Marie C. (Dunn) Schroeder shared this clipping about Christmas 150 years ago with for reprint in the Rock County Star Herald.
 
‘Christmas in Rock County 60 years ago’
From the Rock County Herald dated Friday, December 23, 1932
 
Christmas in the ’70’s (1870s) meant little to the pioneers in Rock county’s sod houses. It brought no romance to those early settlers as they sat around a wood stove fire, waiting for nightfall, when they would go to bed. It was just a day like all the rest, in those times when a man thought it recreation to ride fourteen miles behind oxen after wood, and a woman grieved all day after a dog stole her cherished soup bone, saved to be the main item of the Christmas dinner.
Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Dunn sat in their West Main street home this week and told about those early days. Mr. Dunn came to this county in 1870, homesteading in what is now section 24, Beaver Creek township, about two and a half miles northeast of what is now Beaver Creek village. Mrs. Dunn joined him the next year. They lived there a quarter of a century, but for the first decade Christmas meant nothing to them.
“We were so poor we couldn’t do anything on Christmas,” Mr. Dunn said, and Mrs. Dunn added: “If you’re wanting us to tell you about how we celebrated Christmas, I’m sorry I can’t accommodate you. We didn’t have any entertainments and there were no special efforts to observe the day. I was too busy cooking and taking care of the children in those days. Mostly we just stayed at home and tended to our own business. What did we have for our big Christmas dinner? We didn’t have any; we were thankful just for something to eat.”
That was why, a year or two later, a neighbor’s dog brought grief into the Dunn home. Mr. Dunn had managed to buy a quarter of beef, a few weeks before Christmas, and they were saving the last of it, a soup bone, which was hanging in a wooden lean-to outside the main house. Two days before Christmas a dog sneaked into the shed and left with the soup bone. There was no meat on the Dunn’s dinner table that Christmas.
Poor though they were, the Dunns were among the prosperous settlers in the county. They had some money, at first; some of the pioneer groups had none. Their little money went quickly, of course, and was gone when Mr. Dunn was harvesting his first crop. It bought them a cow, however, and provided a wooden floor for their sod house; their neighbors’ floors were grass or dirt.
Mr. Dunn, like all the other settlers, thought a sod house was necessary. They believed, as they were told, that frame houses would blow away, and that persons would freeze to death in a wooden house. So he built his home with sod from the sloughs, cut into bricks 4x18x36 inches, and molded into walls 36 inches thick.
There was one window, with glass panes as befitted a prosperous citizen. There were two rooms in the house, with 12-foot ceilings.
The roof was built in this manner: Split-rail rafters were laid a foot apart from the walls to a ridge pole; willow brush was laid on the rafters, sod on the willow brush, and about four inches of dirt on the sod. The roof held, and did not leak.
When the house was finished, Mrs. Dunn came to her husband. With her she brought some dried apples, product of her Wisconsin home. These dried apples were made into the only sauce, or dessert, or sweet side dish the family had for a year.
As they sat in their Luverne home this week, Mr. and Mrs. Dunn said, time and again, that Christmas meant nothing to the pioneer families 55 and 60 years ago.
They looked around at the radio and phonograph in the living room, at the rugs on the floor and at flowers and a huge fern in a jar on a handsome pedestal. Mrs. Dunn reached over to touch the big radiator, and with a shrug said: “I know it’s hard to believe, but that first Christmas or two meant nothing. These things” – she looked around the room, and shrugged again – “we had nothing to celebrate Christmas with.”
For instance, Mr. Dunn related, just before that first Christmas the two spent in their new home, he got caught in a blizzard.
“I had a wood lot seven miles from home on the Rock river,” he said. “About the biggest pleasure I had in those days was hauling wood with my oxen. And it took most of my time. I made five trips every week in the winter. Well, this time I got caught in the worst blizzard I have ever seen. Three other men were with me and we couldn’t see the lead ox for the snow. Finally we left the oxen on the ice at the river’s edge and started walking, thinking to get to some house. We got lost and that night wound up at the home of Henry Martin, a settler of ‘69, who lived south of the wood lot. Other lost men came drifting in that night, and the next day, until twelve of us were there. Martin had killed a big hog for Christmas meat. We got there Monday night and stayed until Thursday. When we left, the hog had been eaten up and Martin said, “Well, I won’t have to get any salt for that hog, anyway.”
