Fort Mandan State Historic Site is temporarily closed for maintenance until further notice.
Golden Valley County
Region 6
1 Mrs. Susanna Finnemann, Beach
2 Mrs. Martin Uechert and Carl Uechert, Beach
3 Mr. Tony Lardy, Beach
4 Mrs. Lydia Helm, MS. Elsie M. Farstveet, Ms. Helen Brackmeyer, Beach
5 Mr. Norman Runion, Sentinel Butte
6 Mr. Leonard E. Johnson, Beach
7 Mr. Ray Lingk, Beach
8 Mr. D. L. Kukowski, Beach
9 Mr. Ted Hoeck, Beach
10 Mr. Ray Zinsli, Beach
11 Mr. and Mrs. Ed Koshney, Beach
12 Mr. Otto Petersilie, Sentinel Butte
13 Golden Valley County Historical Collection, Golden Valley
14 John Pest (unreleased), Beach
15 Taylor and Evelyn Cook, Sentinel Butte
16 A portion of the following interview pertains to Golden Valley:
17 Mr. and Mrs. Jim McGuigan #25 Cass County
Tape #1 Mrs. Susanna Finnemann (Beach)
000 – Introduction
024 – Comes to North Dakota; Works for priest and in cook car; Family history
125 – Husband’s homestead; Nationalities; Works in cook car
236 – Common people; Parties; Bachelor life; Stove in cook car; Number of men cooked for
312 – Homesteader hardships; Cook car meals; Doctors
401 – Midwives; Meets husband; Married life; Good and bad crop years; Rents and buys land; Badlands pasture
485 – Digging coal; Kindling wood; Children; Banks fail
598 – Rents and buys Golva house; Golva banks; Discouraging times; People leave area
685 – Laundry; Build onto house; Great grandchildren and grandchildren
765 – Laundry irons; Electricity; Grocery prices
853 – Golva grocery store; Schools
896 – Pleasant early days; Social life
932 – End of interview
Tape #2 Mrs. Martin Uechert and Carl Uechert (Beach)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Comes to North Dakota; Husband comes to North Dakota; Homesteaders; Compares North Dakota to Montana; County seat in Minnesota
096 – Adjusting to prairie; Buys land; Nearest town; Neighbors; County depopulates; Sub-marginal land; Little Missouri Grasslands
142 – Bad and good crop years; Crop prices; Threshing rig; Conflicts between ranchers and homesteaders; Custom threshing crew
208 – Bundle haulers; Threshing crew; Threshing meals; Stove in cook car; Exciting threshing times; Hobos; Shockers; Hay fever
299 – Hobo camp; IWW; Steam rigs; Engines; Fuel; Coal; Coal mine; Custom plowing
404 – NPL; Townley (flax king); Flax empire; Langer; Lemke; Frazier; Langer inauguration
493 – IVA; Political emotionality; NPL programs; Women’s suffrage
537 – Men aiding Townley and Langer; “Russian Joe” (Joe Volosov); Bad years spirit
600 – Banks failing affect farms; Farm Holiday Association; NPL and Democrats
683 – Social life; PTA; Dances; Musicians; Compares past and present sociability; Television; Cars
784 – Neighbor competition; Neighborliness; Baseball period and clubs
846 – Other social activity; Shadow Social; Basket socials; Baseball teams; Area towns
932 – End of Tape A
TAPE B
000 – Introduction
023 – Rattlesnakes; Coyotes; Problems between sheep men and homesteaders; Sells produce to customers; Credit for produce; Type of land; Water supply
101 – Electricity; Delco plant; REA; Telephone
196 – Farmers Union; Farm co-ops; Farm Bureau; NFO; United Plainsmen
270 – Independent farmer; Corporation farms; Past and present size farms; Land accumulation; 1930’s Depression; Government buys cattle
348 – Lack of cattle feed; Feeding thistles; Burning straw stacks; strip farming and block farming
429 – Dust storms; Green fertilizer; Shelter belts
474 – WPA; Franklin D. Roosevelt; WPA dams; CCC
529 – County seat; Beach; Coal gasification; Sentinel Butte newspaper; Area town rivalry
