Clausen Schoolhouse of 1872, Clear Lake IA

CLAUSEN, SNYDER, MOONEY

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 2/2/2014 at 08:08:06

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
December 10, 2011
by Peggy Senzarino

Family history tied to history of Clear Lake, Lake school district

CLEAR LAKE — A Clear Lake family is using its own history to shed light on the history of the entire community.

The Clear Lake Historical Society is spearheading the efforts along with the Clausen family, Dean Snyder Construction and Holland Contracting to save a 1872 schoolhouse and adjacent home which was finished in 1891.

The properties are located in the 500 block of North Fifth Street behind the Clear Lake Public Library.

Clear Lake’s Sarah Clausen Mooney, executive director of the Historical Society, hopes to have the schoolhouse and home open to the public as a museum with artifacts and information about her family and the other people who settled Clear Lake.

Clausen Mooney’s great grandfather S[oren "Samuel"].J. Clausen purchased the property in 1890 from the Clear Lake Cooperative School District.

The two-story schoolhouse had been built in 1872 and functioned as a school until 1882.

“It remained the same until 1895 when he (S.J. Clausen [1852 - 1924]) needed it for his carriage house,” Clausen Mooney said.

Clausen Mooney said family members have many artifacts from the school including the original school bell which they later plan to place in a cupola on top of the building.

They also have slates and ink wells, desks and rosters of the children who attended the school for the 10 years in which it was open.

They also have the names of all the teachers who taught there.

“It’s really a phenomenal time capsule,” Clausen Mooney said.

The house and schoolhouse have never been out of the Clausen family.

It passed from S.J. to his wife and then to their daughter, Louise. When she died the home went to her brother Max [(1916 - 2008)] and eventually to Sarah’s father, Fritz.

“These people, their whole life was in that house. Their whole history was in that house,” Clausen Mooney said.

Among the items found in the home were 250-300 year old artifacts from Denmark and Norway.

She said her father, Fritz, said the building needed to be turned into a museum.

“Yes, these are our people. That’s the bonus. But more importantly, it’s an awesome story of that time period, that 150-year time period, for Clear Lake, for Mason City.”

Earlier this year Clausen Mooney met with Mason City architect Randy Cram and Dale Snyder of Dean Snyder Construction about whether the schoolhouse could be saved. The foundation was crumbling and the roof was in poor shape.

She was afraid one good snowfall would take the building down.

Snyder agreed that the company, along with help from Holland Contracting, would move the building on the site, set it on a new foundation and make the necessary repairs.

Snyder agreed to cover all costs, estimated at $150,000, until Clausen Mooney could raise the funds.

The first floor of the home has been cleaned and organized. Clausen Mooney has started work on the second story.

“Every drawer is a museum,” she said.

Among the items she has uncovered are 36 handwritten ledgers listing every transaction at the family’s grain elevator from 1882-1949.

“Raw data like that is very rare,” she said.

The Historical Society will launch a “Save the Schoolhouse” campaign in 2012.

A fundraising event, “An Affair to Remember,” is set for March 9, 2012, at the Clear Lake Arts Center.

“They were a very ordinary family. Their time and circumstances happened to come together to allow them to prosper greatly. But my grandfather and great grandfather were very much men of their community,” said Clausen Mooney.

Photograph courtesy of Globe-Gazette, Mason City IA

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2014

Clausen Schoolhouse, 1872, Clear Lake IA
 

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