Monday, September 16, 2013

Nephi Gunderson Family Dressed Up For The 24th of July Parade

 Folks,
A few weeks ago, I sent out a picture of
Uncle Nephi Gunderson and Aunt Maria and their family in the Mt. Pleasant July
24th Pioneer Day Parade held in 1905.
I got it from the Mt.
Pleasant BLOG.
I quickly got several important
responses.
  • My sharp eyed cousin Betty Woodbury pointed out that
    in 1905 Uncle Nephi and his wife were to young to have such a large family. She
    was right,. Uncle Nephi and Aunt Maria were not even married until Sept. 1905,
    and their first child (a girl) was born in 1907. They did have four sons , but
    one died in infancy. The result of this study is that these must have been
    "barrowed " children - nephews and a niece or maybe neighborhood children.
    Children love to join in parades, etc.
  • Several people pointed that Uncle Nephi and the
    oldest "son" were wearing wooden shoes. I think that there is good reason to
    think Aunt Maria was wearing wooden shoes also. They looked very similar to
    Erick Gunderson's wooden shoes. The Relic Home in Mt. Pleasant has several
    examples of this kind of wooden soled shoes with fabric or leather tops.
  • As a result, I changed the title on the picture and
    photographically enhanced the wooden shoes so that they are slightly more
    visible. In addition, I noticed that one of the "sons" seemed to be wearing
    "rags" on his feet. Pioneer records often reported that immigrants wore rags on
    their feet while crossing the plains. The other “sons” seem to be wearing boots
    and the “daughter” may be wearing wooden shoes like Aunt Maria but it there is
    no sure evidence.
  • One of my "friends" thought that the tough looking
    kid on the far right looked just like me. What do you think?
I have also sharpened the picture and
attached the new version for your use.
More comments are welcome.
Thanks
David R. Gunderson 

1 comment:

  1. Hi David... I am very much enjoying your writings on Erick and Caroline Gunderson.
    Is this Nephi the son of Erick and Caroline? If so, he would be my great grand uncle. This information is just fascinating! Thank you.

    ReplyDelete