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Manuscripts - ND Oral History Collection - 10157 - Foster County

Foster County

Region 13
1 Anneale Schwalbe, Carrington
2 J. C. Hoffert, Carrington
3 Ivan Sheets, Carrington
4 Mr. and Mrs. Warren Willyard, Melville
5 Ross Bloomquist, Carrington
6 Thomas B. White, Carrington
7 Dr. F.B. and Dorothy Cousins Peik, Carrington
8 Ella Mae Hargrave, Carrington
9 Mrs. Jennie Vining, Carrington
10 John Schmid, Carrington
11 Hugh Putnam, Carrington
12 Emil Smith, Carrington
13 Paul Black, Grace City
14 Philip “Toady” Zimmerman, Carrington
15 Portions of the following interviews apply to Foster County:
16 Judge James G. Morris #27 Burleigh County
17 Charles and Idane Brady #1 Stutsman County
18 Orville E. Harrison #3 Stutsman County
19 Anna Fandrich #11 Sheridan County

Tape #1 Mrs. Anneale Schwalbe (Carrington)
000 – Introduction
020 – Father from Ukraine and came around 1900 through Canada and settled around Max; Mother born in Czechoslovakia and homesteaded north of Max; Father owned threshing machine and threshed for other people
151 – Father had 3 homesteads; Grandmother filed on homestead and stayed on it until she died; Nationalities of neighbors; Religion of Ukrainians; Post offices; Prejudice among early settlers
280 -  Going to Minot to sell hay and haul grain; 13 children in the family; Midwives; Socials; Traveling preachers; Mother reads and writes Bohemian, Russian, and Polish; Intermarriage amongst nationalities; Religion was also important
389 – Country school through grades; High school in Max and lots of walking; Ambition to be a teacher; Anecdote of teacher that owned her own piano; Close neighbors
481 – Describes the school; Older pupils; Built modern new school with bathrooms; School board; Comparison of country school and town school; Teachers
617 – Teaching in the 30’s; Married in ’37; Schooling required to teach; Schools taught
SIDE TWO
719 – Certificates; Salary; South Prairie country store; Social event at the store every week; Selling cream
769 – Hauling grain into Minot with horses; Occident and Snow White flour; Feeding horses at the elevator; Early attractions in Minot
822 – Area around Ryder, Douglas, and Max was strong NPL; People picketing when selling grain
863 – Hardships during the 30’s; People left to go west to work during the war; Surplus commodities; Credit for the farmers; Prices of farm produce went up during the war
913 – Work for the neighbor lady while mother worked in the field; Garden; Apples for school lunches; Ordering from the catalog; Buying fish in the wintertime; Root cellar; Sauerkraut and pickles
974 – Father sold threshing machine because he farmed so much; Steam threshing rigs traveled around the country; Hauling bundles with brother; Excitement at threshing time
037 – Christmas programs at school and games afterwards; Basket, necktie, and shadow socials; Danes in the homes; Dating age; Barn dances; Some musicians
144 – Early Christmases at home; Trimmed Silverberry trees with colored paper, apples, and animal cookies; Regular evergreen trees at school; Heated with coal from south of Sawyer
236 – Resource development in ND; Signing leases; Land prices
345 – Preference for ND; Our air is so fresh and clean; Coal developments could fill it with smoke
426 – End of interview
Comment:  This interview deals with farm life and the life of a country school teacher.  She was 65 when interviewed so her recollections go back to early 1900’s.

