Based upon a real family that homesteaded in Firesteel Township, a new children’s book, “Elfie,” by Mary Nelson Keithahn, tells the story of an extended family on the move across the Midwest, arriving in Aurora County in the mid-1880s. While some family members, including Elfie’s younger sister Edith Loverin Weller, settled here permanently, others moved back from where they came or further on to a new place. Elfie’s story depicts the experiences of many such pioneer families who made their way from the East, through the upper Midwest, and on to the Dakota prairie, only to scatter during hard times.
Written from a child’s perspective, the story starts with seven-year-old Elfie, born in 1866, listening to her mother’s stories about the family migrating from eastern states to the Midwest. She learns that her paternal grandparents, the Loverins, moved from New Hampshire to Illinois, while her maternal grandparents, the Sheldons, relocated from New York to Illinois, where Elfie’s father Edwin met and married her mother Francis. Elfie’s mother tells her about relatives that took part in significant historical events. For example, grandfather Loverin unsuccessfully sought his fortune in the Gold Rush in California, and four family members served in the Civil War. One of the soldiers died and another was captured. Released after six weeks in prison, that relative later helped search for President Lincoln’s assassin.
Soon after Edwin and Francis married, the newlyweds, along with and Edwin’s parents and siblings, moved to Iowa, welcoming their first born, Elfie, the following year. Because Edwin’s two sisters married Francis’ two brothers, Elfie called her eight cousins “double cousins.” One summer, her father and Uncle Will left to seek opportunities in Nebraska, leaving Elfie and her mother in Iowa, sharing a home with Aunt Sarah, Will’s wife. Upon returning, Will moved his family to Nebraska, while Edwin and his family ran a cattle ranch and shared a home with Uncle Samuel, Aunt Melissa, and their children in Iowa.
Keithahn tells charming stories from Elfie’s viewpoint; Elfie getting into ‘double trouble’ with the cousins, celebrating the Fourth of July, visiting neighbors, and even keeping a white crane for a pet. Soon after Elfie’s sixteenth birthday, in 1882, her mother gave birth to Edith, Elfie’s only sibling. Less than two years later, Elfie married Sam Minard, a hired hand from Illinois working on her father’s farm.
By this time, Elfie and Edith’s Loverin grandparents and their Uncle Sam and Aunt Melissa had filed homestead claims in Firesteel Township, Aurora County, Dakota Territory. A year after marrying, Elfie and her husband and newborn baby Guy, along with her parents and sister, decided to join them, while the Loverin grandparents and Will and Sarah Sheldon, back from Nebraska, remained in Iowa. The two migrating families took the train that spring as far as Plankinton, “a town with a hotel, three saloons, a blacksmith shop, and one grocery store that carried a few dry goods and plenty of wormy dried apples and prunes.”
Soon after arriving, the newcomers experienced a terrible three-day blizzard. Later that year, Elfie and her small family moved onto their own farm. Elfie remembered having to haul all their water from a nearby creek, “It was hardly worth the effort, though: the water was so full of sulfur and salt that it tasted awful.” The book, based on Elfie’s memoirs, relates several intriguing stories about her experiences living on the prairie. Only a year later, and now the mother of another little boy, farm conditions had worsened. The wheat crop yielded enough for seed, but barely any to grind into flour. Discouraged, her husband lamented, “We planted corn to feed the hogs, but didn’t get enough to fatten the animals before we had to sell them. The only fuel we have to cook and heat the house is dried cow chips and flax straw.” With rabbits eating the garden, and weasels and wolves attacking the chickens, the couple had few resources left to help them survive the coming winter. That fall, Elsie and her husband packed up their belongings, returned to Iowa, and permanently ended their migrations.
Unnerved by the harsh winters, Sam and Melissa Sheldon soon moved their family to Missouri, making that their final destination. Edwin, Francis, their child Edith, and Francis’ parents, though, remained to build their lives in Aurora County. Edith grew to adulthood, graduated from high school, and worked as Deputy Register of Deeds, marrying Leroy Weller, a Plankinton merchant, in 1905. Although their three daughters married and moved to Iowa, Virginia, and Arizona, their only son, Lex Weller, made his home in Plankinton, ran the local grocery store, and raised a family of nine children, all graduates of Plankinton High School. Some people today may remember Leroy, who died in 1960, and Edith, who died at age 84, six years later. Judith Weller Nickles fondly recalls Edith, “My grandmother had a wonderful sense of humor. She was a small, sweet lady who worked hard most of her life.” Most of those who attended school with the Weller children in the 1950-1970s will remember buying candy at Weller’s IGA store.
Much like Edith’s extended family, many of her grandchildren also moved onward. Those nine Weller’s today are: Russell (Jean) in Yankton, Barbara Miller in Iowa, Judith (Robert) Nickles in Plankinton, Patrick (Marlene) in Colorado, Kathleen (Doug) Janzen and William (Margaret) in Rapid City, Helen (Brad) in Mitchell, Teresa (Curt) Venekamp in Colorado, and Lisa (Terry) Muhs in California. Typical of many families in those homesteading years, the Sheldon and Loverin families came out West hoping to stay together, but not all of them found the land hospitable. And like so many today, those families scattered, hoping to bridge the distance by maintaining close ties.
Keithahn writes in an engaging manner, telling short stories that are easily read and enjoyed by children in elementary school. Each chapter ends with a couple thought-provoking questions. In addition, her granddaughter, Katie Kangas, created the delightful illustrations. The author, great-granddaughter of “Uncle Will and Aunt Sarah,” weaves together a number of adventures in this book of “Historical Fiction,” meaning, some stories may not match historical facts. The book, published by Lilja Press in 2016, can be purchased via the Internet. “Elfie: Adventures on the Midwest Frontier,” makes a lovely gift for a young child or grandchild, telling stories that can open discussions about those ‘olden days,’ and let children know how they are part of longer history.
Photo: Edith Weller, provided by Pat Weller
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It Happened Right Here: A Family on the Move, by Ruth Page Jones. Published in the South Dakota Mail, Plankinton, South Dakota, August 10, 2017.
RPJ Histories - Ruth Page Jones 