James Martin Pendroy [5579]

   Another name for James was Jim Pendroy.

  General Notes:

1870 Marion Co., IA census (Summit township) at Pella Marion Co., IA P. O. [p, 267B; ll. 1-4[: age 7, born IA; 1900 McHenry Co., ND census (township 154, range 78) [E.D. 91; Sh. 1; ll. 51-57]: age 36, born IA - immediate neighbors of Marion Pace [#22113] family, son of Jemima Jane Pendroy & Horatio Pace; "McHenry Co., ND: Its History & Its People" [1985] pp. 242-243; Jeanne Fanny Pendroy cache from Iona M. Loken [2000 A.D.]: present in a photo from a picnic in Ward County (1889) reprinted in Minot, ND local newspaper - 'resident & died in McHenry Co.
[ND]'

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Written by James Martin Pendroy on Feb. 12, 1941

This life sketch is to my children and grandchildren. I hope this sketch will be handed down for a good many generations to come.

My grandparents immigrated to America the last part of 1700 AD from England, Germany and Switzerland.

My Great Grandfather Eli Pendroy was born December 1776 and died March 12, 1865 at the age of 88 years and 3 months. His wife Mary A. Lop was born in 1775 and died February 8, 1841. (Author Note: One typewritten source I have of 2, (This one, which you are reading online now), instead of Mary A. Lop it says Mary A. Fox. I do not know what signifigance there is to this, and have included it in the written record on the chance that it may be correct, as oppossed to LOP which is believed, by this author to be her last name. The name "Lop" for Mary is not known as an absolute certainty, and no official document or written record in my possession uses the name Lop.- August 7, 1999)

Their son Jacob Pendroy, that being my Grandfather was born August 17, 1795 in North Carolina, and died October 12, 1870. His wife Margaret Boots was born in Harding County West Virginia on Nov. 1, 1793 and died March 3, 1874. They were religious people and belonged to the M.E. (Methodist) Church as far back as I know.

My father Jacob A. Pendroy, was born April 2, 1832, died September 6, 1901. My mother was born February 12, 1829. She was born six miles from Philadelphia, my father in Ohio. My mother's name was Margaret Brown and they are both buried at Velva, North Dakota.

I, James Martin Pendroy, the writer of this sketch was born the 27th of October, 1862, and at this time I am a few months past my 78th birthday. (Note: He lived to be 86.) I was the 5th child born to father and mother in a family of seven children.

Julia Pendroy born 10-18-1854

Olive J. Pendroy born 03-18-1857

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Pendroy born Dec. 7, 1858

Barbara E. Pendroy born 10-09-1860

James M. Pendroy born 10-17-1862 (Note: The author of this sketch)

Margaret B. Pendroy born 09-22-1865

Charles W. Pendroy born 10-05-1874

My Grandfather and Grandmother Pendroy and three sisters are buried at Monroe, Iowa. Myself and all of my sisters and brothers were born at Otley, Iowa, Marion County. My Grand Parents migrated south from Virginia, from Virginia the first of 1800 A.D. to South Carolina then to Ohio, where my father was born, then to Indiana, then in1849 they moved to Otley, Iowa, then in 1883, to North Dakota, where I lived for 37 years and all my children were born. We lived at Menlo Iowa three years before moving to North Dakota.

The first part of 1882, I got acquainted with Susana Messinger at a party of young folks, and we fell in love at first sight I guess, and we married January 31, 1883. The next May 12, we all started for North Dakota, then a territory about 700 miles by wagon road.

Susie, as she was always called, was the second child of the family of 14 children. She was born in Henry County Indiana on Oct. 13, 1862 and my birthday is the 27th of the same month.

Well, we didn't have much money to start up a home. Susie said a good many times she had me and I had her. Well, I thought that was a lot. I was big and stout and was willing to take the responsibility of making a living with her help and that was more than half. We never starved as long as she lived.

Well after 58 years, I will do my best to describe those 58 years for you children and grandchildren. I am getting right close to 80 years old this time. My grandparents and my father had always been farmers but the panic in 1875 in 1880 found them pretty well down and out. Had to let our home go in Otley, Iowa. Had about $2,000 in personal property left when we moved to Menlo, Iowa in the spring of 1880.

Well the spring of 1883 found all the family getting ready to move to the great state of North Dakota. Family was my father and mother, brother Charlie, sister Maggie, sister Ollie and her husband Marseles Walker and Stella Pace - 8 years old, Matt Pace's daughter, and Frank Marlenee, who afterwards married sister Maggie.

