In rural Minnesota, a longtime township clerk puts his faith in neighbors
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In every corner of Minnesota, there are good stories waiting to be told of places that make our state great and people who in Walt Whitman’s words “contribute a verse” each day. MPR News sent longtime reporter Dan Gunderson on a mission to capture those stories as part of a new series called “Wander & Wonder: Exploring Minnesota’s unexpected places.”
Loren Ingebretsen has served as clerk of Morken Township since 1980 — but he didn’t really want the job.
A longtime farmer who lives on land his great-grandfather homesteaded in the 1880s, Ingebretsen was happy farming and raising a family, with no interest in politics.
When his neighbor and friend Russell Kragnes pleaded with him to take the job off his hands, Ingebretsen agreed to run for a single two-year term. Kragnes chuckled, telling him there were only three ways to get out of being Morken Township clerk.
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“The first one is you can die. I don’t recommend that one. The second one is, you can steal the money, but you’ll go to jail for that. The third one is, you can find somebody dumber than you to run. And he said, ‘I found you. You’ll be clerk a long time!’” Ingebretsen recalled with a hearty laugh.
Some 45 years later, there are no regrets. Now age 76 and retired from farming, Ingebretsen continues to serve in a post important to his neighbors, one that sits at the grassroots of American politics.
During a recent visit to his farm, Ingebretsen pulled a yellowing and worn ledger from a file cabinet in his garage. He opened the book to a page titled annual report, 1896. “This would be my great-grandfather’s writing,” he said.
The clerk’s job is correspondence, maintaining meeting minutes and keeping up with laws and regulations. He keeps meticulous records of township business and of the local population. If someone new moves to the township, he brings cookies and a pep talk about civic engagement.
He also served more than 20 years on the state township association board, including a stint as president from 2000 to 2013.
“When I was in grade school at a one-room country school, our teacher told us that someday any one of us could grow up to be president. I was president of the township association. Local grassroots elected me to be the president of their association,” said Ingebretsen. “How can you be anything but blessed to have had that opportunity?”
Beyond the paperwork, Ingebretsen said he also fields late-night calls when township supervisors are busy with planting or harvesting.
“I’m retired now, and so if they call and say there’s a washout on a road and that something needs to be done in the middle of the night, put up a barricade, I go and do that, even though it’s not part of the job. “Is it the clerk’s duty? No, but is it his moral responsibility? You bet it is,” he said.
Ingebretsen recalled that no one showed for his first meeting as clerk in 1980. The annual meeting is when the township tax levy is set. He said it angered him that people were given “this wonderful opportunity to set their own destiny, and they didn’t come.”
He and other township officials discussed ways to build community interest. They settled on a summer picnic at the town hall.
“And over the years, that’s blossomed out,” he said. “Last summer, when we tore down our town hall to build a new one, 80 people showed up and the hall got emptied and carried out onto a trailer in about 15 minutes.”
That’s in a township with a population of about 151.
The pay for township officials isn’t much, Ingebretsen recalls getting $13.33 for his first meeting. Today the pay is up to $80 per meeting. He jokes he makes enough for an annual trip to the town of Sabin, 20 minutes away.
He said he always looks forward to the annual township meeting in March, when neighbors gather to discuss and decide local issues.
After that meeting, he sits at the kitchen table with his wife and has a cup of hot chocolate. “And usually when I go to bed, I say a little bit of prayer,” said Ingebretsen as tears filled his eyes. “Say thank you for the community, because it’s a good place to live.”
Ingebretsen is also a poet, writing verse for every occasion. That includes memorializing the old country school that served as a town hall for nearly a century before it was torn down:
It stood on the countryside.
It was a valuable tool,
For cultivating young minds:
This old, country school!
Stop, for a moment,
And step back in years,
Remembering the book learning,
And recesses’ loud cheers!
Go up to the doorway,
But before, in you walk,
Ponder the stories,
If these walls could talk!
Stories of learning:
More, than three R’s.
Stories: Of survival and growth,
Before there were cars!
Learning: That citizen – ship,
Didn’t sail a sea,
But, it formed us a homeland,
For you, and for me!
Listen carefully for the flag pledge:
It’s there, just as plain as can be,
Just before the loud singing,
Of, “Oh say can you see”!
It’s more than old school,
I can see now so clear,
It’s truly, “a piece of America”,
Standing right here!