David McCullough is a historian of stature whose research and writing will be read long after he is gone. I came across a talk recorded on Youtube that he gave a couple years ago to a university group. He called it “The Genius of the Founders,” and it scored points with me. In a couple spots I had to stop to rewind it to accurately copy something he said.
His main point: “How anyone can profess to love their country and yet take no interest in the history of our country is almost, for me, beyond imagining.” Of course the historian he is could be expected to say that, but I certainly cannot argue against it.
One other point punched me in the eye when he talked about how good it is for the birth of ideas to write your thoughts out on paper, an activity which forces you to think. Just what do you believe? Try to formulate your ideas into something of substance that someone else can read and understand.
McCullough has written widely of the founding fathers and how they fought, agonized, and formulated their ideas in longhand on pages where we can turn today. Remember, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” or “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…”
We recently drove to Wishek and attended an auction sale held by Mary’s cousin. I landed a prize with my bid for the community history book, “Eureka 1887 - 1937.” I’ve seen a wide variety of community books and recognized that this one would contain good narrative history. The ending date of 1937 meant it would contain history experienced and written by the immigrants themselves. Given the uniformity of the writing, it was obvious all of it passed through an editor who transcribed each entry into perfect English. Still, it does not detract from its value as history. But first, what about Eureka?
At one time it was known as the “wheat capital of the world.” In 1892, it was the largest primary wheat-shipping point in the world. In 1897 alone, two thirds of the world’s wheat crop entering the commercial market was shipped from Eureka. Eureka and surrounding towns were crowded day and night with horses and wagons loaded with sacks of grain. Farmers hauled their wheat, often by ox team, from 75 miles around. Eureka boasted 42 grain elevators handling 4,000,000 bushels a year.
This happened over a short fifteen to twenty year period and coincides with the large numbers of Germans from Russia who came escaping intolerable conditions in Russia. Their resourcefulness and willingness to work hard is what prompted Catherine the Great of Russia to invite them to establish farms on Russian land with attractive promises. Years later the Russian Revolution reneged and life for the Germans became intolerable. To the United States they came, although settlements in South America developed, too.
My newly acquired “Eureka 1887-1937” book tells us what kind of people these were. After acquiring homestead land, they often made the purchase of a team of oxen and a breaking plow their priority. More than once the man of the family walked to town to seek employment to earn a few dollars. Like my German from Russia mother-in-law used to say, “There was no money.”
Here is a story in the almost super-human category. “After the house was partially built he departed for Frederick to seek employment. The responsibility of completing the house was thrown on the courageous wife’s shoulders. She walked two miles to get water to mix the clay used for building the house, which she completed entirely by herself. Next she built a stove which was used for cooking and baking. She also planted the crop that was to be the sole means of support for the coming winer. Having no one to tend to her little ones, she took them along to the field where she worked.”
Here is the experience of another young immigrant couple. The day after they arrived on the claim they were out of bread and their water jug was empty. With no oven, the young man scooped a hollow in a nearby bank and drove a pole from the top which when pulled back provided a chimney hole. For fuel, they hitched up their oxen and drove to a meadow to cut grass with a bread knife. After baking bread, they used the leftover grass for their bed. With poor drinking water, they would fill a cup with milk from their cow.
Another example shows the determination in some of them. The winter of 1887 brought furious blizzards. One day when the wind died a man decided to walk to his neighbor’s to borrow some tobacco. He said, “As I neared his farm I saw a black object rising up against the white background of the snow. I quickened my pace, and upon coming up to the house saw it was his wife climbing up out of the chimney. She explained that the snowdrifts had hopelessly blocked the door, and since her husband was not there to shovel a path, that was the only way out of the house. She placed two chairs on top of each other in the fireplace, and by that means climbed out. After clearing a path to the door for her, I got my tobacco and returned home.”
This book has already provided lots of interesting reading and will remain in my library for awhile. It’s valuable for me because it reminds me how lucky I am. I think I know of one library collection that will gladly accept it when I’m ready to pass it on. It is the kind of history that David McCullough would read with pleasure.
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