Father gave me a nice riding pony the year before. I traded that pony for nine calves. Susie's father gave her a yearling calf, so with that and two dollars we started to buck the world, so to speak. We got ready to go. We had two covered wagons, a covered surrey wagon, 12 horses and three riding horses. Frank Marlenee had one riding pony.

Frank's brother was driving some cattle through with my father and some other men. So we had about 125 Hereford head in drive that we started with. Father took the pure bred bulls the first in North Dakota at that time.

At this time I am the only one living that I know of that started on that trip.

Well that was a long hard trip. Father and mother were old for such a trip. (They were 51 and 54 years old.)

Fifteen miles a day was all we could drive and give the cattle time to eat. We had a small stove we baked bread on three times a day. Susie made the biscuits. They were sure good too. We had a flour chest in the back of one wagon and she always got back in there to make the bread.

One time when she was making bread a big Indian came up right close to her and looked in the wagon, and scared her quite bad, but the Indian didn't mean any harm. That was not very far from the capital of South Dakota.

Susie drove a team of spotted horses the whole 700 miles. We slept in the wagon she drove. The rest of the folks slept in a big tent.

The next place of interest was Bismarck. Only 125 miles more to go. Arrived on Mouse river the third day of August, after 77 days travel. Everyone glad they had gotten to their destination.

Uncle Jim Pendroy had went on ahead on the train early in the spring and filled out a claim, and we went right there and went to building where Father and Mother lived until they passed away. It was late in the fall before we had hay made and houses to go into.

Susie and I slept in the covered wagon just six months before we had a house to go into. No floor and a dirt roof. At that time we were 125 miles to the nearest towns, Bismarck south, Devils Lake east. It was two years before the railroad came to Towner, North Dakota.

March 1, 1941 - The war looks bad. A big fight over the Land Lease Bill in Congress.

It was the middle of November before we got moved into one room and Father and Mother into the other. After 58 years the same 2 rooms are still used for a house.

Well, we were all that winter building sheds and barns for our cattle and horses. Cattle stood the winter fine out in the thick timber. We threw the hay off in a big ring and the timber was all the shelter they had. Smaller calves had an open shed. Well, by this time, Susie and I were expecting a baby to come to our house, and on the 27th of February, 1884, Lizzie was born. We were all happy after that. She was named after my sister Lizzie who passed away when she was 21 years old, September, 1879 and is buried at Monroe, state of Iowa, where my two sisters and Grandfather and Grandmother Pendroy are also buried. I have lived 800 miles away most all of my life but I always went to see their graves as often as I could and I have been there a good many times in that time.

We were sure proud of our baby. I had one uncle and one cousin that moved to North Dakota, Uncle Jim Pendroy and Marion Pace. Uncle Jim had four boys, Johnny, Levi, Jim and Perry. That was all the neighbors we had close that first winter. The Marlenee's lived 15 miles up Mouse River where Velva is now. In the spring, I took a claim out two miles and put up a log cabin and claimed 160 acres by staking it off.

That was before the government had surveyed the land in McHenry County. We lived there, Susie and baby, a summer. In the fall of 1884, we moved down on the river where we lived for a good many years.

My father bought a man out that had staked that claim out before the survey for fifty dollars. Then I bought the claim and lot, and house of my Fathers, and filed on it as a pre-emption, and after six months paid the government $1.25 an acre.

At that time anyone could take a pre-emption and a Tree Claim and a Homestead and live on it five years and to prove up the tree claim, you had to plant out 10 acres of trees to get a deed from the government. That is what I did with the first claim I staked out on the prairie. There were three dry years and the government let me prove up that without planting many trees. That was 160 acres.

Then I took the homestead partly on the river valley and the high land and proved up on that in five years. I got a cousin to file on 160 acres that joined my homestead and tree claim. That made 480 and 160 one mile away, where we made our home for 34 years where the other five children were born.

I gave Sally Berry $500 to take that claim and prove up on it for me. Before she got it proved up, she died and the heirs proved up on it and let me have it by paying $150 more for it. Tom Berry, Lyde Masteller and Mary Stickels, cousins, were the heirs.

Well, I'm a little ahead of my story as I will go back a few years when Lizzie was a baby.

We didn't have very much money but we were getting a home started. My father and I worked together for a good many years - not a partnership but worked together in haying. Hay and cattle were the main resources for making money.

Well, it wasn't all work and no play. There were one or two that could play the violin and we would all get together for a good old-fashioned square dance. Susie and I sure enjoyed that for a good many years.

Then the later part of 1885, we were expecting a baby. At that time it was still 125 miles to a doctor, so we all thought it best for her to go back home for awhile. Gertrude was born back at Menlo, Iowa the 5th of October, 1885

When Gertrude was a month-old, Susie started home. We, my father and brother Charlie, met her at Devils Lake, 125 miles from home. We took covered wagons and brought supplies home for the winter. The night she got to Devils Lake, it come several inches of snow. 125 miles from home with two babies was a terrible responsibility but we got home all right.

