12/11/2013:
When John Miller became North Dakota’s first Governor in the fall of 1889, he had little idea how demanding his new position would be. In addition to setting up a new state government, Miller was about to face a severe economic crises. Miller, a wealthy bonanza farmer with over 17,000 acres of land, had little experience with poverty.
North Dakota’s economy in the late and 1880s was declining; wheat, the state’s primary crop, had fallen nearly 70%, from $1.00 a bushel in the mid-1880s to only 35¢ in 1892. The drop in price proved devastating. Many farmers went bankrupt or lost their farms. With little hope, many families had trouble putting food on the table.
On this date in 1889, Governor Miller finally recognized the growing crisis and asked the State Legislature to authorize the Commissioner of Agriculture to look into the problem and distribute relief. On December 30, the commissioner reported that at least 4,000 people in the state were hungry and homeless, and in desperate need of help. A month later, the Senate passed a bill appropriating $5,000 for the destitute, but it was not enough.
Despite the problem, immigrants continued to arrive, many of them poor. Between 1890 and 1900, North Dakota’s population grew by 67%.
In February of 1890, Senator Pierce was forced to introduce a bill to the United States Senate for a federal appropriation to relieve the many starving people in North Dakota, especially in the Devils Lake area. North Dakota’s needy were also recognized outside of the state: James J. Hill of the Great Northern Railroad organized clothing drives in Minneapolis and Chicago, and had the clothes shipped to the needy on his railroad cars. “In 1892, Governor Andrew Burke requested Chicago charity groups to stop collecting money for ‘destitute North Dakotans.’” Burke thought such advertisement was not good for North Dakota’s image. Fortunately, by the turn of the century, commodity prices rose enough to alleviate much of the suffering, and the state looked forward to better times in the new century to come.
Dakota Datebook by Jayme L. Job
Sources:
Atkins, Annette. 1984. Harvest of Grief: Grasshopper Plagues and Public Assistance in Minnesota, 1873-78 . Minnesota Historical Society Press: St. Paul, MN.
Crawford, Ellen. October 17, 1999. “Food for the Hungry, Shelter for the Poor,” The Forum : Fargo, ND.
Hennessy, W. B. 1910 History of North Dakota: Embracing a Relation of the History of the State from the Earliest Times Down to the Present Day : p. 210-211. The Bismarck Tribune: Bismarck.
Kingsbury, George Martin. 1915. History of Dakota Territory . S. J. Clarke Publishing Company: Chicago.
http://www.history.nd.gov/exhibits/governors/governors1.html
http://www.ndstudies.org/articles/the_1890s_in_review_economic_problems_plague_state
http://users.humboldt.edu/danielwr/legacyte.htm
http://www.history.nd.gov/exhibits/governors/tgovernors5.html