The history of Wells County, North Dakota, and its pioneers : with a sketch of North Dakota history and the oregin [sic] of the place names

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: North Dakota State Library
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Dwyer; North Pole; Washburn; Yoke
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ndsl-books/id/40994

.'• And Its Pioneers 2-15 P. B. Moss of Billings and J. C. Dwyer of Washburn were the pioneer broncho dealers in Wells county. A yoke of good oxen were the cheapest and best breaking team as they would make sixteen miles per day with a fourteen inch plow with only the green grass for feed. The Gulls The many gulls that followed the breaking plows in pioneer days, soaring and circling around in an excited manner over the breaking outfits, sasshaying about in the air, swooping suddenly to catch the bugs, grubs, worms and grasshoppers in the newly made furrows, awning up again and sailing on ahead only to "repeat their actions, were the Franklin gulls. They are named in honor of Sir John Franklin, the noted English Arctic explorer who with all members of his expedition sailing in the British ship Resolute perished above the Arctic Circle while searching for the North Pole. The Franklin gull's plumage is white with a grayish mantle. A dark slate colored hood covers the neck and head. The wings are tipped with black, and a pale exquisite rose blush is seen on the white underparts. They fly with their wings tilted at all degrees, vertical, horizontal and angled. They are of the prairie variety and the Dakota prairies in early .days were their nesting places although they range over the dry prairies and marshy lakes north to the barren lands of Canada -and winter in Central and South America. They build their nests in marshy places—the nests partly floating and easily rocked by the ripples of the waves. Besides their usefulness in ridding the prairies of insects their tameness and familiarity was pleasing. Their eggs are a drab blue, heavily marked in black. In the early days of the Mormons in Utah a siege of locusts" settled' in their fields of ripening grain and threatened famine and destruction for the people by the ruining of their foodstuffs. The Mormons became distracted and fervently and repeatedly prayed for relief from the locust seige, when suddenly, as if almost in answer to their prayers, great flocks of Franklin gulls appeared and, swooping over their fields, soon devoured the locusts and the grain was saved. The Mormons then in a spirit of thanksgiving and appreciation for their deliverance erected a beautiful monument to the honor of the Franklin gulls in Salt Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.