1890 ‑ A large herd of antelope had been found on the east side of the county.
1894 ‑ Excellent crop‑ threshing 8‑9 bushel‑ 21 bushel wheat crop.
1885‑1899‑ Moore and Graves‑ influx of farmers from Corn Belt brought seed along but wasn't suited to area so didn't even tassel. Thought farm was dairying.
1908‑ Farmers Institute‑ speakers from college‑ Ag agents from railroad‑ diversified farming stressed.
1910‑ $1.01 wheat‑ bad year‑ scarcity of feed.
1911‑ Lectures‑ recommend 10 acres of corn every section‑ threshing done in snow.
1896‑ Working oxen $85‑$125 per animal.
1884‑ Murphy brothers bought 8 horses the first year, worked 240 acres for crop in 1884. The crop made 29 bushels to the acre. This paid all expenses, obtained title to their first nine-quarter sections.
1896‑ Murphy brothers had 46 head of horses with a Black Percheron at its head. They also had 130 head of cattle.
Ben Holcomb broke 10‑15 acres each quarter a day. Hay was cut with "Armstrong mowers", a scythe and sach ‑ raked with hand rake ‑ about 50 ton put up the first summer.
A yoke of good oxen were the cheapest and best breaking team, as they would make sixteen miles per day with a fourteen-inch plow, with only the green grass for feed. (Spokesfield)
After virgin prairie was broken during the spring months the sod dried out and rotted. In the fall it was packed and disked and made ready for the crop.
1891‑ Considered the big wheat year in this community. The crop went 40 bushels to the acre that year. Mrs. B.L. Russell remembers vividly the car labeled with letters large enough to be seen a long distance, "40 bushel wheat" which hauled some of that grain away.
1915‑ A hobo opened a boxcar in the Northern Pacific railroad yards at Carrington. A bull being shipped from Melville was quartered in the same car, and when the animal caught sight of the intruder he rushed him. The 'bo got the door open and both fell to the ground below, where the chase continued. The train crew saw what was happening and tried to help the endangered man, but when the bull turned on them they were chased back to their train. It was rumored at the depot that the train didn't overtake the hobo on the trip north.
Headlines read: Apples shipped out of Carrington: Usually apples are shipped into Carrington but the apples crop on the Stambaugh farm was so good that he shipped some of his produce to Illinois.
1913‑ Farmer finds Black Gopher: Otto Anderson has a curiosity in the way of the gopher. Instead of having the usual color of tan the animal is jet black. In other ways the little pest resembles the ordinary animal. This is the first one of that kind to make its presence in these parts. McHenry Tribune
1921‑ Eggs for Next Winter should be Pickled now: Home preservation of eggs should be attended to this month (May) if the task has been neglected so far in the rush of other spring work. Various methods have been tired, but authorities on the subject agree that water glass (sodium silicate) gives the best results.
Eggs used for preserving should have clean whole shells and should not be more than a week old. A stone jar makes the best receptacle, but wood, porcelain or glass can be used. Distilled or freshly caught rainwater is best; hard water should never be used. The following directions are recommended.
Boil water, then allow it to cool and add water glass (one part water glass to nine parts water by measure). Beat mixture thoroughly with a wooden paddle and place mixture in receptacle. Add eggs, rejecting all that have a tendency to float. The solution must cover the eggs completely.
Cover receptacle closely to prevent evaporation. Examine eggs occasionally and if necessary, add more water, so that eggs will be at all times completely covered.
1929‑ Holstein 'Cows: Calves were given out to young boys during Market Day program in 1929. A 13-year-old boy, Lawrence Sperling won one of these purebred calves. It grew to be one of the best milkers on the Sperling farm. Over a period of nine years, they felt that the calf had brought them over $800 in income. Lawrence used the money to help with his college education.
1925‑ (June) Alfalfa history in Foster County dates back as far as 1890. A.Z. Peterson, who lived in Longview Township, likely planted the first seed in this county. He received a small package of seed and planted it in his garden. A few plants grew and remained a few years. This first alfalfa was a long growing yellow variety, called Lucerne.
The first alfalfa planted in any quantity was sown by William Quaton, living south of Carrington. He secured seed from a friend in Utah and put in about two acres. In spite of cold conditions it survived for several years. Mr. Quaton was probably the first man to recognize the real merit of alfalfa.