Now after 56 years as I am writing this sketch, it doesn't seem possible that we went through with what we all did. We were all sure glad when we got home and we were all thankful to Kind Providence for guiding as home safe. At that time houses were fifty miles apart. I don't believe my children or grand children can get the real meaning of the early times, but we get along and were happy for a good many years.

I remember I boughjt a bottle of Brandy for Susie and the baby. At that we just had a log house 16' by 18'. That winter I got out logs for another room and we got along fine for a long time. By that time we're getting quite a bunch of cattle. My father mostly. My father had most all the equipment.

I hauled all of the hay for the big cattle at my home. Father and brother Charles fed the young calves at their home, one mile away. The cattle we fed were out in the timber. They got water out of the Mouse River. The Mouse River Valley was a fine valley for hay. I had 80 acres of fine hay land on my home placed father had 200 acres on his own land and there was a school section that joined us both. Father rented that for five years giving $125 for five years, and that was 125 acres of good hay land. By this time were feeding quite a lot of hay.

Everything went along about the same old way for a good many years. Beatrice, Cora and Charlie were born. There hadn't been any death in the family for 20 years then the 1st of April 1899, my mother passed away and was buried at Velva, North Dakota. Then Sept. 6, 1901, my father passed away and was buried beside my mother in the family lot.

My father was, we thought, pretty well to do. He had 960 acres of land and 225 head of Hereford cattle, the best bunch of cattle in North Dakota at that time. When everything was divided up, I got 75 head of cattle and 4 horses. Brother Charlie got my father's home place on Mouse River, 400 acres of land but not much personal property.

Well everything went along fine - we were all happy for four years. Then our sorrows began to come. In Sept. 1905, my daughter Lizzy passed away and left two small children, one a baby a few days old. Lizzy was buried in the family lot, close to my father and mother. Mama and I took care of the baby Francis Meigher for three years. At that time, Junerva was two years old, the baby, and was the baby for most 40 years.

It seemed like one sorrow come on, one after another. Sunday January 25, 1907, Susie my dear wife passed away and left five children, Gertrude, Beatrice, Cora, Charlie and Juverna. Mama died with measles and pneumonia. Charlie was 12 years old Juverna was four years old. That was sure a great sorrow for all of us.

As I have thought a good many times, we were getting financially ready to enjoy life. Eight years before I had built a very good house and I have been glad a good many times that I did and we were happy for 24 years. We all missed Mama so much. That year Beatrice taught school close to home and Cora went to Normal at Valley City, North Dakota. We all got along good for two years. Then Gertrude and Beatrice and Cora began to think about homes of their own and that was all right.



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Written by his son Mr. Charles Pendroy of Sauk Centre, Stearns, Minnesota for publication in The March 1950 edition of "Bits and Spurs" Magazine.

Jim Pendroy and Susie Messenger were married near Des Moines, Iowa, in 1883, at the respective age of 20 years. Soon afterward, accompanied by his father and mother, Jim mounted his saddle horse, and Susie, seated in the covered wagon, grasped the reins of the Pintos and they headed for the west, driving a herd of 125 cattle before them. The Mouse River valley in North Dakota was their destination.

For 73 days, the little caravan journeyed westward. The cattle grew footsore. It was hot and water was hard to find. They passed through Indian Territory but were not molested. At times the trip was very discouraging.

It was particularly disheartening when from their night's camp they could plainly see where they had spent the previous night.

The days wore on and finally they reached the Mouse River valley where they found plenty of hay for their hungry animals. They settled there, 125 miles west of Devils, Lake, ND, the end of the Great Northern Railroad. Bismarck, ND, located on the Northern Pacific Railroad, was also 125 miles away.

The first job, even before that of building a house, was to put up enough hay for the coming winter. There was plenty of timber and after the haying was done, all hands fell to cutting logs for the houses. Jim cut as fast as they could haul away. The log houses were topped with sod roofs while old Mother Earth provided the floor.

The one window and enough boards to make the door cost about $4. A piece of muslin was tacked to the slabs supporting the sod to keep the dirt from sliding down. The chief drawback was the fact that the muslin was not waterproof, so when it rained they were showered here and there by dirty water.

All these things Jim recalled time and again. His blue eyes would twinkle with humor as he told how his brother in law would take his umbrella and sit outside during a rainstorm so he could enjoy a shower of water instead of the muddy one inside. When he thought of Susie's discouraging experiences in trying to keep the little house neat and clean, he shook his head and a note of sadness crept into his voice. It was hard going, but they got through the winter in pretty good shape. They had plenty to eat except they had to save enough potatoes for seed so they got pretty hungry for potatoes.

