USA > North Dakota > Dickey County > History Of Dickey County, ND, 1930 > Part 17
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The sod house and three cats belonging to P. S. Anderson, of Oakes, in pioneer days.
so bad that both of us did not dare to go to the barn which was also a dug-out where we kept the oxen. I stayed at the door of our dwelling while Mr. Syvertson went and fed the oxen. Every once in a while I would "holler" to him and he would answer. In this way he managed to get back to the dug-out. The storm lasted three days and after the storm there was four
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feet of snow over our dug-out. Consequently we could not tell whether it was day or night. Nor could we tell when the storm had subsided only by digging a hole out through the snow at intervals. In order to get a hole through the snow we had to shovel it into our room first until we got a hole to the top of the snow and then we would throw the snow out of our house again. These three days were the longest in my life.
"After the blizzard was over we had to dig a hole in the snow down to the window in our home so we could get some daylight into the dug-out.
P. S. Anderson's Pioneer Home
The next task was to dig a tunnel into the dug-out where we kept the oxen where they had been stranded for three days without food or water. We supported the roof of the tunnel with fence posts and hay. From this time until spring it stormed nearly every day, so we had a time to keep the hole in the snow to our window open. Therefore in order for us to tell when it
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was day we had an old shotgun which we would stick up through the stove pipe on the dug-out.
"From this time until spring our biggest task was to obtain dry straw to use as fuel. We could not get through the snow with a wagon and a sleigh we did not have, but we managed to drag the straw over the snow in a rope sling. Over the worst drifts we had to pull the straw by hand, and the balance of the way we hauled it with an ox. We did not have but a small amount of tobacco, so we mixed what little tobacco we had with some prairie tea and smoked the mixture. In the spring when the snow melted our dwelling was a sight, as the water seeped down through the roof and ceiling, and the water in the slough was only a short distance from the door."
For the election of 1884, the relay station at Bear Creek was made the official voting place for the four townships in the northeastern part of the county, what has since become Bear Creek, Clement, Divide and James River Valley. Upon the organization of civil townships this township was included with the one to the west as James River Valley and the combina- tion was continued for nearly forty years. Glover, just across the line about one-half mile was headquarters for all the people. But for some time there was a feeling that the old James River Valley was too large, so in 1921 a petition was drawn up and widely signed to organize congressional township 132-59 as a separate civil township. This petition was presented to the adjourned July meeting of the County Commissioners and the division was finally passed upon September 6th, 1921.
When the question of a name for the new township was raised the petitioners had no name selected. Commissioner F. M. Walton suggested that Divide would be quite appropriate, and Stevens was made the second choice. It was found from the Secretary of State that there was no township in the state named Divide, so that was officially adopted as the name. The school district was given the same name. The division of property for the civil township was made on February 1st, 1922, and the arbitration meeting for division of the property of the school districts was held on May 1st, 1922, since which time the township of Divide and the Divide School District have had their own individual existence.
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CHAPTER XXII
WRIGHT TOWNSHIP, 132-61
[Credit is due B. L. Nelson, Andrew E. Howe, Mrs. Peter Jorgenson and Martin Mattson with some others who knew the story of Wright Township for this chapter.]
ARS Holm and a Mr. Knutson had been through township 132-61 in the fall of 1881 and had seen the land, so in 1882 they and some of their friends decided to take claims there. Peter Jorgenson and Lars Holm came over from Minnesota in March to look up claims. There was a bad storm on the way, so it was April 4th by the time they reached their locations. The section lines had not been run by the surveyors, so to get the approxi- mate corners of the land they wished they took a string measure and ran a line in from the corner of the township. While this did not come out exactly it was close enough for practical purposes. On this trip they had come down from their stopping place over in LaMoure County with two old oxen and a stone-boat. On their return they found that Cottonwood Creek was in flood, and after a search for a crossing place they decided to get across the best they could, so Holm rode one of the oxen and Jorgenson stuck to the stoneboat. They were both soused and covered with ice when they got across, so they gathered some willow brush and thawed themselves out in the shanty where they were staying. Mrs. Jorgenson says that was a sample of what the people had to contend with in those early days.
