Maude and Alfred Waters, Part Two

December 17, 2025 MRWLeave a comment

The May 1904 news article announcing the marriage of Maude Bevers and Alfred N. Waters described the two of them as “prominent people” of the small town of De Smet, South Dakota. (You can see the news article in Part One.) Each of them was involved in a variety of social groups and community pursuits. For example, Maude was active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Red Cross and a philanthropic educational society. Waters held civic roles and promoted improvements in their county (Kingsbury) and in their town, which as of 1906 had “a population a little in excess of 1,000 souls.”¹

After her wedding, even though her husband was not a member of the church, Maude continued her activities in the Methodist church, having become a member in November 1898. The records of the women’s group of the church noted that Maude served as secretary and 4^th Vice in 1904 and 1905, respectively. Another role in which she served was the leader of the choir, this she did for years before and after her marriage.² In addition, “… for many years [she] was a member of a mixed quartet that sang for funerals in various churches of the town and area.”³

On a Friday night in March 1907, there was a Demorest medal contest held at the church, six young ladies competing for a Silver medal.⁴ Throughout the evening, musical selections were performed as well as the orations by the contestants. One of the selections, which was entitled “David and Goliath,” was performed by a ladies’ quartette in which Maude sang a part.

The Demorest Medal program was an educational program through which young people and community members learned about the tenets of the prohibition movement. In 1886, W. Jennings Demorest inaugurated oratory contests, utilizing subject matter promoting the prohibition of liquor traffic. The work began in New York City, then was introduced in California and within three years had spread throughout the United States and into several foreign nations.

Six to eight contestants competed at the local level and the winner would be awarded a Silver medal. At the next level, six Silver medalists would compete for a Gold medal, then six Gold medalists would compete for a Grand Gold medal. At the highest level six Grand Gold medalists competed for a Diamond medal.

In 1895, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (W. C. T. U.) adopted the Demorest Medal program and in the following years expanded the topics of the oratory books. “Recitation books, embracing orations on Prohibition, Total Abstinence, Scientific Temperance, Anti-Narcotics, Franchise, Social Purity, etc., were published; medals were designed with mottoes and emblems of the W. C. T. U., and circulars setting forth the plans of this new system sent out to all the States in the Union.”⁵ As of January 1907, the contest publications had been disseminated into Australia, South Africa, India, Canada, Mexico and the Philippine Islands as well.

News clipping from the January 29, 1909 issue of *Kingsbury County Independent*

The Ladies Aid Society of the Methodist church rotated its meetings among its members. In the first week of February 1909 the society met at Maude’s home.⁶ For a fundraising project that year, they produced a cookbook, entitled Kitchen Echoes. “The venture was a very profitable one,”⁷ as it included advertisements for local businesses in addition to its recipe entries. Waters Land and Loan Company, the real estate company of Maude’s husband, was one of the business sponsors, advertising that the company had the “Best Bargains in Grain, Dairy and Stock Farms.” Maude and her sister Gertrude both submitted recipes. Gertrude’s recipes were for Potato Salad and Sugar Cookies. (See Gertrude’s recipes in Aunt Gertie.) Maude’s entries were for Angel Custard and Mrs. Power’s Ginger Snaps. The recipe for Ginger Snaps honored Elizabeth Power, a former resident and pioneer settler of De Smet, arriving in June 1880 along with her husband and four children. Shortly before the recipe was published in Kitchen Echoes, Mrs. Power had passed away on February 11, 1909. Her obituary stated: “Mrs. Power was one of those motherly women who everybody likes, always ready to answer sick calls, and never so happy as when doing some kind deed. She was a life long and consistent member of the Roman Catholic church, and her remains lie in the Catholic cemetery at Bellingham [Washington].”⁸ Two years later, in January 1911, the Methodist aid society met again at Maude’s house.⁹ An entry in the treasurer’s book of the church’s women’s group indicates that Maude hosted a supper in that same month which brought in $6.60. In 2025, an equivalent amount of money is approximately $225.00.

Angel Custard.—Separate the yolks and whites of two eggs, beat the whites to a stiff froth, adding a few drops of flavoring. Beat the yolks, add two teaspoons corn starch wet with a little cold milk, and stir into a pint of boiling milk which has been sweetened to taste (about two-thirds cup of sugar), adding a pinch of salt the last thing. When thickened and boiling pour the custard over the beaten whites of eggs and stir rapidly a few moments. Delicious either hot or cold.—Maude Waters.

Mrs. Powers’ Ginger Snaps.—One-half cup butter (scant), one-half cup lard (scant), one cup white sugar, one cup molasses, one teaspoon soda dissolved in one tablespoon water, one egg, one tablespoon ginger, a pinch of salt. Flour to mix quite stiff.—Maude Waters.

Maude (nee Bevers) Waters, estimated date 1910

From the time that A. N. Waters settled in De Smet, he served in numerous civic capacities and promoted improvements in the town, county and state. A few of his responsibilities during the year 1905 give us a glimpse of his involvements in the local community at that time, as well as in the broader region.

April 1905 – At a meeting of the stockholders, Waters was elected to be a director on the board of the Athletic Association.¹⁰ Two years later, he was elected to be the president of the association, which was reported to have a large membership.¹¹
August 1905 – While serving as mayor of De Smet, Waters was appointed by the South Dakota governor to be a delegate to the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress which met at Portland, Oregon from August 16 to 19.¹² This congress was organized to promote the commercial interests of the states and territories west of the Mississippi River. The following year, Waters was appointed again to the congress which met November 20 to 23 in Kansas City, Missouri.¹³
September 1905 – The county commissioners made Waters the chairman of a committee for the purpose of creating an agricultural exhibit to represent Kingsbury County at the state fair held in Huron, South Dakota.¹⁴ He consented to procure the materials for the exhibit and was authorized to appoint members to the committee from different parts of the county. Waters and the committee members did not receive a salary, but the county commissioners authorized payment for the cost of transporting the materials for the exhibit to Huron.
November 1905 – A real estate dealers association was formed to which Waters was elected secretary of the board. The purpose of the association was “promoting and advancing the interests of [South Dakota] by devising ways and means to advertise its resources and encourage immigration, etc.”¹⁵ Four months later, at the March 1906 meeting of the association, which had about 250 member firms by that time, Waters gave a speech during the evening banquet which was entitled, “Had We Better Hang Together or Hang Seperate.“ [sp.]¹⁶ Moving ahead with their aims, in March 1907, Waters and about 25 members of the association met with the governor of South Dakota and the Immigration Commissioner “to consider co-operative advertisement of the state. … The association indorsed a proposition made by the Minneapolis and St. Louis railway to furnish a car and superintend and bear the expense of making a traveling exhibit of products of South Dakota farms on its line, provided the exhibit be furnished by the real estate men.”¹⁷

Waters had begun his career in real estate investment in 1880 when he arrived in De Smet, the same year that the town was founded. Thirty years later, he was continuing his career in that profession. A few of Waters’ transactions are noteworthy:

On April 16, 1909, Waters Land and Loan Company made a ten-year lease with the United States for the use of “the first floor of the one story … brick premises, known as ‘Waters Building’ situated on the North side of Second Street between Calumet and Joliet avenues.”¹⁸ (The consideration was $325.00 per annum in quarter yearly payments.) The Waters Building had been built in 1888-89 by the Kingsbury Abstract Company and Waters Land and Loan Company had purchased it in 1906. (More about this transfer is in Part One.) The De Smet post office had occupied a space in the building since at least 1893.¹⁹ In 1909, an extension was built onto the Waters building and the post office moved into it. The lease described above commenced the occupation of the post office in the extension. “The new post office was of fireproof construction, 25×45 feet and fitted with the latest style of furnishings. The building was heated by steam and supplied with gas and water….”²⁰
About 1910, Waters owned a house at the corner of Lyle Avenue and Front Street NE. It was the former home of Fred Dow but had been relocated from its original site. Fred Dow had sold his farmstead and grove of trees to Waters in the early 1900s. Waters had moved the house from the Dow farm to the corner lot across the road on Front Street NE.²¹ Fred Dow’s farmstead was the location of the “surveyors house” in which the Charles Ingalls’ family lived when Ingalls was hired by Dakota Central Railway in 1879. The surveyors’ house was moved in 1884²² to its current site in the town of De Smet. Therefore, it had not been sitting on the property when Waters purchased the Dow farm. The surveyors’ house was purchased by the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society in 1967 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.²³
On September 28, 1915, Alfred purchased lot #32 of De Smet from Caroline A. Swanzey (formerly Caroline A. Ingalls) for $62.50.²⁴ This was author Laura Ingalls Wilder’s sister, known as Carrie in Wilder’s Little House books. In Standard Atlas of Kingsbury County, South Dakota, published in 1909, the owner of lot #32 of De Smet is noted as C. P. Ingalls, Caroline’s father who had passed away in 1902.