1927‑ Horse's Tail ties Up Rig for Season: (September) Switching his tail rapidly to free himself of flies Tuesday afternoon an old dobbin hauling bundles for the Jake Krueger rig west of town got his caudal appendage between the drive belt of the separator and the main drive pulley. The drive belt was thrown off and before the machine was stopped the separator was so badly damaged that Mr. Krueger does not believe he can obtain repairs in time to resume threshing again this season.
The elevator of the separator, a main drive shaft and several other important parts were wrecked.
The horse's tail was uninjured although he lost a few long hairs. The accident was, however, as much of a surprise to the nag as it was to the crew.
1929‑ (January) Unloading the first tractor in Carrington in 1903 caused quite a stir: The engines at that time were extremely large, weighing from 15,000 to 20,000 pounds and caused a tremendous vibration while they were in operation. The machines were made of iron and were very large and crude.
R. Gadberg of the International Harvester Company at Aberdeen told of the unloading of the tractor in Carrington:
"The time today came when they were ready to unload, and as the inhabitants of the town had learned that it was to be unloaded by its power about 1,000 people were on hand to witness the great spectacle. Many men volunteered their services in helping to unload the tractor and efforts were made to start it.
At that time tractors were started by spinning a large flywheel on the side of the machine.
The men were busily turning the wheel and the machine had made no efforts of starting. I was very young at that time and had become somewhat rattled due to the large audience and noticed that I had forgotten to turn on the ignition switch. I immediately did so and the supply of gas which had accumulated in the huge exhaust pipes which acted as mufflers to prevent scaring all the horses in the country, ignited and an explosion took place that sounded like the discharge of a large cannon.
I turned to see what effect this incident had had upon my curious friends and all that I saw was flying heels and coat tails! ! ! ! !
The use of the tractors in those days could not be compared to the uses that are found for them in later years. The primary purpose of them at that time was to replace the steam tractor ending in operating the separator during the threshing season. The use of the steam tractor engine for plowing was not unthought-of at that time but had had little success.
1929‑ Vodka Cows in Pewe herd get Official Names: "Vodka" the Russians' pet name for white mule had been chosen by Pewe Brothers of McHenry, as a trademark name to identify their herd of registered Holsteins. The trademark used as a part of the name of every animal in the herd, indicates the farm at which it was bred.
Vodka cows may be all right in Soviet Russia, but the Pewe Brothers may find the prohibition agents on their heels if they try to sell their milk and cream on this side of the Canadian line.
1930‑ 130,000 Plants are Bought for Big Onion Farm: Two acres of onions that are expected to yield about 1,500 bushels of the crop if the growing season is favorable, will be planted in the field north of the courthouse this spring for Otto Suelsorf and A.E. Ireland.
A shipment of 130,000 green onion plants is expected to arrive by April 18. The two men are advertising for a crew of 30 to 35 helpers to set out the young plants. The green plants are being shipped in from the Texas and Colorado states. Most of them are of the Sweet Spanish variety. They expect $1 to $1.25 per bushel.
1931‑ Bowser Grows His Tobacco in Back Yard: A back yard patch of smoking tobacco‑ add that to your list of unusual Foster County crops.
M.C. Bowser, retired farmer at Carrington, has his own patch of smoking tobacco. He has been raising the plants for the last 15 years, and reports that he has never had a crop failure.
His little patch of about 50 plants stands waist high this week. About 25 pounds of mature leaves have already been picked and are drying in a little storage shed in his garage, and he expects to harvest almost that much more from his garden.
Tobacco is a real North Dakota product, if people here could only realize it, Mr. Bowser believes. He raises just enough for his own use and for a few friends, but thinks there should be real profit in an acre or so of tobacco. He raises his plants from his own seed, starting them indoors in March and setting them out in the garden about the time the tomato plants go out. As the plant grows, only about a dozen of the huge leaves are allowed to grow, and the rest are pinched off as they bud. Mr. Bowser believes that an acre of tobacco is about all one man could handle, because of the attention each plant demands. He has never watered his tobacco patch, he reports and even during the hot, dry weather this summer it has flourished and made a good crop.
1931‑ Farmers Donate Four Tons Spuds to Drought Region: Four tons of potatoes and vegetables collected from homes in Wyard and Carrington townships in a drive conducted by the Farmers Union were shipped out of Carrington by truck Friday morning.
