Tell Me A Story

Image from page 86 of "The diary of a birthday doll" (1908);
Internet Archive Book Images; public domain

Lies my Grandmother told me

My Grandmother Billie was a character. She spoke her mind and had a Scot-Irish brogue and heritage. Born Wilhelmina Marian Gamble, after her father William. She always went by Billie.

The following statements were not necessarily made directly to me. Some I found while researching our family tree. Though not surprised that stories are not altogether truthful, I was really surprised that some were made to government officials.

Graduated from High School.

In our family, it was understood that Grandma Billie “finished” high school. Though she lost a year to illness, she graduated early.

She did have a severe illness at a young age, which may have led to her missing school and resulted in a mitral valve problem later in life.1

However, it looks like her “graduating early” was due to marrying Oct 19262, at the age of 17-3⁄4. Her first child arrived a month after turning 18. The family still has slips of paper showing her passing various upper class courses, so at some time she may have completed her mandatory classes.3 Though in the 1940 census she reported 2 years of high school.4

She was also recognized as an alumni who donated to the school a few years later. Although they could have meant her older sister, who was single and a teacher. [see inset]. Grandma never lived in Valley City.

[I have not checked at the school, though I think my Mom did when she worked there.] At Grandma’s funeral her sisters claimed she did not complete school as her siblings did. I remember my mother speaking up, correcting them.

[I am not sure why this was not clarified to us, as my father (her son-in-law) only went through grade 8 in country school and this was common in that era. Maybe it was that she was the only sibling not to complete High School]

1 Reported to us as St. Vitus Dance. Not sure when she had this illness, but she missed a lot of school, up to a whole grade. We think it was rheumatic fever partially due to her later mitral valve replacement.

2 Kittson County marriage register, Clerk of Court, Hallock, MN. On 10-21-26; Wilhemina M. Gamble, being 17 years, 10 months, had a Minor's Permit to be married, signed by Wm. N. Gamble and Lillie M. Gamble. She was married to Albert Louis Berard, 21 years old, of Pembina County, ND on 10-21-26, witnessed by William N. Gamble and [Louis?] Gould. 

3 Private papers held by Betty Swan in Hallock, Kittson, MN. There is a paper for each subject, signed by the County Superintendent of Schools. 

Kittson Co Public Schools certifies D#2, completed 8 years - 26 July 1923 Hans Hanson, Co Super. 

4"United States Census, 1940", database with images, FamilySearch (ark:/61903/1:1:KSL7-W4J : Wed Mar 15 09:22:44 UTC 2023), Entry for Wilhelmina Johnson and Edward Johnson, 1940. [This question was not asked in 19x0] https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KSL7-W4J

5 1928 Senior Class Borderline Annual. St. Vincent MN Privately held, although a copy may be at the Kittson County Museum, Lake Bronson, MN This copy was found by a cousin at Humboldt-St. Vincent High School article St. Vincent Memories online blog for October 28, 2022, but links back to rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnrrvn/hcentennial/Humboldt%20Centennial%20Home.htm

Marrying Grandpa Ed 

Grandma Billie reported on various occasions (including her husband’s obit) that she married her second husband in 1938. [In retrospect, this may be a misreading of a blurry copy] 

She was divorced from my bio grandfather in September 1936 [Divorce decree]6, I am researching if there was a mandatory waiting period in Minnesota or North Dakota.

As many more public records are now available online, Grand Forks county, ND, has a marriage record for “Edward Johnson” (who she always said was Edwin) age 38 and “Miss Wilhelmina Berard” age 26 [she was 27, close to 28]. On the license “Not” has been typed in the statement “who has _not_ been divorced” for both parties.7

Not specifying her children’s last names to 1940 census taker. 

When first released, I scoured the 1940 census for many months looking for my mother, as that is the first one she was listed in and I wanted to show it to her. I first looked at neighboring smaller villages as that is where she remembered living. I scanned the county seat where she was raised, also small but the largest village. As part of the citizen indexers for this census, I would check back frequently. 

Now to clarify, my mother had a French last name in a county full of Scandinavians and some Scots. It should have stuck out, but no luck. 

So, when it was fully indexed a few months later, I searched again. Still did not find that French name. I switched tactics and searched for my Grandmother’s uncommon first name Wilhelmina. Got 1 or 2 hits. And there was the family, all indexed under “Johnson” the head-of-household step-father Ed. His wife, my Grandma Billie, was marked as the informant and she apparently didn’t bother to specify the children’s last name. The census taker was a known community person and although from another church should have noticed the omittance.8 

All in all, we are quite proud of her. She basically raised 3 children alone in the 1930-40s, and in the early 1970s became the first woman elected to the Kittson County Board of Commissioners.

6 On file with Clerk of Court, Kittson County Courthouse, Hallock, MN
7 Source: Ancestry.com. North Dakota, Select County Marriage Records, 1872-2017 [database on-line] Original can be found in Book 22, page 629. License issued Oct 2, 1936 by County Court Judge E C Lebacken & recorded Dec 1936. 
8"United States Census, 1940", database with images, FamilySearch (ark:/61903/1:1:KSL7-W4J : Wed Mar 15 09:22:44 UTC 2023), Entry for Wilhelmina Johnson and Edward Johnson, 1940. See #4 

Editors' note: If you remember the blog from April 29, 2024, we have asked readers to Tell Us a Story for publication here in the blog. We have received a few and look forward to more to come. Our thanks to Betty Swan for this story about her Grandma Billie and for the research and documentation she has provided as well.

We will be publishing stories intermittently with other blog topics so please send your stories, with pictures if you have them, to m.strickland@skcgs.org

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