Category: Wilson, Blanche Agnes

Church Record Sunday: Grandma Montgomery’s Confirmation

Posted on by spuddled

For our penultimate new theme we are taking a look at church records available for our family. Specifically, today we will examine the confirmation record for Grandma Blanche (Wilson) Montgomery. We’ve covered the basics of Grandma’s life several times here before, but in case you’ve missed them, I’ll provide a brief synopsis. She was born 17 December 1908 in Bradish, Nebraska, to Carl Ozro and Sophie Christine (Roberg) Wilson. She was the oldest surviving child of ten; her older brother Anders Clarence, born in 1907, died on his second birthday. She also had a younger brother Woodrow who lived only two days in 1917.

Grandma was a lifelong Lutheran, so it is no surprise that she was confirmed at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Albion, Nebraska. What is a little more surprising to me is Grandma’s age at the time. Confirmands tend to be around 14 years of age, so I would have expected Grandma to have been confirmed around 1923. Instead, her confirmation took place on 30 May 1926 when she was 17. The Immanuel Lutheran confirmation record lists the birth and baptismal dates of Grandma’s entire confirmation class of 13.1

From this list you can see that Grandma was the oldest in her class. One other confirmand was born in March 1909; all the others were born between 1911-1913. Of particular interest is the name right above Grandma’s: her cousin Louise Christine Roberg, born 28 March 1911. In an interview with Grandma I conducted around 1988, she shared some details about her confirmation class. In addition to her cousin Louise, Grandma also mentioned a pair of Greek siblings, brother and sister. I can see #7 on the list, Helen Irene Christo (the confirmand born in 1909), with her birthplace listed as “Grekenland,” though I don’t see any likely siblings for her.

In addition to Grandma’s confirmation record I found online, this is one time when I also have relevant photographs. Not only do formal confirmation portraits of Grandma survive, but also a confirmation class photograph. In that same 1988 interview, Grandma told me how her (and Louise’s) grandfather Anders Roberg paid for their matching confirmation dresses. Which means (I believe) that Louise is second from the right in the top row; Grandma is all the way on the left in the same row.

Obviously, this group portrait shows more individuals than the 13 who were confirmed together on that day in May. Maybe Helen Christo’s brother is in this photograph, even if he ended up being confirmed at a later date. Though I have no evidence of this confirmation actually taking place. I’ve found the Christo family in census records (as in Grandma’s family, there appear to have been 10 surviving Christo children), and the next Christo confirmation took place in 1933 and was for Johnnie, who was born in 1919. Maybe George, Thomas, Peter, and James all failed at memorizing their Bible verses?

  1. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Archives; Elk Grove Village, Illinois; Congregational Records ↩︎

W Is for…Witten (A Tale of Two Cities)

Posted on by spuddled

In the 1930 census, Grandma Montgomery was enumerated in the town of Witten, South Dakota along with her mother, Sophie, and siblings Pearl, Clarence, Mildred, Irene, Maude, and Lester. Many years later Grandma would tell me about the town of Witten and how there had been Old Witten and then New Witten when the town was moved. By 1940 Grandma Montgomery was married and living in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, but her mother Sophie was living in New Witten with Irene, Maude, and Lester. I thought I would see what I could dig up about this mysterious town with its Old and New versions.

Wikipedia tells us that New Witten is located at exactly 100 degrees longitude, and that at the time of the 2020 census, its population was 54. Interestingly, the Census Bureau does use the name “New Witten,” but the U.S. Post Office simply calls the town “Witten.” The town was originally founded in 1909, but when the railroad missed the town by 2 miles twenty years later, the town was moved.1 According to an article by Bernie Hunhoff in South Dakota Magazine, the only thing remaining on the Old Witten site is an old bank vault. A building added to Main Street in New Witten to house a bank, mercantile, and grocery store still remains, though the railroad no longer passes through the newer town either.2

Trying to find a little more information to flesh out this brief history of the two towns of Witten, I found an article in Early Dakota Days, describing how the author had organized a Sunday School at a schoolhouse in nearby Winner, and how the Reverend Wold of Witten (so much alliteration) held church services here as well.3

Of even more interest to me (though less relevant to Witten) is an account in this same article about a memorable neighborhood gathering at the home of H. O. Satree. That surname immediately rang a bell, as Emma Satree had been Grandma’s best friend while she was growing up. The article went on to describe the night’s musical entertainment, noting that “Emma Satree (now Mrs. John Sibbert of Winnett, Mont.), Blanche Wilson (now Mrs. Montgomery of Caldwell, Idaho), and myself furnished the vocal.” The article even included a photo showing Carl Wilson and children. And who was the author of the article? None other than “Mrs. Pearl Sherwood Larsen,” who previously made an appearance in this entry as one of Grandma’s schoolteachers.

