Minnesota Digital Library

Interview with Father Thomas Borgerding, Part 1, Beltrami County Historical Society Oral History Collection, Bemidji, Minnesota

Interview with Father Thomas Borgerding, Part 1, Beltrami County Historical Society Oral History Collection, Bemidji, Minnesota
Father Thomas Borgerding discusses where he was born; where his parents came from; his family; when and why they came to Minnesota; his first school in Minnesota; the national secularization of public schools; what languages they spoke at school; his years at St. John's University; training for the priesthood; about his order; going to his first parish at Millerville; his abbott appointing him to mission work; first arrival at Red Lake; and their first church building, the nuns who first came to Red Lake; the nuns' first attempt at a day school in 1888; where the Ojibwe families had sugar camps; financial assistance from the Drexel sisters; whether the church owned its land; how they got lumber to build church buildings; the other government school; the role of missionaries in ""civilizing"" Native Americans; changes in school funding over time; the school's dairy farm; and his role at the school.
1956-07-10
English
BCHS052a
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No Copyright - United States