09/23/2025
Daughter of Brodhead pastor remembered 100 years after state victory
Special for the Brodhead Free Press
Submittted by Chris Jensen
"Well, I'd like to tell you that she made an altar out of it, but that is not the case. She had it packed away in a safe place," was the comment that Juliana (Julie) Hoiseth had when asked if she and members of her family were aware that her mother had a prized loving cup for co-winning the 1925 Wisconsin State Spelling Bee.
Moments later, Julie presented the actual 1925 state study guide book of spelling bee words, a tattered state fair blue ribbon, and the prized near-six-inch silver loving cup which has this inscription...."Awarded by the American Legion, Department of Wisconsin, to Signe Ramseth for the highest scholastic standing among the girls in the state fair educational contest, September 2, 1925."
As soon as Signe, a blue-eyed dark brunette, held the coveted awards on stage under the warm late summer sun on the state fairgrounds, newspapers around the state featured Signe's name along with the identity of the young man from St. Croix County who was the co-winner of the annual spelling bee and education competition.
However, there was one exception that was found when a group of history research friends, who were working on a totally different project, came across a very small news brief in the Stevens Point Journal.
The September 5, 1925 news brief, titled "Rock and St. Croix in tie for first," said "Rock and St. Croix counties tied for first honors among Wisconsin counties at the state fair this week in spelling, reading, and writing contests." No names or hometowns were provided in the Stevens Point news write-up.
But who were they, and what became of their lives?
Sparked by a bit of curiosity, the group set out to find answers to those questions and learn who were those unnamed spelling bee champions from opposite sides of the state that collectively won the spelling contest back in 1925.
The first Wisconsin spelling bee can be traced as far back as 1911; and starting in the late 1940s, the state winner would advance to the national spelling bee held in Washington, DC, each spring. Wisconsin has had only one National Spelling Bee champion, Joanne Marie Lagatta of Clintonville in 1991, who also won the state spelldown in 1989.
A singular spelling bee winner was named at the state fair each year until 1923 when the organizers announced two champions of the annual contest, a boys division winner and a girls champion. The awarding of two medalists continued until 1927, and then they reverted back to a sole titlist format in 1928 which continues to the present day, with exception of the rare tied state spelling bee titleholders.
As it turned out from extensive research, other newspapers around the state announced that a then-Brodhead area pastor's daughter named Signe Ramseth was the Rock County representative who won the girls portion of the annual Wisconsin State Spelling Bee event held in West Allis, on September 2, 1925, exactly one hundred years ago this month.
Born on March 19, 1912 in Merrill, Wis., Signe Mildred Ramseth was 13 when she earned state spelling bee title while living in Luther Valley, a rural community that was "formerly known as Rock Prairie before it was re-named Luther Valley by Rev. Claus Lauritz Clausen," said Wanda Curry, of the Luther Valley Historical Society.
"He was a pioneer in 19th century Norwegian settlement in Rock County, and I would have to guess he gravitated to the Luther Valley name as he and many of the settlers were Lutheran," Ms. Curry explained.
The boys division winner at the 1925 Wisconsin State Spelling Bee was Harold Kenneth Klanderman, also 13, the seventh child of eight for Garrett and Jennie “Jane” Westendorf Klanderman. He grew-up on a farm about three miles north of Baldwin, located in eastern St. Croix County. The studious pupil later married a Baldwin native on May 31, 1941 in Dakota County, Minnesota, and they lost a newborn daughter in March 1942 just before he served in World War ll.
Sadly, Sgt. Harold Klanderman, a six-foot member of the 14th Armored Division, was killed in action on December 3, 1944 (though some records recognize his death as December 6, 1944). He was crushed when his tank rolled over onto him during combat in Wimmenau, in far eastern France. Harold was honorably interred at Epinal American Cemetery in eastern France, and was bestowed with the Purple Heart in tribute to his service.
Placing as runners-up after Rock and St. Croix counties in the 1925 state spelling bee, were entrants representing Walworth, Douglas, and Green Lake counties. Nearly all counties in Wisconsin sent a contestant to the state finals.
As for Signe, though she and Harold were of the same age, both were born in northern Wisconsin, they won the state spelling honors together, and coincidentally each got married a week apart in Minnesota in 1941, she had a far different life.
Signe's parents were Pastor Ivar Poulsen Ramseth (December 28, 1876-January 12, 1959) and Bertha Amelia Mason Ramseth (October 31, 1884-March 30, 1968). She was the third of five children: Barbo Marguerite, George Paul, Signe Mildred, and future Rev. Rudolph Alfred Ramseth. The fourth child was an unnamed stillborn baby daughter born in 1914 and is buried at an unmarked grave in Luther Valley Church Cemetery.