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Witten,_South_Dakota ↩︎
  2. https://www.southdakotamagazine.com/witten-100th-meridian ↩︎
  3. https://ia804507.us.archive.org/2/items/earlydakotadayss00reut/earlydakotadayss00reut.pdf ↩︎

N Is for…Namesake

Posted on by spuddled

In some countries and time periods, there are specific naming conventions that determine namesakes: the first son named after the paternal grandfather, the second son after the maternal grandfather, the first daughter after the maternal grandmother, the second daughter after the paternal grandmother, etc.1 At other times, the process of selecting namesakes was less structured. Today I’m taking a look at Dad’s family to identify all the namesakes I can find there.

Grandpa Montgomery‘s name itself is something of a mystery, as I’ve covered here before. That’s the confusion over his middle name. It only just occurred to that his first name (Lawrence) may have been a tribute to his mother, Laura. Grandpa had a second cousin named Lawrence Extol Montgomery who was six years his senior, but that seems less likely to be a real namesake situation.

Charles William and Laura Maud (Walker) Montgomery and daughters (and dog)

Grandpa and his first wife, Antonia Marie Jelinek, had two daughters, Flo and Irene. Aunt Flo (Florence Marie), shared her mother’s middle name. I’m not immediately aware of anyone named Florence, Dorothy, or Irene in the family. After Grandpa’s first wife died, he married Grandma (Blanche Agnes Wilson), and they went on to have 10 children together. Grandma’s middle name, Agnes, is an anglicization of the name of her grandmother, Agnette, and in fact, Grandma’s baptismal record lists her as “Agneta Blanche.”2

The eldest child born to Grandma and Grandpa was Myrtle Charlotte. These are both family names (or variations thereof). Grandpa’s eldest sister was named Myrtle Pearl Montgomery, and his father, Charles William Montgomery, was the inspiration for Aunt Myrtle’s middle name. In later years she chose to go by Charlotte instead of Myrtle, and I remember her saying she wished her two names had been reversed.

After Myrtle came the oldest son, Morris Walter. I don’t know of any ancestral Morrises, though “our” Morris had a first cousin, Morris Frenier, who was five years his junior. Walter, though, was the name of Grandpa’s oldest brother, Walter Dewey Montgomery. After Morris came Marvin Lawrence. Similarly to Morris, I’m not aware of any namesake connections for Marvin’s first name, but Lawrence is obviously a callback to Grandpa’s first name. The third son in a row was William Clarence. Uncle Bill, unlike Morris and Marvin, had namesakes for both his names. Grandpa’s father, Charles William, we have of course already mentioned, and he, presumably, was named after his own grandfather, William Montgomery. And Grandma Montgomery had two Clarences in her immediate family: her older brother Anders Clarence died when he was two years old, and then eight years later another son born to the family was named Clarence Salmer.

The next daughter born to the family was Deanna Esther. Though Aunt Deanna had a first cousin once removed named Esther Myrtle Montgomery, I suspect that was just a coincidence, and I’m not aware of any other Esther connections in the family. Family lore (or at least the story Dad heard) was that Deanna was named not after a relative but after singer and actress Deanna Durbin. Deanna Durbin was only seventeen years old in 1939 when our Deanna was born, but her career had begun in a 1936 short with Judy Garland, so the timing is not out of the question.3

After Deanna came two more boys, Alwin Eugene and Theodore Richard. I haven’t been able to find any namesakes in our family tree for Uncle Gene or for Ted’s (aka Dad) middle name, Richard. The “Theodore,” however, shows up a couple of times. First, of course, as Grandpa’s maybe-middle-name, and then with Grandpa’s uncle, Joseph Theodore Montgomery.

Next after Dad came Gloria Blanche, who died at age five. This is another case in which the first name appears to have no precedent, but the middle name has clear family connections, with Gloria being given her middle name in honor of Grandma. After Gloria came Linda Lea; as with Uncle Gene, I’m not aware of any family links to either of Aunt Linda’s names, though when Dad started dating, and then married, Mom, also a Linda, the two Lindas became accidental namesakes, differentiated sometimes in conversation as “Linda Lea” and “Linda Jo.” Last in the family came Aunt Laura, and with her names (Laura Christine) she made up for Aunt Linda’s lack of family names, as she was named after both of her grandmothers, Laura Maud Walker and Sophie Christine Roberg.

Twelve children later, and we’ve reached the end of this look into one collection of family names and namesakes. Of course there are many more namesakes on both sides of the family tree, as well as other reasons for selecting names that don’t have anything to do with family history…at least not until the stories get told or written for posterity.

