Family of

John Amos and Sarah (Bogenrief) Smith

1832-1901 1837-1887

12. John Amos Smith, born March 14, 1832 in or 1831 New York City, NY, Nassau County; died 1901 in Simpson, Hill County, Montana. He was the son of 24. John Cooper Smith and 25. Bethia or Bethiah/Bethrah/Bethel Rann. He married 13. Sarah Catherine Bogenrief July 07, 1855 in Marengo, McHenry County, IL or 7/17/1855.

13. Sarah Catherine Bogenrief, born September 29, 1837 in or 9/20 Mifflinburg, PA; died August 29, 1887 in Mpls, Hennepin Cty, MN. She was the daughter of 26. Samuel Jr. Bogenrief and 27. Elizabeth Bliler.

Notes for John Amos Smith:

Uncle Charlie (Smith) (have copy of his Civil War records) and Uncle Ron (Randall Smith?) enlisted in the Army early in the Civil War and Dad (John Amos Smith), who in the meantime had married, decided to do the same. So one morning he said goodbye to the family and the farm and went to town. But the enlisting officers told him that they needed him to raise food on the farm worse than in the Army and refused to take him. He was disappointed and proceeded to take a few drinks to bolster his spirits. When he got home and mother dropped the tea kettle cover, he didn't try to pick it up for he could see two covers. Mother (Sarah Catherin Bogenrief-Smith) saw his condition, of course, and later when he missed her he found her in the hay mow, crying her heart out. That was the last time my father ever was drunk.

Shortly after the war, the Fullers sent John Amos Smith to establish and run a store at Clearwater, MN. There 5 girls (Carrie, Alma, Edith, Jessie & Elsie) and another boy (LaMont) were added to the family.

I was sixth in line and made my appearance July 13, 1869, and was named Jessie Maud (Smith).

The Northern Pacific Railroad was not in the process of being constructed and had reached Detroit, now known as Detroit Lakes. Fuller Brothers must have had a penchant for following the Frontier with their business, for when I was 4 years old and sister Elsie had been added to the family, we went to Detroit in a coach attached to a freight train, and were the first passengers to be carried over the line.

Two carloads of goods went with us to be sold from a store that was supposed to have been built before our arrival. A log cabin, also, was to have been ready for our occupancy. But when we detrained, the only house to be seen was a long log hotel, known as the Tyler House and run by a family named Wheeler. After a long day spent in covering a distance that is now traveled in 4 or 5 hours. The rest was just a city of tents. There the railroad workers were living; also the usual flotsam and jets that follows the frontier, and many, many Indians.

Installing the family in the cramped quarters of the hotel, father soon had a crew at work erecting a log building near the hotel for a store and a two story, two roomed log cabin for a home. The cabin stood on the opposite side of the track from the store and on top of a small knoll. In after years, we sometimes went down the track to this cabin for our Sunday afternoon walks, and I can remember how it looked when the windows and doors had all disappeared and the stairway had been half torn away.

As the railroad pushed on and more and more people came, the town grew up a mile west of the Tyler House and thereafter the location of the hotel was called Tylerville. I have always supposed that an early pioneer named Tyler built the house but of that I am not sure.

Father moved his store up the line and we lived for a time in a house that the family always referred to in after years as the Trimlet house. The town grew up on both sides of the railroad track and about a mile north of the lake.

I can just remember Bill Trimlet as a round roly poly young man with rosy cheeks and a constant smile who never seemed to quite belong with the other young people but I don't know why.

I do not know when nor why my father left the store, but for some years he worked at the trade of carpentering. We lived in a house at the foot of schoolhouse hill so we could always go home for dinner, much to my distress, for it looked so good to see that row of dinner pails sitting along the wall in the hall as we were dismissed at noon that I longed to stay and eat with their owners. I hurried my dinner to get back to play with Ida and Arvilla Rossman and Emily Southam, Will and Isaac Brooks, George and Walter Tousley, and others. The teachers I best remember are Lizzie Hayes, an Irish girl whose family lived on a farm near Lake Park, a village a few miles of the railroad from Detroit. I realize now that Lizzie was far superior to many of our teachers. She boarded with the Taylor family which consisted of father and mother (both small thin individuals) and two small thin daughters, Lillian (who was a fine little women) and Georgie (who was a petted, spoiled and conceited little prig). They also boarded two men, John Dorsey (conductor on the work train working out from Detroit) and Clarence Farwell (fireman on the same train).

John Dorsey was often in Lizzie's company, sitting on the steps in the evening or walking along the roads, and it was the general opinion of the town that they would soon be married. But it developed that John was engaged to a girl in Bamerd whom he afterward married and Lizzie never did marry. John Dorsey was a large, genial, fine looking Irish-man who was liked by all who knew him and was loved by all the children with who he came in contact. He would take a group of us into Pegleg Inman's confectionary store and taking one orange at a time from the basket standing on the showcase, would toss it up for us to catch until everyone was supplied.

When Pegleg brought the first bunch of bananas that ever came into Detroit, John took half-a-dozen of us in and gave us each one. Then he stood and laughed while we tried to pretend we liked them. But these things were a real treat for us for our parents were poor people and had no money for luxuries. My father made about $50 a month for a family of ten and he always had a good garden. This, with the help of a cow and a few chickens and my mother's wonderful cooking ability, kept us living but sometimes on pretty short rations. I can remember some days when all we had to eat was bread laced with sugar syrup.

We usually had one or two boarders. Walter Wheeler, who was then a blacksmith, was with us two or three years and was always way behind in payment of his board bill, although he had a big trade. Later Frank Heustis acted the same, so I think my parents were too easy going for their own good. Frank had a span of beautiful gray horses and did the draying for the stores and made money enough to buy a house, after which he married my sister Edith. So there was no excuse for his neglecting his board bill.

Father was Superintendent of the Methodist Sunday School, held in the Congregational Church for some years before the Methodist Church was built. He was ably assisted by Mrs. C.K. Day, who took charge of the singing and entertainments and who gave me a solid foundation in music for which I have been extremely thankful all my life.

When my father decided to move to Fergus Falls, MN the spring before I (Jessie Maud Smith-Hall) was 16, there were the 3 brothers (Charles, LaMont and Arthur-called Gus), LaMont, and Art, and sisters Alma, Elsie and myself to go with father and mother. Alma was teaching school in Detroit but took a week's vacation the first of May to help us to get moved. We left Detroit by train about 10 o'clock in the evening and rode to Wadena where we had to wait till 7 the next morning for the train on the N.P. (Northern Pacific) branch running through Fergus Falls. The fire in the coal stove in the hotel parlor was nearly out, the chairs straight backed and uncomfortable and we were only too glad to be called to breakfast at 6 o'clock in a dining room that was deliciously warm. Travel in those days was not carried on in comfortable passenger trains as at present, but we rode in a coach attached to the end of a freight train. At every station we were left on a side track while the engine and crew did the necessary switching then picked up and carried to the next station where the same procedure was again carried out. It was nearly noon when we reached Fergus Falls, having taken five hours to cover the distance that motor cars of today run over in less than an hour. The Otter Tail River runs from east to west thru the main business section of Fergus. Lincoln Avenue parallels it on the north end Bismarck Ave. on the south, and these were the two main business streets.

Father had two brothers; William Y. known to everyone as Billy Smith, and Charlie, who with their families lived in Fergus. Our relations with them were of the usual pleasure and pain experienced when many relatives, some of jealous dispositions, live near each other.

Father bought out Uncle Billy's confectionary store and shooting gallery on Lincoln Avenue and we lived in a house directly across the river on Bismarck Ave. We got quite a thrill out of having to cross the river on one of those big bridges every time we went into the store or to school, and loved to stand on them and listen to the noises of the falls and the old Cale Mill and the Otter Tail Mill, flour mills that stood at the ends of the bridges. We had the usual unease of adjusting ourselves to the larger schools and before the winter was over, I was so homesick I was actually physically ill. Mother was worried and promised me that during the Easter vacation I should go back to Detroit on a visit.

