I showed the photo of the young woman to the archivist at the second county seat I visited, thinking maybe I could get more information if I could identify anything else in the photo that might be particular to a region, or to a farm family that was well-known in the area. I was running dry on working my way backward and was trying to come up with alternatives to follow the smallest of small breadcrumbs.

She looked at the photo but shook her head.

“The young woman dressed in men’s...