618 – Beach trading area; Area towns; Railroad; Nationalities
700 – End of interview
Tape # 3 Tony Lardy (Beach)
Tape A
000 – Introduction
021 – Comes to North Dakota; Family history; Homesteads; Terrain; Nationalities; Family
094 – Homesteading years; Lumber homes; Farms with father; Beginning farm problems; Water; Fuel; Timber; Coal
167 – Coal mine; Hunter Land Company; Farming with horses; Father’s livestock; Ranchers; Homesteaders; Submarginal land
221 – Disputes between rancher and homesteader; Buys land; Crop and grazing land; Bad crop years in 1930’s; Crops in 1913-1930
332 – Crops in 1910-1920; Kinds of wheat; Rust; Raising flax; Kind of ground; Water supply
382 – Threshing machine; Works for farmer; Steam rigs; Threshing flax; Threshing 1912 flax crop
473 – Area towns; Hauling wheat; Large farmers; Post offices
539 – Businessmen; Blacksmith; Sharpening plow lays; Walking plow; Sulky and gang plow; Breaking up land
648 – First tractor; Area newspaper; County seat dispute; Sentinel Butte and Beach population
700 – End of Tape A
TAPE B
000 - Introduction
020 – Railroad; Governor Moses; American Legion; Doctors
092 – Flu Epidemic; Morticians
138 – NPL; Townley; Langer; Burdick
239 – Farm Holiday Association; IVA; Governors; Farmers Union; NFO
303 – County agent; Summer fallowing; Soil Conservation; WPA; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Poorness in 30’s; WPA; CCC
387 – Moral in 30’s; People leave in 30’s; Government buys cattle; Livestock hay; Thistles
445 – IWW; Grasshoppers; Cutworms; Corn crops; Dust storms
625 – Theater; Electricity; Telephone; Delco plants; Hauling hay
751 – Sociability; Religion; World War I attitude; Lusitania
842 – More about World War I attitude; Radio; Lamps; Reasons for life-style change; First car
933 – End of interview
Tape #4 Ms. Lydia Helm, Ms. Elsie M. Farstveet, Ms. Helen Brockmeyer (Beach)(Pembina County)
000 – Introduction
021 – (Lydia) Comes to ND; Family history; Childhood; Marriage and education, Husband’s background; Father’s Minnesota farm; Reasons for leaving Minnesota; Works at St. Thomas
134 – St. Thomas home location; Crystal home; Her marriage; Lives in Plaza; Moves to Beach; Brother-in-law homesteads at Beach; Sentinel Butte depot; 1910 train service
218 – Brother-in-law homestead location; Plaza homestead; Parents homestead near Beach; Thielan (town)
269 – Husband buys land near Rocky Butte; Mother dies; Move into Beach; Son operates farm; Thielan businesses; “The Dinky” railroad branch line; Railroad line towns
363 – Sisters live in Golden Valley County; Husband works on threshing machine; Number of children at that time; She works in a cook car; Crop is ruined by hail
438 – Baking bread for threshers; Explanation of threshing rig operation; (Helen) Husband’s threshing rig; Helps Lydia in cook car; Sleeping quarters in cook car
495 – (Lydia) Threshing crew meals; Selling farm dairy products; Loading cream at railroad loading platform; Dairy products income benefit
558 – Flour mill (Belfield); Homemade butter; Gardening; Poultry; (Helen) Sells poultry; (Elsie) Dressing poultry for sale; Losing money from poultry sale
708 – (Lydia) Gardening water; Preserving vegetables and meat; Root cellar; Preserving pork; Saving blood from hogs for sausage
817 – Homemade headcheese and liver sausage; Preparing intestines for sausage; Homemade sausage varieties
925 – End of interview
Comment: The mentioning of “The Dinky” railroad branch line is one of the more outstanding topics. The discussion of homemade meat varieties is also very informative.
