1215 Mountain Lake Road
Mountain Lake, MN, USA

Isaac Bargen House

The Isaac Bargen House is a historic house located in Mountain Lake, Minnesota, Minnesota, United States, built in 1888.


Description and history

It was originally built as the house Isaac A. Bargen (1857–1943), a transformational educator and administrator who was one of the first in his Mennonite community to promote secular public education and government service. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 13, 1986.

National Register of Historic Places - Isaac Bargen House

Statement of Significance:

The Isaac Bargen house, built in the summer of 1888, is significant for its association with the career of Isaac I. Bargen (1857-1943), a pioneer educator in Cottonwood County and member of the German Mennonite community at Mountain Lake. Bargen's career is particularly significant as he represented the first generation of Mennonites to accept the secular educational system of the county and to take an active role in its political affairs.

Isaac Bargen and his family joined the exodus of German-speaking Mennonites from Russia, and arrived at Mountain Lake in 1878, In his new home he began teaching in German private schools. In the fall of 1881, he became the first Mountain Lake Mennonite to enroll in Mankato Teachers' College. On graduation in 1885, he became principal of Mountain Lake public school. In November 1890 he won a narrow victory in the election for County Superintendent of Schools; this election made him the first Mennonite to hold county-wide elective office. After losing his elective office in 1902, Bargen was appointed postmaster at Mountain Lake, holding this post until 1933. He was also the founder and proprietor of the Mountain Lake View (1902-1914) and a German language weekly newspaper, Unser Buescher.

Bargen is significant as a transitional figure in the Mennonite community; he represented a younger generation, less suspicious of government and secularism. In education he was an advocate of the public school system to which his elders objected for its prohibition of religious education and its use of English as the language of instruction. Bargen, supported by several Mennonite businessmen, worked to improve Mountain Lake public schools; he was responsible for introducing the state's high school curriculum to his community. He also led the Sunday school movement as a means of providing religious education outside of school. This was a matter of some controversy in Mennonite circles, but Bargen remained a leader in the Sunday school movement as late as 1915. In his political ambitions, growing out of his educational concerns, Bargen parted company with traditional Mennonite distrust of government. His success as County Superintendent of Schools helped bring younger Mennonites into active participation in the county's political life.

With a single interruption, Bargen lived in his house on lot 31, auditor's subdivision No. 1, at Mountain Lake until his death in 1943. The house's significance is therefore closely identified with his career and his signal contribution to Mountain Lake and Cottonwood County.

Isaac Bargen House, Mountain Lake, Minnesota:
All that part of Lot 31 in County Auditor's Subdivision No. 1 (One), in the Village of Mountain Lake, described as follows: Commencing at the southeast corner of said lot; thence west along the south boundary line of said lot a distance of 151.5' to a point which is a distance of 135.75' waste from the southwest corner of said lot; thence north parallel with the west boundary line of said lot, a distance of 150'; thence west parallel to the south boundary line of said lot a distance of 62'; thence parallel with the west boundary line of said lot a distance of 10'; thence west parallel with the south boundary of said lot a distance of 60.2' to a point which is a distance of 207.3; south of the north boundary line of said lot; thence east parallel with the south boundary line of said lot a distance of 263.25' to a point of intersection with the east boundary line of said lot; thence south along the east boundary line of said lot a distance of 200.2; to the place of beginning.