Miss Carrie Swenson came into Dickey County in the spring of 1883. She was born in Norway but had been in the dressmaking business for three years in Fargo and Jamestown. Mr. A. E. Howe was engaged to Miss Swenson and as they were from the same community in Norway they were old acquaintances. In 1882 Mr. Howe and Peter Berg went down to Dickey County and selected some land, and Miss Swenson made filing for the home- stead of Mr. Howe in the spring of 1883. They secured an ox team and a wagon, with some furniture including a New Home sewing machine, and went over to the homestead on the northeast of 24-132-61. While the shanty was being built Miss Swenson stayed with the Jorgensons on the river bottom about two miles from the Howe claim. The men built a good solid sod house and barn, papering the house with newspapers. Fresh weeds were used for rugs in the summer time.
After the buildings were completed Mr. Howe went over to Fargo to collect some money that was due Miss Swenson and remained there to work while Miss Swenson stayed at the homestead. Gunder Ostrom told her that
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as long as she was to stay at home while Mr. Howe was away she was to have a good gun for self-defence and should learn to use it. He loaded up the gun and showed her how to use it, and though she was afraid to fire she did so when Ostrum pinched her arm. This shot gave her confidence and her first attempt at game shooting resulted in the death of a gopher. On the day Mr. Howe returned from Fargo she shot a wild goose and a large mallard duck. On other occasions she killed many wild ducks on the river near the home.
When Mr. Howe returned to the homestead he borrowed a wagon and drove to Ellendale where he bought some lumber for the claim shanty and a winters supply of groceries, and a cow which cost him $45.00. He offered $1.00 for a hen but didn't get it. Some time after this both he and Miss Swenson made another trip to Ellendale for a license and then went to La- Moure and got married. This was in December and there was a little party given them at the home.
The winter of 1883-84 was spent on the claim wintering stock. There was some trouble from the stock rubbing on the walls of the sod house. They liked to stick their horns into the sod and rub, but it was hard on the house. The garter snakes liked to get in the walls of the building, especially in behind the newspapers that were pegged to the walls inside. There seemed to be a great many of these creatures on the river bottom on the Howe place.
The Howe place was for many years called a "stopping place" as most every one going along the valley would stop at Howe's. There was some one there almost every night, some were there even the night of their wedding. These guests were careful not to make any trouble in any way, especially the Finlanders who stopped frequently. The Howe neighbors at that time were; Walter Watts on the present Hanson place, Mrs. Larkin and her son Ray (who was later a physician), Mrs. Connor and her two sons, George and Will, on the present Julian Arndt place, Mr. Tangen on the present Carl Nelson place, S. S. Thompson and George Thompson, and the Ford family on the hill west of Carl Nelson's. The Lewis family came later. Mrs. Lewis was a sister of Mrs. Jorgenson and of the Thompson brothers. Strom- ness lived on the east side of the river, and when his wife was frozen the first place he went to look for her was at the Howe place. Gus Strutz was another neighbor at that time. Knutson had located on Section 14.
The Jorgensons had come out in 1882. Mr. Jorgenson was out to the claim getting the shanty ready and Mrs. Jorgenson had written to him that she was coming but the mail had to go to Grand Rapids so he did not get the letter and Mrs. Jorgenson found no one to meet her when she arrived in Ellendale, so after waiting two days she caught a ride out to the claim and met Mr. Jorgenson on his way to Ellendale who had to go to Frederick to get a stove. Mrs. Jorgenson went on and stayed at her brother-in-law's for a few days. They went to their shanty to live before their car of goods
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came, and could have had their land surveyed that spring but Mr. T. F. Marshall's party of surveyors came along while Mr. Jorgenson was in Ellen- dale waiting for the car of goods so they had to wait until fall for the survey. This surveying party consisted of five or six men and they wanted something to eat at the Jorgenson place, but Mrs. Jorgenson had no dishes as every- thing was still in the car to arrive at Ellendale. However, she managed to feed them in the spider that she had. Then it was a question where to sleep them. There were some women and children from the neighbors at the Jorgensons and they had to be taken care of so there was nothing extra. But Mrs. Jorgenson had washed up a lot of grain sacks and dried them on the grass in the yard. Some one of the survey party suggested that they use these for bedding and it was done, so the men camped on the floor of the shanty.
