USA > North Dakota > Dickey County > History Of Dickey County, ND, 1930 > Part 16
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When the town of Glover was started Mr. Ulness moved his store and the postoffice to that place, but he continued to live on his farm on 24, coming up to the store every day and going back to the farm at night. He kept the store in Glover till about the fall of 1888, when he sold out. From that time on the building was used as a warehouse till it was moved out to Section 18, 132-59 where it still stands. By the help of Mr. Whitfield it was loaded on wagons and moved out in the winter of 1897-8. This was the building from Kindred constructed of hewn oak from timber grown on the Sheyenne River there.
Peter B. Bergestrom came from Sweden to America in 1880 and worked in Illinois for two years. He heard of the new lands to be had and came out to Fargo in 1882.' He went into a land office at Fargo and a locator there fixed him out with a location at 10 cents an acre, and Mr. Bergestrom made
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the filing in May, 1883. It was six months before he saw the land. He left. the train at LaMoure and walked overland, finding his location from neighbors who directed him to the right place. He made his home with Mr. Howe over to the south for a week. He had a hammer and a saw with him and hired some lumber brought out from LaMoure and put up a 12 by 12 "mansion," and with a plow brought out by the lumber hauler they made a firebreak, which saved his shanty that fall. When the shanty was made he put in a stove and made a bunk in one corner. He filled his bunk with slough grass and covered it with a few old clothes for bedding.
Mr. George Whitfield was originally from Hamilton, Ontario, and came into Dakota in 1881, where he secured work around the Fargo region. He wanted land and in the spring of 1882 he came out to the Glover region. He came by train to Valley City then walked across country from there alone. At that time there were only two townships in Dickey County surveyed, one around Ellendale and the northeast one. Mr. Whitfield found a good quarter on the northwest of 24, 132-59, then went back to Fargo to file. He and his brother Harker W. Whitfield came out in the summer of 1883. The brother had squatted on a piece of land in 24, 132-60, so they were located near each other, a fortunate circumstance, as George Whitfield was ill all summer, about the only work he was able to do being to help his brother dig a slough well on the northeast corner of his homestead. After Mr. Ulness had established his store Mr. Whitfield moved his build- ings over onto the northwest corner of his claim to be as near the center of things as he could and still remain on his own land.
Swen Henry Johnson came out to Bear Creek in 1886 and later worked for some time for George Whitfield. His parents lived in Bear Creek at that time but finally located over in Ransom County. Swen made several trips on which he carried supplies out from Glover a distance of nine and a half miles by carrying the goods on his back. In 1890 he was married to Miss Mary Seter who had a pre-emption on Section 2, 132-59, where they lived for about eleven years, then they went over to the Johnson home in Ransom County.
Mr. Whitfield had to use a mixed team sometimes in the early days; a mule, a yoke of oxen and a bull making up the team at one time. All plow- ing was done with single furrow plows at first, but toward the end of the 80's gang plows came into use. Harrowing or dragging was done with the driver walking behind the implement in the soft fields, drag carts were un- known. Grain binders were much like those of to-day except that there was no bundle carrier.
The Oakes branch of the Northern Pacific was graded and track laid in the fall of 1886. This line went right across Mr. Whitfield's farm, but he managed to get the grain off ahead of the graders. The track layers followed from the north very soon, but for a time the depot was the only improve- ments that were put in at Glover.
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In these early days life was simple and in most cases happy. There was much work to be done, but people had time to visit their neighbors and help each other. They felt a personal interest in the other settlers and their friends meant more to them in those days of pioneering. Food was plain but plenty; there was no lack of simple, substantial food and clothing. Wool was raised on the place and sent to the woolen mill at Grand Forks to be exchanged for cloth and yarn. The market for most farm produce was slow and it was difficult to get hold of any real money, and what was secured was needed for taxes, machinery and such supplies as could not be produced on the farm.
