H Milton Duesenberg named parade Grand Marshal

H Milton Duesenberg likes to say that everybody has a story.   Preserving those stories— and thereby enriching our community’s history, has become a labor of love.

Duesenberg, historian at the Clear Lake Public Library, will serve as Grand Marshal in this year’s Fourth of July parade.  The honor came as a surprise to the soft-spoken Duesenberg, who delights in sharing the stories of others more than speaking about himself.  Aside from traveling the parade route lined by thousands, he plans to spend a quiet holiday with family enjoying a picnic.

H Milton came to Clear Lake as a young boy.  “I lived a vagabond life my first five years,” he said, adding that his family moved where his father, superintendent for the Sears Construction dirt gang, had work.  “We lived in a construction shack pulled from town to town.  We were on the road a lot, going from construction camp to construction camp.  But when I turned five and was ready to start school it was time for a permanent address.”  His father, from Garner, Iowa and mother, from Texas, chose Clear Lake.  After graduating from Clear Lake High School, H Milton married and attended one year at Texas A&M before returning to Iowa and earning an engineering degree from Iowa State University.  He joined the family road building business for the next 30 years.  During that time he authored a book on the participation of North Iowans in helping to build the Alaska Highway during World War II.

“I would come to the library to research and they were very helpful in providing me with leads which helped me to get a broader view,” he said.  Conducting research for his book sparked an interest in history which has grown through the years.  He is an active member of the Clear Lake Historical Society and for the past 10 years he has been managing the Clear Lake Public Library’s History Room.  There, he not only catalogues materials, but helps countless persons find out more about a variety of local landmarks, events and even their own families.  Often visitors to the History Room

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bring in photographs or film that they have discovered in their homes, or while sorting through estates.

Duesenberg said one of his favorite historical “finds” of late was eight three-minute reels of 17.5 mm movie film taken circa 1921 in Clear Lake by Earl Kugler, a professional photographer.  The reels were found by descendants of Alonzo Green in the attic of a New York City home.  The films depict a Fourth of July parade, Model T type cars on East Main, a horse and buggy, the Interurban trolley approaching the Mason City and Clear Lake Railroad depot, Main Street activity in front of Silby’s restaurant, and family scenes including Alonzo Green and his iconic telescope.

“One of the things I find intriguing about our history are the little known and amazing stories that have come to light in the History Room,” he said.

One little known story is that of the Chemin de Voyageurs fur trader’s path across North Iowa from Prairie du Chein, Wis., to the Omaha Indian nations near the Missouri River.  Their trail, which roughly followed U.S. Highway 18, appears on a 1703 map of North America which can be seen in the History Room.

Clear Lake was also on a route followed by Nathan Boone, son of the legendary Daniel Boone.  In 1832 Nathan Boone had been sent north from Missouri by William Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame, to survey the “Neutral Ground” which had been set aside for the protection of the Winnebago Indians.  On May 26, 1832 Boone’s survey party moved along the North Shore of Clear Lake while laying out the northern cession line.  Duesenberg points out that Boone’s map of the survey features the first known use of the words “Clear Lake” to describe the body of water they found in the midst of the long grass prairie.

Other Clear Lake history, made readily available through Duesenberg’s promotion of local history and the volunteer efforts of other history-minded persons, include the story of Ellen Wilhite, a former slave in Kentucky who came to Cerro Gordo County around 1870 with a Missouri family to work as a servant.  She made her way to Clear Lake, where she lived independently.

“I enjoy discovering the little known,” adds Duesenberg.  “As I have grown older, I have begun to grasp the uniqueness and rich tradition of Clear Lake— a place out of the ordinary.  The more I learn, the more I develop what I think Bill Bradley meant by a “Sense of Place,” the essence of what we call home.  This sense of place is born out of our tradition and legacy.  The Clear Lake Historical Society and the Public Library History Room are the keepers of this tradition.”