Kasson Mantorville High School - Komet Yearbook (Kasson, MN)

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The early settlers of Dodge county were mainly from the classes that had been bred under the influence of the public schools of the eastern states. They brought with them the ideas born of free public education. Coming into the magnificent heritage of free endowment, provided by the general government, they were ready to appre- ciate and quick to use its great advantages. Schools began with the first settlements, and were ex- tended with them with equal steps. 1854 schools of New England were furnishing superior training under the influence of the voice and pen of Horace Mann, and the class of younger men who had been raised up and inspired by his teaching. At no time had the influence of the schools been more whole- some and useful. This was the school atmosphere that “went west” with the stream of emigration from the old New England homes, and it was the feeling that gave value and importance to the school work of the new states in its formative stage. So it happened that Dodge county can con- template with satisfaction its early activity in school matters. The 1975-76 school year marks a milestone in our lives. It’s our nation’s 200th birthday! And, despite the fact that the “American dream” our forefathers had may still be unfulfilled (what dream ever comes true in its entirety?) the birth- day is one we are proud of. Therefore, it is with great pride and sentiment that the students of KMHS affectionately dedicate this the nineteenth volume of THE KOMET, to our patriotic forefathers who helped establish a strong educational foundation for us and future genera- tions. f T Table of Contents INTRODUCTION................................................................1 EDITOR HEADS................................................................2 DEDICATION AND TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................3 CHAPTER I History of Mantorville and Kasson..............................4 CHAPTER II Organizations.................................................23 CHAPTER III Sports........................................................45 CHAPTER IV Academics.....................................................77 CHAPTER V Classes...................................................... 87 CHAPTER VI Activities and Student Life................................. 117 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..........................................................144

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Editors EDITOR HEADS Row one: Julie Badker, Academics; Marilyn Fredrickson, Advisor and Photographer; Diane Wend- ler, Sports; Ann Folkestad, Bicentennial and Editor Head; Row two: Lynda Andreen, Business Manager and Co- Editor Elect; Nancy Fencl, Student Life and Co-Editor Elect; Penny Herrick, Seniors; Barbara Hoadley, Activities; Carol Lyons, Organizations; Brenda Klossner, Underclassmen. Missing from the picture is Karen Neseth, Art.

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CHAPTER I 1853 In the summer of 1853, a party of gov- ernment surveyors ran lines of the west- ern tier of townships in what is now Dodge County. This brings us to the coming of the first actual settlers, the brothers Mantor and Waterman, the fall of 1853, with which begins the chronology herein after given, of the settlements and development of the county. Concluding the record of changes made in the county location by the Territory was placed into, and made a part of, Rice County, being still unsettled, as was all the region immediately adjacent. February 25,1855. Within a year after the first colonies had been planted in Townships 105,106,107 108 in ranges 16, 17,18,19 were made a separate county and named after Governor Dodge, of Wisconsin. February 1856. The Territorial Legisla- ture put Dodge County into the mold for the last time, and when it was brought forth, it was as it is at present. September 1. Peter and Riley Mantor, resident of the Root River Valley, in southern Minn. arrived at the present site of Man tor ville. They left their homes to seek a place of settlement somewhere beyond the then bounds of civilization. They reached Freeport, 111., by cars (then the western terminus of railway travel), thence came by stage to Galena, thence by boat to Prairie du Chien and then on foot across the northeast corner of Iowa, crossing the territorial line into Minn., near Elliota. Striking the Root River at Forestville, they fitted out an ox-team and wagon with supplies, and adding to their company Eli P. Waterman, then a resident of the Root River Valley, pushed on by way of what is now Spring Valley. The Population consisted of 3 families- one living in a covered wagon, one in a haystack, and the third, a family named Leanders were keeping hotel-and our explorers were their first guests! Jour- neying northwestward, they struck the headwaters of the Zumbro above Ash- land, and then followed the course of the river down to the site of what is now Mantorville. Here, finding that for which they were distinctively in search-a milling privilege, with good timber and farming lands adjacent-they spent several days in taking levels and making measurements for proposed improve- ments the following year; when, their provisions being reduced to a small quantity of flour, a few potatoes, and a little honey (the product of the first bee tree out by white settlers in this region). They broke camp. The Mantor brothers staked out claims on Sections 16 and 21, now within the corporate limits of that village, and after a few days’ sojourn in this locality, the party proceeded to Iowa, from whence the Mantor brothers return- ed to their homes at Linesville, Crawford County,Pa. During the winter of 1853- 1854, after the return of the Mantor Brothers to their home in Pennsylvania, a younger brother, Frank Mantor, was in- duced to join in their enterprise, and all busied themselves in gathering supplies and in inducing residents there to accom- pany them west in the spring to the loca- tion they had selected the previous Sep- tember, and which they had already christened “Mantorville.”