Former students meet at Lincoln County Rose Cottage #68 site

Eleven former students of Lincoln County Rose Cottage #68 school met at the building site to memorialize the rural country school.  The school was founded in April 28, 1879 and closed in 1969. When Rose Cottage was founded it gained the name because the abundance of Wild Roses growing near by.  Donald Poll created a miniature version of the school to help preserve the memories and Merle Nelson got the state of South Dakota to name the new bridge over Saddle Creek “Rose Cottage #68”.  There were five descendants from the original founders in attendance.  At times in the past, Rose Cottage had over forty students in the one room school.  Several family descendants, that attended the school, still live in the old school district.

Those in attendance are pictured above and include, from left to right, Kenny Falk, Jani Westra (Gibbons), Donald Poll, Merle Nelson, Craig Anderson, Dona Hegge (Christensen), Bonnie (Hegge) Nelson, Nancy Null, Jane Ellis (Knutson), Jean Ellis (Peterson) and Odell Overgaard.