“And while he was gone,” said Mrs. Dunn, “I was in that house alone, with a small baby. I didn’t know what had happened to Mr. Dunn, and there was not much wood. I was afraid to burn much of it, so I’d keep up a fire about six hours every day and the baby and I would stay in bed the rest of the time to keep warm.”
Mr. and Mrs. Dunn looked around the room again and then both sat quietly for a few minutes, saying nothing. Mrs. Dunn started knitting again. “We didn’t have much Christmas,” she said.
There were no toys and not a doll at Christmas time. There was nothing bought at a store. “I did try to make a few trinkets for the children when they were old enough,” Mrs. Dunn said, “but they didn’t amount to much, and the children always found them before Christmas.”
There were no Christmas issues of magazines, although Mr. Dunn continued to receive a New York publication edited by Henry Ward Beecher. There were no holiday cocktails; they walked through the mud and snow to the well in a slough bottom for their water. Except at times, when gophers got into the well, then the walk had to be three-quarters of a mile.
On these gopher-caused trips for water, Mrs. Dunn went to the home of Aldro Grout, in the southeast quarter of section 24. He and Eli Grout, Aldro’s cousin, were the Dunns’ closest neughbors. Eli Grout lived only half a mile away, in the southwest quarter of section 24. Fred Miercourt lived a mile and a half southwest of the Dunns, in section 36, and Bishop Crossman a trifle farther away in section 36.
There were no decorations and there were no flowers. A little patch of oats just to the right of the one door in the house did look well for a time, but the grasshoppers ate it up. And there were no green things growing anywhere. The Dunns did have some hope for a while about their beans, but the oxen got them one day.
Things got better, of course, with time. Mr. Dunn built a frame house with lumber hauled from Worthington, the rail head then, and they lived in that home, the first of its kind in the county, for a time, although they were not able to finish it inside for a year or two. The county prospered. A Methodist church was built at Beaver Creek, and there, and in Bishop Crossman’s large house near the Dunn home, families sometimes would gather for social times.
Mr. Dunn marketed his crops in Worthington, taking three days for a trip, and passing through Luverne, then growing, where Wold & McKay had erected the first business building some years before. The structure is now known as the Stager apartments and is the last building on the south side of Main street, going east. The Dunns became affluent enough to kill a beef and a few hogs just before Christmas. Times were good.
That was in the 80’s. Luverne was a nice little settlement, and those Christmas times are remembered, too, by Mrs. Beaubien, who was one of the city’s early settlers, and who this week sat in the Dunn living room, listening to them talk.
“Christmas had become the big day of the year here by then,” Mrs. Beaubien said.
“There were services in all the churches, with a long program and a huge tree in every church. Everybody went, mostly in sleighs, and there was a gift, always hung on the tree, for everybody there. Nobody missed it who could go. Too, we always used to get together on Christmas day – four or five families of us – at some home and spend the day talking – oh, we had plenty to talk about then, too – and eating a big Christmas dinner.”
The country was modernized then, with its community gatherings and its organs. It was not the country the Dunns looked at in the ’70’s.
Mr. and Mrs. Dunn cannot recall the details of their first Christmas in the sod house, but they know just about what they did.
Most of the day they sat around the cooking stove, with one of its corners resting on a rock which replaced a broken leg.
For dinner they had a little bacon Mr. Dunn had bought – for his carefully hoarded money had not then given out. They had home-made light bread. They had potatoes gotten from Henry Martin. The potatoes were chilled but that didn’t matter. And they had dried apple sauce.
Mr. Dunn brought in piles of green box elder wood, and went to the slough for water. They took turns petting the baby, and reading the journal from New York. Mrs. Dunn swept the floor of two-foot boards again. It was a fine floor, but it would get black; so much dirt was always dropping from the sod walls.
For supper they ate bacon and chilled potatoes – and dried apple sauce. They put the baby to bed and Mr. Dunn brought in more box elder wood before they settled down to rest a while beside the kerosene lamp, in front of the broken-legged stove. Wind blew from the north, and loose dirt rattled off the roof. The lamp smoked and Mrs. Dunn turned it down a bit. Mr. Dunn put more wood in the stove and closed all the dampers. They blew out the lamp and went to bed.
That was Christmas day in a Rock county pioneer’s sod house in 1871.
 
