations to allow some of them to come here if they have sponsors. We have several promises of a job and also an apartment. Food and clothing and furniture are coming in. It’s a new project and hasn’t gone very far yet.

Joe Leean at our congregation meeting put out a challenge; he said that we should challenge God. This is a challenge that I think we should accept. The father in this family is 24 years old; his wife is 10; they have a baby and a three year old child. They’re also bringing two other children, the father’s brother and sister. They are 12 and 14.

The father is the only one who can speak English. That will be a problem. I don’t know what kind of job he will get, but I think it will be with Joe Leean, who was a teacher, here in Waupaca, and now owns Ding’s Dock and runs it.

They have a chapel service every Thursday night during July and August on the lakes. It is held on the stern-wheeler, and a local pastor is in charge of it. This is a very beautiful and worthwhile vesper service.

I remember when radios came in. My husband belonged to a cow testing association, and a man from the association would spend one day and one night with us each month. I remember one night we drove to Ida Farley’s to hear the crackling and noise from the station at Madison. I thought, “If that’s radio, I don’t want any of it!”

A friend of ours bought one, a crystal set, and he paid over $300 for it. I remember when we got a radio, we had to have an adapter for the home electric plant that we used until the electricity was brought in.

There have been a lot of changes from the radio to television. Communication is much more rapid in every area.

When President McKinley was assassinated, it took three or four days before we heard it. In the country one person would telephone to another, and that way the news would spread.

In the depression days no one had much but we all had enough to eat. We’d help each other when it was needed. We made our own entertainment.

I don’t remember that drinking was a problem. We were strict Baptists, and thus temperate.