Lincoln Township
Page 3 of the Manning Monitor December 21, 2006

Each week I put together Manning area history for this page and almost each week I notice an error I made or someone tells me about a needed correction. Unless it is really a major error I won't be placing a correction the following week BUT I would really appreciate it if you notice an error that you tell me or drop off a note at the Monitor office. Thanks to computer technology I can quickly correct these errors so my database of information will be as accurate as possible for future use. This is especially critical for the school history articles since a lot of this information will be placed in the Manning school history book and we want to have the most accurate information as possible.

Numbering system
After talking to Robert Hansen of rural Lincoln Township in Audubon County about some of the country schools that were in his area he helped me figure out the numbering system for the schools. The schools follow a similar numbering scheme as the sections in the township but they do not use the section numbers. If I have the Lincoln Twp. country schools numbered wrong below please let me know.

Zoom of Lincoln No. 9 school

Thanks to the Internet many people have contacted me by e-mail about Manning area genealogy and history. Norman Rudnick is one such person. He has been very interested in the recent move of the Trinity Lutheran Church to Manning which he attended as a youth. He also sent me this Lincoln No. 7 country school information and picture which was taken around 1932-33.

Back: Ethel Joens, Erna Porsch, Harold Asmus, Ruth Wickham, Hazel Joens, Jessie Sonksen; Middle: Arnold Porsch, Norman Rudnick, Otto Porsch, Reinhardt Rudnick, Gerald Kass, Dora Lauer, Arlene Asmus; Front: Viola Asmus, Robert Wenig, Arnold Kass, Gorden Wenig, Paul Joens, Thelma Joens

The teacher was Lois (Huffman) Sunberg - she took the picture, Lois is a sister to Glenn Huffman. Harold Asmus was in 7th grade, Arlene Asmus was in 4th grade, Viola Asmus was in 3rd grade. Jessie Sonksen married Arlo Pfannkuch and they were the parents of Wayne, Janice, Craig, and Bruce. Jessie is a sister to Christine (Sonksen) Mohr who married George Mohr. Viola Asmus married Magnus Ostebee, Erna Porsch married Ray Schultz, Hazel Joens married ? Christensen, Arlene Asmus married George Bruhn.

Oeser
Several years ago Lucille (Oeser) Getman of Minnesota contacted me about some Manning history. I asked her to send me some pictures she had and one of them was of Lincoln No. 3. shown below.

Back: Inez Stoelk, Esther Stoelk, Alta Ahrendsen, Harry Fischer, Helen Joens, Lucy Fischer, Lucille Oeser, Lorraine Rothfolk; Middle: Orville Stoelk, Eunice Wiese, Vernon Joens, Rockley Wiese, Norman Rothfolk; Front: Phyllis Joens, Joyce Oeser, Deloris Rothfolk

Fischer
The Fischer family was one prominent name in Lincoln Twp. in the early 1900s. Doug Fischer sent me this picture in 2004 that shows shows the original Lincoln No. 3 country school being moved by his grandfather. This original school was replaced by a newer building.

This school house (original Lincoln No. 3 school building) was moved to the farm presently owned by Tim & Joni (Siepker) Kienast who live in section 5 of Lincoln Township. Three tractors pulled the old school house. They got the school stuck in the road "V" cut and had to dig out the sides of the road embankment so the schoolhouse could get through. When they arrived at the Dammann farm, the school was to be positioned at the top of a hill. Large hay ropes were hooked to the front of the Oil Pull tractor which was still hooked to the school. The ropes ran through pulleys which were attached to a group of trees at the top of the hill and the 2 smaller tractors pulled on the ropes going down-hill to assist the larger tractor going up the hill.

Bunker Hill
My mother, Dorothy Kusel, taught at Lincoln No. 8 "Bunker Hill" country school in 1945. During the week she would stay with the Clarence and Agnes Smith family that lived north of the school. These are some of her students: Joyce Huffman, Gaylord Henriksen, Zona Gaskill, Carolyn Smith, Beverly Christensen, Marilyn Ullerich, Walter Otto Jr., Gerald Smith, Kermit Borkowski, Kent Smith, Donna Jean Henriksen, Marlene Christensen, Virgil Henriksen, Lando Otto, Lois Henriksen, Lyle Henriksen, Nancy Ullerich, Janice Otto, Julien Gaskill, Ronald Ullerich, Burdette Christensen, Ruth Borkowski.

It so happens that the desk I'm working on writing this article was the desk mother used in 1945 and later purchased when this country school closed.

Mother did not know why the school was called "Bunker Hill." Some country schools were identified by the family name that lived nearest to them. The name Bunker Hill all made sense when I was working on the 1921 Lincoln Township map shown above. The O.B. Duling family lived just across the road to the east of the school. Back then it was common for farms to have names and the Duling farm name was "Bunker Hill Stock Farm" so the mystery is now solved.

We need your help
As I have mentioned many times before, we need your help in creating the history of Manning school and the surrounding country schools. If you taught country school in this area please take some time to write down what you remember about your school/s. If your mother or grandmother taught please try to dig up some pictures and write down some things you know about their time teaching.

If you were a country school student please take some time to write down your memories, the names of teachers and students and dig out some pictures. Please take the information to the Monitor office or e-mail me mhs@davidkusel.com.

"If we don't document it now this school history will be lost forever!!!"