Individual Details
Ella Amelia Hawkinson
(Nov 1894 - 27 Jan 1954)
Oak Grove Cemetery, Harris MN
Headstone Inscription of Ella A. Hawkinson, 1894-1954; buried on the same lot with E. Andrew (1857-1921), Hilda
C. (1863-1943) and A. Victoria (1893-1978)
Minnesota History Magazine; 1925-1944; Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul MN;; Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison WI:
Minnesota History, vol 6, 1925, pp 310-311
An excellent illustration of the opportunites for study in the field of local history is afforded in the spring number of the "Moccasin", a publication issued by the Junior High School of the Moorhead State Teachers College. The entire number is devoted to historical essays prepared by students under the directions of Miss Ella A. Hawkinson.
Minnesota History, vol 12, 1935, p315.
Considerable progress has been made by the Minnesota Historical Survey in the work of assembling precise information about the routes of the old Red River Trails. Some interesting types of local activity have developed in connection with this work. In Clay, for example, a student working under the direction of Miss Ella Hawkinson of the Moorhead State Teachers College mapped the trail within that county after interviewing pioneers and examining the original survey plats preserved in the county courthouse.
Minnesota History, vol 14, 1933, p438.
Term papers prepared at the University of Minnesota for a course in Minnesota History and presented by the writers include "The "Old Crossing' Chippewa Treaty of 1863" by Ella Hawkinson.
[The Old Crossing Chippewa Treaty and Its Sequel, a paper read at the afternoon session of the eighty-fith annual meeting of the Minnesota Historical Society held in the Historical Building, St. Paul, on January 8, 1934, was included in
Minnesota History, vol. 15, 1934, p282-300.]
Minnesota History, vol. 15, 1934, p83-84.
Miss Ella A. Hawkinson of the Moorhead State Teachers College was introduced for a paper on the "The Old Crossing Chippewa Treaty of 1863." The dedication by the federal government of a handsome memorial on the site of the treaty, near Huot, last summer focused attention upon this important agreement with the Red Lake and Pembina bands, which once controlled the northern section of the Red River trails. Miss Hawkinson pictured for her audience the imposing cavalcade of "290 men, 340 mules, 180 horses, 55 oxen, and 90 vehicles winding on toward Red Lake River from Fort Abercrombie." Bishop Whipple "smoking a sweet briar pipe" and representing the "muscular school of Christians," started out with the expedition, but an injury to his hand, incurred when the episcpal carriage upset, eliminated a powerful advocate of Indian rights from the treaty councils.
On September 28, Indians and half-breeds to the number of 1,618 assembled as guests of the government, and Governor Alexander Ramsey felt the need for expediting treaty affairs lest the stock of provisions should run out. Matters
dragged along, however, and on October 1 it looked as if all hopes of success were gone. The situation was saved by some energetic work by a few mixed-bloods. "What psychology they used on the individual chiefs," said Miss
Hawkinson, "is untold, but the next day, October 2, Moose-Dung led the signing." Thus were ceded more than nine million acres of the Red River Valley for an annuity of $20,000 for twenty years, and the usual special payments for
traders' credits and the like. In an agreement drawn up a year later, Bishop Whipple secured liberalization of the terms.
Minnesota History, vol 16, 1935.
Miss Ella Hawkinson is elected vice-president of the Clay County Historical Society.
Minnsota History, vol 17, 1936, p231.
Miss Ella Hawkinson was named president of the Clay County Historical Society. Plans for the establishment of a historical museum were made. The museum will be housed in one of the buildings of the Moorhead State Teachers College.
Minnesota History, vol 18, 1937, p334
Miss Ella Hawkinson was re-elected president of the Clay County Historical Society.
Minnesota History, vol 19, 1938, p359
Miss Ella Hawkinson of the Moorhead State Teachers College was re-elected president of the Clay County Historical Society. Plans for enlarging the society's museum were discussed.
[p359] ...Miss Ella Hawkinson, principal and supervisor of the college high school at Moorhead State Teachers College...
[p437-439] Ella Hawkinson, State Teachers College, Moorhead, reviewed two books: "Teaching Social Studies: Theory and Practice", by Edgar Bruce Wesley, 635 p; and "A Regional Program for Social Studies", by A. C. Krey, 140 p.
Minnesota History, vol 25, 1944, p258-264.
