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In 1931 Mary had a house built in Victoria on a lot south of Leuthner’s residence and well-drilling company -- across the street from her first cousin, John Kirsch. Her daughter Marie finished Nursing School and moved back home. Faye (another of Mary’s daughters) also moved back to her mother’s home from time to time, and it was there in Victoria that she got to know the Schneiders, whose garden backed up to theirs. Frank Schneider later was to marry Faye after Frank’s wife died.

Mary sold the farm at Lake Auburn on February 13th, 1945. The 120-acre parcel with buildings sold to Ed Weber for $7,700.

In 1950 the State took Mary’s land in Victoria by eminent domain. The home had to be moved to make way for re-routing Highway 5 over the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway. She used money from the sale of the farm to pay for moving her house to a new lot about two blocks south. I believe it is still there in Victoria. She (my grandmother, Mary) and Marie (her daughter, my aunt) lived there until 1954, then moved to Shakopee.

My sister and I lived with them as small children and spent many summers with them. (My mother died as a result of a furnace explosion when I was two years old, and since Aunt Marie was my Godmother, she was my mother until my father remarried a few years later.)

Mary’s other children left Victoria, but stayed in Minnesota with the exception of Uncle Tom. He moved to California and stayed there after he finished his service in World War II. A woman was involved.

It was in 1953 that Mary (my grandmother) had a stroke and was admitted to St. Francis Hospital On March 20th, 1960, with all her children at her bedside, Mary Elizabeth died at the age of 85 years. She had been born in 1875 in Dillishausen, Bavaria, Germany. Officiating at her Solemn Requiem Mass were Father Marvin Kisers, assisted by Father Herbert Diethelm, OFM, and Father John P. McGuire. She was buried in the St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Waconia.

Her daughter Marie was married for the first time, after her mother died, to Clarence Wortman from North of Minneapolis. He was not from Victoria.

I was born in the farm house by Lake Auburn, spent many memorable moments in the Village of Victoria, went to school in Waconia, and eventually wound up staying in California after my discharge from the U.S. Air Force in 1968. A woman was involved.

So I guess I’m what you would call an “old town Victoria person” who doesn’t know anyone there anymore except for a few distant cousins. Oh, and also a favorite son of your village, Fredrick Albert Plocher, the subject of your “Remember When” section in the September 2009 issue of the Gazette. Ciao!

Richard Stenger

Aliso Viejo, California

To the Editor:

If not now, when? That is the question I posed to the District 112 School Board on Thursday, December 10th.

Approximately 680 teachers have been working without a contract since July 1st, 2009. Negotiators for the board and the Chaska Education Association have been meeting sporadically since April 1st, 2009, with little to show for nine months of effort, including a failed mediation session in November.

There is a state-imposed deadline for the settlement of teacher contracts by January 15th, 2010. If a contract is not ratified by then, District 112 will pay a penalty of $220,950 to the State of Minnesota. This figure is based on a fine of $25 per student, for 8,383 students. To put it another way, almost a quarter of a million dollars will flow out of the school district and not be available for the education of students.

Looking down the road, the School Board has a very full plate in the months ahead. Also in that early week in December, the members voted on the selection of a search firm to lead the process of hiring a new superintendent, one that they project will be completed in April.

At the November board meeting, the school board decided to postpone the scheduled start of a new strategic planning process until after the superintendent search because they felt it would be difficult to take on two important issues at once. They agreed that they wanted to be free to devote their full attention to each issue separately. This is a process that will take months to complete.

Before you know it, the contracts of all the other school district employees expire on June 30th, 2010, and the board will need to begin the process of negotiating with them.

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