Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
April 3, 2018 — Today’s story is just a quick glimpse into the life of North Dakota homesteading woman, Adeline Elizabeth Iverson Aplin. In her later years, she wrote down her life’s story as best she could recall, because she wanted her sons to enjoy and relive her early years, in North Dakota especially.
Adeline was born into a Norwegian family of 13 children in the north central Iowa town of Kensett, population about 900. In 1896, Adeline’s brother, Lafe, and a friend, an orphan boy by the name of Charlie Aplin, left Kensett for North Dakota to work on a cattle ranch owned by Charlie’s uncle, Jack Arndts. Lafe wrote home often about the joys and hardships of life in North Dakota, and Adeline found her brother’s stories inspiring and exciting. So, in April of 1901, Adeline and her sister Ella found themselves at the Kennset railroad depot at three o’clock in the morning, ready to board a train for North Dakota.
Lafe met his sisters the Mandan depot. They stayed the first night in a hotel that Lafe thought was quite acceptable, but the girls thought “it lacked
many of the conveniences and comforts” they expected to find in a hotel. The next day they headed by horse and wagon to the Arndt ranch, about 45 miles south of Mandan near the Cannonball River. For the next year, Adeline and Ellie lived at the ranch, horse riding around the country, visiting neighbors and getting to know how to live in the west.
Adeline did appreciate the western life, just like she thought she would. She enjoyed walking the sand hummocks among the trees, the buck brush and bullberry bushes, and took satisfaction in making a tasty jelly out of the bright red bullberries. She marveled the numerous prairie chickens, and when the boys gave her a .22, she became a good shot, bringing home many a bird to prepare for a delicious meal. Adeline didn’t mind getting tossed off a horse. She just climbed right back on again, even after one time she thought she might have broken her neck!
Adeline enjoyed the dances at various ranches. Every family would bring food for the midnight lunch that followed a night of dancing. Usually, even more dancing would follow lunch, often to the music of twin fiddles. Children were put to bed, but the adults, most of whom were bachelor cowboys, stayed awake ‘til dawn, enjoying a hearty breakfast before finding their way home.
Adeline Elizabeth Iverson wound up marrying that little orphan boy and family friend, Charlie Aplin in 1902. They got their own homestead nearby, and were married some 63 years before Charlie’s death in 1965.
“Dakota Datebook” is a radio series from Prairie Public in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota and with funding from the North Dakota Humanities Council. See all the Dakota Datebooks at prairiepublic.org.
