A Common School provided an education through 12th grade and graduates received a high school diploma. A Normal School provided a two-year program to prepare students after high school to be teachers. In the early 1900s, there were only five Normal Schools in Minnesota. Rural Minnesota desperately needed rural school teachers. Laura Ingels Wilder, for example, accepted her first teaching position on December 10, 1882, shortly before she turned sixteen years old. She taught three terms in one-room schools when she was not attending school in De Smet. By 1900, northern Minnesota was expanding every year and rural families were demanding education for their children.
One can imagine the difficulty of finding teachers for small schools in northern Minnesota before Bemidji was finally chosen as a site for the sixth Normal School in Minnesota in 1913.
When news broke in Bemidji that the city had been selected as the location for Minnesota’s sixth normal school, a great celebration erupted. The Bemidji Pioneer reported on July 17, 1913, “BEMIDJI IS JOYFUL OVER NORMAL NEWS: CELEBRATION LASTS UNTIL 9:00 THIS MORNING.” Automobiles crowded with people formed a spontaneous parade; participants rang bells, pounded on pans and tooted horns. The Bemidji Band marched and played. A.P. Ritchie, Bemidji’s superintendent of schools, who had promoted the city for the site since 1907, was hoisted upon shoulders and cheered. Fellow committee members J.J. Opsahl and F.S. Arnold were heartily toasted for their parts in lobbying for Bemidji and securing the site.
Before the Normal School opened in 1919, Bemidji sought to find another solution for its teacher shortage. To help with the problem, Bemidji High School established its own Normal School Department.
In 1913, Miss Edna Hill, who had charge of the normal department in the Bemidji public schools, was appointed to have charge of the model school in connection with the teachers’ training school in the summer of 1913. State Superintendent Schulz made the appointment, and as the selection was made from a large number of normal instructors, it was quite a compliment to the Bemidji teacher. Miss Hill returned to Bemidji the next fall, and again hax charge of the normal department. (Bemidji Pioneer, May 13, 1913)
In 1914, May 29, 1914, fourteen of the nineteen graduates were certified as rural school teachers. W. B. Stewart, county superintendent of schools, said that he had taken much interest in the class, as each one will be in close touch with him as rural school teachers, positions for which they had been able to qualify. He complimented the students on their completion of the course. “I am glad to see such a large number of graduates,” said the superintendent, “for there is no profession as important as assisting in education. We have reasons to feel proud of the Bemidji high school department, and I hope that it will develop into one of the most important in the state.”
There are nineteen candidates for graduation this year [1914), several of this number being in the “questionable” list and will not know for certain whether they will receive a diploma until after the final examinations which begin in two weeks. Members of the Senior class are, Ruth Miner valedictorian, Florence Freese salutatorian, Mae Simonsen, James Sullivan, J. D. Winter, Fred Cutter, Leon Battles, Verna Pugh, Alice Neely, Jessie Dodge, Hazel Hulett, Helen Minnick, Doyle Plummer, Earle Riley, Harold Haynor, Ruth Wentworth, Mona Flesher, Alma Loitved and Ina Robertson. (May 08, 1914)
Nine Students Complete Work of High School Normal Department With the end of the school term, which comes tomorrow nine students of the high school normal department will receive either first or second grade teachers’ certificates. Miss Edna Hill is principal of this department, and she announces that the following will be awarded certificates: Marie Cahill, Edyth Carlson, Margaret Condon, Mary Dybvig, Gertrude Grotte, Gertrude Huntosh, Marie Larson, Grace Miner and Pearletta Wheeler. Two graduates of the normal department, Gertrude Huntosh and Margaret Condon, are valedictorian and salutatorian respectively, of the class which, will receive its diplomas at the commencement exercises of tomorrow evening. ( Bemidji Pioneer, June 2,1915) [Margaret Condon married Glen Saddler Feb 9, 1916]
The Normal Department appears to be quite distinct from the regular classes. Bemidji High School, of which 91 are freshmen, 44 are sophomores, 37 juniors,” 17 seniors and 13 are in the. normal department. Out of the 13 in the normal department, 8 are seniors, making the total number in the senior class 25. A number of the juniors will probably receive enough credits to classify as seniors or will graduate, and Superintendent of Schools W. P. Dyer announces that he hopes to have a graduation class numbering close to thirty. ( Bemidji Pioneer, Sept 18, 1915)