Though the story referred to the events as happening in 1872, she said sources show the homestead claim was filed in 1871, and the family came from Wisconsin by wagon train in 1872. That would mean this year, 2022, is the 150th year after their first Christmas in Rock County.
She shared that her great-grandmother Laura had a baby soon due - when she was home in a sod house with a toddler, alone during a blizzard, just before that Christmas. Their second child, daughter Olla E. Dunn, arrived January 19, 1873, the first settlers' baby born in Beaver Creek township.

Dispatch report
Dec. 11
•A fire call was reported.
•Complainant reported a family and child issue.
•Complainant reported a suicide threat.
Dec. 12
•A civil issue was reported.
•Complainant reported motor vehicle theft.
•Report of a POR registration.
•Complainant reported fraud.
•Complainant reported a runaway.
Dec. 13
•Complainant reported a domestic issue.
•Complainant reported a vulnerable adult.
•Complainant reported child maltreatment.
•Complainant reported child maltreatment.
•Complainant reported harassing communications.
•Assistance from another department was conducted.
Dec. 14
•Assistance from another department was conducted.
•An outage was reported.
•An outage was reported.
•Complainant reported a domestic issue.
•Complainant reported a domestic issue.
•A winter weather warning was issued.
Dec. 15
•A winter weather warning was issued.
•Complainant reported disturbing the peace.
•Assistance from another department was conducted.
•Assistance from another department was conducted.
Dec. 16
•Weather report was issued for icy conditions.
•Complainant reported trespassing.
•Complainant reported child maltreatment.
•Complainant reported reckless driving.
Dec. 17
•Complainant reported debris.
•Complainant reported a pedestrian on the road.
•Complainant reported property damage.
•Complainant reported property damage.
•Complainant reported a suicide threat.
•Complainant requested a residence check.
Dec. 18
•Complainant reported reckless driving.
•Complainant requested a miscellaneous public assist.
•Complainant reported debris fell out of pickup.
•Complainant reported disorderly conduct.
•A weather advisory was issued.
Dec. 19
•Complainant reported a disorderly.
•A weather advisory was issued.
•Complainant requested assistance.
•Complainant reported debris in roadway.
Dec. 20
•An outage was reported.
 
In addition, officers responded to 4 motor vehicle accidents, 16 vehicles in the ditch, 13 ambulance runs, 6 paper services, 3 animal complaints, 2 fingerprint requests, 7 background checks, 2 gas drive-offs, 8 alarms, 1 drug court test, 9 purchase and carry permits, 14 stalled vehicles, 14 traffic stops, 12 abandoned 911 calls, 2 welfare checks, 1 report of cattle out and 4 follow-ups.

Rock County’s newest deputy, Zachary Keesey, repeats the service oath delivered by Sheriff Evan Verbrugge Dec. 13 in front of county commissioners at the courthouse. Keesey, who grew up in Randolph, Minnesota, graduated from Riverland Technical College in Albert Lea. Since his graduation he’s served with the Eagan Lake, Mapleton and Mankato police departments. He moves to Luverne with his girlfriend, Madison, and daughter, Kinnsley Doles. The couple is expecting their second child in January.

Members of the Luverne Fire Department rescued a cow from a frozen pond Friday with equipment borrowed from Cleveringa Construction.
According to Luverne Fire Chief David Van Batavia, the call came in at 10:50 a.m. of a cow struggling to get out of a hole in the ice.
The 1,200-pound cow, belonging to Don Renken, was in the pond south of the Arne and Gloria Vink home near the interstate, and a passerby called 911.
According to Renken, his cows pasture in that area and drink water from a hole he chops in the ice.
“I guess she must have wandered out on the ice and broke through,” he said. “My boy and I were trying to think of a way to get her out with a rope.”
By this time, however, the fire department had contacted Adam Uithoven with Cleveringa Construction about borrowing a telehandler.
“Adam drove it out there and telehandled the forks out over the ice,” Van Batavia said. “Just the cow’s head was out of the water. She was pretty tired and cold.”
He said Uithoven lowered the forks down to the water and two firefighters in diving gear helped tie her to the equipment.”
“He picked her up on the forks and we were able to gently put her down,” Van Batavia said. “She was able to stand and move around.”
Renken said on Tuesday that the cow was able to walk to the shed and find warmth from the other cattle gathered inside.
“She’s doing good,” he said. “I’m just glad everything turned out OK. And thanks to the fire department. They all worked together pretty good.”
Van Batavia remarked that his crew is becoming skilled at animal rescues.
The department rescued a dog that fell in a Blue Mounds State Park crevice this past summer, and a few years ago, firefighters rescued a deer that fell through the ice in the Rock River near the city park.
“When the phone rings and it’s the Sheriff’s Office, you never know what it’s going to be,” he said.