Tape #2 J. C. Hoffert (Carrington)
000 – Introduction
020 – Born in Havana, ND two years before it became a state; Parents each homesteaded in early 80’s but became discouraged so opened a hardware business; He operated the only bank at the time; Moved to Ireland when he was 6 years old; Returned to US for schooling and advanced schooling, then operated the bank at Wimbledon; Born in 1887
100 – Hardships in Ireland; Potatoes on shares
120 – Early Havana had such severe storms it was possible to be lost going from one building to the next; Remembers such severe cold weather; Frost on ceilings and under beds; Feeding Indians; Indians selling wild plums; Johnson’s general store and their hardware store; Left for the World’s Fair in 1893 and never returned   
199 – Returned to work in Wimbledon bank in 1908; Salary was $50 a month; Anecdote of the bachelor’s club; Business places of the early town; Eight elevators; Racetrack; Races that lasted a week; Prohibition days; Town people shipping in carload of beer
280 – Jobs at bank at Carrington for $125 a month in 1910; Early business places in Wimbledon; Vacation at Spiritwood Lake
370 – Of the 13 banks in the county his was the only one that survived; NPL bought bank
448 – Comparison of Carrington and Wimbledon in early years; Early residents and their homes; QAM dancing club (Quit At Midnight)
517 – She came to teach in 1910
593 – Financial condition of the area was bad because of drought conditions; Large scale farming is the only way you can operate because of machinery prices and expenses; Anecdote of cow and horse team; Early farming methods
791 – Financial side of threshing machine owners and their cook cars; Prices of grain regulated by supply and demand; Hog prices as low as 1 cent a pound and cattle going for $16 and $18 each
SIDE TWO
940 – Farmers paying off their bills; Discussion of Townley and Langer; Story of 3 dogs and a bone
018 – Need for a cow, banker, and blacksmith to make it at homesteading
053 – Reason why his bank kept operating when so many others closed; Land lost value in bad years; Government surpluses
141 – Government programs that helped the farmers; Modern farming
177 – Chautauqua; Horse races
220 – Women’s organizations of the early town; Changes in people over the years
305 – Traveling to every continent after retiring
345 – Financial situation of today; Resources of ND
503 – Changes in ND over the years; Results of drought to the farmer and businessman; ND is the most prosperous state in the union; Criticisms of our government
636 – Chain operated businesses
704 – Advantages of freight by truck over the railroad; Heavy taxes on railroads
843 – Story of poor nurse with 3 sections of land and machinery all paid for
876 – End of interview
Comment:  Mr. Hoffert was a banker for 50 years.  His bank stayed open when so many others closed.  This interview deals with the business angle of farmers and businessmen from the rough years to present day.

Tape #3 Ivan Sheets (Carrington)
000 – Introduction
020 – Came to ND at 18 years of age in 1906 from Indiana; Worked on threshing rig; Describes work on the rig; Case engine and separator and moved around with horses
122 – Small farms in Indiana; 80 acres for one person and larger; Timber there and open spaces here
146 – Tried farming 1909 with no crop; Lost 8 head of horses in 3 years and no crops; Worked in towns with a team in 1913; Worked on farms and threshing rig; Carried mail but couldn’t make expenses at first; Started in 1919 and carried until 1958
205 – Runaway with horses in cold weather; Used horses until ’37; Thirty days straight of -30 weather in 1935 and 90 days of below zero; Laid off during the extreme cold in ’35 and’36; Wife lost 3 of her family in a week’s time
272 – Used car carrying mail during the summer and horses in winter; Salary $130 per month, and expenses
334 – Anecdote of horses in a blizzard; Other stormy days; Postmaster made the decision when the mail carriers should go
430 – Delivering packages – they couldn’t be left by the mailbox; Shoveling snow to get through; Farmers helped without charging
554 – Doing favors for farmers; Regulations for the mail carriers; Mutual aid
SIDE TWO
718 – NPL and IVA; Large scale farmers crowd out small farmers
789 – People were sociable in early years
800 – “The richest were poor and the poor lived in abundance” was true in the 30’s; No taxes or seed in ’36; Langer
914 – Resources are there to be used; Everything has a purpose; Large old homes in Carrington; Story of the lumber dealer; Banks closed in spring of the year when farmers needed money for seed
035 – When the small towns of Barlow and Bordulac lost ground was when the railroad sidetracked them
088 – Social life has changed because of all the clubs organized; Lodges; Horse races, baseball, dances and card games were sources of entertainment in the early days
153 – ND has a healthy climate; Mirages in earlier years
205 – End of interview
Comment:  Mr. Sheets tells the story of his life as a rural mail carrier.  He carried it 39 years through all kinds of weather.