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In 6/12/1860 census lived in Monticello, Wright County, MN with John C. and Bethiah Smith. He was 28, listed as son, member of household.

On Elsie's birth certificate John Amos is listed as a merchant who was born in NY.

Was a clerk (merchant) for Fuller Brothers in Monticello and then in Clearwater, MN.

John Amos' one fault was that he was too friendly with his customers, credit-wise, and he was the nurse of the family. He taught them the songs, did the washing and most of the cooking. He faithfully kept the Sabbath and would not abide with working on that day.

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John Amos moved to Havre, Montana in 1899 from Bottineau, ND with his 3 sons and their families: Charles A. Smith & family of 4 children, Lamont L. Smith and family of 2 children, and Arthur C. Smith (single). They came by immigrant train car, bringing with them their kitchen utinsels, livestock and what machinery they had.

After arriving in Havre, they proceeded by team and wagon in a northwesterly direction for 2 or 3 days. It is believed that their first location was at the mouth of the Spring Coulee on Milk River. This is about 40 miles from Havre.

They raised stock and after 2 years, during which time their father John Amos Smith, died, the 3 brothers pulled stakes and moved to Wild Horse Lake, about 10 miles away, where they planned on harvesting wild hay for the winter feeding of their livestock. (see Charles A. Smith for more of the story)

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From The Project by Kathryn Swanson:

My (Kathryn) impression of John Amos from Mom (Elsie) was he was a bullheaded mon-provider who couldn't hold a job because he couldn't take orders. From Aunt Jess I got an entirely different picture. He was the nurse of the family, taught them the songs, did the washing and most of the cooking, and was too friendly to his customers creditwise so he was fired. Sarah was the breadwinner as a dressmaker and milliner. She was devastated with migraines. She associated with only the best people. In spite of her headaches, she did have 8 children! She died of cancer of the throat at 50. As I said, John Amos thought no one was good enough for his girls. He bitterly opposed Jess's choice. He faithfully kept the Sabbath. Once Alma, Carrie and Grandmother decided to lay a rug on Sunday, trying to do it secretly, but when John Amos got an inkling of what they were doing behind that locked door, there was a real uproar.

Notes for Sarah Catherine Bogenrief:

The Project By Kathryn Elizabeth Swanson (born 12/24/1912 in Minot, ND) Daughter of Elsie Elizabeth Smith (who was daughter of John Amos Smith and Sarah Bogenrief-Smith):

Sarah was 18 when her sister Kate was to go as a bride with Sam Dimon to Minnesota. Sarah's mother Elizabeth Bliler couldn't bear to have her daughter amongst the savages with no woman along, so she sent Sarah along. Sarah spoke no english. As she came down from the loft to do some kitchen chores, John Amos Smith saw her and when she went back up the ladder, he said, "That's the girl I'm going to marry." As she spoke nothing but the Pennsylvania Dutch, how could she say no.

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The Family Saga - by Jessie Maud (Smith Hall):

When my mother (Sarah Catherine Bogenrief-Smith), a brown eyed, brown haired, plump little Dutch girl, who talked only the language of her parents, was 18 years of age, her older sister, Kate, married Sam Dimon and moved to Marengo, IL.

Grandmother Bogenrief could not bear to have Kate go without another woman with her so sent mother (Sarah) to keep her company. The Indians were still troublesome so when Sam Dimon built his carpenter shop, he built living rooms above it that did not have an outside stairway for the "red varmints" to creep up. The stairway, therefore, came right down into the shop.

One afternoon when mother (Sarah) came down to gather up some shavings to start the fire for supper, father (John Amos Smith) was in the shop and saw her for the first time. He watched her until she disappeared up the stairs, then turning to Sam, he said, "Sam, I'm going to marry that girl". And a year later he did so.

In 6/12/1860 census lived in Monticello, Wright County, MN with John C. and Bethiah Smith. She was 22, lived with her husband and child (John A. and Charles A.) members of household.

Sarah is recalled by family members as being the breadwinner of the family as a dressmaker and milliner with her own shop. A regal and dignified woman up to the time of her death, she associated with only "the best people".

(info from Allie Thompson 118 Yosemite Los Alamos, NM 87544-3442 10/1995).

Mother (Sarah Bogenrief-Smith) had been ailing for some time and in September, father and Alma took her to St. Paul for medical treatment, and after an operation, she died.

OBITUARY FROM FERGUS FALLS DAILY JOURNAL

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30,1887

(Fergus Falls, MN)

Funeral of Mrs. John Smith:

The funeral of Mrs. Sarah Smith, wife of John Smith, was held this forenoon. The ladies of the Grace Methodist Episcopal church, of which she was a member, arranged beautiful floral offerings. Rev. J. B. Hingeley, her pastor, had charge of the services. Mrs. Smith was born in Pennsylvania, Sept. 29, 1887, being but one month less than 50 years old. When 7 years old she removed with her parents to Illinois, where she remained until july, 1955, when she married Mr. John Smith and removed with him to Minnesota. During the thirty-two years of their married life Mr. and Mrs. Smith lived at Monticello, Clearwater, Detroit and Fergus Falls. They have had eight children, three sons and five daughters. One of the daughters died some years ago, leaving little Flossie, to whom her grandmother has always been a tender mother. One daughter and two sons are living in Dakota. Another daughter, Mrs. Farwell, was with her mother in Minneapolis when she died, and the three younger children are at home. Mrs. Smith has been a quiet patient sufferer for many months. In fact, so patient was she that few thought her trouble was as serious as it was. About ten days ago she was sent to Minneapolis for treatment, but nothing could be done; the cancer was incurable and soon carried her away. The community sympathizes with the afflicted ones in their trouble.

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Sarah is buried in Clearwater or Monticello, MN.

Death record (vol. 4 for 1887) by City of Mpls/Physician's certificate says she would be buried in Fergus Falls, Ottertail Cty, MN.

(Have copy of marriage license and death record)

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More About Sarah Catherine Bogenrief:

Cause of Death: Cancer of the Esophagus or Throat

Children of John Smith and Sarah Bogenrief are:

6 i. Charles 'Charlie' Augustus Smith, born April 29, 1859 in Marengo, McHenry Cty, IL (or Clearwater, IL); died July 20, 1943 in Simpson, Hill Cty, MT or 7/23/1943 or 1944 in Havre, MT; married Marie Eugenia 'Jennie' Baril January 01, 1892 in Bottineau, North Dakota or 1894.

ii. Carrie May/Mae Smith, born August 18, 1861 in Monticello, Wright Cty, MN or 5/1861; died March 09, 1881 in Detroit Lakes, MN or 8/18/1881 Oak Grove Cemetery, Detroit Lakes, MN; married Walter J. Wheeler May 23, 1880 in Detroit Lakes, MN or 1879.

Notes for Carrie May/Mae Smith:

From Saga by Jessie Maud Smith-Hall:

When I was 10 years old, my oldest sister (Carrie) married Walter Wheeler. A year later she died when her baby girl was born. They name the baby Florence Carrie and my mother took her home and raised here with the rest of us, so she has always seemed more like a sister than a niece. She married Clyde Miller of Staples, Minnesota and all of my family still loves to visit "Floss" and Clyde. (Floss died of cancer in 1948.) Two years later my sister Edith married Frank Heustis, one of a Boston colony who settled along the southern shore of Detroit Lakes and had boarded with my parents (see previous page above).

Walter and Carrie were ranchers.

More About Carrie May/Mae Smith:

Cause of Death: Blood clot after baby born.

