In processing and organizing collections to make them accessible to researchers, the staff at the State Archives stumbles across unique items with their own stories to tell. While many of these documents and photographs relate to prominent people from North Dakota, or those who spent time or rendered some service to the state, we sometimes find an interesting connection to an important figure in American history in unlikely places.

We recently made one such find. Probate case files are important archival records at the county level that find their way to the State Archives as county governments across North Dakota need to make room for more current records. Older records are sent to us for storage and preservation and are great tools for researchers (especially genealogists) to trace the history of an ancestor’s estate and find other relatives.

In September 2017, Barnes County transferred some of their older probate records to the State Archives. Bev Keesey, one of our volunteers, worked on processing them. One afternoon she stumbled upon Case #599 from 1885 related to Anne Charlotte Fenimore Cooper, daughter of James Fenimore Cooper, author of the Leatherstocking Series, which includes the novels The Pathfinder and The Last of the Mohicans.

Ms. Cooper’s probate case is an interesting read, as her heirs included her other surviving siblings, most who resided in and around the Cooperstown, New York, area. This begs the question: how did a descendant of one of America’s most influential nineteenth-century authors, with no known connection to our state, come to have a probate case in North Dakota? The likely answer links her to one of the major power players of North Dakota early settlement--the railroad.

Cooper’s probate case concerned, according to several case documents, “An undivided one-half interest in the North West quarter (N.W.1/4) [sic] of Section number Fourteen (14) in Township number One Hundred thirty-nine (139) North of Range Fifty-seven (57) West of the Fifth Principal Meridian, in Barnes County, North Dakota.”¹ This land is located southeast of Valley City and, based on the fact that Cooper has “An undivided one-half interest” in said tract of land, suggests that the land was part of the large swaths of land given to the Northern Pacific Railroad (NP) during the late nineteenth century along their route through North Dakota. That parcel of land was purchased in the Fargo land office by Anthony Gemmet on October 20, 1882.²

According to the case file, the interest Cooper held was valued at $1,500, which would be worth just over $39,000 today when adjusted for inflation. Further, John Noack, acting as administrator of the estate, was the petitioner to the court on the behalf of Cooper, who was deceased. As the case was probated, the land became Noack’s property, and, according to the Standard Atlas of Barnes County, North Dakota (1910), Noack (spelled Noach in the atlas) owned the entire northern half of the section in question, as well as the eastern half of section 12 in the same township.³

It is fascinating to see how a simple case related to a small piece of land in southeastern North Dakota can link investment, settlement, and the descendants of one of America’s most well-known authors. While I have no indication that Anne Cooper ever visited North Dakota, the connection of her (and by extension, her famous father) to the state is special, given the frontier nature of North Dakota in the late 1800s, North Dakota’s important role in the settlement of the West, and James Fenimore Cooper’s love of the frontier in American history.

View a PDF version of the case file.

¹ Anne Charlotte Fenimore Cooper probate case file, Barnes County Probate Case Files, State Historical Society of North Dakota.
² “Patent Details,” U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records, accessed June 27, 2018, https://glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=ND0350….
³ Standard Atlas of Barnes County, North Dakota, Chicago:  Alden Publishing Co., 1910, 55.

As we are in the midst of the holiday season, the sights turn to snow, lit up houses, Christmas trees, and packed shopping malls. Our thoughts turn to time with family and friends, holiday parties, and gift giving. Often, this time is one that we reflect on past seasons and special gifts that brightened our childhoods and memories that will last a lifetime and beyond.

The vast collections of the State Archives provide many treasures and resources for understanding life in days gone by. It seems appropriate to consider items and collections that allow casual visitors and researchers opportunities to learn about how people in our area experienced the holiday season. We have a number of resources available related to the Christmas season that will generate curiosity and personal reflection.

Have you ever wondered what items your parents or grandparents may have had on their wish lists? Curious as to what items were available for possible gifts during Christmases past? We have catalogs from JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, and Sears that span several years. This is something many may remember doing as kids, circling the toys and other items we hoped would be waiting for us under the tree Christmas morning. These catalogs are wonderful resources to the material culture of preceding generations, illustrate changes in fashion, and provide insights into the economic history of our country. We also have an FAO Schwarz toy catalog for the fall and winter season of 1974-1975 that is full of unique toys, including the ones on the page image below.

