Douglas County Genealogy Photos		Click on any photo for a larger view.
Curtis Menning would like assistance in learning the names of the parents of his great great grandfather, or the town in the Netherlands where he was born, so that his genealogy can be researched further. Harmen Devries (1842 - 1913) first emigrated to Pella Iowa, where his first child was born. He then moved to New Holland, Nebraska, where his remaining children were born. The family followed "the call to farms" in Douglas County, SD with the family finally settling there. The boys Gerrit and Herman in the photo are believed to be buried in Graceland Cemetary, Corsica, Douglas, SD.
Promoting the myth that "we Dutch folks all look alike," Harmen's brother Evert is the "spitting image" of his brother. He should be as Harmen and Evert are surviving twins from triplets. Finding Evert's parents means Harmen's parents are located as well. Evert followed a pattern similar to Harmen. He started his family in Pella, Iowa where the three oldest children were identified from the 1880 census at Knoxville, Marion, Iowa. By 8/04/1880 he shows up on the Bureau of Land Management Database for the states of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota as already owning land in South Dakota. There must be "many a tall tale" surrounding the badge on his chest.
Lost Grandmother. Curtis Menning has had this photo in his possession for more than 30 years and still has not figured out who she is. The photo was taken at Hayden Studios in Lincoln, Nebraska, probably late in the 19th century. Judging from her retention of the Dutch form of dress, her age, probably already a widow (no husband in an expensive portrait), it would appear she emigrated late in life, probably to join the DeVries family already in Nebraska and may have died before the big move to South Dakota. Hand written clues on the back of the photo suggests she is a great grandmother of one of Evert DeVries' children. That would make her Harmen's (above) grandmother and Curtis Menning's great-great-great grandmother. Another clue on the back of the photo indicates she has current DeVries descendants living in California today, so for some of those descendants she could easily be a 5X or 6X great grandmother. What a find then. Very few people possess photos of ancestors that far back.
Settling down to farm on the prairie meant families were few and far between, making "socialization" a concerted effort. Equally difficult would be finding someone to marry. Often it became a case of "You marry Helen and I will take her sister." The inter-marrying between the same families is evident in this photo of a Keuning-Menning, extended family outing in 1905 in the Armour-Corsica region. While a Family Key is presented, it is still difficult to figure out who belongs to what family and for what reason. Many of these folks, including the Keunings, are buried in Graceland Cemetary, Corsica, SD.
(The original post was…) Are the lasts names of Wesseling or Sterk in your genealogy for the Armour-Harrison, South Dakota areas? If so, you may recognize this person, believed to be Jennie Wesseling (1875-1961), spouse of Thijs Jans Sterk Click on her photo to see what information we have located so far.
This web site was last updated on Friday November 15, 2013, by former website coordinator, C. Menning. SDGenWeb 2024 SDGenWeb State Coordinator - Joy Fisher SDGenWeb Assistant State Coordinator -Linda Ziemann