In those days the government gave three kinds of claims; A homestead, a tree claim, and a pre-emption. Some of those deeds were signed by President Grover Cleveland. There was an unlimited amount of grazing land available so you can readily see the importance of good saddle horses.

The Pendroys brought the first purebred Hereford bulls into McHenry County. They started Pendroy Post Office, which was there for years. Later the Great Northern Railroad erected a monument on that spot in honor of Verendrye, the early explorer of that country, and later renamed the little town Verendrye. In later years Levi and Jim Andrew Pendroy, cousins of Jim, started the town of Pendroy in Montana, which is still in existence. Jim Andrew Pendroy, now 86 years old, lives in Long Beach, CA.

Uncle Andrew, Jim's father, being a kind of horse doctor, looked after the health of all the people, horses and cattle of the community. He also pulled their aching teeth.

In one of the 125 mile trips to Bismark for supplies, the group of travelers camped at Strawberry Lake. At dusk they were joined by some cowboys who had with them three prisoners. The three were charged with stealing cattle. Uncle Andrew gave them permission to camp with his party overnight. In the morning they were all gone when the Pendroy party awoke. The next spring when the lake broke up the three prisoners were found floated to shore all tied together with lasso rope. The law of the "Old West" had acted again.

After the rigors of this pioneer life, such as making his bed under the wagon, in the snow, chaining his horses to the wagon with a log chain and padlock to keep the Indians from stealing them, raising six children, the oldest, Lizzie, being the first white child born in McHenry county, and other hardships that can never be put into writing, Jim lived a full life of 86 years.

However, it was not all hardship, for he often spoke of the house parties at which they would "trip the light fantastic" until daylight, or he would proudly tell how Susie and he won the prize waltz.

He was very proud of this picture in which at the age of 86 he still sits his horse like a veteran ready to take out after a troublesome steer. He raised and rode many good horses, was a great lover and a good judge of horses. He was proud especially of this own ponies which were always "the best."

Being a "chip off the old block," I, his son, Charley Pendroy, have the same strong love for horses as did my father. My wife and I have two good pleasure horses and enjoy belonging to the Lake Region Saddle Club in Minnesota. We look forward to each month's issue of the Bit and Spur, your fine magazine.

Whether I'll still be riding at the age of 86 is truly the $64 question.

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LIFE SKETCH

BY JAMES MARTIN PENDROY

1862-1948

A special thanks to the Pendroy family in Minnesota for providing this additional life story. At eight pages lenth it comntains some information in the shorter version provided by the Stickels family. Since there is different information in each one, I have left them both published on the site here.

Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Feburary 12, 1940. To my children and grandchildren I hope this Life Sketch will be handed down for a good many generation.

Our Grandparents immigrated to America about the year 1700 A.D. from England, Scotland and Switzerland. First to South Caroline, Ohio, Indiana and Iowa in 1849 to Otley. I was born October 27, 1862. I was one of a family of seven children born to Andrew and Margaret Pendroy. James Martin Pendroy, the writer of this Sketch. I had five sisters and one brother-Juliah, Barbara, Olie, Lizzie and Maggie, and Charles William. I am the only one left of this family living and I am 77 years old the 27th of October 1939.

The year 1880 the family left Otley and moved to Menlow, Iowa and lived there 3 years and in 1882 the writer got acquainted with Susana Messinger and was married the 31st of January 1883. She was the oldest girl in a family of 12 children and was born close to Muncie, Indiana.

The 19th of May 1883 with my Father and Mother, sister Ollie and her husband Marcellis Walker and sister Maggie and brother Charles we started on a long drive that we was on the road 73 days. Landed two miles north of Pendroy, McHenry County, North Dakota on the Mouse River. At that time it was 125 miles to the nearest trading point Devils Lake and Bismark. At that time it was a vast plain from Devils Lake to the Rocky Mountains, with buffalo bones by the 1000's scattered the whole country. Well, we all were glad when we got to the Mouse River. My Father and Mother were getting up in years at that time. When we started on our trip my Father had 46 head of cattle and 10 or 12 head of horse had two covered wagons and one canned spring wagon. About 15 miles a day was as far as we could drive the cattle. We had a tent and camped out the whole trip. Susie and I slept in one wagon the whole trip and she drove a pair of spotted horses all the way. We slept in that wagon 6 months before we had a house to go into.