Tape #5 Norman Runion, Jr. (Sentinel Butte)
000 – Introduction
021 – Comes to ND; Family history; First opinion of ND; Travels with prairie schooner from Idaho and Washington; Father’s occupation; Siblings
065 – Nationalities; Father’s work; Movements and horse wagon; Meets wife; Mines coal; Stature and characteristics
120 – Comments on activities and life of “the good old days”; Compares neighborliness then and now; 1916-17 crop conditions; 1917 homesteading population; Works at hauling coal in 1919; Works at Medora; Works at Sentinel Butte Mine; Kind of coal
209 – Reasons people stay in ND; Story about a Texan from Kansas getting a hat; Leaves Medora; Crop conditions in the 20’s; First National Bank closes; Hail problems; Sentinel Butte Mine description; Working with lignite coal
267 – Solving water problems in mine; Mine cave-in; Area supplied by mine; Lignite coal composition; “Shooting” the coal; Loading out coal; Begins using Model T trucks
337 – 1924-39 crop conditions; Farm programs destroy small farms; Opinion of small farmer; Farms along market road to Golva
475 – NPL programs; A. C. Townley; Political philosophy and thoughts on past politics
565 – Comments about “Teddy” Roosevelt and FDR; Lack of present coal mining; 1932 crop prices; WPA aid; Comments on government gaining all profits
647 – A. C. Townley’s activity in area; Townley organizers; IVA activity
SIDE TWO
704 – Consumer Store; Townley’s oil well; Frazier recalled and elected to Senate; Hears Lemke and Langer speak; Farm Holiday Association (Holiday on Debts)
761 – People leave in 30’s; AAA brings in large farms; Coal customer credit problems; Coal prices; Differences between Sentinel Butte coal and coal mines west of Beach
835 – Fossils; Social life then and now; “Bootleggers”; Cowboys; Ranches; Sentinel Butte businesses; Reasons people left Sentinel Butte; Beach and Sentinel Butte County Seat dispute
943 – Billings County divided; School districts decline; Sentinel Butte school; His education; Reasons for not marrying
008 – Farmers Union; Farm Bureau and NFO activity; Farm program effectiveness; His political philosophy; Political prediction and comments on Viet Nam War
137 – Comments about Richard Nixon; Electrical generating plant; Delco plants; Wind chargers; REA
215 – Telephones; Alpha location; Hand dug well
299 – Coyotes; Rattlesnakes; Religious philosophy
Comment: Norman’s comments on lignite coal mining are more detailed and extensive than many in this collection
Tape #6 L. E. (Leonard) Johnson (Beach)(Emmons)
000 – Introduction
021 – 1886 bad winter
034 – Family history; Civil War veterans; Family history
130 – Moves to ND; (Stepmother) brother’s homestead; Lives in SD; (Father) Homesteads at Glenavon; Parkin Post Office
198 – Glenavon homesteaders; 1903 railroad comes to Glenavon; Glenavon location; Other families
264 – “Kid Silk”; Frank Fisk; Andy Marsh; Glenavon buildings; Winona postmaster; Soldiers move from Ft. Yates to Bismarck; Jerry Hart; John Steilz Cattle Company; Steilz loses cattle
387 – Winona businessmen; Mustache Maude; Jack Geier, McConville Ranch
450 – Winona’s reputation; Williamsport (County Seat); Houses of ill repute; Connie Steilz
563 – Andy Marsh – First White settler in that county; Joe Trainer, Leonard J. Holmes; Vanderville; Glenavon “crik”; Steamboat landing
635 – Trees; Saw mills; Tree stumps; Glenavon Post Office; Emmonsburg location; Timber location
744 – Glenavon Stagecoach Lines; LaGrace, SD
861 – Steamboats
SIDE TWO
937 – Indian neighbor says, “He killed Custer”; People who knew Custer; Texas Longhorn Cattle; “Turkey Track Bill” (foreman of ranch claimed to be largest in world)
996 – Work availability; Midwives; Farming with oxen; Glenavon area towns; (Leonard) homesteads; (Parents) burial places
059 – (Father and stepmother) Children; (Father) name; Meets wife; (Wife) homestead; Members of family and nationality
