THE congressional Township known as 131-60 attracted its due share of attention from those who were looking for homes in the new territory.  At that time it was not in the center of things and its people never seem to have aspired for a large city, although there was at one time an opportunity to indulge in city platting and laying out railroads.

Swan Anderson located as a "squatter" on Section 3 of this township on July 4^th, 1883, as the land had not been surveyed. He with others had come down from Grand Rapids where he had landed in the time of the celebration at that pioneer town. Some of his friends had been down and located before, so he knew something of the country. The party reached the claims of these friends to find in their shanties only some crackers and flour, supplies that had been there since April. They ate dumplings made of flour and water until they could get supplies. They looked around for a vacant quarter and Mr. Anderson appropriated land that had been "covered" by a man named Gibson. As Gibson was holding down another quarter in the township north he could not hold two. There had been a little plowing done so Anderson and his friends, Peter Malmquist and his brother Louis Anderson, helped him put up a sod shanty. For that winter the three went up to LaMoure to winter. Swan could not work on account of having rheumatism but he learned to cook and do house work. In February he bought some lumber in LaMoure on credit and had it hauled out to his claim and the "boys" built him a shanty 10 by 12 which made him comfortable when in it and safe from claim jumpers.

At one time in the winter before building his shanty of lumber Swan and Louis Anderson were out to the claim. Anderson had to go to LaMoure for supplies and was detained there by a severe storm which completely covered the sod shanty where Swan was confined by his rheumatism. When Anderson came back he could hardly locate the place but walked around it, finally called to Swan, who answered him from beneath the snow. He had nothing to work with but his hands, but he dug down to the door which fortunately opened to the inside, went in and got the shovel and opened up the entrance.   Swan had been practically without food for three days.  They had to come out occasionally and spend some time on their claims as a protection against "jumpers."

They came down to their land about the 8^th or 9^th of March so as to be actually on the land when it was opened on March 10^th, 1884. As it was, another claimant appeared, but Swan filed a pre-emption and in six months he was able to get a patent to his land. In April, 1884, Swan's sister and her husband, Andrew Johnson, came out from Iowa with a small car of emigrant stuff. Swan was still afflicted but managed to walk or hobble across country to LaMoure and meet them. They lived with him, Johnson doing the farm work and his sister the house-work so that Swan had an opportunity to get well, which he did and was soon able to do his part again with the work.  Mr. Johnson went over to the Dalrymple farms to work that fall and Swan put up a sod house for him on some vacant land he had located and the Johnsons lived on their own place. That winter of 1884-85 Swan lived with the family of Louis Nelson in Clement, paying his way by twisting hay for the stoves. In twisting the hay they would take a big handful of coarse grass and bend or double it in the middle then would twist one end over and over the other like a skein of yarn, the ends were then twisted into the middle to prevent its untwisting. They seldom came apart and made good fuel.  They did most of this twisting in a shed out of the wind. The sod houses were warm and comfortable and did not freeze during the night even if the fire was out, but in very cold weather some one would get up in the night and fix up the fire.

In the spring of 1885 Swan and his brother-in-law changed work and put in their crops and had a good crop that year. Charles Stevens who lived near Clement had a threshing machine and did the threshing for them. Swan had a yield of 20 bushels to the acre of No. 1 Hard wheat and stored most of the crop in his sod shanty till spring, and on this he was able to buy a team and wagon in the spring of 1886. It was some time before he was fitted out with a complete outfit as he developed his farming gradually and borrowed from his neighbors or exchanged work with them.

In 1887 his brother Isaac Anderson came over from the old country and lived with Swan at his shanty, working out some for the Scandinavian neighbors and learning the language. On January 9^th, 1888, Isaac Anderson went to Oakes to mail some letters. There was about a foot of loose snow on the ground and a bad blizzard came up. On his return Isaac lost his way and froze to death. His body was recovered and buried in the cemetery at Clement. Swan was alone through that and another big storm and tried to feed the stock with hay from a stack in the yard, but he tried that only once. He lost his way to the house but fortunately ran into his plow and from it knew his direction and got in safely. In 1889 another sister and his brother John came over from the old country and stayed with him.

Swan Johnson came out from Lafayette, Wisconsin, in 1886 to see his brother who lived across the track from where Clement is now located. He loaded an emigrant car with horses, a cow, some pigs and machinery. His train was wrecked near Austin, Minnesota, and when the brakeman opened the door to see if he was hurt his pigs got out and he could not find them.  He landed in Ellendale on March 4^th, and a few days after that he bought a relinquishment to the southwest quarter of Section 17 and made his home there.   A little breaking had been done, and he built a shanty 12 by 16.  Not having much time to make it tight, it let the snow in badly, so having no money to fix it up he lived in the cellar that winter keeping warm by burning flax straw.   He had no crop the first year and would have left the place except for his pride, so he stayed and had a good crop the next year.  He went down to Hankinson the next year to work on the railroad grade and was told the road would pass his place in Clement.   He got a contract to build a half mile of grade and put in that grading from the cemetery east of his home to the school house west of Clement, getting about $800.00 for it. 