  1. https://englishancestors.blog/2020/04/01/english-naming-traditions/#:~:text=To%20recap:,after%20father’s%20eldest%20sister%20(patS) ↩︎
  2. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Archives; Elk Grove Village, Illinois; Congregational Records ↩︎
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deanna_Durbin ↩︎

M Is for…Marriage Records

Posted on by spuddled

I’m going to trust the idiom about pictures and thousands of words and focus on the former for this blog post regarding marriage records. Here are the records I have (or of which I have copies) for the first few generations of my direct ancestors.

Generation 1:

26 August 1961
Caldwell, Canyon, Idaho
Theodore Richard Montgomery and Linda Jo Hoffmann
(parents)

Generation 2:

17 September 1930
Winner, Tripp, South Dakota
Lawrence Theodore Montgomery and Blanche Agnes Wilson
(paternal grandparents)
Not a marriage record, exactly, but an article from the Bloomington, Illinois Pantagraph (which makes me wonder…do I actually have the official document somewhere in all my piles?)
12 March 1938
Peoria, Peoria, Illinois
Joseph Benjamin Hoffmann
and Velma Marie Swing
(maternal grandparents)

Generation 3:

The marriage of paternal great-grandparents Charles William Montgomery and Laura Blanche Walker on 22 February 1883 in Richland County, Illinois appears in Ancestry.com’s Illinois, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1800-1940, but this database doesn’t include images, unfortunately. So moving along…

13 March 1907
Boone County, Nebraska
Carl Ozro Wilson and Sophie Christine Roberg
(paternal great-grandparents)
7 December 1902
Fairbury, Livingston, Illinois
Paul Hoffmann and Emma Alice Slagel
(maternal great-grandparents)

Another one that’s missing (why have I not written away for these??):
18 June 1913; Peoria, Peoria, Illinois; Albert Carl Swing and Lena Agnes Hunkler (maternal great-grandparents)

Generation 4:

25 December 1858
Hamilton County, Ohio
John Montgomery and Belinda Simmons
(paternal great-great-grandparents)
15 February 1857
Noble, Richland, Illinois
Marcus Walker and Mary Ann Conklin
(paternal great-great-grandparents)
Another not-quite-document, but an excerpt
31 August 1879
Brush Creek, Fayette, Iowa
Wellington David Wilson and Lucinda Blanche Davis
(paternal great-great-grandparents)
Another one that’s more of an excerpt…
3 December 1878
Rushford, Fillmore, Minnesota
Anders Mathis Roberg and Agnette Evensdatter Lien
(paternal great-great-grandparents)
17 January 1875
Renaucourt, France
Jacob Hoffmann and Christine Schmidt
(maternal great-great-grandparents)
30 November 1875
Fairbury, Livingston, Illinois
Samuel Slagel and Mary Demler
(maternal great-great-grandparents)
17 February 1884
Fairbury, Livingston, Illinois
Albert Carl Swing and Catherine Marie Hoffmann
(maternal great-great-grandparents)
14 December 1886
Peoria, Peoria, Illinois
George John Hunkler and Maria Elizabeth Rusch
(maternal great-great-grandparents)

These are not all the marriage records I have, though they do become more sparse from here on out. I would keep adding more here, but I figure this blog post is already 13,000 words long, so that will do for now.

I Is for…Ino and War Bonnet

I Is for…Ino and War Bonnet

Posted on by spuddled

For today’s post I thought I’d combine family lore with research. This isn’t so much lore about our own family as it is about memories of growing up that Grandma Montgomery shared with me. I still have the notes where I quickly scribbled down the stories she told, and I’ve transcribed them here. But in spite of the haste in which I took down Grandma’s stories, and the number of years that had passed since the events she was relaying, I’ve been able to find some historical evidence to root at least some of those stories firmly in fact.

In about 1988 Grandma told me of her experiences growing up in South Dakota near the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Among those she knew who lived on the reservation was an elderly Sioux chief named War Bonnet. Grandma told me he’d had at least three wives and became a father for the final time when he was 80 years old. It turned out War Bonnet was surprisingly easy to find.

According to my notes, the history Grandma was relaying to me took place around 1921. In the 1920 census Grandma appears, aged 11, with her parents, Carl and “Soffia” and siblings Willie O. (Ozro), Pearl J., Clarence S., and Mildred G. in Cody, South Dakota on Sheet 5A of the census forms. On Sheet 4B, Joseph “War Bonnett,” aged 69, appears with his wife Jennie (45) and children Mathew (10), Julia (8), Lucy (6), and Solice (2 6/12). “Solice” appears to be the Silas War Bonnet who was born 19 February 1917 (interestingly, the same birthdate as my other grandmother) in Miner, South Dakota to Joseph War Bonnet and Yellow Hair.1

Year: 1920; Census Place: Cody, Mellette, South Dakota; Roll: T625_1723; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 149