101 – (His) marriage; Years lived in Emmons County; Builds houses; Moves to Savage; Prairie boat; A flood
135 – Rents farm; Moves to Glendive; “The Wagonwheel”; Supplies used for building houses; Photograph explanations – Ferries, neighbors, houses; Saw mill; Plays fiddle
215 – (His) children; Photograph explanations; Sod house building supplies; Photograph explanations; Charley Russell; A letter from Charley Russell
325 – (Leonard) acquaintance with Charley Russell; Meets Frank Fisk; Missouri River ferries; Charley Russell’s studio and other work
390 – Learning to shoot; Andy Marsh’s gunshot ability; ND and SD grain markets and shipping transportation
470 – Social life; (His) education; Schoolhouse location; Population increases with coming of railroad; Fencing
532 – South Prairie; Pollock homesteaders; Description of horsepower threshing machine and Nicholson and Shepard Steam Rig
617 – Steam rig fuel; Price of (His) engine; Moving engine across the river
700 – Reeves; Rumely; Minneapolis; Hart-Par Engine descriptions; Buffalo grass
755 – Glenavon’s first planted crop; (His) acreage; Leaves ND; Sells land
840 – Moisture in 20’s
Comment: Leonard’s mention of towns that are presently nonexistent in Sioux, Emmons, Morton, and Grant Counties is one of the more outstanding topics in this interview.
Tape #7 Ray Lingk (Beach)
Tape A
000 – Introduction
026 – Comes to ND; Ray’s birthplace; Family history; Parade in Prussia (King William, Chancellor Bismarck); Land companies; Comes to Beach; Family history
135 – Family history; Winnebago Indian Settlement; Family history
234 – Ray’s birth year; First house built of sawed lumber; Cyclone cellar; Farming with oxen; Turtle Lake; Champion Binder
303 – Minnesota strawberries and sour grass; Comes to ND; A story about gold in Golden Valley; Travelling by train; Oil lamps on trains; Medora Packing Plant; Arriving at Beach
375 – Neighbor stonemason; Living in a granary; Using a sandstone for a foot-warmer; Making candles
427 – First house; Homestead location; Buffalo horns; Tepee rings and arrowheads on the prairie; Fuel used in granary
534 – Nationalities; Water supply; Anecdote about runaway horses
677 – Tapping into a spring; Farming with oxen; (Father) horses; (Ray) gets lost
822 – (Father) homestead acreage; Other homesteaders; Land company locaters buy land; (Father) homestead location
905 – A hired breaking plow breaks homesteader claims; Vegetables that were planted
SIDE TWO
938 – Anecdote about not being able to herd cattle barefoot because of cactuses and rattlesnakes; Gaining Red Cedar Badland; Ash and Elm fence posts; Problems raising Texas Longhorn Cattle; A Texas Longhorn accident
003 – Pair of Texas Longhorn horns presently above Schnells Sales Ring at Dickinson, North Dakota; Buffalo heads, bones, and horns; Stories about rattlesnakes
084 – A buffalo herd; Wildlife; A hunting accident
134 – Trapping coyotes; Hunting a wolf; A buffalo wolf
280 – Mountain lion tracks; A petrified forest; (Ray) sells his farm
338 – His collection of quarterlies and photographs; Rancher and homesteader conflicts; Ray maps Sully Trail through area; Huidekoper’s (large rancher) ranch location; Huidekopers taken into court for fencing government land
403 – Perry Wibaux – a large rancher; Cowboys; Finding mules shoes from Sully Expedition; 1863-64 – drought years; Grasshoppers; Sully Expedition livestock suffers illness from alkali water
505 – Women shortage; Ben Berg (Cowboy); The Western Trail; The Goodnight Trail; Reno Brothers (large ranchers)
605 – NP Railroad (1880); Ben Berg stories
705 – The Vigilantes; Ben Berg’s race horses; Ben Berg and the Vigilantes
824 – Two cowboys murdered by the Vigilantes; Blizzards
TAPE B
000 – Introduction
035 – First sight of Badlands and Packing Plant; Railroad’s effect on homesteading; Cattle shipping centers
069 – Price of cattle and hay in 20’s; (Ray) Ranch location; Building roads and bridges
