Fort Mandan State Historic Site is temporarily closed for maintenance until further notice.
Ward County
Region 9
1 Elmer Cart, Minot
2 William “Bill” Pace, Wolseth
3 Mrs. Ollie Bach, Minot
4 Ole C. Watne, Minot
5 Mrs. Fred Bryans, Minot
6 Dr. Charles Hoffman, Minot
7 Mrs. C. O. Carlson, Minot
8 Mrs. Winifred Erdman, Minot
9 Stanley Saugstad, Minot
10 E. P. Christensen, Minot
11 Rudolph Haugen, Ryder
12 Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey Sanstead, Minot
13 Ellen Staflin, Rural Glenburn
14 Marion Rearick, Rural Glenburn
15 Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Erickson, Rural Minot
16 Julius Fjeld, Douglas
17 Jesse Joiner, Berthold
18 Mr. and Mrs. Henry M. Johnson, Berthold
19 Mr. and Mrs. Ed Stalwick, Berthold
20 Mr. and Mrs. Don Birdsall, Berthold
21 Mrs. E. R. “Tillie” Smith, Rural Minot
22 George L. Johnson, Rural Minot
23 Sadie Harchanko, Minot
24 Raynold Anderson, Kenmare
25 Lewis Hoffman, Kenmare
26 Jennie Graveson, Kenmare
27 Amos Melin, Norma (Ward & Renville)
28 Andrew C. Mortenson, Kenmare
29 Capser Morten, Kenmare (Ward & Renville)
30 Alvin and Emil Granlund, Niobe
31 Julia Fleckten, Niobe
32 Girdell W. Patterson, Carpio (Ward & Renville)
33 Mr. and Mrs. Don Davy, Burlington
34 John Stewart, Minot
35 Saul Davis, Minot
36 Miss Brynhild Haugland, Minot
37 Hugh McGillivray, Bismarck
38 Mrs. Olive McElwain, Minot
39 Mr. Harry B. Eck, Minot
40 Mr. and Mrs. Arthur K. McKenzie, Rural Donnybrook
Portions of the following interviews pertain to Ward County:
Carl Taubert, #43, Cass County
Walter Sherman, #8, Burleigh County
C. P. Dahl, #20, Burleigh County
John Vaage, #8, Mountrail County
Tape #1 Elmer Cart (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Homestead location; Interest in politics; Opinion of A. C. Townley
120 – A. C. Townley; Frazier; Recall Election; NPL newspaper; The establishment of Bank of North Dakota; Recall Election of the year 1921
229 – Serves in legislature; A physical entanglement at the Capitol Building – Carl Kaziscky; Opponents of the League in the legislature; L. L. Twitchell’s legislative abilities
345 – Langer leaves NPL, loses primary election, supports Frazier; Langer and Lemke's contribution to NPL; NPL leaders; NPL is aided in its organization by L. L. Griffith
440 – NPL loses popularity; Consumer stores in North Dakota; NPL and IVA factions; Townspeople opinion of consumer store; Equity builds elevator; President of AC loses petition because of speaking against equity
563 – Grain Grading Law; Success and failure of wheat varieties; The prices; Price of mill feeds; Grain trade; Nelson, secretary of IVA; James Manahan
677 – Serves in legislature – major issues; Major state institutions; Appropriations for schools; Animosity between IVA and NPL
789 – Opinion of R. A. Nestos; Bridge across Missouri in 1919; Other bridges; Nestos loses election in 1924, supports State Mill and Elevator and Bank
891 – Special election of 1919; Path of Soo Line Railroad in 1893; Danish communities; Family history; Nelson Lawson; The Soo Line Railroad; Nationalities; Parochial school; Kenmare
047 – Bootlegging; Moonshining; Social life; Dances; His education; Speaking English in schools
143 – Economy collapses in 30’s – salaries, marketing livestock, hay; Elected to Public Service Commission; Farm losses; Effect of Holiday Association; Banks fail; Management contributes to success or failure of banks; Serves with Public Service Commission; Defeats NPL candidate in primary of 1940; The first instance of utility regulations
265 – Other members serving the commission; Relief assistance; REA legislative laws; Public Service Commission; Marketing, transportation, trucks; Interstate Regulation of the Motor Carriers; Size of staff
396 – Loses election of 1940; Utility overcharges are refunded; Railroads lose passenger service; Exclusive rights to utility companies; Opinion of William Langer
496 – William Langer; Langer’s moratorium; War debts after World War I contribute to depression of 30’s; WPA
655 – Gas tractors; Steam engines; Best politician and man in government in North Dakota
778 – North Dakota’s appeal to the population
828 – End of interview
Tape #2 William Pace (Wolseth)
000 – Introduction
020 – Moves to North Dakota; Furnishings moved in immigrant car; Family history; Deering businesses; Sod houses; Buys land; Steam rigs
126 – Threshing prices; Prairie fires; Severe winters; Wolseth businesses; Wolseth receives name; Elevators; Supplies in Bill’s store; NPL; Nonpartisan Leader F. B. Wood
232 – A. C. Townley; Howard Wood; NPL dues; Objectives and the dislikes of NPL; Opposes of NPL; Paying NPL dues; The marketing towns
332 – Glenburn businesses; Railroad service; Passenger service; Roads; WPA; Loses land in 30’s; Grasshoppers; Dust is cause of “blow outs”; Description of Eckman
439 – WPA – salaries, roads; CCC; Years following drought; The prices following World War I; Rural schools; Becomes married; People leave
540 – Social life; Dances; Churches; Deering newspaper; The Farmers Union; Farmers Holiday Association movement; Auction sales; Usher Burdick
693 – Settlers at Wolseth; Nationalities; Automobiles; The friendliness; Threshing crew
796 – Other settlers; F. B. and Howard Wood move from Wolseth; Doctors
918 – Lawyers
SIDE TWO
936 – Baseball; Chautauqua; Lighting; Wind charger
150 – Telephone; Opinion of North Dakota; Fuel; Elevators
095 – End of interview
Tape #3 Mrs. Ollie Bach (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Riding race horses; Other jockeys; Travelling through the country; Betting; Women jockeys; Prize money
144 – Operates a riding stable; Family history; Lake Darling floods; CCC; Fish at Lake Darling
255 – Becomes married; Settlement of area; Rural school; The businesses at Maxbass; Nationalities; Social life; Ball; Danes; Musicians; Teachers
363 – Steam rigs; Crew; Fuel; Cook car; Groceries; His father’s machine; Ordering groceries; Clothes
491 – Winter sports; Neighborliness; 1918 influenza epidemic; “Gang rule” in government; A. C. Townley’s farming ability; Dust storms; Feeding thistles to livestock; The prices of cattle
593 – Dust storms; Grasshoppers; Fairs; Feed for horses in 30’s; Maxbass churches; Baseball
711 – End of interview
Tape #4 Ole C. Watne (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Boundaries of Minot; Nationalities; Minot’s reputation; Buys motorcycle; Streetcars; Water system; Floods; Buildings along river
124 – Raising livestock within towns; Circuses; Hobos; Ole “bums” a freight; Medicine shows; Feeding hobos; Kerosene lamps; Electricity; Homemade whiskey
239 – Scofield ranch; Log cabins; Stores and owners at Minot; Hotel; 1918 influenza epidemic; Military service
339 – Military service; His education; Begins farming; Cutting trees; Prairie fires
450 – Trees; Other settlers; Stores at Burlington; Coal mines; A large coal miner; Making a living during 30’s; Oak Park begins to grow
555 – Churches; Typical Sunday; Language; Ethnic languages in the homes
658 – Neighborliness Working with threshing crews; Working with his father
713 – End of interview
Comment: Ole’s interview looks at the early days in Minot, North Dakota. He discusses Minot’s boundaries, floods, Scofield ranch, and businesses at Burlington.
