WELCOME TO SALLY’S DIARIES:
Before I get started describing this piece, I want to let you know that I have a podcast. I’ve taken some diaries from my private collection and shared them on our podcast called “Diary Discoveries.” We’ve got 48 episodes out now and you can find it on all the usual podcast venues. So if you enjoy the compelling and adventurous stories from vintage diaries then please check it out.
Plus, I was asked to do a TEDx talk in Vienna about this very thing, collecting diaries, and if you are interested in this sort of thing just put into the search engines “10,000 diaries” and you should come up with it. It was a privileged and blessing to be able to share what I’ve learned in the last 36 years. And with all that said……
Up for auction today is a handwritten ledger that contains 50 pages, of which 31 have handwritten entries and they all have to do with Green Township North Dakota from July 12th, 1910 to 1914. Now it doesn’t say Green Township on the ledger but it does say School District No. 73 Barnes Co. State of North Dakota.
Tons of names are written in this ledger and when I look many of them up in the census records, sure enough, they were all from Green Township.
I don’t believe this town really exists anymore, and if so it’s only got a few people in it. As of the 2000 census only 97 people lived there. I did find some history concerning the township, and I quote….Green Township
“Organized
March 3, 1894, the township was named for Judge David Nathaniel
Green, a former judge of probate in coldwater, Michigan. He, his
family and a number of other from Coldwater came to Stewart and Green
Townships in 1881 and took up land. He was married to the sister of
A. H. Gray, another homesteader active in community affairs and later
a pioneer lumber man in Valley City. The township was colorful with
its Grays, Greens, Blacks, Lampmans and Knights. The settlement was
early called Gragreen. Judge Green was also a county commissioner for
Barnes County and a representative for the sixth Legislative
assembly. No towns grew up in Green township, the Grays, the Greens,
and others living instead in Valley city, not far away. As in Stewart
Township few of the first settlers remained, their place taken mainly
by Scandinavians. The Gragreen School No. 74 established in 1882,
lost territory to Plainview in Skandia until it was abolished May 18,
1915, when students went to Green Consolidated. Students of Green
Township had also attended Franklin in Hemen Township and Planinview
until Green Consolidated was built February 16, 1914.
Green Consolidated is now closed.”
The first 21 pages are handwritten proceedings of meetings that were held at the schoolhouse. Then the rest of the pages are titled, “Clerk’s Record of Funds Received and Warrants Drawn” - “Clerk Record of School Officers” - “Clerk Record of Teachers Employed” and “List of Text Books Adopted.”
The first page lists Joseph Nackel for President and Elias Larsen as clerk. It then talks about the bonds that are approved, and when school should start and how long the students will go, etc. It also goes on to talk about the different teachers. I’ve scanned as many pages as possible but please note the book is larger (measuring about 9” x 11 1/2”) than my scanner and the pages might look cut off because of that.
Here are some of the many names mentioned: Isaac Jacoobson, Peter Olson, Olaus Kjelland, Elias Larson, Clara Johnson, Mudget, Berg and Benson Paint, Westergaard Machine Co., Laura Folkestad, Hans G. Hanson, Ella Jacobson, Dakota Drug Co., People’s Fuel Co., Berg and Benson for Nails, Margaret Fjelde, Smith’s Heating System, Carpenter Newman Cement Brick and Lumber, Alma Christinsen, Lovies Johnbson, Lettie Krug, North Dakota Patriot Co., and more.
The ledger is in good shape.