Ancestry Research Day
Sightseeing:
- Corn Palace
After a quick breakfast nibble at the RV, we headed for Spencer, SD. We had learned from Norma that the town of Spencer is very small. The population is 127. Now that's small! Letcher is booming in comparison with its 727.
Norma informed us that the high school was torn down years ago. And, in 1998, a horrible tornado flattened what remained of the town. Many folks moved and never came back.
We arrived in Spencer and headed for the post office to see if they could lend any information about the Jacobus'. Dead end. So, we went to the library. Same dead end. But, we did find out that the school records had been sent to the Salem Central School in Salem, SD. Salem is 15 miles east of Spencer. Before heading that direction, we stopped at the marker of where the school had once stood.
Here's the high school plaque.
Town of Spencer in the distance.
Upon arriving in Salem, we headed for the Salem school. We found really nice teachers trying to help us, but they couldn't find any past records of Keith or Eloise. They informed us that the school had been broken into years ago and many of the very early records were destroyed. They had some records in storage but didn't have the staff to do any searching for us. So, there ya go.
Our next stop was the courthouse to see if they had any school records. They did have school records for Spencer in the pre-high school days. But, alas, none that showed Keith had attended schools in Spencer. But, lo and behold, we found records that Celeste and Wilmuth (my dad's two eldest sisters) were both teachers in Spencer; Celeste 1933 to 1936; Wilmuth 1936 to 1939. And, in 1933, Eloise was a student in Celeste's class.
But, where was Keith, my dad?
The museum for Salem was closed. It was such a small building, I'm sure it was built in the 1890-1905 era. I'm not sure anything in there would have been of use. But, I did get the phone number of the lady that runs the museum so that I can call her later.
Here's a landscape picture of the area to give you an idea of how flat it is!
Our next stop was the Corn Palace. We have been here in Mitchell for days and still had not been able to muster up enough energy to visit it. Today was our final day in Mitchell, so it was now or never.
The inside of the "palace" is actually a small stadium used for events. In the picture I have included, they have gobs of junk for sale. When an event is scheduled, it's all wheeled to the back room.
I have included a picture of the 12 colors of corn that are used in the panels. Each panel is drawn on paper that is put up on the area to be covered. The areas are coded with the corn colors. The corn is cut in half, lengthwise. Then, it is applied to the wall.
We zipped through, bought some candy corn for later, and went back to the pub for another good hamburger.
Our next stop was Wal-Mart to get Dave's prescription filled and to purchase a few food stuffs for later in the week.
We stopped at Culver's for our ice cream snack, which I had fully intended to eat later in the evening. But, Dave found an Army & Navy store on the way back, so he had to visit that before we left Mitchell. My ice cream wouldn't stay frozen that long, so I had to devour it right then and there. YUMM---but, truly it was too soon after eating and I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have at 8 PM!
We are leaving in the morning. I will be glad to move onward and think about something different for a while! So, I did a load of laundry and then packed up quite a bit to get ready to head out in the morning. So, nighty night.
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