Tape #5 Mrs. Fred Bryans (Minot)(Renville County)Introduction
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history
140 – Settlement of area; Nationalities; Religion; Church; Pastors; Typical Sunday; Social life; Danes; Baseball; Town of Carpio; Marketing; Businessmen; Churches
236 – Sewing clothes; Gardening; Supplies that people purchased; Flour mill; Other towns; Grades of flour; Hauling grain to Carpio; Threshing; Steam rigs; Meals; Winter storage of food; Canning; Water sources; Neighbors; Abandoned homes; Family history
353 – Father’s farming; Selling cream and produce; Reading media; Phonograph; Telephone; Doctor; 1918 influenza epidemic; Newspaper; Other towns; Businesses at Grano
453 – More about Grano; The county seat; Ward County is divided; Grano businessmen; Hotel
565 – Greene, North Dakota; Service of railroad at Grano; Her husband and description of ranch; Electricity; Husband’s family history
SIDE TWO
720 – Their ranch; Cattle country; Open prairie; Threshing crews; Type of men; Sleeping quarters; Government buys the ranch; Marketing cattle; NPL activity; The 30’s; Selling cattle; Feeding livestock; Grasshoppers; Bank failures at Grano; Discouragement; Lake Darling is constructed
822 – Buying land for dam at Lake Darling; People leave; Farmers Holiday Association; First car at Carpio; REA; Buys land; Socialization; Ranch’s hired men; Hauling hay; Wintering the cattle
930 – Driving and shipping cattle; Ranches; Prairie fires; Harsh winters; Floods; Opinion of North Dakota
996 – End of interview
Tape #6 Dr. Charles Hoffman (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – College; Number of students; Student aid program; Salaries; Impressions of North Dakota; Biology department; Morale in 30’s; Faculty staff; Room and board
120 – Faculty income during summer; Compulsory church services; Minister; College conditions after 30’s and previous to World War I; College morale during 30’s; Minot’s social life; Hunting; Fishing; Dances; Speakers; Curfews
218 – Desire for education; Sports during 30’s; Naval training program; Night classes; War affects college; Internment of Japanese; Space at school and quality of instruction
327 – Atmosphere of relations between college and city; Displays of academic freedom; Student gratitude; Teaches at Iran; Tehran, Iran – Food, description, learning language; The American and Iranian relations; Population; Irrigation; The crops; Vegetation; Removing salt from water; Oil
472 – Changes in education; Fund expenditure; Characters of the students; Dress code; Closing of small colleges; Ph.D.s at college; Faculty; Quality; Organization; Tenure policy; Legislative funds; Salaries; Class sizes
632 – Classes that he taught; Member of city council; The law enforcement; Democracy; Growth of science division
735 – Doctor’s desire to teach; Enjoyment of life; Opinion of Minot
795 – End of interview
Comment: This interview is short but Dr. Charles Hoffman discusses the college to good extent. The doctor’s conversation does include students, faculty, salaries, and general conditions.
Tape #7 Mrs. C. O. Carlson (Minot)
TAPE A
SIDE TWO
000 – Introduction
020 – Moves to North Dakota; Teaches at Indiana; Family history; Attends normal school; Family history; Impression of the state; Nationalities; Society’s view of teachers; The social life; Dances; Card parties; Baseball
118 – Finding room and board; Musicians; Length of school terms; Location of school; Vandalism at school; Law about locking a school; Salaries; Paying board; Negros living in area
236 – Attends summer school; Length of term; Teachers; Language and discipline barriers; Cooperation between parents and teachers
330 – School; Stories from teaching a lower grade; Anecdote about accident with stove in school; Burning lignite for fuel; Horse barns; Number of years that she taught; Meets her husband
430 – Grant Yeoman in politics; Meeting C. O.; Hiring married teachers; Location of their farm; Nationalities
534 – Other settlers; Women’s Auxiliary supports NPL; F.B. Wood; Howard Wood leaves area
663 – Supporters and anti-leaguers; NPL leaders; Langer; Wife for governor; Character; C. O. works with the Public Service Commission
821 – The 30’s; Gardening; Loss and repurchase of land; Farmers Holiday Association; Dumping milk; Leader; Active NPL members; First president of Farmers Union in Ward County; Farmers Union; Opposition; Necessity
TAPE B
000 – Langer’s raid of inmates at Minot; Minot’s reputation; John Hollinger; Hotels; Running liquor; Bootleggers; Poisoned alcohol; Minot; Reputation; Park; River; Stores; Attending a dance
120 – Other towns; Teaching a Norwich school; Theaters; The movies; Women’s Suffrage; 1918 influenza epidemic; The doctor
234 – Midwives; Churches; Equity elevator; Telephone
334 – Combines; Threshing; Crew; Cook car; Bunk car; Area
460 – Hired men; Raising stock; People leave; Crop yieldage; Prices; Farmers Bank fails; Grant Yeoman leaves area
591 – Neighborliness; Opinion of North Dakota; Floods; A lake and stream; Writing a teacher’s examination
691 – Issuing teaching permits
712 – End of interview
Comment: Mrs. Carlson’s interview encompasses schools and teaching in Minot. F. B. and Howard Wood, William Langer, Farmers Holiday Association, Grant Yeomen, and floods are highlights.
Tape #8 Mrs. Winifred Erdman (Minot)(McHenry and Williams Counties)
TAPE A
000 – Introduction
020 – Moves to North Dakota; Reasons for moving to North Dakota; Seeking a teaching position; Depth of snow; A German settlement; Accepting a teaching position; Location of the Deep River
122 – Hotel at Towner; Travelling by stage; Halfway house; Meals; Water; Changing horses; Deep River; Mail; Stores; The post mistress; Post office
254 – Places where men and women boarded at Deep River; The Bucholz family; A blacksmith and land agent; Her first school; Handicapped students; The school’s stove and the toilets; Location of school; Dances; Babysitters
357 – Floods; Teaching; Teaching salaries; Students apparel; The names of students; Language problems and furnishings
457 – Traveling in a grain wagon box; Teaches at Oregon; An incident of traveling in a snowstorm and becoming ill; Impression of North Dakota; Location of Deep River
553 – Lewis and Clark Expedition stops at Portland, Oregon; Works in California; Theodore Roosevelt’s cabin exhibited in Portland, Oregon
655 – Description of North Dakota people; Movements of the Bucholz family
TAPE B
715 – Moving to North Dakota; Teacher at German settlement; The process of buying a relinquishment; Accepts teaching position; Home where she boarded
815 – Arriving at Drake, North Dakota; Hotel; A teacher’s popularity; Board and room; Sleeping at the school; Threshers’ pranks of deviltry
930 – Teaches school at Icelandic Settlement; Board and room; The teachers’ salaries paid by warrants; Financing schools; The anecdotes while teaching Icelandic children; Teaching at the Croup School
055 – Location of Icelandic Settlement; Teaching English in the Icelander school; Disciplinary problems; Quality of students
173 – Problems with older children in lower grades; Friendliness between her and Icelander families; The Icelandic family; Riding in a democrat; Sisters’ teaching positions; A story about patriotism
183 – Women homesteaders
325 – Stady (town); Traveling to her homestead; Finding a pony and a wagon; Marmon (town)
431 – Humorous stories occurring while traveling to Williston; The reaching of Zahl; Zahl’s mail and hotel
560 – Comical anecdotes about Mrs. Zahl and her son; Staying the night at Zahls
SIDE TWO
659 – Driving to her homestead; Planting a large garden; Travel with oxen
759 – Traveling with oxen; Doctors; Dentists; Sewing a quilt
854 – Hunting ducks; Description of stove; Roasting ducks
953 – Preparing apple butter; Holding a dance in a sod house; Chording an organ
070 – Keeping a revolver; A revolver accident; Her suitors; Eating a picnic; Stady businesses; Newspaper; Post office
450 – Proving up a homestead; Price of relinquishment; Buildings and well on homestead; Buying coal; Description of shack; A hailstorm
595 – Feeding rutabagas to oxen; Root cellar; Gets married; Improving the shack
695 – Description of pictures; Weddings; Pasture for cattle in 30’s; Riga (town); Buying buildings for their home; Buys more land
810 – End of interview
Comment: Winifred’s interview includes a large amount of historical data. A German settlement, travelling by stage, floods, characteristics teaching, Bucholz family, Theodore Roosevelt’s cabin, Icelandic settlement, women homesteaders, traveling by oxen, doctors, dentists, a sod house, homesteading, and towns no longer in existence.
Tape #9 Stanley Saugstad (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Walking to dance; Saint Carl Post Office; Traveling to Bismarck; Other towns; Marketing grain; A homemade thresher
121 – Family history; Location of a cattle ranch; Reasons for moving to North Dakota; Settlement of area; Homestead location; Family history; Homesteading methods; Tree claims; Family’s homesteads
228 – Homesteading; Immigrant car; Furnishings; First frame building; Mill timber; First permanent settlers; The Bell family; First settlers; James Bell; Gregg slough; The storage of chickens; Eating plum butter
344 – Nationalities; Bell family; Leave area; Bell school; The other settlers; Nationalities; Pastor Rice; The other settlers; Log house; Anecdote about finding a “fired ball” in a tree
489 – Log houses; Lumber from Fort Buford; Railroad arrives at Minot; Fort Buford is dismantled; Oak houses; Converting log houses to frame houses; 1904 flood; Farmstead sites; 1969 and 1975 floods
SIDE TWO
933 – Sod houses; Shelter for cattle; Other settlers; Pasture areas; Description of a saddle; Other homesteaders
043 – Story about a homesteader losing land; The determination of residence; Principal property owners in Minot; A. Nedrud; Political office; Character; Scofield farm; Plows
165 – Horses; Trading; Breaking; Scofield livery stable; A wild horse; Price; Pasturing; Clipping
315 – Horses; Hitched to machinery; Gait; A farmer’s hours; The changing from horse power to tractor; A neighbor borrows horses
425 – His education; Schools; Teachers’ room and board; Closest store; Logan businesses; Serves with school board; The schools; Acquiring title of Logan lots
545 – Intentions of land purchases by homesteaders; Settlers do work in western North Dakota and Minnesota and coal mines in winter
646 – Fuel; Coal in area; Recreation; Visiting; School functions; Card playing; Dances; Fourth of July ; Baseball; Horseshoe; Horse racing; Weddings and funerals; Auction sales
814 – Threshing
867 – End of interview
Comment: Stanley Saugstad discusses a homemade thresher, Bell family, the lumber, Fort Buford, Frame houses, floods, the determining of residence, A. C. Nedrud, Scofield livery stable, changing from horse power to the tractor, other towns, coal, recreation, weddings, funerals, and auction sales.