He lived on his claim and batched it for five years before he was married, and he found it a hard, lonesome time.   It was a real slavery, hard work all day and then chores to do and house work on top of it all. Those were hard times but the people managed to enjoy life just the same; people were friendly and helpful and neighborly.   The young fellows had a good many visits in the winter and Mr. Johnson entertained them many times that winter he lived in the cellar.   The winter of 1888 was a bad one.   He got lost between the barn and shanty but ran into the binder in the yard and found his way from that.   When Swan Anderson's brother was frozen to death he was buried on Swan Johnson's land and the cemetery was started in that way.   Johnson gave the two acres of land for the cemetery to the community, but the title has never been transferred to any committee or board.

Mr. Johnson never was burned out as he was careful to have fire breaks, but one time he saved the depot at Clement from burning by getting his hired men out with gang plows to make a fire break. He told the Soo people that they should give him a free ride to Minneapolis and back for that and they said that any time he wanted to make that trip to let them know, but he has been too busy to go, so still has that trip coming to him.

In order to get some land that was within his power to purchase Mr.  J. H. Denning went west in 1880, to Kansas. He was taken ill and had to go back to his home in Illinois, and did not like Kansas. In 1882 he came up to Dakota and looked over some land. In 1883 he shipped out to Ellendale over the Milwaukee, landing with his car of goods on March 14^th. He found land that suited him west of the new town of Hudson, but for the first year he and a Mr. Cross opened a grocery store in Ellendale. In 1884 the family moved out to their land taking both a pre-emption and a tree claim in Sections 34 and 35, 131-60, three miles west and one north of Hudson. At first they had a one-room house but in 1885 they made it larger. Most of their trading was done in Ellendale, and all grain had to go to Ellendale and coal and other fuel brought out. They bought small trees and set out the beginnings of a grove to comply with the law regarding tree claims. There were a great many railroad surveys through the country west of the James but no road ever materialized there and most of the buildings at Hudson were drawn to Oakes on the ice when that new town was started.

In early 1883 Gus Strutz and Gust Beck were a committee to look for land for five men who had agreed to locate together. These two men finally found land that suited them in the northern part of Township 131-60.  They put up a shed 12 by 12 on Mr. Strutz's claim with a frame bunk and later sodded the shanty up on the outside. They had to do the best they could for the time, used grass and buffalo chips for fuel and of course did their own cooking. There were twelve or fourteen springs on his quarter and they opened one of these and had better water than most of the people had in those days. After getting up the shanties on the two claims they went to Grand Rapids to get a plow. They had to go right through LaMoure but it was a city of tents and there was no plow to be had. They made the trip in a day. Chris Gorder ran a little blacksmith shop a mile or two south of Strutz's place, and he did not have to make the long trips that some of the settlers made.

They planted out an acre of beans and a few potatoes the first year, but that was all the crop they had. They lived together the first summer to economize on domestic duties and for company. In harvest time they both went back to Everett to work, taking their teams to the harvest fields and for plowing. Men got $2.00 a day and were allowed $2.00 a day for their teams. After Mr. Strutz returned to his claim that fall with the team, he found that a settler named Russell had located about a mile east of him and he left his team there that winter and went back to the lumber woods of Wisconsin to earn something.

On his return he took up farming, having to buy everything he used.  Not being able to borrow for himself, still he loaned his things to other people, never getting a fanning mill returned to him. He nearly lost his life while hunting ducks on the river. He was thrown out when the boat overturned, lost his gun, but managed to get hold of the boat and drag himself to shore and to a neighbor's house where he could thaw out and get off his rubber boots and hunting gear. He never tried to cross the river standing up in his boat. It was several years before he recovered his gun, but has used it many times since then. In the winter of 1884-85 he went east and brought his wife out to the new home and of late years has been in the cattle business with his son.

It was in March 1884 that Chris Frogen filed on his land, the southeast of 25, 131-60. There were seventeen acres broken and a little shanty that came with the relinquishment that he bought from Mr. Stenquist. He had a neighbor work this land for him and he went back to the Dalrymple farms for the harvest, and he worked for the railroad company in the winter. In 1885 Mr. Frogen worked for the Dakota Midland near the city of Hudson. The next year he was called from his claim to help on the grading of the Northwestern south of Oakes. This company had struck a soft place where the dirt had to be wheeled in by hand. He got 18 cents a yard for this work and after being paid went back to his claim. Later he was quite ill from his exposure and hard outside work.

His sod house was very comfortable being 12 by 20 feet inside. It had four foot sod walls with clay plaster on the dirt and then lime plaster.  There was a board floor and a board roof. There was tar paper on the roof and then a long grass thatch above that. It was very warm and water never froze inside, but it looked pretty crude from the outside. One storm in the following winter buried it up and he had to pull snow inside to get a hole outdoors so he could work and shovel it away. He was married in the fall of 1886 and homestead life became more pleasant. They had to burn slough hay and straw even after the first winter when the railroad came, for they were not able to get coal in.

