The Hastings Historical Society is hosting an open house at Oakwood Cemetery on Featherstone Road behind the High School on Saturday September 12th, from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. The open house will, feature an antique hearse from Steve Bauer, spinning wheel demonstrations from Lisa Peterson, civil war potholder quilt replica, and civil war memorabilia from Ray Rygula. Along with the special items mentioned above, the folks from the Pioneer Room will be sharing stories about the residents of Oakwood Cemetery. The Journal will periodically feature some of those stories like this one.

GRATIA ALTA COUNRYMAN

Gratia was born in November of 1866 to Levi and Alta (Chamberlain) Countryman. She graduated from Hastings High School in 1882 at the age of 15, the youngest graduate from school at that time. She attended and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1889.

She joined the newly established Minneapolis library staff – becoming the first woman chief librarian in 1904. During her tenure, she opened 13 branch libraries, had the first children’s reading room at the Minneapolis library, brought in books in different languages and started what would become the bookmobile services.

In 1933, she was elected president of the Women’s Welfare League, became chairman of the Minneapolis Council of Adult Education, helped to organize the Women’s Club and was the first woman to have an honorary master’s degree at the University of Minnesota.

At age 50, she adopted 8-year-old Wellington Wilson, whose mother dropped him at the library while she worked the streets.

Gratia died on July 26, 1953, at the age of 87 and was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Hastings.

Would you like to discover other people buried at Oakwood Cemetery? Oakwood was the first cemetery in Hastings and holds many of the original pioneers. Come out to our Open House on Saturday, September 12, 2020, from 10:00 – 2:00.