Notes for Walter J. Wheeler:

Walter and Carrie were ranchers.

iii. Alma Jane Smith, born May 10, 1863 in Clearwater, Wright Cty, MN; died June 24, 1937 in Virginia, MN; married Clarence Mason Farwell.

Notes for Alma Jane Smith:

From the Project by Kathryn E. Swanson (born 12/24/1912 in Minot) daughter of Elsie E. Smith (who was daughter of John Amos Smith and Sarah Bogenrief-Smith):

Someone once told a Smith that he had facial characteristics of the Mohawk Indians and from that grew the legend of our Indian blood. Then someone claimed it was a Mohawk princess. So I always claimed it for shock purposes, but last summer I picked up a good one. Alma Smith raised Carrie Smith's daughter Florence (Floss) and Floss' daughter Jess told me that Alma had told Floss that she was part Indian. As Alma was one of the oldest in the family, she just may have gotten it from her folks while the younger ones just got hints. So was it Bethia or was John Cooper's father fooling around? Bethia's picture would take a lot of imagination to see Indian blood. I'm curious about her, but too lazy to follow it up. It's more fun to think it was on the other side with the men following Capt. John Smith's attraction to Pocohantas' genes.

Aunt Alma, I have the impression, enjoyed ill health most of her life (74).

****

From Saga written by Jessie Maud Smith-Hall:

The third incident isn't entirely a memory but is partly sustained by talks in the family but is this: Alma was born tongue-tied. When father and mother (Mr. & Mrs. John Amos Smith) took her to Dr. Wheelock to have this remedied, they must have taken Gus (Arthur Cooper Smith) and me along for I can remember being carried in Gus' arms back and forth on a fine covered porch while waiting.

In after years, father often said that having Alma's tongue cut loose was the big mistake of his life for he learned too late that it was hung in the middle and clacked at both ends. One day, while father was shaving, Alma ran to him laughing about something and he stuffed his shaving brush - full of soap suds - right into her mouth. It may have been fun for him, but was she mad!

Alma had married Clarence Farwell, an engineer on the Fergus branch of the Northern Pacific (N.P.). He had been a boarder when he was a fireman on the train out from Detroit. In April she and I went back and spent a week at Edith's. Even in that short time, just a year, things had changed there or I had changed enough so I was glad when the time came to go home and never cared to go back.

Mother had been ailing for some time and in September, Father and Alma took her to St. Paul for medical treatment, and after an operation, she died.

Notes for Clarence Mason Farwell:

Farwell (definitely - per Dorothy Crommet).

iv. Edith Youlan 'Aunt Ede' Smith, born March 24, 1865 in Clearwater, Wright Cty, MN; died September 04, 1934 in Devils Lake, ND; married Frank Heustis 1883.

Notes for Edith Youlan 'Aunt Ede' Smith:

The Project By Kathryn Elizabeth Swanson (born 12/24/1912 in Minot, ND) Daughter of Elsie Elizabeth Smith (who was daughter of John Amos Smith and Sarah Bogenrief-Smith):

Dad (A.V. Swanson) was County Commissioner. That's where he got his clout for Aunt Ede's job. Many tales fascinated us about Drs. Devine, Kermott, Erenfeld, Ringo Pence, and Newlove (our doctor and her favorite). She didn't like Erenfeld because she though his skin grafting was cruel -- experimenting, she called it. I think he was Austrian trained and probably a bit ahead of hit time in techniques. She nursed many of the doctor's wives through their confinements. Nursing at that time meant taking over the management of the whole house in many instances. She also took care of many families during the 1918 flue epidemic. Ida Van Fleet remembers that she was with them for months.

So I may as well tell more about "Aunt" at this time. After leaving Minnesota to come out here to homestead, the folks lost track of much that was going on within their families. Dad was a better correspondent than Mom, but his was usually a birthday letter and not always every year. Until Aunt Ede got sick in the early 30's, we had little touch with Aunt Jess. In 1930 the three sisters did get together at Aunt Alma's and later on, the four were at our house (about 1932). They had the two bedrooms and it was really something to listen to the four snoring--- a real quartet with 4 distinct levels of sound. But again I digress---Aunt was "aunt" for years because she was the only one we met until about 1925. She was the middle child. Alma and Carrie would say, "Let's see who can dress first and take care of the babies." She always won and said she was so dumb that she never caught on! That left them free to be the "ladies" and go to the milliner shop with their mother. However, she was the nurse of the family and probably enjoyed her role. Alma had a suitor, Frank Heustis, and in Edith's make believe games, she always spoke of her husband as Frank H. She had the least education of all the girls, but she was an avid reader and all of the Smith's had good grammar and vocabulary. She had two long spells of illness as a child and later diagnosed one as a burst appendix which drained itself off through the bowel. Dr. Newlove heard her telling his wife that and said, "Very good, Mrs. H. You are probably right." Another spell left her with aching knees and as she said, it was probably inflammatory rheumatism. Anyway, she was plagued all her life with a bad heart. She did marry Frank Heustis and was widowed young when he was struck by an engine while working on the railroad. She supported her kids by sewing and nursing. She homesteaded with the folks.

In 1904 Diphtheria struck Clarabelle, the 2nd child. Dad went for Aunt and they came out of Minot with enough vaccine for everyone but one. Aunt Ede insisted that the others get it as she could get more back in Minot. The delay was almost fatal, for she contracted it and almost died. Clarabelle died. Aunt told me that Mother always blamed herself but why was never clear to me. Anyway, it was a closed subject and never discussed until many, many years later.

When Ralph's marriage broke up, he was left with Armine.......and Duane...Aunt Ede went to Devils Lake to live with Ralph and raise the boys until her death from breast cancer in 1934. She used to visit us at least once a year and often twice or more when she was in Minot to "sew us up". We 3 girls good dresses were mostly clearly made-overs and we wore them with price because she was a real stylist. Dad had gotten a bargain on 2 bolts of flowered light material some time before I can remember, but I do know that I made up the last of the blue for summer school in 1931. It had been sitting around during the more affluent middle 20s. The main drawback was that though it made up into beautiful dresses, you had to stay clean! It faded fast and by the 4th washing, you had a white dress. And no deodorants!!! We washed a lot!!!!

Other things I remember about Aunt's visits. She had a great love of mushrooms and, if they were around, she'd find them and also gathered wild greens. Also we always demanded noodles and she always obliged. She would never stay too long. That was the first I was introduced to the phrase "wearing out your welcome'. She was so right because though she herself never did, Armin could never stay on his good behavior more than a week at a time and we were exposed to one of his nasty temper tantrums and we were glad to see him go and then could hardly wait until their next visit.

She was a giving person and a natural born psychologist. She understood people. She, like Elsie, was a proud woman and like to associate with the better class.

Aunt Ede was an old woman at 60 - lived to 69.

*****

Edith was widowed young when her husband was struck by an engine while working on the railroad. She supported the children by sewing and nursing. They lived with her parents on the homestead.

Though afflicted with heart trouble and "bad knees" all her life, she died of breast cancer in 1934. She spent the last years of her life with her son Ralph in Devils Lake to help him raise his children. She is recalled as a loving and giving person, and one who understood people and their needs.

More About Edith Youlan 'Aunt Ede' Smith:

Cause of Death: Breast Cancer

Medical Information: Had heart trouble and bad knees all her life.

Notes for Frank Heustis:

From the Saga by Jessie Maud Smith-Hall:

Two years later my sister Edith married Frank Heustis, one of a Boston colony who settled along the southern shore of Detroit Lakes and had boarded with my parents.

****

He died when struck by an engine while working on the railroad.

More About Frank Heustis:

Cause of Death: Struck by an engine while working on railroad

v. LaMonte Lacy Smith, born August 22, 1867 in Clearwater , Wright Cty, MN; died December 09, 1951 in Montana; married Nellie (Nell) Marie/Mabel/ Mabie or Maube July 12, 1893.