Tape #4 Mr. and Mrs. Warren Willyard (Melville)
000 – Introduction
020 – Father came in 1882 from Ohio; Father’s parents came from Germany; Mother homesteaded a couple years later and they combined homesteads later
120 – Post office at Melville and the other business places and the men that managed them
148 – Born in 1888 in Dakota Territory; Didn’t go to school until 8 years old; Held school 2 summers in their granary; Built school house in 1896; Mostly men teachers; 27 children in school at one time
215 – Three day blizzards; High snow banks
270 – Churches in the small towns; Built barn in 1906 and had Sunday School in it in the summer; Also Sunday School in homes
295 – Early crops; Pulling mustard by hand; Methods of breaking sod; Runaway with horses; Began dragging when 8 years old; Threshing; Father bought new Red River Separator with ban cutter; Threshing methods
464 – Individually owned threshing machines; Hauled oats to Jamestown for 9 cents a bushel; Threshing cost 8 cents a bushel
551 – Elevator built; Soo line railroad built before he was 10 years old; Raising corn and cutting it with grain binder for feed
645 – Kids at school having lice in their hair and on their bodies; Married in 1928; Home burned in early March of 1930
685 – Good years and bad years; Temperature of 120 degrees and burned grain up; Cutting thistles for feed; Years were better after 1936; Wheat for 18 cents a bushel; Moving from one farm to another; Crash of 1929
910 – Land could be bought for $1 an acre but nobody had the $1; Bought section for $5600
SIDE TWO
957 – NPL was popular at first; Land prices
045 – Farm prices and land rent; Diversified farming on small acreage now; Various tractors he owned
140 – Living from what they could raise for food; Change in social life of neighbors; House parties; Large families; Taking down old homes and building and farming the yards
285 – Grasshoppers; WPA
346 – Doctor close to Edmunds; Flu of 1918; Lost all his hair
389 – Rural telephones; Plugging in between one line and another; Climbing poles to put line through; REA in 1951
435 – End of interview
Comment:  This interview tells of farming as renter and moving from one farm to another during the hard years.  They were able to buy a place later.  They have recollections of the early railroad, telephones, and buildings.

Tape #5 Ross Bloomquist (Carrington)
000 – Introduction
020 – Born west of Barlow in 1907; Grandfather immigrated from Sweden in 1896 and took land in Foster county; Farm handed down from one generation to another; Mother’s people came in 1884; Nationalities of early settlers; Changing names
205 – Religion of early immigrants; Prosperity of Carrington in early days and now; Father, friend of Bill Langer’s sister; NPL; Discussion of politics
376 – If Uncle Sam says it, it’s so; People were more closely knit than today; Not as much tolerance
480 – A written history made up of his school years
535 – Anecdote of a threshing situation of his father; Good old days didn’t mean especially good times but was a time of socializing with one another; Building character and social position
SIDE TWO
719 – Early residents
760 – Attended University in Grand Forks and graduated in 1932; Men riding on freight trains for transportation; Shocking and bundle hauling done by transient workers
850 – Discussion of the IWW; Patriot fervor of World War I
895 – Early history of Barlow
986 – His genealogy; Anecdote of cousin
022 – Mirages have disappeared because of more trees in the area
073 – Darkness used to be different than now because of our lighting situations; Northern lights; Dramatic summer storms
134 – Returned to ND to retire and never regretted it for a minute
437 – End of interview
Comments:  Mr. Bloomquist has been a chemist and has returned to ND to retire.  He has early recollections of his childhood and has done some writing and research that are of historical value.