Ten years earlier, before Grandma would have known him, Joseph War Bonnet and Jennie were enumerated on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. This marriage is listed as Joseph’s second and Jennie’s first. The census notes that they have been married for 14 years, and though Jennie had given birth to six children, only two are still living. These are Matthew, 3; and Louise, 11/12. Also in the household is Joseph’s daughter Millie, 19.2

Millie appears as Joseph War Bonnet’s youngest child in the 1900 census on the Rosebud reservation. There the household consists of Joseph, born November 1847 and married for four years to Jennie, born August 1880. She is listed as the mother of one child, now deceased. Also in the household are Joseph’s children, not much younger than Jennie: William, born December 1885; Samuel, born January 1887; Thomas, born March 1889; and our friend Millie, born April 1891.3

If Joseph War Bonnet’s birthdate from the 1900 census is accurate, he didn’t quite make it to age 80. The 8 February 1924 issue of The Mellete County Pioneer of Wood, South Dakota, noted Joseph’s death at the home of his sister on Sunday night. He would have been 76.

One of Grandma’s stories I have yet to verify (but had to reference here anyway since this is the week for “I Is for…”) is that of “Ino.” Grandma said that he was War Bonnet’s son-in-law who had a habit of repeatedly saying “I know, I know” in conversation so ended up being called “Ino” by everyone he…knew. This guy I have yet to locate.

I did stumble across a few other interesting corroborations while looking through the 1920 census. In my notes from Grandma’s stories, I had scrawled the following vague tidbit: “Mr. Garneys (?) [??] — Indian — died of flu outside toilet.” You wouldn’t think that vague scrawl would be very easy to prove. You would be wrong. Well, mostly. In browsing the 1920 census (just now, while researching this post, that is), just below the entry for Joseph War Bonnet’s household, I saw Ambrose and Agnes “Garneau” and thought that could very easily be the “Garneys” surname that I was obviously unsure how to spell in 1988. A little digging found the Joseph Garneau family in the 1892 Indian Census Rolls. The family consisted of Joseph, 44; Mary, 48; their children Josephine, 18; Ambrose, 16; Gauless, 14; Edward, 11; and Joseph’s father John, 88.4 Then a little further digging found an account of Joseph “Garneaux’s” death from influenza in 1918, one of a long list of deaths in the 25 October 1918 Mellette County Pioneer, most from influenza. Not surprisingly, the detail about the toilet was left out of the newspaper account.

Then one final discovery. Among Grandma’s stories were those relating to her school experiences. She told of Pearl Sherwood, one of the schoolteachers who was a snob. Another teacher who was a good teacher but couldn’t sing. Fourteen-year-old Megan simply added “Mildred Kemp” here, then noted that the students studied out of encyclopedias and that the school board didn’t actually think the students needed any schooling, which is an interesting attitude for them to have. Another teacher, Lily Larson, was 16 years old and was supposed to go to summer school (apparently to gain more experience and education herself — was this the same school board, or had their attitude changed? Anyway…) When she didn’t go to summer school as required, she was forced to quit. Only to be followed up by a teacher who used dope and was fascinated by Edgar Allan Poe. Unfortunately I didn’t write down the name of this fascinating character. And I’m still not sure which teacher couldn’t sing. But Mildred Kemp turned up in the 1920 census with barely any effort on my part.

With only one household between her and Ambrose Garneau, Mildred I. Kemp was listed as 22 years old, a teacher at the District School, and living with her widowed mother Agnes, 46. Also in their household was Mildred’s sister Clara, along with Clara’s husband and infant son.5 Later that same year Mildred would marry Leander Flaherty and would go on to have three children. Sadly, the marriage did not last; a divorce was granted to Mildred in 1934 on grounds of desertion, and five years after that Mildred died at age 41.6 7

Meanwhile, during this same time period, Grandma herself appears a number of times in the historical record, specifically The Mellette County Pioneer. In February 1922 Grandma and some of her classmates spent time practicing for an upcoming program. Emma Satree, named in the article, was described by Grandma 66 years later as her best friend.

The Mellette County Pioneer
Wood, South Dakota · Friday, February 24, 1922, pg. 4

Three months later the Pioneer observed that Grandma had taken her eighth grade examinations at the Paleck School, while her younger brother Ozro took the seventh grade exams.

The Mellette County Pioneer
Wood, South Dakota · Friday, May 05, 1922, pg. 4

Coincidentally, this article about the eighth grade exams appears just below a notice that Mrs. Agnes Kemp (mother of Mildred Kemp, who maybe couldn’t sing?) had undergone a goiter operation and was “getting along as well as could be expected.” I can report that she would live another 18 years, dying in Sioux Falls in 1940.