An article entitled "Minnesota History and the Schools, The Educational Services of the Clay County Historical Museum", by Ella A. Hawkinson.
Moorhead State Teachers College (1921-1957), by Clarence Glasrud, Moorhead State University, Moorhead, 1990.
(p50)
"The year Moorhead State became a four-year College, the first step was taken to add a high to the campus elementary grades. Ella Hawkinson was hired in 1920 as a junior high school teacher and principal: a ninth grade was added that school year and a tenth year in 1921-1922. A dynamic and innovative teacher-administrator, Miss Hawkinson continued to develop her small secondary school until it became a four-year high school. The first class of eight students was graduated from the Campus High School in 1929."
(p80)
In 1932, J. R. Schwendeman "Schwendy", popular teacher of geography scheduled a European trip, "a 48-day trip to nine countries, the tour crossing the Atlantic on Cunard Liners. Cost: $380, with deferred payment plans available. Despite the bargain price, few could afford such a tour in 1932. When 14 people left on July 10, half of them were members of the MSTC faculty and staff..." Ella Hawkinson was one of the participants.
(p100)
"...but, the most memorable MSTC [student] pageant, produced in 1925, certainly owed a good deal to Ella Hawkins. Miss Hawkinson came to the College as principal of the new junior high school in 1920 and built up a full campus high school in that decade. Her strong interest in local history led her to organize the Clay County Historical Society in 1932 and house its incipient museum at the College. She was undoubtedly a moving force in the production of "At the Gate of the West," the 1925 pageant.
The story of this pageant, which incorporated many of Moorhead's pioneer citizens--who had come to the area to found a new community and were now in their seventies but still vigorous and active--is told in the 1926 Praeceptor. "At the Gate of the West" was presented by the students of Moorhead State Teachers College and Junior High School and consisted of a series of pictures which depicted the life of early Pioneers in Moorhead: the events were reproductions of actual occurrences in this locality." The Pageant was divided into five episodes:
1. Indian Days
2. Coming of the Fur Traders. (It was at this time that the Northwest Hudson Bay Company post was established at Georgetown.
3. Trips in Covered Wagon. French traders going to St. Paul.
4. Navigation on the Red River.
5. Beginnings of the town of Moorhead. (The moving of Moorhead from Oakport to its present site was shown.)
The final scene was called a "Tribute to the Pioneers," Mr. B. F. Mackall, Judge J. J. Sharp, Mrs. S. G. Comstock and Mrs. Alexander Probstfield, pioneers of Moorhead, participated in the scene. The Pageant was given on the Minneosta side of the Red River by a cast consisting of 500 people....interest in the pioneer days of Moorhead was first started in the Junior High School by Miss Hawkinson..."
(p135-136)
Ella Hawkinson was an honorary member and faculty advisor for Lambda Phi Sigma, an honorary educational fraternity organized in February, 1924.
(p222-p223)
"The most popular special issue [of the student newspaper, MiSTiC each year was the single-sheet April Fool Misfit or Mistake, focused on vulnerable student and faculty targets...the best of the April Food editions was supressed because it told the truth! Its worse offense was a story about Dr. Ella Hawkinson, the red-haired and down-to-earth College High School principal who had gone out on the basketball floor to castigate referees in salty language because she thought they were favoring Moorhead High in a game with her Campus high school. (They probably were: the little Campus School shouldn't be allowed to threaten Moorhead High, which had won the state basketball tournament twice!) Said Byron Murray, in explaining why he burned this April Food edition: "They told the truth: that's what she said!"...some students did see the offending paper...Tescher [Don Tescher who had mastermind the edition] had borrowed the key to the offical glass-enclosed bulletin board, posted a copy, and then disappeared with the key..."
(p315)
"Dr. Ella Hawkinson, in her last few years at Moorhead State Teachers College, was the chief figure in the school's participation in a national study of Intergroup Relations, which involved the Campus School more than the College proper....she resigned her MSTC position to teach history and political science at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. He had a Fullbright lectureship in Norway in 1952-53. Miss Hawkinson died at the home of a sister in St. Paul shortly after her return to the United States (on January 27, 1954."
