July 27, 2017 Zeeland Hall Tribute ©2017 • Emmons County Record • www.ecrecord.com • Prairie Pioneer • www.ppioneer.com Page 3B

Virginia Schweigert remembers fun, entertainment at Zeeland HallBy Zachary Vietz

Virginia (Brandner) Sch-weigert grew up on a farm 12 miles north of Zeeland. She attended high school in town, as well as the Lutheran church. She has many fond memories of Zeeland and its hall. Virginia looks back on her high school years with a smile for all the pleasant memories. She remembers racing down to the cafe with her two cousins on their lunch break to wait on the travelers coming off the passenger and freight trains to make some extra money. She counted herself lucky she had the chance to wait on these visitors.

At the time, her aunt and uncle, Henry and Mary (Brandner) Brandner, owned the cafe.

Virginia remembers going to the Zeeland Hall for gym class. Movies were also a big deal. Harold Dockter from Ashley would bring down the projector and do movies every weekend.

School plays and other school events, including bas-ketball, were held in the hall since the school did not have a gym in those days.

Skating was very much a popular activity. Every Wednesday evening from 6:30 to 9 they would have roller skating night. Virginia talked about how there was couple/trio skating and a lot of kids and adults.

Everyone would skate on the same night, even the adults. They would have an announcer and recorded music to highlight the night. Virginia mentioned that Mr. Mastel from Hazelton would bring the skates down and that they were “really good.”

After graduating from high school in 1946, Virginia continued her education at the North Dakota State Nor-mal and Industrial School at Ellendale to get her teaching certificate. From there, she went on to teach country school for 13 years at the Frieda No. 2 District School. She taught all the grades, first through eighth. Her largest class was 17 children.

She remarked that the class which gave her the most trouble were the sixth grade boys. Virginia laughed as she remembered them getting wet playing in a pond near the school house they were, of

course, not supposed to be in. Besides a scolding, she said, “I don’t think there was much punishment.”

After she got married, which was 62 years ago, Virginia stopped teaching and moved into Zeeland with her

husband, Clarence Schwei-gert, son of the head carpenter who built the Zeeland Hall, John Schweigert. She went back to teaching in the mid-1960s and taught remedial reading and math through the mid-1990s

Virginia Schweigert holds a vintage yearbook from the Zeeland School.

Clarence and Virginia Schweigert posed for a portrait. Clarence worked with his father in the construction business. In later years, the Schweigert sons helped out, too. Clarence died in 2000. Clarence and Virginia spoke different dialects of German, most likely because of the Catholic v. Lutheran upbringing. When their kids would ask either one of them what a particular word or saying was in German, it was common for them to respond, “Well, your dad would say ‘this’ but I would say ‘that.’”

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Ink by the barrelBy Allan Burke, Publisher Emeritus

The addition of the Zeeland City Hall to the National Register of Historic Places is good for the region, not just for Zeeland.

The Tri-County Tourism Alliance works hard to pro-mote visits by travelers to the heartland, and having another nationally recognized point of interest to visit is a big deal.

Joyce Scherr, Mayor Pius Lacher, Jr. and other city officials deserve a round of applause for their efforts to preserve an important part

of the town’s history.Distinguished history pro-

fessor, Dr. Tom Isern, of North Dakota State Uni-versity, along with Heather Fischer of the Department of Architecture, were instru-mental in helping to get the designation.

An event held in the his-toric building June 25 drew about 300 people, and Dr. Isern as well as noted Zeeland native, Bubba Schweigert, head football coach at the University of North Dakota, spoke.

The challenge is to con-tinue the preservation of the building and to use it for community events that attract people to the town.

With the tourism group’s leadership, visitors to the heartland will be directed to all of the points of interest, thus benefiting all of the towns in south central North Dakota and north central South Dakota.

Preserving and remember-ing history is important to the future of this part of the country.

Historic designation good for everybody

Virginia and Clarence’s wedding was at 9:30 a.m. on a Tuesday. “That was an all day session,” she said.

Virginia went on to explain how the ceremonies were a long affair in those days. It was not unusual to have a wedding on Tuesdays. She also commented that it was a “mixed” marriage, Clarence being Catholic and Virginia being Lutheran. They were married in the St. Andrew’s Catholic Church rectory.

After the wedding, there was food and then a dance at the Zeeland Hall. The danc-ing went on all the way until midnight.

Virginia remembers that some people went home, rest-ed and changed, then came back later in the evening. The popular Roy Holzer played at the Schweigerts’ wedding.

As far as John Schweigert goes, Virginia mentioned a few things. One clear memory in her mind is when John and his wife, Regina (Feist), would be walking to church on Sunday.

“She would be about half a

block ahead of him,” Virginia laughed, “but they always would end up at the same place together.”

Virginia does not remem-ber John ever talking about the Works Progress Admin-istration project. But, she distinctly remembers it was nearly impossible to convince him not to go along with Clar-ence to do carpentry work after he was too old to climb ladders and work on roofs.

Congratulations Zeeland!

Page 4B Zeeland Hall Tribute ©2017 • Emmons County Record • www.ecrecord.com • Prairie Pioneer • www.ppioneer.com July 27, 2017

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This is John Schweigert’s Declaration of Intention dated Jan. 3, 1935, the first step in becoming a U.S. citizen. John’s role as WPA foreman for the Zeeland Hall project was jeopardized because it was reported that he was not a U.S. citizen. In order to keep his job, he began the naturalization process. In a later document, Petition for Naturalization dated Dec. 28, 1937, his Affidavits of Witness were friends Ben Wolf (Buster’s father) who would later go on to become a N.D. Public Service Commissioner and Speaker of the N.D. House of Representatives, and Peter J. Hasenmueller, who owned the local hotel. The hotel has special significance for John and Regina. They met there in the late 1920s when John was a boarder working on a construction project near Zeeland and Regina worked at the hotel in housekeeping and as a cook. John was from Eureka, S.D., and in those days the 25-mile trip to Zeeland meant staying overnight.

This picture was taken when the hall was newly built. A few years later, a flag flew from the top of the bell tower, and it was raised and lowered through the double windows above the door.

At an event (probably a wedding dance) in the Zeeland Hall, John Schweigert serves his signature “Red Eye” for a guest. Regina is in the top row, third from left.

The hall remains an impres-sive piece of architecture on Zeeland’s Main Street.

John and Regina arrive at the Zeeland Hall to celebrate their 50th wedding anniver-sary in June of 1979. John and Regina actually had two wedding anniversaries but recognized the second which was being celebrated in this photo. Their first wedding was a “justice of the peace” ceremony which took place in 1928. Regina (Feist) came from a staunch Catholic family, and John was not a member of any organized faith community. Therefore, as was the norm for the time, their option for a wedding in 1928 was the justice of the peace. Through family influence, Regina did manage to arrange a Catholic Blessing of the Marriage Ceremony which took place in the rectory at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Zeeland in the summer of 1929. It was this anniversary, not the actual legal marriage, that they celebrated. In the early 1950s, John become a baptized and confirmed Catholic. He always wore a jacket, tie and hat to Sunday services at St. Andrew’s and in retirement attended Mass every day.

John Schweigert at 23, 1929.

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