Della Gould Emmons

Della Gould Emmons (b. August 12, 1890 in Glencoe, Minnesota) was an American author.

Early years

Della was born to William George Gould and Anna Wadel Gould. The family were pioneers in the jewelry and entertainment business, and she described her girlhood as a continuous song.

At the University of Minnesota Della prepared to teach languages but instead taught music and coached dramatics at Sisseton, South Dakota, adjacent to the Sioux Reservation.

With her marriage to Allen B. Emmons, a train dispatcher, the family made a series of westward moves. They paralleled the Lewis and Clark Trail living in Aberdeen, South Dakota, Miles City, Harlowton, Three Forks and Missoula, Montana.

In Washington State the family made short stays in Pasco and Yakima, then moved to Seattle for nineteen years where Della wrote and produced historical plays for churches, schools and KJR Radio with John Pearson.

Books

Emmons' first book, Sacajawea of the Shoshones, was adapted into the film The Far Horizons. The work was unique in its time for using Sacajawea's personal point of view and she portrayed Native Americans as sensitive beings with deep feelings. "After the Indian dealt with the white man he masked his emotions."

In her second book, Nothing in Life is Free, an Indiana couple is lured westward by the offer of free land in Washington Territory and joins the famous Naches Pass wagon train, where hardship and struggles demonstrate to the young pioneer family that nothing in life is really free at all. Her third book, Leschi of the Nisquallies, served as the source for the Indian fishing rights court trials. Emmons was adopted by the Lummi tribe and given the name "Selequal" (Maiden of the Great Calm).

Emmons' final book, Jay Gould's Million Dollar Gems, details the life of her older brother, who was a master showman in Minnesota. As a young man, Jay bought a motion-picture projector for two gold watches and five dollars, and started the Crystal Theatre in Glencoe in 1909. The theater is the second oldest in Minnesota.

Jay traveled to small towns playing films, selling musical instruments and teaching music lessons to schoolchildren. It is believed that he may have inspired Meredith Willson's character of Harold Hill in The Music Man. Later he toured the Midwest in a fleet of white buses with his nine performing children, "Jay Gould's Million Dollar Circus." Documents also show that he gave Lawrence Welk of TV fame one of his first jobs as an accordion player.

Personal life

Della Emmons served as curator for the Washington State Historical Society and was an International Honorary member of Beta Sigma Phi.

Death

She died in Tacoma on November 6, 1983, and is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Glencoe. Emmons was survived by her daughter, Kathryn Nettleblad of Seattle (1914 - 2010), and son, Allen Gould Emmons (b. 1920) of Tacoma.

References

Biographical sources are from Della Gould Emmons' books, Sacajawea of the Shoshones, Nothing in Life is Free, Leschi of the Nisquallies and Jay Gould's Million Dollar Gems.

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Name	Emmons, Della Gould
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Date of birth	August 12, 1890
Place of birth
Date of death	1983
Place of death