Wallows

 The WPA files hold some interesting stories of the 1880s and 90s written by people from the area. One of them written by a Mrs. Alice Beard stated that about 1888, settlers gathered many loads of buffalo bones which were sold in Sheldon and shipped east. There were many so-called buffalo wallows, and the ground was covered by bones near them. It is sandy country and the shifting sands had rapidly filled in the hollows as the surrounding lands had been broken.

Their house had one large room about 12 x 12. The following summer another lean-to was added for a kitchen. She plastered the house herself using a mixture of hair, lime, and sand. She made rag carpets to cover the floors. Wood hauled from the Sheyenne River was used for fuel, and if it were fallen timber they could have all they could load for fifty cents. Using four horses and a sled, leaving before four o’clock in the morning, they drove the eighteen miles and returned home long after nightfall. The lunch that was taken along would be frozen so hard it could scarcely be eaten.

The water was obtained from an open well, drawn up by rope with two buckets on a pulley. Water was plentiful; the water level was only about ten to twelve feet below the earth’s surface. Wells were curbed about six feet down and the rest of the way was not curbed.

Wild fruit grew in profusion in the sand hills. Along the Sheyenne River an abundance of chokecherries, plums, sand cherries, wild gooseberries, raspberries, grapes, and strawberries were picked for canning. There were no sealers as are used now for canning fruits, but the fruit was put up in 1/2 gallon stone jars and sealed with cloth and rosin. This method of preservation proved to be very satisfactory.

Mrs. Beard made the clothing and the materials used were calico, gingham, flannel, denim, and woolen materials. She sheared her own sheep, washed the wool, carded it and spun it into yarns, and then wove it into blankets and cloth or knit it into stockings, mittens, and such. She also prepared the raw flax and wove it into linen toweling.

She made all the laundry soap herself, using tallow, all scraps of fat meat, and grease. She made lye by soaking wood. She had a candle mold and made candles out of beef tallow to substitute for the kerosene lamps in an emergency.

We are left to wonder what she did in her spare time.