Journalism Project | Stories | Contributors | Journalism Links

Distant thunder rolled in the west where dark clouds gathered. Overhead, blue sky could be seen through the wispy white fleece that darkened westward into a summer storm. Trees provided a backdrop on the ground where a green, freshly cut carpeting surrounded the headstones in Bethel cemetery on the edge of Porter, Minn.

This is the final resting place for Dorothy Ellingson Christianson and her parents and many of her family and friends. The dates go back half a century and they bring back memories for those who visit from time to time.

Except for a string of events touched off by a decision to clean out the school building in Canby, the next town north on Highway 68, those gently fading memories may have stayed there.

Have you ever set out to do something because you wanted to know that you had achieved a sort of immortality by being in the record books, for example, or building the first this or being the first to do that?

The troublesome thing about that kind of immortality is there are only very few who ever achieve the first, the biggest, the last or the fastest of anything.

Yet, immortality, one finds, is already there and the fun part is when it is rediscovered.

One such rediscovery occurred when the nooks and crannies of the old school building were being cleaned out in preparation for tearing it down to make way for a brand new structure. Little bits of immortality were found in abundance in the form of old school records that spelled out the names and even accomplishments of generations long gone.

Many of those people have not walked the earth for half a century or more because the records were from the turn of the 20th century.

 

Besides all the boxes and boxes of remarkably well-preserved written records were other items, among them lots and lots of old trophies.

One of them caught the attention of several people. It was a trophy for the state typing champion. It had been a traveling trophy and when its surface was filled with names, the trophy stayed at the school of the last recorded winner, who happened to be one Dorothy Ellingson from Porter back in 1932.

As is the task of the home town newspaper, a story was written about the treasures of long past, and the photo of Dorothy Ellingson's trophy was published along with the story, which set in motion a chain of events that has been followed by the living generations of the family for years and years. That chain was receiving the paper in the mail and then passing it along from one family member to another until all had read it.

The Canby News story had asked, for want of another way to begin, if anyone remembered the awards and the people who won them.

One day, a letter arrived that said: "I do know about the trophy won by Dorothy Ellingson for the advanced typing title in 1932. I learned about this many years ago from my father, Thor Emmett Ellingson. My name is Dorothy Ellingson Cooper. She was my namesake.

"I was made aware of this article by my second cousins. My second cousin, Annabelle Homme Jenkins, takes the Canby News at her home in Michigan. She winters in Florida and it was forwarded to her down there. She in turn sent it to her sister, Grace Homme Bailey in Mission Viejo, Calif., who was to send it to her sister, Helen Homme Zisser, in San Francisco, who was to send it to another cousin, Ruth Christianson Schoephoester of Redwood, Calif. There was a note attached to it that said, 'Whoever gets this last is to send it to Dorothy.' I live in Vancouver, Wash."

The story does not stop there.

The picture of the trophy and the few words written about it were enough for Dorothy Ellingson Cooper to break open the past.

"I have my aunt's scrap book and found it after this article surfaced. I have found a world of history in this book. Not only about the world at the time, which was approximately 1932 and beyond, but also about news items from Canby, Porter and some of the surrounding area."

Dorothy had put together a scrapbook about herself and also about people and events around her. There were articles she saved about Amelia Earhart, one of history's best known woman pilots, another with the headline "Calvin Coolidge Drops Dead," a story about five men who robbed the Porter bank of $1,500, an oil station in Porter that was robbed, the largest graduating class at Canby High (57), and more.

There were, of course, articles about the typing competition, which she won with an average of 70.9 words per minute.

"It must have been very exciting for her. She put a picture of the Nicollet Hotel in Minneapolis in her book. It was where she, a teacher, Miss Constance Lynskey, Linnea Carlson and Leota Stringer, all stayed during this competition."

Cooper said she never had a chance to meet her namesake because Dorothy died, apparently of cancer, on Dec. 14, 1946, in Portland, Ore. She was brought back to Minnesota and laid to rest next to her mother and father in the Bethel Cemetery near Porter.

"But I had heard about her from all of my family throughout the years. It was my understanding that she was such a caring and wonderful lady, a friend, sister and cousin anybody would love to have," she said. "I feel bad about never knowing her, but life isn't always fair to each of us and this couldn't be helped."

Dorothy Ellingson was born Nov. 14, 1914, the daughter of Theodore and Clara Ellingson. Ellingson once worked at Bergs Variety Store in Porter and was also a janitor at the Canby school. Dorothy had two brothers, Erling and Thor.

They all graduated from Canby High.

They also had an extended family, sharing their home with their cousin, Ruth Christianson.

"Her mother had passed away and my grandmother's brother, Adolph Christianson, needed some help with his family. They were also very close with the Gunder and Anna Homme family and their three girls. That closeness carried on through the years. I now am close with them and have attended a family reunion in Reno, Nev., a few years ago, meeting some of the family for the first time."

Dorothy was confirmed in the Porter Lutheran Congregation on June 10, 1928, by Pastor O. P. Stensland. Dorothy Cooper said, "oddly enough, her given name on this certificate is stated as Anna Dorothy Ellingson. So, we think she was actually named after her Aunt Anna Homme and somewhere along the line turned her name around."

The scrapbook contains many photos with notations beneath them in a flowing, rounded script that was written with a sure hand.

Also among the photos was one of the senior class play, "What Happened to Jones,"in which Dorothy played the role of Alaina Starlight.

Dorothy also saved articles about the not so good things that happened in the area, such as the September 1935 deaths of H.A. Nelson, his wife, and their 14-year-old daughter. The family was on their way to Fergus Falls to visit relatives when their car was struck by a "fast mail train" at a crossing on the outskirts of Doran. Another clipping from 1933 was headlined "Demos Go Wild at Porter Fest" and told of a rather boisterous political session during which "a crowd estimated to approach a thousand in number, cheered speeches and howled for a Democratic victory at the polls." Iver Wollum was the master of ceremonies.

A good typist, Dorothy went to work for Wilson Meats after she graduated. She made $19 a week.

Dorothy Cooper said her Aunt Homme Jenkins recently told her that Dorothy Ellingson was so in awe of the amount of money she made that she would buy a dress, wear it for a little while, then send it to Anne. Another relative, Helen Homme Zissner, said Dorothy was a "very snappy dresser and wore very high heels and looked like a million." Grace Homme Bailey said she was "a wonderful cousin to look up to."

Dorothy married Edward Paul Christianson of Albert Lea, Minn., on April 30, 1937. They moved to Portland some time after that. Dorothy Cooper said the marriage failed, "but did produce the love of her life, a son, Teddie Daniel, on July 4, 1944, in Portland."

Dorothy had some tough times. One of them was a house fire when she lived in Lake Oswego, Ore., and the worst was when she became ill with cancer. She died and left her 3-year-old son behind. Teddie was raised by family members until his father remarried. Teddie was killed on his way back to Oregon State University on Mothers Day in 1964.

"He was a wonderful person, just like his mother," Dorothy Cooper said.

She said digging out all the history about her namesake after seeing and reading about the typing trophy has been rewarding for her and the rest of the family.

"it's been so exciting for her second cousins to read about her after all of these years. it's been heartwarming for me also because I learned so much more about the lady I was named after and feel rather honored now to have her name."

---

Journalism Project | Stories | Contributors | Journalism Links

ABOUT US | ACTIVITIES | NEWS | RESEARCH | TEACHING | CONFERENCES | LECTURES
PUBLICATIONS | FELLOWSHIPS | HISTORY CENTER | SEARCH | LINKS

BACK | CRRS Home | SMSU Home