Ahnentafel

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

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.

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.

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). ↩︎