5 years ago

Citizen’s Advocate

Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018

Henning Principal Thomas Williams and building and grounds supervisor Robert Brostrom were egged by students during Friday’s elementary Christmas concert after students and staff raised over $1,600 in the Penny Wars. Students in fifth grade were each able to crack an egg on Williams or Brostrom.

Approximately 450 people attended the Magical Medora Christmas show at Henning School on Sunday. This is the third year in a row the Medora cast and crew has made a stop in Henning for the Christmas show. Following the performance, the cast and crew hosted a meet and greet with those who attended the event at the school. 

25 years ago

The Henning Advocate

Thursday, Dec. 16, 1998

Members of Henning’s Women of Today chapter got together last week to wrap the many presents they were able to purchase from donations made this year to their Empty Stocking campaign. More than 15 families in the Henning School District were beneficiaries of the program, which is supported each year by donations from area individuals and businesses. Response to this year’s drive was said to be excellent.

Work on getting a municipal water system built in Ottertail continued last Thursday as project engineer Pat Reisnour met with the Ottertail City Council to discuss contract negotiations and applications details. Also in the meeting, the council approved an on- and off-sale liquor license for Landis Weaver as a new owner of the Otter Supper Club as of the first of the new year. And in an effort to maintain local control over property tax disputes in the future, the council agreed to decline an offer to transfer Board of Review powers to the county.

50 years ago

The Henning Advocate

Thursday, Dec. 20, 1973

Dear Santa, I want a doll.

Terri

Dear Santa, I would like a new book and a sled and a football and a speed bike. Merry Christmas.

Bobby Wangerin

Dear Santa, I want a BB gun for Christmas.

Doug.

Dear Santa, May I have a tractor with a bakhoe and with a lotr to. And I want a toy motor sikl. And I want anew bike to.

Peter Wallevand

Dear Santa, I want a Barbie’s Beauty Center and I want ice skates.

Lisa Ann Formanek

Box 313

Dear Santa, I would like a barby beauti set With makeup and a big head. I know you are so old. But I wont that so bad.

Marilee Bengtson

75 years ago

The Henning Advocate

Thursday, Dec. 16, 1948

The Editor

The New York Sun

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “if you see it in the Sun its so.” Please tell me the truth is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Dear Virginia,

Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

No believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your paper to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus but that is no sign there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory. Is it all real? Ah Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the hearts of childhood.—Editorial appearing in the New York Sun 

100 years ago

The Henning Advocate

Thursday, Dec. 20, 1923

Oscar Warmboe, the patrolman on State Highway 36, who resides six miles west of Henning, lost his barn, containing his entire herd of cattle, by fire early Friday morning. How the fire originated will probably always remain a mystery. The barn chores were completed about 6 as usual. Mr. Warmboe carried no insurance on the livestock, but had some insurance on the barn. The livestock consisted of three horses and eleven cows.

125 years ago

The Henning Advocate

Thursday, Dec. 15, 1898

Maj. Gen Brooke, who was appointed as military governor of Cuba, arrived in this city yesterday afternoon. He had a conference with a president and Secretary Alger. After the conference Gen. Alger said Gen. Brooke was on his way to Havana. Gen. Brooke is suffering from a severe cold. His fever is high and he will probably not leave for a week.

Lieut. Hobson was the Central figure in an osculatory carnival at the Coates house yesterday that clearly overshadowed any of the kissing affairs in which the gallant Atlanta man has figured in his return from more serious duties at Santiago. When Lieut. Hobson arrived from Chicago he was cheered by several hundred persons who had gathered at the railway station. A reception committee waited with carriages and along the route from the station to his hotel the Merrimac’s commander was recognized and cheered. The streets in the vicinity of the hotel were crowded. In the corridors of the hotel, supported by the local committee, Lieut. Hobson received and shook hands with several hundred men. The more exciting part of it came a few minutes later when the lieutenant was escorted to the parlors on the second floor, where over 400 women, young, old, handsome and plain, waited to greet the popular hero. Most of them came to be kissed, and 267 of them, by actual count, were not disappointed. In the evening Lieut. Hobson divided honors with Maj. Gen. A. S. Chaffee, they being the guests of honor at the annual banquet of the Commercial Club. Lieut. Hobson departed for Denver on the fast mail train enroute to San Francisco and Manila.