Open house
Marilyn Swenson will celebrate her 85th birthday with an open house from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, at the Centennial Apartments. Refreshments will be served.

The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on July 8, 1943.
This article is continued from last week’s edition of the Star Herald about L. G. Larson.
 
Remembers Storms
Mr. Larson spent part of the memorable blizzard of 1888 in the school building of what is now district 44 in Beaver Creek township. For some reason, most of the smaller children had remained at home that day, and only the older boys were there. When the storm rose, and they say they were unable to walk home, they decided to spend the night there. Among the pupils were Tom Arneson, Ole Eide, John Engelson and several others in addition to Mr. Larson. The following morning, Sam Hendershoot, a farmer living about a half mile away, brought them hot biscuits for breakfast.
Worked in a Store
After completing his rural school education, Mr. Larson attended Decorah Institute, Decorah, Iowa, for two years.I stayed at home until I was 21, and then I decided I’d like to work in a store. I got a job in Garretson where I stayed a year and then got so lonesome that I quit. Then I went to Bradley, near Watertown, S.D., and got another store job, and the same thing happened. From there I went to Webster where I worked for a while, and I finally decided I wasn’t cut out to be a storekeeper.
“I then thought I’d try my luck at teaching school, and I was hired providing the former teacher didn’t return. It looked pretty bright for a while, until she finally told the board she was coming back, and then I was left without a thing to fall back on. I tramped two whole weeks over the Sisseton reservation looking for a job and didn’t find a thing.
Luck Changed
“My luck changed, however, because I managed to get a job teaching in a Norwegian parochial school at $25 for the month. That really looked good for me, because I didn’t have a penny to my name.
“They must have liked me, because I got a job teaching in the public school in what was known as the Hegna district near Wallace, S.D., and kept it four years.”
In July 1898, Mr. Larson was married to Alma Hegna in Dexler township, Codington county, S.D. He states he had $14 in his pocket at the time, and $5 of it went to the minister who performed the ceremony. On their wedding trip, they went from Watertown to Booge, arriving there just in time to take in a big July Fourth celebration at the Lars Pederson grove. Although he and Mrs. Larson had originally planned to return to South Dakota, they never did and have lived in Rock county ever since.
Retired in 1938
They rented land and farmed for eight years, and then moved to their present home on the northwest quarter of section 1, range 47 in Beaver Creek township, in 1905. In 1908 and 1909, Mr. Larson taught school in district 22 in Beaver Creek township, and after that continued to farm until he retired five years ago. He and Mrs. Larson still live on the home farm, however.
A member of the Palisade Lutheran church, Mr. Larson has served as treasurer of the congregation for many years and is the present vice-president. He also served as treasurer of the school district, and has been assessor for Beaver Creek township for 10 years.
He and Mrs. Larson became the parents of three sons, and one daughter, all of whom are living. They are: Rev. Elmer Larson, pastor of a Lutheran church at Ada, Minn.; Mrs. Arthur (Mabel) Edmundson, who lives on a farm; and Herman Larson, dean of voice at Oklahoma University, Norman, Okla.
Mr. Larson has two brothers, both of whom live in Beaver Creek township, and one sister, Mrs. Ole Ormseth, Luverne.
He attributes his long life to clean living, doing very little worrying and working hard always.
         Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

