Malcolm Rosholt Online Archives

Both the Alban and Saumer Schools were used for a few more years. They were used for parochial school classes taught in Norwegian for the children of Lutheran parents.

The Alban School was probably the first to be organized in Town 25. It may have been in 1871. Not many records earlier than 1896 could be found. The first school was made of logs which were covered with board siding that ran up and down instead of lengthwise. The siding was painted red, so the school was known as the red” schoolhouse. It did not get the name of Alban till the township was organized in 1878. School was not in session in the winter as there was just a thin floor and no banking around the outside. It was often used for church services by the Norwegians and Danish. It was used as a parochial school in the summer months. It is not completely known if the New Hope District No 5 became the Alban School in 1878.

The Hamilton School might possibly have opened in the fall of 1878. The first building served as a woodshed after the new white-boarded school was built. It was temporarily discontinued in 1945. It never reopened.

A third school district to be organized in Town 25 was the Brekke School, (also known as the Saumer School.) On August 11,1879 the newly organized town board voted to build a school in this area to serve the growing population of the settlers. The new district organized in 1879. The single room schoolhouse was not built until sometime between 1881 and 1883.

**** A stove stood in the middle of the room with a pipe running to a brick outlet. It stood on a basin of sand. When the weather started to get cold, the students would bury their ink bottles in the warm sand overnight to keep them from freezing.

In the spring of 1893, plans were to build a new schoolhouse on the site where the old one stood. The old school was sold and moved to the John Dobbe residence and used as a kitchen.

****1896 -1897 some of the boys were getting to much for the woman teacher to handle, so a man teacher was hired to help with the situation.

****Fencing had to be erected around the schoolhouse to keep the sheep out. (Saumer or sou-myr means “sheep marsh” in Norwegian.

On March 31, 1883, it was decided to form a School District No 3 in the northwestern section of the township. It became known as the Simonis School, named after the Simonis families that lived in the area. The first Simonis School burned in 1893. Another school was built not far from the first location. This became District No 2. (it was district No 3 when it was first organized in 1883). All the records before 1908 were lost in a fire that destroyed the second school building. A third building was built. Gertrude Lee taught 1916-17. It was said that she keep the best school records. She recorded progress by her students. A comment she had made,” That we could have completed all the geography work if the pupils had come to school regular.”

Brown School was organized May 31, 1904. It was located in the eastern part of Town 25. It was named after Erza Brown who lived near the school. There were twenty students the first year. It was discontinued in 1943 and consolidated with the Alban School.

It is not certain when the Lake View School started. It was also call the Olstad School. It might have been in 1895. It was District No 4. Some pupils were going to school in the New Hope District and when school started at Lake View they went there. It was said that the school got its name because it stood about a half mile from Lake Helen and when the trees were bare you could see the lake from the school. It was discontinued in 1943 and consolidated with Alban.

Rosholt School:

Children still attended the Alban School in 1904. In the summer of that year a school was built on the hill west of the village which was not yet incorporated. This was known as Joint School District No 5. It was a one-room schoolhouse. A leading citizen from the area thought it was too big, but within a few years they had to add two new rooms and a second story. There were eight grades. Which was about 40 students. School started the end of September and let out in May.

Electricity was put in the school in the fall of 1912.

In April of 1913, a loan of $6,000.00 was granted for the start of a brick building just north of the existing grade school. This would be for the high school.

In the summer of 1915 work began on the new school. Several carloads of brick for the building were brought in on the railroad. It was struck by lighting and burned down in 1948. Students had to attend classes in the community hall located in the fair park. Classes were held there until the new high school was built in 1951, on the land where it now sits. Basketball games were played in the hall till the early fifties.

Many pictures and records were lost in the fire.