The above clipping is from a map in the 1909 edition of Standard Atlas of Kingsbury County, South Dakota. It shows that Waters owned 320 acres directly east of De Smet. The lower half of this property had been a tree claim filed by Fred N. Dow, and to the east of F. N. Dow’s claim, his father, James C. Dow, had filed a claim on a quarter section, which in 1909 Waters also owned.²⁵ Through a cursory examination of the 1909 atlas, 14 properties in the county were found with Waters’ name on them (in the townships of Le Seur, Spirit, Manchester, De Smet, Esmond and Mathews). One of the properties that Waters owned had been the homestead of Almanzo Wilder (Laura Ingalls Wilder’s husband); Wilder had sold the property to Dakota Loan and Investment in 1891, a company in which Waters was a partner.²⁶ It is not known at this time when Waters became the sole owner. That property can be seen on the above clipping in the upper left corner. In addition to her husband’s properties, the atlas also indicated that Maude owned two adjoining quarters in Manchester Township.

The United States census taken in April 1910 recorded Alfred as 54 years old and working on his own account in his own real estate office.²⁷ Maude was 35 years old and did not have an occupation. In the record, besides Maude and Alfred, there was a housekeeper living in their home, named Izora Youmans [sp.], who was 37 years old, single and had been born in New York.

For six years, Maude’s mother, who lived a half block to the east of the Waters home with Maude’s father and sister Gertrude, had been impaired following an operation from which she did not completely heal. Two years after the operation, her mother developed diabetes. “All during her illness, and especially during the last months when almost helpless and suffering great pain everything that could be done to relieve and give pleasure was done for her by loving hands of her own family and friends.”²⁸ No doubt Maude had been involved in her mother’s care until her passing on July 14, 1910.²⁹

On the last Saturday of May 1910, Waters was invited to dine at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Tinkham. Along with Waters and Tinkham, the other five guests were men of De Smet who had lived through the “hard winter” of 1880-81. They all had arrived in Kingsbury County in the winter and spring of 1880, except Waters who hadn’t arrived until August. When early snow storms commenced in the fall, the men stayed in the newly built buildings of the fledgling town, which had about 14 businesses.³⁰ Recurring blizzards would cover the railroad tracks that winter, eventually closing the track altogether from January to May. About 50 families (including single men) wintered in the town. Thirty years later at the gathering held in the Tinkham home:
The varied experiences of that hard winter were all recounted. Of one thing our readers can be certain, however, and that is the dinner served on this occasion was not on the half-ration plan of some of the dinners eaten by the gentleman [sp.]during that never to be forgotten winter of [1880-81]when supplies ran low and wheat had to be ground in coffee mills, and when sugar for coffee was kept in a jewel case.³¹

During that trying winter, Waters boarded in the home of Arthur and Jennie Sherwood. A. S. Sherwood “is mentioned in the Laura Ingalls Wilder book The Long Winter as one of the few families wintered in for that historic experience. He and his wife … were among the few married couples in the town that winter. Some of the bachelors roomed and boarded there including A. N. Waters, in a house so small that blankets separated the beds in a sleeping room.”³² Waters himself was not mentioned in Wilder’s The Long Winter but he was mentioned in her autobiographical manuscript, Pioneer Girl, which relates the following story:
There was in town a lawyer named Waters who had expected to go east early in the winter to be married but had got caught by the storms.

Now the wedding day was drawing near and no way to get transportation out. He decided to walk and … he started before daylight one morning as the blizzard wind was dying down and the sky cleared.

It was a scant day’s calm this time and we were afraid he was caught in the next storm, but he walked the miles to Brookins [sic] safely and after resting walked on to Tracy.

The next spring we learned that he arrived safely in time for his wedding, but both feet were so badly frozen that he was unable to walk on that day. However his feet recovered and he came back in the spring, bringing his wife with him.³³

The above story, of course, refers to Waters’ first wife, Josephine E. Humphrey, whereas Maude was his second wife. Waters obituary adds details to this account of the winter of 1881:
… he boarded with the Arthur Sherwood family, “Sixteen of them in a house sixteen feet square,” [Waters] called it. He lived here through the Hard Winter and in the spring of 1881 made his famed hike along the railroad track in company with a brother of Mrs. Arthur Sherwood. The whole country had been snow-bound for months and the two young men struck out for the East, hauling a sled, and in four days reached Tracy, secured a team and floundered thru to Sleepy Eye, where they were again disappointed in train service and Mr. Waters continued on alone to New Ulm.³⁴

Another perspective on this event was recounted by the editor of De Smet News in 1921:
… The big snows of the winter of 1880-1881 caused such a blockade thruout the country that after the first of January there was no train from De Smet east until the following May. Along in March Mr. Waters became anxious to get out of the country and keep a date in the east, so he started on foot over the snow banks, carrying a hundred letters from De Smet people to their relatives and friends back home. He walked as far as Tracy, covering the distance in four days. There a team of mules hitched to a sleigh was secured and several men made use of the outfit to get as far as Sleepy Eye. At that point a train was boarded and they were scheduled to leave next morning; but a storm prevented and they were there a whole week. Mr. Waters became uneasy at the delay and started out alone, hoofing it to New Ulm. There the road was open and he was soon on his way east.³⁵

Charles H. Tinkham, the host of the 1910 gathering of De Smet pioneers, had arrived in De Smet in the spring of 1880. Soon after his arrival Tinkham opened a furniture and houseware store, and he also engaged in undertaking.³⁶ During the “hard winter,” “Tinkham was a member of the ‘bachelor’s club’ who lived with William Crook, sleeping on boards laid across the ceiling joists.”³⁷

Among the guests attending the dinner was Charles L. Dawley, who settled in De Smet in May 1880. As an agent for a lumber company, he began “selling loads of lumber to the new settlers. He set up an office tent and sold lumber from railroad cars until an office and shed could be built. During the Hard Winter, he boarded with Mrs. Garland, and began courting her daughter Florence.”³⁸ Florence was Laura Ingalls Wilder’s teacher during that winter. Within a few years, Dawley left the lumber business to go into real estate with Waters, a partnership which lasted 15 years. Waters, Dawley and Alfred Thomas were associates who established the Dakota Loan and Investment Company, “which continued the loan business previously run by Alfred Waters, doing a general real estate and chattel loan business.”³⁹ Waters and Dawley took full control of the business in 1887.

The other guests were Charles E. Ely, Edward H. Couse, Daniel H. Loftus and John H. Carroll. About April 1880, Ely was a lumber agent also, selling lumber in De Smet from a rail car. Subsequently, he established the town’s first lumber yard.⁴⁰ He was married, but had not yet moved his family to De Smet when the winter storms came later that year. Couse, who was also married when he came to De Smet and a Civil War veteran, was the owner of a hardware store.⁴¹ Loftus was a partner in a general merchandise store in 1880, and in February 1881 in the midst of the “hard winter”, a local newspaper reported, “the first grist of wheat was ground in De Smet on the 5th, by Dan Loftus. Dan makes a fine miller.”⁴²

John H. Carroll was the first clerk of courts in Kingsbury County (April 1880) and he was the first postmaster, later he would become the first mayor of De Smet.⁴³ His homestead adjoined the town of De Smet. On that property, Carroll would plat 10 blocks as residence blocks which became an addition to the original town. Waters would eventually purchase lots in Carroll’s addition, and on those lots, in 1905, build the home in which he and Maude would live. Another property that Carroll at one point owned was the northeast corner lot at Calumet Avenue and Second Street. Waters and his partners of the Kingsbury Abstract Company purchased it from Carroll and then constructed the building that many years later, through a series of transactions, would be owned by Waters Land and Loan in 1906. (See more about the Waters residence and the business building in Part One.)

Part Three will continue the community activities of Maude and Alfred Waters.

1 “The Growth of De Smet,” Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Argus-Leader, March 23, 1906.

2 Caryl Lynn Meyer Poppen, ed., “A History of the Methodist Church,” De Smet Yesterday and Today (De Smet, South Dakota: De Smet News, printer, 1976): 144.

3 “Mrs. A. N. Waters, Native of England, Resident 60 Years,” De Smet (South Dakota) News (July 10, 1958) in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Waters (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.

4 “Items from De Smet,” Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Argus-Leader, March 22, 1907, 3, Newspapers.com.

5 Cornelia T. Jewett, “History of Contest Work,” The National Advocate (New York, January 1907): 1-2, https://books.google.com/books?id=HwFQAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1#v=onepage&q&f=false.

6 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), January 29, 1909, 5, Newspapers.com.

7 Poppen, “A History of the Methodist Church,” 144.

8 Gina Terrana, “Biography of Thomas P. Power,” http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/7859.

9 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), December 30, 1910, 8, Newspapers.com.

10 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), April 21, 1905, 5, Newspapers.com.

11 Citizen-Republican (Scotland, South Dakota), April 4, 1907, 2, Newspapers.com.

12 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), August 11, 1905, 5, Newspapers.com.