Just one year after being born in Merrill, Signe immediately moved with her family to Luther Valley in 1913 where Pastor Ivar Ramseth served as the seventh leader of the Luther Valley Church while also conducting church services at West Luther Valley Church in rural Brodhead (now known as Bethany Lutheran Church). He also served at the Brodhead church until August 1925.
The two congregations were affiliated and later separated in the 1960s. In the early morning hours of January 3, 1951, the Luther Valley Church, 7107 South Luther Valley Road in north central Newark Township, suffered a devastating fire which damaged the entire building, and was later rebuilt at the same location. Only the church safe, that contained church history paperwork, was salvaged.
During his time as pastor, Ivar saw the church gain admittance into the Norwegian Evangelical Church of America, an ornamental fence was erected around the cemetery, and many repairs at the church and at the home of the pastor, known as the parsonage.
One perk about having her dad as the church pastor was living in the stately Luther Valley Church parsonage, 6511 South Luther Valley Road, located over a mile south from the Fisher School. The parsonage, about five miles north of the church, was later heavily remodeled and now serves as a private home, while another church parsonage was built in 1952 to be closer to the church that remains today.
Between 1913 and 1925, under the direction of Pastor Ivar, the house experienced many upgrades including new siding and painting, and a hot water heater and a bathroom were installed, and the construction of a garage.
Signe's younger brother, Rudolph who later lived in Sacramento, Calif., wrote this in January 1998 about the pastor's family residence: "I have great memories of that huge house. There were 13 rooms plus an attic and a basement located on a 40-acre farm which our dad supervised, however the men of the parish put in the crops and harvested them. The farmyard included a barn, garage, and a machinery shed along with a chicken coop and a wooden windmill."
At the time of her victory, Signe was a student at the one-room Fischer School, 5618 South Luther Valley Road in southern Plymouth Township. It was built in 1854 and was named after early Luther Valley pioneer Nicholas Fischer. The school, now a private residence, closed in 1965 and was remodeled, but it still resembles an old-time schoolhouse.
Prior to returning home from her triumph, her father got a job in Waseca, Minnesota to continue as a pastor there, and also in Northfield, Minn. where she would later attend St. Olaf College.
Pastor Ivar's farewell church service was on Sunday, August 23, 1925, just ten days before Signe would have earned the state spelling bee honors on September 2.
Upon moving to Minnesota, Signe completed grade school studies and then in 1929 she graduated from Waseca High School, where she excelled in chorus, glee club, hockey, was class valedictorian and president, and took part in school plays "Minstrel Chuckles" and "The Lucky Break," and if that was not enough, she served as the assistant editor of the school newspaper.
Signe attended post high school education at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, a private liberal arts college founded in 1874, and graduated from there in 1933. She then went on to teach high school vocal studies, choir, and music appreciation in Worthington and Spring Grove, Minnesota, as well as at Mason City Junior College in Mason City, Iowa.
On May 24,1941, she became Mrs. Solomon Lyle Johnson, who was a native of Iowa, during a wedding service held at Grace Lutheran Church in Waseca that was officiated by Pastor Ivar Ramseth.
The couple had two daughters, Ingrid Adam who currently lives in Tailly, France, and the youngest Julie Hoiseth of Wayzata, Minnesota. In later years of life, after she retired in 1975, Signe enjoyed building and painting wood toy boxes and decorating wood spoons, while also dabbling in poetry.
Additionally, Signe participated in a music club and several book clubs, sewed for her grandchildren, and she directed the church choir at Trinity Lutheran Church in Mason City, Iowa, according to her daughter Julie, 77, who taught viola and violin lesson to students in the public schools and at a private studio. Signe spent the last eight years of her life near her daughter in central Minnesota.
After having a stroke on December 6, 2008, Signe died on March 13, 2009 in Wayzata, six days before her 97th birthday. She and Solomon, who passed away in 1994 and was an educator at some of the schools where Signe was employed, are interred at Memorial Park Cemetery in Mason City, Iowa.
To this day, only three students from Rock County have won the Wisconsin Spelling Bee competition—Signe in 1925, followed by Eunice Mary Biggar Anders of Edgerton (1918-2003) who won in 1931; and lastly, Mary Caroline Lindmark of Milton Junction, the 1953 state champion later known as Mary Bauer (1939-2009).
While there are not many residents in the south central Wisconsin area today who were alive to have met Signe during her life, however, she surely was not forgotten this month on the centennial year anniversary of when she was the most famous girl in all of Wisconsin and surely in Luther Valley and Rock County.
