Picture Day 1929

I had one more big box to go through in the basement that I knew was going to be a treasure trove of old family photos and documents. But the box was so big and I was already swimming in family photos and documents... I think I had been putting it off. Well, I've finally managed to dive into it and I'm finding so much great stuff! Particularly about my Grandma Genevieve and her childhood/early adult life.

Remember in the post about her time as a teacher during the Depression, I mentioned that her first teaching placement was in Evansville, WI, a small town west of Janesville? Well, I found her class picture there from the 1929-1930 school year. She taught first grade that year and had 36 students in her class.

On the back, she has them all listed. Do you know any of these little ones?

Left to right: 
First row: Bernice Mathias, Dolores Vreeland, Betty Armbruster, Joyce Bone, Ellen Robinson, Martha Hatling, Virginia parsons, Betty Groh, Jeanne Laschinsky, Gwendolyn McCaslin.
Second row: Alwyn Utzig, Robert Gibbs, Dan Papanz, Harlan Driscoll, Edward Jessessby, Lysle Graham, Lyle Sinnett, Eldon Hoague, Jimmie Johnson.
Third Row: Robert (Buzz) Fellows, Gordon Jorgenson, Phillip Olson, Herman Staller, Robert Olsen, Wayne Hatlenig, Frank Clark.
Fourth row: Robert Kelly, Victor Jenson, John Antes, LaVerne Paulson, Marvin Devlin, Judd Pearsall, Friderich Voegele, Theodore Jackson.
Absent: Vera Trunkhill, Oscar Cole (desceased?)

Interesting sidenote: The photo was taken in November, 1929, which means this would have been no more than four weeks after the Great Stock Market Crash. But as we know, the Stock Market crash followed a decade of agricultural Depression that hit rural Wisconsin particularly hard. You can see that, even dressed in their best clothes for picture day, some of the children are wearing ill-fitting and well-worn clothes.