concordia-memories.org

[jwschlue]

This is a class picture of the Lutheran parochial school of Blackburn, Missouri. No date is on the photograph (taken by E.? C. Brunkhorst, of Blackburn), nor do I have an index of the students. However, three students are identified on the back of the photograph: Lilly Reith (b April 1896) is second from the left in the front row; Lydia Bradley (b April 1893) is sixth from the left in the second row; and Lorna Reith (b December 1898, Lilly's sister) is seventh from the left in the third row. (Lorna is marked by an "x".) Lydia was the mother of my father; Lorna was the step-mother to my father.

[rjnielsen]

I wonder if my grand-aunt Edna Meyer (1898-1985) was in that picture somewhere, or her future husband Herman Brunkhorst (1893-1963). (Herman might even have been the photographer; a young man of 16 or 17 would certainly have been old enough in those days to be doing something like that.) My grandfather, Harry Meyer, would have been younger, only 4 years old in 1905, so probably not at school yet, and their youngest sister Lorene wouldn't be born until 1908.

But I have no idea what school they attended in Blackburn. They lived on a farm in Elmwood Township, according to the census, and I believe the farm was just outside Blackburn. (At least, that's where the CURRENT family farm is located, owned by my mother and uncle.) Edna, Harry, and Lorene's parents were both US born children of German immigrants, so a Lutheran school might have been attractive.