  1. South Dakota Department of Health; Pierre, South Dakota; South Dakota, Birth Index, 1856-1918 ↩︎
  2. Year: 1910; Census Place: Rosebud Indian Reservation, Mellette, South Dakota; Roll: T624_1475; Page: 40b; Enumeration District: 0124; FHL microfilm: 1375488 ↩︎
  3. Year: 1900; Census Place: Rosebud Indian Reservation, Meyer, South Dakota; Roll: 1556; Page: 51; Enumeration District: 0045 ↩︎
  4. The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940; Series: National Archives Microfilm Publication M595, 692 rolls; NAID: 595276; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75 ↩︎
  5. Year: 1920; Census Place: Cody, Mellette, South Dakota; Roll: T625_1723; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 149 ↩︎
  6. Rapid City Journal (Rapid City, South Dakota) · Sat, Aug 4, 1934 · Page
    2 ↩︎
  7. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/118523265/mildred_irene-flaherty: accessed August 29, 2025), memorial page for Mildred Irene Flaherty (1898–1939), Find a Grave Memorial ID 118523265, citing Pine Lawn Memorial Park, Rapid City, Pennington County, South Dakota, USA; Maintained by BlackHillsFam (contributor 47300550). ↩︎

Favorite Photo: Hidden Treasure

Posted on by agnette

This week’s #52Ancestors blog post prompt is “Favorite Photo.” Photographs themselves offer such a perfect glimpse of the past (or sometimes an imperfect and mysterious glimpse) that it is difficult to select favorites. If forced to choose, I would have to say my favorite photo is that of Rita Blanche Wilson, which intrigued me from a very early age, but I’ve already written about that photo here. A close second, though, is an image I had never seen and didn’t know existed until I was 24 years old.

That year, before moving from Idaho to Virginia, I helped my dad and a number of aunts and uncles as we prepared to clean out my grandparents’ house. It was sad to say good-bye to that old house, but I managed to find and save a number of treasures: the old skeleton key from the back door; a piece of white-painted clapboard; the broken pieces of the necklace my grandmother wore on her wedding day; the poster of a boy, his collie, and a train that my dad remembered from his childhood.

But one of the most surprising discoveries came when my dad was removing the washer and dryer from the laundry alcove in the kitchen. There, fallen behind them and unseen for who knows how many years, was a family photograph. It is a beautiful photograph, and remarkably undamaged after all those years behind the washer. Dad handed it to me and confirmed, as I suspected, that the young girl in the back row was, in fact, my grandmother, Blanche Agnes Wilson.

Carl and Sophie Wilson and Family

The Wilson family was not a wealthy one, so there are not a large number of photographs of them. And none of them depict my grandmother at this time period – there are baby photos, and her confirmation photos at age eighteen, but none of this in-between time, which makes this glimpse of Grandma in her pristine white dress and huge hair bow all the more fascinating. What was she thinking here as she looked down at the book her sister was holding? Was the strain already evident in her parents’ marriage? Was there sorrow still over the two brothers she had lost, one the year after she was born, and one perhaps two years before this photo was taken? There is no way now of knowing these things. But the facts that we do know are these….

The photograph was taken at Wilson’s Studio in Albion, Nebraska. Whether or not the studio was owned by a relative of the Wilson family, I do not know. Captured here in the photo are Carl Ozro Wilson, his wife Sophie Christine (Roberg) Wilson, and five of their eventual ten children, including Blanche, their second child. Their eldest, Anders Clarence, had died of “cholera infantum” on his second birthday, when my grandmother was eight months old. The other children in the photo are Ozro Willie, Pearl Jeanette, Clarence Salmer, and Mildred Genevieve. Woodrow Wilson, born between Clarence and Mildred, lived only two days in the summer of 1917, dying of colic.

Baby Mildred was born in April 1919. I would assume this might have been taken toward the end of that year, though I’m not very good at guessing babies’ ages. If correct, that would make Clarence four, Pearl seven, Ozro eight, and Grandma eleven. I can’t help but wonder if, having lost two baby sons, Sophie and Carl made a point of capturing this family image soon after their next baby was born. I wonder, too, if Sophie’s father, Anders Roberg, could have played a part. Stories tell of Anders purchasing the matching dresses for Blanche and her cousin Martha seen in their confirmation photo taken in 1926. Could he have encouraged (or paid for?) this family photograph as well? By 1915 the family had moved from my grandma’s native Nebraska to Wood, South Dakota, some 200 miles from Albion, but Anders lived in Newman Grove, Nebraska, only 15 miles from Wilson’s Studio.

Whatever the reason or the circumstances, I am grateful to have this photo and its window into the life of my grandmother as a young girl. And grateful for the hidden treasure in the laundry room.

