On the 10th of April, 1915, Charles and Maggie Daily left Omaha and headed with their family to South Dakota because Maggie “wanted to get back to the farm” (according to their son Robert1), and possibly wanting to get away from the tornadoes (according to one of their grandsons2). They moved to a farm in Rauville Township in Codington County.3 Rauville was “a station on the [Great Northern Railway], 6 miles N of Watertown,” and primarily the site of two grain companies.4
The Daily family had been in South Dakota for two months when the state census was taken. At that time, Charles was 58 years-old, Maggie was 47, Gladys was 22, Oranna, 19, Robert, 15, Iona, 12 and Elizabeth, 10. The census forms of Charles and Maggie reveal that they had received a common education and the forms of Gladys and Oranna indicate that they had attended high school. Also, the forms of Maggie, Gladys, Oranna and Robert note that their church affiliation was Methodist.
At about the age of 84, during an interview, Robert explained a little about settling in Rauville Township:
Interviewer: When you came up here then [South Dakota], you prob’ly had a quarter to start with.
Uncle Bob: Yeah, a quarter up here. Across from Rauville Hall.
Interviewer: Okay.
Uncle Bob: Rauville Hall out there, eight miles north [of Watertown].
Interviewer: And then you moved a mile south.
Uncle Bob: Yeah, a mile south. ‘Course, then we had the three quarters.
Interviewer: And then didn’t you live further, uh, to the northwest of there?
Uncle Bob: Ahh, not northwest. But we come on down in ’29. See Dad was on that place from 1917. When we lived on the [Brent? or Brandt?] farm two years –
Interviewer: Okay.
Uncle Bob: ’15 and ’16. Come down to Gunther’s in fall of ’16.
Interviewer: Um hmm.
Uncle Bob: And o’ course, an’ then we lived there. We lived there for 13 years, up to ’29.
Interviewer: Oh! You lived there quite a while.5
Charles’ name was in the Farmers’ List of the 1916 Watertown City and Codington County Directory, which indicated that he was a farm tenant of a 160-acre farm in section SW 17 of Rauville Township.6 In the 1919 edition of the directory, the entry for Charles noted that he was renting in section NE 30 of Rauville.7
Another thing Uncle Bob related was that in 1917 Charles’ brother William visited them while they were living at the Gunther farm and that was the last time that they saw William. (He passed away in 1925 in or near Lovelock, Nevada.) Uncle Bob expounded, “I know he, when he went back through Chicago, why he, uh, bought a watch, a Waltham watch, for Dad, and sent it to him. And Dad wore it, oh, clear up ‘til he was gone. And I had it and I give it to [my son] for — to take care of, see. Well, it’s in’resting, it’s right here in Watertown, it’s in [my son’s] lockbox right here in Watertown.”8 This would have been about 65 years after the purchase of the watch.
During the next several years, one by one Charles and Maggie’s children began moving out of their home, either by marrying or by finding work in a different location or by moving to Watertown to go to high school. On October 17, 1917, 21 year-old Oranna married 20 year-old G. Ray Mills. They were married by Charles J. Christianson, the pastor of First Congregational Church, which was located in Watertown.9 The following year, Oranna gave birth to Charles and Maggie’s first grandchild. By 1919, Ray had begun farming near Rauville.10
Newspaper items in the Watertown Public Opinion reveal that the Daily family became friends with the Herbert J. Bevers family. On October 11, 1917, the newspaper reported: “Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Bevers, family and Miss Strombotne were dinner guests at the C. M. Daley [sp.] residence, near Rauville, Sunday.”11 The same issue also stated, “The Bever [sp.] and Daley [sp.] families autoed to Hazel and Grover Thursday on a combined business and pleasure trip.”12 On March 14, 1918, it was reported that “The Herbert Bevers family had as their guests, Sunday, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Mills, Robert Dailey [sp.] and the Misses Iona and Elizabeth Dailey [sp.], of Rauville, and Miss Verna Edwards of Hazel.”13 Later that year, on July 11, a short article recounted that “Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Bevers of Elmira township, accompanied by Messrs Dailey [sp.] of Rauville and Wells of [Watertown], returned last week from a trip through portions of Minnesota and North Dakota. … [In the] valley of the Red River…, north of Big Stone City, S. D. … ‘it impressed [them] as having crops enough to feed the world, judging by the looks of the fields of grain.’”14
