WETTERLING-DORWEILER STORY

From 1951 to 1974, Mildred and Luverne Wetterling were residents of Osceola, Iowa, following the purchase of the Osceola Greenhouse from the Stobbarts. The greenhouse was located at 630 South Park Street, which has gone through several transitions since it was sold in 1974. Initially a one-family home, the house has now been made into apartments. The original business consisted of three glass greenhouses with a show room for gift ware. Today, two glass houses have been removed and the buildings have been repurposed.

Luverne, born in Garner, Iowa in 1910, entered an electrical trade school following high school graduation. He became the owner of Garner Electric which handled electrical appliances as well as contracting for electrical work in the Hancock County area.

Mildred Havlik, born in Chicago, Illinois in 1915, moved as a young child to the Crystal Lake and Britt, Iowa area with her family. She attended secretarial school following her high school graduation. She began work as an assistant to the county treasurer.

They were married in 1940, and worked together in the electrical shop. Married women were not allowed to work in the court house. Pictures of their original home in Garner, show horses moving dirt out to make the basement for their two bedroom home. Always interested in gardening and flowers, they had a large garden. Mildred canned and made clothes for the three daughters who were eventually born to this young family. Luverne was a member of the Masons while in Garner and kept that membership throughout his life. He was also honored as a Boy Scout leader while in Garner.

The story is told of how they were decorating the electrical shop for Christmas on December 7, 1941. A businessman passed by and saw them inside with radios surrounding them, but none on to say Pearl Harbor had been attacked. Looking at how businesses have Christmas decorations up now before Halloween, December 7 seems extremely late for preparing for the holidays.

Because of eyesight issues, Luverne was deferred from the army, but spent the war years doing electrical work on army bases in the Fort Collins, Colorado area. Old letters, recently reviewed, give extremely glowing references for him as he applied for electrical contracting jobs on the base. The character traits of dependability and integrity went with him for all of his life.

In 1951, they entered the totally new field of flowers as they moved to Osceola. Mildred spent three weeks in Chicago attending a floral design school. Luverne began to learn the field of horticulture through hands-on work. Servicing weddings and funerals and making corsages ad infinitum for Mother's Day, senior prom, and other events became the lifestyle.

The years in the greenhouse found Luverne forcing blooms on poinsettias, mums, snapdragons, and Easter lilies. They provided these plants to local businesses for resale as well as selling them from their own shop. Black curtains were draped over pipes to force the plants to bloom at the "right" time for the season. Beginning in February and March, Luverne could be seen starting bedding plants for the home gardeners. Petunias, tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, and marigolds were seeded and then later transplanted to 6 and 12 packs for customers to buy. This became an after-school and weekend job for the three daughters, Lynda, Dixi, and Wanda Lea. Because of the greater fragility of the petunia seedling, Mildred was the official one to transplant this flower.

During the 50's and 60's Osceola Greenhouse acted as the wholesaler for the local grocers who sold these springtime bedding plants. As this part of the business developed, the greenhouse expanded with a larger showroom and the addition of a large screened area behind for bedding plants. Osceola, during this period, adopted the goal to fill public areas with pink petunias. Boxes of these seedlings seemed to extend out endlessly.

As an artist with flowers, Mildred made the floral arrangements for weddings, funerals, holidays, and special events. For many years they decorated the local bank for Christmas. Don Carson was hired to help both in the greenhouse and with the designing As major holidays approached especially Mother's Day, Mildred could be found spending the nights ahead making bows for corsages. Lynda, Dixi, and Wanda were recruited to help in this process. In many ways the floral business was a family operation. In the early days, the designing was done in the basement of the house. Carrying flowers up and down steps soon became inefficient so the showroom was expanded to allow for a larger flower refrigerator, and design table. An attached garage was added so that taking flowers to the car would not be affected by the cold weather.

In the late 50's the Wetterlings expanded their business ventures further by purchasing a children's clothing store from the Carters, who operated out of their own home. The clothing store, named Mildred's Tot and Teen, was moved to a Main street location, and a portion of the gift ware business was also brought from the Park Street location to Main street. Mildred worked in the store as well as handling the floral design at home. Her creativity inspired her to have fashion shows for children's clothes in the fall and spring.

These days would find the daughters helping out by pressing the dresses before they were hung on the racks and helping in year-end inventory. Also things needed to be refolded as customers frequently searched through stacks of clothing, then left them in disarray. Again times have changed, since many stores don't even press before putting them out for sale.