One page featuring some history playsets in the 1974-1975 FAO Schwarz Fall & Winter catalog.

In addition to looking at our assortment of store catalogs, those curious as to what potential gifts made Christmas lists in past decades can also examine our extensive newspaper collection on microfilm. Advertisements for goods were a common sight in North Dakota newspapers. While our minds usually gravitate towards grocery items when considering such ads, other local businesses ran ads in the pages of their local paper announcing deals on clothes, toys, televisions, and many other items. Our newspapers are also a great resource for seeing what the communities in North Dakota did around the holidays in terms of events.

Greeting cards, whether homemade or store bought, are a common item associated with the Christmas season. Several of our collections contain examples of such cards and range from simple to very ornate. The Martin M. Stasney Papers (Series# 10630) contains an example of a child’s card, as Violette Stasney colored a Christmas postcard in crayon. Another example of a Christmas card comes from the Della (Moos) Schoepp Papers (Series# 11080) and is a large Christmas card that opens to a detailed pop-up Nativity scene.

Christmas postcard colored in by Violette Stasney, part of the Martin M. Stasney Papers (Series# 10630).

Front of Christmas card from the Della (Moos) Schoepp Papers (Series# 11080). Photo by Daniel Sauerwein.

Inside of Christmas card from the Della (Moos) Schoepp Papers (Series# 11080). Photo by Daniel Sauerwein.

Our holdings on Digital Horizons also provide some interesting Christmas related items. One example is from World War I, when the Gackle Republican ran an image on the front page of its December 14, 1917 issue featuring Santa Claus standing upon the world, passing out gifts to various children of the world, under the caption, “Santa Claus to all the world.” It is interesting to note that only the children of Allied nations are represented, clearly denoting that America is at war and that the enemy’s children are deemed not deserving of gifts at Christmas. This prime example of wartime propaganda during the Christmas season conveys the efforts to dehumanize citizens of the enemy nations and stands in stark contrast to the meaning of the season. The image also symbolizes that there were men fighting in the trenches during the season as well who were away from loved ones.

Front page of the December 14, 1917 issue of The Gackle Republican, featuring Santa Claus passing out gifts to the Allied children of the world.

Finally, while there is a lot of work that goes on in the Archives, we also make time to get in the holiday spirit by doing a little decorating and bringing out a staff favorite. This is my first Christmas with the State Historical Society. I was introduced to a tradition in the Archives of bringing out Olive, the other reindeer, who I have been told by fellow Reference Specialist Sarah Walker is a boy, was the creation of our State Archivist, Ann Jenks, and stands watch by the reference desk. He’s quite the character to say the least. Who says archivists can’t have a little fun?

Olive sends holiday greetings from the Archives. Photo by Daniel Sauerwein

I hope as you prepare your own activities for the holidays, you take some time to stop by and look at the treasures of Christmas past we have in our collections. We wish you a safe and happy holiday season.

As America is in the midst of the centennial of our involvement in World War I, historians and the larger nation reflect on a conflict that, at the time, was regarded as “the war to end all wars,” but is largely overshadowed by World War II just over two decades later. Our involvement in World War I, while brief compared to European nations that had sacrificed the cream of their manhood since August 1914, is no less significant.

In North Dakota, approximately twenty-eight thousand individuals served in the war and 474 were killed.¹ With war raging in Europe and farmers here at home attempting to fill the food gap left by European farmland being turned into battlefields, what insights did the North Dakota servicemen offer in their letters home?

The State Archives is blessed to have several outstanding collections that have materials related to World War I on a variety of subjects, from nurses to post-war work with the nascent League of Nations. With several collections to choose from, my focus turned to letters written by soldiers from North Dakota and what these writings had to share.

Photo from Howard R. Huston Papers (Photo #10895-1-3-28), State Archives. Caption reads, “Here was an old German kitchen. When company ‘M’ 59th Inf. chased the Germans away from it they had to leave in such a hurry that they left pots of stew still boiling on the stove. We had eaten nothing for about a day and a half and their contribution was very gratefully received. Enough food was captured in this place to feed 500 men for two days.”

The Howard R. Huston Papers is one collection that stands out. Huston was born in the state and grew up in McHenry County, ND. He attended the University of North Dakota, and enlisted in 1917. While serving with the 4th Infantry Division in France, he saw combat and was wounded. After the war, he worked for the League of Nations, an organization that was meant to model the later United Nations and serve as a forum for the world’s nations to come together and solve disputes through peaceful means.

