Eminent Homemaker
County: Butte
The outstanding record of her nine children is the principle testimonial of Myrtle Sisson of Belle Fourche. Among them, the seven sons and two daughters collected eight awards for high scholarship in English and mathematics at Belle Fourche high school. Six were graduated from South Dakota State College, three of them with honors. Two earned master of science degrees.
Sisson was born Myrtle Hill at Wessington Springs, April 12, 1886. Her parents came to Jerauld County by ox team as homesteaders. Later they moved to Redfield.
In 1911, she went to Belle Fourche to marry George Sisson who had gone from Redfield three years earlier to homestead just across the state line in Wyoming. In 1925, to be nearer schools and a better water supply, they purchased additional land in South Dakota and moved their buildings to their present location.
George Sisson was an invalid for seven years before his death in 1945. During his long illness, Myrtle Sisson was his constant companion and nurse.
The Sisson home west of Belle Fourche is large, with modern utilities. The older part of the house, the kitchen and dining room, were built in Wyoming and moved to its present location. The new part of the house, the living room and upstairs bedrooms were added in 1934.
In addition to all of the mending needed to keep the family neatly clothed on a small budget, she made many of her own clothes and those for the girls and the younger boys. She cared for the hens, the milk and cream, the vegetables and meat, canning large amounts and selling excess to add to the family budget. A good planting of apple trees always kept the family supplied with fruit.
For years, the Sissons were workers and leaders in the neighborhood Sunnyslope Church, in which they both held offices and taught Sunday school classes. The country church has since dissolved. Sisson now is active in the Congregational Church in Belle Fourche where she was church clerk.
Sisson has been a member of the West Side Extension club in Butte County for several years and has held the various offices in the club.