111 – Graded roads; First auto; Development of Agricultural Land Use Programs; Mapping the land; Works at Twin Cities; Area NP Railroad branch
165 – Farming with horses; Glander’s Disease; Breaking land with horses and steam rig
204 – Steam rig problems; Farming with oxen; (Father) acreage; Area land filing; Land companies build shacks; First homesteading problems
264 – Townley’s homesteads (A. C. Townley, brother, sister); Area Socialism; Townley’s affiliation with NPL
324 – Townley’s methods of farming; Area unsuccessful farming; Townley’s political hopes; Townley sells crust from Montana hot springs; State Historical Society originates
396 – A. C. Townley’s stature and characteristics; Townley’s oil well and IVA; Townley’s teaching profession
485 – Teaching profession; Ranchers – Perry Wibaux – leave when homesteaders arrive
545 – Cattle herds; Ben Berg and the Vigilantes in 1884; PK Ranch; First White child born in upper part of Red River – M. Wilson; The Wilson family and the Hudson Bay Company
638 – Family history; Napoleon visits family’s mill at East Prussia; (Grandfather) Lingk’s experience with a French officer; A shotgun from Germany (Damascus barrel)
908 – A shotgun from Germany; Hugo Lingk; A Historical Society meeting at Medora
SIDE TWO
956 – A Historical Society meeting at Medora; Marszen candy; Family loses mill in Prussia
021 – (Father) military service; Comes to US; (Ray) military service; Electricity; REA; Welding
113 – Using candles for lighting; Homemade electricity switcher; (Ray) first gun; Joins REA; Telephones; Telephones and lighting incidents
168 – Cutting hair; Mother and sister die; Comes to Beach; Staying in granary
233 – Using a sandstone for a foot-warmer; First Catholic Church location; Ray is first on confirmed in the church; Discussion about finding, polishing, and compiling a book about early age bones
408 – Archeologist’s crocodile site; More discussion about bones
458 – House parties; Christmas Programs; Basket and Pie Socials; Nationality competition at a Pie Social; Ray plays fiddle; Card parties
500 – First PTA in county; Little Beaver School location; (Ray) education; Beach schools; Little Beaver Creek
580 – A teacher shoots a homesteader; The teacher stays at Lingks; Stories about a homesteader looking for a wife
735 – The homesteader does shooting on train and commits suicide
795 – Early financing rates; Certificates of Indebtedness; First president of PTA
836 – First teacher that began enlarging on educational program; A bad water well
TAPE C
000 – A bad water well; Soil Conservation education; Strip farming is introduced
043 – Hoover’s “The Voluntary” Wheat Program; FDR’s allotment program; Serves on Beach ASC Board and County ASC Board; Farmers harass boards; Soil bank controversies
100 – Gyms are built by New Deal Programs
105 – (Father) political affiliations; (Ray) joins NPL; Women’s Suffrage opposition
132 – (Ray) first radio; Anecdote about a man going around the world with a bicycle; A story about a man listening to radio for first time; Farmer opposition to strip-cropping
183 – Opposition to entrance of World War I; 1918 Influenza Epidemic; Beach lawyers buy farms to avoid military service
254 – Opinion of IVA; Langer and Lemke; Lemke and Townley as political friends
277 – Farmers Holiday Association popularity; Farm foreclosures; World War I crop prices; Shipping hogs to West
321 – Population reduction in 30’s; Moves into town; Photograph description; Donates telescope to Home On The Range For Boys
430 – Telescope assemblage; Becomes ill; Photograph description of children
539 – (His) marriage; Photograph description of 1939-40 winter; Prohibition; A teenager fad
580 – Russian revolutionist, Joe Bolasov, homesteads in ND; The Raskin (a Russian depicted movie)
695 – End of interview
Comment: This is a very informative interview. Ray’s outstanding comments include early trails, Sully Expedition, large ranchers, Vigilantes, A. C. Townley, Perry Wibaux and Ben Berg.
