Mr. and Mrs. Loren Ahart, and their two children, Marion and Roy arrived at Wimbledon, North Dakota, January 1919 from Marble Rock, Iowa, to live on the farm they had purchased from the Denstead Land Company.
This farm was located on the SW quarter of Section 16-144-61 in Dover Township, in Griggs County. At that time the Joseph Yunck family was living there.
Two more children were born to the Aharts while living there. Their children's names were:
In winter travel was done mostly with horses and a bobsleigh. One evening they decided to go to the Ole Michaelson's, which was about one mile west, to surprise Omer Michaelson on his birthday. This was March 17, as he had heard about them coming on the 18th, which was the date. It was snowing a little but not too cold. But not too long after they got there, the wind began to blow and it got very cold, so no one left till daylight. Then the children were left and the grownups went home and got the fires going and house warmed up and then they went back and got the children in late afternoon.
Another time the Aharts visited the Lewis Schultz, which lived about six miles away. The wind started to blow and one could hardly see so they had to stay over night.
Sometimes neighbors borrowed coal till they could get to town to get a new supply if they got caught short and a storm kept them from getting to town.
When the Aharts moved here there were only shallow dug wells, the water was bad, and it couldn't be used. They lost four horses before they discovered the reason so water had to be hauled until they could drill a well and that was 236 feet deep.
The Dover school burned the first year their girl started school so she went to stay with her grandparents in Iowa to continue school until the new schoolhouse was built.
In the fall of 1925 the Aharts moved back to Marble Rock, Iowa. They have returned several times to visit their niece, Mrs. John Hanson, and things look so different to them with so many trees now. There were no trees at all on the farm when they came here in 1919.
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 page 285