Winter was coming and we hat to put up lotz of hay for all the cattle and horses. It was a long way to town. It would take two weeks to make a trip to town for flour and the groceries for all winter. By the first of December we had up two rooms 14 x 16. My Father and Mother lived in one, I and Susie in the other. So we all built fast to have a house for the winter.

The route from Menlow, Ovel Lake, Sac City, Ida Grove and, Sioux City, Iowa then into South Dakota territory. North and South had been made two states but not admitted to Statehood. That was through an Indian reservation, first they were friendly.

We had a good outfit for camping, with a sheet iron stove to bake bread in. We had a flour chest in the back end of one of the wagons where the bread was always made. I don't know how it happened to be but Susie always made the biscuits and one-day when she was making the bread a big Sioux Indian came up and looked in the wagon and scared her awful bad. But he didn't mean any harm. The Indians had been on the warpath a short time before that up in Montana. The old Chief Sitting Bull was making some trouble long about that time. This was only four years after Custers Massacre in Montana.

Some neighbors wanted my Father to drive some cattle. So when we got ready to go we had 125 head of cattle. Uncle James Pendroy and his family were moving to North Dakota at the same time and some of the cattle where theirs. They shipped through on the train all our household goods and staked out some claims.

The Government hadn't surveyed the land so any body could stake out a claim of 160 acres and build on it and hold it until the Government surveyed it. They could then file it, then anybody could get 160 acres and live on it for 6 months and pay $1.25 an acre. A homestead of 160 acres could be gotten by living on that land 5 years and improving it and get a deed and land grant from the government and they could take a tree claim and clear out 10 acres and in 5 years get a deed for it. I got three claims in, that was 480 acres. That was in Grover Cleveland's time when he was president. We arrived at our destination

The 3rd of August 1883. As I said on a previous page, we was glad to get moved in our house. Well, the winter past off very good. Uncle Jim's and Marion Pace families, that was quite a bunch, so we got along fine

Then some time in February 1884 we was expecting our first baby. On the 27th of February the baby was born. Well, we got along fine that winter, the next spring we staked out a claim out on the prairie and put up a log house and lived there that summer and plowed up about 20 acres of sod. Then in the fall my Father bought out a squatters rights and we moved down in the timber on the Mouse River .I bought my Father's rights and we did not built a home for a good many years. I took that as a homestead and in 6 months improved it and gave $1.25 for a acre. That was in 1885, going 125 miles to Devils Lake to the land office.

I and my Father worked together for a good many years, put up our hay together. I fed the big cattle and fed the calves. We drifted along just like everybody else, trying to live and improve our land.

Then in 1886 Susie went back home and Gertrude was born the 3rd of October 1886. Then the first of November that year my Father and Brother Charlie and myself met Susie and the two children, now Lizzie and Gertrude at Devils Lake still 125 miles away. We had two covered wagons taking back provision for 6 months. What a difference in the mode of traveling of today and 53 years gone by. As I am writing this with the auto's traveling at 60 miles an hour and getting the news from all over the world right at your finger tips.

The day Susie got to Devils Lake it came about 4 inches of snow and only two stopping places in 100 miles to where Towner in McHenry Co. is now. Well, we got there in two hard days. Susie and I slept in the house and Father and Charlie slept in the covered wagon. About 3 ½ days we got home safe. The last 40 miles were hard; nothing to guide us but sod mounds stood up two feet high every 40 rods. We was all glad we got home O.K. and I sure made it a point to never have to make a trip again like that. A good many people had narrow escapes of freezing to death and a good many did freeze to death. In the next ten years I was out in a good many bad snowstorms, but I was sure to keep in sight of the timber on Mouse River.

Well, we was glad to be home again to be home again and I went about my work whistling and singing. That is what the neighbors told. And I remember that after more than 50 years as I am writing this. Well by the time there was several neighbors and it wasn't all work and no play. Several would get together and tap the lite fancy to to our hearts content, and Susie and I could do that. A Norwegian played the violin and a colored man the banjo.

Some times several would go to Devils Lake together. One time about the first of November, 4 or 5 started for Devils Lake. There was 4 or 5 inches of snow on the ground at the time. There was a house out of Devils Lake about 4 miles it was about 14 feet square. All of the boys were my cousins. Marion Pace and myself, when we got to go to bed all the other boys had got ahead of us and the other travelers and their families. Well, the floor was packed with the other boys and travelers so Marion Pace and I couldn't get in the house. Well, there wasn't anything for us to do but sleep outside on the snow, which was 5 or 6 inches deep. We had covered wagons but they were all loaded down and there was no place to sleep, so we made our bed in the snow by the side of the wagon. Tho we had plenty of bedding and slept O.K. with all of our clothes on. Johnny, and Jim Pendroy, cousin Tom Berry said we was as tough as grizzly bears to stand cold and you had to be to live in Dakota at that time or it seemed so. A good thermometer would show lots of time down to 45 and 50 below zero. This time I related it was probably 20 above zero. I don't remember where Marion and I slept the next night but we got home O.K. that was in 1886. I never camped out after that time, but only a few times.

