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THE SECOND CLUE

LITTLE LADORA GIRL WITH BIG DREAMS

The Case of the Wandering Feet

NANCY DREW and Penny Parker were two of the many characters Millie shared with the world. They were known to be quick on their feet. So was Millie.

Let’s start with her baby shoes. They say a lot about her. Silky white with blue ribbons for her tiny feet. Blue was the color for little girls up until the 1940s.¹ The soles, the bottom of the shoes, were all marred and scuffed. They reflect her busy personality, even at this early age. This little girl was destined to go places.

Born on July 10, 1905, at a healthy nine pounds, Millie Augustine soon toddled around her family home in Ladora, Iowa. Ladora is about eighty miles from the capital of Des Moines. Beautiful rolling fields planted with corn, beans, and oats surrounded the town. Cattle on neighboring farms grazed in the fields and horses galloped in their pastures at the sight of the occasional visitor. The Rock Island Railroad line was built in the late 1860s and ran alongside the town. The railroad encouraged the growth of Ladora, as it allowed for the shipment of cattle and grain raised in the area.

LADORA, IOWA, SEPTEMBER 1912

Pioneer Heritage Resource Library, Marengo, Iowa

Millie couldn’t wait to start school. Beginning at the age of five, Millie skipped off to school. Her older brother, Mel, was always with her on the five-block journey.

As she grew older, in the warm summer months, Millie would saunter out to the front porch where she could watch her world go by. It was from here that Millie would see her father and mother drive off in his horse-drawn wagon. They were headed to his medical practice on the second floor of the Pike General Store just up the street. Ladora’s five hundred residents counted on her father to take care of them, from birthing babies to performing surgeries.

Just up the way she could see the Ladora Savings Bank being built. The building, with its many tall windows and majestic columns, rose to greet future customers. Over a thousand people from the area attended the dedication ceremony on July 26, 1920. Millie’s family was likely there, as her father served on the bank’s board. The townspeople marveled at the marble counters, the wooden floors, and the huge vault. The indoor restrooms attracted quite a bit of attention too!

In the winter Millie likely would sit in the front parlor room at home, her feet in stockings and laced boots. Perhaps she was listening to her father talk about his support of Republican President William Howard Taft. Her mother might have been playing the piano in the background. Both her father’s interest in politics and her mother’s musical talents influenced her as she grew up.

Her father, Jasper L. “J. L.” Augustine, was born in 1868, the son of a “forty-niner,” one who traveled to California in 1849 after the discovery of gold. J. L.’s father, Peter Augustine, had traveled three times from Iowa to California in search of his fortune. His mother, Jennie, had always waited for Peter to return to their homestead in Agency City, Iowa. J. L. attended public schools in his hometown, and proved to be an excellent student. After high school J. L. attended the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa), graduating with a medical degree in 1893.²

Millie’s father moved to Ladora after graduation, where he set up his medical practice and became quite involved in the town. J. L.’s community service included his roles on the boards of the Ladora Savings Bank and the Millersburg Savings Bank. J. L. was also a member of the Ladora Improvement Company, which helped develop the growth of the town.³

A young woman whose family had purchased farmland adjacent to Ladora caught the new doctor’s eye. Her name was Lillian V. Matteson. Her parents, Elias and Emily, had migrated from Vermont to Iowa in 1882. Lillian’s father was a farmer who had operated a sawmill in Vermont before moving to Iowa. Once settled in Ladora, he established a successful farming operation. Elias was also conservative in his political views and community-minded. He likely was impressed with young J. L. Augustine when he came to call on his daughter, Lillian.