Notes for LaMonte Lacy Smith:

In 1905, Lamont L. Smith decided he had had enough, so he and his family pulled stages again and went to Eureka where they resided for many years.

*****

From the Project by Kathryn E. Swanson (born 12/24/1912 in Minot) daughter of Elsie E. Smith (who was daughter of John Amos Smith and Sarah Bogenrief-Smith):

They (Mr. & Mrs. John Amos Smith) soon moved on from there to Simpson, MT on the Canadian border - 40 miles from Havre - where they lived a few years before Uncle Monte moved on to Seattle where he was a policeman until retirement. He told me that while in Montana he had ridden horseback to Havre for the doctor for Aunt Jennie's (Marie Eugenia (Jennie) Baril-Smith) multiple confinements. More than once she had three in diapers. Maybe he didn't like those rides!

Uncle Monte was in his late 80s (84) and was another lively one.

vi. Jessie Maud Smith, born July 13, 1869 in Clearwater , Wright Cty, MN; died June 23, 1953 in Grand Rapids, MN or 6/27/1953; married Henry Herbert Hall July 12, 1893 in Fergus Falls, MN.

Notes for Jessie Maud Smith:

Jessie Maud Smith Hall was Amy Schritz's aunt.

When I began going to school there was one 2-story, 2-room building built on a small hill 3 or 4 blocks north of the tracks. A small one-story, one-room building stood near by and housed the first and second grades. Kindergartens were unknown.

My brothers and sisters and I attended this school until I was 15 years old, and had a succession of teachers, good, bad and indifferent.

It must have been about the year 1881 when the first large brick building was erected. It stood a block sound of the railroad track and covered a quarter of a block. The ground floor was used for two stores, a grocery store and a dry good store. Both were owned by Day & Wood and father went to work in the grocery department. The second floor was entirely taken up by an opera house, the largest one between St. Paul and Fargo. It was our privilege to hear some of the finest troops on the road for they all "made" Detroit for a one or two night stand to break the long rim to Fargo. We heard Mrs. Scott Siddone in her Shakespearian readings, the Lilipatian Opera Company in Jack the Giant Killer; sever fine Negro Minstrel troops and many of lesser merit. In this room too, were held many fine balls where the "square dances" were the rule and the "round" dances the exception. The older sisters and I were allowed to go to the balls but were forbidden to dance the "round" dances because a man had to encircle a ladies waist with his arm to execute the "round" dance while in the square dance merely the hands touched. However, we all managed some way to learn to waltz, polka, and schottische and gradually the prohibitions against them were withdrawn.

It would seem strange now to see boys and girls, 11 or 12 years old, attended a public dance. But at that time the parents were mostly young people, usually with several children, and it was a case of either take the children or stay at home. "Baby-sitters" -- there were none.

When a new house, or even a big barn, was completed, the owner gave a "housewarming" inviting everybody to attend and making provisions for the children as well as the parents. One room was devoted to games for children, who didn't always "stay put". It was fun to slip into the older groups and watch them playing cards, checkers, or dominoes, and especially into the darkened room where several sat around a table with their hands joined on top of it, making it tip and dance and answer questions. We knew, of course, that it was ghosts who did all that and were glad to get back to the brighter rooms but really thrilled at having seen the ghostly demonstrations. Part of the night was devoted to dancing with Mr. Rossman playing the violin. Invariably sometime during the evening the crowd was entertained by my father and Mrs. Peasly "hoeing it down", trying to out jig each other and Mr. Rossman playing faster and faster.

Mother (Sarah Bogenreif-Smith) had been ailing for some time and in September, father (John Amos Smith) and Alma took her to St. Paul for medical treatment, and after an operation, she died.

After this I kept house for the family for over a year. Then, business being poor in the store, and neither of the older boys (Art was still in school) having steady work, I decided to take the teacher's examination and received a third grade certificate, which was all the county gave to an inexperienced teacher. The next April I began teaching in District #1 in Old town, Cletherall, among the Mormons, who were the first settlers in Otter Tail County and had the first school. I taught three terms among them and found them an affectionate, humorous, honest people whose word was as good as their bond and many of whom I still count among my dearest friends. My wages were $33 per month of which I paid $10 for board until the last term of three months, when Mrs. Murdock, with whom I boarded and who never seemed to find time to do her ironing, offered to board me for $8 if I would do the ironing. This I did and gave the extra $6 to Elsie.

*****

From the Project by Kathryn E. Swanson (born 12/24/1912 in Minot) daughter of Elsie E. Smith (who was daughter of John Amos Smith and Sarah Bogenrief-Smith):

Grandma Sarah died in 1887 leaving Jess 17 and Elsie 15 to keep house for Charlie, Monte, Grandpa and Art (10). Jess left after 2 years of high school to teach -- she told me that it was to get some clothes for their backs -- and one of her anecdotes was:

"I was told to go see Mr.--- as he did all the teacher hiring and when I did, he told me to see the other board members. I said, "I was told you did the hiring, so what is it you don't like about me?" (Remember Sarah was only 5'2".) He said, "Well I'm tired of these 18 year old girls trying to teach these 17 year old boys -- it always makes trouble." I removed my hat and showed by streak of gray hair and said, "I'm 21." She got the job.

*****

Jessie attended summer school in Fergus and took the exam to obtain a second grade teaching certificate. They gave her a school in a Norwegian settlement at Carlysle, 8 miles west of Fergus. She received $40 per month. Later she was offered a school at New York Mills, among the Finnish people, where her future husband was principal. They met a summer school and enjoyed meeting each other again. After a year spent in the Staples School, where Alma and Clarence lived, she returned to New York Mills, and then back again to Staples where she boarded half the time with Alma and the other half with Edith.

Alma had married Morris Cromett and was living in Pine River. Mr. Hall, Ruth, Margaret and I stayed in Kinmount all summer and in the fall we decided to put the insurance money into 40 acres on the edge of Ericsburg. We moved up there and lived in a 2-room shack while we built a house on the corner of "our forty". Then followed 10 years of ups and downs, mostly downs. The insurance had decreased from $100 a quarter to $35; work was scarce and both of the boys were idle much of the time. Mr. Hall spent his time clearing the land and getting up wood. I cooked in the hotels, sewed and did a lot of nursing - anything to help earn of living. I went to Duluth one summer and stayed a month on a maternity case. The next winter I went to Cloquet to nurse Mr. Hall's sister, Jennie Gellerman, and was with her until she died in June.

While I was there, Parker came down and secured work in the paper mill. He was married to Fannie Basso, built a home and they are still there, raising two fine boys.

Shortly after this, Ruth married Curtis Reid, and they went to Duluth to live. Margaret, having finished the 8th grade, sister Alma and her daughter Mildred, took here to Virginia and kept her thru 4 years of high school work. She graduated in 1925.

Early that summer Clyde went to work as billing clerk at the M.D.W. depot (Mpls-Detroit-Winnipeg) in International Falls. He bought an old Model T and drove back to his work. But the next year they began reconstructing the road and it became impassible, so on Armistice Day, 1917, we moved to International Falls. Margaret was in her second year of training for nursing at the Northern Hospital and she was so glad to have us in town where she could dome home on her hours off.

Mr. Hall was taken sick in March 1927 and died the next September 1927. We lived 4 years in a small cottage on 9th Street and then came the depression. Clyde lost his job in January but had money enough to take care of himself. We gave up the house and I went to Virginia to live with Margaret, who was then city nurse. The next year I spent with the different children. Clyde was called back to work May 25th and shortly after he married and went to live out at Crystal Beach, driving in to his work every day.