13 Hot Springs (South Dakota) Weekly Star, November 9, 1906, 2, Newspapers.com.

14 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), September 15, 1905, 4, Newspapers.com.

15 “Real Estate Dealers,” Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Argus-Leader, January 5, 1906, 3, Newspapers.com.

16 “Real Estate Men Meet,” Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Argus-Leader, March 15, 1906, 3, Newspapers.com.

17 “To Exhibit Car Load of South Dakota Products,” Citizen-Republican (Scotland, South Dakota), April 4, 1907, 2, Newspapers.com.

18 The Heritage House, LLC, “Abstract of Title,” Transfer Number 31.

19 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “post office/post-office,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/13454.

20 Cleaveland, “post office/post-office.”

21 “Life’s End Comes at 103 for Mrs. Fred Dow, Oldest Resident County,” De Smet (South Dakota) News (April 26, 1973) in Nancy Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Dow/Glover (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/dow_f_cemetery.pdf.

22 De Smet Leader (March 22, 1884) in Nancy S. Cleaveland, “surveyors’ house,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/13817.

23 Cleaveland, “surveyors’ house.”

24 State of South Dakota, Kingsbury County, Deed Record No. 50, 77.

25 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “surveyors’ house.”

26 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “claim,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/10912.

27 “United States, Census, 1910”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MPXB-BGS : Wed Oct 15 05:57:53 UTC 2025), Entry for Alfred N Waters and Maud Waters, 1910.

28 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), July 22, 1910, 4, Newspapers.com.

29 Ancestry.com. South Dakota, U.S., Death Index, 1879-1955 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2004.

30 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “The Long Winter – historical perspective,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/5096.
31 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), June 3, 1910, 5, Newspapers.com.
32 Aubrey Sherwood, “The Sherwoods of De Smet” in De Smet Yesterday and Today by Caryl Lynn Meyer Poppen, ed. (De Smet, South Dakota: De Smet Bicentennial Committee, 1976): 116.
33 Laura Ingalls Wilder, “Hard Winter,” Pioneer Girl (unpublished manuscript) in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Waters (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.
34 “A. N. Waters, Pioneer, Laid to Rest Here Sunday,” De Smet (South Dakota) News (September 2, 1927) in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Waters (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.
35 Carter Sherwood, ed., De Smet (South Dakota) News (November 4, 1921) in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Waters (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.

36 “Charles H. Tinkham,” Memorial and Biographical Record (Chicago: George A. Ogle and Co., publisher, 1898): 435.

37 Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Tinkham (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/tinkham_cemetery.pdf.

38 Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Dawley (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/dawley_cemetery.pdf.

39 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “bank,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/15076.

40 De Smet (South Dakota) News (August 25, 1916) in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Ely (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/ely_cemetery.pdf.

41 George W. Kingsbury, “Edward H. Couse,” History of Dakota Territory, vol. 4 (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1915): 1048.

42 Kingsbury County (South Dakota) News (February 24, 1881) in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Loftus / Fritzel (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/loftus_cemetery.pdf.

43 Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Carroll/Imus (2015): http://pioneergirl.com/carroll_cemetery.pdf.

Maude and Alfred Waters, Part One

August 14, 2025December 6, 2025 MRW3 Comments

On May 11, 1904, the Syndicate Hotel–which had been enlarged two years earlier, making it one of the largest hotels in South Dakota¹–hosted the wedding of two distinguished citizens of De Smet. The groom was the town’s widowed mayor, Alfred Newman Waters, who had lived in De Smet since 1880, the year it was founded. The bride was Maude Bevers, his secretary, according to Bevers family historians.² She had been hired six years earlier by A. N. Waters to work in his office, following a course in Commercial Science at South Dakota Agricultural College. (For more about Maude’s professional training, see Maude Bevers, Career Woman.) Maude’s sister Gertrude was the bridesmaid at the wedding and C. E. Swanson, who was the county superintendent of schools, was the groomsman. The officiating minister, Rev. Henry Preston, was the minister of De Smet Episcopal Methodist Church.

The local newspaper reported on the event:

Wednesday evening at 7:30 occurred the marriage of two of De Smet’s prominent people, Mr. A. N. Waters and Miss Maude Bevers, at Syndicate Hotel parlors, Rev. Henry Preston officiating. The ceremony was performed in presence of only a few invited guests, together with the bride’s relatives. Miss Gertie Bevers acted as bridesmaid and Mr. C. E. Swanson as groomsman. The bride was becomingly attired in white silk. After the ceremony the wedding party was ushered into the dining room where covers were laid, for thirty and an elaborate banquet of eight courses was served, the party leaving the banquet hall only in time to accompany the happy couple to the train to see them started upon a trip to the eastern cities, which is to occupy about two weeks’ time. Little need be said by us concerning the contracting parties. The groom has been prominent in De Smet circles for many years. He has held many positions of trust and is now serving as mayor of our city for the second term. He has been a leading spirit in all affairs and undertakings, looking toward the upbuilding of our city. Time and money have been freely given by him for this purpose. No one man has done more to advance the interests of De Smet and Kingsbury County than has Mr. A. N. Waters. The bride has been a resident of this city for some seven years past. She has been prominent in social and church circles and is held in high esteem by all acquaintances because of the many fine qualities of character which constitute the true woman. She never failed to command the respect of all, even upon slight acquaintance. The people of De Smet unite in extending to Mr. and Mrs. Waters their best wishes for a long and happy married life.³

Alfred and Maude Waters
(The photographer appears to be located in Chicago)

Only a few days after their wedding, a meeting was held at De Smet City Hall at which Waters was appointed to a committee that was charged with organizing the Old Settler’s Celebration that would be held on June 10, 1904.⁴ Waters himself was one of the old settlers of the county, having “arrived in De Smet at the age of twenty-four during the summer of 1880, fresh out of law school.”⁵ On the day of the Old Settler’s Celebration, horse racing was one of the events held. It was reported that “the free-for-all trotting race on the 10^th was won by A. N. Waters’ horse.”⁶

In the month following the Old Settler’s Celebration, the newlyweds were visited by Waters’ aunts and cousins from Wisconsin and New York: Mrs. Alfred W. Newman, Mrs. Emory E. Newman and Mr. & Mrs. Isaac U. Tripp. Mrs. A. W. Newman (Celia), who was the widow of Waters’ mother’s brother, came from Madison, Wisconsin, where her husband had been a judge on the state supreme court from 1894 until his death in 1898. Mrs. E. E. Newman (Cordelia), arriving from Durham, New York, was the widow of another brother of Waters’ mother. Because Waters’ mother had died when he was only a few weeks old, Waters grew up in his maternal grandparents’ home.⁷ Waters’ uncle Emory was 19 at the time of Waters’ mother’s death in 1855. Following the passing of his grandfather, Waters was included in his uncle Emory’s household.⁸ Mrs. Isaac U. Tripp (Addie) was the daughter of one of Waters’ mother’s sisters, Lucilia (nee Newman) Winchell.

When the South Dakota census was taken in 1905, Maude was 30 years-old and her occupation was housewife.⁹ The census record for her husband has an incorrect first name, it is written as “Albert” instead of “Alfred.” Waters was 49 years-old and his occupation was land agent.¹⁰ Later that year, Waters’ birthday (November 14, 1855) was noted by the local newspaper:

A. N. Waters celebrated his 50^th birthday anniversary Tuesday. Twenty-five years and four months of that time have been spent in the city of De Smet. He has labored all these years for the upbuilding of this city and vicinity and has accomplished much for the community and built up a large business for himself. Here’s hoping that he spends the next fifty years right here in De Smet.¹¹

Since his arrival in De Smet, Waters was very active as a real estate broker, and he partnered with other businessmen in land development businesses. “During the early days, lawyers tended to involve themselves as much in the business of land as in the law, and Waters reaped a small fortune from shrewd land investments, eventually becoming one of the largest landholders in [Kingsbury County].”¹² One of the businesses with which Waters was associated was Kingsbury Abstract Company, whose members in addition to Waters were J. C. Gibson, A. W. Miller, C. L. Dawley and Al Thomas.¹³ The abstract company built a two-story building in 1888-89 on the northeast corner of the intersection of Calumet Avenue (the main street) and Second Street. The construction costs were seven to ten thousand dollars.¹⁴ “This building had the historical importance of being a place where the pioneers would come to stake their claims.”¹⁵ About four years prior to the construction of the abstract company’s building, Charles P. Ingalls, the father of Laura Ingalls Wilder who wrote Little Town on the Prairie, a novel set in De Smet, owned the property on the southeast corner of the same intersection.¹⁶

... [The two-story building] was solid brick with white stone trimmings. The front office was 22×33 feet, connected to an office in the rear 15×16 feet, with another room not connected to the front part of the building, it being 19×22 feet. Upstairs was a lodge hall and meeting room, accessed via exterior stairs at the rear of the building. The front office downstairs housed the Dakota Loan and Investment Company; the middle part housed the Abstract Company. The separate room to the east – with an entrance on Second Street – became the De Smet Post Office.¹⁷

