Col. William w. McIlvain

The obituary writer for Col. William W. McIlvain found much to remember when he printed a

longer than usual death notice for him. Of course, McIlvain is best remembered as the first

commandant of the North Dakota Soldiers Home, but he had lived a full life prior to that post.

McIlvain’s “Colonel” designation was apparently an honorific much like auctioneers use today

since the only military ranks found in his record were corporal, sergeant, and 1st lieutenant.

We learn that as a younger man he had seen active military service and served his country in the

so-called Border War in Kansas Territory when that population fought bloody skirmishes among

themselves. The issue was trying to decide if they should allow slavery or prohibit it when they

achieved statehood. McIlvain went on to enlist in the Michigan infantry during the Civil War

where he participated in a number of engagements.

Colonel McIlvain first came to the territory of Dakota in 1883 and settled in Fargo where he

worked as a land agent for the government. Among his duties he inspected homesteader claims.

Said to be a hard worker, he was given credit for many pioneers successfully coming here. But

the life of a bureaucrat didn’t interest him enough to make a lifelong career of it, so he came to

Sheldon the following year and started farming two miles west of town. He was practicing what

he preached you might say.

He established an 800 acre operation with his son Frank. In the 1880s it is important to

remember power was furnished entirely by draft animals, i.e. oxen and horses. How much of his

land was tilled, I’m left wondering. If he plowed and seeded a large amount, he must’ve hired a

large number of field hands. We can surmise from an April 7, 1885 item in The Progress that a

good deal of his land was in pasture, too: “We notice that Frank McIlvain has been hauling

barbed wire homewards. Guess there is to be some fencing done on that farm.”

After working hard to turn his virgin sod farm into a successful operation, William turned to the

business world and established an active general merchandise business in Sheldon with his son

Frank. In 1893 McIlvain received the appointment as commandant of the Soldiers Home in

Lisbon and was present when it first opened its doors.

He was present to greet the first veteran who entered the facility on August 2, 1893. He was

George Hutchings, a veteran of the Civil War and a resident of Ransom County. A Hutchings

family narrative appears in the Sheldon history book. Written by Eunice Hutchings Joubert she

states, “The Hutchings family history goes back to the first government, a trading post, in

Shenford Township, run by George Hutchings. He served in the Civil War from Minnesota,

reenlisted and after being involved in Indian troubles in Montana, he was sent to Dakota

Territory. George is now buried in the Soldier’s Cemetery at Lisbon, ND.”

NDSU PRESS PARTY

 Yesterday we had the pleasure of attending another of what has become an annual affair, the NDSU Press Party. Authors whom they have published during the year come in to read from and talk about their work. We bought two books of poetry written by onetime North Dakota  poets. The author of one, Debra Marquardt originally from Napoleon, ND, lives and teaches at Iowa State University and serves as that state’s poet laureate. David R. Solheim, an associate poet laureate of North Dakota, spent thirty years as an English professor at Dickinson State University. Given the opportunity, there’s a good chance we’ll attend again next year. They serve a nice lunch, too. An extra bonus for us as we left was hearing the church bells of the Newman Center ringing a block away. We’d been wanting to attend a service at this new church anyway, so now this morning I can take it easy while Mary is making pancakes with our Cracker Barrel flour. Pix show Marquart with Mary, fellow Germans from Russia, and David Solheim.

Random Thoughts - April 11, 2024

 RANDOM THOUGHTS - April 11, 2024

Who’s Pete and why do we always do things for his sake? … “Win or lose, be a good sport” was sportscaster Bill Weaver’s sign off each day … North Dakota is 135 years old … John Moses was governor when I was born … The state political conventions concluded without many conclusive choices … Never wrestle with pigs cuz you both get dirty and the pig likes it … Cloudy, no eclipse here, but save the glasses to use in 20 years  … The bull and the bear carving was done on commission for a stock broker in 1997 … NDSU Press Dept is holding a press party on Saturday that we plan to attend where several of this year’s publications and authors will present … Glad to see positive talking Merrill Piepkorn in the mix … And til we meet again, goodbye. 

Remembering Roots

 

Memories of times past just refuse to fade away. People like to celebrate common roots and

attend events like community centennials, school reunions, and family reunions. Car shows

appeal to lovers of the old classics. Horse shows, flower shows, and art shows attract their

distinctive crowds. Nostalgia for old steam engines and threshing machines draws people to walk

in the noises and smells from that time.