"In 1932 I spent part of the winter in his home, but in April was called to Devils Lake, ND to care for my sister, Edith, who had cancer. I was with her nearly two years and then came back to International Falls and went to work keeping house for the Millard family, April 1, 1935, and spend 12 years with a family of the best friends I have ever had."

Jessie died in 1953.

*****

The Project By Kathryn Elizabeth Swanson (born 12/24/1912 in Minot, ND) Daughter of Elsie Elizabeth Smith (who was daughter of John Amos Smith and Sarah Bogenrief-Smith):

Now for Aunt Jess. She had all of Ede's understanding and warmth, but there was no discriminating for her. Mom and Aunt E. Would say in dismay, "Why Jess will talk to anybody". (How often Mom would say to me later on, "You talk too much and don't care to whom".) Well if I can have as nice things said about me now and after I've gone as she, I will be well content. Besides that to paraphrase, "Talkers have more fun. Aunt Jess lived a full life until 84.

Jessie taught choir at age 75.

More About Jessie Maud Smith:

Cause of Death: Obstruction - no operation. Stomach cancer.

Notes for Henry Herbert Hall:

From Jessie Maud Smith-Hall Saga:

"Mr. Hall spent several weekends with me and the next summer we were married at Fergus Falls, MN. My husband was working for the American Book Co. for the summer with headquarters at Sauk Center. September first he became principal of the 3-room school at Battle Lake and we were there for 4 years. During that time Clyde and Alma were born.

Then came 3 years at Silver Lake where a second son, Parker, was born.

In 1902 Mr. Hall took charge of the schools at Motley but neither of us liked it there so the next year we went to Pillager. Here we stayed 6 years and in that time Ruth and Margaret were added to the family. In 1917 Mr. Hall was then retired and drawing the Teacher's pension and we moved north to Kinmount, where Clyde was station agent for the D.W.P. Railroad. (Duluth, Winnepeg, Pacific railroad was part of the Canadian National...ran from Duluth to Fort Frances, Ontario. Listed in 1926 as a two passenger trains a day.)There we saw real pioneering and enjoyed eery bit of it but none of us would care to live it over again.

Alma had married Morris Cromett and was living in Pine River. Mr. Hall, Ruth, Margaret and I (Jessie Maud Smith-Hall) stayed in Kinmount all summer and in the fall we decided to put the insurance money into 40 acres on the edge of Ericsburg. We moved up there and lived in a 2-room shack while we built a house on the corner of "our forty". Then followed 10 years of ups and downs, mostly downs. The insurance had decreased from $100 a quarter to $35; work was scarce and both of the boys were idle much of the time. Mr. Hall spent his time clearing the land and getting up wood. I cooked in the hotels, sewed and did a lot of nursing - anything to help earn of living. I went to Duluth one summer and stayed a month on a maternity case. The next winter I went to Cloquet to nurse Mr. Hall's sister, Jennie Gellerman, and was with her until she died in June.

Mr. Hall was taken sick in March and died the next September.

More About Henry Herbert Hall:

Cause of Death: Lung cancer so bad it broke his collar bone.

vii. Elizabeth 'Elsie' Smith, born February 23, 1872 in Clearwater, Wright Cty, MN; died February 01, 1968 in Minot, ND (Ward County) buried in Rosehill cemetery, Minot, ND; married Albert Victor Swanson June 30, 1897 in Wadena, MN.

Notes for Elizabeth 'Elsie' Smith:

From the Project by Kathryn E. Swanson (born 12/24/1912 in Minot) daughter of Elsie E. Smith (who was daughter of John Amos Smith and Sarah Bogenrief-Smith):

A hodgepodge of anecdotes...mostly those told by Elsie when she was in the mood and I had sense enough to take notes. If I take time to put them in order, they will never get done so here goes. Many of them are repetitious and I can only hope I can catch those.

Elsie was very proud of her musical ear. John Amos was told by a traveling entertainer that he should be his quartet on the road. That was Jess, Elsie, LaMonte, and Charlie. Their 4 part harmony was entirely by ear.

Elsie and Jess had a very close relationship, being 2 years apart, with Jess and her petite build and Elsie tall for her age. They were, from their own accounts, more like hoydenish twins. The êold Doc' told them once that if they didn't quit eating everything they found, he would hang them by the thumbs but it never deterred them from wandering in the swamp and tasting. Another time he said, "You tell your mother to make you some hats (Grandma was a milliner) and you wear them. You look like Indians. Charlie and Monte spent a lot of time with the Chippewa Indians, much to their Dad's disgust. The guys were responsible for herding cattle near what is now Detroit Lakes, but they were prone to take the hoydens with them and sneak off, leaving the girls in charge until Grandpa investigated and then the girls had to stay home. Both Mom and Aunt Jess told me this and remembered it more as a punishment to them! Does this sound like your regal dignified Grandmother? One of her former pupils told me that she was the most graceful skater that he ever saw. How come she produced so many klutzy spastics as far as athletics!!?

The Detroit School was a 2 story with the high school upstairs. Oldest sister finished high school about 1875. (Doesn't make sense--would make Carrie only 14, but that was in my notes). Slates were used. Alma excelled in Latin. They advanced readerwise. When they went to Fergus Falls in 1885--Mom was 13--they no longer used slates and they were tested to place them in grades. An arrogant teacher gave her her exam and she didn't pass but.......(missing few words her)...good thing because she went ahead with good marks. (She was always proud of her schooling, but later on I asked her why she was 21 before she finished high school and she just didn't know. She wasn't put back, as such; she didn't remember missing school during a move or her mother's death. She told of Jess as being way ahead tho' only 2 years older. In High School cousin Ivy, cousin Bess, and Elsie seemed to be a solid threesome. Ivy was spoken of as a quick study and went on to be a nurse and on further to be a doctor. She married a Dr. Titzell. They had 5 children. I have pictures of them. This marriage ended in a divorce. (Boy! Was Ivy ahead of her day!!) Maybe there are some of this family in Chicago yet. Ivy was also a linguist. She read it--talked it. One member of Mom's graduating class, a boy smarter than a whip, was 16 or 17 when he graduated. Mom started high school at 17 (so...what went on at Detroit to give her such a late start? She certainly had no reading problems. I have one of her report cards--I hope--on which she got a 65 1/2 --- yes 1/2 -- in something, but that was passing. (I passed several of my state's exams with 65s and 70s and never felt disgraced. There was nothing unusual for kids to take the state's exams over for one or two years, if they hadn't dropped out by then. So what else is new? At least the high school teachers didn't have to spoon feed them for 4 years and then let them go out with a blank diploma. Oh yes we had high school graduates then that couldn't spell, couldn't figger, couldn't write a legible hand (example--me), and murdered the King's english. While teaching my last years, I noticed often that the parents that yelled, "You don't teach phonics" or "You need to go back to the basics", were the ones that were quite capable of sending misspelled, unpunctuated, uncapitalized, ungrammatical notes. Down, Huddleson, Down off your soapbox!)

Elsie though she was 6 or 7 and was reading in the first or second reader. She remembered that any girl that had a pretty bottle as a water holder for slate cleaner was envied by all. The boys didn't care. Spit and a shirt sleeve sufficed. She also remembered her most embarrassing moment -- when she read Belle as belly and the class laughed at her. McGuffy Readers were the readers.

Stout character Elsie had her nerves too. She often told of finishing a summer term of teaching and being thin and having a pain in her tummy. She went to visit Jess and while there she spotted a chunk of Milk of Magnesia on the shelf. She chewed off a piece and got immediate relief from her pain, so she would nibble on it often after that until voila! No more problem. (She also didn't go back to that school.) She had first noticed the pain on Memorial Day when she had gone most of the day without eating and then filled up on hot bread!!!