Mr. Samuel Glover was from Delaware, Ohio, and he had originally intended to settle in Kansas but not liking that country he decided to go further north, as the "chiggers" and other torments of that warm country were too much for Mr. Glover and his wife. He had a quantity of Northern Pacific stock which was not very valuable at that time but it could be traded for railroad land at par. He came up into this new part of Dakota to look around, and after careful inspection he bought 30,000 acres of the railroad lands, and a year or two after that purchase he organized his affairs, erected buildings and hired competent men to carry on farming on a large scale. When the railroad sold this large block of land to Mr. Glover they became interested in its development and told him that if he would actually develop it they would build through to Oakes, which was done and a station estab- lished and a townsite laid out and named after Mr. Glover.
Much of the Glover holdings were over in LaMoure County, but these were disposed of in later years. Much of the land held in Dickey County was held in tact, although it has been subdivided into smaller farms and managed by tenants or local managers. Mr. Alderman is the manager of the Glover Holding Company and has lived in Oakes, from which place he directs operations. Ed Hisley was one of the foremen on the ranch and work- ed for the company on one of the subdivions near Glover, although he had some land of his own. Nels Anders was another old employee of the Glovers who has remained with them for many years.
One of the big industries connected with the Glover operations was the sheep business. There were at one time 40,000 head of sheep, brought in by several different shipments from Montana. Some of the cattlemen were not pleased with the invasion of the sheep, and as several hundred sheep died it was thought they had been poisoned by the cattlemen using salt- peter. The sheep were watered at springs along the bluffs or at the James River until the flowing wells were put in in later years. There were several of the sheep plants in different places and these had to be supplied from the home ranch, and it required considerable driving to get around to all of them.
After the postoffice was moved up to the townsite and the name changed to Glover several business houses were established and the town became the trading place for a good sized region. A very convenient church was built
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in the new town and church services and Sunday School maintained.
One of the new business men who came to Glover and whose family has been prominently connected with all the activities of the town is that of Mr. O. Andrew Olson. Mr. Olson was born in Norway, came over to Quebec and later to Wisconsin, where he was in business until 1888 when he came to Glover. Mr. Ekern with whom he was working in Wisconsin had heard from a traveling man that there was a good opening in the new town in Dakota, so Mr. Olson and L. P. Ekern came up and looked over the loca- tion. They bought out Mr. Ulness and took over the postoffice. They con- tinued in business as partners until 1893, when Mr. Ekern inherited a legacy from his father and went to Superior, Wisconsin, to engage in the wholesale business. After 1893 Mr. Olson took over the Glover business and continued it until his death in 1905, when his sons, J. Oscar and C. Edwin and the daughter, Mrs. Clara Groshans took over the business and conducted it for about twenty years, when they sold out. The younger people had become interested in farming on their own account and found plenty to do in manag- ing that business.
Glover people have always been interested in good schools, and have maintained a good two-room school in the town. With the change in the farming business that has come since the World War there is not the same volume of business there used to be, but it is still a prosperous village and the business center of a good population. From one of the families there has gone out a young man who has made his mark in the world in a way that does not come to every one. John Stenquist received his inspiration as a country boy from his course at the State Normal and Industrial School and finally graduated with high honors from Columbia University. In the time of the World War he was asked to assist the officials who were giving the army intelligence tests, a service which he performed remarkably well. Not being satisfied that the tests for intelligence that were being used were adapted to determine the mechanical ability of the young men, and re- membering his own start on the road to education, he invented a mechanical ingenuity test that was something completely new and that met an un- noticed need. Mr. Stenquist is now the psychology research director of the schools of the City of Baltimore, Maryland (1928).
In 1921 township 132-59 was cut off from James River Valley and the two towns maintain their separate organizations, although retaining much in common interest from so long association.
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CHAPTER XXI
DIVIDE TOWNSHIP, 132-59
[For the facts of this chapter the Society is indebted to Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Stevens, B. H. Stevens, Julius Dethlefson, Pel S. Anderson and others of its pioneers.]