We can’t begin to describe all the groups or reasoning behind these gatherings so we’ll be

selective and pick one that’s gained in popularity among a few, i.e. tractorcades. When organizers

of them establish the route and the point of departure the participants and their pet tractors gather

ready to unleash and ride in a caravan for twenty miles or so. They arrive on those small tractors

that some of us grew up driving, sitting under the sun, in the wind, swatting mosquitoes.

Representative models of all the tractors ever made join these convoys. Decal letters on their

hoods denote them as A, H, WD, U, or numbers like 77 or 300. Perhaps one needs be a farmer to

know their meaning, but an older farmer knows just how big and for what they were best used.

Through the years their replacements have grown increasingly larger, more powerful, and more

comfortable with climate controlled cabs. But the early tractors evoke memories and a strong

longing to ride once again in the openness of the countryside, smell the exhaust, and listen to the

melody of meadowlarks over the sounds of the engines.

One Sheldon farmer who is since deceased took such things like collecting classic tractors

seriously and found every John Deere model he wanted. I’d forgotten the particulars of his

collection, but I asked his brother how many he owned. Forty-three was the answer and one year

he ran them all to McLeod for a celebration, although a few stalled along the way. One year

when fuel was so high he laid out $1400 for the diesel and gasoline.

Those of us older folks realize we are not so far removed from the time when farmers relied on

real horse power to work the farms. But horses ate a lot, even when they weren’t earning their

keep in the winter, and took many acres of crop production for their feed. An Australian brochure

printed in 1923 informed “How One Case Tractor Replaces 12 Horses.” Maybe that ratio can be

argued by students of such things, but it bounces around the actual figure. With the arrival of

tractors a farmer could reduce his horse herd, to where today the horses in a pasture usually

indicate pleasure riding.

Fort Ransom Sodbuster Association celebrates the draft horse culture a couple times each

summer. At Sodbuster Days a visitor can watch teamsters demonstrating threshing machines,

haying, and plowing. They don’t forget the homemaking aspect. We generally hear about the

threshing crews, but they needed to be fed by the ladies with heaping platters of food prepared

each day over hot wood burning stoves.The long line of classic tractors farmers are bringing to these cavalcades did not always bear the

familiar brand names we think of like Farmall, Oliver, or John Deere. A Farmall was once more

commonly known as a McCormick-Deering manufactured by the International Harvester

Company. In recent times it morphed to the Case IH brand. John Deere tractors originally made

in Waterloo, Iowa, bore the name Waterloo Boy. As the years passed John Deere developed the

familiar two-cylinder engine which it built from 1934 until 1960.

A Minneapolis-Moline tractor painted in its familiar “Prairie Gold” color was first identified as a

Twin City from 1930 until 1934 when it became known as M-M. In 1963 the company joined

White Farm Equipment where the Oliver and Cockshutt brands also resided. The “Persian

Orange” Allis-Chalmers line dates its roots to 1847 England, but in more modern terms it was

1901 when Edward P. Allis joined with several other companies to create the now familiar name.

The Fordson brand of tractors begs for recognition as one of the first general-purpose tractors

when it came out in 1917. Competitive companies cut into its sales and Fordson moved to

England in 1928. The Ford brand re-entered the market in 1939 with its 9N model featuring the

Ferguson System of a simple three-point hitch that other companies adapted.

In 1929 Hart-Parr merged with several equipment companies to become the Oliver Farm

Equipment Company. It is through the Hart-Parr brand that the term “tractor” originated. They

coined the word in 1906 to describe its self-propelled gasoline tractor to replace the term that had

been in common use - gasoline traction engine.

There are other tractors that could be mentioned, but those named above cover a cross section.

When farms were small, these small tractors did the work of planting and harvesting the crops all

the while displacing the draft horses. Their builders did such a good job of building dependable

power machines that many of them still run well and can be found parading the countryside on

tractorcades.

RANDOM THOUGHTS - March 26, 2024

 RANDOM THOUGHTS - March 26, 2024

I’ve often mulled over this proverb: “Society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.”  …  Like the Montana author Ivan Doig says, “There are so damn many ways to be a fool a man can’t expect to avoid them all.”  …  I drank from the Fountain of Youth in Florida and discovered it doesn’t work  …  An eclipse of the sun coming soon. I remember one when I was mowing in the hayfield where it got quite dark for a minute or two  …  Who says it can’t be winter again  …  We have this drawing by Don Greytak on our wall. It brings back so many memories, for both Mary and me. 