Tape #6 Thomas B. White (Carrington)
000 – Interview
020 – Born in 1902; Description of some of the early settlers; Anecdote of grandfather’s hired man; Hospitality in early years; Grandfather came as a squatter in 1882; Wife had died leaving 3 small daughters; Indians took strawberries from white girls; Names of some of the neighbors
165 – Rustlers in the area near Hawks Nest; Early settlers went into farming and raising horses; Cattle raising later until hit by blackleg
232 – Fighting prairie fire with sacks; Hauled coal and lumber from Jamestown before the railroad came in; Problems reaching water
299 – Grandfather was illiterate; Old settlers wanted to be independent
339 – Monotony caused some to leave the area; They got together to play cards; Pioneer life was especially hard on women
454 – Old settlers view of the future was better days ahead; Anecdote of brothers loosing land; Social life in early 1900’s
571 – Large scale farmers of today; Father raised draft horses
610 – Born in a 3 day blinding blizzard; Nine children in family
684 – Various trails of ND
SIDE TWO
713 – First graded road all done with horses; First gravel roads in 1930; Went to town in 1919 and saw car on the railroad track; Car tires weren’t guaranteed
770 – It’s easy to be poor if you’ve always been poor but it’s hard to be poor if you’ve been rich
780 – Report of the years of good crops and poor; 1905 – 1909 were years of prosperity; Depression started in the 20’s in ND
824 – Townley and the NPL; Selling grain in elevator in 1920 without slips, weights and no testing; Langer hated at first
990 – Beginning of sales tax; People were either for Langer or against him; Moratorium
055 – Farmed on his own from 1924 until 1965
220 – Prices of cream, eggs, and gas; Elevator man extended credit
260 – Large scale farmers; Passing huge portions of land in inheritance; Coal development; Leasing land for minerals
355 – Mirages showed best on clear mornings; Mirages today
422 – End of interview
Comment:  This interview deals with farm life in 1920’s and 1930’s.  He is easy to understand and has and interesting way of telling the story of his life.

Tape #7 Dr. F. B. and Dorothy Cousins Peik (Carrington)
000 – Introductions
020 – Parents came in 1882; Homesteaded south of Sykeston; Selling garden produce to buy horse; Mother attended University of Nebraska and Jamestown College; Taught school in 1897; Mostly Germans from Russia settled in the area
175 – Father born in Spirit Lake, Iowa and managed elevators after coming to ND; Lived in Fargo for the first 10 years; Early Methodist minister’s salary was $90 for a year
266 – Doctor’s mother born in Germany in 1866; Came from Russia; Father was cabinet maker in Wisconsin for 12 years; Moved to Minnesota in 1876 and took a claim; Grasshoppers ate wheat and leaves off the trees; Typhoid epidemic took 2 of their children
300 – Grandparents; Salt of the earth; So many obstacles; No divorce in early years; Doctor’s father was Methodist minister and never was paid more than $1200 a year; Raised 12 children and 7 of them went through the University; Tells how successful the children all became; Father took a church in Minneapolis so the children could obtain advanced schooling
428 – Remembers when President McKinley was shot; Youngsters come into the world as blanks, and you can make of them what you want
499 – Good old days had different forms of entertainment; Conversation is a lost art
577 – We owe our coal resources to our country, but it’s something that shouldn’t be rushed into
619 – Farmers brought meat, butter, and other things to pay their bills during the depression; People had faith that things would get better; Discussion of care of older people
705 – WPA; Abuses of programs
760 – Change of personalities of people; We live in a time of fear; Not sufficient punishment for crime 
840 – Hawks Nest; Oak trees in the area and none others around for 60 miles
900 – Two and three generations of welfare participants
SIDE TWO
932 – Beginning of Chautauqua on main street in 1916; Bachelor’s Club; Kiwanis Club; Lodges; Quit at midnight dance club, tennis, bowling, golf club later; Ladies had fine arts clubs, card clubs, and literary clubs; Many private parties and calling cards where they had to call on each other
017 – Saturday nights people went to town and spent the time visiting; Stores were open until people went home; Drinking was as common in early years as today; Women didn’t frequent saloons as today
080 – Being a housewife is the most important profession in the world
090 – Courtship in earlier years compared to now
129 – Setting up practice; Territory was large and reached as far west as Turtle Lake; People never brushed teeth in early years; They didn’t go to the dentist until it was too late to save the teeth; Extraction was $2 in 1913; Worked 6 days a week for 45 years
218 – Humorous anecdotes of his practice
241 – At Camp Custer during flu epidemic of 1918; 97 boys died in one day
290 – Names of old settlers
320 – Four medical doctors in 1916; Anecdote of doctor’s experience of delivering babies without pay
394 – Carrington had electric power plant in 1916 that burned coal
450 – Raising turkeys in backyard in town; Cows in town
478 – Large beautiful homes; One had mahogany woodwork from South America
495 – Mirages showed in late fall
529 – Japanese rainbow gardens built by a Japanese living in Carrington; Put in a camp during the war; Description of the gardens with water falls
622 – NPL created ill feelings between farmers and town people; Received Christmas card from Langer every year; He did lots of good deeds
694 – Lots of beautiful lives on little farms; Large sized farming does away with lots of wonderful family life; Roosevelt’s shelter belt idea
790 – Wouldn’t live anywhere but ND; Lowest mortality rate
863 – End of interview
Comment:  Dr. Peik is a retired dentist.  He and Dorothy tell of their ancestors before them and of their generation.  It is very interesting as they express their views of today and of years past.