Wilson Wright and Albert Bowen also came here in the spring of 1882. Bowen took his claim on 6, 132-60 and Wright got onto East 12 Section 12 (South 1/2 of NE 14, North East of NE 14, and North East of SE 14, Section 12.) The idea of cutting it up in these fractions was to bewilder other settlers who might want to take a part of the section. He wanted to hold the land till his sister could file on it. Perhaps, too, he was selecting the best 40s of the section.
The postoffice was established there about 1885. It was there before . the first school. It was continued till about 1903 or 1904. It was moved from Section 12 to Section 2 on a pre-emption. Jessie Wright ran the postoffice as her father was carrier and could not hold both offices. At this time he was bringing the mail from LaMoure. Later the postoffice was moved back to Wright's residence for a while, then it went to Thompson's, and it was finally discontinued with the establishment of a mail route from Fullerton,-Rural Route 1.
Mr. M. G. Mattson was among those who came in in 1883. He arrived on the 18th of May. The next year he filed a contest on a piece of ground which some railroad man had entered. This fellow did not defend the case and Mr. Mattson got the entry. This land,-the South half of the North half of Section 2,-has been Mr. Mattson's home ever since. It has never been mortgaged though he had to burn straw two winters and hay one winter and has been hungry enough to eat his boots. He has raised a family of nine children.
Jake Mattson came in 1883 and made his home in Section 1. That summer when he was out breaking with a bunch of other fellows they made a deal with him for $5.00 to stay and take care of all the teams while they went away to celebrate the Fourth. There was nothing left at the camp to eat but they promised to bring something back in the afternoon. He did not see them again till the afternoon of the fifth. In the meantime he had caught a stray cow on the prairie and had got some milk to live on.
Fred and Charles Anderson came in about 1882 and stayed a long time
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in the township. Arndt lived a long time in the township. Mr. Thompson on the Southeast 10 was another old timer. He was elected sheriff of Dickey County in 1900 and had already served as County Commissioner. The family later moved to Canada. There were twelve children in the family. Mrs. Thompson was a sister of Mrs. Jorgenson. Mrs. J. Jacobson is still on Section 1 in the old home township.
The Carl Arndt family were German. They came in about 1883, and there are several of the boys left in the township. Charley is on Section 9, Northwest 14; August on Southeast 6; and Julius on 35. Mr. Wilkinson and a Mr. Lucke were old timers but the exact date of their coming is lost. Otto Lucke still lives in the township.
In the earlier years many of the settlers were short of money with which to buy fuel. Substitutes were tried. Dried manure and twisted slough grass were the most common of these. When twisted the long coarse grass from the low ground would give out a good deal of heat. A filling of the stove would keep the house warm for an hour if it was not too large.
Many bad prairie fires went over the prairies in the early days before cultivated lands and fire breaks checked them. They would sweep over the narrow channel of the James River for the grass was high and the water channel narrow. Mr. Watts in 131-60 lost 200 sheep in a fire about 1900. Some one burning a fire guard let the fire get away. It crowded the sheep down the bank, smothering those that were not burned.
Mrs. Jorgenson says that the worst fire was in 1883; the grass was so long and dry that it made a terrible fire. The hay and grain was very nearly burned for Mr. Mattson was away and she could not do much. The fire was sweeping close with only three little furrows to stop it. There was a place outside the plowed strip where the cattle had been picketed at night where the grass was short. As the fire rolled closer Mrs. Jorgenson was in despair and said "Oh Lord, you will have to save it, I can do nothing," and the wind changed and the fire died down in the short grass and stopped at the furrows.
The first school was established in the fall of 1885 when a school building was built on Section 11 (The Southeast quarter). Jessie Wright was the first teacher. The pupils were Clara Wright; Gina and Albert Holm; Arthur, Willie, and Dora Thompson; Lena and Mamie Jorgenson; Luella Watts; and Mary Rhode.