Tape #10 E. P. Christensen (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Reasons for moving to North Dakota; Family history; E. P.’s farms; Nationalities; Celebrations; School; His education; Length of term; Language barriers
130 – Family history; Norwegian settlement; Buying relinquishments; Settlers leave; Closest town; post office; Farming with the horses; Threshing machine; Other settlers; Threshing with the neighbors; Hauling grain; A threshing rig
238 – Fuel in steam engine; Threshing crew; Steam engine crew; The cook car; Steam rig plowing
359 – Threshing season; Wild fowl; Prairie fires; Harsh winters
443 – Social life; Dances; Baseball; Tennis courts
585 – Military service; Socialist Party
SIDE TWO
717 – Family’s political affiliations; Socialist Parties at Minot; Opinion of Lemke and Harry Truman; Collecting funds for NPL
812 – Opinion of Langer; Langer controls telephone system; The gambling raids; Story about friend involved in raid; WPA eligibility requirements and wages
920 – WPA dam and roads; The 30’s; Moving cattle to pasture; The “Barnyard Loans”
990 – William Langer rally; NPL’s strength decreases; Collecting dues; Organizing the Farmers Union; Appealing characteristics of the Farmers Union; Active members of Holiday Association; An example of Farmers Holiday Association objectives
223 – Leaders of Holiday Association; Halting various transports
350 – Anecdote about a bank foreclosing a farmer’s cattle; Other foreclosures
430 – End of interview
Comment: Discusses a Norwegian settlement, relinquishments, settlers leaving area, farming methods, fowl, prairie fires, winters, social life, Socialist Party, Bill Lemke, Harry Truman, NPL, Langer’s control of telephone system, gambling, WPA, the 30’s, Farmers Union, and the Holiday Association.
Tape #11 Rudolph N. Haugen (Minot)(McLean)
000 – Introduction
021 – Moves to North Dakota; Farms and buys grain; Clearing land of rock; First impression of North Dakota; Price of land; Grass yieldage in 1939; Land covered with water; Begins to farm; Works with elevator; Buys land; Federal Land Bank price; Loans on wheat
140 – Land covered by water; Begins farming; Clearing land of the rock; Location and size of farm; Horses; Plows; Acres he plowed in a day; Summer fallowing
275 – Prairie fires; Firebreaks; Indians; Activity; Problems; Food; Houses
375 – His brother’s farm; Hired men; Machinery; Oxen; Threshing; The price of land; Threshing rig becomes a flame; Driving threshing rig pulling steam rig
475 – Working with steam rig; Fuel and horse power threshing rigs; Pulling steam rigs with oxen; Working with a steam engine for plowing; Other steam engines
605 – Buys tractor; The tractor’s mechanical ability; Crops; The elevators; Coal shortage; Price
723 – Grain markets; Roads; Conversation about a wagon accident; Receives gold for payment of grain; Businessmen at Garrison
825 – Flour mill; Post office; Stores; Roseglenn receives its name; Elevator; Building the railroad
SIDE TWO
930 – Businesses at Ryder; Banks; Interest; Failures; People leave farms; Ryder businesses; Businesses at Douglas; He works as operator of elevator; Grain elevating engines; Unloading the grain from wagons; Boxcar shortage
140 – Begins operating elevator; Seeding, harvesting, and shocking land; Grain prices; Hired man; Honesty in elevators; The reasons for building Farmers Elevator; Honesty in elevators at Ryder; Rudolph loses elevator
275 – Manages Farmers Union Elevator; Crops; Yieldage; Prices; The better and worse years; Ryder’s population declines; Ryder implement businesses; Machinery prices
400 – Horse prices; Social life; Dances; Church; Elbow Woods; Trees; Rodeos; Other towns
510 – Indian celebration at Elbow Woods; His political life; The political factions; Guy, Young, and Andrews in politics in the area; Opinion of William Langer; Corruption in State Mill and Elevator; Relief programs
687 – Investing in A. C. Townley’s oil well and Grant Yeomen’s bank; Socialists; Arthur LeSeur; 1918 influenza epidemic; Becomes married; His wife
790 – A generating plant; Queen City Telephone Company
873 – End of interview
Comment: Rudolph Haugen’s data is informative and of historical assistance. Topics differentiating Rudolph from the other interviewees are land covered by water, the activity and celebrations of Indians, yieldage of grass, farm machinery, towns, mechanics and atmosphere of elevators, politics, Townley’s oil well, Yeomen’s bank, Arthur LeSeur, and telephone.
Tape #12 Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey A. Sanstead (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Moves to North Dakota; Works with hardware stores; Family history; Moves to Temple; Temple businesses; Elevator; Postmaster; Moves store to Temple
143 – Reasons for moving his store; Attends fair at Seattle; Works at Berthold; Becomes married
240 – Other settlers; Doctors; Businesses; Jess Joiner; The telephone; Works with Swift Packing Company; Homesteads in Canada; Works as conductor
345 – Returns to North Dakota; Military service; His home in Canada; French settlement
448 – Moves back to North Dakota; Describes his home and work; Traveling with a skaul
558 – Traveling with skaul; Describes river; Poisoned water; Typhoid fever
768 – His work on the skaul
868 – More about typhoid fever; Admitted to hospital
SIDE TWO
940 – More about the skaul and the hospital; Walking to the town of Edmonton on a trail
082 – Working with Swift Packing Plant
182 – Sells candy; Salary; Commission; Trains; Roads; Member of NPL; Opinion of Langer
283 – Manages Berthold restaurant; Langer visits their home; Price of meals
382 – Entertainment; Home brew; Bootleggers; Moves into Minot
495 – Opinion of North Dakota; Secret of good health
534 – End of interview
Comment: Mr. Sanstead converses most here. He points out a French settlement and most of interview is concerned with traveling with a skaul in Canada.
Tape #13
Mrs. Ellen Staflin (Glenburn)
000 – Introduction
020 – Moving to North Dakota; Family history; First impressions of North Dakota; Reasons for homesteading in North Dakota; Farming with oxen; Homestead shack
120 – Homestead shack; Other settlers; Meets husband; Travels several times between Wisconsin and North Dakota; gets married; Threshing machine; Crew; Cook car; Staying overnight at farms; Activity; Cooks; Salaries; Anecdote about having to halt threshing for a time; Ellen helps crew; the length of season
349 – Nationalities; Churches; Bohemian hall; Cooperation between nationalities; Church; Transportation; Social life
450 – A local church is dedicated; Neighbors; Parties
564 – Bachelor homesteaders; Boarding schoolteachers; Teachers’ salaries; Schools in area
717 – Hauling wood for cook stoves; Water sources
839 – Trading centers; Rural schools; Frequency of trips to city of Minot; Supplies she purchased; Ordering from catalogs
SIDE TWO
930 – Canning; Catalog companies; Gypsies; Good and poor crop years; Brothers sell out; Attends World’s Fair; Making the hay; More crop years; Rust
031 – Prairie fires; Firebreaks; Women’s Suffrage; Organization of NPL
148 – WPA; NPL organizing; Political rallies at F. B. and Howard Wood homes; Fees; Lynn Frazier; William Langer; Bill Lemke; Farmers Union; Leaders; Meeting place; Local meetings; PTA open the way
292 – Organization of Credit Union; Delivering mail by air during severe winters
398 – Hauling and shipping livestock during 30’s; Pit silos; The wintering of cattle; Drought; Stories about dust storms; Grasshoppers; Making a living during 30’s; Loans; Better years; Foreclosures
559 – WPA roads; Traffic; 1918 influenza epidemic; Doctors; The telephone
703 – Change in pace of life; Farmers Union’s contribution to their society; Opinion of North Dakota; Carlson family
869 – End of interview
Comment: Mrs. Staflin had a good memory. Threshing, nationalities, fuel, water, gardening, the catalogs, politics, Credit Union, selling livestock, and the depression are a few of the historical topics she discusses.
Tape #14 Marion Rearick (Glenburn)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Reasons for moving to North Dakota; Opinion of North Dakota; Medicare and Social Security; A rural school; Boys remain home from school; Teachers
120 – Birth certificates; Women homesteaders; English language in schools; Other settlers
220 – Anecdote about a woman finding a room; Dunkers’ church; A graveyard; Dunkers’ church
356 – Church closes; Animosity between Dunkers and other religions; Homesteaders
452 – Bohemian settlers; Threshing; Crews; Threshing machine; Cooks; Salaries; Season
602 – Grain trading centers; Deering businesses; Size declines; Panic of 1917; Deering banks
SIDE TWO
717 – Deering banks; A large prairie fire; Surrey; Other towns; Post offices
835 – Entertainment; Visiting; Change to large farming; “Big business”; Baseball
963 – Water dousing; Wells in area
063 – Other wells; 1917 influenza epidemic; Doctor travels from house to house
163 – Midwives; Hospitals; Businesses of First Street East at Minot; Windsor Hotel; Bootlegging
263 – Stories about bootlegging and hijacking
350 – WPA grad and salaries; Relief supplies; Feeding Russian thistles and straw to cattle during 30’s; Appearance of the land during 30’s
427 – End of interview
Comment: We talked to Marion about Medicare, Social Security, birth certificates, English in the schools, Dunker church, Bohemian settlers, water dousing, businesses at Minot, and the 30’s in North Dakota.
