Hayfield was (and is) a small rural community southwest of Rochester in south central Minnesota. This part of Minnesota had been opened for settlement in the 1850s, and these young people were likely the first members of their respective families to have been born in the United States.
Seated at the far left is my maternal grandmother, Selma Aline Distad, daughter of Peter Torson Distad and Gertrude Dahle, who had emigrated from Norway to the U.S. in the 1860s.
Posted to share with my family. Probably of minimal interest to other readers except perhaps to note the size of high school classes at the time, and to marvel at the elaborateness of Edwardian fashion for formal occasions.
See also: Roots of the Distad family name and Distad, Norway.
Re the clothing, see also the post below this one with a video of NYC in 1910.
the three women in the back row are not holding scrolls (diplomas?) - are they the teachers?
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They would be students; no way there would be three teachers. The diplomas must be down and out of sight.
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