Luverne High School
Honor Roll
 
Quarter 1
A Honor Roll
Seniors: Justis Ahrendt, Mariam Alinzi, Abigail Anderson, Brock Behrend, Ross Bergman, Emma Beyer,  Parker Carbonneau, Zachary DeBoer, Marcus Feit, Egypt Forrest, Emmanuel Gonzalez, Jacie Graham, Jadyn Hart, Jocelyn Hart, Tori Hemme, Camden Hoven, Camden Janiszeski, Anja Jarchow, Ashlyn Johnson, Isabella Lanoue, Reese Louwagie, Lacey Morseman, Priscilla Muehr, Ethan Nath, Acen Olson, Carly Olson, Logan Ommen, Isabella Oye, Alyia Renken, Averill Sehr, Ryenn Stegenga, Kamryn Van Batavia, Cedar Viessman, Mallory Von Tersch, Ava Vorthems, Christina Wagner, Elizabeth Wagner.
Juniors: Morgan Ahrendt, Tyler Arends, Tucker Banck, Alexsis Berg, Zoey Berghorst, Kayla Bloemendaal, Abby Boltjes, Morgan Bonnett, Brynn Boyenga, Kai Buss, Cassandra Chesley, Conner Connell, Jenna DeBates, Elliot Domagala, Ryan Fick, Elle Halverson, Henry Hartquist, Roselynn Hartshorn, Uriel Hernandez, Julia Hoogland, Addison Huiskes, Kira John, Patrick Kroski, Maya Limones Gonzalez, Jacob Madison, Evan McCrary, Dennie Sandbulte, Tori Serie, Elizabeth Smidt, Kiesli Smith, Sarah Stegenga, Zachary Terrio, Perceyis Trierweiler, Skylar VanderSteen, Brooklyn Wicks, Steven Woods.
Sophomores: Keaton Ahrendt, Payton Behr, Zachary Brown, Kaitlin Conger, David Happeny, Leif Ingebretsen, Owen Janiszeski, Katia Jarchow, William Johnson, Caitlin Kindt, Brianna Kinsinger, Linkon Knorr, Camden Kunkel, Nora Louwagie, Andrea Luitjens, Xavier McKenzie, Liam Murphy, Emma Nath, Janica Oechsle, Katherine Pizel, Maria Rops, Carter Sehr, Hannah Sneller, Kylie Vander Lugt, Sage Viessman, Marcus Vortherms, Zane Walgrave, Piper Wynia.
Freshmen: Anna Banck, Rhiannon Bartels, Julia Beyer, Connor Bose, Kasey Buss, Zander Carbonneau. Maddux Domagala, Fox Forrest, Tyler Hodge, Ella Hoogendoorn, Gavin Hoven, Jaydon Johnson, Hannah Kempema, Allie Kracht, Jaxon Lais, Addyson Mann, Logan Mann, Nicholas Mann, Paula Martinez, Greta McClure, Cameron McCrary, Nardy Merida, Elizabeth Mulder, Gabriella Nath-Huls, Makayla Oechsle, Jordyn Reisch, Adelyn Rodriguez, Emma Saarloos, Austin Sandbulte, Madison Schepel, Ella Schmuck, Ava Sieve, Zoey Smeins, Jessika Tunnissen, Katelynn Van Belle, Hadley Vanderburg, Brooke Vos, Hannah Woodley, Aaliyah Xaysongkham.
 