In the late 1930s arthritis started plaguing her so she would take a few drops of wintergreen oil on a teaspoon of sugar and her aches would go. I used it too and thought it helped, but the drug store attendants were aghast when I told them what I wanted it for. Said it was a poison -- I'd have to have a prescription. Dr. Breslich said it was an old remedy of the Greeks but we had better things now. Hum! Cortisone, aspirin, Darvon?? With their side effects??

You kids all probably know the story of Gram and "Hot Hands Ole". He was at the height of his popularity as a healer of all when we moved to Minot in 1944 and as he lived and worked in our block, Mom swore me to secrecy and went to see if he could help her. (Secrecy to Edith, that is). She came back and was very quiet, but finally burst out, "Everyone says you feel something as soon as he puts his hands on you. All I felt was disgust!"

Back to her teaching days.

She had them change the position of the stove in her primary room - 4 grades - because the kids were having too much fun behind it. Early blackboards were lampblack mixed with plaster. When you erased it, the black flew and you were as black as a nigger (her word, not mine) by night. Then they got to covering it with liquid black. Not all country schools had maps.

Her first school was in a Finnish community. The kids brought what looked like raw fish to eat every day. She said it may have been processed.

Water supply - 1/2 mile down the road. Pulled up by bucket from open well. Birds thick, lying around the canopy. Stove - rural school - big round barrel like affair, flat on top, middle of room towards the back. Patrons hauled in wood. She was brought burned over wood by a would-be-but rejected-suitor, so she'd get her êlily white hands' dirty.

Not many books - no shelves needed. Brought books from home. You used what they brought. Punishment - kept after school - mothers approved. Only once she grabbed a switch off a tree in the yard and lambasted a big lout, but always regretted it because êthere must have been a better way'. (With her regal queenlike posture, that boded no good, I doubt if discipline was a problem.)

She remembered her daily program as something like this: Reading, Arithmetic, Spelling in A.M. Geography, Writing-Spencerian Copybooks--History, Physiology in P.M.

Games: Button Button. Songs they sang: "It wasn't too long after the civil war, you know"; "Marching through Georgia"; "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, The boys Are Marching"; "Awake, Awake, Ye Dreamers: Billy Boy, Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me; Up on the House Top; Jingle Bells; Whippo'will. (Kathryn asks: So how come we were singing the same songs in the 1920s after the World War?)

In their Smith Quartet, it was mostly Negro spirituals and Irish songs, such as: Myself and Barney Casey; Went on a Bit of a Spree. Those were the days of minstrels and vaudeville.

Teaching years:

3 months at Long Lake, 5 months at Butler, 3 months at Long Lake again. These were short terms in the fall and spring. In 1893 she went to New York Mills where she taught 3 years. That's where she met Dad who had a meat shop there.

Entertainment: Spelldowns --- great! Elsie Dinsmore books available at the Methodist library. Ralph Conners books --- quote from Herb Hall (Aunt Jess' husband), "My children can read Conners books any time!" Dime Novels. Said Mom, "They were good clean, war and spy stories -- too clean I guess". John Amos caught them reading this êtrash' under the counter in his store and a long lecture ensued.

One day when she was in her 80s and I was home for lunch, she started to recite a poem she had learned in school. It wouldn't come and she scared me half to death because she struggled so and it seemed so urgent that she get it out. I finally got her side-tracked but when I got home, she was ready for me and I copied it down. Here it is. A version of it popped up in the Reader's Digest Yellow Songbook. I like hers best.

A fox came forth one still clear night

and prayed for the moon to give him light,

For he'd a long journey to take that night

Before he'd reach his den-o.

First he came to the farmer's yard;

The duck and the geese were all alarmed.

Said he, "I'll have one of you this night

Before I reach my den-o.

So he took the old duck by the neck

Gave her a heave across his back;

And the old black duck cried, "Quack! Quack! Quack!

As her legs came dangling down-o.

Old Mother Squibble Squabble hopped out of bed;

Out of the window she popped her head,

"Run, John, run, the goose is dead!

And the fox is through the town-o.

Cousin John ran to the top of the hill.

He blew his horn both loud and shrill.

The fox ran down to the old gray mill,

And he hear the sound of the hound-o.

At last he came to the fox's den;

There sat the young ones, nine or ten.

The fox and his wife they ate the meat

And the young ones picked the bones-o.

*****

Training and materials for teaching: Visited a school at Battle Lake 1/2 day to observe. The teacher used the vowels with the consonants: s-s-s-snake. Didn't teach the alphabet as such. (Kathryn says: We get the impression from old stories that the alphabet was the first thing they taught but I wasn't taught it at school. We started with a picture of a cat saying f-f-f-f and the stimulating !!!!The sentences underneath were: I have a fan. A fan I have. Yet I well remember Keith complaining about 1937 that Larry wasn't being taught the alphabet!!! I'll warrant that he had his formal first grade teaching confused with our pre-school.

Back to Mom's experience:

Big schools - 2 or 3 minutes for each lesson. (Kathryn says: Now I go back to Eva Covell telling me about her classes about 1919 and telling about her 5 minute classes. By the 30s, when I started with our magazines, course of study, teachers institutes, monthly directives from the County Superintendent, we were bombarded with the "correlation of grades" such as teaching certain aspects of geography, history, language, on alternate years or combining 2 or 3 grades in language activities and even daring to put a slow 6th reader with a fast 5th reader!!! As I've always said -- there wasn't much progress form Mom's day to the 30s and then along came Leila Ewen to pull the good ideas together and teach them to teachers. At least in North Dakota.)

Tests - written tests aimed at passing state tests in upper grades.

Training - summer schools at Fergus Falls -- 4 weeks.

Materials - Some commercial charts with pictures and printing.

Type of students. A lot of Finns with no english vocabulary. One knew êfence' and she built on that. Another little not quite 5 year old went to the board and quickly wrote 1,2,3,4,5 and that was her starting point.

Mom was a few days short of 96 and she never had time to get old. She was too busy looking after us!!! All of them were mentally alert until the end or at least until near it. I'm positive that the only reason that Mom disoriented was because her mind couldn't accept the indignities of her failing body. With a permanent and a new dress, she'd perk right up. I never saw her slump in her wheel chair until the night before she died and she got sick while I was feeding her. That's how I knew she was sick, tho' the nurse wouldn't believe me.

Remember at 80 when she said, "I go up these steps like an old woman?" and how she took care of you 3 youngest while you were getting over the mumps and had Alma and me to care for while we were both sick with them, plus all the dishes, washing, cooking, etc? She was 77 or 78 then.

Also the Yoo-hoos they used in the blizzard were quite a thing. The men had to be quite far away that they couldn't hear the call to meals. Now you know where I got my foghorn. Also we never owned an alarm clock. Mother had one built inside her and I never knew it to fail. Mom was not one for meeting the public. Entertaining was work. No spontaneous coffee parties for her. Visiting and being visited was the time to put the best foot forward. As Dad liked company, she was often made extra work to put a big meal on the table. As so many pioneer women did, she tried to keep up the niceties. A table cloth was always used even though dinner had to wait until she ironed one. The table was set 3 meals a day. The only informal snacking was bread or crackers and milk at bedtime.