Tape #8 D. L. “Dominick” Kukowski
000 – Introduction
020 – Family movement to ND from Minnesota; Working with oxen; Family background
079 – Moving with immigrant car to ND; Beach in early years; Family background in Minnesota; Purchase of land in 1908 near Beach; Bad years in late teens
151 – Farming with oxen; Experiences with and characteristics of oxen; Feeding people in 20’s and 30’s Handouts for hobos; Feelings about helping people
292 – Early crop rotation after breaking sod; Per acre tax and income; Personal early farming recollections; Small talk; Getting started on his own
397 – Small talk on an attempted interview with a friend of Kukowskis; Late 20’s and 30’s recollections
578 – Cattle raising in bad years; Present value of grazing land; Poisoning grasshoppers; Present large land owner in area and how he accumulated it; A local banker and his banking policy
702 – 1918-19 Influenza Epidemic; Small talk on family; An experience with mortgaged horses; Doctors in Beach; Size of Beach over the years; Current price of land
890 – NPL organizing days; Opinion of Townley; Townley organizers
SIDE TWO
910 – D. L.’s father defies Townley at meeting; Recollections of NPL oppositions; Recalls start in county politics; County financing School redistricting in area
157 – Helpfulness; Sociability and neighborliness over the years; Rural phone lines; Mrs. Kukowski’s first marriage; His first marriage; Small talk about interview in area
329 – Opinions about current events; Farm organization; IWW; Women’s suffrage; Prohibition and bootlegging; Small talk about family visiting
560 – End of tape
Comment: This is not a particularly good interview as the respondents tend to digress a great deal. The interview contains very little specific information. The best portions of the interview deal with politics, ox farming and the late 20’s and 30’s in regard to conditions and survival.
Tape #9 Ted Hoeck (Beach)
000 – Introduction
021 – Comes to ND; Martin family
139 – Reasons for coming to ND; Buys locker plant; (Father) homesteads; Childhood home location
178 – Family history; Stories about people in Germany
254 – Descriptions of people in Germany; 1914 population; Farming with plows and binders; Steam rigs
303 – Population in 30’s declines; 1914-27 crops; Marcus Wheat; Wheat varieties yieldage
366 – (His) education; Country schools; Stays at home with father; Father dies; Bad winter years
394 – Buys father’s farm; Loses father’s farm; Buys Fordson Tractor; 1930-50 crop incomes
440 – Morale in 30’s; Past and present neighborliness; Comments on changes in public’s working mannerisms; Hires out to work for other people
487 – Has heart attack; Comments on land ownership necessary to successful livelihood
528 – Buying lumber from Ekalaka; Providing food for his family; Gardening; His children
598 – Deer and antelope; Hunting areas; Deer hunters; 1914-30 deer population
661 – Comments about NPL; A. C. Townley; J.M. Still; NPL farming platform; Townley’s homestead location
757 – Townley’s farming ability; A Beach Saddler; NPL county percentage
849 – NPL criticisms; Comments on Frazier and Langer
912 – A. C. Townley’s income; political views and oil well
SIDE TWO
955 – Comments on Burdick, Andrews, Young and Guy politics; Farmer Holiday Association foreclosures in 20’s; Farm auction confrontations
987 – Population leaves area; Government supported farms; Beach bank closings
Tape #10 Ray Zinsli (Beach)
000 – Introduction
020 – Comes to ND; Works for rancher; Reasons for coming to ND; Family history; Rancher and sheep men conflicts; Immigrant car stowaways; Grass abundance when he first comes to ND; Family history
116 – Picture description; A shanty house; First school built in area; Shanty house; Works as blacksmith; Sentinel Butte coal mine; Ray’s blacksmithing responsibilities; Works in Medora coal mines; A mining accident
210 – Discovering a vein of coal; Compares explosive strength of powder and dynamite; More description of shanty house; First furrow broken in area; Ray’s first opinion of ND; An old building
305 – A neighbor rancher helps Ray’s father with horses; Breaking wild horses; Constant Van Horn (rancher, County Commissioner); Ukrainian settlements
