Childhood in North Dakota has always been a rollercoaster of events, with a surprising number of stories relying on luck for their happy endings.
On this date in 1911, The Bismarck Tribune reported an incident involving a 4-year-old boy in Jamestown. The child, Johnny, was playing with other small boys when he slipped and fell into an abandoned well. A passerby saw Johnny and rushed to help, managing to pull him out. Despite falling around 20 feet, Johnny was uninjured aside from some cuts and bruises.
Several years later in Minot, 8-year-old Kenneth Nulph was riding a toboggan when it was struck by a grocery store delivery wagon. Though not fatally injured, Kenneth suffered several painful bruises after being thrown from the toboggan on impact.
In a separate incident in Plaza, North Dakota, in 1921, seven-year-old Frances Hagen was hurt while helping her father with a cream separator. Mr. Hagen reported that the separator "blew up" as they were using it for the first time. Frances, who was holding the machine, was cut badly when the cap flew off the bowl and parts of the separator flew across the room. At the hospital, doctors confirmed a lacerated tendon in her knuckle but assured the family she would heal well and "be as good as new."
And finally, a hunting accident from 1915. While out bird hunting with his son, L.H. Smith loaded a second shell into his gun, believing he had dropped the first one. When he pulled the trigger, the extra shell caused the barrel to explode just above the handhold. Smith injured by the blast, when a piece of steel scratched and bruised his arm and hand. His son, luckily, was standing on the opposite side of the gun and escaped unharmed. A local doctor dressed the wounds, and Smith was expected to make a full recovery, though he was fortunate not to lose his hand.
They surely made memories and had adventures they’d retell to their own children in the years to come.
Dakota Datebook written by Olivia Burmeister
Sources:
The Ward County Independent. Volume, July 7,1921, Image 3
Bismarck Daily Tribune. Volume, April 22, 1911, Image 1
Grand Forks Herald. Volume, September 13, 1916, Image 3
The Dickinson press., August 26, 1916, Image 8