Ministers had been coming out to see the people. Mr. Hill, the first, came either from Ft. Ransom or Lisbon, probably the latter. The first baptism was performed by Mr. Hill in April 1884 .. The children were Tilda Jorgenson, Ida Thompson, and Gilbert Holm. There was no regular preach- ing service till the school house was built, but when Mr. Hill came out he would have preaching services in the houses. When the school house was ready they had regular church and Sunday School services, the church con- gregation being organized in 1884. The church was organized in the fall of 1889 as St. Ansgar congregation, Howga Synod (Norwegian Lutheran).
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The Sunday school was organized in 1885, C. W. Carter being the. organizer. It was a dry season and at one of the services the people were praying for rain. There were about forty people there and they got the rain before they got home. Rev. Rogne was a fine minister. One time he came out on snow shoes to hold services. The church was built in 1914 and a cemetery was established there at the same time.
Mr. Holm located on the Southwest quarter of Section 12. He made a mistake in locating his land, for while it was a fine laying tract, it was un- fortunately at the bottom of the mouth of a ravine where the mineral matter had been washed down from the hills and had accumulated on the flat so that the crops did not do well. Mr. Holm was misled by the fine grass on the flat when he was picking out his land. Mr. Holm died about 1897 and the rest of the family is now scattered, most of them being in Canada.
The Jorgenson family lived in a sod house for ten and a half years before they got a frame house. The Holm family built a frame house the first year. Wright built a frame shanty the first year he was on his land and a larger house the second season. He hauled the lumber out from Ellendale.
There were no doctors within many miles and Mrs. Jorgenson was in much demand in assisting the stork settle up the country. She was called from as far as Grand Rapids and Fullerton and in all probably helped over a hundred babies to get a start in life. At this date (1925) Mrs. Jorgenson is 76 years of age.
At the election in 1889 every vote in Wright Township was against saloons.
There are more of the original settlers and their descendents living in Wright than in any other town in the county, among whom may be named the Nelsons,-B. L. and his brother Carl and their descendents; Otto Lucke; August Arndt; Anton Barsten; J. N. Jacobson; J. A. Johnson; and of those who have come in later, G. W. Julian and S. E. Montgomery. Many im- provements are noticeable, like fine homes, commodious barns and good fences. The farmers of Wright have always kept the best stock procurable, and their Shorthorn cattle are hard to beat anywhere.
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CHAPTER XXIII
CLEMENT TOWNSHIP, 131-60
[Authorities for this chapter are the stories of the settlers, especially, those of Swan Anderson, Swan Johnson, Mrs. J. H. Denning, Chris Frogen, Iver Olson, Arne Pederson, and Gus Strutz.]
T HE congressional Township known as 131-60 attracted its due share of attention from those who were looking for homes in the new territory. At that time it was not in the center of things and its people never seem to have aspired for a large city, although there was at one time an opportunity to indulge in city platting and laying out railroads.
Swan Anderson located as a "squatter" on Section 3 of this township on July 4th, 1883, as the land had not been surveyed. He with others had come down from Grand Rapids where he had landed in the time of the celebration at that pioneer town. Some of his friends had been down and located before, so he knew something of the country. The party reached the claims of these friends to find in their shanties only some crackers and flour, supplies that had been there since April. They ate dumplings made of flour and water until they could get supplies. They looked around for a vacant quarter and Mr. Anderson appropriated land that had been "cover- ed" by a man named Gibson. As Gibson was holding down another quarter in the township north he could not hold two. There had been a little plow- ing done so Anderson and his friends, Peter Malmquist and his brother Louis Anderson, helped him put up a sod shanty. For that winter the three went up to La Moure to winter. Swan could not work on account of having rheumatism but he learned to cook and do house work. In February he bought some lumber in LaMoure on credit and had it hauled out to his claim and the "boys" built him a shanty 10 by 12 which made him comfort- able when in it and safe from claim jumpers.
At one time in the winter before building his shanty of lumber Swan and Louis Anderson were out to the claim. Anderson had to go to LaMoure for supplies and was detained there by a severe storm which completely covered the sod shanty where Swan was confined by his rheumatism. When Anderson came back he could hardly locate the place but walked around it, finally called to Swan, who answered him from beneath the snow. He had nothing to work with but his hands, but he dug down to the door which fortunately opened to the inside, went in and got the shovel and opened up the entrance. Swan had been practically without food for three days.