404 – Surviving first winter; First Sentinel Butte teacher; Martin’s Grocery Store; (Father) homestead location; Selling Cedar posts; Tescher brother
501 – M. Tescher breaking a horse; Tescher family cowboys; Ray’s siblings; Homesteading life for women; Machinery problems and bad crops
603 – Discussion of machinery; Raising vegetables in corn furrows; (Father) homestead land and neighbors
702 – The book “Fifty Years in the Saddle”; Reading of letter entitled “History of Ray Zinsli”
898 – Uses for rutabagas
SIDE TWO
925 – Discussion of rutabagas, parsnips, and turnips; A cow and a calf are stolen; Longhorn cattle description; Open range area; Area ranchers; Cattle rustling; Water problems; Digging a well
035 – Rattlesnakes; Ray destroys a rattler; Wolves; Bobcats
147 – Sheep men have problems with coyotes; Winter storm severities and people getting lost; Evening home entertainments; Family home entertainments; Family togetherness; Horse races; Foot races; Reasons for saying “good old days”; Making wooden shoes
242 – First opinion of ND; Moves to Wisconsin; Ray’s education; Meets wife; Works in coal mines; Description of Medora mines
340 – Comments about Roughrider Hotel; Means of shipping coal; Quality of coal; Classes of coal miner laborers; Medora’s reputation when Ray worked in mines; Powder and dynamite blasting
485 – Ray’s mining accident
648 – His marriage and children; Expenses of raising a family
742 – Family expenses in 30’s; Blacksmithing training
Comment: This interview contains an extensive discussion of the Medora mines.
Tape #11 Mr. and Mrs. Ed Koshney (Beach)
000 – Introduction
020 – Background to Mabel’s family in ND; Her recollections of move from Buffalo, ND to Beach; Her first impressions of western ND; Moving to the claim
094 – Mabel’s mother the only woman in the area; First family moves in; Playing outside at night as a child; Reason for father selecting that area; Tough times pioneering
205 – Her first Christmas in western ND; Her first trip to town; General early recollections; The first school; More families move in; Neighbors coming to visit with cow pulling buggy
301 – Coyotes and rattlesnakes; Staying in Beach for high school; Working way through high school
348 – Ed’s family background; his background to coming to ND in 1922; His uncle’s homestead near Golva in Slope County; Families in Alpha country near Golva
447 – Family (Koshney) moves north of Beach; Early ranching north of Beach; Ed’s family splits up; Ed gets the mail route; Recollections of delivering mail; Bidding for a star route
586 – Keeping up a car for the route; Carrying mail on skis; Working in a garage and in construction
SIDE TWO
700 – Making it in the bad years; More on early days of Mabel’s family in ND; WPA and surplus commodities; Commodities for school lunches
913 – Mabel’s early social life; Some specific recollections of those days; Rabbit pie for Thanksgiving and fresh meat
038 – Beach social life in 1924 versus the rural sociability; No church for years north of Beach; Religion around Golva; Marginal and submarginal land in area
148 – Religion around Golva and Alpha; Inventions and methods of farming that have changed life; People acquire more land; The auto’s effect on life-styles; Sociability; Trips to Seattle
287 – Beach’s marketing area; Trotters’ stores and post office; Telephone comes into area
395 – Russian escapes from Soviet Union and solicits for the telephone company
415 – End of interview
Tape #12 Otto Petersilie (Sentinel Butte)
000 – Introduction
020 – Comes to ND; Homestead location; First crops; A rancher’s horses destroy his crops
107 – Rancher and homesteader conflicts; Large ranchers; Railroad comes into area; A horse ranch; Fences his land; Homesteader families; His wife
213 – Nationalities; Reasons for parents coming to United States; Otto’s reasons for coming to ND; Land broken that first year; Seeding flax; Works as fireman on threshing machine; Machine fuel; Neighbor threshes for other neighbors
320 – Breaking sod; Machine fuel; Homestead fuel; Lignite coal source; Water resources; A breaking crew; Moving a steam engine after it was stuck
419 – A threshing crew; Crew’s eating habits and sleeping provisions; Crew wages; Prairie fires
