Grandpa's Road Trip

It was June, 1913. Grandma (Jessie nee Wendelken) and Grandpa (Paul) Brown (photo below) lived in Hettinger, North Dakota. Grandma's younger sister, Maud, was about to graduate from high school in Mitchell, South Dakota. With an epic sense of adventure, they packed up the flivver and drove it 900 miles round trip to the ceremonies.

This week grandchildren Sosie and Stan discovered the little torn and tattered picture, above. Penciled on the back was this paragraph:
On Way to Mitchell
About June 1, 1913 the Paul Browns (Richard 1-year-old) and Harry Wendelken (younger brother, about 11) drove from Hettinger via Lemmon, Faith, Philip, Chamberlain, to Mitchell to see Aunt Maud graduate. It was certainly a trip thru the wilds with hardly any roads. Return was made via Elkton and Aberdeen.
-----------------------------------

Here's a Google map (click to enlarge) of roughly where Paul Brown and family went. Google says it is 900 miles, but that is by using established roads, which didn't exist at the time. The river in the center of the map is the Missouri and would have been crossed twice. We asked mother about the trip yesterday. She wasn't born at the time of this adventure, of course, but she did recall her Dad saying from time to time: "We'll make a road."

"Aunt Maud" Wendelken would have been Grandma Jessie's younger sister. We hope she was impressed by the effort made to attend the graduation ceremonies. Her family actually lived in Elkton, South Dakota, very near the Minnesota border, but we surmise that there was no high school there, so in order to get 12 grades in you had to board in Mitchell.
Later Aunt Maud homesteaded a claim, probably somewhere near Mitchell. Her younger sister Dorothy was conscripted to keep her company. Maud later married a professor, Albert Harno. She is a graduate of Dakota Weslyan. They had a daughter, Mikelly (?) who had lots of clothes, many were handed down to mother, she recalls.
-----------
At the time of the trip, there were three Brown children: Ralph (born 1909); Dorothy, (1910); and Richard (1912). We don't know if they all came on the trip or were left behind with caregivers. We can see, however, in the photo what appears to be a child by the steering wheel, behind a banner that says "Hettinger." Here's a blowup:

How many days did it take to travel the 900 miles? Where did they stay, where did they sleep? Whatever happened, by today's standards, this was one whale of a road trip.
----------------------
To review:
Jessie Ernestine Wendelken (Stan's grandmother) was born on 15 August 1886 at Elkton, Brookings County, South Dakota. She married Paul Manley Brown on 7 May 1908 at Elkton, Brookings County, South Dakota. She died on 16 March 1959 at Springfield, Greene County, Missouri, at age 72.
Her sister,
Maud Vida Wendelken, was born on 25 August 1889 at Elkton, Brookings County, South Dakota. She died in February 1979 at Manistee, Manistee County, Michigan, at age 89.
-------------------
Footnote: My college pal Bruce Berg, who lives across the river from Chamberlain outside of the town of Oacoma, says Grandpa Brown would have crossed the Missouri River on the only bridge within 100 miles, a pontoon-style bridge. He writes from the shores of the Missouri in a home he shares with his wife and his hunting dogs:

Chamberlain was originally a distribution center, as goods were hauled up the Missouri on steamboats. So it began as a shipping point and distribution center. Then came the railroad, but by that time Chamberlain had evolved into a commercial center for the surrounding area. In 1913 it had the only bridge across the Missouri-a pontoon bridge-for over 100 miles in either direction so that brought in traffic as well. The picture of me holding the walleye in my Christmas letter is within 100 yards of the railroad bridge.