The First World War had broken out in Europe in 1914 and the United States entered the war in April 1917. In June of that year the U. S. Congress authorized President Woodrow Wilson to institute a military draft of men from the age of 21 to 30.15 The purpose of this Selective Service Act was to increase the size of the army to 500,000 men. A year later the army still was not large enough, so in August 1918, the Selective Service Act was amended to include all men between 18 and 45.16 Uncle Bob who turned 18 years old in May 1918 registered for the draft in September of that year.17 Mercifully, the war came to an end in November 1918 and Uncle Bob never served in the military.18 By 1920 Uncle Bob was boarding in Watertown at the home of Harold and Lula Nordaker, and working for a transfer company as a drayman (a driver of a cart or vehicle without fixed sides).19
The Daily family and the Bevers family became linked in 1919 when 25 year-old Gladys married 21 year-old Arthur on June 4th. The marriage was officiated by S. W. Keck, the pastor of First Congregational Church.20 On February 18, 1920, when the U. S. census was taken, Arthur and Gladys were living with Charles and Maggie on the farm in Rauville.21 Two months later, Arthur and Gladys’ first son was born on that farm,22 giving Charles and Maggie a second grandchild. Iona and Elizabeth were also recorded on the 1920 census sheet.
In the 1919 Watertown directory, Iona was identified as a student and she was boarding at 215 4th Street SW, which was the address of George and Hattie Baxter.23 At the age of 17, she was attending Watertown High School. Iona graduated in May 1921 and three months later, after obtaining a South Dakota Second Grade Teacher’s Certificate, she entered into a two-year contract with Richland School District No. Six and began teaching on September 5th.24 Elizabeth would also attend Watertown High School, graduating in 1923 at the age of 18.
The 1920 U. S. census indicated that the farm that the Dailys were renting was on Meridian Road, also known as Meridian Highway. In 1911, a road development association, the International Meridian Road Association, had organized for the purpose of building a transcontinental road, on which “a full wagon-box load or a car at high gear can pass, except in wet weather.”25 The name of the highway was “derived from the Sixth Principal Meridian, which extends north-south through the Great Plains region.”26 The route that was designated as the Meridian Road had a starting point in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and ending points in Galveston, Texas and Mexico City. Traveling along the eastern border of North Dakota, this highway entered South Dakota, veered west a short ways, then headed south and passed through Rauville and Watertown. Presently, from the northern border of North Dakota to Watertown, Interstate Highway 29 and U. S. Highway 81 roughly follow the route that was once called the Meridian Highway.
The Meridian Highway evolved primarily as a farm-to-market road, important to the rural areas, small towns, and cities through which it passed. The original route followed section line roads, running perpendicular to historic east–west transportation corridors. Reflecting its creation from existing farm-to-market rural roads, the original highway passed through each county seat along its route. In 1911 the Meridian Road Association was formed to mark, map, and promote the highway; in 1919 it became the Meridian Highway Association. Similar to contemporaneous good roads organizations, the Meridian Highway Association consisted of representatives from the states, counties, and cities along the route. The Meridian Highway promoters, however, perhaps in recognition of its divergence from more established routes, emphasized the absence of mountain passes and proclaimed that motorists could travel from Canada to Mexico without shifting gears. The association sold memberships and instituted widely publicized tours. When the association was a year old, in 1912, an automobile caravan was organized to travel the route south to Mexico, an event that was irregularly repeated in subsequent years.27
According to the U. S. census of Omaha, in 1920 Maggie’s mother Josephine (nee Smith) Bonewitz was living with Maggie’s niece Maggie (nee Thompson) Stier.28 Maggie Stier and her husband Fred were renting one of the two homes that the Dailys still owned in Omaha.29 In his interview, Uncle Bob mentioned a trip that Maggie Daily made to visit her 83 year-old mother in Omaha:
Uncle Bob: October 7, 1920. Yeah, that’s right there. I can remember that, oh, like it was yesterday. Mother was — Mother went down to, uh. ‘Course, I had a date with Ruby and Mother was away, at the time, see.