Tape #15 Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Erickson (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Moves to North Dakota; His family history; People leave after “proving up”; Nationalities; Her family history; Log cabin; Settlement of area; Gets married; Attends an equity organizing rally; A machinery equity; Equity leaders
135 – Machinery equity fails; Women’s NPL; Socialist Party leaders; A. C. Townley; Character; Speaking ability; NPL leaders
235 – Farmers Union’s membership; Business opposition to NPL; NPL factions; She teaches school at Deering; A. C. Townley rally at Deering; Teachers refused right to hear him; Explanation of Recall Election of 1921; NPL’s largest victory year; The 1917-18 crops; Ridicule of NPL; Republicans and IVA bond politically
330 – William Lemke’s orating abilities; A. C. Townley’s newspaper coverage; Farmers Union organization; Leaders; Membership fees; Equity concedes to GTA
445 – Farmer Union leaders and meetings; Farmers Union assembles at closed meetings; Topics of Farmers Union meetings; Means by which Farmers Union gained funds
553 – Farmers Union First county president; Conventions; Support by businessmen; Ridicule of Union
641 – GTA prospers; Objectives of Farmers Union; A cooperative elevator; Oil companies build Farmers Union elevators; The dismissal of board members; Begin shipping grain to GTA; The location of elevator; Oil company sells stock
763 – Presidents of oil company; Livestock Shipping Association is organized; Purchasing Farmers Union vehicles; Other oil companies; Farmers Union loyalty
845 – Cattle prices; Trucking association is organized; Lawrence serves as first shipping president
SIDE TWO
932 – Shipping cattle by railroad; Cattle buyers; Cattle prices; Shipping sheep; More about this truck; Buys the threshing machine; Rust destroys crops; Buys a transport; Shipping association receives its beginning; A court hearing that grants Lawrence his trucking license; Farmers Union Poultry and Supply; Location of building; Grocery store and the equity creamery; Food cooperatives
083 – Charles Talbott influence with Farmers Union; Farmers Holiday Association; Auctions sales; Leaders; Radical activity; Grain moratorium; Anecdote about Farmers Holiday removing butter from a store
242 – Support for Langer; Usher Burdick; Foreign policy; Farmers Union; Frazier-Lemke Bankruptcy Act; Character; Northwest Legislative Committee; NPL-Democrat background; Lou Sterns; C. O. Carlson
407 – Lou Sterns funds NPL in return for lack of liquor restrictions; Glenn Talbott calls NPL state meeting; NPL and Farmers Union control Democratic Party; Women’s Suffrage; Mrs. Erickson teaches rural school
407 – Farmers Union buys and distributes from Red River Valley
604 – Railroad service and post office at Riga; Teachers’ salaries and room and board; Problems speaking English in schools; 1918 influenza epidemic; School terms; Contracts
705 – End of interview
Comment: The main topic that the Erickson’s discuss is the Farmers Union. Other events that are informative are equities, women’s NPL, political factions, Socialist Party, Recall Election, GTA, Livestock Shipping Association, cooperatives, Charles and Mrs. Glenn Talbott, Farmers Union Poultry and Supply equity creamery, Usher Burdick, Frazier-Lemke Bankruptcy Act, Northwest Legislative Committee, and Mr. Lou Sterns.
Tape #16 Julius Fjeld (Douglas)(Nelson County)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Homestead; Closest town; Hauling grain to market with oxen; School; Rural; Term; Language; Opinion of North Dakota; Population; Homestead houses
132 – Nationalities; Moving with immigrant car; Land broken with oxen; Township named after family; Family history; Beards; Moustaches
240 – Seeding crop; Machinery; Other settlers; Township where they settled; Works with uncle; Coyotes; Using skis; The post office; Threshing rig; Mines; Burning cow chips
374 – Water sources; Buys machinery; Price; A neighbor; Prairie fires; Hospital; Doctor; Midwives
499 – Wife; Women homesteaders; School; His land; Hauls carpenters to Minot; Teachers
623 – Customs; A Norwegian paper; Norwegian celebration
SIDE TWO
726 – Bonanza farms; Works with neighbors; Inland post offices; Drady; Church; Other settlers; Social life; Musicians
828 – Skiing; Baseball; Harsh winters; Shopping towns; The grain marketing; Businesses; Businessmen; Hotels; Pool hall; Blind pigs
929 – Blacksmith; Trading in Minot; Minot’s reputation; Price of alcohol; Blind pigs; Scofield ranch; horses; The bunkhouse
036 – Livery; Opinion of William Langer; Electric car; Roads; Lights; Extent of railroad; Site of Douglas; Sell depot; Train service; Coal
146 – Flour mill powered by Sheyenne River near Peking; Railroad progresses to Aneta; Mill closes; Farming with horses; Farming in 30’s; Livestock; Supplies; Lemke’s aid with the taxes; Grasshoppers
273 – Douglas decreases; 1918 influenza epidemic; A veterinarian; Cost of horses; Wintering horses
375 – Grass; Fowl; Indians travel by
446 – End of interview
Comment: Mr. Fjeld talks about farming with oxen, sources of water, a Norwegian paper, bonanza farms, the Scofield ranch, electric car, flour mill, and farming in 30’s.
Tape #17 Jessie Joiner (Berthold)
000 – Introduction
020 – Moves to North Dakota; Homestead; Settlement of area; The buying of relinquishments; Filing; Nationalities; Negros; Gaining citizenship; Homesteads in Canada; Marketing grain; Closest town; Post office
125 – Level of land; Bank sells horses; Population; Building the railroad; Hotel Dray line; Works with dray line; Names of businesses
225 – Doctors; Businesses; Japanese settlers; Post offices; Traveling to Plaza; Elevators
327 – Blind pigs; Peddlers; A blind pig is set afire; Berthold; Reputation; Ill repute; Rooming house; Blacksmiths
452 – Lonetree; Large ranches; Driving cattle; Population; The prairie fires; Fighting a fire
557 – Schools; Threshing rigs; His first crop; Homestead shack
675 – Homesteader’s agreement about locking doors; Building sod buildings; Digging coal
774 – Works with bank; Jessie has his vote challenged; Joins NPL; Organization of NPL; NPL files in Republican column in the election of 1916
SIDE TWO
932 – Farming; Loans; Interest; Grading at elevators; Edwin Ladd introduces protein; Grain controls; Factions of NPL voters; Attends state convention; NPL becomes weaker; IVA is organized; Lack of balance between NPL and IVA; Reasons for townspeople opposing the League
057 – A cooperative store; Serves with legislature; A. C. Townley; William Lemke; 1921 Recall Election; Lemke is called “brains of League”; Langer leaves League
168 – William Langer; Farmers Holiday Association; Farm Bureau; Grange movement; NPL supports Farmers Union
280 – Farmers Union; Success; Elevators; Cooperatives; Oil company; Meetings; Serves in legislature; John Moses
389 – Farmers Holiday Association; Usher Burdick; Grain controls; Hostility; NPL and IVA leaders
511 – 1918 influenza epidemic; Farming in 30’s; Federal Land Bank; Foreclosures; Buys land
621 – Gets married; The 30’s; Gardening; Grasshoppers; Dust storms; Wife’s family history
757 – First automobile; Change in people
867 – End of interview
Comment: Jessie Joiner talks about Negros in the area, topography of land, dray lines, prohibition, large ranches, sod buildings, politics and organizations of the day, Mr. John Moses, Federal Land Bank, Foreclosures, and automobiles.
Tape #18 Mr. and Mrs. Henry M. Johnson (Berthold)
000 – Introduction
020 – His family history; Opinion of North Dakota; Family history; Lives on West Coast; Ranch land; Breaking sod; Her family history; Schools; Terms; Compulsory education; Teachers
148 – Settlements; Bachelors; Proving up; Loan companies do repossess land; Teachers homestead; Price of land; The nationalities
251 – Other settlers; Midwives; Church
365 – Roller skating; Dancing; Musicians; Nationalities
483 – Horse and buggies; Automobiles; Ranches; Open range; The people begin farming; Fences; His cattle
595 – Homemade butter; Storing cream; Milk cows; Moustaches and beards; Trading butter; Stores
SIDE TWO
720 – Stores; Blacksmith shop; Bank; Stores; Hotel; Blind pig; Livery; Machinery
828 – Elevators; Forgery selling grain; Doctor; 1918 influenza epidemic; Railroad terminal; Trains
928 – Inland post offices; Towns; Prairie fires; Harsh winters; Distinguishing fires
031 – Grass; Good and poor crop years; 1915 grain prices; Barns; Sod houses
137 – Becomes married; His work in 30’s; Lives in Washington; Washes houses during 30’s; Grain in 1910; His work in city of Washington
268 – Threshing season; Works as carpenter; A garden; Purchasing store and catalog supplies
384 – Peddler; Change in attitudes of people
430 – End of interview
Comment: Mr. and Mrs. Henry M. Johnson talked about ranch land, the breaking of sod, compulsory education, the homesteading of the land, midwives, open range, sale of grain with forgery involved, railroad, and work during 30’s.
