USA > North Dakota > Dickey County > History Of Dickey County, ND, 1930 > Part 29
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Prairie fires were a great menace to the early settlers, for sometimes the entire supply of forage for the stock would be destroyed. This would result in great loss which could not be replaced by the poor settlers except by hard labor. Sometimes even the stock was burned. Fires would be set by care- less people, or bone pickers would burn off the grass so that they could find the bones more readily. The loses caused by fire led to the custom of making fire breaks every fall. Strips of land a rod or so wide would be plowed entirely around the buildings. Usually there were two strips separated by a narrow piece of land which was burned off as a further means of protection. Then as the township became more settled each settler would make part of a fire break on a system of firebreaks to protect the whole neighborhood or township and thus save the feed for the stock, and the homes of the settlers. Mr. Shimmin tells of one experience with a prairie fire. "I remember one fire that came from the west that looked as if it would burn all I had that could burn. I had plowed a fire-break around the shack, hay stacks and stable, but this fire came with such a strong wind that it crossed the fire- break, or was carried over the firebreak by dry cow chips or rolling weeds. It crossed close to a stack of hay. If it had set fire to the stack of hay it would have burnt all I had. I was fighting as hard as a person possibly could, but the fire was winning the fight, when I heard somebody yell. I looked up and then saw a team of horses hitched to a buggy with two men in it coming through the fire and smoke on the dead run. As they neared me the team slowed up and one of the men sprang out of the buggy, pulled off his fur coat and came to my help, using his coat to beat out the fire, as the fire was so near the hay stack that he had no time to get anything else to fight with; seconds counted then. The other man unhitched the tugs of the team and came to our help. With their help we saved the place. It was late at night before we considered it safe to go to the shack and get something to eat. Those were the days of the flapjack, and the man of the fur coat volunteered to make them while I cooked the wild ducks and set the table. In honor of my guests I, of course, had to wash the dishes first. We had duck and pancakes straight, or sometimes varied by serving pan-
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cakes and ducks. After breakfast next morning they went on toward the west. A year or two afterwards, I was in Ellendale one day during a term of court. I went into the courtroom, there was the man of the fur coat. He was District Judge of this district (Judge Rose.) Such was the kind of men in those early days."
The first houses were made of sod or clay which had been baked in the sun. The roofs were thatched, or covered with clay and then a mortar of clay was spread over and smoothed down to make it waterproof. Lumber was hard to get and there were few native trees except in the gulches and around some of the lakes. People were twenty or more miles from a railroad, even if they had teams to haul the lumber so far. Money, however, was scarce and lumber high-priced, so almost none was used in the construction of buildings. Remains of sod houses may yet be seen in various places. Prosperity and property have come to the settlers now and neat frame buildings take the place of the sod huts which are now used as vegetable cellars or allowed to fall into ruin. The township raises much stock and is a great dairy country. Little is left to remind the stranger of the early pioneer days, but their memory still lingers in the minds of many of the inhabitants.
The question of where to get fuel was a hard one to answer in those days. There was some timber in the gulches and around the lakes that could be cut, but the settler for the most part had to depend on buffalo or cow chips, sometimes called prairie oxalene. If these failed he cut grass, twisted it into a hard knot, and burned that for fuel. The settlers used to say that a man could warm up twice and cook once with the hay; once when he cut it with a scythe, and again when he twisted it into knots getting ready to cook. Later a drum could be bought made of sheet steel or iron. It was open at one end and could be taken out to the hay or straw stack to be filled. A lid of the stove was then taken off, the drum placed over it and the hay allowed to burn. There were no smoke-proof outfits in those days, but there was one advantage about using that kind of fuel, for no other kind of carpet was needed.