The Great Northern Railroad came in soon after, that is the next summer. By this time Father and I was getting quite a bunch of cattle, that kept us pretty busy putting up hay. Cattle and hay were our main source of income. I had good 160 acres mostly hay land on Mouse River Valley that come right up to the timber and river. When we built our house and other buildings we had about 10 acres of fine timber right on the riverbank. That furnished water that was a great help and all kinds of wild fruits. Then I built another room 14 by 16 that made two rooms that big. Then we was getting along fine. Then I put up a log barn, room for 6 horses, put on shingles on the roof. It was the first barn with a shingled roof in the township

Father rented 320 acres of a school land that joined my claim and his land toward the

east. We lived just one mile apart and all joined. Mother bought 320 acres that lay between us and was good hay land and pasture. Then about this time I filed on a homestead and a tree claim that lay south and east of the home place. Then I got my cousin to take a homestead that joined that, all together that made 480 acres, all together mostly farm land and pasture. I gave this cousin, Sallie Berry, $500.00 for that claim.

We needed a lot of pasture . The way it was filed on it took about 5 miles to fence all of that land. That took a lot of post, 1600 posts. Well that was a lot of work to split all of them posts. A neighbor had alot of big post timber and I split 3000 for ½ and done all of the chopping and splitting myself. Sawed it up in 5 ½ foot cuts. Well it took about 3000 lbs. Of barb wire and I put that up the summer of 1886 in June.

Then it was time to make hay. Father rented a school section of 640 acres about 160 acres of fine hay land. He rented it for five years for $125.00 that year we had 1000 ton of hay on all of our land. We had three 6 foot McCormick mowers, hay stackers, two 12 foot rakes and two bull rakes. That was our outfit for making hay. We had 60-work horse. We had three hired men. I think at that time brother Charlie was 16 years old. At that time Father ran the machinery some. He was getting up in year at that time, us boys didn't expect him to do much work. He furnished the money for all the equipment at that time there wasn't any gasoline power. People took more pride in their horses then at this day and age 1940. We didn't go out to the field with the horses half harnessed like they do today. You have heard the song that goes like this " everybody works but Father" well that was way it was with us boys. I stacked all that hay that year. We bought a good many cattle to feed up our hay. Father and I bought 125 head of three-year-old steers. The bigger part of hay was fed to them and what we had before, probably 250 in all. I hauled hay that winter and fed 4-ton everyday for 6 months longer. Beatrice and Cora were born during that time. Beatrice, January 8th, 1888 and Cora was born the 15th of January, 1891. When she was born I said to Susie we are getting quite a family, but I kept right on chopping wood and hauling hay. By that time there was quite a bunch of relatives come from Iowa, about 70 at one time. Father had so many nephews and nieces that everybody got to calling him Uncle Andy and Mother Aunt Margaret. It was Uncle Andy every place he went, and he had a wide circle of friends and often they'd come to him for advice and money too some times. One neighbor I remember got to quarreling with his wife and told his wife he would go down to Uncle Andy's and sell everything he had to him. Ed Gilbertson (at Velva, our closet town) was a storekeeper and we knew him very good. He said if he could borrow $500.00 for a while he wouldn't have to close his store. Father and I talked it over and he got $500.00. When we moved to North Dakota we fetched the first purebred Hereford Bulls that were in the state at that time east of the Missouri River. After we sold that 125 steers Father and I didn't change much more work. It was getting so it was better to work by oneself instead of the way of changing work.

Father didn't need me and I did without him. I had some haying machinery and 2 or 3 horses. I went right along the same way, buying cattle when I had more hay then I needed. That was when the Great Northern Railroad had come to Mouse River 25 miles down the river and Towner the County Seat was started and there were banks and money to lose. I could always borrow quite a bit on up til 1900 A.D.

Mother had poor health for several years. It had been about 8 years mama hadn't seen any of her folks, so we felt like she should make a visit back home, that was the winter of 1893. Beatrice was five and Cora two years old. Mama and the four children went back home to Menlow, Iowa and stayed for three months. They had a good visit….. I met them at Towner and that was 25 miles from home and it was 35 degrees below zero at that time in March. Well, we was all glad to be home again.

