I was born in 1950 in Fram township, Wells County, just a stones throw away from the Benson County line. Our closest towns were Wellsburg and Heimdal, 5 and 7 miles away. In my mind growing up in the 50’s on a farm in rural North Dakota, going to a 2 room school, and being surrounded by neighbors who were your friends and relatives, was a magical time. All those empty farmsteads you see now, were then filled with families.
I and my 5 siblings grew up on 390 acres of land our grandfather homesteaded on in the late 1800’s after immigrating from Norway. My Dad was also raised on this land and lived and farmed it all his life except for the years he served in World War II. He also rented some other farm land and at one time farmed about 650 acres with his biggest tractor being an 830 John Deere, no cab.
My parents raised not only us kids but also wheat, barley, oats, flax, corn for silage, chickens, pigs, cows, and horses. We had 14 dairy cows which were milked by hand, then in the mid 50’s we started using milking machines. What a labor saver they were!
Farms were self sufficient then, we sold cream and eggs in Harvey which my mother used the money from to buy other grocery items. Store bought bread and cookies were a treat so we rarely got them. Most things were homemade then. Today homemade bread and cookies are a treat!
We had many neighbors, every farm site had people living on them. We had lots of relatives around and people spent any leisure time they had visiting with each other. Sundays were spent visiting. NOBODY worked on Sunday except occasionally during harvest.
In the fall, Dad’s siblings and their families would come visit for a weekend and they would butcher hogs and a steer, cut them up and process them. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. It was a big social event. And we always had a lot of good food to eat!
Everybody worked hard on the farm, even the kids. There was lots of work to do and we all had our special chores depending on our age. My chores were to carry water for the animals and the house. When I was very young we did not have running water but we had a very good well. Best tasting water ever! I carried many pails of water in a day’s time.
When I was about 11 years old I started experiencing back problems so my parents took me to see Dr. Hordinski in Drake. He was considered a Specialist in just about everything. Primarily I think because he was foreign born and had an an accent!
He examined me, talked with my parents, and then told them he thought my back problems were from carrying all those heavy pails of water. I was feeling pretty smug as I was sure there would be no more water carrying for me!
On the way home from Drake we stopped at the hardware store in Harvey and my parents bought me smaller water pails. Back problem solved!
One thing we all became experts at was picking rocks. We never ran out rocks! We didn’t have a loader tractor but used a stone boat pulled by a B John Deere. We threw the rocks on the stone boat, then threw them off. We later got a 4-wheel trailer which was nice because we didn’t have to bend over to unload them. In the early 60’s we finally got a Dual loader for our wide front A John Deere. Life was much easier!
My brothers and my first jobs were picking rocks for our uncle and neighbors. We got paid $1.00 an hour! We also worked for people at which we pitched manure, hay, and bales. We were all very proficient at pitching things! (Some people say we still are, just different things!)
It was different times then, life was so much simpler and children did a lot of work that we wouldn’t think of having our children do now.
The summer I turned 13 I was helping haul grain to town during harvest. It has always been my understanding that law enforcement thought it was okay for 12 and 13 year old farm boys to drive truck on the roads during harvest. If I am wrong about this, I’m sure the Statute of Limitations has expired!
I was hauling wheat to Wellsburg in my Dad’s 1949 Chevy 1 ton truck (no hoist) and to get there I had to cross the Sheyenne River. It was a very steep hill with a narrow bridge at the bottom. You needed to go down the hill on the east side pretty fast so you could make it up the hill on the west side.
My 9 year old brother rode beside me as I could not steer, use the clutch, and shift at the same time so I would use the clutch and he would use the gear shift. Poetry in motion! By the time we reached the top of the hill on the west side of the river we were in the gear superlow but we always made it!
When we arrived at the elevator in Wellsburg, the elevator manager would drive the truck in for us and dump the wheat. While he was doing that, if we had any money, we would buy a bottle of pop to share.
Farm life was great for us kids but probably not so much for parents. If we were poor we never realized it. There was no crop insurance so if something happened to the crop, all you could do was try to survive till next year and hope things got better.
There was hail insurance but most years Dad couldn’t afford it. But as things go, his last year of farming before he retired he took out good hail insurance on everything. And as luck would have it, he was completely hailed out that summer. Not even crop residue left. Most profitable year farming he ever had! He even received insurance money to fix up all the outbuildings. I think a fitting reward for all his years of hard work.
I admire farmers for their ability to adapt and for all their talents. A farmer needs to be a jack of all trades, from a mechanic to a scientist to manage all the different aspects of their business.
When my grand father came to America from Norway he came from an area in Norway where the industry was fishing. There is very little farming in most parts of Norway because the ground there is rock.
But my grand father and 5 of his brothers all came to America and became farmers. They had to learn how to farm. My grand father learned to farm from his future father-in-law who was a large farmer in Stony Brook Township in Minnesota.
His father-in-law sponsored Norwegian immigrants and had them work on his farm and he taught them how to be farmers. And farmers through the ages have pretty much had to learn as they go as technology changes.
My Dad taught himself to weld, do mechanic work and repairs as that is what was needed for him to survive in farming.
My Dad thought there were easier ways to make a living than farming so he never encouraged any of his sons to farm. And he was right, we all made good lives in other professions. I was fortunate though that I have always lived in the country except for my military time and my medical training time.
For the past 40 years my wife and I have lived on our small hobby farm by Penn where we raised our 3 kids, horses, dogs, chickens, pigs, rabbits, ducks, gardens, and fruit so I have always kept a connection to the land. As an extra benefit both my son-in-laws are farmers or work in Ag related businesses.
In my later years now, during the growing season, I ride my horses around the country side and observe my neighbors as they raise their crops. I am still amazed at how resilient and productive farmers are. And they are the best caretakers of the land.
