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Scratched into the emulsion (flipped left-right here) at the top: Mattie Kirn. - 11.jpg
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November 1895, Nerva Duff, "teacher." When Frank graduated in June of 1894 and planned to study law in Washington, D. C., Nerva decided she did not want to return to the University of Kansas. (Apparently, she never graduated.) Because she was engaged, she would, in her own words, "have no dates." So she decided to teach school in Horton. She said, "Teaching was a wonderful experience. I loved it." She taught 5th through 8th grade. The students' parents even petitioned her to stay. - 115_1567_IMG
Map showing the rich bottomland of the Platte Territory that drew the Duffs to the area. You can see how settlement just followed the river. - 115_1569_IMG
Bean Lake, MO. The second location was Bean Lake, a horseshoe of the Missouri River that flooded often enough that families were relocated in the late 20th century. We walked along just to get a sense of the place. - 115_1570_IMG
Iatan, MO. November of 2004, Jerry and I visited Chris and Brian in Kansas City. We had decided to try to find some of the towns mentioned by Nerva Duff Moore in her family history. They were all just a few hours outside of KC. I wrote up a synopsis of Nerva's text organized by town and Jerry laid out a course on his GPS. The following descriptions are taken from my text. The first town was Iatan, a little town sandwiched behind the river on the west, followed by the rail road, with the town on the east. The rich bottomland stretched from the highway to the river. - 115_1571_IMG
Iatan was established in 1842 and appears to have not been built in or updated since the early part of the 20th century. It was generally in poor condition, but with darling homes and buildings tucked in and around the rolling hills and winding streams on their way to the river. - 115_1572_IMG
Iatan, MO. The town was built on a small grid, perhaps 2 or 3 streets square. This road ran north and south.