I grew up in a tiny prairie town in South Dakota, population 700 when I left it, 500 now. (Photo above, 1950’s by my guess.) I’ve talked of this place many times on my blog, published two books on growing up there, but just today, someone on the town’s website published these newspaper stories from 1922 which I found fascinating, as many of the people mentioned were known to me. Judge Parish lived across the street from me, Louis Simpson was my dad’s cousin and many of the other family names are well known. This may not be interesting to anyone other than my sister Patti and friend Jim, who read my blog and who grew up in Murdo as well, but for what it is worth, here are some of the stories:
Murdo, April 18. – Statistics are said to show that after every great war nature replenishes herself through twin babies. Mrs. Burke of this place has the distinction of being the mother of three sets of twins and one set of triplets.
Mrs. M. P. Kerlin, also of Murdo is the mother of twin boys, who are now a few years of age. During 1921 Mrs. A. O. Kimble and Mrs. Roy Guthrie each became the mother of twin girls. Mrs. Sam Hubbard gave birth to twin sons, both of whom died.
Recently twin boys were born to Mr. and Mrs. Rex Williams.
Thus, out of nine births in Murdo, nineteen children were born, seventeen of whom are living. It is believed that no other town of Murdo’s size in the state or northwest has a birth record equal to this.
John Connery
Two Boy Swimmers Drown
Lads Meet Death While Bathing at Murdo, S.D.
Deadwood, S.D., June 17 — A telephone message from Murdo, a small town east of Rapid City, tells of the accidental drowning there of John Connery and a companion named Pomberr. Both boys, who were sixteen years old, were in swimming at the railroad dam at that point and are supposed to have been seized with cramps. Neither body has been recovered.
[17 June 1910; Aberdeen Daily News] *Note from Judy: In my part of South Dakota, little manmade lakes were called dams, probably due to the fact that they were created by digging out the earth and rolling it up to the side to create a depression large enough to collect rainwater and snow runoff. In this dry cattle country, it was necessary. My dad got his start building such dams. Below is a photo of a dam in process. That’s my dad, Ben Dykstra, sitting on the back of the grader adding his weight to smoothing out the dam grade.
M. L. Parish [crime]
Four Fleeing Men Battle Posse and Flee in Prosecutor’s Auto
Sioux Falls, S. Dak. Aug 25 — Four convicts, who escaped from the penitentiary on August 17, fought a posse near Stamford early today. After mortally wounding State’s Attorney M. L. Parish and wounding Sheriff J.C. Babcock, they escaped in the State’s Attorney’s automobile.
The men were pursued from Murdo, S.D., by a hastily formed posse when it was learned they had recrossed the Missouri River into this State and were heading toward the Bad Lands. Airplanes have been sent to aid in locating them. [26 Aug 1922; Philadelphia Inquirer]
Louis Simpson [injury]
RATTLESNAKE PROTESTED
Struck Boy Who Tries to Pull It From Its Hole Near Murdo
Murdo, May 19. – Catching a rattlesnake by the tail to prevent it escaping him nearly caused the death of Louis Simpson, the young son of Mrs. Charles Luken, living near here. The reptile struck the boy on the left hand with its fangs, and but for prompt work he would have died
When the boy discovered the snake the reptile beat a retreat for its nearby hole, and was partially down this, when the boy grasped it by the tail and attempted to pull it back to the surface of the ground. The rattlesnake doubled back and buried its fangs in the boy’s hand, this being one of the tricks of the average rattler when grasped while partially in its hole.
Image thanks to the NY Public Library
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 