Portrait of the Reverend Samuel Fletcher Kerfoot, Hamline University president, 1912-1927. A 1889 Hamline graduate, he was a minister in the Methodist church and president of Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell, South Dakota, before becoming Hamline's president.
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.
Portrait of the Reverend Jabez Brooks, Hamline University president, 1854-1857 and 1861-1869. Prior to coming to Hamline, he was principal of a seminary in Watertown, Wisconsin, and a professor of Greek and mathematics at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin. After leaving Hamline, he became a member of the faculty at the newly opened University of Minnesota.
Portrait of the Reverend George Henry Bridgman, Hamline University president, 1883-1912. Prior to coming to Hamline, he was a minister in the Canadian Methodist Conference and principal of Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, Lima, New York.
Portrait of Helen Sutherland, Hamline University graduate (Class of 1863). She served as the university's preceptress from 1865 to 1867 and taught mathematics and English.
Studio protrait of the Thief River Falls City Council. Standing: G. Halverson, M.V. Evenson. Sitting: T.P. Hamre, Ed Evenson, Olaf Ramstad, W.W. Prichard, Milton Forder, Lars Backe'
Studio portrait of Alois and Louisa Wemerskirchen, members of a well-known Shakopee family. Handwriting on reverse reads: "Louisa Wermerskirchen" and "Alois Wermerskirchen."
Orgins of St. Benedict's Monastery (convent), St. Joseph, Minnesota. Mother Willibalda Scherbauer, OSB, led four sisters and two candidates, ranging in age from 18 to 26, from St. Marys, Pennslyvania, to the Midwest frontier (St. Cloud, Minnesota) in 1857. Mother Willibalda (Franciska) was born in Kastel, Bavaria in 1831. At an early age, her family took her to St. Walburg Convent in Eichstätt to be educated. There she professed her vows in 1851; four years later, she volunteered to join the sisters in America. Then in 1857, she volunteered to venture to the Northwest Territory and was appointed prioress of the St. Cloud community by Boniface Wimmer, OSB. Mother Willibalda was an accomplished musician of whom Jane Swisshelm, editor of a local newspaper, wrote, "The Lady Abbess is small, slight, delicate, graceful, and as accomplished a lady as you could meet in any circle...waking the first echoes of those broad prairies in a call (daily ringing of the church bell) to bow regularly at an altar of Christian worship..." (McDonald, page41). Mother Willibalda's able administration as leader gave the Benedictine sisters a firm monastic foundation, not only in St. Cloud, but also in St. Joseph, the nucleus of St. Benedict's Monastery. She is lovingly remembered for accepting Mother Benedicta Riepp into the St. Cloud community when she was misunderstood by authorities and some community members for upholding the rights of the sisters in America (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, pages 12, 15-16, 19).
Expansion of Monastery (1880-1909). Sister Gertrude Flynn, OSB, was the prioress (in the 1870s) of a small, struggling community, St. Gertrude's Convent, Shakopee, MN, which (like St. Benedict's) had originated in St. Marys, PA. St. Gertrude's was the community of which Sister Scholastica Kerst, OSB, became a member in 1862. However, in 1877 Sister Scholastica transferred her membership to St. Benedict's Convent and within three years was appointed the fourth prioress of St. Benedict's. One of her first official actions was to negotiate the merger of St. Gertrude's Convent with St. Benedict's despite the disapproval of Sister Gertrude and her community. The merger of this English-speaking community introduced other nationalities that enhanced St. Benedict's community and provided it with a group of zealous religious whose professional experience assisted in meeting the demands of its academy and other apostolates. Sister Gertrude served St. Benedict's well in her role as community secretary and in her hope and encouragement for the full restoration of praying the Divine Office, a privilege denied the community by Abbot Boniface Wimmer, OSB, for the sake of the teaching apostolate (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, pages 95-99).
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).