D' IVIDE Township was for forty years so closely connected with James River Valley Township that its history is largely interwoven with that of the other township. Divide lies in the northeast corner of Dickey County and was one of the first townships to be surveyed. Probably the surveyors were the first visitors to the region, as the Nicollet & Fremont expedition went up the James and therefore missed this territory. Bear Creek comes down through the township from the north, and the old stage line must have crossed a corner near the river.
In the spring of 1882, Mr. E. F. Stevens and Mr. Richard Fallon came up from Mediapolis, Iowa, to Fargo, with the intention of taking up some land in Dakota. Mr. Fallon had been in the Red River Valley the season before and thought that some good land was available, consequently they headed for Fargo where the land office was located. Some of Fallon's friends had told him that there was some fine land between the James River and Bear Creek that had not been taken. In order to secure good claims they prefered to go a long distance out from the established roads and take a chance that the railroad would be built to them later, for they wished to get good land and location at the beginning rather than take second choice in order to be near roads already established.
Some of the experiences of Mr. Stevens and Mr. Fallon are told in the chapter on Pioneer Experiences. They made filings at Fargo, taking the word of the man at the land office, after promising what would happen to him if he located them on poor land. These entries were made on March 9th, 1882, then the two friends went to work on one of the big farms in Cass County for the spring. About the first of July they started for their claims, went by rail to Jamestown and then started down the valley trail for Grand Rapids on foot. They were fortunate to find a homesteader's shack where they secured something to eat and reached Grand Rapids on the evening of July 3rd. They remained here for the Fourth, where the chief interest of the people was centered upon a conference with the officials of the North- ern Pacific Railway about building a road to that town.
On July 5th, the new settlers started for their claims. They had no roads to go by, except that the corners of sections in LaMoure County were
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marked with wooden posts. In Dickey County they could not read the markings on the stones at the corner locations and went back to Grand Rapids, where they bought some lumber and hired a man to take them to their claims. This man could not read the locations either so they unloaded their lumber on the prairie as near their claims as they could guess. After wandering around the country they found a man at Bear Creek relay station who could decipher the markings on the stones in Dickey County. They hired this man for $10.00, a lot of money for those days, to draw their lumber to their claims, three quarters of a mile away, and in this way Mr. Stevens got his lumber to the corner where his buildings are located. Mr. Fallon's 'claim was nearby. Here they built their shanties and stayed in them long enough to establish a residence, then started for the Cass farm near Fargo on foot in order to earn some money with which to improve their claims, and did not return until the following spring. Upon their return they walked on to the northeast along Bear Creek, as they had gone to the relay station with Mr. Mills who worked there. They passed within sight of their own two shanties but did not recognize them and were curious as to who could have located in that vicinity without their knowing about it. They walked for twenty-two miles towards Lisbon before they saw another sign of civilization.
Most of the settlers had but little money and no help and were obliged to do without many of the actual necessities of life, for instance, the first wells were merely shallow pits dug in the border of a slough or stream bed, and though filled with frogs and pollywogs were used for drinking water. Some of these holes were dug in ground so saturated with alkali that the water was too bitter to swallow, and beans cooked in it were harder after several hours of cooking then when taken from the bag. Coffee was ground by placing the grains in a tobacco sack and pounding them with a hammer on a wagon wheel.
Mr. Fallon now stayed on the claims most of the time while Mr. Stevens worked out to secure the necessary cash. The latter made occasion- al trips to bring supplies until the fall of 1884, when he went to Iowa to pick corn and chop wood. He had just recovered from an attack of Red River Fever, a form of typhoid, when he arrived at the farm home of Mr. Gauss to secure board. The two young ladies of the home did not look on the travelers with any favor, but Mr. Stevens felt differently, and though until that time he had not considered really making a home for himself, decided that he would, provided he could secure the young lady of his choice for his bride. Miss Gauss evidently changed her mind very soon, for never having met Mr. Stevens until he came to her father's home December 1st, she married him the following March and came with him to his claim. They lived in a sod shanty on Mr. Fallon's claim until Mr. Stevens, with the help of his father, a Baptist minister from New York who had come out to visit the newly weds, could erect a frame house. Here they lived until the fall of
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1892, when growing weary of pioneer life they decided to rent the farm and move to Iowa. They arrived there, however, during the dry years and were glad to return to their Dakota home a few years later and have remained there ever since.
