This is the scrapbook which my parents gave to me. In it my grandmother (Lucille) Edna Mulder (later Edna Zuidweg) recorded the events of her high school graduation from Caledonia High School (Michigan), as well as a few clippings from her first year at Western Normal School in Kalamazoo.
In 1929, my grandmother graduated a year early, at age seventeen, along with her older sister Dorothy Mulder (later Dorothy Plott). Grandma earned the 3rd highest GPA at 93.85% and thus was honored with the title “class historian.” Her sister was salutatorian. Grandma’s best friend Blanche Stauffer was valedictorian. Clearly, grades were not inflated in those days at Caledonia High School.
Grandma was the 2nd oldest girl in her family of three girls and two boys. When I was young and reading my mother’s copy of Little Women, Grandma told me she always thought that she was just like Jo, the 2nd oldest and the writer of the family. Her sister Dorothy was Meg, and her younger sister Alvena (called Vena, later Vena Stimson) was Amy. It makes sense to me that “Jo” would have been placed a year ahead so she could go to school with “Meg,” and that she would earn class historian to her sister’s salutatorian.
Dorothy Mulder’s Salutatory (beginning portion)
Edna Mulder’s high school transcript
Edna Mulder’s class history (beginning portion)
The scrapbook contains wonderful photos of Grandma, her friends, classmates, and teachers, but it doesn’t solve the mystery of who put that drinking glass ring on the cover.
It’s all so lovely it makes me want to weep. How lucky you are to have these family treasures. wjk
Yes, I am so lucky!!
Wow, I’m impressed. Your grandmother was a very good student. I’m surprised that she took “Agriculture.” I would have guessed that in those days that the females would have taken home ec and that the males would have taken agriculture.
I’ll have to ask my mother if she has any idea. She will have her own idea on my grandmother and home ec activities. As her granddaughter, I would say she was a really good cook, especially of the basics, like meat, garden-grown veggies, and baked goods. Maybe she didn’t need home ec? I prefer to think of her like Jo March, preferring to take agriculture
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I found a tree which is following the Muler – Waldeck branch where Alvena is shown.
Waldeck Family Tree
Owner: xamorris
I can send you the links to the trees if you have access to Ancestry.com.
Thanks
Jose
Hi Jose, thanks! Yes, I do have an ancestry.com account. Alvena should be in the Mulder-Waldeck branch of the family, as should Edna and Dorothy. I have not connected with any Waldeck trees, though.
[...] graduation scrapbook, which has quite a few goodies in it. I wrote about it before in the post Who Put the Ring Stain on the Scrapbook? Today I’d like to share one page of the [...]
[...] reading another post on Wednesday about Grandma’s high school graduation scrapbook, I thought you might like to see the Mulder family from Caledonia. Remember that in Edna’s [...]