That was one of the popular treats in our family too. When anyone was fortunate enough to have the 15 or 25 cents to go to a show, they shared afterward. Edith would come home from Normal about once a month and she usually had one to tell. I don't remember Avis doing this, but I doubt if she had enough spending money to attend very many. She put Edith through and I suspect she slipped here a little more spending money. Dad never would go to the silent movies but the rest of us thought they were the greatest treat ever. Saturday nights at Granville was the farmers' social night. We took in the cream and eggs, went to the show, found our pals, and wandered up and down the street while our parents bought groceries, keeping the poor storekeepers open until 1 PM or so. The men stood around all evening exchanging news, politics, or getting drunk such as they were inclined. The back alley bootleggers had profitable nights. Dad wouldn't go to the movies. However, he did go to Snow White about the first of the Disney films. He was hooked and was as willing to go as the rest of us, but the silents hadn't been his thing. He certainly never begrudged our enjoyment. He liked the Chautauqua but they soon degenerated from bringing culture to the êsticks' to taking money out of the community with no return value. He was always a supporter of the Air, but Mom wasn't. Keith and I were bribed to stay home with plates of fudge and after he was included, I always looked forward to the fudge treat but once I got my taste of the fun of the Fair, Mom stayed home alone. Betcha it was her feet that made her such a poor sport! The fudge, by the way, was her panacea for all childhood disappointments. But this was supposed to be about the Huddleson Family.

*****

From the Saga by Jessie Maud Smith-Hall:

Sister Elsie had a very find alto voice while I (Jessie Maud Smith-Hall) sang soprano and many were the duets we sang, both at school and in the church entertainments. I shall never forget the night we sang "Golden Slippers". Mr. Brooks was announcing the program and came and asked me the name of our selection. Instead of telling him, I showed him the sheet music I held in my hand. It was pretty well covered with advertising and he evidently was not much acquainted with sheet music but you can imagine our horror when he announced it as "The tune the old cow died on". That really was printed across the top of the sheet in connection with some other song and he failed to note the "Golden Slippers" in large letters across the middle.

Aunt Jess would work real hard to learn a new piece and then to her disgust, Elsie would sit down and play it by ear with no lessons. She envied her sister Elsie's talent, but then Elsie always envied her her music lessons!

*****

Elsie was one of the first five to graduate from Fergus Falls, MN High School in 1893. After teaching several 3-4 month term schools, she was hired to teach the primary grades at New York Mills, MN. There she met A.V. Swanson and they were married at Wadena, MN.

Elsie's graduation gown is in the Fergus Falls museum.

Elsie could handle horses but she was never really a farm woman at heart and homestead life wasn't easy. When she was 90 years old she said, "I suppose it was a rough life, if you stopped to think about it, but I don't think it hurt me any. I guess our farm was well equipped as any at that time." They got their wash water out of sloughs near their farm, driving out over the fields with a horse and wagon, using barrels to haul water. A mile and a half away in a coulee was a spring where they secured their drinking water. One stove served as both the heating and cooking units. As so many pioneer mothers did, Elsie tried hard to maintain the niceties of family life. No bare table to her. She might make the family wait for a meal while a table cloth was ironed, but a table cloth was used!

Obituary of Mrs. Swanson - died of bronchopneumonia, bilateral (40 hrs) but had arteriosclerosis with senility for 5 years.

The funeral for Mrs. Elsie E. Swanson, 95, longtime Minot area resident who died Thursday at a Minot nursing home, will be Monday at 2 in the Memorial Chapel of First Presbyterian Church.

Rev. William Puls will officiate and burial will be in the spring in Rosehill Memorial Park.

Mrs. Swanson, the former Elsie Smith, was born Feb. 23, 1872 at Clearwater, MN. She taught school for 5 years in New York Mills, MN area. In 1897 she married A.V. Swanson in Minnesota.

In 1901 they homesteaded in McKinley Township, Ward County, 6 miles NE of Minot. In 1906 they moved into Minot, and in 1915 moved to a farm east of Granville. Mr. Swanson died Feb. 1, 1941. Mrs. Swanson and her family continued to live on the farm until 1944 they moved to Minot. She lived with a daughter, Mrs. Dale (Kathryn) Huddleson, Minot.

Survivors include 3 daughters: Mrs. Huddleson and Mrs. C.V. (Avis) Barkus, and Edith Swanson, both of Jamestown. One son, Keith R. Of Central Valley, CA, 16 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren.

Friends may call at the Thompson-Larson Funeral home Saturday after noon; Sunday from 1 to 5 PM, and Monday until noon. Reviewal at the church will be prior to the service.

More About Elizabeth 'Elsie' Smith:

Cause of Death: bronchopneumonia, bilateral (40 hrs)

Medical Information: died of bronchopneumonia, bilateral (40 hrs) but had arteriosclerosis with senility for 5 years. Had 2 skin cancers removed.

Notes for Albert Victor Swanson:

Albert Victor Swanson (married to Elsie Smith 6/30/1897 in Wadena, MN)

While working in the Fargo, ND area, he drove in a blizzard to cast his first vote on his birthday in 1891. In 1894 he started a meat market in New York Mills, MN, where he and Elsie resided. In 1899 he went to North Dakota where he homesteaded in McKinley Township, Ward Cty, but it was probably in the fall of 1900 that Elsie, and their baby daughter, traveled by passenger train to live on the homestead.

****

From the Project by Kathryn E. Swanson (born 12/24/1912 in Minot) daughter of Elsie E. Smith (who was daughter of John Amos Smith and Sarah Bogenrief-Smith):

The folks homesteaded 2 miles north of Gavin Yards in 1901. They moved to Minot in 1905 where they build a new home, but Dad was dabbling in real estate and they made 2 or 3 moves after this before they moved to 1 mile North of Riga where Dad controlled many quarters of hay and pasture land through keeping up delinquent taxes, renting by managing land for out-of-state owners and getting some of it free for his own use. On paper he owned about 3 quarters, but I'm sure he never made full payments and lost the property about 1927, as did so many. It was the way of life. I can visualize at least 7 other quarters and some odd 40s that I criss-crossed many times with the hay rake and mower from the age of 12 on. In 1926 Dad bought the elevator at Riga and bought grain to ship. He lost heavily on that but made good money on sweet clover seed, but the banks caught him in 1925 and he never fully recovered financially from that and had nothing to fall back on in 1929. He was not alone. He was always dabbling in politics and did practical veterinary work. It wasn't until the epidemic of encephalitis in the 30s that he was convinced of the true value of vaccination. He opposed smallpox vaccination for us kids even though diphtheria vaccine had saved all by Clarabelle in 1904 and Aunt Ede almost died of it when she insisted that Mom and Dad and the kids use the vaccine when they didn't have enough to go around. He really was a whiz with sick horses and cows, but nobody who was educated to the fact that an animal can't be marked before birth (smarty me) could convince him that it was so. Anyway, by 1936 he was struggling to make a living by milking cows, trucking livestock, pasturing a few stock from the Surrey territory--plain hard manual labor. He had spend the years before that on the go, leaving the boys to milk cows, haul hay, etc.

Homestead days. Built 8x10 shack. 1/2 on Dad's claim and 1/2 on Aunt Ede's. Built a sod barn. (Picture) A.V. filed on homestead 1901. Oscar and family came to their claim one mile west when the A.V.s and Aunt Ede and kids came. (Kathryn says: Edward Swanson as with his dad, Uncle Ed, when he came out that summer to prove up on a claim next to Oscar's. - That was a surprise to me. - They just stayed long enough to establish their claim and sell. Had no intention of living there.) (Aunt Ede and kids lived there long enough to establish, êprove up' on hers and then moved to Minot where she built a house on Valley Street and put all 3 kids through high supporting herself with dressmaking and nursing. Dad used his political pull to get her the job as matron o f the County Hospital before it was taken over and renamed St. Joe by the Catholics. Avis was born in Minnesota. Afton and Clarabelle on Homestead, Edith, Keith and Kathryn in Minot. They lived on Valley Street Belyea (3rd Street) Main Street and in Red House (close to Valker's old Green House, now parkway trailer park).