A number of people were lost on the trackless prairies in the early days, and the following is an instance that came under Mr. Shimmin's observation. "One evening in early fall I was outside the shack when I thought I heard someone call a mile to the southwest. I listened for a few minutes and the sound could be heard no longer. As the stage road was in that direction I thought it must be some one on the road. A short time afterwards, being outside the shack, I heard the sound again, then the thought struck me.that someone must be lost. It did not seem possible though, as the night was clear and the stars were shining brightly. I fired the rifle but got no answer. It sounded as though some one was repeating the same words over and over again, but the party was so far away I could not hear what he was saying. I started over to see what the trouble could be and met a man slowly running along and calling, 'Bayse, Bayse, Bayse.' I spoke to him but he appeared
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not to hear and kept on his slow run singing his little song of Bayse, Bayse, Bayse. The man was a stranger and I saw that he was lost and out of his head. I took hold of him and he fought like a wildcat, but was so exhausted that I soon got control and made him go with me to the shack. Then I made him lie down on the bunk and he kept singing his little song of Bayse. I started to get some grub ready and while doing so the man went to sleep and did not awaken until about noon of the next day. He was then all right and told me he had started from Ellendale to go to Bayse's by following the stage road, (Bayse was my neighbor eight miles west)."
The big blizzard of January 12th, 1888, struck Albertha and the follow- ing is the account given by Mr. Shimmin. "It was the first big blizzard I had ever seen. Mark Hambrook was batching with me that winter and when we went out of the shack that morning we noticed that the lake was covered with what looked like steam coming from the cracks in the ice. We had never seen it look like that before. When we went to open the gate into the hay stacks there was so much electricity on the wires that it gave us a distinct shock. There was no wind and the steam from the lake and smoke from the stove went straight up. I do not know how cold it was as I had no thermometer, but there was something in the feel of the atmosphere that made us think something was not right with the weather, though the sun was shining brightly and not a cloud was to be seen in the sky. We took care of the stock as soon as possible, then started back to the house but stopped to look around at the mist on the lake, when in the northwest there appeared to be what looked like a bank of mist coming toward us. We watched it and saw that it was coming fast and when it was a short distance away we went into the shack. A moment later the wind was blowing a hurricane and instead of mist the air was almost solid with snow as there was almost a foot of loose snow on the ground. Before coming to this territory we had heard all kinds of stories about blizzards and we thought, "Now we will see what a real blizzard is like." But we didn't have much chance to see for in a few minutes both the windows and the door of the shack were so drifted over with snow that we could not see outside. We could hear the wind blow and were well content to hear it if not to see it and I still think it was the real thing. During the night the wind went down and we opened the door and found a snowdrift that entirely covered it. We had a shovel in the shack so dug a hole on an upslant pulling the snow inside the shack and so got out. What a sight there was! The snowdrift was to the top of the roof and ran to the southeast nearly fifty rods coming to a sharp point with hard packed ice. Fence posts had ice from top to bottom that extended four or five feet out and came to a sharp edge. The hubs of a wagon that was standing sideways to the wind had icicles that started at the hub, were several feet in length and came to a point.
"We considered that we had come through the blizzard in good shape, as the stock was all right; but in a few days learned that others had not been
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so fortunate. That night before the storm two men had stopped at a house a mile and a half northwest of mine and had started out a short time before the storm broke, headed for Hoskins Lake in McIntosh County. They had a team and sled and had gone only a mile or two when the storm struck. They tried to go back to the house they had left such a short time before but could make the team do nothing but drift with the storm. They had gone but a short distance with it when the team got stuck in a deep snow- drift so they abandoned them and drifted with the storm. They struck Leola after drifting over thirty miles, and with the exception of frosted toes and fingers pulled through all right. We found the team and outfit next spring after the snow had melted away. That was the only loss in the township as far as is known, but there were not many people here then."
When this township first had an organization for civil government it was a part of a township twelve miles square which was called Spring Valley. It was organized as a separate township on June 7th, 1909, and at that time it received, by approval of the County Commissioners, its present name. The name originated in an interesting way. Shortly before the postoffice was to be named Miss Bertha Dickie began the first term of school in the district and boarded at the home of Mr. Shimmin. Allen Dodge Town or Al Town as he was usually called, a young poet with the wanderlust in his blood, was spending the summer in the west and also stayed at the Shimmin home where he incidentally courted Miss Dickie. One Sunday a number of the people of the neighborhood happened to be gathered at the Shimmin home and began to discuss a fit name for the postoffice, as it was to be decided at a meeting to be held later that week. Many names were proposed but none seemed satisfactory until Allen Town suggested that his name and that of the teacher be combined as Al-Bertha. This suggestion met with favor and accordingly at the town meeting the name of Albertha was adopted. The poet and the teacher wandered on but the memory of them still lingers, and will, as long as the township lasts.