Quarter 1
B Honor Roll
Seniors: Josie Anderson, Gavin Baum, Brady Bork, Tyson Cowell, Lily Ehlers, Ashton Eitreim, Sarah Gehrke, Yoselyn Gonzalez Quintana, Andy Halverson, Lauren Hansen, Lucas Hansen, Kaleb Hein, Grace Ingebretson, Katharine Kelm, Tiana Lais, Kaysie Lenz, Cole Mann, Jocelynn Mann, Deziree Nath, Mallory Nelson, Monica Padilla, Lola Peterson, Gavin Reisch, Joseph Remme, Travis Schempp, Krystyn Skindelien, Riley Sneller, Bonita Tiesler, Carsen Tofteland, Daylin Velasquez, Kaylee Voorhees, Ryan Vos.
Juniors: Anika Boll, Hailey Boll, Hallie Bork, Zakada Bradley, Tucker Dammann, Sarah de Cesare, Isaac DeBates, Brendan Eidem, Kenedee Franken, Aiden Gibbens, Morgan Hadler, Michael Halsne, Kyliauna Hendricksen, Izabel Honerman, Samuel Honerman, Morgan Jonas, Cade Kracht, Spencer Kracht, Ava Loosbrock, Emma Lusty, Gracie Nath, Alyssa Petroff, Rayann Remme, Tyler Rolfs, Sawyer Sasker, Mitchell Sauer, Will Serie, Jacob Stroh, Owen Sudenga, Hannah Vaudrin, Zane Verba, Josie Voorhees.
Sophomores: Masyn Akkerman, Jesse Aning, Adam Ask, Camryn Aukes, Christopher Bonilla Soto, Blaik Bork, Kaelyn Braun, Jaycee Chapa, Hailey Como, Amira Cowell, Audrie DeBates, Trevor DeBates, Marcos Diaz, Kyton Fritz, Jack Gangestad, Madison Hansen, Kaleb Hemme, Zariah Holmgren, Ashton Hood, Ryker Johnson, Christopher Matthiesen, Elijah McLendon, Morgan McTigue, Regan Mehlhaff, Layke Miller, Austin Morseman, Gemma Nelson, Dylan Ommen, Corynn Oye, Lilian Palmquist, Augusta Papik, Hallie Pergande, Ella Reisdorfer, Blaycie Remme, Tucker Remme, Layne Sasker, Alexander Schlosser, Maren Stegenga, Coulter Thone, Kendra Thorson, Elijah Woodley.  
Freshmen: Jocelyn Altman, Ella Apel, Bergen Ask, Treven Bell, Isabella Benson, Alexander Booe, Lucas Brockberg, MaKaylee Churchill, Jayden Dass, James DeBates, Dayson Fritz, Joshua Hansen, Elijah Henrichs, Samuel Hinz, Dawson Holtz, Rebecca Hoogland, Levi Huisman, Caleb Kracht, Landyn Lais, Elizabeth Lantgen, Xander Remme, Riley Ripka, Jace Rozeboom, Blake Sauer, Traytan Sayavong, Blake Swenson, Jace Tofteland, Kianna Winter.

H-BC High School
Honor Roll
 
Quarter 1
A Honor Roll
Seniors: Anthony Beaner, Olivia Bork, Devon Dysthe, Ellynor Klosterbuer, Jenifer Martinyuk, Brayden  Metzger, Cody Moser, Amallia Ternus, Leif Tollefson.
Juniors: Grace Anderson, Lanae Elbers, Sylvia Fick, Taylor Gehrke, Tahliya Kruger, Brynn Rauk, Larissa Steinhoff, Avril Susie, Olivia Susie, Joylynn Taubert.
Sophomores: Beau Bakken, Gracie Fagerness, Jackson Gacke, Michael Martinyuk, Jack Moser, Harli Rozeboom, Bailey Spykerboer, Lexxus Wessels, Amber Wiersema.
Freshmen: Micah Bosch, Mya Erickson, Claire Knobloch, Jamin Metzger, Abigayl Olson, Austyn Pap, Sarah Prohl, Ella Sammons.
Eighth Grade: Brynn Bakken, Katelyn Chesley, Makynzie Hellerud, Hailey Moser, Riggins Rheault, Ava Steinhoff.
Seventh Grade: Aspyn Bartels, Sage DeBoer, Karson Metzger, Maddox Metzger, Ella Rheault, Maxwell Sammons, Lily Top, Annmarie Wiersema.
Sixth Grade: Hope Bosch, Karis Dwire, Hailee Gehrke, Ryker Gehrke, Gavin Harnack, Kamron Kellenberger, Karissa Kerkhove-Brandt, Brekyn Klarenbeek, Auston Olson, Kaleb Olson, Trinity Olson, Nicholas Zingler.
 