Amanuensis Monday – The War News Is Sure Terrible

Posted on by agnette

Blanche and Lawrence Montgomery

Sometime in the early 1940s Grandma Blanche (Wilson) Montgomery wrote to her sister Mildred. The letter is partially lost now but somehow found its way back to Grandma in an envelope addressed to her mother, Sophie (Roberg) Wilson. This is the same envelope that contains a number of recipes from a “Mrs. Dickinson.” Grandma and Grandpa and their children were living in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where Uncle Gene (Alwin Eugene, born in November 1940) was apparently doing his fair share of tumbling and falling. The letter is full of family news and inquiries but touches on the horrors of war. It was also baking day – what I wouldn’t give for Grandma’s bread recipe!

[no postmark, return address, or stamp] Addressed: Mrs. Sophie Wilson, Winner, S.D. 628

[two pages missing; remaining pages labeled “3.” and “4.”]

…radio. I’m sure glad you write for Mamma as I know its hard for her to write. Hope she doesn’t have to work as hard as she did last winter. Yesterday was Pearl’s little girl’s birthday wasent it. I wanted to send her something but I didn’t think of it in time.

Do you still have the girls at your house. Am glad Herman has a new job.

Where did Monte fall from read it in Maude’s card. Alwin has fallen a lot he has a sore eye most of the time lately. I don’t know what’s wrong. He must have hurt it.

Be sure and tell Mamma & Lester hello from us all. Glad Lester likes school so well. What subjects does he take?

The war news is sure terrible. Even thinking about it makes you shiver.

We would like to take a trip up to Denver. Do you know if Clara is still there? Esther didn’t say.

I am baking bread today so must close & get busy. Am afraid it’s too cold in here as I let the fire go down.

With Love & Best Wishes May God bless you all. Blanche, Lawrence & children.

P.S. No we haven’t seen any of Carrolls. There are lots of S.D. cars but 14 or 15 thousand people in Scottsbluff, You seldom see many you know.

[at top of page 4:] I canned around 200 qts so that helps some.

Census Sunday – Finding Grandpa and Grandma

Posted on by agnette

When the 1940 census was made available to the public last year, naturally I began scouring its records to find relatives and bridge the gap since 1930’s enumerations. My parents are too young to appear in this census, so my first line of attack was looking for both sets of grandparents.

Finding my paternal grandparents’ record was fairly straightforward because I already knew where they were.  They were enumerated in Scottsbluff, Nebraska on April 18, living at 1710 Avenue F. They were paying $8 a month in rent, and the household consisted of Lawrence C., age 38, a common laborer doing farm work and earning $650 the previous year for 45 weeks’ work. The census taker indicated he had attended school until the 10th grade. “Blanch A.,” age 31, had gone through the 8th grade. Both had been born in Nebraska.  The following children were also enumerated: Florence M., age 12; Irene D., age 10; Myrtle C., age 7; Morris W., age 6; Marvin L., age 4; William C., age 2; and “DeAnna E.,” age 10 months. Deanna was listed as born in Nebraska; the other children’s birthplace was listed as South Dakota. Real estate records indicate the house at 1710 Avenue F is 868 square feet in size, has two bedrooms, and was built in 1915. On our cross-country trek last summer, Mom and I visited Scottsbluff and looked up the little house.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

My maternal grandparents provided a bit more of a mystery. Married in 1938, they had not yet had my mom, their eldest child. I knew Grandma had worked for the Rock Island Arsenal from May 1938-September 1940 and had assumed she and Grandpa were actually living in Rock Island, Illinois. In the early days after the census release before the records were fully indexed, I scoured the Rock Island records to no avail. I even searched records for Boise, Idaho, since I knew Grandpa and Grandma moved there in 1940. Luckily it didn’t take long for indexing to be complete and for me to be able to search for Grandpa and Grandma by name – and there they were, not in Rock Island itself, but in Moline, about four miles east along the Mississippi River.

Apparently one of four couples living in an apartment complex at 1212 7th Avenue, they were paying $30 a month in rent. Joseph Hoffmann, age 32, having completed the 8th grade, is listed as an electric welder at a sheet metal factory. He had earned $820 the previous year but had only worked 24 weeks. Grandma, on the other hand, had worked 52 weeks and earned $1287 as a clerk/typist at the Rock Island Arsenal. She was 23 years old and had completed four years of high school. Grandpa was listed as born in Illinois, Grandma in Indiana.

You know, I don’t think I’ve ever been to Moline…yet.