A postoffice was established at the residence of John Wolff in the south- west quarter of section twenty-nine in 1910, but was soon discontinued. John Wolff was postmaster. It was named Wolff Postoffice. A postoffice was established at the residence of Mark Hambrook in 1897 in the Northeast part of Section five. It was named Albertha Postoffice. Mark Hambrook was Postmaster. This was discontinued in 1906. None in the township since then.
Until Albertha school district was organized the School Board of Hillsdale School District had control of the schools in this district. The officers were: T. R. Shimmin, Clerk; Mr. Braur, G. Knopf, Directors; John Wirch, Treasurer and Mrs. T. R. Shimmin, Clerk. Albertha School District was organized from part of Hillsdale School District by the County Commissioners into a school district, naming it Albertha and numbering it twenty-eight. At the first election held July 25th, 1900, E. M. Saunders.
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C. L. Saunders and Mark Hambrook were elected as Directors; R. G. Wright, Treasurer. On August 1st, 1900 they organized; E. M. Saunders was chosen as President and they appointed Lizzie M. Saunders as clerk.
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CHAPTER XLI
GRAND VALLEY TOWNSHIP, 130-65
[This chapter is compiled from the field notes of Dana Wright based upon interviews with Walter Haas, M. M. Cook and several others, and the note book of Jennie Monteith Haas.]
T HIS township is partly in the hills, but the eastern part is on the level prairie that constitutes most of the surface of Dickey County. It was settled in the great homeseeking movement of 1882-83, and many of the early settlers seem to have come from Michigan and Illinois.
The Haas family came in early and established a cattle ranch on Section 20, 130-65. The father, Adam Haas, brought a ready-cut frame house which they put up in the north part of Ellendale. This was in March, 1883, and in April the land was selected and filed upon. He had brought three span of mules, and the first season was mostly spent in teaming and breaking prairie, but in 1884 the family were well settled on the ranch, although the mother and children moved back to Ellendale for the winter months for school purposes. The Haas boys have continued to live in the county, and Walter Haas now has a fine ranch in the township, while Will C. Haas has a large business, consisting of a general store and lumber yard, in Silverleaf. George Haas, another brother, passed away in 1914 and was buried in the cemetery of Ellendale.
Pioneer Well. M. M. Cook and Family
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M. M. Cook came from Charlotte, Michigan, in 1882, landing at Jamestown and returning to Michigan, but in the spring of 1883 he returned to Dickey County in company with Charles Benson. They brought out an emigrant car, at a cost of $75.00 and unloaded at Ellendale. Cook got the northeast of Section 12, 130-65 and put up a large shanty, 12 by 16, while Benson had a real house, ready-cut from Eaton Rapids, 16 by 18 feet. James G. Hyde was also with them, but Benson was the only one who was married.
The first winter they took in Peter Rasmussen. Cook was the boss of the house and did the housework until the 20th of November, when he married a Miss Graham. "Mort" picked bones all his spare time that first summer, and in the fall went up to Casselton and Sheldon to work on a threshing rig.
On Section 18, 130-65, Cook and Hyde dug out an Indian grave, in which they found a quart of beads, a belt of leather buckled up short, with spangles or necklaces of shells, and a small bow and some arrows. Jim Hyde kept these trinkets as souvenirs. The body was covered with a solid layer of stones and was buried not very deep, and about one half mile north of the Walter Haas house.