I stayed with Father and Mother while they were gone. Mike Messinger was about 12 years old at that time…….Beatrice was five years at that time. Well everything went along for the next few years. Father and I bought more cattle and I put up a good log barn for horses, 16 by 28 and a shingled roof the first shingles to be put on a building in the neighborhood. Well we were all happy and got along very good for several years, buying cattle and raising more calves from the foundation herd. I had at that time about 75 head of my own. I did not farm any at that time 1894.

Our family was growing up and needed more room and I built another room 14 by 16. That mad three rooms 14 by 16. We thought we was just fine at that time. Well I didn't envy anybody. I made a living and made some money at that time. I had some horses and some good ones too. I was getting pretty good outfits for that time. About that time I went to Minot and bought a spring wagon and give $125.00 for it and a $40.00 set of Buggy harness and we got a lot of pleasure out of that. We would take long drives the same as they do today with autos.

Mama and I had hoped we would have a son sometime so on the 16th of March 1895, Charlie was born and we was all happy. We name him after my brother Charlie, and I will say right here we have been pretty god pals for 45 years and never quarrel much. I never said a bad word to him and he did not to his Daddy.

When he was in the World War 1 in 1918, I got a letter from his nurse when he was sick. She said "you and your son must be pretty good pals" I sure hated to see him go to that war, thou I never turned a hand upside down to keep him out. People was raising money for the Red Cross at that time and I put up a horse that sold to the first bidder for $50.00 That went to the Red Cross.

We got along very good for several years and in April 1899 Mother passed away at 71 years of age, until this time we hadn't had much sickness, but Mother had poor health for several years. She was buried at Velva, North Dakota in the family lot, the first one buried in that cemetery after it was laid out. We all missed Mother so much. I had always lived close to home, just one mile away. She was a great help in guiding us through our long pioneering. She thought a lot of Susie and the children and gave Charlie his middle name after her Grandfather Spruce who was born in Switzerland. Then in 1901 September the 6th, Father passed away. We all missed him because he was always visiting. Though after Mother died, him and Brother Charlie lived together and kept a housekeeper. He was always glad for the children to go to school. Some times they would stay with him. He would take them to school when they stayed with him. He was buried beside Mother in the family lot at Velva.

When Father passed away he had 960 acres of land and 225 head of cattle (Hereferds) and 10 horses and a good lot of equipment for making hay.

When we first went to North Dakota there was lot of fine-feathered grouse and we had a good many hunting trips. Together we only had one gun, when one would miss his grouse the other one would get the gun. Father and Susie went to Velva and took the gun, they ran into a big flock of grouse and killed several and took them to Velva and Mary Stickels cleaned them and they had a fine dinner.

In dividing up his property Father said on his death bed that I had always helped him when he needed help and he said on his death bed what he wanted me to have and I was satisfied with what I got of his estate. 240 acres of land and 75 head of cattle, 3 horses and some other personnel property. I had 960 acres of land and 225 head of Hereford cattle and good pure bred as he had used purebred sires for 18 years. Brother Charlie got the home farm, except 80 acres that joined my land. He got 400 acres in Mouse River Valley and sister Ollie and Maggie got 75 head of cattle equally and personnel property. The other 160 I got was in Section 6, Township 153R78, one mile south of Pendroy, North Dakota. The Northwest ¼ of section ½. Sister Maggie Marnlee got 160 acres joining on the south and I bought that from her for $800.00. That was all fenced and had a good wire fence around it. That made 1120 acres of land I had myself. Father had 320 acres of school land rented and Brother Charlie took over that lease. I had ¼ and him the other. That had about 100 ton of hay on each 160 acres and I still leased that land for a good many years, for 17 years I think. This was the first part of 1902 AD.

In 1899 I built a very good farmhouse. The main part of the house was 16 by 30 feet and the kitchen was 16 ft square. The house was L-shaped. Two stories high. We were sure all glad to get moved into the new house. I tore down our old log house. Sold one room to my brother-in-law Charlie Tockmilles, and moved the other two rooms for out buildings. Well we drifted along and we were all happy and didn't envy anybody, not even the King of England.

Then in 1902 Juverna was born. Well she has been the baby for a long time, 38 years and she will always be the baby. We sure have been pals all these years and would not sit with her hands folded and let anybody talk about her Daddy. We had some real close relatives that thought they should give me and my family some advice, without one cent of pay. Although Juverna lives 600 miles away we keep up a regular correspondence that has kept us in close touch with one another. I said before Juverna would fight for her Daddy. I guess they all would do that. I almost had to hold Charlie one time in Sauk Centre when a man didn't talk very nice to his Daddy. I am sure all of my grandchildren would fight for me if it was necessary.

