What we already know about La Moss
So far, I can count on one hand what I already know about “La Moss”. In the documents I have, the name is always written as La Moss. Her birthday is listed in Llewellyn’s diary as February 27th. It looks like her surname in that same birthday entry is Menner.
Where do we start?
I have to start with figuring out where in Llewellyn’s timeline I am working. Llewellyn’s diary covers the years 1923-1925. At that time, she was living at home with her parents. She was working in an insurance office and teaching at her church. She got married in June of 1926. La Moss appears often in the diary. After looking at the diary again, I noticed La Moss only appears in the first year. That leads me to believe it’s possible she wasn’t even at the wedding. I have a guest book and gift list. I can’t skip them because this is the biggest list of Llewellyn’s friends and associates I have to work from.
I made an extra workbook in my Research Log to start. In that workbook, I went ahead and re-transcribed the guest list and the gift list. I marked the family members, whoever signed the gift list, and whoever signed the guest list. If you’d like to follow along and see the file, I uploaded it to my Google Drive.
I turned off the family members for the screenshot above. That made the list visible in one screen, without scrolling. This makes it easier for me to see who the possibile candidates are. I can also rule out a couple of people just based on Llewellyn’s diary entries.
Who am I ruling out and why?
- Mrs. Margaret Glazier & Ruth: Ruth appears often in Llewellyn’s diary. She’s been written about the same days as La Moss at times.
- Willa Steinhoff – Willa is in the diary more often than La Moss is. Willa and La Moss have been in the same entry together.
- Anna Pusch – Anna was one of Llewellyn’s co-workers. She gets her own nickname in the diary, Puschie.
What’s Next?
I already have a ton of leads that I’m looking into. I find it curious that there is mention of La Moss only until August of 1923. Before that she appeared often. After La Moss drops off the diary, a Harold Menner shows up often and gives Llewellyn and her friends rides home. I will be looking into that next time!
Links Just for Fun
- Entries in this blog featuring La Moss
- Google Sheet of the Family, Guest and Gift lists