Amanuensis Monday – “Grandma Was Quite a Girl”

Posted on by agnette

Blanche Wilson

In helping to clean out Grandma and Grandpa Montgomery’s house in 1998, one of many family history items uncovered was a “family heirloom book” titled Grandma Was Quite a Girl. It consists of questions on a variety of subjects with blanks for the subject to fill in. I suspect someone may have given this to Grandma as a gift. Much of the book is still incomplete, but even the brief notations in Grandma’s handwriting make for a treasured keepsake:

Today is July 5, 1986 and I am 77 years old. I have lived a full, rich life and now I want to tell my family all about it. To begin at the beginning, I was born in Bradish, Nebraska, on December 17 in the year 1908. My parents officially named me Agnetta Blanche.

I Remember My Mother: Mother was then 27 years old and My Father was 23. As a child I remember the house we lived in: In So. Dak. It was a Two room shack with an attic. And I remember a few of the nicknames the family and friends gave me as I grew up: My brother Clarence called me Nancy as he couldn’t say Blanche. And the first chores I had to do: Was milk a cow.  I would have loved to work outside but I had to baby sit and do housework.

My Own First Memories: My Dear Grandmother. My Father & Mother & brothers & sisters. My First Day in School: I sure do. I had to walk 2 miles & there were dogs along the way. The teacher pulled my hair. The Games We Played: Baseball, Hide & go seek, Pump pump pull away. My Favorite Teacher: Mildred Irene Kemp she was the best teacher I ever had. My First “Club”: The “Rose Bud Valley Club” for adults & children too.

Favorites in My Memory:  My Favorite Color: green & blue. My Favorite Time of the Day: Evening. My Favorite Musical Instrument: Piano & guitar.

My Own Opinions: Peace will never come until: People learn to get along.  How to solve the world’s overpopulation problems: Be more kind to everyone & share everything you have.

Babies! Babies! Babies! I keep thinking of the names I would have named the “more babies” if I had had all I ever wanted. Now, for girls, I’d liked to have been “Mother” to such sweet names as: Genevieve, Joleen, Nancy, Jessica, Jenifer, Tosha. And, for boys, I guess I would have changed diapers and put up with their foolishness if I’d given them names like: Robert, Tommy, Lynn.

I Wish, I Wish, I Wish – I Wish I Had: Studied other languages, especially Norwegian, Spanish & French.
 X  Kept my Indian penny collection
 X  Kept my first doll
 X  Kept a real diary, all the years of my life
 X  Kept more pictures of the people and places I knew
 X  Asked my Mother and Father more questions about their lives
And I wish I could talk to one particular person my Mother…just one more time

My Favorite Games & Sports (Marked “1-2-3” as I like ’em)
 1  Horseback Riding
 2  Fishing
 3  Walking. I like to walk now, but my legs aren’t very good.

It was a great century to live in. Depression Years – the Thirties – The crops dried up. The grasshoppers ate all the crops. And my parents lost everything. The Worst Year, I Guess, Was When I: lost my best friend. My Favorite Years Were: 1926

Amanuensis Monday – Wilson Family Letters

Posted on by agnette

A series of letters were written in February 1942 to Irene Wilson, Grandma Blanche (Wilson) Montgomery’s sister.  Irene was then 20 years old and living in DeSmet, South Dakota. Grandma Montgomery was 33 years old; she and Grandpa were raising 8 children in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, with a ninth (my dad) on the way.

[No postmark; Addressed Miss Irene Wilson, De Smet, S.D.; Return address Mr. & Mrs. L. Montgomery, [?] 675 Scottsbluff Neb.; several letters from various members of the family enclosed]

Scottsbluff, Neb. Feb. 18, 1942

Dear Sister Irene,

We rec’d your beautiful Valentine & letter. Thanks a lot. We love to hear from you. It’s surely been cold again. Everything in the house was froze up this morning. Course they don’t dare to report how cold it is. Glad you’re learning to knit. Florence was going to knit at school but they have to buy their own thread & needles & course it goes to Red Cross. I’d like to help them out but we have to look after ourselves first. Wish Clarence wouldn’t have to go. Course we never know. Slim had to register too last Sat. Do you know if they have a High School at Sioux Falls where they can take Nurse training, and do they have a dormitory. Florence wants to take Nurse training and I’d like to have her go to a good school as long as she’s spending the money. I thought of asking Rev. Webber but he’s sending his own girls here. Sure glad Mamma stays so well. Hope it won’t be too hard for her. I think it would be lots harder for her not to have the work tho. Too bad Maude was so sick hope she’s O.K. now. Soon time for Pearlie to go to the hospital. Glad she can. Course it’s hard to leave the children with some one else. I have a little box I want to send her. Well to-day is Sunday so I’ll try and finish this. Girls are all on the floor playing “Jacks” some game. It’s snowing out, but I believe it’s going to clear up. Hope so any how. I’ll be glad when Spring’s here. Deanna is reading the book Snow White & Seven dwarfs. She’s real studious. Wish I could see you all next summer, but we don’t plan any trips next summer as we have debts to pay. Hope some of you folks can come down and visit. Really I don’t know any news as I only go to town once a week for a few minutes. Hardly ever see any one we know. With love and Best Wishes for everything.