Letter from Howard R. Huston to his parents in which he references meeting Charlie Chaplin.

In one of his early letters home (before shipping overseas) Huston mentioned meeting and dining with legendary entertainer Charlie Chaplin and running into several fellow North Dakotans where he was stationed. In addition, he expressed his love of the work he was doing in the army at the time, further noting that being a soldier in wartime is “no more dangerous than any other work.”² It is important to note that Huston had yet to experience combat himself, and such optimism and exuberance is a common thread in soldiers’ writings prior to their arrival at the front.

Photo from Howard R. Huston Papers (Photo #10895-1-3-10), State Archives. Caption reads, “This was a vast field in July 1918 and into it my company advanced on the 19th. The machine gun bullets were literally sprayed over it by the Germans and on the spot where I stand Pop Crane was killed.”

Another great collection that houses letters and other writings from soldiers in World War I is the War History Commission, which gathered information related to the service of persons from all counties in North Dakota. Anton Peterson, who served with Company D, 18th Infantry Regiment, which was assigned to the renowned First Infantry Division, described marching to the trenches carrying “two blankets, one suit of underwear, our toilet articles, reserve rations, and one hundred rounds of amunition [sic].” He noted that the weather was rainy, the “roads were sleet,” and that “some of the boys had to be taken in on the ambulance.”³

While in the trenches of France, some common themes emerged from soldiers’ writings, usually revolving around comforts of home, awarding of medals and decorations, and anxieties over combat. In a letter home to family dated April 7, 1918, Corporal G. McClain Johnson of Company L, 164th Infantry Regiment, which was the North Dakota National Guard, discussed the impatience at waiting for the word to go into combat, as well as his impatience at getting word from home. He also wrote, “Whenever the notion strikes you to send something over this way remember that these are three articles which are acceptable over all else. They are—magazines & newspapers, candy, and Tobacco.”⁴ Though the writings avoid specific details related to combat operations, the fears some soldiers had were hidden within the words. It is important to note that letters home faced screening by military censors to avoid disclosing sensitive information related to operations, and that soldiers may well have felt uneasy sharing such experiences with those who would not understand, having never served.

The end of the fighting was a time of adulation for the soldiers, but also a time of reflection on what they had been through. Oscar O. Haugen wrote to his family roughly two weeks after the armistice took effect on November 11, 1918, describing his feelings at the end of the fighting. He wrote

No more wondering if the next shell got your number on it or not. No more wondering what time of the night you have to get up and out to the lines and do some small Job of some kind.
Quite nice to be able to go to bed at night and know you can sleep all night. As it is about five months now we have been on the go almost day and night.⁵

Haugen also wrote a letter to his father in Norwegian as well, reflecting the diverse nature of the American army during the war, which included a significant number of immigrants and second-generation Americans who still retained strong cultural and linguistic connections to their ancestral homelands.⁶

Overall, the writings reflect the diversity of the American soldier from North Dakota in World War I, while reflecting the commonality of the shared experience of serving in the greatest war the world had known to that time. The men expressed their feelings of service, the concerns with coming battle, missing home and family, desire for letters and gifts from loved ones, and some of the unique experiences they encountered during their time in the military. The writings of World War I veterans are a window into a long ago time that must not be forgotten, as the war and their service in it continues to shape the world.

¹“World War I,” North Dakota Department of Veteran Affairs, accessed August 18, 2017, http://www.nd.gov/veterans/heroes/conflicts/world-war-i.
²Howard R. Huston to parents (original letter), undated, Howard R. Huston Papers, box 1, folder 1, North Dakota State Archives, Bismarck.
³Anton Peterson, The Diary of Cpl. Anton Peterson, 18th Inf. Co. D, 1st Div. A.E.F., War History Commission Records, box 2, folder 11, North Dakota State Archives, Bismarck.
⁴G. McLain Johnson to parents and Eva, 7 April 1918, War History Commission Records, box 2, folder 20, North Dakota State Archives, Bismarck.
⁵Oscar O. Haugen to family, 25 November 1918, War History Commission Records, box 2, folder 14, North Dakota State Archives, Bismarck.
⁶Oscar O. Haugen to father (written in Norwegian), 22 December 1918, War History Commission Records, box 2, folder 14, North Dakota State Archives, Bismarck.