1933‑150 Watermelons raised in Grace City Garden Patch: Mrs. Edwin Bonderud raised a watermelon crop of about 150 fully ripened melons this year, another proof that we can raise almost anything here if properly cultivated and some study given to the subject. Many of these melons weighed as high as 28 pounds. There was a big demand for these melons as the quality was excellent.
1933‑ Hay stacker picks up 90-pound Rock: Heaves it at head of McHenry man: Thursday evening just before six o'clock, Torkel Aarstead, farmer two miles west of town, met with a painful accident while in the hay field. Mr. Aarstead and sons were stacking hay, Mr. Aarstead being upon the stack. A 90-pound rock went upon the haystack with the hay loader and hit Mr. Aarstead upon the head. Mr. Aarstead was on one end of the stack. The rock hit the left side of the head, neck, and shoulder. Mr. Aarstead was knocked unconscious and fell from the haystack. No bones were broken but the neck and shoulder were badly bruised and a number of stitches were required for the head wound.
1934‑ Dwarf Cow, at Melvin Farm weighs 280 pounds: A dwarf cow that carnival companies have offered to buy as a freak attraction is owned by Pierce Melvin of McKinnon Township near Kensal.
The cow is 27 months old and weighs 280 pounds. A normal six-month-old calf will weigh 300 pounds. The dwarfed cow is of Holstein and Red Poll parentage. It is perfectly formed but is more angular than normal and has spindly legs.
It has quit gaining weight. Melvin didn't pay any particular attention to the cow until it was about a year old and quit growing. He fed it grain all the first winter, expecting it to develop like an ordinary heifer, but got no results.
The owner had had offers from carnival companies that winter to buy the animal. He may accept an offer from the Midwest Carnival company to join them in South Dakota this month and travel with the show exhibiting the cow. Other carnival companies have advertised as the "smallest cow in the world" an animal that weighs 450 pounds. Melvin has received other letters from farm publications and government agencies, where he has written for information showing interest in the animal.
1934‑ Rosehill Farmer Grows Whiskers, but Nothing Else: John Schlotman, in explaining to a neighbor why he had let his whiskers grow said, "In times like these I believe we should let everything grow that will grow!"
1935‑ Hawksnest Eagle Preys on Lamb: An eagle, believed making its headquarters in the Hawksnest Hills, is causing considerable losses among the sheep flocks in that neighborhood.
During the past few weeks the eagle killed 14 lambs at the William Biloff farm and six at the Adolph Huff farm. It is said that the sheep, being accustomed to barnyard fowls at home, do not become frightened by the eagle and scatter and run as they do when attacked by dogs or coyotes. The killer has an easy time of it striking down one lamb after another, picking out their eyes, eating a small part of the flesh, and seemingly killing just for the sport of it.
The eagle had been seen several times but never close enough to use a shotgun. The bird is small. One farmer, who saw it sitting on a fence thought it was a turkey until it flew away.
Eagles have been seen off and on, for several years at the Hawksnest. One Longview farmer reports that he has lost at least $100 worth of lambs from this one over a period of years.
1937‑ Grain yield cut badly by hoppers‑ early reports 2‑8 bushel from durum. Some received 10‑15 bu. fall plowing to kill hopper eggs and cut worms. Wheat loss from hoppers set at 33%.
13,000 gopher tails collected at Barlow on May 12, 1938. They received 30 a tail.
1935‑ Melville Ewe has eight Descendants in Year's time: The increase of a ewe purchased by Moore and Graves by Mrs. N.N. Loesch in 1933 established a record that is hard to beat. On April 15, 1934 she gave birth to three ewe lambs and on February 20, 1935 she had two lambs and one on April 6, 1935, the first three ewe lambs each gave birth to one lamb, making a total of an increase of eight head in the space of less than a year. We have the animals here to back up our claim; and all doing nicely, thank you.
1932‑129 Days from egg to egg is pullet's record. Just 129 days from egg to egg‑ that is the record achieved by a young pullet belonging to Mrs. George Norby of near Carrington.
The chicken was hatched out on April 8th and cackled gaily over its first egg on August 15, just four months and seven days later. The existing record for early layers as far as Norbys know is 142 days.