From 1904 to 1906, several business dealings were made by Waters, which resulted in the transfer of the Calumet building to Waters Land and Loan Company. These dealings included:

April 1904 – A couple of weeks before Maude and Alfred married, for $2,500 Alfred purchased from one of the members of the Kingsbury Abstract Company (C. L. Dawley) and his wife: “An Undivided one half interest in Lot Numbered 8, Block Numbered 2.”¹⁸ This was the lot on which the abstract company had built the two-story building.
November 1905 – Waters and two associates incorporated the Waters Land and Loan Company. The purpose of the corporation was to transact a general real estate, brokerage and loan business. “The amount of the capital stock of this Corporation shall be and is Fifty Thousand ($50,000) Dollars divided into Five Hundred (500) shares of the par value of One Hundred (100.) dollars each.”¹⁹
December 1905 – Waters was given title to the entire lot (Lot Numbered 8, Block Numbered 2) for consideration of “$1.00 and other val.” from Kingsbury County Abstract Company.²⁰
February 1906 – The city lot with the two-story building was sold by Waters and his wife Maude to Waters Land and Loan for $10,000.²¹

Postcard photograph of the building of Waters Land and Loan Company

Through the years the building has housed many offices, including the Germania State Bank, Peoples State Bank, a doctors office and dental office. The building exchanged hands again in 1997, and after three years of extensive restoration, was opened as The Heritage House Bed and Breakfast.²²

Heritage Bed and Breakfast, photographed by the author, April 2025

It appears that simultaneously to his business dealings involving the Calumet property above, Waters was involved in another project, which was the construction of his and Maude’s personal residence. In 1905, a large home was built on Second Street,²³ two and a half blocks west of Waters’ building at Calumet. The house has been described as “the most elegant in town.”²⁴

[It] was a gathering place for many of the town’s social elite. The Waters hosted many dinners, parties and get-togethers in the large house. It featured a full basement and an attic with enough headroom, it could be converted to another level. There were plenty of rooms on the first and second floor which had all the modern amenities for its time.²⁵

Postcard photograph of Waters’ residence, 1912

More than a century after the Waters’ home was built, a descendant of Maude’s brother Herbert and his wife were in De Smet and stopped at the house. Upon striking up a conversation with the owner at that time, they were given permission to take a look inside. Subsequently, the wife described their brief tour:

As you walk in there is a visiting room with a big brick fireplace to the left. To the right are a couple small bedrooms. At the end is the kitchen. Behind the fireplace was a hall way with 2 or three small rooms. They were where the vet had his office and other items. Long stairway going upstairs ….²⁶

Maude and Alfred’s home in De Smet, South Dakota, photographed by the author, June 2021

Another of Herbert’s descendants visited De Smet in June 2021. Seeing the large wrap-around front porch, she recalled playing on that porch as a young child. She and the group with her were also invited to enter the home to look around. Below is a picture of the tiled front entry.

Front entry of Waters’ home (this partial view is from the side of the entryway, not the front), photographed by the author, June 2021

Some of the furnishings of the Waters’ home are still in the possession of Herbert’s descendants.

A “Verona” model clock manufactured by Waterbury Clock Company; approximate date, 1910

This dresser with beveled mirror had a darker finish when it was owned by Maude’s nephew Arthur Bevers and his wife Elsie. One of their sons had it re-finished to this natural red oak finish. The photograph sitting on the dresser is of the Arthur Bevers, Sr. family taken about 1943.

Several news items in the Kingsbury County Independent highlight the hospitality and generosity of Maude and Alfred Waters. On August 17, 1906, the newspaper reported, “Mrs. A. N. Waters entertained a number of young ladies in honor of her guest, Miss Eggleson Friday last.”²⁷ The same edition of the newspaper reported that on the following day, a former resident of De Smet, Mrs. James T. Cooley, had arrived from New York City and was a guest at the Waters’ residence. In June 1909, the wedding of Dr. John H. Hall and Tillie Nelson was held at the Waters’ home. Hall was a dentist whose office was in the building owned by Waters Land and Loan Company. (On the postcard above, one of Hall’s office windows is demarked with the words “Dental Parlor.”) Hall was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, singing in the choir for many years as tenor.²⁸ His bride had been living with the Waters. The write-up about the wedding follows:

At the home of Mr. and Mrs. A. N. Waters in this city Monday evening, June 14^th, occured the marriage of Miss Tillie Nelson to Dr. J. H. Hall, both of this city, Rev. J. E. Booth officiating. The ceremony was performed in the presence of a few relatives of the bride and a small number of mutual friends of the contracting parties. After the ceremony an elaborate wedding dinner was served by Mrs. Waters. The happy couple took the evening train east for points in Wisconsin where they will visit for two weeks.

The bride is a young lady who has made her home with the Waters family for some time and is well known and highly esteemed by our people. The groom is so well known that no words of introduction are needed. He has been engaged in the practice of dentistry in this city for about fourteen years and is regarded as one of our leading citizens. Everyone has a good word for John Hall. The happy couple have a host of friends in and about De Smet who unite in wishing them a happy married life.²⁹

Before movies and cinema theaters became popular, “Parties and informal gatherings in people’s homes constituted most of the social swirl for high-school students in De Smet.”³⁰ One such example was reported in the local news: a gathering held at the Waters’ home on Friday night, March 1, 1912, starting at 8:00 pm. The guests included all the members of the senior class of the high school and their instructors, and their purpose was to celebrate the birthday of Edith Mitchell; the news report concluded: “A most delightful evening was spent and the occasion will long be remembered by all. An elaborate lunch was served at midnight.”³¹ Two of the members of the senior class, Edith Mitchell and Evelyn Keating, were noted to have been attendees of the Epworth League, a young people’s group which met at the Methodist Episcopal Church on Sunday evenings.³²

De Smet High School Class of 1912
Celebrating Edith Mitchell’s birthday at the Waters’ home, March 1912³³

Edith Mitchell’s “family, who lived in a house north of the railroad tracks, had gone through some difficult times, and the Waterses had taken her in to live with them.”³⁴ In addition, they would make it possible for Edith to attend college, the only girl in her class to do so. She started out at South Dakota State College in Brookings, which is the college that Maude had attended, and later she transferred to the University of Minnesota.³⁵ In the summer of 1912, prior to going off to college, Edith “accompanied her benefactors, the Waterses, on a three-month automobile tour back to Alfred Waters’s boyhood home in Durham, New York. Driving over roads that much of the way consisted of nothing more than dirt paths and stopping at nearly every town to obtain directions to the next one made the excursion quite an adventure.”³⁶

The Brookings Register announced the marriage of Edith in June 1917: “Another former State College student has joined the ranks of the ‘Newly Weds.’ Miss Edith Mitchell was united in marriage at De Smet, last Wednesday, to Randle Toland, by the Rev. Paul Roberts. The ceremony occured at the home of Judge and Mrs. A. N. Waters and a large company was assembled, with many out of town guests present. After a trip east the couple will reside in De Smet, where Mr. Toland is in the real estate business.”³⁷

Highlights of Maude and Alfred Waters’ social and civic lives will continue in the next blogpost.

1 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “Syndicate Hotel,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/9165.

2 K. and M. Bevers, notes attached to Agnes Maude Bevers in Ancestral Quest program file dated June 29, 2022.

3 “Waters-Bevers Nuptials,” Kingsbury County (South Dakota) Independent (May 13, 1904), in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Waters (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.

4 _____, “June 10^th Celebration,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), May 20, 1904, 6, Newspapers.com.

5 John E. Miller, “End of an Era: De Smet High School Class of 1912,” South Dakota History Volume 20 Number 3 (South Dakota Historical Society Press, September 26, 1990): 190, https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-20-3/end-of-an-era-de-smet-high-school-class-of-1912/vol-20-no-3-end-of-an-era.pdf.

6 _____, Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), June 17, 1904, 1, Newspapers.com.

7 _____, “A. N. Waters, Pioneer, Laid to Rest Here Sunday,” De Smet (South Dakota) News (September 2, 1927) in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Waters (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.

8 “New York, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYBK-KDN?view=explore : Jul 26, 2025), image 447 of 706; United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Image Group Number: 005161473

9 “South Dakota, State Census, 1905”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMH3-NNS : Sat Mar 09 19:18:13 UTC 2024), Entry for Maud Waters.

10 “South Dakota, State Census, 1905”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMH3-NXC : Sun Jul 20 06:06:04 UTC 2025), Entry for Alfred N.

11 _____, Kingsbury County (South Dakota) Independent, (November 17, 1905), in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Waters, (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.

12 Miller, “End of an Era:” 190-91.

13 _____, Historical sign posted on the outside wall of Heritage House Bed and Breakfast, De Smet, South Dakota.

