Recollections of a Pioneer

 Recollections of a Pioneer

Some years ago I stopped at the North Dakota Heritage Center to visit the archives library and browse through their collection of pioneer interviews. The name of Rex Lindemann jumped out of the catalog of names and prompted me to retrieve and listen to his take on the area’s early history. I remember him with that white shock of hair and the off-sale business he ran beside his son’s soda fountain, magazine stand, and television sales.

While listening to his interview it soon became obvious his memory was strong and true and reached back to the earliest days of settlement around Enderlin and Sheldon. His parents came in 1881 where “everything was prairie.” Rex was born in 1885. He stopped to comment on a bird in the background that kept saying “Hello, George,” something his son Donald had taught it to say.

On what land the family first settled wasn’t mentioned, but he said in those days walking was the main means of making contact with others. The literature of the West tells us that when you wanted to go somewhere you’d simply saddle a horse and ride. The story of the pioneers doesn’t say that. They might have owned only one team of work horses or oxen that needed to rest when not working.

Sheldon was their main destination for groceries at the time, and he remembered a long list of businessmen - Hanna, Hoff, Fowler, Pierce, Kratt, Howell, etc. The doctor at the time favored one of the two drugstores and sent his prescriptions to it. Mr. Hoff wanted a share of that business and went in search of a doctor in Canada where he persuaded one to come down. Still, the first doctor kept getting the sick and injured at his practice. That called for Hoff and the new doctor to undertake some creative business planning.

The new doctor, Rex thought it was Dr. Ahlens, attended regular church services where the plan called for Hoff to enter and whisper in the doctor’s ear. They’d get in the horse drawn buggy and drive around the country to deceive the people into believing his medical skills were in demand. But the scheme didn’t work well until a real emergency developed. The first doctor was treating a woman north of town whose condition was not improving. In desperation the family called Ahlens to come and examine her. He made the proper diagnosis and with his treatment the lady got better. “That turned the tide, and the old doc left.”

The interviewer kept drawing out the trove of Rex’s memories. The Soo Line reached Enderlin in 1891, but Rex stated the town did not grow fast at first. In 1898 when he was in the 7th grade he remembered the town’s population was just 400. Apparently he farmed for awhile but the business world beckoned, and he started selling Overland cars in 1909 while adding the Olds brand in 1915. To make a deal he’d trade for horses, cattle, pigs, anything he could resell. He reminisced that in any car sold from 1909-1920 you could encounter the same troubles - rear axles, spindles, and springs that would break easily.

He would go to auto shows in such places as Chicago and Minneapolis where one time he bought two Pullman brand cars at $400 each. He said he could sell all the cars he could get but had his best results taking the cars to the prospective buyers. Moline and Allis Chalmers brand farm machinery added to his sales inventory. In 1921 he put up a building where he sold Atwater-Kent products, Majestic pianos, and band instruments. In addition, he played the trombone in a dance band above the Kraemer Motors.

The discussion circled around to something I’d wondered about ever since I was a small boy, the Silver Zephyr saloon that was located a couple miles east of Enderlin on Highway 46. A man named Bert Tripp moved two Pullman railroad cars to that spot, placed them side by side, and built a roof over them. He took a partner named Leon Harris, but their venture failed since the business closed in 1943.

I wished more could have been said about the Zephyr since it was a landmark we’d pass on every trip to Enderlin. He said they sold lunches, beer, and had a dance hall, but some rough elements sometimes got in there. One time they stole the establishment’s outside door that was later found by the Bohnsack ranch in the sandhills. That reminded him of the time that he went out to her place to sell a rake and couldn’t find Freida at first. It turned out she and her dad were loading hay where she was on top of the hayrack and her dad was pitching hay up to her.

The interview ended all too soon. I could have listened all afternoon to more but there were time constraints and the interview ended. Many will remember the interviewer Larry Sprunk. He had grant money to gather memories of the settlers and pioneers in this area and record them for interested folks like you or me.

This article resulted from the notes taken at the archives of the Historical Society, but it will lead to another because one of his earliest comments proved something to me. He stated, “Lots of Germans settled here.” Til next time...