(p341-344)
The College High School
The founder of the College High School was Ella Hawkinson, who came to Moorhead in 1920, just before the Normal School became a State Teachers College. She joined the faculty as the first principal of the junior high school, which became an advanced entity beyond the upper grades of the elementary school. During the 1920s she gradually added more secondary work until the first class of eight students graduated from "the new College High School" on June 2, 1930...by 1932, when the school was graduating its third class of thirteen students, Ella Hawkins and Georgina Lommen (who was Director of the Training School), had moved the new campus high school forward in important ways. According to the Moccasin: "During the past year College High School took three progressive steps which furthered its progress considerably. We were recognized as an accredited high school by the North Central Association of Secondary Schools, we chose our first members to the National Honorary Society in June, 1931, and we were admitted to the Minnesota High School Leageue. This organization includes athletics, debate, and declamation."
(p350-351)
The Moccasin
Writing, editing, and printing The Moccasin for a decade may have been the most remarkable achievement of Ella Hawkinson's junior-senior high school. The publication began in 1922 as "Christmas Greetings from the Model School," a 12-page booklet "printed in the School Print Shop of the Moorhead State Teachers College. The work was done by the boys of the ninth grade assisted by the boys of the College." ... The 1924 Moccasin said the magazine was issued three times a year ... Ella Hawkinson and her students were seldom able to publish three issues a year, but in 1924-25 three Moccasins were printed ... the spring term Moccasin had 48 pages, the high point reached by the publication. The subject matter was Miss Hawkinson's abiding interest, local history.
On the cover of this spring 1925 Moccasin was a Red River ox cart with its half-breed driver walking along side, and the title page read "History of Our Community." ... "A Project," signed by Ella A. Hawkinson, explained the decision of the eighth grade civics class to study the development of the community...Ella Hawkinson's local history project (and publication) in her junior high school class led to the 1925 All-College pageant, "At the Gate of the West," written by Flora Frick and her pageantry class with help from Ella Hawkinson. It was presented by the College and junior high school students--with four genuine pioneers participating! ...
There were further developments a few years later. Ella Hawkinson decided there was sufficient interest in the community to support a permanent organization and a museum. She founded the Clay County Historical Society in 1932 and was alloted space in the new College buildings to house a museum. The Society began collecting artifacts and archival material.
(p411)
...reported the establishment of a historical museum that would be located at MSTC: "Under the leadership of their president, Miss Ella Hawkinson, principal of the College High School, members of the Clay County Historical Society are undertaking an extensive project which they hope will result in the establishment of a fairly complete museum of pioneer life and other days in time for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the college next year. Through the courtesy of the administration, the Historical Society has been permitted to use a room in MacLean Hall for the museum. MacLean Hall offering a safe, fireproof shelter for the exhibits."
Unnamed 1941 newspaper, from personnel file of Ella Hawkinson, Moorhead State University Archives
Miss Hawkinson Gets Doctorate
Degree Conference
June 14 at U. of M.
Miss Ella Hawkinson, principal of the Campus School, was granted a doctor's degree on Tuesday by a faculty committee at the University of Minnesota. Her degree will be conferred on June 14 at commencement exercises.
Miss Hawkinson's thesis was titled "The Difficulties of Social Studies Teachers in Secondary Schools."
Before coming to MSTC in 1920, Miss Hawkinson taught in the public schools of Norwood-Young America and Glencoe, and supervised at the Duluth and Madison, S.D. State Teachers colleges.
Miss Hawkinson completed her undergraduate work at the University of Minnesota, receiving her B.A. degree in 1920, her M.A. in 1926. Previously she was granted an advanced diploma from Duluth State Teachers College.
Unnamed newspaper, from personnel file of Ella Hawkinson, Moorhead State University Archives
Dr. Hawkinson, Formerly at MSTC, Dies
Dr. Ella A. Hawkinson, who formerly was associated with the MSTC campus school in Moorhead, died Wednesday in St. Paul after an illness of some duration.
Dr. Hawkinson, who left Moorhead in 1947, has been head of the department of history and political science of Hope College, Holland, Mich.
She had been hospitalized about six weeks.
The funeral will be at 1 Saturday in the Fred W. Johnston Funeral Home of St. Paul. Burial will be at Harris, Minn.
Ella Amelia Hawkinson was born at Harris, and was graduated in 1913 from the Duluth State Teachers College. She later studied at the University of Minnesota, receiving a bachelors degree there in 1920 and a masters degree in 1926.
