Arnold Burian's Dedication Speech August 15, 1982
In dedicating the Hutmacher farmstead, we are making statement for the future build upon the premise this site is worthy of preservation. It’s value can not be measured in dollars. It’s usefulness has past and yet these crude buildings are a symbol of something much loftier that the common element of which they were constructed.
They represent the abiding spirit of North Dakota, which was born in a long ago dream. When your parents grand parents or great grand parents and mine first came to area they brought with them little but hope they discovered a land of savage solitude and dotted their dwellings across its vastness creating civilization where none had been. They cleared and plowed the land build crude shelters and battled cold, famine and disease. The buried their dead and sometimes their dreams but they endured and they left us a heritage that has no twin. Much more that the physical characteristics of this site than it is the strengths of parents grand parents and great grandparents. Who built this site and others like it that we wish to preserve.
What were the strengths of our ancestors who created a heritage we believe worthy of preservation?
I believe they are the same strengths that live today in the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of those early North Dakotans. The strengths that today ensure our young people are preferenced by employers everywhere. The strengths that Teddy Roosevelt referred to when he said “I never would have been president if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota.”
Resourcefulness – Strong work ethic – Neighborliness - A quite determination to win – Patience - Family
One strength was resourcefulness, it was demanded by the harshness of their early reality. New settlers lived in wagons or made tents by turning hayracks upside down and hanging blankets around them. They had only the land and its products and they used them to survive. They ate what they could hunt, gather or grow. The dug shelters in hill sides and built houses with sod and stone. Cow chips cooked their meals and warmed their dwellings. They faced accidents and adversity and devised ways to cope.
For our parent and grandparents hard work was a way of life. It was the key to their survival and their success. They broke the sod with horse or ox and a one bottom plow. They dug wells and built houses and barns and sowed and harvested crops with little more than their hands. What they had they could attribute to the work they had done to achieve it and they taught their children the same value of hard work. They raised them to believe in a days work for a days pay. Another trait was neighborliness the cared for, shared with and helped their fellow man. I can remember hearing stories and I am sure all of you have stories of your own regarding early settlers who helped each other build houses sow, harvest crops and care for the livestock. The early settlers loved to have company and the kettle of soup was always on. As new comers arrived established settlers provided a western hospitality. Strangers were welcome for the night to eat and feed their horses. During times of blizzard they checked on one another and worried about the safety neighbors.
The fourth strength was a quite determination to win. They endured the tragedies and overcame the obstacles that accompanied a new life in an untamed land. They fought raging prairie fires the burned their crops and livestock and sometimes their homes and families. They survived droughts blizzards and battled sickness and diseases. Drenching rains turned sod homes into muddy ruins they stayed persevered they won.
Patience was another trait the kind that comes not from hopelessness but from realistic expectations. If the opportunity which they sought did not come in their lifetime then perhaps in the lifetime of their children. They did not expect or demand more than what was reasonable and they were grateful for the few comforts they had. In a letter to his sister an early settler wrote of the families good fortune.
Dear Natashka,
If you could step inside our house for a few moments you wouldn’t think we had it half bad. You would think the house belonged to a Csar. From the outside it looks like a stone and clay house. I must admit the house 17 by 23 built of stone and clay 3 feet thick at the bottom and 2 feet thick at the top. Inside it has pegs drove into the wall and strips nailed on and a heavy blue cardboard nailed on it. The windows and doors are rounded with gives it the look of fine architect work. On the floor we have our wolf rug and our badger skin.
Finally, one more strength must not be overlooked in fact it must be the most important of all – the family. And the center of that pioneer family was the wife and mother who rocked an old cradle and guided a new generation. She came up to build a new life for family and spent hers overcoming hardship loneness and heartbreak. She carried the water and the wood to cook the meals and wash the clothes. The drudgery was never ending but she reared her children for better things. She insisted they have schools and Sunday school and she instilled in them those same strengths and ideals, which live today.
Resourcefulness, hard work, neighborliness, determination, patience and the value of the family unit; this is our North Dakota heritage past and present and the greatest hope for the future.