History large part of Author Night
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John Dickinson, one of the framers of the U.S. Constitution, admonished his fellow convention delegates “Experience must be our only guide. Reason may mislead us.”
History is many things: well written, it’s a great adventure story; it’s biography; it’s economics and art; it’s politics, policy and philosophy; most of all, history is a record of experience.
To paraphrase George Santana and other thinkers, including Mark Twain, if one doesn’t know the past one is likely to be cursed to re-live it.
On Saturday, Feb. 22, between 2 and 8 p.m., the Mission Valley Christian Academy off Hwy. 35 east of Polson is holding “Meet the Authors” fundraising event featuring a number of local area writers who’ve produced fiction, non-fiction and combinations of the two. All are based upon “experience.” And that is history. The Flathead Reservation Area Historical Society under the auspices of former history teacher and retired Lake County Superintendent of Schools Joyce Wegner produced and published the two volume “Lake County School History” during the past three years. Volume II, published last August, covers the many schools established in that part of Lake County that was once part of Flathead County. Volume I, published in 2011, details the schools that fell within the southern portion of Lake County annexed from Missoula. In the early years of the 20th Century, there was a school about every four-miles across what would become Lake County. The school history chronicles their development, their social histories and some of the political and economic by-play that played a crucial part in the area’s educational history.
Undoubtedly, for many who purchased the early volumes did so due to nostalgia and to see names and pictures of people they remembered and to read anecdotes that sometimes jogged pleasant memories. For whatever reason the books were purchased, these have been spread around the country. According to Polson Librarian and author of Western pioneer histories Mary Barmeyer O’Brien, Volume II was the most sought after new book in the library. The Historical Society members heard other stories about the books’ popularity from as far away as the East Coast.
One lady in Wichita Falls, Texas who once lived in Western Montana acquired the book as a gift. She reported back she’d learned much about education in rural schools that she never knew. She also lamented she hadn’t been able to attend one of these schools.
While many of the Lake County country school historians who researched the development of all of Lake County schools and in many cases actually wrote the prose that was incorporated into the two volumes, it was Wegner who pulled it all together. As both editor and major author of many of the school stories, the former County Superintendent of Schools and current president of the Historical Society, Wegner has the honor of having her name on the cover. Wegner won’t be able to attend Saturday’s “Meet the Authors” fundraiser, but many of those who were involved in the research, the writing of specific stories and the final production of the books will be there. Ten percent the proceeds of the sales of the school history volumes will be donated to the cause.
Local authors who are both entertaining storytellers and instructional will also be at the event. These authors include Paul Fugleberg, the institutional memory of the Flathead Reservation area and former owner and editor of the Flathead Courier that became the Lake County Leader; and former Lake County Leader owner Carmine Mowbray, whose first book, “An Answering Flame,” is an unique melding of history and fiction that tells the story of a non-Western frontier that still largely exists in the Eastern part of the nation. Her story ties together American history and the essence of the American culture.