Following post graduate study she received a doctor of philosphy degree from Minnesota in May 1941, and had the distinction of being the first woman Ph.D. on the MSTC faculty, which she had joined in 1920.
She had been principal of the college high school which she founded, as well as holding other positions on the faculty.
After going to Hope College she was awarded a Fullbright lectureship in Norway and spent the 1952-1953 school year there. She worked at the Trondhjem Institute of Technology and the University of Oslo.
On her return she went to Oregon to conduct a summer workshop in international education at the Southern College of Education, Ashland, Ore. Serving as consultant in secondary education for the state of Oregon, she was forced to resign last October because of illness.
She leaves two sisters, Miss Victoria Hawkinson and Mrs. Gladys Carlson, both of St. Paul.
Dr. Hawkinson was interested in historical work and was a past president of the Clay County Historical Society. She was president of the Michigan Council for UNESCO. She also was a member of Pi Lambda Theta, Kappa Delta Pi and Lambda Phi Sigma sororities.
North Branch Review, 11Feb1954, p1
Dr. Ella Hawkinson, Educator, Is Called
Dr. Ella Hawkinson, teacher and lecturer in social studies, passed away on Wednesday, January 27, after an illness of some duration.
Ella Amelia Hawkinson was born in Harris, Minnesota, and was graduated in 1913 from the Duluth State Teachers College. She later studied at the University of Minnesota, receiving a bachelor degree there in 1920 and a masters degree in 1926. She received a doctor of philosophy degree from Minnesota in May 1941.
She taught at the Universities of Kansas, Rochester, Saskatchewan, Minnesota, Moorhead State Teachers College and Hope College. After going to Hope College, Michigan, she was awarded a Fulbright lectureship in Norway and spent the 1952-1953 school year there. She worked at the Trondheim Institute of Technology and the University of Oslo.
Surviving are two sisters, Miss Victoria Hawkinson and Mrs. Gladys M. Carlson, both of St. Paul.
Burial was at Harris, Minnesota.
Headstone Inscription of Ella A. Hawkinson, 1894-1954; buried on the same lot with E. Andrew (1857-1921), Hilda
C. (1863-1943) and A. Victoria (1893-1978)
Minnesota History Magazine; 1925-1944; Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul MN;; Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison WI:
Minnesota History, vol 6, 1925, pp 310-311
An excellent illustration of the opportunites for study in the field of local history is afforded in the spring number of the "Moccasin", a publication issued by the Junior High School of the Moorhead State Teachers College. The entire number is devoted to historical essays prepared by students under the directions of Miss Ella A. Hawkinson.
Minnesota History, vol 12, 1935, p315.
Considerable progress has been made by the Minnesota Historical Survey in the work of assembling precise information about the routes of the old Red River Trails. Some interesting types of local activity have developed in connection with this work. In Clay, for example, a student working under the direction of Miss Ella Hawkinson of the Moorhead State Teachers College mapped the trail within that county after interviewing pioneers and examining the original survey plats preserved in the county courthouse.
Minnesota History, vol 14, 1933, p438.
Term papers prepared at the University of Minnesota for a course in Minnesota History and presented by the writers include "The "Old Crossing' Chippewa Treaty of 1863" by Ella Hawkinson.
[The Old Crossing Chippewa Treaty and Its Sequel, a paper read at the afternoon session of the eighty-fith annual meeting of the Minnesota Historical Society held in the Historical Building, St. Paul, on January 8, 1934, was included in
Minnesota History, vol. 15, 1934, p282-300.]
Minnesota History, vol. 15, 1934, p83-84.
Miss Ella A. Hawkinson of the Moorhead State Teachers College was introduced for a paper on the "The Old Crossing Chippewa Treaty of 1863." The dedication by the federal government of a handsome memorial on the site of the treaty, near Huot, last summer focused attention upon this important agreement with the Red Lake and Pembina bands, which once controlled the northern section of the Red River trails. Miss Hawkinson pictured for her audience the imposing cavalcade of "290 men, 340 mules, 180 horses, 55 oxen, and 90 vehicles winding on toward Red Lake River from Fort Abercrombie." Bishop Whipple "smoking a sweet briar pipe" and representing the "muscular school of Christians," started out with the expedition, but an injury to his hand, incurred when the episcpal carriage upset, eliminated a powerful advocate of Indian rights from the treaty councils.
