Page 812

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: North Dakota State Library
• Subjects: Arctic; Willis; Johnsons; Roebuck
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ndsl-books/id/56735

1964 Missle sites putin. 1965 Highway No. 32 blacktopped. 1965 Laundromat installed in the old creamery. 1966 New addition built onto school. 1968 Pave all village streets. 1970 Arctic Homes began production of mobile homes. 1972 Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Fredrickson opens a store in the old Cash Store building. 1974 Village builds new fire hall. 1974 Village landscapes city park. 1975 Morris Iverson takes over the Fairway Store. 1975 Second fire truck bought. 1975 Sold Dodge City to Cennex. 1983 Harvey and Bonnie Schmidt bought Cenex, now is B & H Cafe & Service. The Dry Years The “Dry Years” were difficult times for the people in the Petersburg community. A town as small as Petersburg depended on the prosperity of the surrounding farms. The 20s were particularly bad for the farmers, with prices for their products dropping sharply, while prices they had to pay did not. The demand for farm products had increased during World War I and prices had risen causing an over production of grain, but soon after the end of the war, farm prices plummeted to half of what they had been. The national per capita income in 1929 was $703.00, while in North Dakota was $375.00 and farm income was considerably less. Farms were mortgaged, taxes rose and many people lost their farms. The depression raised havoc with the whole nation’s economy. North Dakota was in desperate shape. Bill Langer, with his “cussedness,” as Governor, ruled the political scene in the 30s. His foreclosure moratorium, issued in April 1933, saved the homes, machinery and livestock for many area farmers until it ended in 1941. Each year the rainfall lessened. The heat and increasing winds sapped the meager subsoil moisture out of the soil and drifted it into the fence lines, filling ditches. The blowing dirt penetrated everywhere and cut the vegetation that managed to grow. Over extension of credit to farmers in World War I caused banks to fail all over North Dakota in the twenties and in 1933 President Roosevelt declared a bank holiday, closing all the banks in the nation. Many failed to reopen. The Petersburg Citizen State Bank reopened after all depositers agreed to turn over half of their deposits as a so called loan. The bank would repay the depositers out of the collections of the bank’s outstanding mortgages over a period of years. When the bank received some payments on the questionable notes, it was prorated, percentagewise, to each depositer. Feelings were high and lynching was talked of on many village streets. Grasshoppers were often a problem through the twenties. They became an economic hazard when they again joined the heat and drought of the thirties to destroy the withering crops. They flew in such great swarns that they darkened the sun; they dropped out of the air in big clouds like a rain storm. When they landed on a stalk of grain, it sounded just like someone was using a scissors. By evening, there wasn’t a kernel of oats left in an eighty acre field. The government provided a bran and arsenic bait to be spread around the fields. The farmers were not too pleased with the product, claiming it only made the hoppers grow larger. The toughness of the people showed in their unbelievable optimism in the face of such a hopeless situation. They believed things had to get better so they struggled on the next year. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” created the feed and seed loans, the W.P.A., C.C.C., and other programs to help the people. Some of the local young men joined the C.C.C. where they earned $30.00 per month working on public pro­jects, such as parks, dams, planting trees, etc. Twenty-five dollars of their pay was sent home to their family. The W.P.A., Works Progress Administration, offered many projects. Many Petersburg residents and farmers took advantage of these programs. One crew had the job of building the new “modern” out­houses. The buildings were neat and nicely built, complete with everything but the Sears, Roebuck catalog. Remember the luxury of peach wrappers when the fruit was in season? The farmers had projects graveling roads in the wintertime; they would load the sleighs with gravel by hand shovels. Wages for all W.P.A. was usually $1.00 per day. Some men earned up to $40.00 per month. In 1934 people thought the drought was over and Petersburg decided to replace the old opera house with a new auditorium by using Works Progress Funds. The W.P.A. crew had the job of tearing down the old opera house, and a lot of W.P.A. labor was used for unskilled work in the new auditorium. In 1935 there was a reprieve from the drought, but the summer rains and hot humid weather rusted the grain. Some wheat fields were burned. In the summer of 1936, the drought plus heat returned with a vengeance. July temperatures rose to 115 degrees and was over 100 or more for two weeks. The grain cooked on the root. Most fields yielded less than one bushel per acre. Cattle would walk all over the pasture and fields looking for a dry stalk of vegetation, then make for the water tank to drink. In the year of 1937 came the turning point. There was some improvement although the price squeeze continued until World War II. By then the depression and drought had caused the foreclosure and abandonment of over half the farms. W.P.A. Project — Dam Building Water on the Prairie Mrs. Harvy Bales tells about all the water in the sloughs or small lakes on the prairies in the early days, before the area was all plowed. The long thick prairie grasses acted like a thatched covering when it rained, the grass would lay down, permitting the water to run down the slopes into the sloughs or small lakes. When the Ole B. Johnsons went to visit Hildremyrs (Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Hildremyr were sisters), they would go by boat, the water was too deep in the long slough or lake to ford or cross by team and wagon. Some times for a Sunday outing the Johnson family would take the boat and row all the way from the Barr (Skagg) farm to the Lewis Johnson (Willis Riely) farm. In places, the water was so deep they could not touch bottom with the oars. A distance of three or four miles long and a width of from a few rods to better than half a mile. Mrs. Bales told about one time when the water was considerably lower, two of her sisters took the horse and buggy to drive over to Hildremyrs. Across the slough, the 1382 Scanned with a Czur book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited in Adobe Acrobat Pro