In the spring of 1895 there was discovered by the Haas boys, in the gulch north of the Haas home the grave and remains of a United States soldier. The bank had caved off and the bones and a part of the uniform was exposed. The remains were gathered up and buried by Mr. Haas on the south side of the gulch. The news got out to the world through the North Dakota Record published in Ellendale, the Minneapolis dailies copied it and the story was found through some soldiers who had taken part in the Whitestone Battle. It is probably correct and is as follows: Early one morning following the battle at Whitestone Lieutenant Bain with a detach- ment of soldiers was sent out to find and bring in any straggling bands of Indians. This detachment proceeded in a southerly direction and after going six miles came to a flat covered with long grass. Here an apparently lame Indian was seen, and Lieutenant Bain suggested capturing him in order to obtain information as to the whereabouts of the rest of the band. The other soldiers thought the Indian a decoy to lead them into a trap and suggested reporting back to headquarters at Whitestone and getting more troops.
Bain, being of an impulsive nature, asked how many would go with him to capture the Indian, and all but a few of the soldiers went, the others going back for reinforcements. Bain and his band then proceeded into the high grass only to find themselves entirely surrounded by Indians who had been concealed there. These Indians had hidden their horses so were on foot. After discovering their plight the soldiers headed eastward to a tim- bered gulch a half mile away where they encountered about fifty mounted Indians. Here one of the soldiers had his horse shot under him, and Bain
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seeing his plight rode back and took him on his own horse. They then made for the open prairie, and did not go far until the soldier found the horse of a wounded Indian to replace his own. By this time the fight became so close that it was every man for himself, when Bain dropped behind and it was seen that his horse was wounded and finally fell. Bain lay behind his horse and emptied his carbine at the approaching Indians, finally using his revolver until his amunition was exhausted, when an Indian reached over Bain's horse and tomahawked him. Afterwards reinforcements arrived and captured the Indians. Bain was impulsive, hot-headed, and a hater of Indians, and after the Whitestone Battle was reduced in rank for leaving his tent at night and killing with a hatchet twenty-seven wounded Indians whom the soldiers had placed in a buffalo wallow for protection. However, after the bravery shown by Bain in his final skirmish he was reinstated to his former rank of Lieutenant. He was buried at the south side of the tim- bered gulch, on the field of his last fight.
A story of the early days told by Mrs. Jennie Monteith Haas is best in her own words. "In the spring of 1885, I came with my parents from Wis- consin and we settled on our homestead ten miles west of Ellendale. This was in Lorraine School District, and that same spring the schoolhouses, five in number were built in different parts of the district. They were all alike and of the same size, about 16 by 24 feet.
"On account of blizzards and severe weather a winter term was supposed to be out of the question, and as they were only for summer use, they were not finished inside. Ceiling boards were nailed across the end of the build- ing, for the space of about four feet, at a suitable height for the children to reach. These were painted black and served for a blackboard. Seats and desks were double and would each accommodate two children. These with a small table and armchair comprised the furniture. Two charts,-primary reading and arithmetic-and a dictionary completed the school equipment. The children carried their water supply and lunch from home. Our teachers were usually high school graduates from the east, and although the schools were not graded most of the pupils received the equivalent of an eighth grade education, leaving out civics and physiology,-these were high school subjects in those days.
"We had a five month's term each year commencing about May 1st. We had a two weeks vacation in the "warmest weather" usually about the middle of July. The pupils did not finish a grade a year as they do now, and there were no final examinations other than what the teachers them- selves gave. We studied until we were "through our books" and then were given higher ones to study. My mother who was a teacher before marriage taught her children at home during the winter months so we made faster progress."
An industry peculiar to this section of the country in the early days was the herding of cattle and horses in the hills. As this land was not considered
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good for farming it was not filed on, so still belonged to the Government. A man would file on a quarter where there was a spring of water and run a herd. In the spring of the year he and his helpers on horseback, would gather from the different farmers all of their stock for which they did not have pasture at home. This stock was brought to the hills and herded during the summer season from about May 1st to the fifteenth of October, when they were returned to their owners. One dollar per head was charged for cattle and two dollars and fifty cents for horses. As the stock was herded on government land a person could make a good living at this business. The Haas boys would some times have from 800 to 1000 head in their herd. They would have a corral for the night. As there were no close neighbors they let them graze over an area of thirty square miles or more. There were three of the boys and they had their work so arranged that two were on duty at a time. They had to protect their range from fires by plowing a fire break and keeping close watch that no fire got started. In the later eighties the German Russians and other settlers came in to homestead and it became necessary to fence a lot of land. The Haas family had a hundred head of cattle of their own for which they had to provide hay as well as pasture.
