2/20/2008:
Oh, the dreary winter, how the storm has raged all day!” So penned Mary Dodge Woodward during a North Dakota blizzard, on this day, February 20, 1884.
Mary Dodge Woodward was born on June 27th in 1826, far from the Dakota prairies in Vermont. She later settled in Wisconsin with her husband and raised five children. After the death of her husband, Mary moved with three of her children to the Red River Valley at the age of fifty-six.
Mary and her family arrived in Dakota Territory and worked over two sections, or about 1,500 acres of wheat. What makes Mary Dodge Woodward stand out among the many settlers who braved the Dakota prairies was her journal. Her daily entries provide an important source of information detailing the life, weather and dangers of Dakota Territory. Here, a few excerpts from her diary...
May 23, 1885. “The wind blows all the time, so hard that one can scarcely stand before it…About four o’clock the sky looked fearful, we heard a distant roar, and soon the storm was upon us. The hailstones were as large as nutmegs and oh, how they did kill things!...Our wheat that looked so green has disappeared and the fields are bare.”
May 31, 1885. “The wheat is rising out of the ground. The day is very beautiful and I have been out nearly all of it picking posies. The air is soft and cool. I think there is something fascinating about gathering wild flowers, strolling along, not knowing what you will find.
August 6, 1886. “A beautiful day. The men are all harvesting…They have been cutting sixty acres a day with all five harvesters running…The reapers are flying all about us, stretching out their long white arms and grasping the grain. They remind me of sea gulls as they glisten in the sunshine.”
January 24, 1888. “The wind came up last night and by twelve another blizzard was upon us. This morning I could only now and then see the buildings…Except for the cold winters, I should like this place very much indeed.”
The Woodwards eventually left their Dakota farm in 1889 and returned to Wisconsin. Although Mary died just over one year later, the writings she left behind provide a clear picture of the struggles and joys of those who braved the plains of North Dakota over a century ago.
Written by Lane Sunwall
Sources
Anderson, Kathie Ryckman. “A Journey into Literary North Dakota,” as published in North Dakota History: Journal of the Northern Plains. (62.3, Summer 1995) http://www.readnd.org/Anderson%20essay.pdf
“The Bonanza Farms of North Dakota,” from the Website of the National Park Service
http://www.nps.gov/history/nR/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/106wheat/106facts2.htm
Blaine, Harold A., review of The Checkered Years: Mary Doge Woodward by Mary B. Cowdrey as published in The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. (24.4 March 1938), p. 567
Culley, Margo, ed., A Day at a Time. As found at http://books.google.com/books?id=AuSEUamWbu0C&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=mary+dodge+woodward&source=web&ots=rfFH_4NqNc&sig=hmOSUYz5XtQZlISeVOHxf891sAE#PPP1,M1