Historian and professor Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner has spent decades researching the Gage family in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Decades earlier, she met and befriended the last living member of the family, Matilda Jewell Gage (1886-1986). Dr. Wagner learned much about the Gage family from Matilda that would have been unattainable otherwise. Matilda was the first of three children born to Thomas and Sophia Gage. Alice Eliza Gage, the second child, was born and died on the same date, December 12, 1891. The cause of her death is unknown. Although no headstone is known to exist for Alice, she is believed to have been buried in Riverside Memorial Park in Aberdeen along with many other members of the Gage family. Matilda’s youngest sister, Dorothy Louise Gage, was born on June 11, 1898, shortly after the Gage family moved to Bloomington, Illinois. Five months later, November 11, 1898, Dorothy died from what was then called congestion of the brain.
Members of the Gage family from near and far gathered for little Dorothy’s funeral including little Dorothy’s Aunt Maud who had taken a train to get to Bloomington. For reasons that remain unclear, little Dorothy’s Uncle Frank did not attend the funeral. The death and funeral were terribly sad, as you would expect. Maud hid her grief as much as she could while she was with her family in Bloomington. None of the other passengers on her return train trip home were aware of her grief. When Uncle Frank picked her up at the train station, she seemed to crumble. For days Aunt Maud was in a terrible state. Uncle Frank wanted to ease Aunt Maud’s suffering but there was nothing he could do. Or was there?
During one of Dr. Wagner and Matilda’s many conversations, Matilda mentioned little Dorothy’s grave. Did little Dorothy’s headstone still exist? Dr. Wagner visited the Evergreen Memorial Cemetery to search for little Dorothy’s grave. What seemed like a simple task at first turned out to be a formidable undertaking. The cemetery consisted of over 20,000 marked graves and there was an unknown number of unmarked graves. Finally, Dr. Wagner found seven headstones with the last name Gage, but little Dorothy’s grave was not among them. Was her grave unmarked? Was Dr. Wagner looking in the right cemetery? Undeterred, Dr. Wagner continued the search. At last, Dr. Wagner found a small headstone with the following inscription: Dorothy Louise, Dau. Of Mr. & Mrs. T.C. Gage, June 11, 1898, Nov. 11, 1898.