14 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “post office/post-office,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/13454.

15 _______, Heritage House Bed and Breakfast, https://heritagehousesd.com.

16 Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society, Inc., Heritage Plat of De Smet (De Smet, South Dakota, 1994).

17 Cleaveland, “post office/post-office.”

18 The Heritage House, LLC, “Abstract of Title,” Transfer Number 26.

19 State of South Dakota, Articles of Incorporation of the Waters Land and Loan Company, November 15, 1905.

20 The Heritage House, LLC, “Abstract of Title,” Transfer Number 27.

21 The Heritage House, LLC, “Abstract of Title,” Transfer Number 28.

22 Historical sign posted on the outside wall of Heritage House Bed and Breakfast, De Smet, South Dakota.

23 “A. N. Waters, Pioneer, Laid to Rest Here Sunday,” in Cleaveland and Terrana, Waters: http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.

24 Miller, “End of an Era:” 185.

25 Mike Siefker, “Hof’s stately home has history as a hospital,” Kingsbury Journal (May 4, 2022): 13.

26 S. Bevers, Facebook post of Bevers Family and Reunions private group, July 8, 2023.

27 _____, “Local News,” Kingsbury County (South Dakota) Independent (August 17, 1906): 5, Newspapers.com.

28 Caryl Lynn Meyer Poppen, ed., “A History of the Methodist Church,” De Smet Yesterday and Today (De Smet, South Dakota: De Smet News, printer, 1976): 144.

29 _____, “Nelson—Hall,” Kingsbury County (South Dakota) Independent (June 18, 1909): 4, Newspapers.com.

30 Miller, “End of an Era”: 185.

31 _____, De Smet (South Dakota) News (March 8, 1912), in MIller, “End of an Era”: 185.

32 First Methodist Church, “A History of the Church,” Consecration Service of the Remodeled First Methodist Church (De Smet, South Dakota: First Methodist Church, September 26, 1965).

33 From Evelyn Keating’s class book, School-Girl Days: A Memory Book in Miller, “End of an Era:” 186-87.

34 Miller, “End of an Era:” 190.

35 Miller, “End of an Era:”: 202.

36 Miller, “End of an Era:” 202.

37 J. F. Brooke, ed., “Local and Personal,” Brookings (South Dakota) Register (June 28, 1917): 7, Newspapers.com.

Maude Bevers, Career Woman

December 28, 2024December 28, 2024 MRW3 Comments

In September 1883, 8-year-old Maude Bevers, living near Liverpool, England, wrote a letter to her father Alfred C. Bevers, who had traveled to Dakota Territory in America. One of the things she reported to her father was: “Mama say’s that I am getting on very well at school.” (See the full letter in Ada, Gertie and Maude) About fifteen months later, Maude emigrated to Dakota Territory with her mother and two older sisters, joining her father. Because Maude’s father was a supply pastor for the Methodist Episcopal Conference in Dakota Territory and in South Dakota when it became a state, Maude continued her education in several small towns. Eventually, she would be the first among her siblings to attend and complete high school. According to the reports her siblings gave for the 1940 United States census, the highest grades they had attended were 6^th, 7^th or 8^th grade.

Not only did Maude complete high school, in her early twenties, Maude attended college. An agricultural college had been established by the Dakota Territorial Legislature in 1881, and in Brookings the first building was built in 1884.¹ A college catalog explained the history and purpose of the college, including the following statements:

Upon the division of the territory of Dakota into the states of North and South Dakota when admitted into the Union in 1889, the agricultural and mechanical college of Dakota became known as the South Dakota Agricultural College [SDAC].

… The college is devoted to advancing the interests of practical education and its purpose is to give men and women such training as will best fit them for the active duties of life, whether it be in the fields, the shops, the house, or in the class or counting rooms.²

Even though the college was initially established as an agricultural and mechanical college, by 1896 it had broadened its curriculum to include 24 departments. Maude’s name is listed in the SDAC catalog dated 1897-98, which indicated she was studying Commercial Science and her address was Willow Lakes.³ Her father had been assigned to the Willow Lakes Methodist Episcopal charge in 1896.⁴ With a population of approximately 220, in 1897-98, Willow Lakes sent 10 young men and women to the agricultural college, five of whom studied Commercial Science. Other subjects studied by these students were Domestic Science, Mechanical Engineering and Agriculture.

News item of *The Brookings Register*
May 8, 1897⁵

During the 1897-98 school year, there were about 550 students attending SDAC. Two-thirds of them were men and one-third women. The college catalog explained the affordability for students to attend the state-established college:

No young person should be deterred from obtaining a liberal education when such advantages as this college offers can be had at a nominal price. The aggregate of all the regular fees is only four dollars per quarter and is payable at the time of registration. Books and stationery are furnished by the student. A laboratory fee of one dollar is charged for the use of each laboratory in which a student takes work.⁶

Due to the expansion of the educational departments during the first decade and a half, the dormitories had been converted into classrooms and teaching labs. By 1896, there was only one cottage available for lodging on the campus. It held about 20 young women. The rest of the student population boarded in Brookings—a town with a population of nearly 2000—in private homes or hotels, starting at about 50 cents per week.⁷ It is not known whether Maude lodged on or off campus. The expenses of the average student who attended three quarters of the school year were: $6.00 for tuition, $90.00 for board and room, $45.00 for clothes, $15.00 for laundry, $25.00 for books and stationery, and $10.00 for traveling expenses.⁸

About fifteen percent of the SDAC students of the 1897-98 school year were majoring in Commercial Science. The college catalog described the aim of the department:

Appreciating the fact that business men are governed largely by certain specific and established rules, it becomes necessary that this department keep in touch with these usages and impart the same to the student in such definite and concise terms as shall prepare him for successful entrance to the business world.

The rooms for the department are exceptionally well suited and adapted to the work of the business student. The amanuensis room is supplied with fifteen typewriting machines and ample table and black board surface. The offices such as the Bank, Post Office and Mercantile are well fitted for giving the student actual practice in business methods. The college library affords good opportunity for references and collateral reading. …⁹

Note: The 1886 edition of Webster’s Dictionary defines amanuensis as “A person whose employment is to write what another dictates, or to copy what another has written; a copyist.”¹⁰

Based on the dates that news items reported about when Maude was at the college or left the college, it appears that Maude attended for two years. Therefore, she would not have earned a bachelor’s degree, but she may have completed the coursework to earn a certificate of graduation in Commercial Science. To earn this certificate, a student had to complete the courses of shorthand, penmanship, advanced dictation, commercial law, bookkeeping, business practice, correspondence, typewriting, commercial arithmetic and English words. The description of the course in English Words was: “A study of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, French and Greek derivatives and synonyms. This course is designed to form an intermediate step between grammar and rhetoric, and aims to make the student familiar with the elements entering into the growth and present use of the English language.”¹²

News item of *The Brookings Register*
October 2, 1897¹³

In June 1897, The Brookings Register reported “Rev. Bevers, of Willow Lakes, led chapel devotionals Thursday noon.”¹⁴ This was Maude’s father. The SDAC students were not required to attend the chapel exercises, instead the college catalog stated:

The Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations are important elements in retaining a strong christian fellowship among the student body. Their relations to the State and Inter-National organizations assist in keeping the college in touch with other educational institutions. … [T]hese student organizations are allowed to take the religious lead by holding prayer and devotional meetings nearly every day to which all are invited.¹⁵

Another item in The Brookings Register reported that Maude left the college in March 1898, stating that she had “accepted a position which she [was] fully capable of filling.“¹⁶ According to a family historian, she was hired by Alfred Newman Waters, an attorney and realtor, doing business in De Smet, South Dakota.¹⁷ A. N. Waters was one of the pioneer settlers of Kingsbury County, arriving in August 1880.¹⁸ He had been a prominent citizen of De Smet since its founding. Besides being a businessman, a few of the capacities in which he served the community were as a notary public, a director on the boards of financial businesses, and a county court judge. When Maude became an office worker in De Smet, she joined the nearly eighteen percent of gainfully employed workers in the United States who were women.¹⁹ Also, among the gainfully employed women, she joined the nine percent of women engaged in nonagricultural pursuits who were working in the clerical field.²⁰

News item of *The Brookings Register*
March 29, 1898

Traditionally, rather than pursue an occupation in the community, most women have worked within the home. The percentage of women that were gainfully employed in 1870 was less than 10 percent.²¹ The three occupations most often held by women between 1870 and 1900 were domestic service worker, teacher, and nurse. As the industrial revolution advanced, more women entered the workforce. By 1900, the percentage of women that were gainfully occupied was over 14 percent²² and the percentage of single women that were gainfully occupied was nearly 41 percent.²³ One of the reasons for this growth was an increase in the demand for professional and semi-professional workers, including clerical workers, due to “the need by business and industry for accurate record-keeping, with the development of large-scale business practices, and with modern methods used in distributing the output of a vastly expanded economy.”²⁴ A report of the United States Department of Labor provides additional information on this point:

