Articles written by Karen Horsley

Karen Horsley|Dec 3, 2018

Dec. 3, 2018 — On this date in 1909, Charles and Catherine Vanourny had been married only a day, but it’s unlikely they were honeymooning. They were, after all, frugal, hard-working Germans from Russia. A 31-year-old widower, Charles had homesteaded his 160-acre farm southeast of Ashley. His new 25-year-old bride, Catherine Geiszler, had the distinction of being the first girl born in McIntosh County. According to “Women of the Northern Plains” by Barbara Handy-Marchello, Catherine’s mother reared her “in the ordinary fashion of the prairie...