There was a township cemetery established on the northeast corner of Section 11. This was a township project and was begun in the late 80's or early 90's. The first person buried there was a child of the Fleming family. Prior to the establishment of this cemetery the only death in the township was that of a child named Strand, who died at her father's place. Mr. Strand was a carpenter and made the coffin himself and painted it a slate blue. A number of people have been buried in the cemetery but no accurate records have been kept.
The township was organized as a part of Enterprise in the early days and later was included in a township twelve miles square known as Spring Valley. When it became a township on its own account with boundaries coinciding with those of the congressional township it was given the name of Grand Valley, but the school district retained the name of Spring Valley and so continues.
Several well known names in the county's history are connected with Grand Valley, such as Frank Edgerley, U. G. Shepard, Pelg Bristol, Charles Halstead, August Martin, S. A. Bristol and Henry McConville. There are many prosperous and well kept farms in Grand Valley. Newton Davis's farm on Section 2 has always been noted for its fine horses and cattle, and also for its fat beeves and hogs.
The Gulke brothers have fine places near the south edge of the township. Lester Holsinger and his son Gordon now own the old Adam Haas cattle ranch, with its big springs. The stock farm of Walter Haas and son Walter with fine trees and good water is one of the good places in the hills. Fred Moore has a well equipped farm, with modern buildings and well fenced
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fields. Mark Vennum is on the old homestead that his father took from the government in 1883, on Section 1. Frank Davis, who was born and raised in Grand Valley, is now the owner of a half section farm, and the younger brother Edwin is also located near the old place. There are many others among whom can be mentioned William Pahl, Alex Flagel and Jake Gulke.
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CHAPTER XLII
SPRING VALLEY TOWNSHIP, 130-66
[The stories of Henry Brandenburg, Adam Lemke, Mike Mallach, Mrs. Mallach and John Wirch have furnished the material for Spring Valley town- ship; supplemented by interviews with V. E. Haskins and other pioneers.]
T HE hills were not attractive to many of the early settlers as they pre- ferred the more level prairies for raising crops. Some who wanted to keep stock found the hill country well watered, and located in them, for example, T. R. Shimmin and Adam Haas. The first comers had open range almost unlimited for their herds, as the land was still in possession of the government. The Dakota Atlas of 1886 gives this township and some of its neighboring townships as unsurveyed, as it was left to the last. In the late 80's the hill country received a new nationality as its settlers.
Large German colonies had located in South Russia, under promises of exemption from military service in the army of the Czar, and that they could secure their own land. Neither of these promises were well kept and great numbers of the German colonists were determined to leave Russia at the first opportunity. A large number did get out of Russia in 1877 and came to Scotland, South Dakota, and located. The Wirches and their friends were all ready to come in '77, but were persuaded to continue on another ten years, so that the actual time of leaving was about 1886-87. In this migration many went to McIntosh and Emmons Counties, but sev- eral families came into western Dickey County.
Adam Lemke with his sister and her husband left Leipsig in Bessarabia, Russia, in May, 1887, went across Germany to Bremen and took the boat "Vera" for America. The tickets cost him 400 rubles for himself, his wife and baby girl. Their ticket took them to Scotland, Dakota, where his sister's husband's brother had located and where they stayed until they could make their plans. They could find no land there, so bought a cow and two oxen, which they put on a train and shipped to Powell, Dakota. Here they got a wagon and the two families packed their belonging in the wagon and started to look up an acquaintance who had come into the Dickey County country about two months before the Lemkes. This man was Freimert, and he, Ludvig Heneberg and his son; a Mr. Reinke and Charles Bishop had come and located before this.
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