Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883

Archival Anecdotes: A value beyond compare

You might think that it wasn’t acceptable for mothers of the 19th century to work for a wage outside of the home. However, it would be more appropriate to say that it did not make economic sense for her to do so. The value of her work at home was too great.

It is interesting to note that it was the following generation (those born around 1900), who began applying modern skill sets to community enhancement. For the Pioneer Daughters in 1961, members document their family histories. They conducted interviews, documented narratives, cross-referenced histories and filled in the blanks. There was also work involved in grammar, spelling and composition. These were specialized skills, and likely not taught to them by their mothers. These were skills gained through access to public education.

Elsie Tarbell Dunham used her skills to write her mother’s history, and recalled how her mother would leave the kitchen with a gun and soon return with a goose for dinner. A skill for the homestead indeed! Elsie also wrote of her mother’s ability to be resourceful and joyous, even amid crisis: “After a hail storm that badly damaged the crops, Mother gathered the hailstones and we froze ice cream with them.”

Remember the young Tilda, who worked in Grand Forks for a couple of years, until she met Hallsten Olaf Hallsten at the county fair? The two were married in the fall, before Hallsten made the trip back to the homestead. Tilda made her honeymoon trip in mid-January and arrived in Devils Lake at midnight, but no one was at the depot to meet her. The following day, Hallsten made it through blowing wind and located her at the hotel.

The newlyweds spent three days traveling from Devils Lake over the frozen lake and across the endless prairie to Sheyenne. When they arrived at the homestead, no possible entrance could be made until the snow was cleared away. There was little room for disappointment. In fact, it seems like as long as one could put one foot in front of another, there was never a reason to stop moving forward. After all, it didn’t do much good complaining about walking when there weren’t even any roads.

It was their daughter Hilda Hallsten Gray who captured the story of her parents’ so-called honeymoon. She said, “Consequently, this bride was not carried across the threshold. Instead she shoveled snow and the groom left by foot for town, to buy necessary provisions at the J.W. Richter Store.”

Minne Thorn praised her mother’s housekeeping practices: “My mother churned all the butter in a barrel churn, ground the coffee in the old hand mill, made the bread, washed the clothes by the rub and tub method.” — a far cry from the modern methods. She poured the soapy wash water on the cucumber patch, saying it kept the bugs away. “We always had the nicest cucumbers! We could hardly wait for the first combination of new potatoes and peas from the garden.”

Clara Rud Daughtery’s telling of her parents’ early trials included immigration from Oslo, Norway and sad loss of five infants. In 1886, the two departed from their home in Spring Grove, Minn., and made their way to their homestead claim near Sheyenne. The hardships Mrs. Rud experienced as a mother later became a blessing to women of the area. Clara explained, “Mother seemed to be chosen as midwife. Husbands would come at any time of the day or night and she was always willing to go and help out. No one was ever turned away and it was a trying time for the young fathers-to-be.”

Mrs. Hendrickson also left for Sheyenne from Spring Grove, Minn., but was warned of the dangers of homesteading. A friend cautioned, “You better not go out to North Dakota, you will starve or freeze to death!” As time passed, Mrs. Hendrickson remembered the exchange and would say, “For all the years I lived here, I have never starved or frozen either!”

 
 
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