A series where we take a #lookback at the stories and history of our community, brought to you by Mick Pryor, Financial Advisor with Edward Jones.
Lander was home to one time leading lady of the stage, daughter of the famous Captain Nickerson. She achieved great success and acclaim, but seemingly this has been lost to time.
Edith Adelle Nickerson was born July 25, 1883 at Miner’s Delight, the third child of Captain Herman Nickerson and his wife Harriet. She was involved at an early age with dramatic performances alongside her older sister, Alta, who often would accompany her recitations with piano. Edith graduated in 1901, part of the first group of classes to encompass all twelve grades at the Lander school.
She and her sister Alta went to Boston for further studies, with Edith focusing on elocution and oration. When they would return home in the summer from their studies, they both would give recitals, and Edith notably gave a recitation of the Declaration of Independence at the Lander 4th of July celebrations the year of 1906, right before Governor Brooks gave an address. This same year, it was noted in the local papers that she was going to be off after the summer to further her elocution studies and hinted that she may pursue an acting career afterwards.
She completed her studies at the Emerson School of Oratory in Boston, Massachusetts, partially on a scholarship for her fencing abilities, and went on to teach elocution at a women’s college in Missouri for a time. She would teach here for a year, coming back in the summer months to visit friends and family and give recitals and dramatic readings for various groups, including for the Pioneer Association and the larger event of the annual Wyoming Press Association meeting.
When she returned in 1908 from teaching, her father leased a theatre of his, the Electric Theatre, to Edith and a Mr. Harnsberger which they renamed to the ‘Dixie Theater’. Vaudeville performances and the new ‘moving pictures’ were planned to be shown. However, Edith’s input at first would not be much as this was the year that she joined a traveling acting troupe.
Edith became part of the Sanford Dodge theatre group and was instantly moved into the leading lady role after the original actress returned home due to a family emergency. This group toured across the United States and even Canada, giving performances at local theaters. Her first role was as Marguerite in the play Faust and she quickly got a name for herself wherever she went. She did, however, use her middle name when the plays and she herself were advertised, billing herself as ‘Miss Adelle Nickerson’.
For the next several years, Miss Adelle Nickerson traveled yearly with the group, giving performances of various plays to audiences around the country and getting snowed in at Saskatchewan one year. She won acclaim especially for her Shakespearean roles. One note in the local paper states: “Miss Nickerson is gaining a national reputation as a dramatic artist, many eminent critics claiming that she is one of the best ‘Juliets’ on the American stage.” She would return to Lander during the summer off season, and engaged in both giving recitals and keeping up with her family and friends.
Something changed in 1916 however, as Edith left to rejoin the acting group in Greeley, Colorado in September but returned by December and took over full control of the Dixie Theater. Whether she decided to move home and stop traveling or the group decided to hire a new actress is unclear, but Edith started getting the Dixie involved in screenings of ‘moving pictures’ including movies aimed at educational topics for children to more widely known movies like ‘Birth of a Nation’. Edith’s personal life changed as well when she married Cyrus A. Wiley in 1917, a salesman from Kansas who was working for the American Express office. Their relationship seemed fraught, as they moved to Thermopolis for a time where they both worked at the Golden Rule store but Edith ended up moving back to Lander not much later, and the couple divorced for a time, remarried in 1923, and divorced again.
Edith, like her father, kept active in the Lander community when she lived here whether it be as part of a social group like Women of Woodcraft or the Pioneer Association, working as an election clerk, or continuing theatrical work giving recitals or assisting others with their performances. She visited family and friends often, her younger sister Nellie having married and moved to Riverton and her brother Oro, a pharmacist who had relocated his family to Idaho, or further to various friends in Casper, Denver, or Salt Lake City. She had some minor health issues throughout her life, such as an attack of appendicitis when visiting Oro, but overall seemed a healthy and active woman throughout her life.
In 1926, she married a Scottish sheepman at a ceremony in Billings, Montana by the name of John Maclean (though it must be pointed out that newspapers often spelled his name McLean). They lived for a time in Riverton themselves, but like her first marriage they never had any children. While it is unclear when she stopped managing the Dixie Theater, she still kept up with performances given by others in town and helped cover management of the Grand Theater when the owners were out. John himself seems to have been welcomed by the family for at least some time as it was noted he accompanied Captain Nickerson, her siblings, and others on a hike to Fremont Peak in September of 1927. However, it seems this marriage too did not last (though it is unclear if they ever legally divorced), as by 1935 Edith had moved out of Lander and made her way to her older sister Alta Farley, a widow herself living in San Francisco, California. Edith lived with Alta, her niece Alta Carson Heyneman, and various roommates over the years according to census data. She found employment as a manifest clerk for shipping with the Port of Oakland for 20 years, and lived out the rest of her life in California.
She wasn’t without loss, losing both of her parents in the 1920s, her brother Oro in 1940, her sister Alta in 1952, and two months prior to her passing, her niece Alta Heyneman. Edith herself passed away May 16, 1964, after a long life of renown and active community participation, beloved by her family and friends. An active and vibrant woman, she lived a fascinating life coming from the beginnings of a small gold mining town of Wyoming.
Next up for the Fremont County Museum
September 10, 6pm at the Riverton Museum, “Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women By Sophie Barksdale” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series
September 13, 9am with the Riverton Museum, “Gas Hills Uranium Trek” Wind River Visitors Council Adventure Trek Series
September 13, 1-3pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Apple Fest”
September 19, 7pm at the Dubois Museum, “Lunar Eclipse with Astronomer Tom Herret” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series
September 20, 9am with the Riverton Museum, “Sinks Canyon Cave Tour” Wind River Visitors Council Adventure Trek Series
September 20, 1pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Adult Pioneer Craft”
September 27,10:30am at the Dubois Museum, “Kids Corner: Cyanotype Print Making” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
Now thru December, 9-5 at the Riverton Museum, “History Day Exhibits” Shoshone Schools
Oct 4, TBA at the Lander Community Center, “Rare Relics Roadshow” Wind River Cultural Centers Foundation
Call the Dubois Museum 1-307-455-2284, the Pioneer Museum 1-307-332-3339 or the Riverton Museum 1-307-856-2665 for detail regarding their programs.
The Dubois Museum, the Pioneer Museum in Lander and the Riverton Museum need your financial support. In the current economic environment, the museums are more reliant than ever on donations from the private sector to continue to provide the quality programs, collections management, exhibits and services that have become their hallmark over the last four years. Please make your tax deductible contribution through the Wind River Cultural Centers Foundation www.windriverccf.com or by sending a check to Fremont County Museums 450 N 2nd Rm 320 or taking it directly to the museum you choose to support.