As the Merrill Historical Society conducts its 2014 tour of Merrill’s historical homes and buildings on Sept. 20, many will recall memories and stories associated with the structures. In fact, these memories and stories of the people and events of times past often become the silent voices of the structures themselves. How often have we heard, or thought it ourselves, “If only these walls could talk!”
So here’s a story—a true one—associated with the chapel of Ministry Good Samaritan Health Center, one of the historical structures on this year’s tour. It’s a poignant story, and a sobering one. It’s also shrouded in mystery, in some respects, so we don’t know the full story even now. But what we do know, from newspaper clippings of the late 1930s and the reflections and comments of those closely involved at the time, is that the young supervisor of the chapel construction crew, 30-year old Arthur Magnuson, never returned home, as he and his family were planning, after construction of the chapel was completed.
Arthur Magnuson arrived in Merrill on July 11, 1936. He had come from St. Paul where he was employed by the Walter Butler Construction Company, the general contractors for the chapel construction project. (The Walter Butler Company of St. Paul built not only the hospital chapel for the Holy Cross Sisters in Merrill in 1936, but also, in the 1940s, what are now known as Menard Center, the former Holy Cross High School and former Menard College, and Bell Tower Residence, the former Holy Cross Convent.) Arthur Magnuson would serve as the foreman of the chapel’s construction crew.
We know where Arthur and his family lived while in Merrill (on East First Street, close to the old City Hall), but we don’t know much more about them as a family beyond that. We do have some data from a newspaper clipping that state Arthur’s date of birth (1906 in Big Fork, MN) and his and Jean’s wedding date (1926 in Dayton, Ohio). We also know from the same clipping that his mom was living in Dayton at the time as well as a married sister, and that he also had a brother in St. Paul and a sister in Bemidji. And we also know that Jean herself had extended family in Dayton. But it was back to St. Paul that Arthur and Jean and their children planned to return after the construction of the chapel was completed.
But, sadly, everything changed radically for the young crew chief and his family within weeks of the completion of the chapel construction. On Wednesday, Jan. 27, three weeks after the dedication of the chapel on Jan. 6, 1937, Arthur became ill and was admitted to Holy Cross Hospital for symptoms related to pneumonia. According to the hospital chaplain of the time, Father Leo Kalmer, “the hospital sisters gave him the best care, and the chaplain prayed for and with him. His wife pleaded with the chaplain to pray for her husband, who was now very ill.”
On Monday, Feb. 1, 1937, the Merrill Daily Herald reported the following: “Arthur A. Magnuson, 30, in charge of construction at the recently completed chapel died Saturday night [Jan. 30, 1937] from pneumonia. He had been ill since last Wednesday.”
In a reflection he wrote about Mr. Magnuson’s death, Chaplain Kalmer explained that Jean Magnuson chose to have her husband’s funeral and burial in Merrill. Thus, the wake for Mr. Magnuson was held on Sunday evening in the room below the chapel (now known as De Angelis) and his funeral liturgy celebrated the next morning in the chapel above, “a monument to [his] careful and solicitous supervision.” Father Kalmer continued: “The workmen who under Mr. Magnuson had constructed the new chapel were invited to the funeral of their beloved employer, and also acted as pall-bearers.” After the funeral, Arthur’s body was laid to rest at St. Francis Cemetery in Merrill.
Before she left Merrill, Jean Magnuson had a “Card of Thanks” published in the Merrill paper. In it, she and her children thanked Dr. K.A. Morris (a Merrill physician), Father Kalmer, the Holy Cross Sisters, the Krueger “Undertakers”, the pallbearers, those who loaned cars, “and all others who made lighter the burden of our sorrow.”
So here we are today, rightfully acknowledging the chapel as one of our community’s historical treasures. And because of the news reports of the time and the reflections of those who knew the construction crew chief, we now know something of his story and his last connection with “his” chapel.
As we look at this architectural treasure and wander through it—the chapel with its granite exterior and exquisite stained glass windows and finely appointed interior and the elegant room under it with its long windows and pine paneling—we might hear the voice of the “careful and solicitous” man who supervised its construction, and even, perhaps, that of a superior of the Holy Cross Sisters who called him “our esteemed Mr. Magnuson.” He and the Holy Cross Sisters for whom he and many others built this beautiful structure, as well as the countless others who have come within its wall over the past 77 years and will continue to come—are indeed the silent voices of this quiet and gentle house of God.