Home  Books Book Three Foreword Jack Dalrymple Lt. Governor
FOREWARD
Curt Eriksmoen has given us another chance to have fun with North Dakota history. In “Did You Know That… Volume 3”, you have the raw material you need to connect to the fabric of our state history in a very personal way. He has a gift for pointing out the little quirks about people’s lives that make these stories so fascinating. If you don’t click with one of them, just move on quickly to the next one. It’s like walking into a room full of new, interesting people… you can choose the ones you want to get to know.
If you’re from North Dakota, you already know that the state’s historic figures have a number of amazing cross connections to your own life. When you read about them in one of Curt Eriksmoen’sbooks you find your connections are even more extensive than you realized. It’s very much like a treasure hunt where the clues unfold into an amazing revelation. Just as I always suspected, my family had amazing connections to many of his subjects.
History is really the most fun when it somehow makes these connections to your own life. The first large scale wheat farmer in the nations was a guy by the name of Olive Dalrymple. Why is that interesting? For me it’s because I live in the house he built in 1880, and I walk the same ground that he did 134 years ago. When I read Curt’s piece about Andrew Burke, the second Governor of North Dakota, I learned that Burke moved to my home town of Casselton in the same year. He must have been aware of the building of a new, large home just east of town. He undoubtedly came out the short distance from town to see it finished. I also learned that Burke worked at the First National Bank of Casselton, the predecessor to the bank where I was a director for many years. Now I feel much closer to that highway billboard that says, Casselton, Home of Four Governors: Burke, Langer, Guy, Sinner.” And to think that Andrew Burke came west on an orphan train – amazing story!
My family has been in wheat farming and that gives me a connection to the birth of the milling industry. William Washburn, one of Curt's subjects, discovered that the new roller mills, when used with spring wheat from Dakota Territory, could produce the best flour in the world. He merged his company with that of John Crosby and later with that of Charles Pillsbury.
My own father was friends with their descendants, Tom Crosby, Ed Pillsbury, and John Pillsbury,during his college years."
I myself played hockey with Charlie Pillsbury and have long known David Crosby, former CEO of Piper, Jaffrey and Hopwood. North Dakota connections last a long time.
I liked the story about Henry Bolley because I personally remember raising a lot of Bolleyflax on our farm at Casselton. His agronomic breakthroughs made it possible for all North Dakota farms to transition out of wheat and remain viable. I never knew that he created the first football team at NDSU in 1894. My own grandfather played on the University of Minnesota football team in 1895. Who would have thought that these two football programs would finally meet on the field in the Metrodome? I personally attended the 2007 game in Minneapolis and enjoyed watching North Dakota defeat Minnesota. My grandfather would have been in great agony had he seen the game!
Because we lived near Fargo I was also somewhat aware of the business and political leaders from my childhood days. George Black was known as a great merchandiser and everyone had heard of “The Store Withouta Name.” In 1972 I went to the grand opening of the West Acres enclosed shopping mall just after my wife Betsy and I returned to North Dakota to take over the family farm. Wheat was $1.25 a bushel and many people questioned whether West Acres would make it. Of course it took off and set the standard for retailing for decades to come. George Black and Bill Schlossman were really one continuous story.
I enjoyed getting the real story of Frank Vogel because I have connected with his lawyer descendants at the Vogel Law Firm in Fargo and with his political descendant, Sarah Vogel, who sued the Federal government twice and won both times, once to my own benefit as a durum grower. I remember being among those who donated “seed money” to Sarah Vogel to get the suitrolling over Federal Crop Insurance. Of course Sarah did everything she could to limit my own successes in politics, which comes with the territory.
Lee Brooks was an interesting political figure because of his relationships with Clarence Darrow, Huey Long, and Herschel Laskkowitz. I vaguely remember a fundraiser for Lee Brooks put on by my parents at our farm near Casselton. It must have been for oneof his Cass County State’s Attorney races in the fifties. It was quite an affair and my oldest sister Florriwas friends with Lee Brooks’ daughter, Peggy. Little did I know that I would one day work with Peggy Brooks, later Peggy Pitts, for over 25 years at the state capitol.
Sports isalways an amazing area for interconnections between North Dakotans. The first football game I ever watched was on a black and white TV in our basement when I was 10 years old. I was alone and I stayed on the channel because I had heard people talk about Johnny Unitas, and I knew that the Baltimore Colts were the up and coming team ready to challenge the established New York Giants. I saw Steve Myhrakick a field goal to tie the game on the last play. Somehow I knew he was from North Dakota. Then I watched Johnny Unitas drive the Colts down the field in sudden death overtime and Alan Amechescore the winning touchdown. I knew immediately that it was a historic moment and wondered if anyone in Baltimore or New York knew Steve Myhrawas from North Dakota. I’ve been a football fan ever since and have never missed a Superbowl.
I never would have slowed down for the story of Dewey Williams, the Chicago Cubs catcher who spent 46 years in Williston, except that I noticed he was in the 1945 World Series, the last time the Cubs made it. That alone is interesting, but what made it special for me was that my Dad traveled to Chicago to see the 1945 World Series. He loved baseball and gave me the program that he brought home from Chicago. I had it in my bedroom closet for many years.
The piece about the Champion Lady Golfer Beverly Hanson really brought out a fountain of memories. You see, my mother was a North Dakota “lady golfer” and I can use that term because that’s what they were called in those days. Bev Hanson took golf lessons from Ralph Kingsrudat the Fargo Country Club and knew Patty Berg. So did my mother. Bev Hanson won the North Dakota Women’s Amateur golf title by defeating Georgia TainterGoff. My mother was the Medalist in the North Dakota Amateur one year, posting the lowest qualifying score of all entrants. She played in several semifinal and final matches in the fifties by could never beat Georgia Goff, who was the state’s premier lady golfer after Bev Hanson left. Out whole family was very proud of my mother’s golfing ability because after all she was only 120 pounds and never hit anything over 150 yards. In her prime, the best short game I ever saw. When she came home from a match, we would try to read her face rather than ask her directly who won. The Bev Hanson story brought back many wonderful memories.
Thanks to Curt Eriksmoen for another great collection of biographies. As an author he has an incredible capacity to collect and organize facts about people, and then let the facts speak for themselves. The facts about people are the essential raw material and Curt Eriksmoen, who is a Grand Master in the world of Trivia, collects these facts with unequaled discipline. But Curt’s real talent lies in the way he organizes these facts and unfolds them into stories that make history fun.
Jack Dalrymple
Lt. Governor for North Dakota
June 26, 2009
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