First Licensed Woman Embalmer in Minnesota
Mattie Belle Murphy Rader
Mattie was born May 28, 1873 in Hennepin County, the oldest of three children born to John D Murphy and Harriet C McKinley. Her father died in1879, and her mother re-married widower Washington Rader in 1882, whose first wife had died in 1878. On April 3, 1890 Mattie married her stepbrother from the blended family, Thomas B. Rader. Thomas had begun a well-drilling business in Delano in 1884, to which he added a hardware store and livery business. In 1908 Mattie Rader and Walter Tautges finished a course in embalming and funeral directing at the State University. Mattie was the first licensed woman embalmer in Minnesota.
Mattie and Thomas moved from Delano to Wyoming in 1919 and homesteaded in the Ervay Basin. They homesteaded with about 20 other families from Minnesota. Over the years they bought out other homesteads, increasing the size of their ranch to encompass almost the entire Basin. Mattie was the postmaster of Raderville, named after her family. Thomas was never recorded on the censuses as living in Wyoming, and his businesses continued in Delano. However, Mattie stayed on, as did Charles Carlson, who was living with Thomas and Mattie as early as 1905, first as a laborer and then as a well driller. When Thomas died in 1940, Mattie returned to Delano for the funeral as did Charles, who was one of the pall bearers. Thomas is buried in the Delano Cemetery. Mattie had a fine modern house on the ranch. An interesting bit of information concerning the land is that the geographical center of Wyoming was near that ranch house. But her advancing age made it difficult to keep up the active life necessary to manage a ranch property, so in 1948 she sold the ranch and moved into "town", which was Casper. Mattie died in 1952 at the age of 84, and is buried next to her long time friend Charles Carlson, who was the foreman and part owner of the Raderville Ranch. She was the mother of two children, Vera, born in 1893, and Clarence McKinley, born in 1895.