Crossing the Sheyenne

 Crossing the Sheyenne

The seasonal harvest has begun and big combines have entered the fields to begin harvesting. To watch them is to see the best way of separating grain from chaff and straw developed to date. Before the time that any of us can remember, animals tramped on ripe straw to knock the kernels loose from their heads. Or in another method a worker struck the heads with a flail to separate the kernels and then scoop the grain up and toss it in the air for the wind to winnow the chaff from the mix.

Cyrus McCormick came along with his mechanical reaper that cut the straw to fall behind it on the ground. A worker walked behind to gather it by hand and bundle it into sheaves. It enabled farmers to raise more grain and harvest it in less time.

I possess a picture of a historical nature for which I hope to find a permanent home. I first noticed it in the Sheldon Community History - 1981 where it carried this inscription: The Wall Bros. Threshing Crew crossing the “Froemke” Sheyenne River Crossing south of Anselm, ND. It was given to me by Tom Spiekermeier of Sheldon who in his personal dark room enlarged it to its present size of 11” by 14”and preserved a great deal of detail.

Curious to when this scene occurred, I searched and found the following reference in the Sheldon Progress of July 19, 1901: “Fred Wall and brother Alfred have bought a fine new threshing outfit and will make the straw fly this fall.” In another reference dated August 30, 1901 the Progress reported that the separator was a 40-60 Nichols and Shepard Red River Special that was powered by a Pitts 22 horsepower engine. Fourteen crew members can be counted in this scene which is a far cry from today’s one combine operator and one person to haul the grain away.

Further developments in harvesting techniques can only be guessed at, but one thing for sure, there will be some. One other story we can relate deals with placing the seeds in the ground for the machines to eventually harvest. The cheers for this development occurred in the early 1700s when Jethro Tull, an Englishman, invented a horse drawn seed drill. In the mid 1800s, George Van Brunt developed a model which covered the seeds before birds got to them. Because of the Van Brunt seeder we first get acquainted with one of the early movers and shakers of Ransom County.

A. H. Laughlin tells the story himself in an address he gave to the Sheldon Old Settlers Picnic on July 27, 1907. “On the 26th day of January, 1882, I first saw North Dakota, arriving in Kindred that morning via Wahpeton, with H. A. Palmer, who still lives near Lisbon. We unloaded a carload of Van Brunt seeders and started the next morning on foot for Lisbon forty miles away, as there were no teams going through.”

He goes on, “It was a bright, beautiful morning. They told us to take the old government road, and that there were three hotels, or places where travelers were kept. About 10 o’clock a dark

cloud appeared in the northwest and we were soon in the middle of a blizzard. At French’s they could not keep us, so we tramped on to Porter’s, facing the blizzard nine miles. Mrs. Porter could not give us even a cup of tea, as they were entirely out of provisions. I asked her if she could spare a little heat from her stove.”

Bear in mind this was 1882 and very little development had occurred. Laughlin’s story continues, “We rested a while, when fortunately a four horse sleigh drove up loaded with merchandise for Joseph Goodman’s store at Sheldon. It was driven by Charlie Smart and Richard Jackson; we got permission to hang on to their sleigh. There was only room on one small box of goods for one to sit on, and as Mr. Palmer had been sick I gave him that privilege. A bundle of brooms stood upright in one rear corner, and by clinging to a broomstick I could keep my head in the shelter of the brooms and stand on the rear end of the runner.”

The blinding snow caused them to lose their way. “Once we were lost on the prairie and headed for the sandhills southeast, but Charlie took to the snow ahead of the lead horses and found the trail by intuition. He wore a wolf skin coat and cap, which may have helped him. Arriving in Sheldon about five o’clock the boys stopped in front of the hotel kept by Robert Grieve. It was new and had two blocks of square timber for steps. I got one foot up one step and could not induce the other one to follow, and fell down, unconscious with cold and exhaustion.”

They carried him in and warmed him to get his circulation going. He goes on, “We slept upstairs and the next morning the snow was an inch deep all over the bed. Our hands were so badly frozen that the landlord had to assist us in dressing. It was forty-four degrees below zero.”

He completed the trip. “We arrived in Lisbon that day by the stage driven by Thomas Eastman via Bonnersville and Shenford. We ate our first dinner at the Robinson house and after paying for our meals had sixteen cents left.”

Laughlin set out establishing himself in the county. He purchased 800 acres of farmland and started raising cattle. Those Van Brunt seeders he helped unload must have been his because he stated when his money arrived he paid $244 freight on that car load. He used the machines to establish with partners an implement business. That same year he arrived, 1882, he was elected Register of Deeds where he was in the middle of the county’s mini- gold rush. He opened a real estate and loan office and built the Lisbon Cheese Factory in 1889 in addition to a brick kiln business.

Many of those combines working in the fields that we mentioned previously are green. Pictures indicate those Van Brunt seeders were red, but John Deere bought them in 1911.