Plains Folk

NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

February 18, 1999

Plains Folk: Writing about Life—and the Weather

Tom Isern, Professor of History
North Dakota State University

The physical artifacts, these paper-bound journals, are themselves intriguing. Distributed to farmers by International Harvester Company, their covers feature a red sun emblazoned "IHC" rising over a McCormick-Deering combine. Inside are forms where a farmer was to record daily activities and farm expenses. Tables at the back encourage calculation of the cost of horse and mule labor versus tractors.

"Every farmer using horses or mules should know what they cost him," the text says pointedly.

Now I'm reading the daily diary entries of Jules Emile Lebrun, a farmer near Milton in northeastern North Dakota and husband of Marie Pelletier Lebrun. And I'm right in the middle of the horrible winter of 1936.

Early January finds Jules "choring around" the home place and sometimes heading for town or church in the "snowboat"—some form of motorized transport used when the roads were drifted shut. I'm not sure just what it was. He and Marie enjoy listening to the radio, its batteries charged by the windmill. The days are getting "cold and blustery," though, and several times Jules remarks he "feels pretty tough" because of colds and flu.

Now on Feb. 4 the weather turns much worse—"Very very cold 42^o below. 30 mile NW wind. Just sneaked out to barn and did chores."

Feb. 8—"35^o below. Bad blizzard all day. Did we burn coal and how!"

Feb. 14—"Bitter cold. . . . Doesn't seem to be any hope that it will ever warm up. 3 eggs." Jules is counting down the production of the hens as temperatures drop.

Feb. 15—"-52^o! Getting worse instead of better. Stayed up till 1 AM to keep the fires going." No more mention of eggs.

Feb. 16—"50^o below again. Sure is awful. Coldest day in the buildings yet. High SW wind. Static on the radio. We're getting afraid of the elements by this time. Moved our kids in living room."

Feb. 18—"No mail again doggone it! Looked out of the windows a thousand times butjust swirling snow."

What I hope to show by the preceding passages is that nothing so effectively transports one into history as a careful written record inscribed by an ordinary person at the time the events happened. As I copied the passages I sat comfortably in the reading room of North Dakota State University's Institute for Regional Studies, but I tell you, I started to shiver. It was a relief to read of the chickens starting to lay again on March 10, a comfort to see seeding begin on April 17 and an assurance to know the gophers were poisoned on April 22. God was still in heaven after all.

Jules Lebrun, a lifelong farmer, kept account books and farm diaries throughout the period 1930 to 1975. After he died in 1997 his sons, Richard and Bob, presented the diaries to the institute. They are absorbing reading, but they are more than that: because of their comprehensiveness and long span, they are the basis for detailed, scholarly study of what farm life was like in the middle of this century.

Thanks to the efforts of archivist John Bye and the staff of the institute, priceless documents such as these get excellent curatorial care and are made available to responsible researchers. Perhaps you know of similar records compiled by farm men and women across our region that should be placed in an appropriate repository. John would be happy to talk with you. He can be reached at (701) 231-8914. Mailing address: Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU Libraries, Fargo ND 58105-5599.

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Source: Tom Isern (701) 231-8339

Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136