North
Dakota State University -- NDSU Agriculture
Communication7 Morrill Hall, Fargo ND, 58105-5655, Tel: 701-231-7881, Fax: 701-231-7044
agcomm@ndsuext.nodak.edu
|
North
Dakota State University -- NDSU Agriculture
Communication 7 Morrill Hall, Fargo ND, 58105-5655, Tel: 701-231-7881, Fax: 701-231-7044 agcomm@ndsuext.nodak.edu |
|
|
Plains Folk: Sons of MarthaTom Isern, Professor of History
Seldom am I tempted by official signage designating a "Historic Site" or beckoning me toward a "Point of Interest." I just get into muttering arguments with the text on the marker anyway. On the other hand, I can’t resist the humble and hokey monuments placed on the land by ordinary people. Unauthorized historical markers are the voice of American democracy. So en route to a research and extension field day in Washburn N.D., I got happily derailed. My WPA Guide to the Flickertail State in hand, I located the Joseph Henry Taylor log cabin, which is the sort of historical marker I argue with, because I always doubt the authenticity of relocated log cabins. Out back though, neglected and unexplained, stood a remarkable cairn bearing brass panels bedecked with verse. Lots of verse, covering all four faces of the monument, ponderous verse that sounded like Kipling. It was a poem called "The Sons of Martha," an ode to the hardworking underdogs of the world. Invoking the New Testament, Luke 10, it cast the Sons of Mary as a privileged elite, whereas the Sons of Martha--well, . . .
The Sons of Martha, so goes the poem, do the work of the world. They run the trains, build the roads, fell the timber, and level the mountains. They are devoted to "simple service simply given." It turns out the verse is indeed Kipling. A web search for "Sons of Martha" turned up many hits reflecting interests both literary and technical. It seems this Kipling poem has been adopted by engineers, particularly civil engineers, throughout the English-speaking world as their anthem. The poor, misunderstood, industrious engineers are the Sons of Martha. So this was a mystery. Who planted this Kipling cairn in Washburn? By chance I came across a Web page of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering which revealed that a fellow named Harry F. McLean had erected nine "Sons of Martha" monuments in sites across Canada and one in the United States--that one in Washburn. As to why this one in North Dakota, I got a tip from David Borlaug of Washburn which led me to clippings in the State Historical Society of North Dakota, kindly retrieved for me by Archivist Gerry Newborg. Here’s the story. Harry McLean was born in Bismarck in 1883 and graduated from Bismarck High School. His father John, it was said, had come to Bismarck on the first Northern Pacific train and stayed to become the city’s first mayor. Harry McLean emigrated to Canada and became so famous as a construction engineer that he was known as "the Canadian Jim Hill." He built a railroad to Flin Flon, the Montreal Aqueduct, the Quebec Tunnel, and most remarkable of all, the Abitibi Dam. McLean was known for two things: finishing impossible jobs on time, and throwing money around. And oh yes, a third thing, he identified with the working men in his crews. He mixed with the rich and famous, but he liked to drink and sing with the boys. To honor his parents in North Dakota, McLean commissioned the Pioneer Family statue by Avard Fairbanks that today stands on the capitol grounds. It was supposed to go to Washburn, you see, seat of the county named after his father. Somehow it got sidetracked to Bismarck. So, as a consolation prize, McLean plunked one of his Sons of Martha monuments down in Washburn. Likely this was in the late 1940s, as the Pioneer Family statue was dedicated in Bismarck in 1947. Most every city up and down the plains has its sculpted pioneers. It’s hard to tell them apart. Only Washburn has the Sons of Martha. ### Source: Tom Isern, (701) 799-2941, isern@plainsfolk.com
|