Tape #8 Ella Mae Hargrave (Carrington)
000 – Introduction
020 – Came as a teacher in 1914; Graduated from St. Cloud Teacher’s College in Minnesota; Loved Carrington right away; Teachers got special attention when they arrived in town; Living at the boarding house; Walks and sleigh ride parties; Town was established as a town in 1883; Anecdote of bottle of beer hanging out of train window
149 – Husband was from New York; Came across through Canada as a banker; His bank closed and he went into the automobile industry
195 – Carrington’s early school system; President of one of the first PTA’s; Took part in social events; Anecdote of singing at a funeral
319 – Pipe organ for the church was paid for by plays, dinners, etc.; All community events took place in the Congregational Church; Dedication of the pipe organ in 1915 and still in use today
409 – Courthouse has been relocated since its beginning; First Courthouse upstairs was used as a ballroom for dancing, skating, and other community events and has now been made into apartments
488 – Literary clubs; Comparison of culture
581 – Closing of the bank; Story of pioneer family that took last train that ran before winter set in
SIDE TWO
712 – Loaded trains of settlers arriving in the spring of 1883
723 – Meeting for church services in any available space
770 – Active literary and fine arts club now; Calling cards of early days
826 – Fourth of July celebrations were big events; Dances; Orchestras; Kirkwood Hotel was originally nearly 4 stories and all carpeted; Opening ball was a gala affair; Within 6 weeks it burned to the ground; Rebuilt and burned again in the 1920’s
880 – Attitudes of our communities are now helter-skelter compared to early days
895 – Delivery of ice for ice boxes; Some people had their own ice houses; Hospitality; Rainbow gardens built in the 1920’s by a Japanese citizen
015 – End of interview
Comment:  This interview is about an early teacher in Carrington.  She tells of town life and the social events that took place in her realm of living.  She tells valuable history of the Congregational Church.

Tape #9 Mrs. Jennie Vining (Carrington)
000 – Introduction
020 – Born in 1874; Came from Redwing, Minnesota with husband to homestead near Carrington; Husband owned threshing rig
150 – Winters with so much snow; Early neighbors
196 – Norwegians built a little church for themselves; Germans also had a church and services in their language
242 – Card parties all winter; Raised big garden and canned for winter; Drove a horse and buggy to town for groceries and supplies for the cooks that cooked for threshers
323 – First new car in town; Everyone had to go see it
430 – Sewed clothes and took in sewing
534 – Indians lived close by and stopped to visit when they went fishing
580 – Neighbors cooked different than the Norwegians; Making Norwegian foods
734 – Mother made candles after butchering from beef tallow; Explains how they were made
805 – Secret of her long life
837 – End of interview
Comment:  Mrs. Vining was 102 years old when interviewed.  She mixed up her life in Minnesota and North Dakota. 

