David Sansburn, better known as Dave, was born March 25, c 1863 at St. Mary's, Ontario, Canada. There he grew up on a farm and in 1888 with Sam Moore, he went to Chamberlain, South Dakota, where an Indian Reservation was to open. When they arrived there, it wasn't ready, so in the spring of 1889, they came by train to Cooperstown, North Dakota to look for land.
The first year here, Dave worked with his brother, Sam, in the blacksmith shop in Cooperstown. After that he worked for different people during harvest.
He and his brother enjoyed hunting for arrowheads in Pilot Mound Township on a place called Butte Michaud.
In 1892 Dave went back to Ontario for a visit. In the spring of 1893, he came back and settled north of Cooperstown on Section 23, Tyrol Township, Griggs County.
He started farming with one team of horses and four oxen. His brother Sam had built a shanty in 1882 on his land, which was just south of Dave's. Dave lived in this shanty. The first year or so he and his brother Will batched. His sister Nellie then came from Canada and kept house for him for three years.
His first machinery was purchased in Cooperstown which consisted of a breaking plow, gangplow for which he paid $60.00, mower $40.00, and a binder $100.00. His first crop yielded twenty-one bushels to the acre.
In 1895, Dave witnessed the worst prairie fire he had ever seen. It started in the western part of Tyrol Township, and went as far as fifteen miles. It destroyed about fifty tons of hay for him.
The winter of 1896 and 1897 were very bad snow winters. Snow was five or six feet deep on the level. Mr. Sansburn had to go ten miles out of his way to get to Cooperstown. When the roads were opened, he had to come around Cooperstown to get to Jessie, which ordinarily was five and one-half miles from his home. During these snowstorms, the snow had to be shoveled away from the top of the barn door in order to get in to feed and water stock.
August 1902, Dave married Josephine Carlson in Cooperstown by Reverend Oscar Purington. They bought a house on what was known as Vinegar Hill in the north part of town. Two years later they moved to their farm home in ' Tyrol Township. Five children were born to this union:
Clarence, Charles, Nellie (Mrs. Theodore Monson), Marie (Mrs. Georgie Olson) and Margaret (Mrs. Walter Dickson).
Mrs. Sansburn passed away in 1917. He married Mrs. Belle Monson in 1919.
In 1933 they retired from farming and moved back to their home in Cooperstown, where he lived until his death, December 19, 1939.
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 463