When Mrs. Stevens came out to this country as a bride and had reached the homestead she said, "I looked for his house but saw only a shanty, 8 by 8, with a shed roof. There was also a sod stable. This was built wholly of chunks of sod piled upon each other while the roof was made by putting scantlings and other pieces of sticks across the top and covering it with straw. The shanty house had no window and no place for a chimney, so we moved into Dick Fallon's sod shanty which stood just across the line from our home- stead. This sod house was made of rough boards with a hole in the roof for a stove pipe. It had one tiny window with four small panes, and a door. The outside of the shanty was sodded up to the roof, and the cellar was in the middle covered up with boards. All the furniture was home made. There were no chairs. We used benches to sit on and had a home made cupboard to hold our dishes and food.
"La Moure was our trading place and that was about fifteen miles from our home. Our wagon had only planks laid on the running gears and .we would stuff a grain sack with hay and use that for a seat. I did not go to LaMoure often; it was such a tiresome trip. The oxen walked slowly chewing their cuds. Sometimes I would get off and walk. I could walk faster than the oxen.
"Sometimes I would not see another woman for weeks at a time. The winters were long and cold with much snow. The antelope would come up to our hay stack by the sod stable nights and eat hay. We could see them day times running across the prairie."
Blizzards, prairie fires and lack of wells were the chief menaces to life in those early days, but they survived them all, even though a prairie fire once came close as their yard and only by extreme exertion could they divert its course around their small buildings. At another time during the winter of 1886-87 a blizzard nearly robbed the little home of its provider, for one wintry day, Mr. Stevens and his younger brother Burt, a lad of eighteen years who had come from York State to visit but who stayed, went to Oakes, then a new little town for supplies. They walked dragging a small hand sled after them. While there a blizzard began, and they tried to get a wild train which was in town to bring them within three miles of their claims, for by that time the railroad had reached the new settlements. They were refused, however, so walked up the track not daring to trust to the open country. The blizzard was so bad that they had to watch contin- ually for the coming of the train for the roar of the storm would drown any noise it would make. They finally reached a deep cut where the snow had been shoveled away from the track and seeing or hearing nothing of the train decided to go through instead of wading around. Traveling rapidly
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they soon reached a place where the wall of snow was shoulder high when Burt glancing around saw the headlight and yelled, "Jump." They threw the sled ahead of them and jumped after it with the engine so close that it just grazed Burt's shoulder as it swept by. They were then about four miles from home but decided to push on instead of stopping at a neighbor's house who lived near the track, although the blizzard was still raging. Abandoning the railroad track they pushed on across the now trackless prairie and kept in the direction of home by noting the general direction of the wind.
In the meantime, Mrs. Stevens was alone with her six months old baby except that Mr. Fallon was still living in his shack nearby. She finally became so worried that she asked him to hang a lighted lantern high on the sheltered side of the house so that it might help her husband and his brother should they become lost, which is just what they did. Burt, who was several years younger than Mr. Stevens wanted to stop and rest for his strength was far spent, but since that would be fatal he was urged to con- tinue. Finally, during a lull in the wind a light was seen in the distance and they decided to find it if they could, abandoning all thought of reaching home that night. They could see the light only at short intervals but con- tinued on their way until finally they were both amazed and delighted to find that they had reached home. Their journey of four miles had taken five hours of time.
