Edith Hoy Peterson Collection

Born on December 1, 1901, to Thomas and Nella Marble Hoy, Edith "Nan" Hoy Peterson was a lifelong resident of Keystone, South Dakota. Her parents were from pioneer families of Keystone. Her father was a businessman who had a hardware and general merchandise business, and later a pharmacy.

Edith school in Keystone through the ninth grade. She then briefly attended the Spearfish Normal School until her mother fell ill.

Edith married a local miner, Bert Peterson, at Newcastle, Wyoming, in 1925. They had five children: Helen, Patricia, John, Kathleen, and Thomas. Edith outlived all but two of them. Her husband Bert died in 1971.

Edith was a proud witness to many events and people in Keystone history. She remembered many fires and floods. She was the last living person to recall the madame, Bismarck Annie and "her girls," at the Palace. She once marched with women suffragettes, carrying a flag, and only missed voting once during her lifetime due to an injury. She won a contest for possessing a copy of the first issue of the Black Hills Journal, which the founder, Joseph Gossage, gave her father. For this she won first place, including a $100 U.S. Savings Bond, in a contest for possessing the oldest issue of waht was later known as the Rapid City Journal. Edith cashed the savings bond on her 94th birthday for fear that she would not live much longer. Edith was named a lifetime member of the Keystone Area Historical Society in 1983.

Edith died on Saturday, March 1, 1997, at the age of ninety-five.