Quarter 1
B Honor Roll
Seniors: Alexandra Drake, Luke Fuerstenberg, Tyrae Goodface, Brock Harnack, Alexander Harris, Taylor Huisman, Britton McKenzie, Riley Sheppard, Elisha Taubert, Joshua Wiersema.
Juniors: Layla Deelstra, Alexis Gardner Swenson, Madison Gaugler, Cooper Gehrke, Kyler Hartz, Aiden Kerkhove-Brandt, Ty Leuthold, Justin Roelfs, Taylor Spykerboer, Riley Tatge.
 Sophomores: Cameron Allen, Sawyer Bosch, Isabella DeBoer, Emma Deelstra, Lukas Hubbard, Blake Leenderts, Kadence Rozeboom, Johnathan Tiesler, Gracie Wilhelmi.
Freshmen: Callum Bartels, Ally Birger, Abigail Harris, Bode Kruger, Jack Kruger, Cadyn Leighton, Gavyn Leuthold, Henre Merson, Donavan Mess, Teagan Rainford, Mason Shaffner, Talya Shanahan, Hadley Spath, Joshua Ternus, Jacob Tiesler, Nate Van Maanen, Gavin Voss, Jacob Wallin, Eduardo Wegener, Isabel Wysong.
Eighth Grade:
Camdyn Broesder, Brooklynne Hubbard, Ava Rainford, Tryg Tollefson, Lilith Volden, Tatyana Williams.
Seventh Grade: Claire Boeve, Charlette Donth, Jace Gacke, Braxton Kaiser, Haven Kerkhove-Brandt, Brodie Metzger, Khloe Susie, Ruby Susie, Brystol Teune.
Sixth Grade: Kelsey Baker, Gabriella Junge, Keiton Koller, Binta Moeller.

Clare Gabrielson George, 103, of Newington, Connecticut, beloved wife of the late Andrew C. George Sr., passed away peacefully on Monday, December 12, 2022.
Clare was born Clara Gabrielson to the late Ole Hoiland Gabrielson and the late Alvilde Teresa Gabrielson in Luverne, Minnesota, on July 21, 1919. She grew up on a family farm and still owns farmland in Minnesota.
Clare and Andy met at a USO dance in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, during World War II. Soon after, Andy was deployed to Europe where he remained for three years without a furlough. They wrote a letter to each other every single day of his deployment, a testament to their love and dedication. Clare saved every single letter.
Clare and Andy married after the war and moved to Hartford, Connecticut. She never lost her love for Minnesota. Her car may have had a Connecticut license plate, but it also sported a bumper sticker that read, “It’s hard to be humble when you’re from Minnesota.” Clare never forgot where she was from and returned to see her family and farmland often.
Clare worked as a legal secretary at Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance for many years. She was a devoted member of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Newington since 1954 where she was a much loved Sunday School teacher, longtime member of Quiltmakers, reader, and helped wherever and whenever needed. Clare was a “super donator” of blood over the years to the American Red Cross —whatever she did, she did it all the way.
Above all, Clare was devoted to her family and her faith. She delighted in everything that had to do with her children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews, godchildren, neighbors and friends. At a sporting event, nobody cheered louder than Clare George. She never passed a basketball hoop without asking for the ball to shoot her shot. And she taught everyone how to make the best Christmas sugar cookies. But to this day nobody can replicate her dinner rolls … probably because they take the kind of patience and determination only Clare George possessed. She was relentlessly kind, loving, and optimistic, even – and especially – when the world gave her every reason not to be. She will forever serve as an example to all who knew her that in a world where you can be anything, strive to be just a little more like Clare George.
Clare is survived by her son, Andrew C. George Jr. and his wife, Angela, of Groton, Massachusetts; her daughter, Teresa A. Matteo and her husband, Carl, of Verona, New Jersey. She leaves six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, Joe Matteo and Sarah Bender-Nash (Zoe, Ian, and Nora), Eric and Rebecca George (Lillie and Ted), Andrew and Heather Matteo (Grace and Ella), Marissa and Justin Hillian (Ruby and Cassius), Nicholas and Allie Matteo, and Ally and Travis Jacalone (Isla and Charlie).
She was predeceased by three children, Andrea, Jimmy, and Billy.
The family would like to express their sincere thanks to the staff at Cedar Mountain Commons and Jefferson House for their excellent care, kindness and compassion.
Clare’s funeral service will be held Thursday, December 22, 2022, at 11:30 a.m. at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Newington, with the Rev. Joe McGarry officiating. Burial will follow at West Meadows Cemetery. Relatives and friends are invited to call Thursday morning from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Newington Memorial Funeral Home, 20 Bonair Avenue, Newington.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, 1655 Main St., Newington, CT 06111 or to the American Red Cross.
(1222 V)