Diaries (1911-1991), newspaper clippings, autograph book (1902-1904), photographs, class assignments and evaluations (1914-1953), school resource evaluation (1984-1985), and a video cassette (1986) relating to Maybelle Ida Jacobson Quarberg Brekken, a Minnesota teacher and housewife. She taught in Crookston and in rural Polk County schools, and later lived in Minneapolis.
The diaries (25 v.) record her daily activities: babysitting, television shows, shopping, friends' visits, phone calls, and similar activities. The videotape was recorded in May 1986, when the 92-year-old Mrs. Brekken spoke as an outside resource person at Jefferson High School in Bloomington. The papers are concentrated in three time periods: 1911-1917, 1934-1939, and 1970-1991. The diaries from the latter period record her experiences as an aged woman living in a nursing home.
A print version of this finding aid is available in the repository; filed in ALPHA notebooks under the heading: Brekken, Maybelle.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should
Accession numbers: 13,818; 14,686
Processed by: Bonnie Beatson Palmquist, 1992
Catalog ID number: 09-00037387
Evaluations of and by Mrs. Brekken as she spoke to elementary and secondary classes in the Minneapolis area.
Drawings given to Brekken.
An incomplete memoir by Brekken, a letter (Nov. 13, 1991) from a niece to Mary Ambrose (a friend of Brekken), and Brekken's obituaries.
A class picture taken in Tracy (Minn.) ca. 1900, and three photographs of Brekken: as a young child, with her mother, and in 1987.
Recorded at Jefferson High School, Bloomington, when Brekken spoke to a class.
These early diaries describe school activities in Crookston. Brekken graduated from high school and then started at normal school. In 1917 she began teaching at a school near Climax with four pupils.
Maybelle was, during most of this time period, married to Oscar Quarberg and had two sons, Stuart and Russell; they lived on a farm near Crookston. Trips to Minneapolis, the World's Fair in Chicago, and a trip to the University Farm in St. Paul are described. Also includes notes on various organizations connected with farms and agriculture. She was living in Crookston in 1938-1939.
The initial entry, for October 18, 1956, begins a trip to California. Maybelle was then married to Manley Brekken. The entries end in December. A few entries in October and December 1959 make no mention of Manley. The June 21, 1961 entry was made by a grandson. February 1963 begins a trip to Florida with her son Russ and his family. They returned to Minneapolis in April.
Brekken was living alone in Minneapolis and she recorded her daily activities. There is a biographical sketch in the 1972-1973 diary. In 1974 she took a trip to Denver. Later diaries record her life in a nursing home.