Practically all team work was done in those days by oxen and since improvements were few the chores were light and the settlers, who had now come in numbers, had fine times visiting with each other during the winter season. Every one was poor in this world's goods and all were having nearly the same experiences, so friendships were near and dear, especially as most of them were young married people seeking to carve their homes out of the prairies. On one particular occasion Mr. and Mrs. Stevens were going to visit a neighbor, using their usual means of conveyance, a sled drawn by an ox. When they neared the home Mr. Stevens jumped off and seizing the animal by the head led it to the door and turned to help his wife off. Im- agine his astonishment to find her sitting on the sled several rods back laughing as hard as she could. It had become unfastened as soon as he left it but she had said nothing.
On wintry days they found amusement playing with a pet ox. They would hitch him to a sled and Mrs. Stevens would ride while her husband would lead him to a considerable distance away from the buildings and then attempt to mount the sled. The ox, however, enjoyed the fun as much as they did for he would turn rapidly and run for the barn, never allowing Mr. Stevens to get on. When he ran the ox ran and when he walked it walked. When it neared the barn it always entered at a dead run so that Mrs. Stevens always rolled off before it arrived.
In later years when the county was well settled Mr. Stevens became a
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member of the state legislature and still later county commissioner. He and his wife were interested in both church and schools and did much for the betterment of their community. They have seen their children, three daughters and one son grow to womanhood and manhood and all have been well educated. They have seen the county develop from raw prairie land to fine settled farms, and the schools from a few rural schools to a fine modern system, including several standard high schools and the State Normal and Industrial School at Ellendale, a situation which offers a com- plete education to the young people in their own county.
Burt Stevens came out to what is now Glover in 1886, and lived with his brother Fred for a time. In the spring of 1888 he went onto the north- west quarter of Section 20, 132-59. His live stock consisted of four oxen and a tom-cat. The improvements on the place consisted of a shanty 8 by 10 which had been built the fall before; a well and a stable were also provided. The well was not completed until the fall of 1888, and in the meantime water was hauled in a barrel from a well on the northeast of 20. The first barrel was one that had been used for kerosene and though it had been burned out it was still saturated with the taste and odor of oil. A batch of beans cooked up on Sunday was supposed to last all week but the flavor of the kerosene was too much and not even the animals would eat them.
Burt was married in the spring of 1888 and moved onto the place on Section 20 and made his home there for at least twenty-eight years, being there during the hard winter of 1896-97 when the snow was so deep. In October 1916, he moved into Glover from the farm and has since made his home in that town.
Pel S. Anderson first came to a location in Bear Creek Township south of where Oakes now stands, and his story is told in part under that township. He worked for Kinkle near the mouth of Bear Creek part of the time. In 1883 he got the pre-emption but he did not go onto it until 1884, when he commenced to make improvements and went there to live. About 1890 he moved up to his present location in Divide and has since made that his home.
Julius Dethlefson came over to America from Germany in 1883, and did a great deal of work for the Northern Pacific Railway. In the spring of 1886 he worked near Elliott and came to Glover after the summer work was over. He lived with his cousin, Mr. Syvertson, a mile or two southeast of Glover, in a dug out in a lake bank. In 1887 he was working for Kinkle near Bear Creek. Two years later he took charge of Syvertson's place after his cousin's death and in 1894 bought the farm, the north half of Section 24, and has made his home there ever since. The land on 24 was bought on an unusual contract as the price was 5,000 bushels of wheat to be paid as follows; one half of the wheat crop raised on the place was to be turned in as a payment each year until the total of 5,000 bushels had been delivered. No interest was to be paid on deferred payments.
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Mr. Dethlefson has described the dug-out and the winter spent near Glover. "It was dug into a bank of a slough. There were two rooms in it with only one window. One apartment was used as a storeroom for straw, which was used for fuel.
"Up till the 12th of January in 1888 we did not have much snow, but on that day we had a terrible blizzard. In the morning it was calm and pleasant until nine o'clock when it started to snow very heavy and in another half hour the wind commenced to blow very strong. In fact it was storming
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