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Myrtle Porterville
Photograph Collection, 1880s-1950s
5, 730 photographic prints (Photo Mss 296)
1, 857 film negatives
Biography
Myrtle Bemis
was born January 5, 1880 at Newton, Wisconsin, the daughter
of Henry and Weltha (Haddock) Bemis. In 1882 the family
moved to Steele County near Cooperstown, North Dakota.
At the age of eighteen, Miss Bemis began to teach in rural
schools. She later attended Valley City Normal School
from where she graduated in 1902. After teaching in Williston
and rural schools for several years she attended the University
of North Dakota where she received her masters' degree
in history in 1909.
On June 15, 1910
Miss Bemis married Charles Albert Porterville, a farmer
near Cooperstown. He was born May 19, 1875 at Wisconsin
Rapids, Wisconsin. They farmed for five years and Mr.
Porterville was also a rural mail carrier. They later
lived in Cooperstown where Mr. Porterville worked in various
stores. Mrs. Porterville taught school at Larimore for
several years and then in the Cooperstown schools from
1923 to 1933. They adopted a son Claude who was born in
1916. Mr. Porterville died May 14, 1934. Thereafter Mrs.
Porterville lived with her mother and brother on the home
farm. There she cared for her mother and kept house for
her brother until his death in 1958. Mrs. Porterville
died February 16, 1961 in California and was buried in
the Cooperstown Cemetery.
Mrs. Porterville
took an early interest in the history of Griggs County,
which started her long career in collecting almost everything
documenting the history of the county. She began to do
extensive research and collecting while teaching in Cooperstown,
enlisting the help of her students. Mrs. Porterville even
learned to speak and read Norwegian in order to help in
her work. She wrote a history of the county, which was
serialized in the Griggs County Sentinel Courier
newspaper.
Scope
and Content
The Myrtle Porterville
Photograph Collection represents images she collected
or copied as well as snapshots she herself took. They
are part of Mrs. Porterville's documentation of Griggs
County, N.D. This extensive collection covers a wide array
of subjects, towns and people of the county, and it compliments
the extensive historical documentation she compiled and
collected from the 1920s into the 1950s. The documentary
collection has been organized as Mss 296. The photograph
collection has been organized into four series: Topical,
People and Portraits, Rose Family, and Sanderson Family.
In addition there are the negatives to some of the images
in the collection. These include photographs taken by
Mrs. Porterville and copy negative of photographs which
she borrowed. The negatives, which number 1,857 items,
have not yet been linked to the appropriate print.
The Topical
Series contains images of a wide variety of subject
and geographic locations, most of which were taken in
Griggs County, N.D. The majority date from the late 1800s
into the 1920s. This series is organized alphabetically
by subject or town. It consists primarily of original
photograph prints collected by Mrs. Porterville or copies
of older images that she apparently borrowed and had negatives
and prints made. There is also a substantial number of
snapshots taken by Mrs. Porterville from the 1950s.
The series includes
many farming images, farmsteads and houses, town scenes
including of businesses, schools and students, and many
documenting the town of Cooperstown, the county seat.
There are also images of the Cooper Brothers' farm and
family who operated a bonanza farm near Cooperstown. Most
of the images have written identification on the back
of the print, done by Mrs. Porterville. Some also state
from whom she received the photograph.
The People
and Portraits Series, the largest series in the collection,
contains over 3,600 images of individuals and families
who resided in the county, and images of family and friends
living elsewhere in the country. Most of the images date
from the 1890s into the 1920s. Mrs. Porterville identified
most persons, likely done at the time she acquired them.
The photographs are organized alphabetically by family
name or the most prominent name written on the back of
the image. Since many photographs are of more than one
person, it is impossible to identify each and every individual
within this finding aid.
The Rose Family
Series consists of photographs that Mrs. Porterville
received from the family of Dr. Fred Rose, a long-time
dentist at Cooperstown, N.D. Dr. Rose was born in Ontario,
Canada in 1874. Before opening his practice in Cooperstown
in 1898 he practiced for a number of years in Fargo and
Chicago. These photographs were originally a separate
collection within the Porterville collection and that
distinction has been retained. Many of the images have
"Rose's photo" written on the back by Mrs. Porterville.
Most of the images are portraits of people, and only a
limited number are of the Rose family themselves. The
photographers represented in this collection are primarily
from Cooperstown and the Fargo-Moorhead area. The time
period represented by the collection is from the 1890s
into the 1930s.
The Sanderson
Family Series of photographs were left at the Sander
Sanderson home in Griggs County after Mr. Sanderson's
death in 1941. Apparently Mrs. Porterville acquired them
some time after that. Mr. Sanderson was born in Oslo,
Norway in 1859. In 1871 he, his mother, and brother joined
their father who was living in Illinois, likely the Chicago
area. In 1881 Mr. Sanderson settled in Griggs County,
N.D.
Most, if not
all, of the 185 Sanderson Family photographs are not identified.
The vast majority of photographers represented on the
cabinet photographs are from Chicago with a small number
from Viroqua, Wisconsin. Based upon the photographic processes
and clothing styles represented in this collection, the
images date from the 1870s into the 1890s.
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Photography 
