Exactly this day the Dalton community is celebrating Helen Parkhurst's 136th birthday. Thanks to René Berends we can learn more about Helen Parkhurst' birthday. The article below:
Celebrating the 136th
anniversary of Helen Parkhurst on 8 March
René Berends, 2022
Every year, teachers at Dalton schools around the world commemorate Helen Parkhurst's birthday. This year, too, this will happen at many places. But on what date exactly do we celebrate her birthday? And in what year exactly was she born? There is some confusion about Parkhurst's date of birth and year of birth.
She herself writes in a curriculum
vitae that is preserved in the archives of the Dalton School in New York, 7
March 1887, the same date that Diana Lager (1983), Dorothy Luke (n.d.) and
Susan Semel (2002) mention.
Vern Pinkowski, an inspector of
education in Wisconsin, who wrote in the nineties, for the local historical
society of her hometown Durand (Wisc.), a small biography, mentions the year
1886. He indicates that he had seen authentic, genealogical sources in
Wisconsin. What those are exactly, unfortunately he doesn’t say.
Kuipers (1993) tells that during a
visit to the Netherlands, Parkhurst told that she was born on 8 March 1886.
Diana Lager (1983) points out that in various sources also the years 1885 and
1892 are mentioned. We find the year 1892 also on the certificate that
Parkhurst received in 1957 when she was honored by Her Majesty the Queen of
the Netherlands as Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau.
So,
when I visited Durand for my research on her biography, I went to the Pepin
County Government House and asked for her birth certificate. I knew already
that Diana Lager reported in 1983 that the original deed was destroyed by fire.
And I also knew that a Dutch researcher, Cees Janssen, stated in 1996, that he
didn’t find the original certificate.
As I expected there was indeed no original certificate. In the register of the population of the municipality of Durand (Wisc.) there was only an 'uncertified copy' of the birth certificate, which act was drawn up under oath by Parkhurst before a notary. And this act indicates that she was born on 8 March 1886.
So we are almost certain that Helen was born on 8 March 1886.
My research took me also to the
Historical Museum in Durand, the archives in Stevens Point and
River
Falls and to the Dalton School in New York. In these archives I found a
beautiful picture of Helen only a few month old and some old pictures of Durand
(Wisc.) where she was born.
Durand was founded 40 years before
her birth, in 1856, in the valley of the Chippewa River. More than thirty kilometers downstream this river flows into the Mississippi. Because of its location Durand
was a natural trading place. Timber traders sailed with their wood rafts on the
river along Durand and farmers from the area regularly came to the market.
Helen’s parents ran a hotel – Parkhurst
House –. In the archives of the Historical Museum I even found an old postcard
of Durand where we can see Parkhurst House, the hotel of her parents.
I hope that we can now celebrate her 136th birthday in peace and with certainty on 8 March next.