Raymond P. Kaighn, Class of 1898. He was Hamline University's first physical education director and Hamline's coach for the first intercollegiate basketball game ever played, which was against the Minnesota School of Agriculture in 1895. He also played on the first basketball team under the direction of James Naismith at the international YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts.
These five sisters and four lay nurses formed the first group to be trained by Ms. Wilma Johnson, a superintendent of nurses from Chicago engaged by the School of Nursing. Fom left to right seated: Sisters Julitta Hoope, Leobina Gliszhenski, Standing: Sisters Natalia Schmidtbauer, Cunigund Kuefler, Salome Amschler (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, page 258).
Expansion of Monastery (1880-1909). Mother Cecilia (Mary) Kapsner born in Prussia in 1859, came to America at age 15 with her family who settled in Pierz. Two years later, Mary entered St. Benedict's Convent and professed vows in 1878. In 1901 she was elected to serve as prioress, a position she held for three consecutive terms. Mother Cecilia was the first prioress whose background was similar to the majority of the members of St. Benedict's Convent as well as the people in the St. Joseph area. With keen perception and ready judgment she led the community through considerable building expansion. Especially noteworthy is the construction of the Sacred Heart Chapel and the Teresa Hall addition to the college, both having been in the planning stages as early as 1909 (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
This is a photograph of E. St. Julien Cox, the first mayor of St. Peter from 1865 to 1867. Cox was a captain in Company E of the Second Minnesota Regiment during the Civil War. He led volunteers to fight at New Ulm during the 1862 Uprising. Cox served as judge of the Ninth Judicial District from 1876 to 1882.
This is a photograph of Dr. Asa W. Daniels from St. Peter. Daniels served as a surgeon at Fort Ridgely in Nicollet County and as a medical officer at the Lower Sioux Agency before he moved to St. Peter to practice medicine. He tended the wounded in 1862 during the attack on New Ulm by the Dakota.
This photograph shows the members of the Essler Mandolin Club in St. Peter. From left to right, the men are: Charlie Volk, Joe Rhiner, John Essler, Stephen Spiess (note the incorrect spelling on the photograph), Fred Veith, and George Essler.