Love, Blanche & all.

Scottsbluff, Nebr. Box 675 Febr. 22, 1942

Dear Aunt Irene,

I can’t write much because Irene and Myrtle have told most of the news.
I go to Confirmation School every Saturday afternoon starting 1:00 and lasting till 4:00. I expect to get confirmed, but its going to be so early this year—Palm Sunday and I won’t hardly have time to get my clothes. Grandma Wilson offered to fix a dress for me and then I’ll have to get shoes, but that won’t be so bad. I’m getting along just fine in school, the best subject I like is “Math.” I’ve gotten five A’s on my report card in Math. I got one A in English. The rest of my grades were b’s but I haven’t gotten any c’s so far and I don’t want any. Irene, Myrtle and Morris get to eat hot lunches at school but Daddy and I have to take lunch and Marvin comes home on a new bus and eats dinner at home. Did you know that Maxine Crabtree and John Jelinek plan to get married about in May if he isn’t called to the army. Her school is out in ten weeks. We’ve got 12 more weeks. I wish I was older so I could be taking nurse training, I want to be a nurse in the future. Must Close—

With Love Your Niece—Florence Montgomery

Scottsbluff, Neb. February 22, 1942

Dear Aunt Irene,

How are you now days? I am getting along just fine. I am in the sixth grade. I like it just fine. My teacher’s name is Mr. Naylor. In the morning I have Mrs. Hills. In the afternoon we have Mr. Naylor. I get (A’s) in Spelling on my report card all the time. I take clarinet lessons. I take 1 lesson every Wednesday. I like them just fine. It has been quite cold in our country. We are going to have a blizzard, that was the report over the radio. It snowed almost all day yesterday. We went to Sunday School this morning, we got our new books for March. We live 2 miles straight out of Scottsbluff and 1 ½ mile north on the west side of the road. We have six rooms in our house counting the front porch, and a quite a big cellar. Geney is 15 months old. He can walk and talk a little. He sure is naughty. He crawls all over mamma when she writes letters. Deanna is 2 years old. May 11th she will be 3. Billy is 4 years old. Marvin is 6, Morris, is 8, Myrtle is 9, Morris is almost as big as Myrtle ¼ in. smaller about. I am 12, and Florence is 14. Marvin is in the Kindergarten. Morris is in the second grade. Florence the eighth. We eat at the school house (turn over) […] they serve hot lunches there. We only have to pay 5c a day 25c a week. The lunches are really good. Friday we had potato soup, bread, cookies, apples. How many valentines did you get on St. Valentine’s day. I got 12. Today is George Washington’s birthday. Did you celebrate it any? We didn’t. At School I wrote a biography about Geney and when the teacher read it to the class, they all said it was the best one, so I got the best grade. I had to write another one today for Miss Cook. I have to take it to her tomorrow. See she teaches for Mr. Naylor a few days and then he teaches again. Miss Cook is going to be in Miss Johnson’s room tomorrow morning, and I have to give it to her. Well I am getting tired. I’ll have to stop writing and say – (Goodbye).

With best wishes

Your Niece Irene Montgomery
[written in a heart:] You’re my Valentine To Aunt Irene
P.S. This is your Valentine if you didn’t get very many.

We didn’t send you a Valentine but we will try next year. Geney is swinging on the table now.

Box 675 Scottsbluff, Neb. Feb. 22, 1942

Dear Aunt Irene,

We haven’t heard from you for so long I thought I’d write to you. The weather is so cold. The report for tomorrow is a blizzard. I hope it isn’t that cold up there. We like our new home just fine. The bus comes past our house, but we have to walk down the road quite far. We’re on the bus before the sun is up. I like school just fine. I am in the third grade. I am sending you an English paper of mine. I have new glasses. I sure can see lots better. They make everything bigger. I wonder how Monte is now, Geney has sixteen teeth, big blue eyes, and ringlets all over his head, he can walk and almost talk he can say Myrtle already. Don’t tell Lester but Mama said he looks a lot like him. I haven’t written to Grandma since I came home, it seems like a long time but I get so tired at night that I can’t write any letters. I guess I haven’t written to you for a long time. We took Peggy home. She plays with the little kids. I interrupt the paragraph to tell you Geney is dancing on the table. Now I will go on. We took a picture of Peggy and Marvin last summer. I’ll have to close now as paper is scarce.

With love, Myrtle

Dear Aunt Irene

[various scribbles]
With love Deanna
[on the back:] Dear Aunt Irene;
[more various scribbles]