The business of dressmaking.

Underhill 1889-1902

Underhill.  Bird's eye view of Detroit Lakes.

Salome Underhill and her two brothers were raised on a farm in Dodge County, Minnesota. By 1889 she had moved to St. Paul, where she worked for Mary Molloy as a dressmaker. From about 1890-1901, Underhill operated a business in St. Paul under her own name. By 1910, however, she was working as a dressmaker in a department store in Detroit City [Detroit Lakes], Minnesota. In 1914 she was living in Los Angeles and working as a tailor. This work apparently allowed her to support her father, a disabled Civil War veteran who lived in a veterans’ home in Los Angeles.

The brocade and velvet black silk dress pictured below was made for Abby Jane Gray of St. Paul, Minnesota, about 1899. The photograph of Abby Jane Gray was taken in 1900.

Brocaded black satin and velvet dress  Abby Jane Colt Gray

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