… The invention of the typewriter and other office machines, in response to the growing needs of business, made it possible to carry out record keeping, communication, and related activities on a tremendous scale. The result was the creation of entirely new occupations many of which women perform.²⁵ …

The greatest rate of increase for women “office workers” in any decade occurred from 1880 to 1890. Women in these selected office occupations [referring to stenographers, typists, and secretaries; shipping and receiving clerks; clerical and kindred workers; and office machine operators] multiplied nearly 20 times – a testament to the growing acceptance of the typewriter and of the trained woman typist.²⁶ …

In 1900, the percentage of office workers that were women was about 29%.²⁷ “In taking on the functions of clerical workers, women did not replace men. Rather they found entirely new opportunities.”²⁸

By the fall of 1898, Maude’s parents and sister Gertrude had moved to De Smet as well. In 1900, Maude and her family lived on First Street.²⁹ The Methodist Episcopal church was only a few blocks away. Records of the church state that all of them became members on November 26, 1898.³⁰ Maude was the church choir leader for many years.³¹ In addition, the minutes of the women’s group noted that in December 1902 she was the organist at the Epworth League meeting (an organization for young adults), and she was the secretary pro tem at the women’s meeting on April 16, 1903.

Maude had a poetic and artistic side to her. On February 14, 1900, she created a tribute to Lieutenant Sidney Ellsworth Morrison. It is not known what the relationship was between Maude and Lieutenant Morrison, but it is noteworthy that the tribute was dated on Valentine’s Day. An item in The Christian Advocate, dated April 27, 1899, reads: “Lieutenant Sidney Morrison, who was killed in the recent charge of the South Dakota Regiment at Mariloa, was a brother of the Rev. J. G. Morrison, Pastor of Franklin Avenue Church, Minneapolis, Minn.”

Sidney Morrison was a member of Company E of First South Dakota Infantry and his rank was 2^nd Lieutenant. He died in the Philippines on March 27, 1899,³² but it wasn’t until January 25, 1900, that his remains were transported on the ship “City of Peking” to his father James Morrison, whose residence was De Smet, South Dakota.³³

Maude’s tribute, entitled Translated, is typewritten. As far as is known, this is the earliest piece of family memorabilia that was written using a typewriter. The keys $, #, % and @ were used to create the decorative border.

More about Maude’s life will be continued in another blogpost.

1 South Dakota Agricultural College [SDAC], “The South Dakota Agricultural College Catalog 1897-1898 with Announcements for 1898-1899” (1898). Campus Course Catalogs and Bulletins. Paper 15, https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=archives_catalogs, page 31.

2 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 31.

3 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 14.

4 United Methodist Church, Dakotas Conference, Commission on Archives and History, personal communication with M. R. Wilson, June 20, 1995.

5 “Items of Local Interest,” The Brookings Register (Brookings, South Dakota), May 8, 1897, page 3, Newspapers.com.

6 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 56.

7 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 57.

8 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 57.

9 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 83.

10 Noah Webster, Webster’s complete dictionary of the English language (London: George Bell & Sons, 1886): 42, https://archive.org/details/websterscomplete00webs/page/42/mode/2up.

11 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” following page 82.

12 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 89.

13 “College News,” The Brookings Register (Brookings, South Dakota), October 2, 1897, page 4, Newspapers.com.

14 “College Chestnuts,” The Brookings Register (Brookings, South Dakota), June 16, 1897, page 4, Newspapers.com.

15 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 43.

16 “College News,” The Brookings Register (Brookings, South Dakota), March 29, 1898, page 2, Newspapers.com.

17 K. and M. Bevers, notes attached to Agnes Maude Bevers in Ancestral Quest program file dated June 29, 2022.

18 The De Smet News, “A. N. Waters, Pioneer, Laid to Rest Here Sunday” (De Smet, South Dakota), September 2, 1927, in Waters, http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.

19 Joseph A. Hill, Women in Gainful Occupations 1870 to 1920 (Washington, D. C., USA: United States Government Printing Office, 1929): 52, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hba9kx&seq=1.

20 Joseph A. Hill, Women in Gainful Occupations 1870 to 1920: 40.

21 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades (Washington, D. C., USA: United States Government Printing Office, 1947): 34, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112104139180&seq=1.

22 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 34.

23 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 39.

24 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 72.

25 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 72.

26 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 74.

27 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 76.

28 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 75.

29 “United States Census, 1900”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMRW-TKS : Sat Aug 17 18:09:29 UTC 2024), Entry for Alfred C Peevers and Mary N Peevers, 1900.

30 First Methodist Church of De Smet, “Record of Members.”

31 First Methodist Church, “A History of the Church,” Consecration Service of the Remodeled First Methodist Church (De Smet, South Dakota: First Methodist Church, September 26, 1965).

32 “LT Sidney Ellsworth Morrison,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/154931201/sidney-ellsworth-morrison.

33 Ancestry.com, U.S., National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962 [database on-line] (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012): http://www.Ancestry.com.

Aunt Gertie, An Active Methodist

October 12, 2024November 30, 2025 MRW4 Comments

Born in August 1872, Gertrude Mary Bevers was the eighth child of Alfred C. and Mary N. (nee Bridges) Bevers, although at the time of her birth only three of her siblings had lived past the age of one. She was born in a small town in England and during her childhood her family moved every few years, including emigrating to the United States when she was 12 years old. (A summary of the young lives of Gertrude and her sisters can be found in Ada, Gertie and Maude Bevers, and an article about her brother George is found in George C. Bevers, Bookkeeper.)

There is evidence that at a young age Gertrude began following in the footsteps of her parents. One example is that at the age of 15, Gertrude along with her 20 year-old sister Ada embraced a tenet of her father and her father’s father, William Bevers, who “had been a total abstainer over 60 years … [and] was an ardent temperance advocate.”¹ Gertrude’s father participated in the temperance movement in England by giving lectures, one of which proposed that alcohol gave no assistance to the health of one’s body.² When Gertrude’s family was living in Wolsey, South Dakota, she and Ada were involved in the Hope of Wolsey, an offshoot of a temperance organization that had risen up in England called the Band of Hope. (More about the Band of Hope’s history and mission can be found in Ada, Gertie and Maude Bevers.) In April 1888, Gertrude was issued a certificate of membership in the Hope of Wolsey, which was signed by Ada. It certified that she had made a pledge of temperance, which was printed on the certificate: “I hereby solemnly promise to abstain from the use of all intoxicating liquors, including wine, beer and cider, as a beverage, and from the use of tobacco in every form, and from all profanity.” Appendix 1 below provides the text of the certificate.

Gertrude’s certificate of membership in the temperance organization Hope of Wolsey

In the year that Gertrude turned 26 years-old, she moved with her parents and younger sister Maude to De Smet, South Dakota, where she would reside for the rest of her life, about 55 years. Their residence in 1900 was on First Street.³ The town of De Smet had been established when the Dakota Central Railway Company laid tracks through Kingsbury County. (Soon afterward, in 1881, the railroad was bought by Chicago Northwestern Railroad Company).⁴

“The first family of De Smet was that of Charles P. Ingalls. He was the timekeeper for the railway construction crew at his camp on the shore of Silver Lake, a mile east of where De Smet was to be built. As construction work ceased in the fall of 1879, he and his wife, along with four daughters remained in the timekeeper’s building through the winter and spring and built what was to become Ingalls’ store.

“By 1883, De Smet was a typical early prairie town. De Smet had about 60 buildings including grocery and provision stores, wagon shops, lumber yards, banks, a drug store, newspaper companies, a flour mill, a church, a school, an elevator, two attorneys, a harness shop, one hotel and two real estate dealers.”⁵

One of the early real estate dealers was Alfred N. Waters, who would be a prominent land developer and citizen of the town. Two decades after establishing himself in De Smet, he would marry Gertrude’s sister Maude.

On November 26, 1898, Gertude with her parents and sister were received, by letter from the Willow Lake congregation, into membership of First Methodist Episcopal Church of De Smet.⁶ The De Smet congregation was small, having dropped in size from 100 members in 1891 to 60 members in 1900.⁷ The history of the church traces its beginning to the founding of the town.

“In 1880, all of the Protestant people of this area met for their worship services in the Chicago & Northwestern Railway depot, part of the time in the town’s public school house. Many families of the community cooperated to build a church edifice in 1882 under the chartered name of First Congregational Church and this was used by both Methodist and Baptist organizations for services, by alternating Sundays and hours.