Tape #19 Mr. and Mrs. Ed Stalwick (Berthold)
000 – Introduction
020 – His family history; Contesting a homestead; His family history; Coal; School; Teachers; Board and room
127 – Women homesteaders; Sod houses; Nationalities; A local teacher; Other settlers; Settlement begins in area; Grain market; Businesses at Hartland
256 – Post office; Telephone; Her family history; Businesses at Carpio; Blind pig
372 – Prairie fire; Items in immigrant car; Breaking land; The machinery; Area covered; Crop; Quality Hired men; Compares farming stock, poultry, and sources of income from past to present; Price of butter; Store supplies
521 – Storing vegetables; Cooling cream; Threshing rig; Meals threshers ate; Steam plowing rigs
648 – Effect of rocks on farm machinery; Fuel in steam engines and for plowing
SIDE TWO
715 – Water hauling; Sources; Quality; Drilling wells; Cistern; Roundhouse; Steaming an engine
822 – Engine “blow ups”; Location of roundhouse; A pot-bellied stove; Repairing flues on a locomotive; Train routes; The entertainment
924 – Movie house; Chautauqua; Medicine shows; Circuses; Local gypsies; Fortune tellers; Peddlers; Catalog ordering
047 – 1918 influenza epidemic; Strength of NPL; Becomes married; Begins agrarian work; Movie theater; Labor force in 30’s; Bank closes
149 – The depression moves to Berthold; WPA roads; Businesses; Church; Electricity
268 – Telephone; Lamps; Wind chargers
Comment: The Stalwicks told about coal sources, the grain markets, towns, and prohibition and discussed the many changes in farming methods, a roundhouse, trains, Chautauqua, and electricity.
Tape #20 Mr. and Mrs. Don Birdsall (Berthold)
000 – Introduction
020 – His family history; Price of land; School terms; Number of nationalities; Her family history; Speaking Norwegian
132 – Her family history; Attending school; Riding bicycles to Berthold; Russian homesteaders at Minot; Prairie fires; Open range; Indians; Ranches; Activity of Indians; The teachers and salaries
247 – Women homesteaders; Threshing rig; Steam engines; Rumely oil pull tractor; Combine; Custom threshing; Fuel; A mine; Burning cow chips
352 – Horses; Trading; Wintering; Traveling by bicycle; The homestead house; Dunker church; Businesses at Berthold
456 – Blind pig; Railroad; Roundhouse; Reservoir; Other towns; Hotel; Dances
571 – Passport Threshing Company; Dances; Circuses; Chautauqua; Trains at Roach and Berthold; Branch line
685- Three bottom plows; Typical working day; Raising and the storing of potatoes
845 – NPL political strength; A. C. Townley
SIDE TWO
933 – Cook car; Threshing season; Roads; Celebrations; Clerk of Township; Gopher tail bounty; Prices of crops after World War I; Grain markets
034 – Elevators; Farmers Union; The 30’s; Discouragement; The businesses fail; Trips to Minot; Banks fail; The cars
157 – Mrs. Birdsall teaches rural school; Languages spoken in schools; Teachers’ salaries and warrants; Ludicrous and other anecdotes about heat in schools
300 – Riding in a school bus; A defective foot warmer; The 1918 influenza epidemic; Doctor; Midwives
456 – Neighborliness; Home entertainment; Baseball
575 – End of interview
Comment: The nationalities, open range, activity of the Indians, women homesteaders, machinery, the horses, Dunker church, a roundhouse, the reservoir, Passport Threshing Company, the elevators, and teaching rural schools are topics of immeasurable value.
Tape #21 Mrs. E. R. “Tillie” Smith (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Leaves Norway; A tree claim; Earning a living; Closest railroad; The valley becomes settled
148 – A school; Burning cow chips; Buffalo bones; Coal; Sod, lumber, and log houses; Furnishings; Nationalities; Early settlers
262 – Coal mines in Burlington; Early settlers; A dugout; Bell sawmill; Populists; Entertainment
366 – Winter sports; Entertainment at home; The First Lutheran Church; Log cabin; Basket socials; Shadow parties; A neighbor; Herding sheep
470 – A typical Sunday; First Lutheran Church; Ramstad; Minot’s reputation; Blind pigs; First sheriff; Thorpe’s hanging
593 – Stores; Opera house; Fuel in houses; Electricity; The generating plant; City water systems
704 – A town pasture; English in schools; Streets; Hotels
850 – Prairie fires; Firebreaks; Sells coyote pelts
SIDE TWO
937 – Buying supplies; Church provides clothing; The children’s chores; Earning a living ; Preserving food; Separators; Selling butter; Escaping floods; German Lutheran Church; Learns dressmaking trade; Flood rescues
064 – Her education; Working with dressmaker; Getting an education; Teachers; Works as dressmaker’s apprentice; Buying material; Dressmaking form; Patterns
160 – Proving up; Traveling from homestead to work; Neighbor breaks her land; Filing her homestead
269 – Settlers file and leave; Bachelors; Circuses; A bowery dance
363 – Neighborliness; Babysitters; First car; Germans immigrate; Antipathy in World War I; 1918 influenza epidemic; Her home location; Neighbors
478 – Inland post offices and towns; Closest town; Earning income during 30’s; Threshing; Holiday Association halts the milk trucks; Opinion of North Dakota
584 – End of interview
Comment: Mrs. Smith discusses Valley becoming settled, buffalo bones, a dugout, sawmill, Populists, the recreation, religion, Ramstad School, Thorpe’s hanging, generating plant, churches, dressmaking, floods, and antipathy during World War I.
Tape #22 George L. Johnson (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Coal; Floods; Usher Burdick authors a book about his father; Father’s military service; Crossing the Atlantic Ocean
035 – Crossing the Atlantic Ocean; His father’s work; Moves to Prairie Lake; Jobs on West Coast
240 – Begins agricultural life; Meets J. L. Coltan; Meets wife; Buys threshing machine; 1880 prices; Prospectors; Sells farm; Mouse River and Des Lacs Valley; Traveling up the Wintering River to mouth of Mouse and Des Lacs River
368 – Arrives at Ft. Totten; Crossing Mouse River; Meets Hudson Bay pack men; Experiment with coal; Arrives at Ft. Stevenson; J. J. Rodgers; Builds barn; Coltan returns to Lisbon; James Johnson constructs barn
470 – Builds house; James begins his trail to Ft. Stevenson; He reaches Ross Lake and Stony Lake; A trail to Coleharbor; The Cut Off Trail; Burlington Post Office is petitioned; Settlers begin homes; Surveying land
622 – Hungry Point; Dewey Dorman’s Park; Burlington businesses; Blind pigs
SIDE TWO
715 – Coyotes; 1904 flood; J. L. Coltan’s family history and his character; Burlington Cemetery; Political offices occupied by family
810 – Eric Ramstad; Ramstad School; Eastwood Park; John Her; Davis Coal Mine; Depot; other mines; Brickyard; Coltan’s mine; “Boxcar Kelly”; Herding cattle
930 – Anecdotes about Ed Kelly as sheriff enforcing law; Picnic; Old Settlers Park; Bowery dances; A Fourth of July; Jim Scofield’s horses; Windsor Hotel
080 – Bank; Windsor Hotel fire; First National Bank; City water; Steam radiators; IWW; Opera House; Togetherness between the settlers
282 – Circuses; Streets; Main street; Cedar block paving; Dairy
426 – End of interview
Comment: George L. Johnson was the son of James Johnson, early settler. Trails are the most outstanding topic. Points discussed are J. L. Coltan, the traveling up Wintering River to Mouse and Des Lacs River, Hudson Bay men, J. J. Rodgers travels to Ft. Stevenson, a trail to Coleharbor, Cut Off Trail, surveying land, Hungry Point, parks, prohibition, Burlington Cemetery and Post Offices, mines, Mr. Ed Kelly, and Scofield’s horses.
