This is the story of Pluma Estelle Anderson (Haverfield), her first husband Joseph Arthur Haverfield, her second husband Percy Ernest Haverfield, and their children. I am Pluma’s granddaughter Starla Haverfield Anderson, and I came to write this history at the request of my mother Edna Fern Gladys Haverfield (Anderson), daughter of Pluma and Joseph Arthur.

Pluma bore four other children by Joseph Arthur: Leah Berdella (who died in infancy), Ruth Elizabeth, Lyman Arthur, and Robert (Bob) Allen. By her second husband, Percy, she had one daughter, Lela Mern. Ruth, Edna Fern, Lyman, and Bob lost their father when they were still young children, and a year later Joseph’s brother, Percy Ernest, moved them and their mother from North Dakota to the Lonesome Butte area of southern Saskatchewan to live on his parents’ homestead. After another year had passed, Pluma and Percy were married and moved onto their own farm to raise their family.

Their story is an odyssey—the Haverfields didn’t face Cyclops or sirens, but they faced family deaths and drought and all of the challenges of those families who tried to keep their farms going during the Great Depression of the 1930s. This is the story of one particular family, but it illustrates the joys and the grief faced by thousands of farm families who shared the same hopes and dreams during this time on the Great Plains of the United States and on the adjoining Canadian prairies.

The Haverfields: Faith and Family (this website) gives what information I was able to glean about this family’s ancestral roots, tells the story of their life together and their eventual dispersal, and aims to inspire readers to be persistent in overcoming our own personal challenges. My mother left writings that provide the main substance of the story. She wrote vivid description with a raw truth and mostly only needed an editor to organize her stories into a cohesive framework. I’ve paraphrased many of Edna Fern’s oral recollections, and often I’ve quoted from her written stories and letters.

My uncle Boyd Anderson, a younger brother of my father Laurence Ernest Anderson, filled me in on some of the history of the relations between the Leonard and Aquina Anderson family and the Percy and Pluma Haverfield family who lived only a mile apart during the 1920s and into the 1930s, until the Haverfields were forced to sell their farm because of drought. (This Anderson family is not related to that of Fred Anderson, father of Pluma and her brother Roy, who came from Missouri to homestead in the vicinity of Dunseith, North Dakota.)

I was also able to talk about Mother’s recollections with her brother Lyman, Lyman’s wife Ivy, and Mother’s half-sister Lela. They added to their sister’s memories and had their own stories to tell. I provide the sources to all of the oral stories that were shared with me.

Other unpublished information came to me from:

• James. A. Davis, Head of Reference, State Archives, State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck, North Dakota 58505.
• Dr. Robert Bruce Shepard, Head Curator of Medicine Hat Historical Museum, Medicine Hat, Alberta, in conversation.
• Aquina Anderson, The Green Green Grass, a personal history of the migration of Aquina’s family and Leonard Anderson to homestead along Rock Creek in southern Saskatchewan in the early 1900s.
• Thelma Anderson (Poirier) in conversation while exploring the Rock Creek, Sister Butte, and Lonesome Butte areas of southern Saskatchewan and in conversation on a trip to Hinsdale, Glasgow, and Opheim, Montana, along with Boyd Anderson.
• Camille Poirier (Anderson)and Carl Anderson who have lived for sixty years in the yard where Percy and Pluma raised their children, in conversation.
• Debbie Chappo, Information and Referral, Minot Public Library, Minot, North Dakota.
• Wood Mountain Rodeo Ranch Museum.

Published texts that provided background context include:

• Dr. Wallace Taylor. A Genealogy and Brief History of the Haverfield Family of the United States: One of the Pioneer Settlers of Jefferson County, Ohio later Harrison County. Oberlin, Ohio: Press of the News Printing Co., 1919.
• Centennial Book Committee. Prairie Past and Mountain Memories: A History of Dunseith, North Dakota 1882-1982.
• Dr. Robert Bruce Shepard. American Influence on the Settlement and Development of the Canadian Plains. Regina, Saskatchewan: University of Regina doctoral thesis, 1994.
• Mark Timbrook. The Last Hurrah: An Account of Life in the Mouse River Valley, Bone Town, Little Chicago, and the Magic City (Minot). Minot, North Dakota: Niess Impressions, 2008.
• Boyd M. Anderson. Grass Roots. Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan: Windspeak Press, 1996.
• Pierre Berton. The Great Depression. Toronto: McLelland and Stewart, 1990.

An online source that was most valuable in learning about Pluma’s paternal family is Descendants of ? Anderson compiled and researched by Vance Bailey. Vance Bailey was a descendant of Pluma’s father’s sister, Frances Anderson, and Mahlon Bailey. This webpage provides the Anderson heritage going back to the original immigrant who came to the United States from northern Ireland.

I remember one very special moment when listening to Lela’s stories in her home near Enterprise, Oregon, on the side of Ruby Mountain: a hummingbird flew through the open living-room door, flitted among her indoor geraniums, and then made a graceful exit. She said that happened a lot and that often wildlife would come snooping around her door—she welcomed these visitors, except for the skunks.

Spirit abounded in Lela’s home—whether it was her plants, her cats, the deer she could see grazing in the fields outside, or the spirits of those she loved. Lela was adamant that even though she lived alone, she wasn’t lonely the last thirty years of her life, after her husband Wayne Limbaugh passed on. If anyone brought up the topic, she would insist, “I am not alone.” Lela had the same strong belief in an afterlife as Ruth, Edna Fern, and Lyman did. I never discussed religious beliefs with my uncle Bob Haverfield, though his daughter Kathleen said that he would often go to church during the years when he lived with or near her in Idaho.

The last time I visited Lela, she said that her time on earth was coming to an end—she had a lot of physical discomfort that was never diagnosed because she didn’t want to be told that surgery would help. She said she was ready to go and didn’t want to prolong her life. I replied that we didn’t really get to make that decision, but she just looked at me with some inner knowing and I went on to another subject.

That visit was in June, 2012, and her four living children were with her when she died in September. I felt very fortunate to have had that last visit with Lela because I was able to read to her from the manuscript that became this website, and she added details to my descriptions, clarified events, or added more anecdotes—most importantly, she got a lot of joy from listening to these stories. There were no tears shed but only heartfelt laughter at the memories they brought to her.

Gathering these stories has made me feel very close not only to the storytellers but to Pluma, Percy, and even Joseph Arthur, who passed away when his children were very young.

This website is foremost dedicated to Mother, because her stories provide its framework and underpinnings:

Edna Fern Gladys Haverfield (Anderson)

It is also dedicated to her parents and her siblings, for it is their story too:

Pluma Estelle Anderson (Haverfield)

Joseph Arthur Haverfield

Percy Ernest Haverfield

Ruth Elizabeth Haverfield (Goodrich)

Lyman Arthur Haverfield

Robert Allen Haverfield

Lela Mern Haverfield (Limbaugh)