Biography of Loyde Hamersmith
--Grace Peterson
Loyde S. Hamersmith Was born south of Loledo, Greenfield County, 1879. His parents’ names were Joseph Hamersmith and Alivida Hamersmith, who lived some distance south of Loledo, where they were born. They drove in a buggy for a distance of eighty-one miles and settled in a pioneer timber country.
His parents bought a farm of eighty acres. During the clearing of this land his father was struck by a falling tree and was killed. FolÂlowing the father's death the family came to North Dakota Territory because the land was very rich and it was a good wheat producing country. At the time of this migration in 1885, Loyde was seven years old. He located in township 111 and range 67 west. The first home was made of sod, which was called a dobe house.
The trips to town were made by a team of oxen or a horse and an ox. Some went as far as thirty to thirty-five miles. Some of the nearest neighbors were Bill, Ed, and Johnie Bates, who lived in Bates township.
Some of the early machinery that was used were the rod breaking plow, a drag which consisted of one large brush, and a hand reaper. Crops raised were wheat, oats, barley, and flax. Fuel was very hard to get. The pioneers used twisted hay, buffalo chips, and flax straw which was put in a large boiler. Some one had to keep putting flax in.
It was very difficult to get water. The wells were very deep, but the water tasted like iron or soda.
On the second day of April, 1888, a prairie fire started at Miller end went one hundred miles. The wind blew very hard, animals burned to death, houses and barns burned down, one life was lost. The fire was ten miles wide. Where the grass was tall the fire would be ten rods long. It was mostly put out with burlap sacks.
In 1888, January 12, just before school started a storm reached from Montana to New York. The school house was almost blown down so eighteen children went to a farm house and stayed until morning. A man started for the barn and ran up against the dog house. He crawled in there and froze both his hands off.
He came to North Dakota in the year of 1899, drove from South Dakota with wagon and team. We took a homestead in January, 1903, near Dazey where we built a shanty. South half and Northwest quarter of Southwest of Section 12, Township 143, Range 59, where I now reside.
He married Mrs. Howard Blount in 1908 at Lesden, North Dakota,