Tape #23 Mrs. Sadie Harchanko (Minot)(McHenry County)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Reason for leaving Soviet Union; Numbers of nationalities; Businesses and train at Kief; Settlers; Nationalities
128 – Her education; Sod school; Teaches school; Speaking the English language in schools; Heat in schools; Unity of nationality; Russian holidays; Church; Russian Baptists
237 – Labor on Sunday; Sunday school; Church service; The conventions; Description of sod house; Shopping town; Furniture
374 – Construction of sod houses; Burning cow chips for fuel; Mines; Root cellars; Gardening; Preserving meat
492 – Evenings at home; Social gatherings; Water; The sources of income; Packing eggs; Raising grain; Cattle ranches; Owning horses; Machinery
619 – Riding bicycle; Cooking for threshing crews; The crew members; Cook car
SIDE TWO
719 – Prairie fires; Firebreak; Winters; School term; Her education; Valley City Norman School; Teachers; Held back a class because of foreign accent; Teaching salary; Clothing prices; Her teaching position; Contracts; The fuel in school; Horse barn
824 – Doctor; House calls; 1918 influenza epidemic; The home remedies; Russian foods; Size of families; Midwives
924 – Gets married; Moves to Benedict; Husband’s elevator; Moves to Minot; Husband’s elevator; Benedict businesses; Utilities; Success in 20’s; Earning a livelihood during 30’s; A well; Running water
027 – Providing for one’s family in 30’s; Gardening; First automobile; Radio; Silent movie; Voter participation; Becoming lost on a train; Becoming ill on boat; Concerns for Russian revolution
133 – Homesickness; Hunting and fishing; “Character” settlers; Towns; The changes in people
307 – Opinion of North Dakota; Snowstorms
366 – End of interview
Tape #24 Raynold Anderson (Kenmare)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Homestead buildings; Nationalities; Frame house; Farming; Grazing land; Ranches; Schools; Kenmare’s Minnesota immigrants
125 – Schools; Teachers; Term; Language; Church service; Ministers; School enrollment; High school; Teacher’s board and salaries
235 – Women homesteaders; Farming with oxen; First crop; Planting corn; Terrain; Roads; Trails; Rock rings where Indians did pitch tents; Closest town; Post offices; Mail routes; Other towns
362 – Towns disappear; Making a living during homestead years; Coal mines; Brick foundry; Water; Availability of homesteads; Fires
463 – Grasses; Fences; Hunting; His education; Fuel in schools; Township government; Serves as Township Clerk; Evaluating the land
615 – Assessing land value; His term as Township Clerk; A township’s governmental power
SIDE TWO
670 – Schools; School and township board relationship; Finances of school board; Building of roads to pay taxes by farmers; Slip scrapers; A road builder’s salary; Determining extend of Ward County; NPL and IVA factions; Foreclosures; Langer’s speaking ability
780 – His farm; The 30’s; Crops in 1930-40; Making a living during 30’s; Federal Land Bank; Morale; Grasshoppers; Purchasing cattle for government; Hay for livestock; Grasshoppers; The dust storms
883 – Hail insurance; Barnyard loans; Coal development; Size of farms
982 – Farm Bureau; Farmers Union Co-op Elevator; 1918 influenza epidemic; Hospital Doctors
086 – Businesses; Good old days; Baseball; Des Lacs Lake; The fishing; Other lakes; Threshing machine; Crew; The steam plowing rigs; Shipping livestock; Large farms; Machinery
293 – End of interview
Tape #25 Lewis Hoffman (Kenmare)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Works in mines; Learns carpentry; Becomes married; Begins farming; Other jobs; Tascus Coulee; The brick foundry; Brick buildings; Family history; Settlers
129 – Nationalities; Old timers; Cowboys; Dairy farms; Towns; Mines
244 – Shipping coal; Miners; Quality of coal; Miners’ salaries; Mines; Hauling coal; Mines in western North Dakota
360 – Pulling coal cars; Generating plant; Safety of mines; The construction of a mine; Salaries of miners; Buying and selling coal; Weight of coal; Prostitution
465 – Kenmare’s reputation; Blind pigs; Shipping brick; The 1916-19 crops; Settlers leave; Decline of towns; Great Northern Railroad; Size of Kenmare; Businessmen; County seat
588 – Earthquake; Family history; Decision to locate Kenmare in Ward County; Niobe businesses; Family’s homestead; The sod house
693 – A school; Building with stone; Works with carpenter; The settlement rate; Niobe is built
827 – Change from horses to tractor; Machinery; Steam plowing; Open prairie
SIDE TWO
930 – WPA; Butter prices; Salaries in World War II; Severe years in 30’s; Making a living in 30’s; His wife; Works with WPA; Criticism of WPA
055 – Popularity of Franklin D. Roosevelt; Work programs; The discouragement in 30’s; State politics; Townley as an orator; Mother Bloor; Socialism; Frazier recalled; Mr. Nestos elected
159 – Dishonesty in NPL; IVA leaders; NPL and IVA factions; A Langer rally; Farmers Holiday Association; Farm programs; Loses farm; Size of farms in 20’s
270 – Trend toward large farms; Coal development; Telephone; Organizing cooperatives; Reasons for Farmers Union
390 – Compares Farmers Union and Farm Bureau
438 – End of interview
Tape #26 Jennie Graveson (Kenmare)
000 – Introduction
020 – Her husband; Reasons for moving to United States; Lives with husband’s parents; Women’s’ impressions of prairie; Adjusting to North Dakota; Husband’s family history; Nationalities; Church services
120 – Flour mill; Other towns; Fires; Fuel; Mines; Social life; Churches; Influenza epidemic
240 – Doctors; Banks; Crops in 1913-19; Making a living during 1913-19; Buys automobile; Root cellar and products
364 – Water wells; Winter shelter of cattle; Delco plants; The making of a living in early years; Credit and loans during 1913-19
463 – Hay for cattle in 30’s; Discouragement; Dust storms; The grasshoppers
500 – Gardening; People leave; WPA
610 – Thresh machine; Neighborliness; Equal rights between men and women; Women’s Suffrage; Opinion of NPL
722 – End of interview
Tape #27 Amos Melin (Norma)(Renville County)
TAPE A
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Norma and Kenmare; Railroad; Impression of North Dakota; Traveling; Settlement of area; His family history
120 – Family history; Ranchers; Floods; Post offices
232 – Nationalities; Danish mill; Roller mill; Sod houses; A dray line; Halfway house
361 – Other towns; A dam; Other towns; Seeding lower part of Des Lacs Lake; A wooden bridge; Elevator at Newport
464 – Prairie fires; Farming with oxen and mules; Working on a railroad grade
564 – Working on a railroad grade
TAPE B
000 – Introduction
020 – Norma is built; Promoter of Kenmare; Elevators at Norma; Wheat market of world; Farmers Union Elevator; Businesses; Businessmen; A scale on railroad track; Railroad reaches Norma; Businessmen
135 – Operator of Farmers Union Elevator; Unloading grain; Hotel; Post Office; Banks; A drill; Steam threshing rig
247 – His education; Teachers; School term; Getting to school; Schools in this township; Size of families; Works at home; Binders
386 – Crops and conditions in 1901-12; Prices of crops; The grain markets; More prices
500 – Conditions in 1917; Marketing prices of farm livestock; The selling of wool; Gets married; Polio
585 – Price of land during 30’s and 40’s; Settlers leave; Paying taxes; Price of land; Military service; His livelihood in 30’s;
695 – Farms with his brother
SIDE TWO
720 – His farmland; Discouragement in 30’s; Better years; World War I rationing; Organizing NPL; A Langer rally; Anecdote about A. C. Townley; Burdick ranch
859 – Townley rally; William Jennings Bryan tours area; Coal mines; Dray line; Blind pigs; Story about a man becoming ill from alcohol; Banks close; Post office
980 – Bootlegging; Entertainment; Churches; Plays in band; Meets Lynn J. Frazier
129 – Baseball; Wildlife; Bounty on gophers; Ducks; Businessmen
Tape #28 Andrew C. Mortenson (Kenmare)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Nationalities; Reason for homesteading in North Dakota; Sod houses
188 – Women’s opinion of North Dakota; Social gatherings; Break sod; Traveling; Clothing; Mines; inland towns and the post offices; Great Northern Railroad; Lumber homes; The town of Norma; Flour mills; A parochial church; Andrew’s education
300 – Mines; Generating plant; Power lines; Quality of coal; Hauling coal; Barns at churches; School building; The common languages; Danish settlements
434 – Changing from Danish to English; Farming with oxen; The success of homesteading; People move in 1910-11; Soil fertility; Catalogs
550 – Root cellars; Making a living in 30’s; Buys his farm and land; Tractors; Plowing rigs; Weeds; Combine; Price of machinery
670 – Trend toward large farms; Towns; Observance of nationalities; Catholics
777 – Religious tradition; Games; Dances; Cigarette smoking; Size of farms; People leave; Grasshoppers; WPA; The surplus commodities; Feed loans
SIDE TWO
929 – Paying a feed loan; Discouragement in 30’s; Dust storms; Feeding thistles; Shipped in hay; NPL; Rallies; Farm Holiday Association; IVA; Usher Burdick; Animosity between NPL and IVA
032 – Townley, Frazier, and Lemke; Socialism and NPL; Division of counties; Courthouse; Roads; Prostitution; IWW laborers
142 – Hobo Jungle; Threshing; Custom plowing; Crews; His wife; Prices of farms and land; Opinion of North Dakota; Coal development
