Author Elaine Hegg shares story of rural teacher murdered in Allamakee County in 1921

by Kelli Boylen

For Elaine (Myhre) Hegg, the story of what happened in December 1921 in a one-room school has always been part of her family lore.
Last year she complied years of research into a book titled, Death in a One-Room Country School.
She recalls as a child her dad, Clarence "Edwin" Myhre, telling the tragic story of what happened to his teacher.
The land where the country schoolhouse sat was sold by Axel Dille, Elaine’s great-great grandfather. She says, “Little did he know that it would be the scene of the one of the most horrific crimes ever committed in northeastern Iowa.”
The Bergen School, where the murder of Inga Magnusson took place, was located one mile from the settlement called Bee, which lay on the Minnesota-Iowa border. The school was in Allamakee County, four miles northwest of Dorchester, 20 miles north of Waukon and seven miles south of Spring Grove, MN.
Elaine weaves the tale of what happened to Inga by first laying the foundation about the community of Bee. The town sat on the state line, and the general store and the local tavern were located partially in Iowa and partially in Minnesota. This allowed the owners to work their way around some laws from each state, such as no alcohol sales on Sunday in one state but not the other, and selling cigarettes on the Iowa side of the store since the license to sell them was cheaper in that state.
For many years, including the time of the murder, the general store was owned and operated by Magnus and Maglei Magnusson. They had four children, their oldest being Inga, born in 1898.
Inga graduated from Spring Grove High School in 1918 and then completed teacher training in 1919. Inga taught several terms at various schools, and started teaching about 16 students at the Bergen School in the fall of 1921.
Elaine added to the stories she had been told growing up about the murder by interviewing many people, including Inga’s nieces and nephews, and the girl who was the last person to see Inga alive; she was nearly 90 years old at the time Elaine visited with her.
That eighth grade student, Vivian Hefte, had ripped her coat during recess, and she stayed for a while after school, discussing with her teacher how to repair the coat without the mending being visible. Years later Vivian told Elaine that she had had premonitions that morning that something bad was going to happen, and again on her way home she was so overcome with the feeling of dread that she was shaking.
Elaine wrote that after Vivian left the school that night, Inga went to the basement to care for the fire in the furnace before leaving for the night. While she was down there, Earle Throst entered the basement and bludgeoned Igna to death with a stick of cordwood.
Many thought of Earle as being mentally unstable, and he claimed that he and Igna were involved in a relationship and she had tried to break it off. Inga was engaged to another man, and had never been involved with Earle.
After her body was discovered, the community was seized with fear. Bloodhounds were brought in to help locate the killer.  Elaine says Earle covered a lot of ground after killing the young woman – he stole a saddle, stole a horse, bought a new coat in Eitzen, ate at the County Home in Waukon and was ready to board a train in Postville the next afternoon when he was located the next day.
Sheriff Gunda Martindale, who was appointed to the position after her husband’s death, is credited for sneaking Earle into the courthouse past an angry mob of more than 500 people.
Within two weeks Earle was convicted of the crime and transported to Fort Madison. He was hanged for his crime about two years later.
Her 98-page book details the event start to finish, from the founding of Bee to the fact that her great-aunt was a “flower girl” at Inga’s funeral and that there is now a display about the murder at the museum in Waukon, which is the former courthouse.
“All of this left such an impact on the entire community,” Elaine says. Her dad and other relatives who were alive at the time shared their stories, often with the next generations. “To this day the story has been passed down; it certainly has not been forgotten."
Elaine says she has always enjoyed stories and drama, and she sometimes does “one-woman shows” portraying historical figures, and about 15 years ago someone suggested she portray Inga. She has performed as Inga, and as the last student to see Inga alive many times over the years.
At one presentation Inga’s nieces attended. They had never heard the entire story about what had happened as their family found it too painful to talk about it. Elaine was very honored when they presented her with the dress Inga is wearing in the photo on the cover of the book. She says she keeps it on a dressform for presentations and she and her husband plan on making a display case for it soon.
“I’ve been gathering information for quite some time,” Elaine says. She admits it took setting a deadline to get the story done. She was asked to write a book from all her research by Country School Preservationist William I. Sherman, who authored Iowa Country Schools: Landmarks of Learning in time for the Iowa Rural School Conference held last October.
Last winter she organized her materials and she started writing in June. She completed it by September and self published through Davis Printing in Rochester, MN. She sold out of her first printing by December, and has now done a second printing.
She says she has received a lot of great feedback and interest from people in northeast Iowa and those connected to the event. Inga’s great-nephew called her saying he was thrilled the story had been preserved. She has heard from others as well, including the grandson of the last student to see her alive. One person has expressed interest in turning the story into a screenplay.
Inga’s grave is located at the Waterloo Ridge Lutheran Church, located on the blacktop between Dorchester and Spring Grove. The schoolhouse has been moved down the road from the original location and is now used as a toolshed.
Death in a One-Room Country School also includes a short story by Walt Whitman at the end. Whitman’s story, told 90 years before Inga’s murder, has some parallels to the more modern tale.
This book is Elaine’s second time publishing a book. Her first was a 700-page history of the Washington Prairie Church, which covers a timeline from 1800 to 2002.
Anyone interested in learning more about Death in a One-Room Country School is welcome to attend a book signing in Waukon Saturday, January 18 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Farmers and Merchants Bank. Anyone interested in purchasing a book who will not able to attend may contact Elaine Hegg at P.O. Box 575, Calmar IA 52132, or call 563-563-5058.