North Dakota
Rolette County
Looking north from Riverside Cemetery, west of Dunseith, Rolette County, North Dakota, where Lura Lyman, her brother Emerson Lyman, her first grandchild Leah Berdella Haverfield, and many of Lura’s extended in-law Anderson family are buried (photo by Gary Ball).
Looking north and west from Dunseith, Rolette County, North Dakota, you see rolling hills covered with deciduous trees: ash, aspen, maple, elm, birch, oak, and poplar. These hills between North Dakota and Manitoba rise closer to the sky than the open plains that surround them and were named the Turtle Mountains, the name perhaps inspired by the painted turtles that flourish in the many lakes in the area. At the time that Lura Lyman and her first husband homesteaded in this region, the U.S. government was allocating land both to homesteaders and to Native Americans; in 1882, the Turtle Mountain Chippewa reservation was first established in Rolette County.
“The first school in Dunseith was erected sometime prior to 1887” (Prairie Past and Mountain Memories: A History of Dunseith, North Dakota 1882-1982). This was just about the time that Lura, her husband, and her brother Emerson arrived from Niagara County, New York, to homestead in this region. Although Emerson had grown up on a farm, he did not make a homestead claim for himself but found employment as a teacher in the Dunseith public school. Although he had left school by age 15 and wouldn’t have had more than a ninth-grade education, in those times that would be considered an adequate education to teach the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography to elementary-school children. (Minot State Teachers College was not established until 1913).
Edna Fern wrote that when he was in his early 80s, her Uncle Roy still remembered Uncle Emerson as a strict taskmaster when teaching him. Roy told her that he would study and memorize his lessons at night but he was so terrified of Emerson in the classroom that he would clam up and couldn’t respond to his uncle’s questions. Roy was called stupid and had many warnings and spankings, including the cane treatment. “Sad lad. Emerson was probably especially strict with Roy to show the other students that he wasn’t favoring him because of their relationship.”
Like all homesteading women, Lura would have had a challenging life as a young wife and mother living with her husband and baby daughter, Lucretia, in a homestead cabin made of rough boards and sod on the windy northern plains of North Dakota. And tragedy struck when Lucretia was still a toddler. Lura’s husband lost his way in a blizzard—a not-uncommon occurrence—and when news got around that he hadn’t made it home, three neighbor men who went looking for him had the tough job of informing Lura that her husband had not survived the storm. Fred Anderson, one of the men in the search team, soon courted the attractive young widow with baby Lucretia, and Lura became Mrs. Fred Anderson.
“The first school in Dunseith was erected sometime prior to 1887” (Prairie Past and Mountain Memories: A History of Dunseith, North Dakota 1882-1982). This was just about the time that Lura, her husband, and her brother Emerson arrived from Niagara County, New York, to homestead in this region. Although Emerson had grown up on a farm, he did not make a homestead claim for himself but found employment as a teacher in the Dunseith public school. Although he had left school by age 15 and wouldn’t have had more than a ninth-grade education, in those times that would be considered an adequate education to teach the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography to elementary-school children. (Minot State Teachers College was not established until 1913).
Edna Fern wrote that when he was in his early 80s, her Uncle Roy still remembered Uncle Emerson as a strict taskmaster when teaching him. Roy told her that he would study and memorize his lessons at night but he was so terrified of Emerson in the classroom that he would clam up and couldn’t respond to his uncle’s questions. Roy was called stupid and had many warnings and spankings, including the cane treatment. “Sad lad. Emerson was probably especially strict with Roy to show the other students that he wasn’t favoring him because of their relationship.”
Like all homesteading women, Lura would have had a challenging life as a young wife and mother living with her husband and baby daughter, Lucretia, in a homestead cabin made of rough boards and sod on the windy northern plains of North Dakota. And tragedy struck when Lucretia was still a toddler. Lura’s husband lost his way in a blizzard—a not-uncommon occurrence—and when news got around that he hadn’t made it home, three neighbor men who went looking for him had the tough job of informing Lura that her husband had not survived the storm. Fred Anderson, one of the men in the search team, soon courted the attractive young widow with baby Lucretia, and Lura became Mrs. Fred Anderson.