Juverna, having rode and drove horses more then any of the other girls, maybe it was because their Mother needed the older girls in the house to help with the house work. One time a team of pretty wild horses were hitched to a spring wagon and ran away with her and she jumped clear of everything and let them go. Those horses tore all through the fence with that spring wagon. I don't know what the wagon was worth but I sold it for $1.00 She didn't get hurt.

We all rode horseback a lot driving cattle and I have been thrown off of wild horses a good many times but never got hurt much. I have had horses turn headover heels and I would jump off as they turned over and run out of the way of them. I have had riding horses that I could tie a wild steer or a bull to the saddlehorn and they would brace all four feet and hold them for a long time whether I was in the saddle or not.

When I was a young man I thought I was pretty good with the lasso, that is a long 30-foot rope with a loop on one end to throw over the steers head as they ran past you. My cattle brand was J.D.(P?) on the left hip, the brand was 5 inches, and it is on record at Bismark, North Dakota. Everyone had to brand their cattle so they would know them when we would fetch them home in the fall of the year. We put them out in big herds, maybe 5 or 600 head and one man would round them up every day, where there was water and plenty grazing land. That was from 1883 to 1895 A.D. before the country was all settled up.

One fall there was a bad snowstorm the last of September. The storm drifted our cattle 25 miles and we had a hard time getting them back home. Charlie was about 10 years old, mama and him went in the buggy, and I went on horseback. We all got awful cold but we got the cattle home. In one day the cattle went in two bunches. Charlie and Mama went one way and I went the other. Some times when a big snow storms would come up before some big herds would be down in and the Herders maybe not have them around up they would go with the storm and if they would happen to come to a lake they would go straight in the water, and maybe 30 or 40 would drown before they would stop piling on top of one another. I never lost any myself that way however.

To brand cattle the letters are made out of iron and let in the fire and then burn the hair and the hide. So the brand will always show. It would always take 5 or 6 to brand. They would have to throw down and hold the cattle while one put the brand on and we would have a lot of fun sometimes. One time at home we was branding some wild 3-year old steers and one big steer got mad and took after I and another young fellow and we started to run and he fell down. I was right behind him and I ran right over him. We both got out of the way of the steer without getting hurt. This happened about the year 1896. We branded our horses on the left shoulder unless it was a matched team then one was branded on the right shoulder. Then both brands would be on the outside.

We had a team at this time and a fine pair, their names where Sweetheart and Bill. Charlie took a lot of pride in them horses. Charlie was always a good feeder and as long as he was at home I had good harness for him to work with. The color of these horses was gray, Norman breed.

I sold several horses that went into the First World War in 1914. In 1902 we had our first big flood on Mouse River. We was all scared we thought all of our cattle and horses would be drown. It came so fast. I was taking the children to school about a mile from home we were in the edge of the timber and I looked up the road about 20 rods and the water came in a big wave 2 ½ feet deep and one mile and a half in some places. I had 150 head of cattle at that time. We got all our cattle out on high ground. A good many had some deep water to go through and some calves had to swim out. Charlie carried some calves on the horses back he was riding. Uncle Jim Pendroy had a big pasture we put our cattle and he had a house we moved into and three other neighbors, all cousins. We got along fine and didn't have any loses by drowning. Some houses the water was three feet deep in them. But our house was on higher ground and the water came up within a few steps of the house. We was sure glad of that, but we already carried our furniture upstairs.

We soon moved back home, the cattle we didn't fetch them home until late in fall, put them in different pastures. I had 320 acres of pasture. I went back and forth on the high land. I, Charlie, and Cora went out a mile from the river; we saw a big fish in shallow water. The water had gone down and it couldn't get out. That fish was 2 1/2 feet long. I jumped out and caught him and it was hard for me to hold the biggest fish I have ever seen before or any time in my life. The high waters made a good big crop of hay, so the water made us money instead of being a loss for us.

Well we drifted along the children were old enough to begin to think about getting out for themselves. Our oldest daughter Lizzie Pearl was married to James R. Meaghes at home on April 13th, 1903. Well, we were all happy for more than two years and our first sorrow came. On September 13, 1905 our Lizzie passed away and left two children, one 21 months and the other baby a few days old. Their names were Mary and Francis. Lizzie was 21 years 6 months, 14 days old. Well it seemed like our sorrow came thick and fast after that. We took the baby home and kept it for two years.

This is the end of his writing. Wish he would have gone on and finished it. I tried to type it just as he had written it, but some of Grandpa's writing was hard to make out, so I done the best I could.

Bernice Pendroy.

James married Susannah Messinger [5580] [MRIN: 2278] in 1883 in Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, USA. (Susannah Messinger [5580] was born in Oct 1862 in , , Indiana, USA and died after 1900 in ?mchenry Co., ND.)