Love grows, letter by letter

By Lynn Taylor Rick, Journal staff | Sunday, April 08, 2007

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In the early courtship letters between Joseph Gossage and Alice Bower, the young Alice refused to abide by the social expectations of the day.

In other words, she was a woman who spoke her mind.

“It makes no difference to me how others may do or think — it is my duty to live my life as my instincts teach so that a few at least will miss me and feel that something needful had dropped out of their lives.” Alice Bower, Aug 18, 1881.

To the young newspaper man, Bower’s words were gold.

“I like the way you express yourself, when you say that ‘it makes no difference to me how others may do or think — it is my duty to live my life as my instincts teach.’ Those words make me think a great deal more of you than if they were not written, as I like to see a young lady that has the power to write and carry them out, for she will get along through this world without the least trouble, for they are few and far between — and when you see one make a note of it.” Joseph Gossage, Aug. 28, 1881.

Gossage took note of it indeed. Less than a year after those sentiments passed between them, Gossage and Bower were married in her hometown of Vermillion.

Settling in Rapid City as a married couple, the Gossages turned their attentions to the Rapid City Journal, which Joseph Gossage had founded in 1878. Their marriage, liberated and somewhat unusual for its day, proved to be an essential element in the survival and success of the newspaper.

Now all of the courtship letters written by the Gossages, as well as Alice’s journals, are available in the new book, “Sunshine Always: The Courtship Letters of Alice Bower and Joseph Gossage of Dakota Territory.”

Compiled by Alice Gossage’s nephew, Maxwell Van Nuys; edited by Paula M. Nelson; and published by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press, the letters peek into the lives of two of South Dakota’s earliest movers and shakers.

Van Nuys, 91, remembers first reading the letters and journals as a young man. He was instantly struck by his aunt’s skill.

“I thought that it was remarkable that she would write a diary as well as she did,” he says. “She was determined to be a journalist … When she was 18, she insisted on working in the newspaper office (in Vermillion).”

That insistence — much against the social norms of the day — originally brought the Gossages together.

Joseph first learned about Alice when he was looking for a typesetter for his Rapid City newspaper. Although he was never able to hire Alice, Joseph began a letter courtship of the young woman when he discovered their mutual love of the newspaper business.

Through letter after letter, the two bared their souls to one another, discovering a surprising unity in their beliefs. Joseph, Alice found, was far more liberated in his views of women than most men of the day. And Alice, Joseph found, was a skilled writer and strong-willed and bright companion.

His early impressions of his wife proved true.

During their life together, Alice Gossage frequently kept the Journal afloat during Joseph’s numerous illnesses. Out of necessity and a true love of journalism, Alice Gossage, or AG as she signed her columns, meticulously took over the business and editorial duties of the newspaper, sometimes struggling to get by with only 50 cents in her pocket.

Francis Case, who together with Harold W. Card bought one quarter interest in the paper in 1922, called Alice, “The genius that kept the paper going.”

Through persistence and determination, she managed to hold the newspaper together until a family inheritance from Joseph’s family finally allowed the Journal some comfort room.

Alice also became known for her philanthropy and active work in various organizations, including the prohibition movement of the day.

Later, when a South Dakota columnist omitted Alice’s name from a list of the Who’s Who in South Dakota,” other journalists jumped to her defense. One wrote, “Mrs. Gossage has been on the job all the time, and has taken a turn at every kind of work know to print shop or newspaper plant, even bearing the burden of keeping the business running for a year at a time, and at numerous intervals when Mr. Gossage has been laid up by ill health. We would say that she does the work of two persons — and does it amazingly well — with our breaking away from the many outside calls upon her time.”

Van Nuys thinks the letters clearly show what an extraordinary woman his aunt was. “She was a great writer … (And) she was married to the right man,” says Van Nuys. “She was the reason that the Journal survived.”

The Gossages sold majority interest in the newspaper in 1925. Joseph died two years later, and Alice Gossage died in 1929.

Today, the newspaper they nurtured is now the second largest newspaper in the state, and both of the Gossage’s photos hang on its walls as its first publishers.

Van Nuys said his early memories of his aunt and uncle are good ones. He recalls Joseph Gossage buying him and a cousin a crate of soda.

“We were much pleased with that,” he says with a laugh. “They were both very pleasant. I liked them very much, but I didn’t really know them very well.”

Through the letters, however, he’s gotten to know them better. And he hopes others will get the same joy out of discovering more about the relationship that sustained the Rapid City Journal in its earliest days and made such a huge mark on the early Black Hills.

Nelson to speak

University of Wisconsin professor Paula M. Nelson will speak at the South Dakota State Historical Society’s History Conference April 13-14, in Pierre. An authority on Western homesteading and women’s history, Nelson edited the letters and journals of Joseph and Alice Gossage for the new book, “Sunshine Always: The Courtship Letters of Alice Bower and Joseph Gossage of Dakota Territory.” She speaks at about 8:30 a.m. Friday, April 13, in the amphitheater at the Society.

If you go

What: South Dakota State Historical Society History Conference

When: April 12-14

Where: Best Western Ramkota Hotel, Pierre

Theme: “Romancing the West: Women’s Lives on the Great Plains”

State Historical Society History Conference Schedule:

- Thursday, April 12: 5:30 p.m.-7 p.m., registration.

- Friday, April 13: 8 a.m.-7 p.m., registration; 8:30 a.m.-10 a.m., opening remarks, Jay D. Vogt, director, South Dakota State Historical Society, followed by keynote address by Paula M. Nelson, Amphitheater II; 10 a.m.-10:30 a.m., break/vendors; 10:30 a.m.-noon, “The Lives of American Indian Women,” Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, Amphitheater II; 12:15 p.m.-1:30 p.m., lunch, Gallery A; 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m., “New Settlers on the Plains: Norwegian Immigrant Women and Old-Stock Americans,” Lori Ann Lahlum and Janet How Townsley, Amphitheater II; 3:30 p.m.-4 p.m., break/vendors; 4 p.m.-5:30 p.m., “Women in Politics,” Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, Amphitheater II, 5:45 p.m.-6:45 p.m., reception, Cultural Heritage Center; 7 p.m.-9 p.m., special showing of “The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band,” with discussion of the Bower Family Band, Maxwell Van Nuys, Amphitheater II.

- Saturday, April 14: 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m., registration; 8:30 a.m.-10 a.m., “Calamity Jane, the Woman,” by James D. McLaird, Amphitheater II; 10 a.m.-10:30 a.m., break/vendors; 10:30 a.m.-noon, “Chinese and African-American Immigrant Women,” Rose Estep Fosha and Betti Van Epps-Taylor, Amphitheater II; 12:15 a.m.-1:30 p.m., awards luncheon, Gallery A; 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m., “The Women of Frontier House, Linda Peavy and Urusla Smith, Amphitheater II; 3:30 p.m.-4 p.m., break/vendors; 4 p.m.-5:30 p.m., closing address, “The Typesetter and the Printer: A Story of a Courtship,” Paula M. Nelson, Amphitheater II.

Lynn Taylor Rick is a staff writer with the Journal. She can be reached at lynn.taylorrick@rapidcityjournal.com or 394-8414.