Tape #10 Mr. John Schmid (Carrington)
000 – Introduction
020 – Grandfather came in 1883 and homesteaded near Carrington; He came from Germany and lived in Wisconsin in 1869
102 – Neighbors died from the flu epidemic in 1918; Mother died of appendicitis
158 – School in town and on the farm during grades; Attended high school in Carrington driving every day with horse and sled; Roads for winter driving; Passenger train ran everyday
222 – Barlow was a thriving town; Many business places and 5 elevators; Population of 500 at one time; Blind pigs; Names of some of the businessmen
305 – School at Barlow; Congregational Church; Early churches; Card parties, church dinners, basket socials, dances at homes and gatherings to sing; Baseball
393 – Farming – Wheat prices; Explains harvesting poor crop; Married in 1935 and no crops for 2 years; Worked on the road driving caterpillar for $22 a week which was top pay at that time; Describes the caterpillars
604 – Changed farming with horses to tractors in ’28; Threshing rig running 9 binders; Summer fallow; Six horses on 2 plows and 8 horses on 3 plows; Describes methods of harnessing the horses
702 – Rubber tired tractors expanded farmers and forced out smaller operators
728 – Banks closed and combined with other banks; An insurance company that helped the farmers buy back their farms
807 – Langer; Fighting politics; Township meetings; Member of Township for many years
952 – End of interview
Comment:  This interview deals with a farmer’s viewpoint; He describes the mechanism of the early caterpillars and harnessing horses.  He tells some history of Barlow.

Tape #11 Hugh Putnam (Carrington)
000 – Introduction
020 – Family history; Father’s lumber business in Carrington; Father’s service as a North Dakota legislator as a member of Republican Party – Opposition to NPL; Townley’s oil well scheme; Failure of Consumer Store in Carrington
100 – Great fire in Carrington in 1908; Businesses that were destroyed
188 – Father’s lumberyard; Loans he made and land he acquired by default
252 – Passenger train service in the early 1900’s
290 – The lumber business; Quality of lumber today compared to the early 1900’s – Price comparison
388 – Selling different grades of coal at the lumberyard
408 – Social life and entertainment; The Carrington Casey Ranch and the origin of the town; Road shows and circuses; The basket socials
572 – Early automobiles; Prominent businessmen in the early town of Carrington; Blacksmiths
676 – Anecdotes about Charlie Wing, one of the first merchants in Foster County; Colorful old-times in the area; Blind pigs in early Carrington
763 – IWW members and problems they caused in town; Murder of a policeman; Local law enforcement
876 – Early methods of killing grasshoppers
918 – Carrington’s baseball team
953 – SIDE TWO
980 – Businesses in early Barlow
985 – Chautauqua in Carrington; Attending the Chautauqua in Devils Lake
034 – Flu epidemic of 1918; Wife’s death; Medical care; Popular distrust of hospitals; Early MD’s in Carrington
080 – Carrington’s town herd of milk cows; City water system and electrical service; Telephone service
134 – Jobs he held from 1919 until retirement
148 – Nationalities of early settlers and how the different groups related to each other
213 – Internment of a local Japanese businessman during World War II; Rainbow Gardens; Loss of his business while he was interned at Fort Lincoln
295 – Effect of the 30’s on Carrington business; Bank failures
330 – Changes in peoples’ attitudes and neighborliness
361 – Congregational church in Carrington; Construction of the church of locally made cement blocks
418 – End of interview
Comment:  Specific historical information in this interview concerns the operation of the family background

