BENSON, Mary

BENSON

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 8/19/2015 at 13:53:38

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE:

HISTORICAL GROUP ELECTS
IN MITCHELL

OSAGE, IOWA -- Newly elected president of the Mitchell COunty Historical Society is Elgin Enabnit . . . .

(REDACTED)

. . . Discussion concerned a bequest of $1,000 by Miss Mary Benson, Los Angeles, California, and formerly of south of St. Ansgar, for historical purposes in Mitchell county.

Miss Benson left money, also, to her old church, First Lutheran, St. Ansgar. She had been insistent throughout her life that the church, the first one West of the Mississippi river, and founded by the late Claussen group, be kept intact and renovated from time to time rather than be torn down.

The St. Ansgar group left the church on its original grounds and purchased additional grounds for their Parish hall and Fellowship center, located directly northwest of the original church grounds.

Waterloo Courier, 22 APR 1963, page 7.