532 – Best crop years; Early Sentinel Butte; Beach businesses; Flour mill; Early roads at Beach; Graded roads; Golva is built up
636 – Other towns; Marketing towns
SIDE TWO
708 – Frequency of trips into town; Purchasing supplies; Beach flour mill is built; Sentinel Butte flour mill; Gardening; Various berries; Social life; Country dances; Prohibition; Bootlegging; “Moonshining”
843 – Political involvement; Otto’s opinion of A. C. Townley and William Lemke; Poor financial years; Grasshopper years
941 – Dust storms; Running cattle in the 30’s; Sells cattle to the government; Government ships cattle; Works with WPA in 30’s; 1918 Influenza Epidemic; Doctors
034 – The name Golva originates; Children’s educations; Township schools; Larger population years; People leave area; Farmer Holiday Association in area
131 – NPL strength; A. C. Townley support; Churches; Other towns; Sees his first car; Telephone
252 – Changes in people; Opinion of ND
260 – End of interview
Tape #13 Ms. Halstad, Alvin Hoverson, Ms. Bessie Olstad, Mrs. Sarah Quillium, Pete Thompson (Beach)
TAPE A
000 – Introduction
020 – (Halstad) Works as telephone operator; Northwestern Bell begins in area; Wages; Switchboard description; Trains; Length of working day; More switchboard description; Fire calls; Comments on public’s cooperation
120 – Comes to ND; Works in Montana; First impression of Beach; Beach stores; Moves into town; Horseback riding; Gets married and lives on farm; Learning to utilize lignite coal; Kinds of lamps used; Oilcloths; Sewing curtains
222 – Ironing methods
230 – (Hoverson) Store supplies; Father’s hardware business and homestead; More about hardware business; Other hardware businesses; Leaves hardware business; Bad business years; Heath General Store; A section house; Water source; Alvin’s first house; Present home
327 – His store merchandise; Other hardware businesses in Sentinel Butte; Educational methods
371 – Comes to ND; First school attended; 8th grade graduations begin; An area minister; Attends high school; High school curriculum; Advanced Building location; School’s faculty; School moves to new building; Discussion of old and new school
458 – Number of students in school; Graduation exercises; Light plant operators; Comments on school functions; Moves to West Coast; Alvin’s store in Sentinel Butte; Military service; Parents leave Sentinel Butte
518 – (Olstad) Comes to US; A neighbor; Selling homemade butter; Moves to Sentinel Butte and Medora; Husband begins painting
SIDE TWO
702 – Introduction
715 – (Quillium) Lives in Canada and Minnesota; Siblings; Comes to ND; Milking cows; Dances; Quilliums as neighbors to Olstads; Sarah’s opinion of cowboys
804 – (Hollenbeck) Comes to ND; Works in hotel at Sentinel Butte; Sheep shearing; “Old Settlers Picnic”; Various games
905 – She is honored at “Old Settlers Picnic”
915 – (Thompson) Introduction
920 – Farming with neighbors; Sheep shearing; Meals
155 – Delivering alcohol to a friend at Sentinel Butte
265 – Giving alcohol to the cook; Threshing machine breaks down
TAPE B
000 – Introduction
035 – Building of a particular barn (Boyer); Driving a Cadillac car; A fire drag; Comments on having conversation with women
216 – A tractor runs out of control; Sleeping under a tractor; A dispute with a woman about parking location of a tractor
325 – Plow man problems; Relates the events of eating meals at Beach on a threshing day
435 – A story about a man with illness called “Snakes”
509 – A story about a spirited horse; Taking his future wife to a dance
SIDE TWO
701 – Continuation of taking his future wife to a dance; The Ranch Enterprise; A story about a steep hill
827 – Working with electricity; She relates the events of their marriage; A buggy and car accident; A hail storm
930 – End of interview
Comment: Tape A of this interview includes a number of people and therefore, the people’s names have been capitalized where they begin speaking for the convenience of our listeners. The interview with Pete Thompson, Tape B, is rather difficult to understand at various times; but if the listener listens carefully, it will prove to be of value, informative, and interesting.
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