The Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery is once again winding up for Saskatchewan Archives week.
One of the newest additions to the local archives is a six-page "School Souvenir" booklet donated by Bernadette Greuel of Bruno.
Greuel's mother presented this memento to her students at St. Michael's School in the Fulda area.
Emma Gerwing (nee Ahle) was born October 12, 1896 in Nebraska. She was the daughter of an industrious shoemaker who made sure his daughters were educated by sending them to a nearby town for high school.
Emma began her teaching career in a one-room school in Casper, Wyoming, where she stayed for two years. From Wyoming she travelled to Nebraska and South Dakota to teach before relocating to Saskatchewan in 1918 when her Uncle Henry Schulte told her the German Catholic Colony of St. Peter's needed teachers.
She taught for two years in the Fulda area of which one term from April 1, 1919 to November 14, 1919 was spent at St. Michael's School.
While at St. Michael's she had 42 students which she listed on a separate list that she inserted into the "School Souvenir" she presented to them when she left her post.
Those students included Annie and Katie Aschenbrenner; Annie, Carl and Joseph Bieringer; Elizabeth, Ottilia and Robert Bittmann; Emmet and Edward Cody; Lawrence, John, Frank and Frances Doetzel; Otto, Ottilia and Carl Eckl; Jacob, Joseph, John and Leo Frank; Frank, Mathilda and Sophia Kirchner; Martha, Loretta and Henry Lenartz; Alfonse, Henry and Frank Loessl; Annie and Joseph Rauw; Johnny, Hubert, Annie and Gertrude Schlizt; Andrew, Veronica, Carl and Julia Schwingenschloegl; and Leo and Rose Winkel.
At the age of 24, Emma married widower George Gerwing and became an instant mother to three daughters and a son. Although she traded her teacher's certificate for a marriage licence, Emma offered evening English classes to the influx of immigrants to the area in 1928-29. According to her son George's account in the Lake Lenore History book, this work gave his mother great satisfaction and when one of her boys came to visit her as she grew older, it was especially dear to her.
The "School Souvenir" is just one of the many artifacts located at the HDMG and people are invited to check out this and many other items from the local archives that will be on display during Archives Week February 3-9.
Visitors are also being given a chance to aid the HDMG with identification of people in archival photos that will be part of the three-week display.