The story was told how Mildred took a chance on purchasing a "new" invention, the infant seat, which could be used for propping the baby in the holder on the counter and not have the fear of the baby rolling off. Now these infant seats have been modified from the simple plastic mold with a wire support behind and a thin plastic pad under the baby to a cushioned holder that is used as a car seat, stroller seat, and a means to carry the baby anywhere. At the time Mildred was convinced by a salesman to buy them, although she was quite skeptical they would be a profitable item.

As members of the Osceola Chamber of Commerce the Wetterlings were active in the community. Luverne belonged to Rotary, and during the year he was president, became a leader in bringing foreign exchange students to Osceola. The first student, Gunilla Risberg, came from Sweden and lived with the Wetterlings during her year in the United States.

The family belonged to the Methodist church, and Dixi and Lynda often played the organ for church services during their high school years.

Times changed for the flower business. First plastic flowers were introduced and later silk flowers, as fresh flowers were being replaced. Large wholesalers were taking over the spring bedding business, and a variety of businesses from large retailers, hardware stores, and groceries were now selling these spring plants. Luverne began to work as a substitute mailman for several years before retirement.

During their years in Osceola, they took yearly family vacations around the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Luverne was meticulous in planning these trips using AAA travel guides. Even if times were hard, this family vacation was important and instilled the spirit of adventure in their daughters.

With their three daughters out of school, Luverne and Mildred retired in 1974 to Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas They entered the world of golf, bridge, square dancing, and traveling. They began traveling to Europe, Hawaii, and Alaska. Mildred revisited her home country, Czechoslovakia, as well as both of them spending time in Sweden visiting Gunilla.

As they aged, they also began down-sizing and moved into a smaller retirement community in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and eventually to Carroll, Iowa. They wanted to be closer to their daughter, Lynda, who married Virgil Dorweiler and remained in Iowa.

Their daughters inherited Luverne and Mildred's appreciation of education and adventure. Lynda became a nurse and works in hospital administration. Dixi served in the Peace Corps and is a skilled photographer focusing primarily on landscape architecture and urban design. Wanda worked as an elementary school teacher as well as for the National Park Service as a Ranger. Five grandchildren gave them great pleasure.

Luverne remained active in his later years of retirement with counted cross-stitch and created beautiful pieces with fine stitching. He also became a maker of doll houses and made one for each of his daughters. The fine work with the small pieces was an art. Mildred was a very talented bridge player as well as doing needlework herself.

Luverne died in 1998, and Mildred died in 2007. Their three daughters were blessed with a very happy family life being a part of the family business and having two wonderful parents who worked as strong members of the Osceola business community.

MATTHEW

Matthew's is a story by itself. He is the son of Virgil and Lynda Wetterling Dorweiler, who lived in LeMars, Iowa where Virgil was associate professor of English at Westraar College. Matthew's brain was damaged at birth. Blind and possibly retarded, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at five months. At six months, a pediatrician recommended he be institutionalized. Lynda wrote, "In 1968, the medical community still had not understood well the concept of learning disability, autism and other developmental problems, or at least did not /mow how to handle them in a school situation." Linda and Virgil considered an institution or a school for blind and/or retarded children; but chose none of the options. It represented to them abandoning their child. They continued to search and found "The Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential."

Matthew entered the program in January 1968. Chronologically, he was three years (38 months) old and was considered blind. He was walking and had only three to four words in his vocabulary. The program measures a neurological age — brain development, looking at mobility, language, manual, visual, auditory, and tactile competence. He was determined to be 23 months neurologically. Within two months of starting the program, Matthew had gone from three words to 50, and in four months, he had over 1,000 words.

A great deal of daily involvement by parents and over 30 volunteers was required to assist four times each day. The basic tenet of the program is crawling and creeping, with five people moving his arms, legs, and head in a pattern directed according to a Doman-Delecto program. This process is referred to as "patterning." Additionally, Matthew was required to crawl and creep 3,000 feet a day. They designed a path through the house and by the time the program was completed, his father figured he had crawled the width of the state of Iowa. The Dorweilers stopped the program after 14 months. At that time Matthew was 51 months chronologically and 50 months neurologically.

Matthew is now 46 years old and the family is rewarded for having searched until they found an answer. They are thankful to all the volunteers who remained faithful to the program. Matthew graduated from college and lives independently.— an incredible success story.

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Last Revised January 6, 2015