Medora - Memorial Day Weekend - 2022

    We drove to Medora this Memorial Day weekend to participate in the 36th Annual Dakota Cowboy Poetry Gathering for which I had worked up a few things and presented. Bill Lowman and his wife JoAnn are the founders and managers of the affair and have earned the distinction of   the gathering’s induction into the Library of Congress as a “local legacy” for its format to record and embrace the American cowboy culture.           

     The first event featured an hour long program on Badger Clark, South Dakota’s first poet laureate. A songstress, Pegie Douglas from Hill City, SD, was featured singing songs based on his poetry. One thing of note: she sang the most beautiful version of “Spanish Is the Loving Tongue” that I’ve ever heard. She is good and we heard from her throughout the gathering at other times, too.

     Some of the same faces show up each year and along with new ones, too. My favorites are the good guitarists who play solo or act as backup to others who want their accompaniment. Two partners, Brent Voigt from Rhame and Vickie Hill from Turtle Lake play together as a duo, he the guitarist and she the bass player. One other standout is John Lardinois from Bismarck. He plays a guitar he built himself, and it was a sweet one. He joked that it took him two years to build and when finished a friend told him, “Ya know, stores sell them.” One other that I’ve gotten to know a bit is Tom Brousseau from Grand Forks. He said his grandmother taught him the guitar and she did a good job of it.

     

     We enjoy hanging around scenes like this and I’ve already got some topics to develop for next year. Regarding the Badlands, I don’t remember seeing them so green. Green grows even on the almost-vertical hillsides. Given the appearance of it, I thought it gave me a completely different perspective of the scene. They love the rain out there, but we drove in rain all the way back and the farm fields are WET. 

A bit of explanation of the pictures - Bill Lowman is surprised when I took his picture. I swear, that handlebar grows longer each year - The video shows me getting a reaction with a poem - Two group pictures show some of the musical numbers - Deer met met me as I walked out of the motel room.

Ancestors

 Yesterday we went on our annual cemetery visits where we made it to six of them. Because of their closeness (within 50 miles) they happened to have been resting places of my Scandinavian forebears. Because Mary goes to great lengths to research and document many of the lines, I’ve gained a better understanding of these relationships. The picture I’ve included is that of my great-great-grandparents’ marker in the little cemetery at the West Prairie Church on Hiway 46. Whether or not my grandkids or their own descendants will ever care about the history being recorded is unknown, but it will be there for that one with the curiosity to open the pages and carry it forward. The fact that this picture shows my grandkids one of their sets of great-great-great-great grandparents indicates to me how fast the generations pass by.

36th Annual Dakota Cowboy Poetry Gathering

 There’s not much prep time left to get ready for the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Medora on May 28-29. I stuck my neck out and promised the organizers that I would participate this year so I’ve written one poem and dug up another that I like. My time slot will be sometime Saturday afternoon. I thought I should get up on the stage since Bill Lowman let me write an article about him for the “Roundup” magazine. It’s really an enjoyable affair with lots of poetry and music. If looking for something to do that weekend, come on over. Day performances are free, nighttime is ticketed.

Lucas

 We're proud of our grandkids. Lucas, at 16, stays very active with gymnastics and play productions. This weekend we drove to the cities to watch him act in the production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." Lots of actors took part in what looked to me like some pretty intricate choreography. Son Clint explained how it happened by saying it was choreographed by an associate of the NYC Rockettes.

Churches and Saloons

 The first services were held by the Catholics in the Jenksville settlement by Father Stephan. In 1878 and 1879 his journeys from Moorhead were generally made on foot, and services held in the cabins of the early settlers, many of them driving twenty miles to attend, and rarely with sufficient room indoors to permit them all to enter.

     Jenksville was also the first place of the Presbyterian Society, organized in the early spring of 1882, and supplied at first by the Rev. Mr. Pollock, a missionary, holding services in the school house at Jenksville, and later in the Sheldon school house. No regular ordained minister was assigned until 1884, when the society was placed in charge of the Rev. Edgar W. Day, who served them for many years. Their church building was erected in 1885, largely through the efforts of Dr. Henning.

     A. H Laughlin, writing this summary of churches in Sheldon, stated there seems to be no very accurate date of the early history of the Methodist church at Sheldon, although the society was large and active from the beginning of the settlement. The church building was not completed until 1892.

     The strong church presence might have existed to counter the abundance of liquor sales. Prior to 1890 the village averaged four open saloons with sales totaling about $3,600 per month. The cost of regulating them amounted to $60/month for marshal’s salary; $30/month deputy salary; and $70/month for the village justice’s salary.

Celebrating the 100th

 Last night, May 6, 2022, Mary and I were invited guests to the Drs. Tom Isern and Suzzanne Kelley place for the purpose of helping Isern celebrate his 100th show of Plains Folk on Willow Creek Folk School. Several of us were there and a nice layout of snacks, wines, and cake and pie were offered. It lasted about an hour and can be found on Facebook. Much to our chagrin we were in the camera shot most of the time.

Sheldon (as seen in 1883)

      Occasionally we find an article giving us a mental picture of how Sheldon looked in its fledgling years of existence. The state historical society publishes a quarterly journal called “North Dakota History.” Old issues of it can be purchased at the bookstore in the Heritage Center in Bismarck. An issue dated Spring 1987 carried a story titled “Examining Land in Dakota Territory: The 1883 Journal of Thomas Sadler Roberts” by Penelope Krosch.”

     Railroads had been granted huge tracts of land to extend their rails westward, but that land needed to be sold to raise money for their continued expansion. They employed surveyors to determine value and descriptions. One of them was Thomas Sadler Roberts who kept journals of his experiences.

     Here is his journal entry of June 5,1883. “Reached Fargo at 8:15 where we took breakfast at the Headquarters Hotel… We changed cars here taking the train, which was a mixed one, on the Fargo and Southwestern a new road complete as yet only as far as Lisbon with one passenger car and a second class car full of people besides a long line of freight cars, at 10:00 A. M. — one hour and thirty minutes after schedule time. The only station on the road of any account is Sheldon where there are about 25 buildings large and small including a good R.R. station and elevator. The road is still rough and has a very incomplete aspect. We reached Lisbon about 2 P.M.

     The article also includes the picture of “a huge grading and construction gang shown in this 1882 photo. Next time I’m in Bismarck, I intend to look at it. Here too much detail is lost.

Building Bridges

      Bridge builders had a bit of trouble getting one constructed across the Maple River. Ed Pierce gave a speech at the Old Settlers’ Picnic in Sheldon in 1906 where he said, in part, a group volunteered to build a bridge on the Tregloan farm in 1881. Their first action was to build cribs of heavy oak and elm logs that reached 20 feet high. They decked them with stringers and floors weighing hundreds of tons. Before night the little stream broke loose, and in ten minutes there wasn’t a log, block, bolt or tool with sight of the bridge, and the builders were looking on with open-mouth wonder at what happened to them.

     An article in the 1886 Enterprise stated, “The timbers for the new bridge across the Maple River in Highland Township came last week and were unloaded Saturday and Monday.”

     One wonders if Ed Pierce’s memory was exact on this. The two years don’t jive, but then it might’ve been two different affairs separated by five years when a better bridge was being planned. 

     The name Tregloan Farm has shown up before. Does anyone know anything about it?