Tape #12 Emil Smith (Carrington)
000 – Introduction
020 – Grandparents came from Sweden in 1869; They lived in Minnesota near St. Paul; Had their own church; Wooded area so grandfather worked in saw mill; Had to grub out trees to farm; Heard of opportunities in Dakota so came in 1882 and homesteaded near Carrington; Jamestown very small at that time; Was such lonesome country at first and were so glad to see someone come; Built school right away; Born in 1887; Neighbors consisted of family; School close to their home; Some of the first to arrive in the area; Names of other neighbors
143 – Indians traveled through the area; They camped near the water; They settled early in evening and left early in the morning; Asked for milk from grandparents for sick papoose; Story of Indians caught in 1897 blizzard; Never problems with Indians; Indian dance
309 – Jack Middleton, caretaker of Hawks Nest; The water on Middleton’s place; Springs around there
350 – Built small homes of lumber with hay between the walls; Minister stayed over weekend at grandparent’s home; Sunday dinner included pastor and neighbors; Names of some of the pastors
435 – Grandfather’s barn was sod; Post and branches from Hawks Nest for the roof
519 – 27 children in one room school house; Christmas programs at school
540 – People were satisfied with the little they had; Raised big gardens so had plenty to eat; Grandmother made cheese and many good things to eat; Traded butter for groceries
605 – Went to town once a week for kerosene, etc.; Obtained year’s supply of flour in the fall; Fire in straw stacks that burned flour mill
638 – Mail at Carrington; Postage was 1 cent for local letters and 2 cents for the others; Lots of candy, oranges, apples, popcorn, and nuts at Christmas; Used any kind of tree and decorated it with strings of popcorn and paper; Christmas programs
698 – Heated homes with cook stoves and heaters; No chimneys at first just stove pipes; Used wood in cook stoves
740 – Mirages showed towns as far as 15 miles away; Northern lights
802 – Hawks Nest used for political gatherings, picnics, 4th of July celebrations, and Memorial Day; Finished high school in 1909 with 9 in graduating class; Worked in hotel as bookkeeper for 1 ½ years; Attended University at Grand Forks and took 2 years of engineering; Honored Jim Hill as honorary member of the University; Returned to farming in 1913
SIDE TWO
951 – Canvassed for grocery company from Chicago for 2 years; Married in 1919; Crop failures for 7 years; Thick and high wheat with nothing in because of rust; 119 degree weather in 1936 and birds dropped from the sky dead; 46 below in Feb. of ’36 at Carrington; 50 below at Bowden and 60 below at McClusky; No hay except slough hay and Russian thistles; Sold cattle to the government for lack of feed; For 34 cattle sold the check was a little over $500
039 – WPA hired men for 40 cents an hour supplemented income and put food on the table; Grasshoppers in 1921
085 – Reared 2 girls; Wife came from Illinois as a nurse; They had to do private nursing with a patient on duty for 24 hours a day; She worked in Harvey hospital first; Hospital in Carrington built in 1916; Dr. McClusky responsible for its beginning
162 – Many farmers joined the NPL
190 – People had more time for talking in the early days; Country parties at farm homes; People were a help to each other; Grandmother was a midwife; She also took care of the family; Anecdote of how his life was saved with home remedies; Liniment good for inside and outside
278 – Many neighbors died of 1918 flu; Wife worked in the hospital at the time; She had the flu and worked because of so many sick; Every pregnant woman that got it died
339 – Description of Hawks Nest; How it got its name; Trigger happy people are killing wildlife
386 – The University in early years; Preservation of the early buildings; Large scale farmers; Used to raise a family on a quarter; It’s a shame to crowd out the family sized family
445 – Living conditions, freedom, good clear air and climate make ND a superior place to live
487 – Blizzards so bad and visibility of 4 feet; Warmest for 6 weeks in ’36 was 30 below; Some places had springs and some deep wells; Very good wells; Horse powered threshing rig; Describes the threshing operation; Anecdote of horse shoes in grain bundles
710 – Cars have changed our living and has made it easier to go to the big towns causing small towns to fold up; Working with horses; His love for horses; Horses cost from $60 to $200; Breeds of work horses
852 – Kerosene and gasoline pressure lamps until electricity came; Carbide plants
899 – End of interview
Comment:  A very interesting and informative interview throughout.  Mr. Smith has a vivid memory and expands on the topics involved in farming.  He tells the history of Hawks Nest.

Tape #13 Mr. Paul Black (Grace City)
000 – Introduction
020 – Henry Belland - first white man to settle in Foster County; Relay station; First white child in the county born 1877; First school board member in 1884; Indian campsite area
163 – Larrabee post office and store; Homesteaders started in 1880’s; Changes in names of Lake Juanita; Resort area in 1915
294 – Letters written by Maria Larrabee telling of the history of the area
366 – General Sherman, fort inspector, stayed at Larrabee home; First white neighbors in 1882; Discussing the depth of the lake and various points of interest
430 – Township and school district is named after Larrabee
445 – Interviewing while driving so has background noise; WPA road work and planting of trees
505 – NPL
510 – End of interview
Comment:  This interview was recorded near the site of the Larrabee log home and relay station on the southwest corner of Lake Juanita.  It is not a personal interview.  It tells of the history of the early settlers in Foster County

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