1909 photo
post card of the Wyoming High School graduating class submitted by
John Kahl. John Kahl's
grandmother, M. Olive Haddock, was a member of the
class and gave one of the orations. There are two girls who look like
Olive. She had very bad eye sight and wore glasses, but in most pictures
she has taken them off. John thinks the young women outlined in red is
Olive. If not her, it is the one outlined in green, who is wearing
glasses and looks like Olive when she was younger.
Sharon
Lindbloom has identified Ruth Viola Alden as the young lady seated at
the far right of the first row. She is wearing a black dress and a
locket. Ruth is listed in the commencement program as giving the
Valedictorian the speech "The Goal."
Olive
and some friends are pictured to the left and below are names from an
invitation she received to attend a reunion in 1913. Can you identify
any of the other graduates in this photo? Help with the transcription?
Names, transcribed from the post card below are: Jennie Thompson, P. E.
Levsen, Ruth Alden, Marguerite Wilker, Johnnie Holub, Peter Jansen,
Sudah Cohoon, Adah Ames, N. M. Hogeboom, Louis J. M. Koch, May Statler,
Irene Brownell, Marie Wherry, Herman Erickson (click on it for a
larger view).
Thanks to Sue Ballou Lieske for help
deciphering these names. She says, "John Holub was my grandmother's
younger brother. I saw him only a few times. He was always just Uncle
John. I think he's the man at the far right in the picture. I'm rather
disgusted that I can't pick out Paul Levsen!"
Betty J. Remley of
Anamosa identified her parents, Paul Levsen and Suda(h) Cohoon. Paul
Levsen is on the far left, back row and Suda(h) Cohoon Levsen is in the
middle of the first row (hands folded). May Statler Myers Reynolds is
next to Paul in the back row. (We are not sure about May's last names.)
Louis (Louie) J. M. Koch is the man in the middle of the photo. In the
front row, Marguerite Wilker Johnson is on the far left and Ruth Alden
is on the far right. John (Johnnie) Holub is on the right between the
two women.
Betty added that there were several college graduates
in the class. Paul Levsen was graduated from Iowa State, Ames; Sudah
Cohoon from State Teacher's College in Cedar Falls, Iowa; May from
University of Wisconsin with a doctorate in Nutrition; and Marguerite
from Columbia University in New York in Child Psychology with a Ph.D.
Ruth Alden taught in Denver.
Commencement Program
(click on images for larger views)