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They had to come out occasionally and spend some time on their claims as a protection against "jumpers."
They came down to their land about the 8th or 9th of March so as to be actually on the land when it was opened on March 10th, 1884. As it was, another claimant appeared, but Swan filed a pre-emption and in six months he was able to get a patent to his land. In April, 1884, Swan's sister and her husband, Andrew Johnson, came out from Iowa with a small car of emigrant stuff. Swan was still afflicted but managed to walk or hobble across country to LaMoure and meet them. They lived with him, Johnson doing the farm work and his sister the house-work so that Swan had an opportunity to get well, which he did and was soon able to do his part again with the work. Mr. Johnson went over to the Dalrymple farms to work that fall and Swan put up a sod house for him on some vacant land he had located and the Johnsons lived on their own place. That winter of 1884-85 Swan lived with the family of Louis Nelson in Clement, paying his way by twisting hay for the stoves. In twisting the hay they would take a big handful of coarse grass and bend or double it in the middle then would twist one end over and over the other like a skein of yarn, the ends were then twisted into the middle to prevent its untwisting. They seldom came apart and made good fuel. They did most of this twisting in a shed out of the wind. The sod houses were warm and comfortable and did not freeze during the night even if the fire was out, but in very cold weather some one would get up in the night and fix up the fire.
In the spring of 1885 Swan and his brother-in-law changed work and put in their crops and had a good crop that year. Charles Stevens who lived near Clement had a threshing machine and did the threshing for them. Swan had a yield of 20 bushels to the acre of No. 1 Hard wheat and stored most of the crop in his sod shanty till spring, and on this he was able to buy a team and wagon in the spring of 1886. It was some time before he was fitted out with a complete outfit as he developed his farming gradually and borrowed from his neighbors or exchanged work with them.
In 1887 his brother Isaac Anderson came over from the old country and lived with Swan at his shanty, working out some for the Scandinavian neighbors and learning the language. On January 9th, 1888, Isaac Anderson went to Oakes to mail some letters. There was about a foot of loose snow on the ground and a bad blizzard came up. On his return Isaac lost his way and froze to death. His body was recovered and buried in the cemetery at Clement. Swan was alone through that and another big storm and tried to feed the stock with hay from a stack in the yard, but he tried that only once. He lost his way to the house but fortunately ran into his plow and from it knew his direction and got in safely. In 1889 another sister and his brother John came over from the old country and stayed with him.
Swan Johnson came out from Lafayette, Wisconsin, in 1886 to see his brother who lived across the track from where Clement is now located. He
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loaded an emigrant car with horses, a cow, some pigs and machinery. His train was wrecked near Austin, Minnesota, and when the brakeman opened the door to see if he was hurt his pigs got out and he could not find them. He landed in Ellendale on March 4th, and a few days after that he bought a relinquishment to the southwest quarter of Section 17 and made his home there. A little breaking had been done, and he built a shanty 12 by 16. Not having much time to make it tight, it let the snow in badly, so having no money to fix it up he lived in the cellar that winter keeping warm by burning flax straw. He had no crop the first year and would have left the place except for his pride, so he stayed and had a good crop the next year. He went down to Hankinson the next year to work on the railroad grade and was told the road would pass his place in Clement. He got a contract to build a half mile of grade and put in that grading from the cemetery east of his home to the school house west of Clement, getting about $800.00 for it.
He lived on his claim and batched it for five years before he was married, and he found it a hard, lonesome time. It was a real slavery, hard work all day and then chores to do and house work on top of it all. Those were hard times but the people managed to enjoy life just the same; people were friendly and helpful and neighborly. The young fellows had a good many visits in the winter and Mr. Johnson entertained them many times that winter he lived in the cellar. The winter of 1888 was a bad one. He got lost between the barn and shanty but ran into the binder in the yard and found his way from that. When Swan Anderson's brother was frozen to death he was buried on Swan Johnson's land and the cemetery was started in that way. Johnson gave the two acres of land for the cemetery to the community, but the title has never been transfered to any committee or board.
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