Moving day

Frequently we lack basic information about the photographs posted here, often able to do little more than guess at the year when a photo might have been taken. This photograph is different, in that we know the exact day—although not the date—that it was taken.

But first the people: Grandpa and Grandma in back, Daniel, Matilda, and Esther standing in front of them, Carl and Darlene in the very front. The ages of the kids would allow us to venture a reasonable guess as to the year … if we didn’t already know when the photograph was taken.

The setting is the Peter P Buller (or Epp family) farm mentioned earlier here (the southeast quarter of section 11 in Henderson Township). As Aunts Sara and Maria note in the Buller Family Record, their mother Margaretha Epp lived on this farm her entire life until she and husband Peter left Nebraska for California.

Behind Grandpa, Grandma, and kids we see a barn and a silo; I am told that on the opposite side of the farmyard was another barn and a corn crib. With any luck, additional photographs of the farm will turn up, and we can see where the house and other buildings were located.

So what is it that makes this photograph special (other than the people in it)? How can we know the day it was taken but not the date? Simple: this photograph was taken on Peter P and Margaretha’s last Sunday in Nebraska, before they moved to California, where they would spend the rest of their lives. We do not know what date it was, but we do know that it was a Sunday in August 1936. Although the anal retentive among us might want to pin down the exact date (guilty), it really is enough to know that on this day Grandpa Chris said goodbye to his mom and dad, who would no longer live just up the road from Grandpa and Grandma’s Lushton farm.