MILDRED “MILLIE” AUGUSTINE ON THE FRONT PORCH OF HER FAMILY HOME, 1915

And so it was that young Dr. J. L. Augustine married Lillian V. Matteson in June 1897. Their first child, Melville “Mel,” was born in 1898, and Millie followed in 1905. As the children grew older, Lillian took on the role of her husband’s assistant in his medical office. She was known as “Grandma Doctor” within the family.⁴

Her parents were very busy with her father’s medical practice. As a result, Millie grew up with “a freedom that most children don’t have now.” Millie’s footwear at this stage included roller skates and comfortable shoes to play basketball in.⁵

MILLIE AND HER OLDER BROTHER, MEL

From the private collection of the Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson family

Lillian created a scrapbook for Millie during her childhood years. On one page, Lillian paid tribute to the many hours Millie played with paper dolls. She even drew a picture of Millie and her creations.

Years later Millie would write that the countless hours playing with the paper dolls and making up stories had a benefit. “It taught me the very beginning of story creation and actual writing.”⁶

A china doll and paper dolls were the only feminine toys she had, for her family recalls her as not being a “girly-girl.”

Millie played games with her brother, who tried to scare her by jumping out from a hedge of bushes on their property. Millie didn’t flinch. Nothing scared her.⁷ And she always felt that girls should be able to do the same things as boys.⁸

Millie loved to read, claiming that she “read every book in the town.”⁹ The nearest public library was in Marengo, seven miles away. It might as well have been a hundred. Due to a lack of transportation, she never visited the library. Instead Millie borrowed books from neighbors and the local high school library. “I liked action and mysteries.”¹⁰ She also loved St. Nicholas, a popular monthly magazine for children.

Every month Millie would have high-tailed it up to the Ladora post office, just two blocks up the street, in her laced shoes and dresses made by her mother. She couldn’t wait for the newest issue of St. Nicholas magazine to arrive.

Millie would sift through the pages filled with action, adventure, and even a hint of romance. She would daydream over ads for products of interest to children and their parents, including Fairy Soap for five cents. The pages were filled with beautiful illustrations and educational articles too.

A new department of the magazine created in 1899 set Millie on her course as a writer. The St. Nicholas League offered subscribers a chance to send stories to the magazine and to win recognition for their efforts. Millie submitted a story titled “The Courtesy,” which was published in the June 1919 issue of St. Nicholas. The issue’s “Competition No. 232” under the prose category lists Silver Badge winner Mildred Augustine, age thirteen, of Iowa.

A PROVING GROUND FOR WRITERS

ST. NICHOLAS was the magazine for children and, often, their parents,¹¹ The magazine was published between 1873 and 1940.

Many famous writers wrote for the magazine, including Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Young readers who, like Millie, sent stories through the St. Nicholas League include such famous authors as F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. B. White, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

A writer was born.

Or, at least, a published writer.

As Millie offered years later, “I’ve written since the time that I was able to walk on my feet.”¹²

Her mother supported her in her aspirations, but her father laughed at her and told her that he thought it would be difficult to make a living at writing. Dr. Augustine hoped that she would follow in his footsteps in the medical profession. Millie felt otherwise. “When I made up my mind to do something I did it.”¹³

Millie continued to submit stories to St. Nicholas and other publications while living in Ladora. She would walk down to the post office to see if a letter had arrived from a publisher accepting her work.

Millie was not quite seventeen when she became one of four graduates from Ladora High in June 1922. She had taken summer courses in Iowa City in order to complete her high school education early.¹⁴ Millie’s wandering feet were ready to move on and out of Ladora. But did she really leave Ladora behind? She told a reporter years later that “the flavor of a small town stays with you all your life.”¹⁵

ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE

Special Collections, The University of Iowa Libraries

MILDRED’S FIRST PUBLISHED WORK

Special Collections, The University of Iowa Libraries

That may be true, but Millie’s desire to follow her dream took her away from Ladora and eventually to many cities that she only imagined seeing as a child. So where did her feet take her next? Where did her writing?

DID YOU KNOW?

Elwyn Brooks “E. B.” White not only wrote Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, but was also the coauthor of the guide to writing style, The Elements of Style, also known as “Strunk & White.”

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