Lura Lyman’s Brief Life with Fred Anderson
When Lura and Fred married, they lived near Island Lake, thirty miles southeast of Dunseith. Plumy Mae was born in the nearby town of Leeds a year later, on April 9, 1891. Plumy was named after Fred’s mother, Pluma, who lived in Missouri. (Her youngest daughter, Lela, said that her mother never liked the ‘y’ ending to her name—a southern influence—and in later life changed it to Pluma.)
When Roy was born less than a year later, on January 6, 1892, Fred and Lura were living fourteen miles east of Dunseith, close to where Fred and his brothers William and Clint later claimed their homesteads. Roy’s birth had complications so that one of his legs was twisted, and though it grew along with the other leg and he was able to walk, he had a life-long limp that affected his prospects.
Fred and Lura were together only seven years as a family when Lura died at the age of 29, in 1897; it is not known what caused her death. Edna Fern wrote, “Mother, who was only six when her mother died, said little about her.” Lura’s gravestone can be found in the Riverside Cemetery west of Dunseith engraved with the words “Lura Lyman—wife of Fred Anderson.”
Fred, who was also 29 at the time of Lura’s death, was not able to cope alone on a homestead to farm with three young children. He arranged for Lucretia to be taken back to Niagara County in New York to be raised by her birth father’s family, and Plumy and Roy were sent on a three-day trip by train to his parents’ home in Chariton County, Missouri. Although Plumy was only six and Roy was four-and-a-half, they traveled alone with small suitcases of clothes and a bucket of food in hand. Lela thought that there must have been some kind conductors on the train for these young children to manage this trip.
A posed photograph taken shortly after their arrival at their Anderson grandparents’ home shows Plumy and Roy standing in front of the family’s white-washed farmhouse along with a mare and her colt, their grandparents, and aunts and uncles who were still young and had not left home (go to Lyman-Anderson Roots to see this photo). Clint was 16 and Edith, the youngest in the family, was 8; she was only two years older than Plumy. The photographer’s instructions to be still might have been responsible for the glum faces but it might also reveal a household with little laughter. Grandmother Pluma had raised six children and there were still two at home when Plumy and Roy arrived to be cared for. Also, these grandparents were no longer young: Pluma was 50 years of age and Benjamin was 57.
When Roy was born less than a year later, on January 6, 1892, Fred and Lura were living fourteen miles east of Dunseith, close to where Fred and his brothers William and Clint later claimed their homesteads. Roy’s birth had complications so that one of his legs was twisted, and though it grew along with the other leg and he was able to walk, he had a life-long limp that affected his prospects.
Fred and Lura were together only seven years as a family when Lura died at the age of 29, in 1897; it is not known what caused her death. Edna Fern wrote, “Mother, who was only six when her mother died, said little about her.” Lura’s gravestone can be found in the Riverside Cemetery west of Dunseith engraved with the words “Lura Lyman—wife of Fred Anderson.”
Fred, who was also 29 at the time of Lura’s death, was not able to cope alone on a homestead to farm with three young children. He arranged for Lucretia to be taken back to Niagara County in New York to be raised by her birth father’s family, and Plumy and Roy were sent on a three-day trip by train to his parents’ home in Chariton County, Missouri. Although Plumy was only six and Roy was four-and-a-half, they traveled alone with small suitcases of clothes and a bucket of food in hand. Lela thought that there must have been some kind conductors on the train for these young children to manage this trip.
A posed photograph taken shortly after their arrival at their Anderson grandparents’ home shows Plumy and Roy standing in front of the family’s white-washed farmhouse along with a mare and her colt, their grandparents, and aunts and uncles who were still young and had not left home (go to Lyman-Anderson Roots to see this photo). Clint was 16 and Edith, the youngest in the family, was 8; she was only two years older than Plumy. The photographer’s instructions to be still might have been responsible for the glum faces but it might also reveal a household with little laughter. Grandmother Pluma had raised six children and there were still two at home when Plumy and Roy arrived to be cared for. Also, these grandparents were no longer young: Pluma was 50 years of age and Benjamin was 57.
Plumy Mae (Pluma Estelle) Anderson and her brother Roy Anderson, circa 1899, shortly after the death of their mother Lura. At this time they were living with their paternal grandparents in Clariton County, Missouri.