Education (#52Ancestors)

I used to think that, in my family, my mom and dad were the first generation to go to college.

But recently I discovered that this is not the case. Let me tell you Edna Johnson’s education story.

Edna was my dad’s mom. She was born and grew up in Princeton, Illinois, and in 1919 she graduated from Princeton High School. She didn’t seem to have immediate plans for her future. According to the 1920 U.S. Census, six months after graduation, she was still living at home with her parents and three sisters. She did not have a job. However, her oldest sister Myrtle was a teacher and her second oldest sister Laura was a stenographer at a dry goods store. They sound like good role models for being a working woman!

 

1920 U.S. Census for Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois

The social bits in the newspaper reported a few of Edna’s doings after graduation. She sang at a church funeral in December of 1919 and a couple more in early 1920. She also hosted a meeting of The Loyal Helpers, a church group. What the papers don’t say is whether Edna was looking for a job, or if she had any part time jobs. The year after Edna graduated from high school is a bit of a mystery.

 

26 November 1920 Princeton Bureau County Tribune, p. 12

In 1920 Edna was a college student!

Augustana College and Theological Seminary was in Rock Island, Illinois, 70 miles west of Princeton. In addition to the usual college departments Augustana also had a “Commercial Department,” which offered two options for study: the Bookkeeping course and the Stenography course. Each course took a year (36 weeks) and cost $100 each. If Edna took both of these courses, as the college catalog encouraged students to do, she would have received her certificate/graduated in 1922.

Here is Edna in the 1922 Augustana yearbook, the “Rockety-I,” one of 29 students in the Commercial Department that year.  

How did Edna end up at Augustana? Did she have a penchant for numbers or a head for business? Did she want to fill her time, or did she feel the need to contribute to the family financially? Did she want more than singing at funerals and hosting church groups?

And what exactly were her college days like? Did she participate in campus activities? Was she a good student? Did she make friends at Augustana? Where did she live?

These are questions that I may never answer.

What I do know is, in the fall of 1922, the Princeton newspaper starts reporting Edna’s activities in the church again. She sings at funerals and is involved with the Luther League. She travels and visits her younger sister Evelyn who is now a student nurse in Chicago. In 1923 sister Myrtle gets married; in 1924 Laura marries and the following year youngest sister Evelyn ties the knot. Edna’s father Theodore passes away in 1928. By the end of the decade Edna and her mother are alone in the house on West Putnam in Princeton. The 1920s must have been a hard decade for Edna.

1929 Princeton City Directory

I don't know when Edna first reaped the benefits of her commercial education at Augustana, but this city directory shows her employed as a bookkeeper for a bank in 1929. I sure wish I could have a conversation with her about what it was like to work in a bank when the stock market crashed in the fall of that year!

Edna worked at the bank until she married Harry Peterson, my grandfather (who, incidentally, never graduated from high school). Edna’s time at Augustana was a surprise to me, but it shouldn’t have been. My dad Stan, Edna’s son, attended Augustana and met his future wife, my mom Sarah. Although none of Stan and Sarah’s children went to Augustana, one grandson did.

 

Old Main, Augustana College
May, 2022

Here’s to Augustana College, for all the ways it has educated our family!

When Harry Met Edna

Edna Irene Johnson and Harry Nels Peterson

April 14, 1932

How did Harry and Edna meet? They probably knew each other from First Lutheran Church in Princeton, Illinois, where their families worshipped. Edna, five years older than Harry, graduated from high school in 1918 and then took a stenographic course at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. She returned to Princeton and by 1930 was working as a bookkeeper at the Citizens First National Bank. By this time Harry, who had left high school to begin working and help support his parents and (nine) siblings, was the manager at the Larkin grocery store. As adults, Harry and Edna’s five-year age difference was of little consequence. They enjoyed each other’s company, their relationship grew and in time they were engaged.

Edna Johnson and Harry Peterson were married on Wednesday, April 14, 1932 in Princeton, Illinois at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Although the ceremony was performed by Reverend Elmer T. Peters of First Lutheran Church, the wedding took place at the home where Edna and her mother, Anna, lived on West Putnam Street. About 60 friends and family members attended the event.

The house was filled with flowers and the ceremony was filled with music. Mrs. Mabel Morton sang “Because” and “At Dawning,” accompanied by Miss Rosalie Tragordh. Nineteen-year-old Pauline Lindgren, Edna’s cousin on her mother’s side, sang “When Song is Sweet” accompanied by Edna’s oldest sister Myrtle Peterson.

Harry waited for his bride with his best man, Robert Eckdahl, standing at his side. Myrtle struck up Mendelssohn’s Wedding March and Edna entered the room. Since her father had died in   perhaps she walked in by herself, or with her mother. Edna was resplendent in her dress of white net over white satin and moire ruffles on the skirt. Her net veil was fastened with orange blossoms and she carried a magnificent arm bouquet of calla lilies.

Edna’s maid of honor was her friend Celia Johnson. “Ceil” wore a dress of blue lace and carried roses and sweet peas. Edna’s two nieces also participated in the ceremony: Phyllis Swanson, 5, Evelyn’s daughter, wore a dress of blue organdy and was the flower girl, and Anna May Peterson, 6, Myrtle’s daughter, wearing pink organdy, was the train bearer.

After the ceremony the guests ate a two-course supper and a large white wedding cake trimmed in pink and blue, topped by a miniature bride and groom.

Edna and Harry went on their honeymoon to Florida where they visited Tampa Bay and Daytona Beach. When they returned to Princeton they made their home on West Putnam, just down the street from Edna’s mom. In four years they welcomed their son Stanley and their family was complete.

Edna’s father Theodore had died. Edna was the third of four sisters, the last to be married