While on the homestead, Dad had to go to St. Paul. They were low on coal so he told Ralph (17) and LaMonte (15) to go to Burlington to get some. As soon as he left, the air changed and Aunt was weatherwise enough to sense danger and wouldn't let them go (14 miles) and had them haul in as much flax straw as possible. A blizzard struck in the afternoon and they twisted and burned straw for its 3 day duration. On the 3rd day, Ralph insisted on going to see to the stock, so with the aid of a clothesline, they made it to the barn. During their struggle, there and back, Mom and Aunt would take turns going to the door and "Yoo-hooing" as a guide to them. The air was so breathtaking that they had to take turns. They survived and their story is nothing unusual for the time, but Mom always had a horror of blizzards and rightly so. When the Anderson kids started home from our school in 1919, Mom walked the floor in empathy with Mrs. Anderson, knowing the agony she was going through. Their buggy had tipped over just a few rods from the school and the kids had a fence to follow back to Herbranson's close to the school. I was only 7, but I was well aware of our danger going only a little over a half mile across the field to our home. The horses wouldn't face the storm and Dad had to fight them every inch of the way. Now you know why mother worried about me on cloudy days when I struck off for McKinley 2 blocks away. With her dim eyesight, it spelled danger to her baby.

Dad (Albert V. Swanson) must have known Grandfather Amos because he said once that Afton was just like him---always blowing and not knowing what he was talking about. But I also remember Mom saying that Grandpa always objected to all the kids' marriages and would have probably said she was marrying a green Swede SO - it must have been about 1896 before the folks came to ND in the Turtle, MT area and homesteaded. They soon moved on from there to Simpson, MT on the Canadian border - 40 miles from Havre - where they lived a few years before Uncle Monte moved on to Seattle where he was a policeman until retirement.

A little space for Dad. He was the organizer. Got our first mail route out from Denbigh and later a daily one from Granville. Had the only telephone in the area for years. Was Precinct Committee Commissioner in Ward County in homestead days. Worked hard for Gov. Shaffer's campaign with a strong motive, but he was passed over for the Game Warden job he had been promised. Was offered a new Ford in the 1930s to campaign for Frazier, but refused it because he didn't like the cut of the jibe of êthat crowd'. Handy in carpentry and blacksmithing. Understood good farming but was apt to specialize in non-paying enterprises such as Plymouth Rock Chickens, Purebred Turkeys, Milking.......

More of my (Kathryn's) notes:

Dad was County Commissioner. That's where he got his clout for Aunt's job.

****

He became a county commissioner in 1903, and it was he who suggested the name Afton when that township was organized. He also insisted they use the services of the newly established State Board to audit their books. Albert also served on the first Fair board and helped organize the Minot Fair when it was first held on South Hill.

In 1906, Albert sold out and they moved to Minot to make a life a little easier for Elsie. He was involved in some real estate moves, played in politics, and continued trading, selling and breeding horses until the city fathers put the pressure on him.

In 1915 they moved to Riga, McHenry County, where he bought a ranch north of town for his horse raising activities. He worked for the Independent Voters Assn versus the Nonpartisan League, which was a North Dakota split of the Republican Party. Albert wrote prolifically in verse, much of it about North Dakota, politics and the depression. Some of these were published in the Granville Herald. After struggling through the ups and downs from 1915 to 1940, the economy began to get better and he again became politically active, but was stricken with cancer and died at his home in Riga.

After her husband died, Elsie made her home with her children, the Huddlesons, until her death. Both are buried at Rose Hill Cemetery, at Minot, ND.

Obituary: A.V. Swanson Died at Riga

Prominent in Political and Civic Activities in McHenry and Ward Counties

Albert A. Swanson, aged 70 years, prominent farmer and stockraiser of Riga, died at his home on Thursday, February 20, after an illness of 2 months.

Mr. Swanson was born at Afton, MN, Nov. 6, 1870. He came to Ward County in 1898 and filed on a homestead NE of Minot, where he lived until 1906, when he moved to that city. The family lived there for about 9 years then moved to the Riga vicinity, where they engaged in farming and stockraising.

Mr. Swanson served as County Commissioner in Ward County for 2 terms, beginning in 1905. In the early days he was secretary of the Ward County Fair. For a number of years he was chairman of the McHenry County Republican central committee, and during his residence at Riga, held various township offices.

Funeral services were held at Minot Saturday, Nov. 22, Rev. Frank G. Beardsley, pastor of the First Congregational Church of Minot, conducting the services. Burial was made in Rosehill Cemetery in Minot.

Surviving besides his widow are 2 sons and 3 daughters: Afton of Granville and Keith of Redding, CA; Mrs. C.V. Barkus of Jamestown, Miss Edith Swanson, who is a nurse in Alaska, and Mrs. Dale Huddleson of Granville, also a sister, Mrs. George Gaslin of Wadena, MN and 9 grandchildren.

viii. Arthur Cooper 'Gus' or 'Uncle Art' Smith, born October 16, 1876 in Detroit Lakes, Beaver County, MN; married (1) Helen (Mrs. Arthur Cooper Smith); married (2) Jolene Zalener.

Notes for Arthur Cooper 'Gus' or 'Uncle Art' Smith:

See John Amos Smith and Charles A. Smith - stories of settling.

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The Project by Kathryn Elizabeth Swanson (born 12/24/1912 in Minot, ND) Daughter of Elsie Elizabeth Smith (who was daughter of John Amos Smith and Sarah Bogenrief-Smith):

Uncle Art was 5 years younger than Mom (Elsie Elizabeth Smith). Although she quite often told about the Uncles C & L (Charlie & Lamont) , she never said much about Art.

Uncle Art? married to a Helen and they had 5 children. He was married again and by 1936 he had dropped from sight and I haven't heard anyone refer to him or his kids. Aunt Jennie (Mrs. Charles Smith) didn't like his second wife, but she was saddened to lose contact with the kids.

14. Camile Baril, born 1816 in France (info welfare records Rollette Cty); died December 12, 1894 in Bottineau, ND buried Tarsus Church Cemetary (S.side on way to Dunseith). He was the son of 28. Jean Baril and 29. Josette (Mrs. Jean Baril). He married 15. Marie 'Mary' Bleaux.

15. Marie 'Mary' Bleaux, born in Canada approx. 1842 - as was 70 in 1912; died in Bottineau, ND.

Notes for Camile Baril:

Per death certificate (listed him as female - wrong on the 11/1993 issued certified copy as it was on the original):

Date of death is Dec. 12, 1894 (Dec. 21, 1894 listed sometimes too).

Place of death: Twp. 162, Rg. 74. Bottineau Co., ND

Cause of death: Hypertrophy of heart

78 years old. Parents were: Jean Baril and Josette Baril of Quebec.

Spelling on his tombstone is: Camile Barril

More About Camile Baril:

Cause of Death: Hypertrophy of heart

More About Marie 'Mary' Bleaux:

Medical Information: 10/19/1912 Henry Ruells petitioned for guardianship of incompetent person (Mary Baril). She was 70 at time.

Children of Camile Baril and Marie Bleaux are:

7 i. Marie Eugenia 'Jennie' Baril, born August 08, 1874 in Becancour, Quebec, Canada; died August 08, 1955 in Shelby, Montana or Simpson, MT - died age 81 w/39 grandchildren & ggc; married Charles 'Charlie' Augustus Smith January 01, 1892 in Bottineau, North Dakota or 1894.

ii. Josie Baril.

iii. Phillip Baril, born September 15, 1876 in Manitoba, Canada farm laborer single; died in Bottineau, ND age 70 years, 7 months, 16 days.

Notes for Phillip Baril:

lived in Willow Lake Township Rollette

Died at St. Andrew Hospital in Bottineau, ND. Buried Tarsus Church Cemetary.

More About Phillip Baril:

Medical Information: Philip Baril and Mary Baril (Mrs. Camile Baril) were both listed as "incompetent" persons on a 10/19/1912 petition by Henry Ruells for guardianship.

Endnotes

1. Patricia Quinn 1814 S. Toltec Mesa, AZ 85204 (602) 892-6144.