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To the Editor:

Here’s an email I got from Jerry Schmieg ... Joe Wertish passed away suddenly on December 28th. He was very instrumental in the construction of our Lions shelters, donating a great deal of his time as a man of his trade, a carpenter. He became inactive after a serious heart attack several years ago.

Al Orsen

Victoria, Minnesota

To the Editor:

I enjoy the feature articles of your paper and especially the Hat Lady’s recollections of earlier days in Victoria. I myself have many fond memories of village life in Victoria in the ‘40’s and ‘50’s. I could go on and on but I am compelled to stick to the point of my letter to the editor. The topic: Dr. Douglas T. Ormond.

The Hat Lady was not the last house call Dr. Ormond made to deliver a baby. He also delivered me!

I was born in my Grandmother Mary Stenger’s farmhouse at Lake Auburn on May 21st, 1940. And, I also doubt that I was his last home delivery. He practiced medicine in Waconia for two more years before septicemia ended his career. He was 39 years old when he died on August 13th, 1942.

The Waconia Patriot ran his obituary on Thursday, August 20th, 1942. I have a copy of the obituary handed down to me by my Aunt Marie Stenger Wortman before she passed. She was an RN. She assisted Dr. Ormond with many births including mine. She was devastated by his death. I believe she was in love with him.

Later my aunt went on to become the night nurse at St. Francis Hospital in Shakopee. For 25 years she worked the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift and was credited with delivering over one thousand Carver and Scott County babies. I’m sure many of your readers can attest to that.

Thank you for the news in Victoria.

Richard Stenger

Aliso Viejo, California

EDITOR’S NOTE: In response to a couple questions from the editor, who was not familiar with the name Stenger, Mr. Richard Stenger wrote another letter and sent information as follows:

To the Editor:

The Stengers were a large family from Waconia. My grandfather, Lorenz, was born there, married Mary there, and was the town constable and fire chief until 1917. He then bought a farm at Lake Auburn near Victoria where they raised their seven sons and two daughters.

By their son Tom’s account, the house was very big and, for the children, the move to the farm was very exciting. Three wagons took the family and their possessions to their prairie house by the lake.

Tom described the house as being two stories high, with an attic, seven bedrooms, a large living room, two kitchens, two porches, a cellar as big as the house, and a pretty big “beck-haus” out back.

The barn, which was nearer to the lake, was even bigger. There was also a pig barn, a granary, machine shed, chicken house, workshop, woodshed, an ice house, and brick smokehouse in the farm yard. A 45-foot high windmill supplied the drinking water.

At the lake front, there were eventually 12 boats which were rented on the summer weekends.

There was an evergreen-lined driveway. And west of the farmhouse was an improved gravel road which went to the “public area” and on around the lake. The public area was groomed for picnics, boat launching, and parking.

The lakeshore was muddy wetland, but hard and clear at the Stenger Landing, as well as at Englehart’s Landing on the opposite side of the lake.

East of the farmyard was the wooded pasture where the cattle grazed. The pasture also supplied wild mushrooms (only Lorenz could recognize and gather the non-poisonous ones), butternuts, and, in the springtime, wild asparagus.

My grandfather Lorenz died there in 1926, leaving my grandmother with a 10-year old son named Otto, who was my father, and three other sons under 20 years of age.

None of them wanted to be farmers, so my grandmother Mary leased out the farm and moved to Victoria. With two children -- Otto, then age 12, and Marie -- she moved for a while to an apartment above Notermann’s store. They remained there while Otto finished Junior High School in Victoria and went on to High School in nearby Excelsior.

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