On September 28, Indians and half-breeds to the number of 1,618 assembled as guests of the government, and Governor Alexander Ramsey felt the need for expediting treaty affairs lest the stock of provisions should run out. Matters
dragged along, however, and on October 1 it looked as if all hopes of success were gone. The situation was saved by some energetic work by a few mixed-bloods. "What psychology they used on the individual chiefs," said Miss
Hawkinson, "is untold, but the next day, October 2, Moose-Dung led the signing." Thus were ceded more than nine million acres of the Red River Valley for an annuity of $20,000 for twenty years, and the usual special payments for
traders' credits and the like. In an agreement drawn up a year later, Bishop Whipple secured liberalization of the terms.
Minnesota History, vol 16, 1935.
Miss Ella Hawkinson is elected vice-president of the Clay County Historical Society.
Minnsota History, vol 17, 1936, p231.
Miss Ella Hawkinson was named president of the Clay County Historical Society. Plans for the establishment of a historical museum were made. The museum will be housed in one of the buildings of the Moorhead State Teachers College.
Minnesota History, vol 18, 1937, p334
Miss Ella Hawkinson was re-elected president of the Clay County Historical Society.
Minnesota History, vol 19, 1938, p359
Miss Ella Hawkinson of the Moorhead State Teachers College was re-elected president of the Clay County Historical Society. Plans for enlarging the society's museum were discussed.
[p359] ...Miss Ella Hawkinson, principal and supervisor of the college high school at Moorhead State Teachers College...
[p437-439] Ella Hawkinson, State Teachers College, Moorhead, reviewed two books: "Teaching Social Studies: Theory and Practice", by Edgar Bruce Wesley, 635 p; and "A Regional Program for Social Studies", by A. C. Krey, 140 p.
Minnesota History, vol 25, 1944, p258-264.
An article entitled "Minnesota History and the Schools, The Educational Services of the Clay County Historical Museum", by Ella A. Hawkinson.
Moorhead State Teachers College (1921-1957), by Clarence Glasrud, Moorhead State University, Moorhead, 1990.
(p50)
"The year Moorhead State became a four-year College, the first step was taken to add a high to the campus elementary grades. Ella Hawkinson was hired in 1920 as a junior high school teacher and principal: a ninth grade was added that school year and a tenth year in 1921-1922. A dynamic and innovative teacher-administrator, Miss Hawkinson continued to develop her small secondary school until it became a four-year high school. The first class of eight students was graduated from the Campus High School in 1929."
(p80)
In 1932, J. R. Schwendeman "Schwendy", popular teacher of geography scheduled a European trip, "a 48-day trip to nine countries, the tour crossing the Atlantic on Cunard Liners. Cost: $380, with deferred payment plans available. Despite the bargain price, few could afford such a tour in 1932. When 14 people left on July 10, half of them were members of the MSTC faculty and staff..." Ella Hawkinson was one of the participants.
(p100)
"...but, the most memorable MSTC [student] pageant, produced in 1925, certainly owed a good deal to Ella Hawkins. Miss Hawkinson came to the College as principal of the new junior high school in 1920 and built up a full campus high school in that decade. Her strong interest in local history led her to organize the Clay County Historical Society in 1932 and house its incipient museum at the College. She was undoubtedly a moving force in the production of "At the Gate of the West," the 1925 pageant.
The story of this pageant, which incorporated many of Moorhead's pioneer citizens--who had come to the area to found a new community and were now in their seventies but still vigorous and active--is told in the 1926 Praeceptor. "At the Gate of the West" was presented by the students of Moorhead State Teachers College and Junior High School and consisted of a series of pictures which depicted the life of early Pioneers in Moorhead: the events were reproductions of actual occurrences in this locality." The Pageant was divided into five episodes:
1. Indian Days
2. Coming of the Fur Traders. (It was at this time that the Northwest Hudson Bay Company post was established at Georgetown.
3. Trips in Covered Wagon. French traders going to St. Paul.
4. Navigation on the Red River.
5. Beginnings of the town of Moorhead. (The moving of Moorhead from Oakport to its present site was shown.)
The final scene was called a "Tribute to the Pioneers," Mr. B. F. Mackall, Judge J. J. Sharp, Mrs. S. G. Comstock and Mrs. Alexander Probstfield, pioneers of Moorhead, participated in the scene. The Pageant was given on the Minneosta side of the Red River by a cast consisting of 500 people....interest in the pioneer days of Moorhead was first started in the Junior High School by Miss Hawkinson..."
