GERTRUDE BLACK LA DUE AND FAMILY:

Gertrude May Black was born January 17th, 1882 near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. As a child she moved with her parents, Caroline and John Wesley Black to Minnesota, eventually settling near the southeastern Marshall County town of Grygla, where they farmed. Gertrude became a schoolteacher and taught at a number of rural schools around northwestern Minnesota.

Gertrude was a religious person all her life. She experienced conversion as a child and soon became active in the Free Methodist Church, where she became a minister. It was through her church work that she met her husband, Samuel La Due (b. 1867), whom she married in June 1907.

The La Dues had been early settlers in Polk County. Samuel's father, Calvin, was a storekeeper and was responsible for naming the town of Fertile, Minnesota, where they lived. Samuel worked for the post office. Gertrude and Samuel lived there after they married and had three children, Mildred (b. November 1909), Ethel, and Milton. In 1923 the family moved to Park Rapids, Minnesota, where Sam took up truck gardening and Gertrude continued to work as a teacher and minister. Sam died in December 1942 at age 75, Gertrude in January 1971, just a few days before her 89th birthday.

The La Dues' eldest daughter, Mildred, married Sidney Mead (1904-1999) in 1929. Not wanting a church wedding, the two elected to elope and then hitchhike to California. They later moved to Chicago and then to Iowa City, where Sidney was a professor of religion at the Universities of Chicago and Iowa. Mildred became a free-lance photographer for Urban Renewal in Chicago. The couple retired to Tuscon, Arizona. Mildred passed away in November 2001.

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The bulk of the collection consists of diaries kept by Gertrude Black La Due from 1900 to 1911 describing her childhood, her work as a rural school teacher and minister, her courtship and marriage to Samuel La Due, her first pregnancy, and the birth of daughter Mildred. Much of the material concerns her teaching career, including posts at schools in Spruce Hill (Douglas County), Belle River (Douglas County), Barnesville (Clay County), Dibley (Wilkin County), Liner (Marshall County), Grygla (Marshall County), and Gordon (Todd County). The journals also contain many religious meditations and comments on her spiritual state as well as descriptions of her activities with the Free Methodist Church. Of particular interest is the description of the period of time La Due spent in Alexandria (1900-1901) where she completed her education and prepared for teachers' examinations. While in Alexandria, she lived with the family of "Brother Waite," a Methodist preacher, and became quite close to the family and more committed to and involved in her religious activities.

Also included in the collection are letters written (and later compiled) by Mildred La Due Mead while she and her husband lived in California (1929-1930). The couple had hitchhiked there from Minnesota after eloping, and planned to find work to earn money to attend college. The letters primarily describe their adventures and day-to-day lives in Walnut Creek (near Oakland), where they had gotten jobs as cook and groundskeeper for the wealthy Lochead family, and their subsequent stay in Barstow, where they worked in a hotel.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Gertrude Black La Due and Family Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,619

Processing Information:

Processed by: Lara D. Friedman~Shedlov, March 2002.

Catalog ID number: 990017374420104294

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Education, Rural -- Minnesota.

Hitchhiking.

Methodist preaching.

Rural schools -- Minnesota -- Barnesville.

Rural schools -- Minnesota -- Belle River.

Rural schools -- Minnesota -- Dibley.

Rural schools -- Minnesota -- Gordon.

Rural schools -- Minnesota -- Grygla.

Rural schools -- Minnesota -- Spruce Hill.

Places:

Marshall County (Minn.) -- Rural conditions.

Osakis (Minn.).

Fertile (Minn.).

Alexandria (Minn.).

Walnut Creek (Calif.).

Barstow (Calif.).

Persons:

Mead, Mildred La Due.

Mead, Sidney Earl, 1904-.

La Due family.

Black family.

Organizations:

Free Methodist Church of North America.

Types of Documents:

Diaries.

Occupations:

Teachers.

Preachers.

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