“The Methodist organization, including the Ladies’ Aid Society, was formed in 1881 under the leadership of V. P. Neary. A separate building was not erected until 1885. It was then The Methodist Episcopal Church. …”⁸

Never marrying, Gertrude’s role would be housekeeper while living in her parent’s home, as well as while living in her sister’s home after her parents passed away.^9,10 In the community, Gertrude was active in several organizations. Some of what is known about her life has been extracted from minutes of meetings of women’s groups. Known as Gertie in the records of the Ladies Aid Society, she is found on its membership roll as of May 19, 1899, along with her mother. Sometimes Gertie served as the secretary or secretary pro tem of the aid society. She also served as its treasurer in 1902. Her name and her parents’ names were often mentioned in the minutes, as seen in these summarized examples:

July 11, 1899. “The Ladies Aid of the First M. E. Church met with Mrs. Crane.”

The scripture reading was Psalm 115. Mrs. Bevers gave the opening prayer. It was moved “that the Ladies serve a gallon of ice-cream each day at the church, during Institute.” Gertie seconded the motion and she signed the minutes of the meeting as the “sec pro tem.” There were 21 in attendance, not including children. Lastly, ice cream and cake were served.

August 23, 1899. “The Ladies Aid met with Mrs. O. E. Sterns.”

Gertrude signed the minutes of the meeting as secretary. The scripture reading, John 15:18, and opening prayer were given by Rev. Bevers. It was moved and carried that the society give Brother Akers, their minister, $5.00 for his salary. Rev. Bevers on behalf of the society presented Sister Akers, the minister’s wife, with a monetary gift ($5.00) for her birthday, and he sang a birthday song at the end of his presentation of the gift. This was followed by music and a social time. There were 10 members, seven visitors and eight children present.

News item in *Kingsbury County Independent*
May 20, 1904

One of the aims of the Ladies Aid Society was to raise money for the church. According to the 1965 history of the Methodist Church of De Smet: “The money paid in for the minister’s salary was never enough, so the Ladies’ Aid Society always put on big public chicken suppers. The group published a cook book, Kitchen Echoes, in 1909 with tried recipes from the women of the town. This brought in quite a bit of money for the church.” Both Gertie and Maude contributed recipes which were printed in Kitchen Echoes, which sold for 50 cents per copy.

“Potato Salad.—Two teacups cold sliced potato, two hard boiled eggs, one good sized onion. Dressing for same: one egg, two tablespoons sugar, one-half cup vinegar, one tablespoon of butter, one teaspoon of mustard dissolved in a little milk, a pinch of salt. Heat until it thickens, but do not let it boil.—Gertie Bevers.”

“Sugar Cookies.—Two cups sugar, one cup butter, one cup sour cream, two eggs, one teaspoon soda, one teaspoon essence of lemon, flour to mix just stiff enough to roll easily.—Gertie Bevers”

News item in *Kingsbury County Independent*
April 7, 1911

Another organization in which Gertie held an office was the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (W. C. T. U.). Although this organization was originally established to advocate for temperance, it later adopted the stance that local branches could advocate for other social causes, such as women’s suffrage. In April 1905, the Kingsbury County Independent announced the re-organization of the chapter in De Smet by Miss Grace Van Vleet, who was the state secretary of Y. W. C. T. U. (the young women’s branch) and a temperance lecturer. Gertie was elected to be the Correspondence Secretary of the local chapter.¹¹ In March of the following year, the district convention of W. C. T. U. was held in De Smet.¹² Most of the meetings on the 27^th and 28^th were held at the Methodist Episcopal Church.

News item in *Kingsbury County Independent*
April 21, 1905

A third organization in which Gertie participated was the Epworth League, which had been founded in 1889 as a merger of several young people’s organizations of Methodist Episcopal churches.¹³ Epworth League was made up of primarily young adults. There were six departments of social service: Spiritual Life, Social Work, Literary Work, Correspondence, Mercy and Help, and Finance. At the Methodist Episcopal church in De Smet, there were two Epworth League meetings held on Sundays, one was called the junior league and the other was the senior league.¹⁴ Gertie at the age of 39 was a delegate to an Epworth League convention in Brookings, South Dakota in September 1911.¹⁵

Additionally, Gertie was a dues-paying member of the Methodist women’s group. She served on a committee in 1902 and was assistant to the 1^st Vice in 1905. She held a supper at her house in December 1910 to raise funds, $4.60 was collected. On December 26, 1911, the minutes recorded: “Resolved Miss Bevers assist Evelyn in social work.” She held another supper in April 1912, which raised $3.85.

On May 11, 1904, Gertie was a bridesmaid at her sister’s wedding. Maude married her employer Alfred N. Waters, whose first wife had passed away in 1900.¹⁶ One of the earliest businessmen of De Smet, Waters was the president of Waters Land and Loan, as well as being the mayor of De Smet. He had hired Maude to be his stenographer in 1898.¹⁷ The groomsman at the wedding was Professor C. E. Swanson, who was the superintendent of the De Smet schools, and the officiating minister was Rev. Henry Preston of the Methodist church. The wedding was held at Syndicate Hotel which had opened in De Smet in 1887. After an addition to the hotel was constructed in 1902, it was one of the largest hotels in South Dakota.¹⁸

As of the date of this blogpost, digitized versions of the issues of Kingsbury County Independent are only available for the years 1904 to 1929, which is when the Independent merged with the De Smet News.¹⁹ The succeeding issues are not available online. From the issues that are digitized some of Gertie’s personal life can be envisioned because the local newspapers often reported on the events and travels of the Bevers family.

Sometimes Gertie’s sister Ada or her children made a trip to visit the Bevers family, but during the latter half of June 1906, Gertie spent two weeks with Ada, who lived with her husband William Mankey on a farm near Garden City, South Dakota.²⁰ When the 1910 United States census was taken, Gertie was 37 years-old and still living with her parents who were 72 and 69.²¹ That year, Gertie’s mother passed away on July 14, and a lengthy obituary was published.²² It explained that Mary had had an operation six years earlier, from which she never fully recovered. A couple of years later, she developed diabetes, and during this illness, Gertie and her family lovingly cared for Mary until her death. Soon after the funeral, Gertie accompanied her father to Arlington, South Dakota to visit friends.²³ And a month later, Mrs. James Bridges (the wife of Gertie’s mother’s nephew) came from Minneapolis to spend five days as a guest at the Bevers’ home.²⁴ Shortly after that, both Gertie and her father took trips, in part separately and partly together. Gertie went to Arlington for two weeks, then joined her father at Ada’s home.²⁵

News item in *Kingsbury County Independent*
Aug. 26, 1910

In March 1911, Gertie went again to Arlington to visit friends,²⁶ and in August 1911, Mrs. John Glendenning came from Arlington to visit Gertie.²⁷ Mrs. Glendenning was the daughter of Mrs. James Bridges and the granddaughter of Mathias Bridges, who was Gertie’s mother’s brother. A month later, the newspaper reported about an experiment that Gertie conducted with an Easter lily she had purchased.²⁸

News item in *Kingsbury County Independent*, September 15, 1911

Gertie and Maude made a trip to Mitchell, South Dakota, in May 1916 to attend the wedding of their nephew W. Arthur Mankey, who was their sister Ada’s son.²⁹ The wedding was held in the home of the bride, Birdella Carhart, and the officiating minister was the bride’s father, Rev. A. E. Carhart. Also, in attendance were Arthur’s brother G. Floyd Mankey and his cousin Lester Mankey.

When Gertie was in her thirties and forties, suffrage for women was a fiercely contended political issue on both the state and federal levels. In 1918, the men of South Dakota were asked to consider the question of amending the South Dakota state constitution, granting women the right to vote. That November the amendment passed by approximately 63% of the vote.³⁰ Six months later, the congress of the United States passed a suffrage amendment. During subsequent months, the individual states either ratified or rejected the amendment. South Dakota ratified it “without a dissenting vote in either house on Dec. 4, 1919, being the 21^st state to act.”³¹ Ratification by the final state that was needed to adopt the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States occurred on August 18, 1920. The next day, a newspaper in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, declared, “Thus the political freedom for which women have contended since the founding of the republic has been attained and 27,000,000 women, half the population of the United States, accorded the right to vote under the constitution.”³²

In January 1920 when the United States census was taken, 47-year-old Gertie and her 82-year-old father were living on Second Street in De Smet.³³ Gertie’s father lived nearly two more years. A news article dated September 23, 1921 included the following:

“For a number of years, the elderly gentleman had been in poor health, first being confined to a wheel chair, but later to his bed. His continued illness made it advisable for him to be moved from the Bevers home to A.N. Waters’ home, where his two daughters, Mrs. Waters and Gertrude Bevers, have cared for him.”³⁴

A couple of Gertie’s correspondences have survived for about 100 years. In December 1922, she mailed a postcard to her nephew Willis Bevers, son of her brother Herbert. Willis and his parents and six of his siblings had gone to southern Texas in the fall of 1919. The travel log of Willis’ mother has also survived. After finding that they didn’t like farming in Texas, his parents with most of his siblings returned to South Dakota in 1920. Willis stayed in Texas for another year but also returned to South Dakota about 1921.