 

RANDOM THOUGHTS - March 21, 2024

 RANDOM THOUGHTS - March 21, 2024

 A bit from a 1918 Shields ND newspaper: “A teacher in a rural school near McIntosh closed her school because rattlesnakes insisted on entering the school house during school and other hours”  …  Brothers Hurlburt from Enderlin in NCAA tournament, one for Northwestern, the other for Colorado  …  On this day in 1980 President Carter announced the U. S. boycott of the Olympics …  Warm weather left, winter temps back  …   Sheldon Lions breakfast attended so well they had to scurry about for more bread to make French toast  …  So many of the works I carved or fashioned from scratch have flown to the wind. I think this chuck wagon sold at an art show in Sioux Falls … Til another time, goodbye.

When the Legend Becomes Fact

Saturday matinees in the local theater featuring cowboy heroes were a favorite destination for the young crowd. 

With their fancy clothes and pearl handle pistols they cut a fine figure as they rode

in on a beautiful horse, sometimes singing and always tipping their hats to the ladies. They never

shot to kill but instead simply to knock the gun out of the bad guy’s hand.

Then times started to change. Clint Eastwood and more like him arrived wearing grungy, sweat-

soaked clothes while spewing a lingo laced with vulgar language. Now we can expect a shootout

to end with somebody dying in a pool of blood. Still entertaining? Yes, I will still watch one

occasionally, but they lost my wife.

To my notion only a few of these movies teach virtue or integrity beyond base entertainment.

One that I’ve mulled over for a long time is worthy of singling out: The Man Who Shot Liberty

Valance. Based on a short story by Dorothy M. Johnson, it features a strong cast with John

Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Lee Marvin and the love interest of both Stewart and Wayne, Vera Miles.

In addition to the actors, the movie focuses on a reoccurring and real-life situation, even up to the

present time.

Jimmy Stewart, an easterner with a newly-earned law degree, rides a stagecoach on his way to

the little western town of Shinbone. Liberty Valance, played by Lee Marvin, and his gang accosts

them, robs them of their valuables, and severely beats and whips Stewart with a weighted quirt.

Marvin laughs and wants him to know the law means little here. Left beaten and bloody, his

situation is hopeless, that is, until John Wayne shows up to help him to a place where he can

convalesce.

As the plot develops, Stewart works to earn his way in the community but realizes he will need

to face up to the hostile, bullying Marvin one day. A jealous factor enters when Wayne sees his

lady friend Vera Miles warming up to Stewart who is teaching her to read and write. Even so,

Wayne gives him some instructions in using a six-shooter.

The day arrives where Stewart is goaded to take the challenge. In the evening hours he hears the

call and enters the dark street with pistol in hand to face Marvin. He wounds Stewart’s arm

which forces him to pick up his revolver from the dirt with his left hand. The end seems

inevitable when Stewart lifts his arm and aims his wavering gun at Marvin. Shots ring out, but

unexpectedly Marvin falls dead.

So there, Stewart shot Liberty Valance, the outlaw who’d been terrorizing Shinbone. With the

status of a hero, he enters politics and starts to win elections, finally attaining the pinnacle of the

U. S. Senate. But he holds a dark secret. Wayne had pulled him aside and told him that it was he

who shot Liberty Valance with his simultaneous rifle shot from a dark alley. Wayne dared not                                                                  admit to it because he could then be charged with murder, so Stewart was let to lay claim to

winning the gun duel against the bad man. He capitalized on the false legend through his

political career, but the secret kept eating at him.

On the death of John Wayne’s character, Stewart and his wife Vera Miles make the long trip to

Shinbone to pay their respects, something which raised a lot of eyebrows. Why would they do

such a thing for a bedraggled drunken cowboy? The truth finally came out when the newspaper

editor insisted on an interview. Stewart agreed: the public had a right to know.

The reporter present at the meeting furiously wrote the fact based story and gave it to his editor

who read it, then threw it in the wood stove. The movie version quotes him as saying “when the

legend becomes fact, print the legend.” It would not be his paper that tarnished the career of this

respected politician. The book and the movie are favorites of mine and I will return to them

again.

The theme of legends recurs again and again. For instance, who is the real Sakakawea and what

did she really do? Many stories have been told about her guiding Lewis and Clark on their trip

west. We’re taught she was important, probably much more than her actual actual contribution.

Not so long ago pioneers to this part of the country encountered dry ground. But not to worry

they were assured, because when you break the prairie you’ll find that “rain follows the plow.”

Then the blowing dirt storms of the 30s arrived. It was like the old Indian said, “Wrong side up.”

Some try to create their own legends and become legendary. How about the candidate for

governor who claims she was a shotgun wielding teenager who prevented her parents’ store

from being robbed. Legends arise when we least expect them.