I inherited my grandmother Golda Slagle Forthun's photographs. Goldie, as she was known, was born in Ravenwood, Nodaway County, Missouri, to Elizabeth Lockhart and William Slagle on March 20, 1889. Goldie's parents were natives of Lee County, Virginia, and migrated to northwestern Missouri in the aftermath of the Civil War. Both Elizabeth and William had siblings and extended family members who also moved to northwestern Missouri, to Nodaway and Gentry counties. Fellow neighbors and friends from Lee County, Virginia, joined them there as well. I have yet to determine who went first, but there was a large network of family and friends surrounding my grandmother's family.
My grandmother chose to leave this community at age twenty-one, when she left Missouri for western North Dakota in 1910. Her sister, Nettie Slagle Sowards, had given birth to twins, and needed help. Eventually, Goldie moved out on her own, when she filed a Homestead Act claim in McKenzie County, North Dakota. She ultimately proved up her claim, and married a fellow homesteader, Julius Forthun.
When Goldie left Missouri, she took with her a beautiful photo album filled with studio portraits. Sadly, none of the photographs were labeled. I imagine that all of the subjects were close friends and family, so she felt no need to mark them. Although I have been able to determine the names of some of the individuals, there are many that are still mysteries.
This is one of them. I imagine that this young man was one of Goldie's friends from Nodaway County, or perhaps one of her many, many cousins. Some of the surnames of the extended family in Missouri are Lockhart, Slagle, Lawson, O'Bannon, McNeely, and Babb. The young man was likely born in the 1880's, and given the heavy coat and hat, he probably lived somewhere that had cold winters. The photo album came with Goldie to North Dakota, to the best of my knowledge, so the photograph was probably taken prior to 1910. And that is the extent of my educated guesses.
She was a brave soul to take on a homestead on here own. I suspect she was one of a very few that did that. Most women of that time found a mate first, and then embarked on the homesteading together, or the man blazed the trail, and brought the wife over later, as the Tangsruds did.
ReplyDeleteGoldie was amazing. She actually filed a second homestead claim and proved that one up too, right after her marriage. I obtained her file from the National Archives - well worth the money!
ReplyDelete