Mary Solon Lewis was reared on a ranch in the badlands and attended the one-room rural Weta school and Kadoka High School. After earning her bachelors degree from the University of Nebraska-Omaha, she returned to South Dakota and helped publish the weekly newspaper in Martin. She has spent her retirement researching and writing books on the history of Badlands towns and surrounding areas.
A German immigrant, Wilhem Schulz, first settled in eastern Nebraska in 1897. Hearing of "free" land in South Dakota, Wilhem and his six children, moved by team and covered hayrack to his 160-acre claim in 1906. Their homestead is located in present day Western Jackson County. A year later, is son, Heine came directly from Hamburg and his wife, Anna, joined them in July of 1908. Heine and Anna are the author's maternal grandparents and Wilhelm is her great-grandfather.
