Interview with Eliza Crawford
Homesteading in Adams County
Eliza Crawford is a widow with two children. She brought her young son, Paul, with her to the Adams County homestead which she took during the Second Boom in 1906. Her daughter Ruth stayed behind in Cooperstown to finish school.
Would you tell us about how you got to your homestead and what you did to prepare for living there?
We stayed in Dickinson all night and of course in the morning I hunted up a livery. A man who would take us, our trunk and groceries down—-to our new home. And did I ever buy groceries! It was 70 miles down there and 40 miles to New England, our nearest grocery store, so I did the best I could to be prepared.
Women homesteaders at play. Relatives visit Cornelia Honen’s Sheridan County homestead for a game of croquet. Courtesy of North Dakota Institute of Regional Studies.
I found a man who would take us to Mr. Wilson’s, where I planned to go first. He, himself, had taken land not very far from us; and he and his good wife were already in their shanty. We stopped there just a few minutes, got the key to our shack, and were at last in our little home.
Our bill to our driver was $30. It took us the most of two days to go and of course I had to pay the hotel bill at New England for the driver both down and back also Paul and myself; as well as the keep for the horses too, both going down and also back. It all counted up to quite a bill. How wonderful it was that everything went the best ever and we were at last settled and starting to earn 160 acres of land by living on it.
Fannie Overstreet plowing on her McKenzie County homestead. Courtesy of North Dakota Institute of Regional Studies.
How did you get water during your first months on the claim?
When we first lived here we carried every drop of water we had, from a spring 1_ miles away. When the snow came we were glad and thankful, for then we could melt snow. And did we ever have great high banks of the valuable stuff, especially at one end of the shanty.
How did you get mail in such an out-of-the-way place?
Our address is as it is for every family who lives in this vicinity, New England, ND, in care of Powell’s Ranch as that is a well known place here. Of course the mail comes to New England from Dickinson by stage; and the mail got there this way. In a neighborhood adjacent to New England, and doubtless quite a distance too, for it was 40 miles to Powell’s Ranch. Someone who was situated so they could, would go to New England and take all the mail that went out that way to his place. Everyone who lived in that neighborhood would go to his place, look the mail over and get what belonged to them.
Some one in the next place, farther on would go to that place and bring all the mail not claimed and that belonged in the Powell Ranch bunch, on to his claim. I do not know how many times it was carried on to a different place, always toward Powell’s Ranch, just through the kindness of different homesteaders.
How would you assess your homestead experience this first winter?
Holding down a claim is not what it is cracked up to be. I wish I had not taken this one for I will have to go through so much before I can prove up. I am not feeling at all well and I am tired of everything connected with this homestead business. I especially hate the powers that be in the Department of the Interior. If that sounds badly, I guess God will forgive me for I don’t believe he has any too much love for the way they keep making it harder for the homesteaders.
Editor’s Note: The information from this interview, the photographs, and much of the information comes from a fine book by H. Elaine Lindgren, Land in Her Own Name.
By Dr. D. Jerome Tweton
Source
Originally published as The North Star Dakotan student newspaper, written by Dr. D. Jerome Tweton and supported by the North Dakota Humanities Council.
Grade Level
3-5
Subject Matter
Social Studies