243 – Electricity; Telephone in 30’s; Wind chargers; The Delco plants; Laundry facilities; Grain elevators; Radio
355 – Home remedies; Midwife; Doctor
423 – End of interview
Tape #29 Casper Marten (Kenmare)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Denmark Township; Homestead; Opinion of North Dakota; Sod buildings
126 – English in schools; Nationalities; Churches; Services; Des Lac Lake; Towns; Post offices; Mail route; Mule farmers; Mines
261 – School; Teachers; Threshing machines; Cook car; Size of farms; Grain markets; Towns; Norma businesses
400 – Division of counties; Begins farming; Rents land; Making a living in the 30’s; Settlers leave; Sells farm; Discouragement during 30’s
523 – Finances during depression; Contribution of WPA and the New Deal; FDR’s popularity; NPL; Farmers Union and Farm Bureau; William Langer, William Lemke, and Lynn J. Frazier
650 – Political emotionality; NPL becomes political; The unity between farmers; Mortgage sales
SIDE TWO
726 – Social life; Sociability; Family unity; Utilities; Price of wind chargers; Telephone central; Works with school board and county board; Teachers’ cash certificates and warrants
840 – Buys tractor and automobile; Changing from horses to the tractor; Tractor’s work output; Gas tractors; The radio programs; Grain elevators
954 – Washing machine; Coal development; Opinion of state of North Dakota; Danish mill
084 – Other mills; Functions of mills; Trips to town;; Merchants; Influenza epidemic; Doctor
175 – End of interview
Tape #30 Alvin and Emil Granlund (Niobe)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Nationalities; Coal mines; Branch line of railroad; Marketing; Niobe; Mail; Homestead house; A settler; Fires; Terrain; Alkali fields
151 – Railroad; Businesses; Railroad towns; Towns decline; The feed mill; Niobe merchants; Branch line; Freight; Towns
264 – Dividing the counties; Other towns; School; Teachers; School term; School transportation; Severity of winters; Trees; Grass
373 – Cutting hay; Working with railroad; Railroad track; The hauling of grain; Plowing and threshing rigs; The custom work; Community threshing machines
474 – Living at home; A dugout; Longevity of sod buildings; The Swedish churches; Religious tradition; Swedish language
597 – Changing from Swedish to English in churches; Church school; Intermarriage between Protestants and Catholics; English in schools; Card games; Blind pigs
720 – Bootlegging; Women’s Temperance; Friction between NPL and IVA; Favorite political speakers; Moratorium
848 – Political emotionality; Opinion of NPL
SIDE TWO
904 – Cooperatives in area; Compares Farmers Union and the Farm Bureau; Farm unity; Size of farms; Large operators; The increased size of farms; Prices in 20’s; Crops in 1909 to 1918; Military service; The dirty 30’s
068 – Banks fail; Neighborliness; Baseball; Good old days; Compares desire for material items, past and present; The family life; Newspapers; John Baird; Magazines
169 – Farmer's social rank; Celebrations; Trips to town; The telephone and electric lines; Wind chargers
312 – Conversion from horses to tractors; Ability of horses to survive; Feeding Russian thistles to cattle
371 – End of interview
Tape #31
Julia Fleckten (Niobe)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Moves to United States; Reasons for moving to North Dakota; Her husband
130 – Nationalities; Horse powered threshing rigs; Water; The family history; Homestead; Wild horses
234 – Mail; Railroad is built; Husband’s occupations; Business establishments; First house in Niobe
338 – Hardware store; First opinion of North Dakota; Ranches; Settlement of area; Lakes; Coal mine; Family history; First church; Church services; Entertainment
492 – Businesses fail; Niobe fires; Sod houses; Farming with oxen; Mine
643 – Family history; School
SIDE TWO
701 – Prairie fires; Catalogs; Businesses at Kenmare; Friendliness; Church picnic; Ladies Aid; Teachers; Gardening; Canning; Early settling hardships; Electricity; Farms receive telephone
823 – Midwife; 1918 influenza epidemic; Doctor; Laundry; Her house; Opinion of her life; Husband’s investments; The interest in NPL
939 – Buys car; Family history; Water; Her house
044 – End of interview
Comment: Julia has a good memory and, therefore, recalls facts and incidents well.
Tape #32 Girdell W. “Bill” Patterson (Carpio)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Political leaders; Father’s political career; Campaigns against Townley; Reasons Townley didn’t seek office; Comical anecdote about Townley; Story about William Lemke and “his crumpled suit”
120 – Planks of NPL; Accusations against IVA; “Political Plum”; Langer’s moratorium; Lynn J. Frazier recalled; Nestos is elected; Political characteristics of Langer
235 – Life at penitentiary; Murder cases; Baseball at prison; Warden’s residence; Grindell’s opinion of prison; Prison stories; Releasing prisoners; Minot murder case; The narcotics
355 – Penal discipline; “The Dungeon”; Father’s characteristics; Types of prisoners; Parole regulations; Parole board; The women prisoners; Officers’ sleeping quarters; Social life
493 – Psychotic prisoners; Bootlegging prisoners; Patterson’s favoritism choosing workers; Lawyers swindle prisoners; A riot at Nygaard’s prison; Tours of penitentiary; Industry
630 – Entertainment; Baseball; Changes in regulations; Meals; Prisoners released in 30s; A guard’s house
SIDE TWO
720 – Work of inmates; Fuel; Shipping twine; Punishment in the prison; Inmates build weapons; Other regulations; Age restrictions; Father accepts position as warden; Father’s relationship with prisoners; Travels West; Build bar; Father dies
805 – Nationalities; NPL popularity in 20’s; Slanderous newspaper items concerning his father during World War I; The effect of the depression; His education; Food during the depression; Neighborliness; Criminality during 30’s
910 – Usher Burdick, Nye, and Holiday Association; Langer’s voice; Father’s relationship with Townley and Langer; Alcohol in politics; Father’s public image; Appointed warden and works in House and Senate; NPL’s radical and Socialist reputation
025 – Lydia Langer; Opinion of North Dakota; Prison reforms; The State Farm
159 – Capital punishment; Lynchings
196 – End of interview
Tape #33 Mr. and Mrs. Don Davy (Burlington)
000 – Introduction
020 – Her family history; Settlement of area; Sidewalks; Business places at Minot; His family history
151 – Ranches in McKenzie County; Friction among ranchers and the farmers; Bicycles; Marketing towns; Bundle haulers; The relinquishments; Reasons for homesteading; The settlement rate
251 – Neighborliness; Nurse; Midwife; Doctor; Burials; Ducks
351 – Homestead buildings; Expansion of homestead; Popular book; Cook car; Threshing area; Catalog groceries
474 – Furniture; Remedies; Cellars; Sources of income
590 – General store; Sells butter; Gopher bounty; Indian trading
698 – Shopping at Minot; Story about Indian family traveling; Minot’s reputation; Rodeos; Minot streets; Arrive Minot from Canada; Travel to Des Lacs; Proving up; Homestead shack
855 – Lives in McKenzie County; Meets wife; Move to Burlington; Drives mail
SIDE TWO
929 – Mail route; School location; Mail vehicle; Severe winter; Mail route; Don aids patrons during winter
034 – Fencing a pasture; School term; Teachers; Getting to the school; Attending church; Nationalities; Reasons for moving to North Dakota; Trains at Des Lacs
134 – Grain shockers; Experiences while working at Des Lacs; Teaches school; Teaching salary; Mail route salary; Move to Burlington; Price of grain
233 – Keeps boarders; Buys farm; A well; Story of traveling in winter of 1935-36
399 – Home brew; Bootlegging; Mines; A cave in; Mines; An oil well
554 – Towns; Coal mine; Businesses; County seat; Businesses; Mines close
663 – Elevators; Potato warehouse; Irrigation; Raising garden and fruit; Housing; Mines in area
811 – Des Lacs businesses; Blind pig
858 – End of interview
Tape #34 John Stewart (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Carpenter; First opinion of Minot; 1927 flood
144 – Hunting; Brick plants; Builds house; Businesses; School
260 – Negros; Creeks; Railroad; Burlington dam; Reputation of Minot; Blind pigs
368 – Electricity; Curling club; Other clubs; Timber
540 – Bee hives; Family history; Leaves Scotland
665 – A Scottish club; Raises dogs
SIDE TWO
680 – Raises dogs; A swamp; Buildings along the river; Floods; Getting his fuel at home
833 – Parker Hotel; Conditions of streets; Meets wife; Making a living during 30’s; Building fairgrounds; hobos; Raises dogs
930 – Raises pheasants and ducks in Scotland; Hamilton estate; Trees in North Dakota; Builds tables; Change in people
030 – A policeman in Scotland; Becomes Ill; Wildlife poaching in North Dakota
190 – End of interview
Tape #35 Saul Davis (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Leaves home; Plays with Black southern leaguers; The mixed teams in Canada and United States; His playing positions; Moves to Minot; Moves Zulu Club to North Dakota; Baseball philosophy; First visit to North Dakota; Baseball friends
125 – “Outlaw Ball”; White Sox scandal; Buck Wieber; Si Young; “Religious Ball”; Changes in baseball plays; American Giants play Kansas City; Baseball clowns
234 – Plays with team from Illinois; Minot Merchants; All Nation team; Becomes married; Plays with one day celebrations; Moves to Minot; Plays with Devils Lake; Moves a team South; “Dizzy Dean and Papa Bear”; Organizing a mixed team
