Tracking history

Brookings County Now & Then

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A small box of old photographs arrived last week at the Brookings County Museum.

It was from Judy Dillon of Independence, Kansas, who considered the mostly unidentified pictures as lost causes. She knew none of the persons pictured and was baffled by a few pictures that had names written on them.

She said she nearly sent the pictures off to the Independence landfill but decided to send them on to the Brookings County Museum because there was a Hobo Day picture, one of a round barn identified as being “near Toronto, S.D,” and one of a very happy baseball team with the words “White, S.D.” scribbled on it. 

You can see two of those photos at the end of this column.

The Hobo Day picture I did not include is of a shabbily dressed college student sitting on a straw pile happily slicing a loaf of homemade bread with a hay knife.

I suspect today’s hobos don’t know what a hay knife is.  

The pictures sent to the museum have a connection with a couple of ladies identified here and there among the photos.

Perhaps you know something about Norella Hayden Fry or Adelaide Emerson Caduree, or their families. 

If so, let me know. From your information, perhaps we can proceed to discover who some of the others in the unidentified photographs are. Relatives may still reside in this area, and the old pictures could be given to them.  

Ms. Dillon sent along some clues that might spark your memory.

Norella M. Hayden was born in 1892.

When she was 18, the U.S. Census report has her living in Argo Township. Her parents were James L., who was born in Denmark, and Iowan Jennie Hayden. 

The 1910 census lists James at age 52, Jennie at 51 and their children Gertie K., 23; Harry A., 21; Norella, 18; and Melvin E., 14.  

Norella married Earl A. Fry on Jan. 17, 1912. They lived at that time in the Toronto area.

Adelaide Emerson was born in White in 1909. Her father was Peter B. Emerson, and her mother’s name was Agnes. Besides Adelaide, they had two other children, Amos M. and Oscar Jude Emerson.

The Emersons were members of the Leganger Lutheran Church. On June 29, 1931, Adelaide married Claude R. Caduree in that church.

I suspect that as the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl days settled in during the 1930s, Norella, Adelaide and their families may have left those Midwest miseries and headed west to California. 

So there you have it. 

What became of those two South Dakotans and their families? Perhaps you can help.