The story of the Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children is one of the most prominent aspects of local history, but the chapter that followed is a relative unknown — to both the community and the experts.
The institution was reorganized into the Owatonna State School (OSS) in 1945, with the purpose of caring for and educating children with learning and developmental disabilities. Over the next 25 years, 1,694 students lived on the grounds, educated and cared for by a host of faculty, but few of these stories have been told.
With the 55th anniversary of the school’s closure approaching, the Steele County Historical Society is looking to correct that.
SCHS hosted a program Thursday evening at the Owatonna Arts Center, sharing the OSS stories it has collected thus far and providing a forum for former students and staff to add their own perspectives.
Anne Peterson, manager of the Minnesota State Public School Orphanage Museum, said the stories collected thus far paint a far more positive portrait of children’s treatment at the OSS than the orphanage, but she suspected there’s more to the story.
Firsthand accounts
Peterson’s suspicions were confirmed with the arrival of Al Freeman, who attended the school from 1960 to 1968. He’s one of the people Peterson has identified who could be helpful in filling the gaps in the record.
Freeman’s account of his OSS days is not altogether negative. He received job training there, and the school helped him find employment at Wenger Corporation, where he worked for 48 years.
“I’m sitting pretty good. I started out with nothing. I got something now,” he told the People’s Press.
Asked of his experiences, he immediately remarked on the quality of the food at OSS, citing pork chops as his favorite.
Before the OSS, Freeman lived at the Faribault State School and Hospital, where he recalls experiencing regular corporal punishment. When one boy in his room was caught misbehaving, the whole group would be punished. He said beatings were an almost nightly occurrence, with the boys taking their shirts off and facing the wall as a staff member hit them on their bare backs with a belt.
Harsh punishment continued after he was sent to Owatonna.
“I used to get in trouble,” Freeman chuckled. “I think a lot of kids do. I learned how to scrub floors. I did a lot for that for my punishment. Scrubbing floors and buffing them. Cleaning the toilet with a toothbrush was not a fun thing to do. The things they did with those kids, they’d be in prison today.”
Freeman said their treatment suddenly improved when someone contacted the authorities.
“They took advantage of our disabilities. After that, they started changing,” he said. “At least I had a bed to sleep in, a roof over my head, they furnished me clothes and shoes. I had nothing to my name.”
It seems no two experiences at the OSS were alike.
Peterson and SCHS Archives and Collections Manager Amy Lowery previously conducted a lengthy interview with 91-year-old Irene Alvarez Sticha, one of the first people sent to the school, in November. A younger child from a large family, she was sent to the OSS by a social worker when her mother died and her father abandoned them. In the interview, Sticha related overwhelmingly positive memories of the school.
Peterson and Lowery have also recorded an interview with retired social worker Carol Zetah, who interned at the OSS when she was in college. Zetah served as a house mother and a physical education teacher. She reported children were treated better at the OSS than they were at the orphanage.
Peterson also related the story of state schooler Donald Sundeen. Sundeen was born prematurely to a teen mother and was sent to the OSS after living in a group home. He’s now an artist in the Duluth area. He once exhibited his work at the Owatonna Arts Center, and published an illustrated book about his state school experiences. Peterson said he’s shared good memories overall, though he never connected with the other children there.
Attendees Rose Ann and Katherine Rypka shared their experiences Thursday night. The sisters, who taught religion classes at the OSS while they were in high school, said children with disabilities were stigmatized in the community but working there gave them a new perspective.
“It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” said Katherine.
She noted how children there, many who were older than her, showed a wide range of needs. One of her students had a speech impediment, but no learning disability. He progressed faster than the other students, and sometimes misbehaved due to boredom. She once offered to take him home for Christmas so he wouldn’t spend the holiday alone, but administration wouldn’t allow it.
“It just broke my heart. He was going to sit up here just because his family didn’t want him at home,” she said.
While there was sadness, they remember many happy moments with the children.
“My biggest memory is going to the movies every Friday night over there in the auditorium where the theater is now with the state school kids,” said Rose Ann.
Their aunt and uncle also worked at the school as groundskeeper and cook, skills they passed on to students. The Rypka sisters now volunteer at the orphanage museum.
State School History
The Minnesota Legislature voted to phase out the orphanage in 1945. The number of children at the institution had dwindled to 90, compared to around 500 in the 1930s. According to Peterson, there was a growing understanding at the time that children were better off in foster homes than orphanages.
Many children sent to the newly formed OSS were from the Faribault State School and Hospital, igniting controversy in the community. A petition against the proposal was signed by around 260 citizens.
“I would love to have seen who signed it. They just thought it was going to be terrible that their sweet lovable orphan kids were going to be gone and they were going to get these other kids from Faribault,” said Peterson.
While children had to leave the orphanage at 18, the OSS allowed them to stay until 21. Over time, matrons in the children’s cottages were replaced with house parents, in an attempt to create a more family-like environment.
Peterson credited Superintendent C.M. Henderson with bringing a better understanding of child welfare to the institution.
When the school closed in 1970, many of the students were sent to an institution in Brained. Others returned to their families or were sent to group homes. Upon examining the students, one official reported that half of them shouldn’t have been sent to the OSS in the first place. The criteria for which children were sent there are still unclear, and at least some of them did not exhibit any kind of disability.
In 1992, the museum opened on the former grounds of the state school and the orphanage.
The big gap
Peterson offered a few explanations for why OSS history is so obscure compared to the orphanage. There are fewer stories to begin with. The orphanage housed over 10,000 children in its history, compared to the 1,694 state schoolers, and lasted twice as long.
She also noted museum founders Harvey and Maxine Ronglien focused on the preservation of orphanage history, as Harvey himself lived there as a child. They collected little to no information on the OSS era, and for whatever reason no one else ever emerged to champion the preservation of that history.
Many of the documents that could assist with research are also unavailable due to privacy laws. While it’s small comfort at the moment, many of these documents may eventually be released over the next 20 years.
While she prefers not to dwell on missed opportunities, Peterson said the best time to collect accounts from state schoolers would’ve been 20 years ago, when more were alive.
Still, she hasn’t lost hope, and neither has SCHS Executive Director Jennifer Thiele.
“We need the community to come together to spread the word that we’re looking for information. It is word of mouth that’ll bring in the best results for us,” said Thiele. “If you know someone who knows some history, come to us and share it.”
SCHS is seeking anyone with information to share, including former OSS students and staff.
Thiele said SCHS is actively working to save history and identify weaknesses in the available information, noting how important the state school is as the only surviving example of an institution of its kind. She asked the community to “stay tuned” for more programs on the state school.
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