| Summary: | Maria Fregien. They made their first home on the Herman Schardin farm for 17 years, here three of their five children were born, Sharon, now Mrs. Wallace Kinzler living near Jamestown with her husband and two children, Garrel and Threna. Wallace works as a mechanic at Wards. Sharon is secretary at Roosevelt School in Jamestown. They were married in 1963, and their first years of married life were spent in Colorado, where Wallace was in service. Later they moved to Missouri where they both worked in factories. Gary married Barbara Pahl in 1967, they have four children, Candace, Sean, Nyree and Chad. At the present time, they are living at Holt, Mo. Gary is working in the Ford Plant at Clay Coma, Mo. Darrel married Jean Bennett in 1969. They have three children: Samantha, Patrick and Calantha, Darrel attended Ellendale College for two years and finished his education at Valley City, taught school at Hampden, N. Dak., for four years, one year at Hankinson, and the past year at Jud. Melvin and Anna bought their present farm from Levi Drneth in 1949. Here Wayne and Randa were born. Wayne married Pamela Thorson in 1972 and they have two children, Kimberly and Matthew. Wayne is on the family farm, farming with his father, in cattle and grain farming. Randa attended State School of Science at Wahpeton, N. Dak., was computer operator at White Drug in Jamestown for several years. At present time, she is employed at PCA in Edgeley. All their children attended and graduated from the Jud Public School. Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Pfaff have been making their home in Jud since 1976. PODOLL, ROBERT S ELIZABETH I was born near Aberdeen, S. Dak., on February 17,1897. My parents, Gust F. and Theresa L. Podoll, who were living in Brown County at that time, moved to Grant County in 1898 and continued farming. Their intention was to make this their permanent home. As this was very near the Red River Valley, farm land was rising in value rapidly. Dad thought that $50 an acre land and low priced grain would not work out well. So he filed on a homestead in western LaMoure County, N. Dak. The location being 20 miles northwest of Edgeley, no roads were leading to the place. In the fall of 1902, dad and a neighbor took four wagon loads of farm machinery and farm supplies to the homestead. Each team and wagon were trailing another team and wagon. A week later, they arrived at their destination, having traveled 220 miles. Lumber for a house and barn had to be hauled from Edgeley. There being no landmarks on the prairie by which to set buildings, dad used the star, Polaris, (The North Star) as a guide. After section lines became more visible, he found that he had done a very accurate job. The trip back home took much less time as all wagons were empty. We lived on the Grant County, S. Dak., farm until the spring of 1903. When it became time to move, we loaded the remaining things which included 14 horses and nine head of cattle, into two immigrant cars and shipped them to Edgeley, that being the end of the rails. Dad had unloaded the cars and taken the things to the homestead before mother, Ella, Emma and I arrived in Edgeley on April 6. Our first night here was spent at the Star Hotel. Everyone in Edgeley was quite excited on the morning of April 7, 1903 as President Theodore Roosevelt was to arrive on the Fargo train and would speak to the crowd which would gather at the depot. As this would be in the afternoon, we didn't hear him as the folks thought that we should not be on the road home after dark as there were no roads in places. The next day we got to see our new home. There seemed to be no end to the prairie. We could see only a few buildings. Some were built of sod. There were dozens of sloughs and all were full of water as it was the migrating season for wild fowl. The sky was full of ducks and geese. All were going north to the breeding grounds of the USA and Canada. They would return in the fall in still greater numbers. The drumming of the prairie chickens could be heard in the morning and evening. We learned to love the prairie. In the summer months it was a beautiful flower garden. Settler's small fields appeared and grew larger each year. Ugly piles of rock began to mar the landscape. The rock seemed to be a bonus that the buyer got when he acquired the land. Newcomers soon realized that the prairie land was very difficult to till but they also found that the soil was very productive. The homesteader's wooden beamed breaking plow and later the large steam and gas tractor pulling 12 or more bottoms sounded the death knell for the prairie. Probably the greatest thing that ever happened in farming was the transition from horse to tractor power. The horse is given very little credit for what it has done. Let us not forget who pulled our machinery long before the tractor was invented. My work on the farm was such as any farm boy had to do. From 1904 to 1912 I attended Raney School #4; 1913 and 1914, Jud Public School; 1914 and 1915, Ellendale State Normal and Industrial; and 1916 and 1917, Dakota Business College. My intentions were to work for the Hudson Bay Co. of Ontario, Canada. Owing to illness in our family, I stayed on the farm. On January 1,1925, Elizabeth Grace McKinley and I were married at the McKinley farm home at Paynesville, Minn. We had four children: Betty (Mrs. Arthur Nei), Mandan, N. Dak.; Dorothy (Mrs. Leland Warmbrod), Wolf Point, Mont.; Robert (deceased); and Clara Mae (deceased). Elizabeth passed away in 1975, and Robert still resides on the farm. 166 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited in Multi-page TIFF Editor.
|
|---|