Finding aid and biographical material

File — Box: 1, Folder: 1

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection: Charles Hobart’s Pioneering in North Dakota consists of photocopies of five typed letters that he wrote between 1930 and 1934 to his nephews who, it is believed, grew up in Fargo. Apparently just before Hobart’s death additional compiled copies were made of the letters and a copy sent to his cousin Laura H. Walker of Concord, New Hampshire. The first two letters were published in North Dakota Historical Quarterly (vol. 7 and 8, 1933, 1941) and used extensively in Hiram Drache’s Challenge of the Prairie. These reminiscences provide an incredibly detailed story of a family’s settlement on the newly opened frontier of the Red River Valley in North Dakota. Mr. Hobart’s writings provide great detail with names, facts and figures, leading one to believe he relied upon other primary sources in their writing. The first letter begins with his traveling to Fargo, Dakota and shortly thereafter acquiring farm land near Cummings. The account continues with the hardships of pioneer, breaking the land, building the house and other farm buildings, farming, and family. The last letter concludes with him and his wife leaving the farm for Claremont, California and turning the operation over to Mason Spalding.