Special Collections Finding Aids

Abstract Typed summary of an interview (7 leaves) and corrections (7 leaves) with Leonard Sackett concerning his father James Brooks who homesteaded in Traill County, and worked on the Grandin farm; and his obituary.

Overview Contains items relating to the family of Peter C. Olsen.

Abstract Letters, typed copy of his family reminiscence entitled "Dakota days of years ago," (38 leaves) and a newspaper clipping. Reminiscence includes mention of his family homestead in Cavalier County, a blizzard, pioneer days near Pembina, N.D., people and equipment involved in threshing, digging water wells, Olga, Bathgate, Beaulieu, and Walhalla, N.D., country school, churches, hunting, horses and horse-drawn vehicles, and removing tree stumps.

Abstract Letter, typed summary of interview (15 leaves) concerning J.B. Power, Helendale Farm, Amenia and Sharon Land Company, and his father Peter Walburg, a Swiss immigrant. Includes mention of their homestead near the Maple River, his work on Dalrymple No. 1 Farm, son Peter's first jobs as mule driver, choreboy, and herding horses for the Dalrymples, cutting wood at Helendale Farm, his father, and later Martin Hanson, hauling mail, Helendale Farm's soil, selling out and moving to Leonard, N.D.,...

Overview Letters dealing with Peter McKinnon, his business with a packing company in West Fargo, and letters from family members

Abstract Peter Trana's Norwegian passport (1869) and character reference with an English translation, and pages from a scrapbook concerning the Trana family. Includes obituaries of family members and friends, colored drawings, photograph of their farm home near Kindred, N.D.

Abstract Original handwritten biographical sketch (24 leaves) of Peter Zink's life in Foster County, N.D. Includes mention of his brothers, Oscar and Wendlin, his children, his efforts to obtain a small loan, starting the Bank of Melville, hunting wild geese, George Palmer building a house as a wedding gift for Peter Zink, Jr., Peter Zink's short course in hog farming at North Dakota Agricultural College, and his suicide after experiencing memory loss. Also includes a typed copy (7 leaves) and a brief...

Abstract Two interviews concerning the Pratt family. First interview (9 leaves) with R.W. (Robert Wesley) Pratt and his wife, Anne (Margach) Pratt, concerns George and Mathilda (Dempsey) Pratt moving to N.D. in 1880 from Ontario, George's brothers, James, WIlliam, and R.J., who moved to N.D., difficulties in plowing, W.J. Pratt and his wife, Dr. Charlotte Campbell, George Pratt's gift of property to his four children, James Pratt selling his business to L.J. (Lewis) Margach, mention of General Thomas M....

Abstract Mr. Ward was a North Dakota rancher and banker. The collection contains correspondence dealing chiefly with farming, ranching, legal and financial matters, land transactions, politics and banking; and biographical stories by his uncle Henry Ward, about pioneer life in in Dakota Territory to include Black Hills gold mining, 1881 Mandan flood, life in Owego colony in 1873, and hauling freight in a blizzard. There is also clippings and articles on Ward's father-in-law, Reuben N. Stevens, and the...

Abstract Typed summary of interview with Fernando and Clara Alice Reimers and Ralph L. Miller concerning the Carrington & Casey Land Company, with mention of her parents, William and Georgia Walters, the hotel they managed in Melville, N.D., George D. Palmer, Carrington & Casey Ranch manager, his wife Susie who baked bread in large quantities, L.B. Hibbard, sale of some aged Carrington and Casey Ranch mules, L.B. and Robert Hanna managing the ranch, and a description of the ranch buildings....