1918
I have time to add a few bits to my diary, so I will start with mentioning the fire in Cloquet, Minnesota, which was devastating. 453 people were killed. I know it wasn’t the same part of Minnesota where I am from, but I still felt very bad about it - thinking myself to be a Minnesotan.
I’m quoting here from the newspaper the Morning Tribune:
Nearly 1,000 persons are now believed to have lost their lives in the blasts of flame that drove Saturday and yesterday over Northern Minnesota forests in an area that spreads from Duluth to Brainerd, Bemidji, Aitkin, Cloquet and Moose Lake.
Property worth millions of dollars was destroyed, ten villages were obliterated, 15,000 persons were made homeless, many of them penniless. Duluth, itself heavily damaged by the flames, was last night a city of thousands of refugees, a dwelling-place of stricken people who had lost kinfolk, friends, neighbors in the flames.
Over all the countryside, on highways and by-paths, near farmhouse ruins and beside railway tracks, lay blackened corpses.
The fire started near Bemidji, and fanned by a high wind, the flames swept across the state toward Duluth, cutting a swath 50 miles wide through cutover lands bounded on both sides by a chain of lakes.
One surviver reports, "We fought the fire and placed both children on the banks of the St. Louis, telling the six year old to go to the big rock in the river if the fire came close."
Another 18 year old man says, "I ran my horse and wagon fast to get to the farm from Kettle River and we managed to get to the river. I covered the horse’s head with a wet blanket so we could move faster to get to river."
Another report says, "The flames destroyed a log house I had just built above the rail prepared to protect the house. My wife put the children along the bank of the river and told the older one to take the baby and go to a rock in the river, if the fire jumped the tracks. Fortunately, the fire didn’t jump the tracks."
And how can we think about what happened this year without mentioning the awful influenza that swept the country and which killed 2,700 North Dakotans.
On September 27, 1918, the Bismarck Tribune reassured readers worried about the Spanish flu, noting, "Doctors believe that if the people of North Dakota exercise ordinary care they need not fear the ravages of this disease."
They could not have been more wrong.
The first official notice that the flu was in North Dakota came to the U.S. Public Health Service in early October, when 75 cases were reported in Rockford in Eddy County (three hours to the northeast of Bismarck).
The onset of the flu was sudden and devastating. In less than a week, an optimistic Fargo Forum headline: "Spanish Influenza Hasn't Hit Fargo," yielded to a report of more than 100 cases.
North Dakotans tried to stem the rising tide of the disease. Schools, churches, and businesses were closed. Public gatherings of any kind were banned. All places of amusement, including dances, theaters, and pool halls, shut their doors. Transporting patients with influenza on trains became a crime.
Nothing worked. And North Dakota's health care community was overwhelmed.
By the second week of October, nearly 6,000 people had been afflicted. Hundreds died. The young and healthy were the worst struck. 70% were between the ages of 18 and 35.
Nick had to register for the draft, but he doesn't think he will get called up, which is one thing to be grateful for.
Chapter 11
1919
This was an unusual start to January weather. We had the temperature of 59º today.
We had the flu so badly over the winter, most of us down at the same time. I was the last to go down. I had been waiting on the others and doing the chores. When I had to give up, we got a neighbor to come over and milk the cow and do the other outside chores each day. I don't know what we would have done without him. Most of the neighbors were sick too, and had their own troubles.
One day before I took sick, Nick suddenly got out of bed and was determined to go outside. I stood between him and the door and watched him trying to get dressed. He soon played out and was glad to be helped back to bed. He did not attempt to get up for a whole week. If he had gone out that day, it is very unlikely that he would have recovered, as we heard of many people who went outside, came in and went to bed and never got up again. It seems wonderful that we got over it with no doctor or nurse to take care of us.
Now for a bit more on North Dakota. Most people in the state want state ownership and control of marketing and credit agencies. Thus, the state legislature established the Bank of North Dakota and the North Dakota Mill and Elevator Association. The Bank of North Dakota was charged with the mission of "encouraging and promoting agriculture, commerce and industry" in North Dakota. It was never intended for Bank of North Dakota to compete with or replace existing banks. Instead, the Bank of North Dakota was created to partner with other banks and assist them in meeting the needs of the citizens of North Dakota. The Bank of North Dakota opened June 28th.
Christmas 1919
Hello,
We have had an unfortunate death in our family - Nick and Len’s dad died on November 4th. First of all he got a smoker's cancer on his lip from smoking a pipe. His wife took him to the specialists in Rochester in September and they removed it, but the cancer got into his brain through the blood. He was such a sweet man, small and gentle and mild mannered. Quite a contrast to his wife. But he wasn’t really an old man, only 57 and well able to do farming up til recently. We certainly shall miss him.
Len and Lydia have moved into the homestead, so Teuntje can continue there, and that will be very helpful for her. Len will of course take over control of that land as his own now. There is talk of Teuntje going to spend time with her Dutch relatives in Minnesota.
I hadn’t been aware of it, but apparently Rinse had a brother called John, who emigrated at the same time as the rest of them and they were all in Chicago together. But when Rinse, Teuntje, Nick and Leonard moved to North Dakota, John and his wife moved to Yakima Washington, where they have been living ever since. Leonard wrote to him to tell him about Rinse’s death, and we haven’t had any reply at all. Len is so unhappy about that and he says none of us are to make any attempt to contact him again.
We have both Mildred and Chester in school. He is very protective of her, and is a proper big brother. She is enjoying her time there. They walk the mile and a half each day.
Love,
Laura
We have a man working for us now. He is called Arthur Smith, and he comes from South Dakota. Nick felt that he needed more help than I can give him, and he is pleasant company as well. Chester does a lot to help now, milking the cows and even little Allan helps with the chores and can do some farm work. I don't want Mildred to do outside chores. Maybe when she is older, she can tend the sheep in the summer, but I prefer her to be helping me in the house.
However, we are having a bad time regarding the prices we get for our farm commodities, which started after the war was over. Luckily we now have a branch of the Farm Bureau Federation at Bismarck which should help us get decent prices.
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