ORANTO, Iowa – The Oranto All School Reunion was held July 15 at the Carpenter Community Center.

Thursday, September 07, 2000

ORANTO, Iowa – The Oranto All School Reunion was held July 15 at the Carpenter Community Center.

Richard Scheffel,1939, and Warren "Ole" Perkins, 1941 were at the registration table.

The Center was decorated with green and white (school colors) table cloths, and each table had a vase with garden flowers and green and white ribbons arranged by Dorothy and Irma Perkins. A catered meal was served.

The program was announced by Phyllis Dockstader Helgeson, 1942. Roger Campbell, 1939, offered a prayer in memory of deceased school mates and those unable to attend.

A roll call of classes showed the first class to be 1929, Alice Pike Olson. Members of 1917, 1920,1921 and 1922 are all deceased. The oldest graduates are Florence Ramsey Smith, 1918, and Bess Lenz Kilgore, 1919. A letter from Bess Lenz Kilgore stated that she would be 100 in October and is now living with her son and wife in San Bernardino, Calif.

The first graduating class was 1917 and the last, 1943. After 1943, the high school students attended St. Ansgar, Carpenter, or Northwood schools. The grade school continued with the eighth grade class of 1966 and then the school merged with the St. Ansgar district and the school was closed.

The best showing of classes was 1936 with two of four living present: Kenneth Goplerud and Orin Prestegaard. The class of 1937 had four of five living attending: Marion Dockstader Blank, Vernon Nelson, John Patterson, and Carol Pacey Blakestad. The class of 1938 had three of five living present: Lucille Williamson Burdette, Betty Schossler Priem, and Sylvia Prestegaard Schuster. The class of 1939 had four of six living present: Richard Scheffel, Lloyd Perkins, Roger Campbell and Lillian Eckert Johnson. There was a large attendance for the years 1943 to 1950.

Letters were read from those unable to attend. Three graduates of the Perkins family were present: Mildred Perkins James, 1934; Lloyd Perkins, 1939; and Warren "Ole" Perkins, 1941.

Earl Fritcher, 1941 came the greatest distance, Sunland, Calif. Others came from Carpenter, St. Ansgar, Osage, Riceville, Grafton, Garner, Clear Lake, Greene, lowa and Austin, Lyle, Conger, Eagan, Minnetonka, Blooming Prairie and Rose Creek, Minnesota.

Plates with the picture of the Otranto School were given to those with winning numbers. They were Mildred Gordon Staff, Marion Dockstader Blank, John Patterson, Lucille Williamson Burdette and George Oakland. A plate was also presented to Alice Pike Olson, 1929, the oldest graduate present.

Committee members were Roger Campbell, 1939; Lloyd, 1939; and Irma Perkins, Warren "Ole" Perkins, 1941; and Dorothy Perkins; Richard,1939; and Minnie Scheffel; Betty Schossler Priem, 1938; Harry, 1942; and Ardene Ogden Dockum and Phyllis Dockstader Helgeson, 1942.

The birth place of Oranto Consolidated Schools was the old building just north of Otranto and was opened in the fall of 1872. Even men attended during the winter months. The consolidated school district of Otranto was organized in March 1916 and completed in the fall of the same year. It comprised four districts: Otranto, Old Otranto, Caledonia and Oak Lane in Mitchell County. Six years later in 1922, the district was re-organized and two school districts, No 2 and 7 of Deer Creek, Worth County, were made a part of the district.