Homesteaders

The enclosed picture of their covered wagon was taken in
Ellendale, N. Dakota. At that time Ellendale was just, as they used
to say ‘a hole in the road’.

I don’t remember how long they were on the road, but they
finally arrived at Lehr, N. Dakota and Bill Walterman got a job at
the Lehr Cremery and Jerry Wilken went to work at the Lehr Lumber
yard, so after they got a little ‘stake’, they bought
enough groceries and started out to stake a claim. They finally
found two claims about fourteen miles south-east of Lehr, near a
grocery store and a post office called Helwig.

They built a shack on each claim and then made preparations for
the winter. Jerry Wilken built a sod house on his claim and then
sent for my mother and my brother and me. We were real comfortable
in the sod house, but we had to walk about three miles through snow
about two feet dep to school. But we were at an age when snow
didn’t bother us too much, but we had our ears and cheeks
frosted so many times that the skin would peel off like it does
with a good sun-burn!

When spring finally came and the snow started to melt, we got
the pick-axe and crow bar out and started to clear our land of
rocks, -and there were plenty. You never get it cleared because
after the first crop of flax that you harvest, you plow out a lot
more rocks as you ready the ground for the next year’s wheat
crop. Sometimes you wonder where they all come from again! The flax
crop generally turns out good on the sod ground in the first
year.

In the fall, we would work on the threshing rig, generally to
pay for the threshing bill. One fall I worked for Joe Groff at
Fredonia, N. Dakota, (he was my half-brother). He had a Buffalo
Pitts Engine and a big old Avery Separator – and could that old rig
ever inhale the bundles of grain. It kept five and six bundle teams
busy hauling bundles.

We would get up about four o’clock in the morning and feed
our team, curry them and harness them, then head for the house for
breakfast. Then out to the field and load up the bundle wagon and
the day’s work started. Around nine o’clock the
farmer’s wife would bring out lunch and coffee to the rig and
we surely enjoyed that, because when you pitch bundles for about
four or five hours, you really can eat, especially when you’re
a young buck. After that, we threshed until twelve o’clock and
then climbed on the old grain wagon and back to the house for
dinner.

Taken at Ellendale, North Dakota in 1905, Jerry Wilken with his
old Trusty 32-40 rifle and Bill Walterman beside him, on their way
to Lehr where they each took up a homestead of 160 acres. Courtesy
of A. W. Wilken, 10208 Pineridge Drive, Sun City, Arizona 85351

By the time we got back to the rig, the horses hitched to the
bundles wagons would have their grain cleaned up and we would be on
our way hauling bundles until about three o’clock. Then the
farmer would bring out more lunch and coffee and after that back on
the bundle pitching again until nine o’clock. When it got too
dark, I remember the Separator Tender would bring out some of those
big old kerosene lanterns so we could see the feeder, and not pitch
the bundles over on the other side.

Those were the days when you got three dollars a day for you and
the bundle team. After supper, you slept up in the old hay mow in
the barn, and you didn’t need any one to rock you to sleep!

I worked on different rigs up in the Dakotas and I always
enjoyed it and sometimes I just day dream of the old homestead
days.

May the Iron-Man Album never run out of steam and may the Good
Lord bless all the Old Threshers.

An interesting statement of a ‘Sale’ back in 1909. This
was a sale bill of a friend of mine that used to live in Kansas.
Notice the prices of farm equipment compared to today’s prices.
Courtesy of A. W. Wilken, 10208 Pineridge Drive, Sun City, Arizona
85351