Fire Destroys Thirteen

 Getting back to the history of Sheldon, an interesting memory appeared in a recent Fargo Forum article dated May 8, 1897.

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Town in Ashes

The Town of Sheldon Is Wiped Out by the Fire Fiend at an Early Hour This Morning.

Thirteen Buildings Go Up in Smoke - Covered with Very Little Insurance - It Is Not Known How the Fire Originated - Most of the Buildings Will Probably Be Rebuilt.

Sheldon, May 8. - About 1 or 1:30 this morning fire broke out in the Froling grocery store here, or rather the fire was discovered at that time.

We have no fire department and the buildings were nearly all wooden structures and the flames soon licked everything clean from the state bank building to the meat market.

Thirteen buildings were burned, including grocery store where fire started, the State Bank building, billiard hall, jewelry store, shoe store, Charles Temm's hardware store, Goodman and Grange's meat market, restauranc building, Enterprise office, A.B. Rudd's general store.

The fire only lasted two hours and it was impossible under the circumstances to do anything to stay the progress of the flames. It is not known how the fire started. Some of those who were burned out are already talking of rebuilding, but some of the buildings will not be replaced.

The insurance was very high and the amount of protection carried was very small. The total loss is put at between $20,000 and $25,000 with only $6,000 in insurance. Only a small proportion of the contents of the buildings were saved.

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Rest in Peace, Dear Brother

 Howard Charles Bueling

September 24, 1947 - May 4, 2026

Poem Fits the Picture

 

TOM MCGRATH

A few lines from a Tom McGrath poem fit the picture very well. He is writing about the Maple River, I’ll guess about 1925 to 1930, northwest of Sheldon; the threshing outfit is crossing the Sheyenne River in 1902, not far south of Sheldon. As our proverbial crow flies, there are not many miles or years between.

“Sometimes, at night, after a long move to another farm,

Hours after the bundle teams were gone and sleeping,

After we’d set the rig for the next day,

I rode the off-horse home.

Midnight, maybe, the dogs of the strange farms

Barking behind me, the river short-cut rustling

With its dark and secret life and the deep pools warm.

(I swam there once in the dead of night while the team

Nuzzled the black water.)

Home then. Dead beat."

Eyes Aloft

 Eyes Aloft

By Lynn Bueling

They tested  bombs and filmed the bloom

of mushroom clouds that rose

and rode aloft on overhead winds

and carried dangers of it to us.

They called the 50s the Decade of Fear

and the world prepared for the worst.

Scant radar array in the USA 

might miss Russians sneaking

through to drop a clutch of eggs 

to hatch and bring destruction. 

Mom’s aunt and daughter joined

the Ground Observer Corps 

as Skywatch volunteers,

urged by Truman to recall 

Pearl Harbor could happen again. 

They took their shift in  a little shack 

on the hill west of town 

where with “Eyes Aloft”  they 

scanned the sky for enemy

that might come sneaking through.

The “Decade of Fear” kept us on our toes 

wondering if we’d see the sun again. 

Meanwhile just below the hill

baseballs flew out of the park, 

and Steinbeck passed through Alice.

The End of My Book Reviews

 Here's how I ended my time as a book reviewer.

RANDOM THOUGHTS - Friday, April 17, 2026

Mn Twins off to a good start … A few more days of wintry weather ahead … It’s hard to make a friend if you blow up his house … On this day in 1964 the Ford Mustang appeared … Robert Frost says "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on” … Personally, I would never argue matters of religion with the Pope … Enjoying the streaming of “The West Wing” … The Artemis II crew make great role models for youth … 75 years ago inhabitants of Elbowoods community had to vacate because Lake Sacajawea started trising behind Garrison Dam … Mary busies herself researching and writing another phase of family history … Scenic landscape pictured, Cannonball River flows below …

One of My Favorite Stories

This is one of my favorite stories. Published nine years ago already.