Eminent Homemaker
County: Minnehaha
Annie Thoreson, Dell Rapids, farm woman, surmounted many obstacles in raising her seven children after she was left a widow in 1910 when the oldest boy was 14-years-old and the baby was 18 months. She kept the children together and all of them had an opportunity at higher education. Three of her six boys were graduated from South Dakota State College, her daughter is a graduate nurse and all of the others went on to college after high school.
Annie Thompson Thoreson was born April 11, 1874, on a farm adjoining the farm where she now makes her home south of Dell Rapids. Except for two years in Roberts County, one year in Dell Rapids, and two years east of Dell Rapids, Thoreson has spent her entire life in her immediate neighborhood.
She attended Augustana college in Sioux Falls, then known as Lutheran Normal, and left college to marry Gilbert Thoreson May 26, 1892.
Aided by her six sons, with only the help of a hired man when the boys were small, Thoreson kept and worked the 200-acre farm left her by her husband.
Thoreson has been a life member of the Dell Rapids Lutheran Church except for the two years she and her husband lived in Sisseton. She has taught Sunday school classes intermittently for the past many years. She has been a life member of the Lutheran ladies aid of the Dell Rapids church and of the Madison aid, an organization of the ladies living in the county. She has been president of both organizations several times.
She has served as clerk of the local school district for 20 years. Thoreson was a charter member of the first home extension club organized in her community and has been an enthusiastic member ever since.
She is a member of the Women’s Relief Corps, a garden club and other organizations. Her younger children were all members of 4-H clubs. Thoreson solicited subscriptions for the Red Cross and during the World War was very active in this work.