Interviewer: Um hmm.
Uncle Bob: An’ ‘course, Grandma passed away. I don’t know what this date was, far as it was in 1920. And she come home on the train and I was supposed to meet her. And I didn’t.
Interviewer: And you didn’t. [laughing]
Uncle Bob: I didn’t [pass] that too well.
Interviewer: And you were in trouble!
Uncle Bob: Yeah. Didn’t think much of me. [chuckling]30
Just over a year later, Robert married Ruby Brumbaugh on December 22, 1921.31 The following December, Ruby gave birth to Charles and Maggie’s fourth grandchild. Gladys had had her second child in August 1921 (the third grandchild) and Oranna would have her second child eight days after Ruby (the fifth grandchild).
When Gladys’ in-laws, Herbert and Lena Bevers, moved their family to Raymondville, Texas in the fall of 1919, Elizabeth and Iona kept in touch with their son Willis. The Bevers family returned to South Dakota a year later, but Willis stayed and worked on a road crew for another year.32 About three years after Willis returned to South Dakota, Elizabeth and Willis would marry. The letters that they had exchanged during those two years are in the possession of one of their sons. They were married on February 11, 1925, by Granville M. Calhoun, the minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Watertown.33 They set up their household in Watertown for a few months and later moved to a farm southwest of Grover.34 Their first child was born in December 1925 and was the tenth grandchild of Charles and Maggie. Gladys had born two more children, and Oranna and Ruby had each born one more by this time.
When the 1925 South Dakota Census was conducted, the only child that was living with Charles and Maggie in Rauville was 22 year-old Iona. She would get married soon afterward, marrying Robert Zick on June 10.35 The officiating minister was Charles W. Zech [sp.?], who was likely the pastor of First Church Evangelical Association.36 Charles and Maggie’s daughter Gladys and her family were living in Rauville, but they may have been living on a different farm than Charles and Maggie. Oranna and her husband were also still in Rauville.37 Robert had moved with his family to a farm in Germantown Township, Codington County.38
After living and working for 13 years on the Gunther farm, Charles and Maggie moved to another farm in the fall of 1929. Uncle Bob explained the circumstances around their move:
Uncle Bob: So, I went out there in the spring of ’29 on [Longstocker?] place. And then Dad had a sale that fall in ’29, up on Gunther farm.
Interviewer: Uh huh.
Uncle Bob: Now ‘o course, he had, he had the hay and he had his cows yet. He kept his cows.
Interviewer: Um hmm.
Uncle Bob: I had him come down, with me there. That house was able – we had two different entrances. So, so, we lived in two rooms there for ’29, and uh, oh, in the fall of ’29, that’s when Dad come down and moved in there. Why, we had our — I had cows and he had cows. Took ’em there. But then I got a chance in the fall of ‘30 to buy Faragher [sp.?] out. And, uh, ‘course, I had 1300 head o’ cattle and Faragher [sp.?] had 1700 head o’ cattle. And uh, I moved down there. Well, Dad figured maybe I was bitin’ off more – see, the bank was willing to loan me the money because he, Faragher [sp.?] was on there and he owed ‘em $500. And uh, it was willing to, uh, take the loan over, oh, the mortgage over on a younger man.
Interviewer: Um hmm.
Uncle Bob: That’s the way I come in on it.
Interviewer: Ahhh. Uh huh.
Uncle Bob: The bank loaned me all the money to buy Faragher [sp.?] out —
Interviewer: Sure, sure.
Uncle Bob: — and then they get their money. They got their money, see. …
Interviewer: That must have been about when Grandpa moved to town then? In ’30?
