The school burned down. Big deal.

Added November, 2013:  I just found this postcard online (at St Cloud Remembered, on Facebook).  It has to be the school in the articles below.  Wow.  Stunning that a pic still exists.
~~Thanks to Kim Avenson~~

 Here's an article from the Pierz Journal, published  February 12th, 1914, on the front page....  
   
THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL BURNED.


The parochial school house, at an estimated value of $10,000, was destroyed by fire at an early hour Tuesday morning.  The fire was discovered by 10 year old Nick Sehr, who called Joseph P. Meyer.  Joseph immediately spread the alarm.  Both the upper town and the lower town fire halls summoned the firemen, who forced four streams of water into the burning building incessantly for two hours without any appreciable effect on the progress of the flames.  The framework was totally destroyed and only the partly collapsed brick walls remained as shocking reminders when daylight came.

A menace to the safety of a number of children, who came to take a look at the smoking ruins and the ashes of their schoolbooks, the walls and chimneys were brought down by means of dynamite explosions.  The loss in furniture, books, etc, is estimated at $5,000, making a total loss of $15,000, covered by $6,000 insurance.  The origin of the fire is unknown.  It started in the northwest room of the second floor, while the heating plant in the basement was cold.  Electricity could hardly have caused it, as the light wires entered the building on the east side.

We started looking for an article after we saw the fire mentioned in an account of early Morrison county churches.  Larry and I have been closely perusing the online issues of the Pierz Journal, and neither of us remembered seeing any articles about a school burning, especially the Catholic school in downtown Pierz!

Ok, we were both skeptical, just like you are ☺.  The first article doesn't sound 'upset', and Larry pointed out that by dynamiting the "menacing" chimney and walls, they pretty much destroyed any evidence of possible arson.  
Another corollary is that Pierz, in 1914, was still battling the Catholic/public school issue, so those citizens who thought two schools in town were excessive now had to deal with all the kids attending the one small public school.  Hmm....

I found this next article in the February 19th issue of the PJ.  Wow, in ONE WEEK, they already had specific plans for the new building?

NEW PAROCHIAL SCHOOL FOR PIERZ.

At a meeting held by the members of St Joseph's congregation last Sunday, it was decided to build a new parochial school to take the place of the one destroyed by fire last week.  Fr Stiegler exhibited plans for the new structure which will be of solid brick, two stories high, 76 feet wide, 80 feet long, with full basement, and will contain eight rooms.  The site for the building has not yet been definitely selected, but it is more than likely  that it will be built upon the church grounds southwest of the parsonage and facing the east add west street.  Work will begin as soon as the condition of the ground and weather permit.

But, back to how they obtained plans for the new school so soon--Larry found this entry in the 35th edition of a contractors record book online.  It was published in January, 1914.
Pierz, Minn.--Parochial School: 2 sty. & bas. 76 x 79. Pierz.  Archt. E.J.Donohue, 600 Gilfillan bldg., St Paul, Minn.  Owner St Joseph Parish, Rev. J.L. Stiegler, Pierz.  Contracts let; see St Paul.

How small towns worked then--the building was inadequate and they needed it gone.  Everyone sorta "knew", and this was a good way to deal with it.  
Still, in the same issue of the paper on the 19th, there was a blurb that one family had lost $15.00 worth of schoolbooks in the fire.  Proof, I suppose, that not everyone knew.

A school picture from Pierz, Minnesota

The 1880s were immigrant years in Minnesota, part of a movement to homestead land and make a 'gut' life here.  Farmers from Germany, Bohemia, Poland and Austria followed friends and neighbors to this place Fr Pierz recommended.

Schooling was as important as it was in Europe--maybe more important.  The kids needed to learn English here in America.  Luckily, the nuns were bi-lingual and 'took on any comers'.  The kids themselves had to live with the situation ☺.