(p135-136)
Ella Hawkinson was an honorary member and faculty advisor for Lambda Phi Sigma, an honorary educational fraternity organized in February, 1924.
(p222-p223)
"The most popular special issue [of the student newspaper, MiSTiC each year was the single-sheet April Fool Misfit or Mistake, focused on vulnerable student and faculty targets...the best of the April Food editions was supressed because it told the truth! Its worse offense was a story about Dr. Ella Hawkinson, the red-haired and down-to-earth College High School principal who had gone out on the basketball floor to castigate referees in salty language because she thought they were favoring Moorhead High in a game with her Campus high school. (They probably were: the little Campus School shouldn't be allowed to threaten Moorhead High, which had won the state basketball tournament twice!) Said Byron Murray, in explaining why he burned this April Food edition: "They told the truth: that's what she said!"...some students did see the offending paper...Tescher [Don Tescher who had mastermind the edition] had borrowed the key to the offical glass-enclosed bulletin board, posted a copy, and then disappeared with the key..."
(p315)
"Dr. Ella Hawkinson, in her last few years at Moorhead State Teachers College, was the chief figure in the school's participation in a national study of Intergroup Relations, which involved the Campus School more than the College proper....she resigned her MSTC position to teach history and political science at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. He had a Fullbright lectureship in Norway in 1952-53. Miss Hawkinson died at the home of a sister in St. Paul shortly after her return to the United States (on January 27, 1954."
(p341-344)
The College High School
The founder of the College High School was Ella Hawkinson, who came to Moorhead in 1920, just before the Normal School became a State Teachers College. She joined the faculty as the first principal of the junior high school, which became an advanced entity beyond the upper grades of the elementary school. During the 1920s she gradually added more secondary work until the first class of eight students graduated from "the new College High School" on June 2, 1930...by 1932, when the school was graduating its third class of thirteen students, Ella Hawkins and Georgina Lommen (who was Director of the Training School), had moved the new campus high school forward in important ways. According to the Moccasin: "During the past year College High School took three progressive steps which furthered its progress considerably. We were recognized as an accredited high school by the North Central Association of Secondary Schools, we chose our first members to the National Honorary Society in June, 1931, and we were admitted to the Minnesota High School Leageue. This organization includes athletics, debate, and declamation."
(p350-351)
The Moccasin
Writing, editing, and printing The Moccasin for a decade may have been the most remarkable achievement of Ella Hawkinson's junior-senior high school. The publication began in 1922 as "Christmas Greetings from the Model School," a 12-page booklet "printed in the School Print Shop of the Moorhead State Teachers College. The work was done by the boys of the ninth grade assisted by the boys of the College." ... The 1924 Moccasin said the magazine was issued three times a year ... Ella Hawkinson and her students were seldom able to publish three issues a year, but in 1924-25 three Moccasins were printed ... the spring term Moccasin had 48 pages, the high point reached by the publication. The subject matter was Miss Hawkinson's abiding interest, local history.
On the cover of this spring 1925 Moccasin was a Red River ox cart with its half-breed driver walking along side, and the title page read "History of Our Community." ... "A Project," signed by Ella A. Hawkinson, explained the decision of the eighth grade civics class to study the development of the community...Ella Hawkinson's local history project (and publication) in her junior high school class led to the 1925 All-College pageant, "At the Gate of the West," written by Flora Frick and her pageantry class with help from Ella Hawkinson. It was presented by the College and junior high school students--with four genuine pioneers participating! ...
There were further developments a few years later. Ella Hawkinson decided there was sufficient interest in the community to support a permanent organization and a museum. She founded the Clay County Historical Society in 1932 and was alloted space in the new College buildings to house a museum. The Society began collecting artifacts and archival material.
(p411)
...reported the establishment of a historical museum that would be located at MSTC: "Under the leadership of their president, Miss Ella Hawkinson, principal of the College High School, members of the Clay County Historical Society are undertaking an extensive project which they hope will result in the establishment of a fairly complete museum of pioneer life and other days in time for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the college next year. Through the courtesy of the administration, the Historical Society has been permitted to use a room in MacLean Hall for the museum. MacLean Hall offering a safe, fireproof shelter for the exhibits."
