October 16, 2019

Retracing Lena Huppler Bevers’ Travel Log

Thursday – Oct. 16.

Were still at Fleeges while they were fixing the car.  Stayed all day Thursday and over night. – Lena Bevers

Since Herbert and Mr. McElhany could not get the right axle in Sioux City, Florence reported that on Thursday morning, “Rob and Roy Fleege had to go to Beresford and have one made, did not get back until Friday morning.”¹  The man named Rob that she mentions apparently is not a member of the Fleege family, because on the 1920 U. S. Census for Emmet Township, Union County, South Dakota there is no Rob (or any variation of Rob) listed in the family.²  Also, Rob is not Mr. McElhany because in the travel logs for the next day, both Lena and Florence state that “Pa and Mr. McElhany went to Beresford to get Rob.”³  This is strong evidence that there is an additional member of the traveling party.

In order to fill our time today, my mother and I decided to visit the W. H. Over Museum in Vermillion.  We spent an enjoyable hour wandering through the historical and cultural exhibits.  One of the exhibits brought back memories to my mother of her days at a one-room rural school in Grover, South Dakota.  There was also an antique automobile.  It isn’t the model that Herbert Bevers nor Mr. McElhany were driving.  According to one of Herbert’s grandsons, Herbert was driving a Model A Ford and Mr. McElhany was driving an Overland.⁴

After eating lunch in Vermillion, we drove to Union Grove State Park and took a short walk in the forest.  Today the temperature is about 50 degrees and the wind isn’t blowing, it’s much better than yesterday which was in the 30s with a strong wind.  According to Lena’s travel log, the farm house where they were staying was about 11 miles south of Beresford, which places it in the vicinity of Union Grove State Park.  The 1920 U. S. Census sheet that shows the record for the Fleege family gives us additional information about the road the Bevers family and Mr. McElhaney were traveling on.  In the space for the street name, “King of Trails” is written.  This is the transcontinental highway, shown on the 1925 Custer Battlefield Hiway map, that runs through Sioux Falls and Sioux City.  Another thing the census sheet notes is the name of the township: Emmet.  Unfortunately, the directions in the 1917 Blue Book don’t give enough information to positively identify which farm road was once the King of Trails Highway.  Therefore, we were only able to get in the vicinity of the farm house.

Notes:

1. B. Winkelmann, Our Trip to Texas [Transcription of Our Trip to Texas by Florence Bevers, 1919] (unpublished, n. d.): 1.
2. “United States Census, 1920,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RNT-KMB?cc=1488411&wc=QZJY-84H%3A1036874501%2C1037297201%2C1036914701%2C1589334045 : 13 September 2019), South Dakota > Union > Emmet > ED 250 > image 11 of 16; citing NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
3. Lena Bevers, Our Trip to Texas (unpublished, 1919): 2A.
4. D. L. Bevers, Herbert and Lena Bevers trip to Raymondville Texas [Transcription of Our Trip to Texas by Lena Bevers, 1919] (Unpublished, n.d.): 4.
5. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, Official Automobile Blue Book 1917, vol. 5 (New York: Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, 1917): 971, https://ia800405.us.archive.org/15/items/case_gv1024_a92_1917_vol_5/case_gv1024_a92_1917_vol_5.pdf.