Front of a Christmas postcard mailed by Gertie in December 1922

Back of a Christmas postcard mailed by Gertie in December 1922

In 1927, apparently, Gertie made a cross-country trip to visit her sister Ada. Ada with her husband and two daughters had moved to Virginia, near Remington, between 1915 and 1920. Gertie’s trip is known because she mailed a Christmas greeting from Remington to Mr. and Mrs. Willis Bevers who were living in Hazel, South Dakota. Postage for the letter was two cents and it took five days to travel from Virginia to Watertown, South Dakota.

Small envelope addressed by Gertie in December 1927

Small greeting card enclosed in the envelope mailed in December 1927

Little is known about Gertie’s personal life during the remaining years of her life. In 1930, 1940 and 1950, when the United States censuses were taken, she was living with her widowed sister Maude, whose house was on 3^rd Street in De Smet. In 1930, Gertie was 57 years-old, Maude was 54 years-old and both of them were naturalized citizens.³⁵ In 1940, both of them were engaged in home housework and they both received “income of $50 or more from sources other than money wages or salary.”³⁶ Gertie’s brother George passed away in June 1943 in Los Angeles, California, and a month later Ada passed away in Washington, D. C. About a year and a half later, her brother Herbert died in November 1944 in Watertown, South Dakota.

One miscellaneous item known about Gertie is that she continued to be active in the community in her sixties and seventies. She and Maude were members of the Friendly Garden Club in De Smet. In May 1939, they each participated in the program of the garden club by reading papers to the group. Gertrude read “Garden Verse” and Maude read “Gardening in all Countries and All Ages.”³⁷ Nearly 10 years later, the sisters hosted a garden club meeting at Maude’s house.³⁸

News item in *The Daily Plainsman*
October 1, 1948

In April 1950 the record of the United States census designates Gertie and Maude’s residence as Block 2 of “Original Town” of De Smet City.³⁹ They were 77 and 74 years-old, respectively. To the question, “What was this person doing most of last week – working, keeping house, or something else?” the answer for both of them was keeping house. Gertie was selected to answer additional questions. Her responses included that she was living in the same house a year earlier. Her education level was recorded as “S7” (seventh grade), and she didn’t finish that grade. She had not worked any weeks outside of her home in the previous year. She didn’t receive money by working as an employee, or by working in her own business. And to the question, “How much money did he receive from interest, dividends, veteran’s allowances, pensions, rents or other income (aside from earnings)?” she answered “none.”

Aunt Gertie passed away in De Smet on October 3, 1953, at the age of 81, after a “lingering illness” of stomach cancer.⁴⁰ Her remains are buried in De Smet Cemetery beside her parents. Nearby, her sister Maude and her brother-in-law Alfred N. Waters are also buried.

APPENDIX 1

Text of the certificate of membership of the Band of Wolsey:

Thy Word is Truth

This is to certify that

Gertrude M. Bevers

Having signed the subjoined Pledge, has become a member of the

Hope of Wolsey

BAND OF HOPE

PLEDGE

I hereby solemnly promise to abstain from the use of all intoxicating liquors, including wine, beer and cider, as a beverage, and from the use of tobacco in every form, and from all profanity.

Thy Sign the Triple Pledge

BECAUSE

Drunkenness is a sin.
The Bible says no drunkard shall enter heaven
Moderation tends to drunkenness, while total abstinence is perfectly safe.
The first drink is a long step toward drunkenness.
Those who do not resist the temptation to take the first drink, are not likely to resist the temptation to drink to excess.
We can never tell, when we commence the habit of drinking, how it will end.
Intoxicating drinks do us no possible good.
They are the means of great injury to our health and character.
The habit of drinking leads to many other evil habits.
Drinking always leads to misery.
Drinking usually leads to poverty.
Drinking oftentimes leads to crime.
Sixty thousand persons are ruined every year by the evils of drink.
It is a Christian duty to deny ourselves for the good and happiness of others.
While millions repent of drinking, none ever repent of abstaining.
The habit of drinking is supremely foolish.
The use of tobacco leads to an appetite for drink.
Using tobacco is a filthy and costly habit, which does no good.
Swearers and drinkers go together.
God has said, “Swear not.”

Published by the Revolution Temperance Publishing House, David C. Cook, Manager, 13 & 15 Washington st., Chicago.

Bible verses printed in each corner of the certificate:

Proverbs 23:29 Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow?

II Corinthians 7:1 Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness.

Proverbs 23:32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

Matthew 5:34 Swear not at all.

1 “RIPON. Death of an Old Temperance Advocate,” The Yorkshire Herald and the York Herald (York, North Yorkshire, England), February 17, 1894, page 11, Newspapers.com.

2 “Longwood Temperance Society,” Weekly Examiner (Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England), April 24, 1869, page 6, Newspapers.com.

3 “United States Census, 1900”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMRW-TKS : Sat Aug 17 18:09:29 UTC 2024), Entry for Alfred C Peevers and Mary N Peevers, 1900.

4 City of De Smet, South Dakota, “Depot Museum / Harvey Dunn School,” https://cityofdesmet.com/depot-museum.

5 Caryl Lynn Meyer Poppen, ed., excerpt from De Smet Yesterday and Today “Little Town on the Prairie” in “History,” De Smet, South Dakota, https://desmetsd.com/history.

6 First Methodist Church of DeSmet, “Record of Members.”

7 First Methodist Church, “A History of the Church,” Consecration Service of the Remodeled First Methodist Church (De Smet, South Dakota: First Methodist Church, September 26, 1965).

8 First Methodist Church, “A History of the Church.”

9 “South Dakota State Census, 1905”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MM42-JWN : Sun Mar 10 20:39:28 UTC 2024), Entry for Gertrude M Bevers.

10 “United States Census, 1940”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V19L-5LM : Fri Mar 08 09:56:34 UTC 2024), Entry for Maude Waters and Gertrude Bevers, 1940.

11“Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), April 21, 1905, page 5, Newspapers.com.

12 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), March 23, 1906, page 4, Newspapers.com.

13 Case Western Reserve University, “Epworth League,” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, https://case.edu/ech/articles/e/epworth-league.

14 “Church Services,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), September 15, 1911, page 5, Newspapers.com.

15 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), September 15, 1911, page 5, Newspapers.com.

16 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “Alfred N. Waters,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/7204.

17 “College News,” The Brookings Register (Brookings, South Dakota), March 29, 1898, page 2, Newspapers.com.

18 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “Syndicate Hotel,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/9165.

19 Library of Congress, Kingsbury County Independent (Desmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn00065130/.

20 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), June 15, 1906, page 5, Newspapers.com.

21 “United States Census, 1910”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MPX1-9J6 : Sun Mar 10 11:44:32 UTC 2024), Entry for Alfred C Bevers and Mary N Bevers, 1910.

22 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), July 22, 1910, page 4, Newspapers.com.

23 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), July 22, 1910, page 5, Newspapers.com.

24 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), August 19, 1910, page 5, Newspapers.com.

25 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), August 26, 1910, page 5, Newspapers.com.

26 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), March 24, 1911, page 5, Newspapers.com.

27 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), August 11, 1911, page 4, Newspapers.com.

28 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), September 15, 1911, page 5, Newspapers.com.

29 “Society,” Mitchell Capital (Mitchell, South Dakota), May 4, 1916, page 5, Newspapers.com.

30 Forest City Press (Forest City, South Dakota), December 5, 1918, page 2, Newspapers.com.

31 Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), August 19, 1920, page 4, Newspapers.com.

32 Argus-Leader, August 19, 1920.

33 “United States Census, 1920”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6JQ-J85 : Thu Mar 07 04:17:06 UTC 2024), Entry for Alfred C Bevers and Gertrude Bevers, 1920.

34 Nancy Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Waters (2015), http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.

35 “United States Census, 1930”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XQVH-29Z : Thu Jul 11 05:02:51 UTC 2024), Entry for Maude A Waters and Gertrude V Bevers, 1930.

36 “United States Census, 1940”, Entry for Maude Waters and Gertrude Bevers, 1940.

37 The Daily Plainsman, (Huron, South Dakota), May 12, 1939, page 5, Newspapers.com.

38 The Daily Plainsman, (Huron, South Dakota), October 1, 1948, page 5, Newspapers.com.

39 “United States Census, 1950”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6F9N-CQQP : Wed Oct 04 18:17:08 UTC 2023), Entry for Agnes Maude Katers and Gertrude M Bevers, 10 April 1950.

40 K. and M. Bevers, notes attached to Gertrude Mary Bevers in Ancestral Quest program file dated June 29, 2022.

Sojourners, Settlers & Other Legacy Conveyors

Ancestors and the Legacies They Left Behind

Tag: De Smet

Maude and Alfred Waters, Part Two

Maude and Alfred Waters, Part One

Maude Bevers, Career Woman

Aunt Gertie, An Active Methodist