1915‑ Farmers May Well Curse Their Life: How miserably rotten it is to spend life in Foster county is easily proven: Foster County farmers are aroused, their condition of life must be and will be changed. Every day adds numbers to the militant agriculturalists who are about ready to serve notice on the grain trust, the merchants, the banks, to all the world, that they demand their rights as men and opportunities to bring up their children as an American child should be reared. It will be a bloodless revolution mainly, but a revolution, yes or no.
Franz Zink, living on the south county line is about ready to show up the men who have fattened on the Foster County farmer. He will show them who really got fat for he is now nearly completed one of the most modern farm homes in town or country we believe in this part of the state that has a vacuum cleaning system built into the house. It will have hot and cold running water throughout with sewerage connections. It will be lighted by electricity and electrical current used for many household purposes besides lighting. The home will have the largest porch in the country, 14 x 40 feet, and two stories with massive pillars. The vacuum system is operated from the cellar, it is guaranteed to pick up a silver dollar in any room of the house and deliver it to the box in the cellar. B.M. Gurfield has the building contract. The home will be completed within a few weeks.
For a farmer living in this poverty-stricken and forsaken country such a home needs protection from the frigid 11 months winter and one month of cold weather which many easterners like to credit to North Dakota.
1950‑ Farm Families Resort to Boats for Transportation in Rosehill Township: (May 18) Boats are fast becoming a popular means of transportation in Rose Hill vicinity due to the numerous washouts in the graded roads.
Members of the Lars Tollefson family take a boat from their home on Kelly Creek and sail three fourths of a mile to highway Number 7, where their car is parked.
The George Doeling and Ervin Lambecht families, living within two miles of Bordulac drive 69 miles a day in transporting their children to the Bordulac School. This is due to the high water in Lake George, causing the Bordulac road to be flooded. They recently obtained a motor boat which delivers them to the depot at Bordulac.
Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Ferguson have been marooned on their farm since the first thaw this spring because of road washout. Mr. Ferguson has been able to travel on horseback only.
1958‑ (November) Strawberries in November! That's right. Strawberries in November raised right here in Carrington in a garden plot. The grower of strawberries at this time of the year is Mrs. Ada Linderman. She is able to pick some every day.
Mrs. Linderman has been carefully tending her garden plot all fall, operating a small cultivator. She has diligently watched the strawberry plants, and her efforts have brought results.
1958‑ Buck shot by Del Soholt was estimated to be the granddaddy of them all. He was estimated to be one 20 years old and it weighed 341 pounds. It was believed to be the buck that was commonly seen around the Hawksnest area. It took three shots to bring him down.
What was happening around the world in 1883 when Foster County was being organized? Following are some of the events shown in the 1910 Atlas.
China: Sacking of European quarters in Canton.
India: International exhibition at Calcutta opened.
Russia: Coronation of Alexander III, Czar of all Russia.
Turkey: Total destruction of Hicks, Pasha and army in Sudan.
Greece: Serious fire at royal palace in Athens.
Italy: Discovery of site of celebrated Antruim at Rome on November 6.
Spain: King Alfonzo visits Frankfurt to witness military maneuvers.
France: Arrest of Prince Napoleon who was accused of desertion.
Austria‑Hungary: Raab, Hungary was inundated by the rising of the Danube and many lives were lost.
Germany: Death of William R. Wagner, a German composer at age 69.
Great Britain: confederation of colonies and annexation of Papua, New Guinea.
Canada: Marquis of Landsdowne appointed governor general.
United States: Civil Service reform bill passed; Presidential succession bill passed; Burning of the Newhall House in Milwaukee caused 59 lives to be lost on January 10; Great flood in Ohio River which left 50,000 people homeless; tariff and tax amendment passes both houses; death of Peter Cooper at age 92; cyclone at Beauregard, Miss., 83 lives lost, tornadoes in Iowa and Georgia; opening of Brooklyn suspension bridge; Pendleton Civil Service Act passes; steamer Proteus of the Greel Relief Expedition crushed by ice in Smith's Sound; Terrific tornado in Rochester, Minnesota, caused lives to be lost; Northern Pacific Railroad formally opened on September 8; General Sherman relinquishes command of army‑ Sheridan succeeding him; two‑cent letter postage goes into effect; Festival in honor of Luther's birth‑ 400 anniversary; 48th Congress organized.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 125