On the 26^th of April, 1883, Mr. Iver Olson landed in the township.  He was one of a party of six who came out from Kindred to look for land in the two un-surveyed townships, 130-60 and 131-60. He got started on his location but met with a great loss from a prairie fire which burned his barn and all his live stock, but he was quite successful with good crops later.  Also he suffered bereavement in the death of his baby girl in the summer of 1883. Another died later and both are buried on the old homestead as there was then no cemetery near his home. This was the first death in the township. The first wedding was that of Arne Pederson and Hannah Gronbeck, and the first birth that of Peter Pederson. The first religious service in the township was held at Marcossion's place, probably in the spring of 1884.  Rev. Mr. Ofstedahl from Aberdeen was probably the first preacher to visit the township. After 1885 Rev. Rogne of Ellendale came out regularly and held services. Gibson laid out a trail direct from his place to Ellendale in practically a straight line. He set sticks to mark it till the track was worn down enough to follow. There was also an old trail across from Ft.  Ransom to Ft. Yates which was abandoned and grass-grown when the settlers came in 1883.

Mr. Arne Pederson was from the same neighborhood in the old country as Iver Olson and Henry Gronbeck. He had come to Richland County in 1881. Quite a party of land seekers came over to Dickey County and located in what became Clement Township. Nick Edwardson squatted on 10, Herman Pederson got the southwest of 11, Henry Gronbeck had the northwest of 11; Iver Olson was on the southeast of 2, Martin Bratland got the Northwest of 12, Alexander Swanson was also on 12, Hans Gronbeck located n 12 a little later, and Nicoli Gronbeck the father came over from Norway that summer and located on 14. As these people were about the first in the township they had good opportunity to locate near each other.   As soon as they got located they had to put up shanties, most of them using sod and building 8 by 8. They had to go to Ellendale to get some lumber to put a frame roof on these shacks. Then they covered them with tar paper. Two of them, Olson and Herman Pederson had to have larger shacks as they were married and expected to have their wives keep house for them. They brought provisions to last a week while they were getting located and then went back to Richland County to work that summer. Arne and Herman Pederson with Herman's wife went back to the claims and completed five acres of breaking on each of the six claims. The Pedersons had lived under their wagon when they came out and before they got their shack ready.  The whole party had brought two wagons with a yoke of oxen on each.  When their land came onto the market the 10^th of March, 1884, they had to go to Ellendale to make their filings, and they had to walk to Ellendale as the snow was so deep that there were no roads. On the first trip made by the Pederson brothers to Ellendale in the spring of 1883 they had started early and intended to make the round trip in a day but it got dark before they got home and they wandered into a slough and got stuck so they had to unload their lumber and leave it. At that they had to give up trying to get home, turned the oxen loose to graze, took off the wagon box and turned it over on the grass and crawling under it tried to sleep. As soon as they could see they went back, hunted up their lumber in the slough and got home soon after daybreak.

For some years after Rev. Rogne had come as a missionary to the Scandinavians of the township, meetings were held in the school houses and were led by traveling missionaries or ministers, and in 1898 the church was built in the west part of the township. The first school was built on Section 16 and the district included Bear Creek Township but was called Climax district. They bonded the two townships and raised $1500.00 and built a school building in each township.

The preliminary meeting for the organization of the township was held in the Nichols' boys home in about 1884 or 1885. The name used at first was Norway, but the official map of 1886 gives the name Climax to the two townships, 131-60 and 131-59, the same name as that of the school district, but when the division came later the dividing line was made the James River and the civil township to the west was named Clement. When the Soo railroad came through a station was located at Clement and a post office established.

The name Norway was given to the spur on Section 24. The elevator at this spur was managed for seventeen years by Mr. John H. Coulter who lived in Oakes. John McManus was a large farmer living to the south of Norway Spur and in one season he shipped fourteen cars of wheat raised on his farm from this siding. His hired man let his wages lie in the hands of Mr.  McManus and when he came to settle with him Mr. McManus gave him the quarter section of land across the road from the Norway elevator and a set of good farm buildings which made a new and prosperous home.

Among the later settlers that have come to this township since the early days are Mr. A. F. Gramlow who has served several years as County Commissioner, August Wedell, Matt Pheiffer and William Zieman who served as State Senator for four years. Gus Strutz served as Representative a term in the State Legislature, and James Stevens was a State Senator in the populist days of the middle 90's. A grandson, Bert Stevens, is still a resident of Clement.

As evidence of the progressive spirit of the people a very good sized and commodious community hall was erected at Clement. A live community club in which the younger generation took active part decided that they needed a meeting place for public gatherings, so they raised some money and donated their own labor and constructed the best community house in the county, if not one of the best in the state. It contains a stage and piano and can accommodate any kind of public enterprise, such as community fairs, dances, rallies, and has never failed to hold the largest crowds that may wish to attend. The community club, which includes practically every citizen, young and old, has done a great work for the diversified farming that so many of the people are following, and is the means of keeping its members informed on the better practices of modern farming.

The information on Trails to the Past © Copyright    may be used in personal family history research, with source citation. The pages in entirety may not be duplicated for publication in any fashion without the permission of the owner. Commercial use of any material on this site is not permitted.  Please respect the wishes of those who have contributed their time and efforts to make this free site possible.~Thank you!