| ![[Photo of E.E. Palmer at school staff meeting]](Palmer-Din.gif) |
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Left: Edward Ernest and Ida Palmer (1898). Right: Mr. Palmer at a dinner meeting of the Seger Indian School staff. In June 1893, Edward Ernest Palmer graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from Dickinson College, a liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. At Dickinson he learned photography under Professor Charles Francis Himes and attended a lecture on Indian education by Colonel Richard Pratt of the Carlisle Indian School. This lecture led Mr. Palmer to dedicate a significant portion of his life to the education and advancement of the Indian race. After initial service at the Crow Agency in Montana, Mr. Palmer came to Seger Colony in the latter part of 1896. He taught at the Seger Indian School, with several breaks in service, from 1896 to 1904. In April 1898, he married Ida Lena Stroud, who, at the time, was homesteading 160 acres near Colony (claim relinquished after her marriage to Edward) and whose father participated in the 1889 Oklahoma land run. Mrs. Palmer also taught at the Seger Indian School. She joined the mission church (Columbian Memorial) in Colony on November 15, 1896, the day the new church building opened. Mr. Palmer joined the church a week later. Some of the National Archives photographs on this site were taken by Mr. Palmer. [Accompanying text based on information provided by Sharon Mountford (granddaughter). Photographs courtesy of Sharon Mountford] |