Bessie C. Lenvig, the daughter of John Lenvig, came to Barnes County with her parents in 1878 from Fillmore County, Minnesota.

She attended rural school at District 38 in Marsh Township, and later in Valley City. At the age of sixteen she began teaching during the summer months and attending school at Valley City during the winter months. In 1896, she graduated from high school, eleven years after she began teaching her first school.

She taught for five years during the summer at the Valley City school until 1895, when her mother perished in a blizzard. She then enrolled in the teachers' course at Gustavus Adolphus College, at the same time completing her high school course at a Minneapolis High School. She graduated from the Winona State Normal School from the advanced course and taught seven years in Minneapolis.

In 1906, she moved to Los Angeles, after the death of her father, where she continued teaching and-attending the University of Southern California, from which she received her advanced degree.

Until she retired in 1939, she was a principal of one of the large high schools of Los Angeles.

Miss Lenvig's work in Los Angeles among the retarded children was considered as "outstanding." Problem boys were her specialty, and many received loans from her to further their education and none forgot this sympathetic yet strict friend, who had aided them to become useful citizens.

Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 140