Creating Fiction from History: 12/7/2022

Since the day the world made her acquaintance, December 19 in the year 1871, "Woozie" had been known for her sweet demeanor.

When Winifred Louisa Johnson first greeted this cold, sometimes cruel, world just before Midwinter's Day in the environs of Waukon, Iowa, the town had just received a fresh layer of glittering white snow. Saying the town had just received a fresh layer of glittering white snow is putting it mildly, however.

Woozie was delivered by her father, Jack, for neither the midwife nor the doctor were able to make it there at all, due to the fact that her mother, Mildred, had chosen to go into labor during one of Waukon's infamous blizzards. With an average temperature of well below zero, with windchill, the weather was anything but conducive to travel. As the case may be, Mildred was lucky that even Jack was on hand, for he had been attending a meeting at the Waukon Grange for the Patrons of Husbandry and had just gotten safely home when the blizzard struck in all its fury. Jack may have been the manager of the orchard belonging to D.W. Adams, Esq., Secretary of the Iowa State Horticultural Society, who also made his home there in Waukon.

So, despite the conditions into which she emerged, Woozie made a fine entrance and lived a full, healthy life. However, when this photograph of her was perhaps captured, on the occasion of her 16th birthday, the residents of NorthEastern Allamakee County were already beginning to figure out that Woozie was not so sweet after all!

If you would like to create fiction from history with one of the museum's photos, please contact the Ledger at (406) 287-5301 or email whledger@gmail.com.