Unnamed 1941 newspaper, from personnel file of Ella Hawkinson, Moorhead State University Archives
Miss Hawkinson Gets Doctorate
Degree Conference
June 14 at U. of M.
Miss Ella Hawkinson, principal of the Campus School, was granted a doctor's degree on Tuesday by a faculty committee at the University of Minnesota. Her degree will be conferred on June 14 at commencement exercises.
Miss Hawkinson's thesis was titled "The Difficulties of Social Studies Teachers in Secondary Schools."
Before coming to MSTC in 1920, Miss Hawkinson taught in the public schools of Norwood-Young America and Glencoe, and supervised at the Duluth and Madison, S.D. State Teachers colleges.
Miss Hawkinson completed her undergraduate work at the University of Minnesota, receiving her B.A. degree in 1920, her M.A. in 1926. Previously she was granted an advanced diploma from Duluth State Teachers College.
Unnamed newspaper, from personnel file of Ella Hawkinson, Moorhead State University Archives
Dr. Hawkinson, Formerly at MSTC, Dies
Dr. Ella A. Hawkinson, who formerly was associated with the MSTC campus school in Moorhead, died Wednesday in St. Paul after an illness of some duration.
Dr. Hawkinson, who left Moorhead in 1947, has been head of the department of history and political science of Hope College, Holland, Mich.
She had been hospitalized about six weeks.
The funeral will be at 1 Saturday in the Fred W. Johnston Funeral Home of St. Paul. Burial will be at Harris, Minn.
Ella Amelia Hawkinson was born at Harris, and was graduated in 1913 from the Duluth State Teachers College. She later studied at the University of Minnesota, receiving a bachelors degree there in 1920 and a masters degree in 1926.
Following post graduate study she received a doctor of philosphy degree from Minnesota in May 1941, and had the distinction of being the first woman Ph.D. on the MSTC faculty, which she had joined in 1920.
She had been principal of the college high school which she founded, as well as holding other positions on the faculty.
After going to Hope College she was awarded a Fullbright lectureship in Norway and spent the 1952-1953 school year there. She worked at the Trondhjem Institute of Technology and the University of Oslo.
On her return she went to Oregon to conduct a summer workshop in international education at the Southern College of Education, Ashland, Ore. Serving as consultant in secondary education for the state of Oregon, she was forced to resign last October because of illness.
She leaves two sisters, Miss Victoria Hawkinson and Mrs. Gladys Carlson, both of St. Paul.
Dr. Hawkinson was interested in historical work and was a past president of the Clay County Historical Society. She was president of the Michigan Council for UNESCO. She also was a member of Pi Lambda Theta, Kappa Delta Pi and Lambda Phi Sigma sororities.
North Branch Review, 11Feb1954, p1
Dr. Ella Hawkinson, Educator, Is Called
Dr. Ella Hawkinson, teacher and lecturer in social studies, passed away on Wednesday, January 27, after an illness of some duration.
Ella Amelia Hawkinson was born in Harris, Minnesota, and was graduated in 1913 from the Duluth State Teachers College. She later studied at the University of Minnesota, receiving a bachelor degree there in 1920 and a masters degree in 1926. She received a doctor of philosophy degree from Minnesota in May 1941.
She taught at the Universities of Kansas, Rochester, Saskatchewan, Minnesota, Moorhead State Teachers College and Hope College. After going to Hope College, Michigan, she was awarded a Fulbright lectureship in Norway and spent the 1952-1953 school year there. She worked at the Trondheim Institute of Technology and the University of Oslo.
Surviving are two sisters, Miss Victoria Hawkinson and Mrs. Gladys M. Carlson, both of St. Paul.
Burial was at Harris, Minnesota.
Events
| Birth | Nov 1894 | Harris, Chisago, Minnesota | |||
| Death | 27 Jan 1954 | St. Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota | |||
| Burial | 30 Jan 1954 | Harris, Chisago, Minnesota, Oak Grove Cemetery |
Families
| Father | Erick Andrew (Eric Andreas) Hawkinson (1856 - 1921) |
| Mother | Hilda Carolina Erickson (1863 - 1943) |
| Sibling | A. (Anna) Victoria Hawkinson (1893 - ) |
| Sibling | Gladys (Gladiolus) Maria Hawkinson (1897 - 1968) |