341 – “Why not Minot”; Moves team South; Incident of Saul and the team with law in South
407 – Opinion of Minot; Wife dies; Plays with Minot Merchants; Salary; Hired players; Importance of knowledge, ability and sportsmanship; Knowledgeable baseball men; The Mondak League
505 – Disobeying baseball race regulations; Mondak League; He stops playing; Minot State baseball; Plays with Merchants; Minot’s reputation; Entertainers at Saul’s’ Flame; The prohibitions days; past and present reputation of city
630 – Bootlegging; Burning fields at harvest time; Pops Schaw’s still; The Fat Dutchmen play in Minot; More about Pops Schaw
SIDE TWO
718 – Clarence Parker; Hijackers in Minot; Capones; Crime; The prohibitionists; Location of Flame; Flame closes; Coming of electricity; Buying ice; Negro population
827 – Earning an income during 30’s; Leaves Chicago; Flourishing business in numbers game; Minot employment during the years of depression; Grain prices; Satchel Page; Saul is chose from Texas league; Harshness and publicity of baseball; Practice time; Players on team; His playing habits
952 – Satchel Page; Bismarck and Jamestown team; Churchill moves Satchel to Bismarck; More about Satchel Page; Traveling to games; Black House of David team
100 – Leaving Chicago; A Harlem Globe Trotter “Goose” dies in the state of North Dakota; The Zulus; Travels through state of North Dakota and Minnesota
267 – Impersonators of Zulus; Characteristics of Zulus; Success of Zulus; Midget Show
379 – Salary of Zulus; O’Neil signs Saul with team; Relation to the public
425 – End of interview
Tape #36 Miss Brynhild Haugland (Rural Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Reason for moving to United States; She teaches school; Remains on farm; Conversion to the English language; Family’s general interest in politics
120 – Attends meeting with William Jennings Bryan; NPL rallies; Value of State Mill and Elevator and Bank of North Dakota; Adopting the ROC name; She becomes involved in politics; Strength of NPL and Farmers Holiday Association; Antipathy between NPL and IVA; News media
231 – Her education; Taught by Governor Divine’s sister; The schoolroom facilities; Churches; Nationalities; The early settlers; Location of school
331 – Lack of social life; Organizations and boards that she did join; Entertainment; Dairy farm; Cooling milk; Retailing milk during a severe winter
447 – Delcos and wind chargers; Rural water; Graded roads; WPA; CCC; Lake Darling Dam; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Making a living during 30’s
546 – Buying hay; Feeding Russian thistles; Making butter; The morale in 30’s; People leave; Settlers lose farms; Land taken by taxes; Banks close; Serves with legislature; Incentive to enter politics; Republican Party and NPL are united
665 – Nominated to seek legislative office; Newspaper
SIDE TWO
727 – Women in legislative positions; Serves first session; Minnie Craig; North Central Experiment Station; Mr. John Moses and Langer as Governors
835 – Women’s Suffrage; Jeanette Ranken; Accomplishments and changes that she condones; Processing legislation
942 – Serves with boards of state institutions; Rewiring the Jamestown State Institution; School for Blinds moved to the city of Grand Forks; Commemorative improvements that were supported by her; Farmers Union, oil company, and cooperatives
042 – Economic effect of oil companies, cooperatives, and the elevators; Sale of farms by legal representation; Farmers Holiday Association; Teaches school; Salary; Legislators that she held in high esteem
164 – Difficult legislative sessions; Denied endorsement by the Republican Party; Burgeson serves as Speaker of the House; Opinion of voters today; Etiquette of argument in our politics
263 – Qualifications of political candidates
282 – End of interview
Tape #37 Hugh McGillivray (Bismarck)(Walsh County)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Responsibilities with railroad; Chicago Fire; Parents meet; Moves to North Dakota
135 – Settlement of area; Nationalities; Midwife; History of the family; Inkster; The homestead
250 – Works with railroad and farms before moving to state of North Dakota; Personal characteristics; Works away from home; Severe winters; Gardening
350 – Flour mill; Providing a home; Baking bread; Mill burns; Meat; Storing vegetables; Homestead house; Moves into Kenmare
456 – Reasons for homesteading; Buys land; Kenmare area; The gopher bounty; Family history; Moves from Inkster into Kenmare; Nationalities at Kenmare
559 – Settlers; Water at Inkster and Kenmare; Prairie fires; Fuel at Inkster; Mines at Kenmare; Family’s homesteads; Coal; Compares land at Kenmare and Inkster; Bonanza farms in area
667 – Early machinery; Transportation from Inkster to Kenmare; Railroad at Kenmare; Brick yard; Brick yard; His education; More family history
773 – Works with father; Mother dies; School; Bank panic; Cattle prices; Social life; Neighborliness; Speaking the English language
895 – Gets married; Grange organization
SIDE TWO
942 – Co-op stores; Price of horses; Joins NPL; NPL stockyard at Fargo; Opinion of Townley; Townley’s well; Working in oil fields; Tioga oil fields
038 – NPL’s contribution to North Dakota; Forthcoming political movements; Government skepticism; Political talk about Bismarck by Langer; Opinion of Langer’s political movements; popularity of Farmers Union
160 – Teamsters Union; Increased size of farms; A local man purchases and sells large machinery; Illegal financial dealings contribute to closing of banks; Price of beef; Self-sufficiency; Sells slaughtered pork; Works with others building roads; Atmosphere of threshing season; Safety of farms
293 – Threshing machines; Mistreatment of IWW laborers; An ill IWW laborer; Hugh misses threshing days
438 – Appreciation of life; Elected King of Senior Citizens; Human relationships; Plays poker in 30’s to support the family; Bad years during 30’s; Crop in 1936; Degree of temperatures; People leave
543 – Holiday Association; Buying horses at sale; Financing of settlers; Story of a farmer losing wealth during 30’s; Hugh loses land
635 – Philosophy of life; Religion; Optimism for future; Coal development
735 – Restoring land destroyed of nutrients; Opinion of the state of North Dakota; Raising sheep
879 – End of interview
Tape #38 Mrs. Olive McElwain (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Homestead sites; Reason for leaving Norway and moving to North Dakota; Sod house; Learning English language; School; Settlers
134 – Teachers; Learning English language; Farm attendance to school; Bachelors; Closest town; A ranch; Fires; The farm livestock; Traveling with oxen; Fuel; The grain marketing
253 – Buying supplies; Gardening; Root cellar; Meat; Foods of Norwegian families; Church; Minster; Swedish settlement; Works away from home; Town of Adams
361 – General store merchandise; Sews for people; Purchases a homestead; Loses homestead; Shack; Rents out homestead; Fuel
477 – Dances; Hall; Nationalities; Husband; Family history; Seamstress salaries; Settlers; Gets married; Lives on an old farm
585 – Schoolhouse; Doctor; Towns; Marketing grain; Husband’s political interest; NPL leaders; Nonpartisan Women’s clubs; Women’s Suffrage
703 – First car
SIDE TWO
712 – Gardening in 30’s; Dust storms; Attendance to school; 1918 influenza epidemic; Indian camps; Gypsies; The peddlers; Store and post office in Walsh County
814 – Syrian and Polish settlements; Bohemian hall; Cooperation between nationalities; Neighborliness; Opinion of state of North Dakota
862 – End of interview
Tape #39 Harry Eck (Minot)
000 – Introduction
020 – Moves to North Dakota; Works with Minot Auto Company; Car population; Crops in 1917-38;l Works with Stein’s Garage; Stein closes; Works with magnetos and generators; The stock market crashes and crops fail; Wholesale business
117 – Wholesale operations; Farms aided by relief; Garage in old Roosevelt Hotel; Tractors; Sterns purchase tractor factory; Trades horses for tractors; Credit to farmers in 30’s; Begins company servicing dealers; Increases the business
214 – Wholesale parts; His beginning sales; Selling piston rings; Harry gets his beginning in business; The success of his enterprise
304 – Bootlegging; Servicing Bootleggers’ cars at Auto Company; Liquor; Auto Company parks autos owned by businessmen in the days of promiscuity; Langer’s raid
431 – Gambling; Bank robberies; P.W. Miller and Stern’s automobile business; Overland automobile
562 – Harry’s Overland business; Wholesale competitors; The retail merchandise
658 – Sales methods; Customers
SIDE TWO
711 – Sales representatives; Factory ordering; Competitors; Rebuilt parts; Buys farm; Bank Holiday; Foreclosures on dealers
825 – Morale of businessmen in 30’s; Bootleggers purchase land in Montana; Montana farmers move to North Dakota; Crops in 1915-16; Roads; Unemployment in 30’s; The destroying of cattle; Digging roots for food; Russian thistles; The grasshoppers; Feeding corn; Cattle prices; 1235 crop
933 – Prosperous farms; Larger farming; Socialistic farming in Canada; Corporation farming; Value of land; Government loans for seed
040 – Public’s willingness to work; Business support of Minot’s community projects; Visiting
145 – Opinion of North Dakota
150 – End of interview
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