Gladys (Willsie) Boice
Gladys Willsie Boice was born April 9, 1890 in Nebraska, one of 7 children born to Asa Brigham & Alice (Kinyon) Willsie. She was 19 years of age when the Willsies moved to the Aladdin area in 1909. She married Mark Thomas Boice in 1918 at the Methodist Church in Sundance, in a double wedding with her sister Cora who married Walter Blackburn Vore.
Gladys died at the age of 31 in 1921, contracting pneumonia soon after the birth of her son Thomas. Mark Boice went on to marry twice again – Hazel Nash, who died in 1947 and Ethel Thomas who died in 1994 – he died in 1977 and is buried in Spearfish.
Her parents are also buried here. Asa & Alice Willsie, and children John (28), Grace (23), Gladys (19), and Cora (10) moved to Wyoming in 1909, from Verdigre, Nebraska, where they had lived for 26 years. Land was opened for homestead filing in Crook County so Asa came out in May 1909 and filed on a homestead between Aladdin & Beulah, on Dry Creek.
The horses, machinery, household goods were shipped by rail to Belle Fourche, where Alice and the girls lived for about six weeks, while Asa and son John built a homestead shack. In August the household goods, mother and girls were moved from Belle Fourche by team and wagon. Daughter Cora remembered that “it was very exciting to us and a great adventure, moving to Wyoming, where there were few fences and few neighbors.” They lived in a claim shack 16 x 18 feet the first winter, summer and part of the next winter while John lived in his tent pitched nearby. The girls enjoyed many cozy evenings listening to him relate some of his experiences while he had been employed on various large ranches in the Worland, Tensleep and Basin areas.
There were soon other homesteaders in the area, including the Ben Weavers, Norman Weavers, Oliver Mitchells, Herells, Vores, Bissacas, Walter Mathews’, Tom & Jimmy Williams. The first years they lived there, John and Grace also each filed on a homestead east of Asa’s. The first two years they hauled water from Redwater Creek for household use and drove cows and took horses to the creek for water. Then Bert Robbins who lived north of Aladdin, used his horse power driven well drill and drilled a well for Asa, John & Grace. The first five years were real dry and Cora didn’t recall any severe storms or blizzards in the years they lived there.
The little town of Aladdin was the gathering place for celebrations, such as the Fourth of July. There was a band leader from Belle Fourche, named Mr. Willard, who had organized a band at Aladdin and they played for gala occasions and dances. The little town of Beulah with several saloons, a dance hall, and two hotels was a “typical western town” according to Cora, with lots of cowpunchers and bronc riders riding in at the end of the month for drinking and plenty of gambling also.
Asa was an old time fiddler, John played the violin too, the girls played the guitar and Alice and Cora played the organ and later the piano so there was always music at home. They always sang and played hymns Sunday afternoons. Cora said “one of nicest memories of my early years was the sound of our parents’ music in the evenings before I drifted off for a good night’s sleep.” Cora was the last surviving member of the family when she died in 1993 at the age of 94.
Gladys Willsie Boice was born April 9, 1890 in Nebraska, one of 7 children born to Asa Brigham & Alice (Kinyon) Willsie. She was 19 years of age when the Willsies moved to the Aladdin area in 1909. She married Mark Thomas Boice in 1918 at the Methodist Church in Sundance, in a double wedding with her sister Cora who married Walter Blackburn Vore.
Gladys died at the age of 31 in 1921, contracting pneumonia soon after the birth of her son Thomas. Mark Boice went on to marry twice again – Hazel Nash, who died in 1947 and Ethel Thomas who died in 1994 – he died in 1977 and is buried in Spearfish.
Her parents are also buried here. Asa & Alice Willsie, and children John (28), Grace (23), Gladys (19), and Cora (10) moved to Wyoming in 1909, from Verdigre, Nebraska, where they had lived for 26 years. Land was opened for homestead filing in Crook County so Asa came out in May 1909 and filed on a homestead between Aladdin & Beulah, on Dry Creek.
The horses, machinery, household goods were shipped by rail to Belle Fourche, where Alice and the girls lived for about six weeks, while Asa and son John built a homestead shack. In August the household goods, mother and girls were moved from Belle Fourche by team and wagon. Daughter Cora remembered that “it was very exciting to us and a great adventure, moving to Wyoming, where there were few fences and few neighbors.” They lived in a claim shack 16 x 18 feet the first winter, summer and part of the next winter while John lived in his tent pitched nearby. The girls enjoyed many cozy evenings listening to him relate some of his experiences while he had been employed on various large ranches in the Worland, Tensleep and Basin areas.
There were soon other homesteaders in the area, including the Ben Weavers, Norman Weavers, Oliver Mitchells, Herells, Vores, Bissacas, Walter Mathews’, Tom & Jimmy Williams. The first years they lived there, John and Grace also each filed on a homestead east of Asa’s. The first two years they hauled water from Redwater Creek for household use and drove cows and took horses to the creek for water. Then Bert Robbins who lived north of Aladdin, used his horse power driven well drill and drilled a well for Asa, John & Grace. The first five years were real dry and Cora didn’t recall any severe storms or blizzards in the years they lived there.
The little town of Aladdin was the gathering place for celebrations, such as the Fourth of July. There was a band leader from Belle Fourche, named Mr. Willard, who had organized a band at Aladdin and they played for gala occasions and dances. The little town of Beulah with several saloons, a dance hall, and two hotels was a “typical western town” according to Cora, with lots of cowpunchers and bronc riders riding in at the end of the month for drinking and plenty of gambling also.
Asa was an old time fiddler, John played the violin too, the girls played the guitar and Alice and Cora played the organ and later the piano so there was always music at home. They always sang and played hymns Sunday afternoons. Cora said “one of nicest memories of my early years was the sound of our parents’ music in the evenings before I drifted off for a good night’s sleep.” Cora was the last surviving member of the family when she died in 1993 at the age of 94.