1873: "Settled On A Piece Of Unsurveyed Land"

Later in her life, Emily Lindstrom shared these memories of growing up in the Dakota Territory. She was born in Cass County, Dakota Territory on October 31, 1870, just a year after her parents had immigrated from Sweden.  

In the fall of 187 3, we moved to Grand Forks County and settled on a piece of unsurveyed land westward from Grand Forks, on the Goose River. The post office was at Newburg, some sixteen miles away. Halvor Berg, the post master, was our nearest neighbor. Our family, by that time, consisted of my parents, myself, a baby brother born in December 1872, and my grandfather, Lars Lindstrom, who had come from Sweden that summer. 

Everything was wild, hunting and trapping being the only means of making a living. Foxes were trapped or poisoned for their pelts. With a supply of these skins on hand, either my father or my grandfalher would set out on skis for Caledonia, the nearest trading post—sixty miles away—to trade the skins for food and other supplies. 

In the spring of 1874 other settlers came in covered wagons from Iowa. They were Norwegians. Surveyors came in the summer of 1875. Before that we were all squatters. 

All the first settlers built their homes from logs cut from the timber strip along the river. There were all kinds of trees there. None of the first settlers ventured out on the prairies but built their homes near the river. 

The summers were fine in those early days. All kinds of wild fruits grew in the woods and on the praires. Mother would dry these for winter use: strawberries, ground cherries, choke cherries, raspberries, goose berries, June berries, two or three variety of plums. There were plenty of fish in the river. Rabbits, prairie chickens and beaver served for food. 

Oxen were the only means of transportation. We did not have any oxen to begin with, but a neighbor plowed the ground for us. I remember seeing my grandfather seeding grain by hand. 

We had one Indian scare in rhe summer of 1875. I can remember that some one came in the night to warn us. We walked some miles to the home of one of the settlers where all the people gathered and stayed there till toward evening the next day. It proved to be a number of friendly Indians walking across country to visit another tribe. 

In the spring of 1878 we had our first English school. We were the only ones that had a room to spare so the first term of school was taught in our home. A long table and benches were provided. Nels Tanberg, a local young man, was hired to teach. He boarded around with the parents of his pupils. The term lasted three months. Our next teacher was Joseph Oldham of Grand Forks. That was the spring of 1879. He taught six weeks at our house and the other half of rhc cerm at the Paul C. Johnsons who by that time had added an upstairs to their house which was given over for the school. 

Another early teacher was a Tom Coney from Grand Forks. To my great disappointment I could not attend school when cold weather came for the Johnson home was two miles away. 

During one of those early winters the men folks hired a teacher and they all went to school. A debating society was formed that often met at our house. There was also a singing society with a Norwegian singing master. Church was held at the homes. 

Our first Fourth of July celebration was held in 1878. A baby sister arrived at our house in December of that same year. 

One day in October 1879 my grandmother Lindstrom and two daughters arrived from Sweden. Amanda was young, only a few months past fifteen. That same fall my parents bought our first sewing machine, a Singer. Grandmother and the two girls lived with us that first winter. ln spring grandfather had his house ready and they moved there. His land was across the river from ours. We were on the west side, in a sheltered bend of the river. Our log house was whitewashed inside and outside. 

The soil was fine for gardening and mother raised a great variety of flowers and also vegetables. I remember the water melons and musk melons, and the beautiful flowers. A brother in Sweden had sent seeds to mother. When it did not rain enough, mother carried water up the steep bank from the river, at lease a hundred feet. She used a yoke and two pails. After the baby sister came she never did much outside work. 

One spring the grasshoppers came and ate everything in the gardens. 

In the spring of 1880 Miss Emma Missen, a niece of hardware merchant Brown, Grand Forks, taught our school. After the first six weeks the Johnsons moved into a new home they had built and the school was moved downstairs in the old house. The upstairs was then rented to a Norwegian minister— Reverend Hageby—and his wife. 

One day, after school, Mrs. Hageby invited me up to her apartment for a little visit and lunch. The dainty meal on pretty dishes and the nice things she had all seemed like a visit to fairyland to me.

Emma Missen was the first American girl I had ever seen. She was very young, pretty, and dressed nicely. The last day of school she asked Marie Sime—another student about three years older than myself—and me to remain after school. We did not know what for until her Uncle and Aumie Brown came from Grand Forks to get her and brought us girls each a little penknife as a remembrance. 

In the fall of 1880 I accompanied my parents to Grand Forks, going by ox team. The trip took three days and I think it was mother's first visit to Grand Forks too. It was a wonderful treat to me. My first glimpse of a town and afterwards l wished I could live in town.

Source:

State Historical Society of North Dakota, "Women's History from Women's Sources: Three Examples from Northern Dakota," by Glenda Riley (1985).