Uncle Bob: Well, no. No, he stayed there one more. He stayed there one year and he handled the place …. He put up the hay and fed cattle, out there. … And so uh, when I come down here in the fall of ’30 to Longstocker’s [perhaps he meant Faragher’s instead], he stayed on one more year, and then he, uh, sold out. And uh, moved into east Watertown, there. That’s where he moved to then at that time. Moved out there.39
On April 10, 1930 a census taker visited the home of Charles and Maggie in Lake Township, Codington County, also visiting the home of Robert and Ruby and their two daughters .40 Charles was 73 years-old and Maggie was 62 years-old. Both Charles and Robert were farmers and they were actually working on the day before the census taker visited. Oranna and her three children, aged eleven, seven and four, were living with Charles and Maggie. Two hardships had afflicted Oranna in the 1920s: she began having epileptic seizures and her husband had deserted her.41 The census record indicates that she was divorced by 1930.
Gladys and Arthur had seven children by this time and were living on a farm very close to Elizabeth and Willis who were also living on a farm, both farms being in Kampeska Township, Codington County.42 Elizabeth had born three children, but one daughter had only lived for four months. Living with Elizabeth and Willis were his parents Herbert and Lena Bevers. Iona and Robert had two children prior to 1930 and would have another child a couple months after the census was taken. They were still living on a farm in Rauville.43 So, as of the end of 1930, Charles and Maggie had 17 living grandchildren.
In 1930, the United States government wanted to determine the extent of ownership of radio sets in the nation, so one of the questions on the 1930 census was whether the householder owned a radio set. Between 1905 and 1920, radio broadcasting had been primarily a hobby of amateur radio operators. During the early 1920s, broadcast stations began to be established in cities and they began providing live programs of music and information for public audiences. At the time of the census, Charles did not own a radio set and the only ones among his children that owned a radio set were Elizabeth and Willis.
In the next blogpost of Uncle Bob’s reminiscences, we will learn about Charles and Maggie’s years of living in Watertown, South Dakota.
1. M. R. Wilson, transcription of Robert Lee Daily Interview by R. Thiele, recording (ca. 1984): 8-9.
2. E. M. Bevers, email communication with M. R. Wilson, January 28, 2018.
3. _________, “Charles Monroe Daily Family,” in The First 100 Years in Codington County, South Dakota, 1879-1979, by Codington County History Book Committee (Watertown, South Dakota: Watertown Public Opinion Print, 1979): 150.
4. H. L. Hill (Ed.), Watertown City and Codington County Directory 1916-1917 (Watertown, South Dakota: Watertown Printing and Binding Co., 1916): 317.
5. Wilson, Robert Lee Daily Interview: 25.
6. Hill, Watertown City and Codington County Directory 1916-1917: 336.
7. H. L. Hill (Ed.), Watertown City and Codington County Directory 1919-1920 (Watertown, South Dakota: Watertown Printing and Binding Co., 1919): 323.
8. Wilson, Robert Lee Daily Interview: 14.
9. Ancestry.com, “Record of marriage of Ray Mills and Oranna Daily,” South Dakota Marriages, 1905-1949 (Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2005).
10. Hill, Watertown City and Codington County Directory 1919-1920: 345.
11. ________, Saturday News (Watertown, South Dakota, Oct. 11, 1917), https://www.newspapers.com/image/466193821.
12. ________, Saturday News (Watertown, South Dakota, Oct. 11, 1917), https://www.newspapers.com/image/466193821.
13. ________, Saturday News (Watertown, South Dakota, Mar. 14, 1918), https://www.newspapers.com/image/465662336.
14. ________, Saturday News (Watertown, South Dakota, Jul. 11, 1918), https://www.newspapers.com/image/465664742.
15. 65th Congress, “Congressional Act H. R. 3545,” in United States of America, Public Laws of the Sixty-Fifth Congress (Washington, D. C., 1917): 76-83, http://legisworks.org/congress/65/publaw-12.pdf
16. 65th Congress, “Congressional Act H. R. 12731,” in United States of America, Public Laws of the Sixty-Fifth Congress (Washington, D. C., 1918}: 955-957, http://legisworks.org/congress/65/publaw-210.pdf.
17. “United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-81WF-YWR?cc=1968530&wc=9FC7-FM9%3A928420501%2C928501301 : 9 September 2019), South Dakota > Codington County; A-Z > image 630 of 3493; citing NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
18. “United States Census, 1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RCF-HX1?cc=1810731&wc=QZF7-DBF%3A648803701%2C649380801%2C648842001%2C1589282340 : 8 December 2015), South Dakota > Codington > Lake > ED 12 > image 2 of 6; citing NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002).