Larry found a wonderful school photo taken on the front steps of St Joseph's Church in Pierz.  The caption suggests it was 1881, but the church wasn't finished till 1888, so maybe this was 1890 or so?  Anyway, I'll show you the whole photo, but wanted to highlight some kids' faces first.  Don't you recognize something familiar in these kids?

(BTW, we were originally drawn by the third pic, above.  His face breaks my heart.  What was wrong?  Or, hmm, was there a reason he was placed in front of Father?)

Next night:   We were talking about a kids' concept of his or her own face in those years.  Were they even aware that they weren't smiling?
Our kids are told to "Smile" from little on cuz every adult has a camera, but photography itself was new to the kids pictured here.  (Meeting a new adult, they were expected to greet them, and be quiet).  No one exhorted them to "SMILE", not even for a photograph we'd be examining 120 years later ☺

 Here's the original photo--be sure to zoom in.  S'tr is watching YOU!

Here's an interesting clipping from the Tyler, Mn newspaper on the 19th of February,1914. (In context, the school burned down 2 months before Math and Theo Hesch left for Europe).  

The school controversy raged for 50 years in Pierz.  The fire resolved nothing since the public schoolhouse was quickly replaced.  I'm sure there were people who knew exactly what started this fire, huh?

Little Falls--The public school building at Pierz, thirteen miles east of this city,was burned.  The cause of the fire is unknown.  The loss is $15,000.  The school, although public, was taught by Catholic Sisters, and this practice was recently criticized by state school authorities.

Larry found this clipping, too, from April 16, 1952.  It was an AP wire-service filler along the lines of the bull in the hayloft story.  I wonder which kid was showing off more that day?  And, did Herb tell this story over and over in later years, or....well, you know...lol

1923--As prohibition wore on and "the feds" became more and more powerful and disruptive, it seems like the locals appreciated it less and less.  Doesn't this clipping give you a vivid picture in your imagination?  Woohoo!

As Larry pointed out, what's so peculiar about leaving money for a clock to be installed in the courthouse tower?  And, yes, the county saw fit to take him up on it, see?  The story is included in this video:

(BTW, there are other Little Falls videos on Youtube, too.  Cool, huh?)

"To kill a priest" 1903

Compare the school buildings in these old pictures--the postcard of St Josephs Church in Pierz (right) shows two buildings to the north and south.  They were both schools--honest! To the north, it was this ◄ school, the public school.

If you enlarge the collage below, you'll see the Catholic school middle bottom is the same as the one to the south of the church above.

Why am I bringing this up?  Well, because Larry found more newspaper articles from this period, one of which tells us that the first public school burned to the ground in 1902, and was promptly rebuilt.  I think the "Public School, Pierz" pic is the new school.

A little history here:  Pierz was one of the towns in Minnesota that was embroiled in a dispute over schools.  Benedictine nuns taught in many of these towns, but all children were welcome.  The local Catholic church supported the school, more or less, but it was a burden.  Of course, prayers were said during the school day, and there were crucifixes in every room....but did nuns and icons make it a Catholic school?  The state supported public schools, but not parochial schools.  The question, then, was fairness.  Pierz had a particularly bitter fight over the issue, and it raged for at least 50 years....including dynamite left on the priests' front porch at least twice--in 1902 and in 1951.... 

These two articles were published on October 2nd, 1902, one in the Globe, and the other in Minneapolis Journal--yeah, most likely written by the same stringer. The situation was not pretty in Pierz in 1902.

It didn't get better.  Fr Pfiffer sounds like a hothead, and he's still in the thick of the fight eight months later, and people are pissed:

22 August 1929 Sauk Centre Herald

Here's the next time it happened:  The controversy was still simmering, but if the priest was "at a loss to understand the motives for placing the bomb", then what WAS happening?  The problem was still very much alive in 1929, and even in 1953, when a Mr Gau was excommunicated for taking a straw-poll among the parishioners (see the above link).
Sheesh!