19. “United States Census, 1920,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRVM-Z27?cc=1488411&wc=QZJB-QKD%3A1036874501%2C1039011801%2C1039046901%2C1589332554 : 13 September 2019), South Dakota > Codington > Watertown Ward 4 > ED 101 > image 17 of 41; citing NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
20. Ancestry.com, “Record of marriage of Arthur H. Bevers and Gladys M. Daily,” South Dakota Marriages, 1905-1949 (Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005).
21. “United States Census, 1920,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RVM-D6Z?cc=1488411&wc=QZJB-434%3A1036874501%2C1039011801%2C1039036701%2C1589332505 : 13 September 2019), South Dakota > Codington > Rauville > ED 94 > image 2 of 7; citing NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
22. L. A. Bevers, personal interview with M. R. Wilson, August 2, 2010.
23. Hill, Watertown City and Codington County Directory 1919-1920: 62, 242.
24. Teacher’s Contract of Richland School District No. Six with Iona Daily, August 11, 1921.
25. ________, Meridian Highway, https://web.archive.org/web/20070924192054/http://www.drivetheost.com/meridianhighway.html.
26. D. Moore, et al., The Meridian Highway in Texas (Austin, Texas: Texas Historical Commission, May 27, 2016): 1.
27. C. Ahlgren, The Meridian Highway (2011), http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.tra.020.xml.
28. “United States Census, 1920,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRXW-XQR?cc=1488411&wc=QZJ5-LMG%3A1036473301%2C1036471902%2C1037747101%2C1589333009 : 12 September 2019), Nebraska > Douglas > Omaha Ward 9 > ED 105 > image 11 of 30; citing NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
29. ________, City Directory of Greater Omaha 1920 (Omaha, Nebraska: R. L. Polk & Co., 1920): 1229.
30. Wilson, Robert Lee Daily Interview: 19.
31. Ancestry.com, “Record of marriage of Robert L. Daily and Ruby Violet Brumbaugh,” South Dakota Marriages, 1905-1949 (Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005).
32. 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.
33. Ancestry.com, “Record of marriage of Willis H. Bevers and Elizabeth Daily,” South Dakota Marriages, 1905-1949 (Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005).
34. ________, “Willis Herbert Bevers,” in The First 100 Years in Codington County, South Dakota, 1879-1979, by Codington County History Book Committee (Watertown, South Dakota: Watertown Public Opinion Print, 1979): 116.
35. Ancestry.com, “Record of marriage of Robert Zick and Iona Daily,” South Dakota, U. S., Marriages, 1905-2017 (Lehi, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005).
36. H. L. Hill (Ed.), Watertown City and Codington County Directory 1926-1927 (Watertown, South Dakota: Peck-Hill Company): 9.
37. Hill, Watertown City and Codington County Directory 1926-1927: 347.
38. “South Dakota State Census, 1925,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DCR9-M87?cc=1476077&wc=MJ7S-C68%3A1041724801 : 21 May 2014), 004245665 > image 2963 of 3379; State Historical Society, Pierre.
39. Wilson, Robert Lee Daily Interview: 25-26.
40. “United States Census, 1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RCF-HX1?cc=1810731&wc=QZF7-DBF%3A648803701%2C649380801%2C648842001%2C1589282340 : 8 December 2015), South Dakota > Codington > Lake > ED 12 > image 2 of 6; citing NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002).
41. Wilson, Robert Lee Daily Interview: 10.
42. “United States Census, 1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRCF-HB3?cc=1810731&wc=QZF7-6VX%3A648803701%2C649380801%2C649388101%2C1589282323 : 8 December 2015), South Dakota > Codington > Kampeska > ED 10 > image 1 of 8; citing NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002).
43. “United States Census, 1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RCF-8C9?cc=1810731&wc=QZF7-DT9%3A648803701%2C649380801%2C649393801%2C1589282372 : 8 December 2015), South Dakota > Codington > Rauville > ED 16 > image 5 of 8; citing NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002).
Sojourners, Settlers & Other Legacy Conveyors 