The Cresap Farm

The farm now owned by ELDON CRESAP was once part of the Dennstedt farms.  The farm now owned by Norris Brudvig was also part of the Dennstedt farms and there were over 100 horses kept there around 1900.  The land originally belonged to the Northern Pacific Railroad and in 1881 it was sold to Addison G. Foster and Chauncey Griggs.

There were many more transfers of titles including the Dennstedts.  In 1943 the farm was bought from the Federal Land Bank of St. Paul by CLARENCE CRESAP.  Mr. Cresap came from Spirit Lake, Iowa as a young boy.  His family farmed north of Valley City.  In 1922 he married Nettie Vogel.  They first lived northwest of Valley City, then at Dazey coming to Dover Township in 1933.  They rented land there until buying the farm in 1943.

There are six children in the family: 

  1. Wesley, who lives in Hawley, Minnesota, has six children: 
  2. Inez (Mrs. Frank Leigman) lives in Wimbledon, has four children
  3. Elva (Mrs. Herb Witthauer) lives in Jamestown and has four children
  4. Joyce, (Mrs. Merle Michaelson) of rural Wimbledon has five children
  5. Bob, of Cloquet, Minnesota, has four children
  6. Eldon Cresap of rural Wimbledon, has five children.  Eldon bought the farm in 1967.

Thomas Cresap, ancestor of the Cresaps came from England as an orphan in 1710 at the age of 15 years.  He was a soldier and a frontiersman, and fought in many of the Indian Wars.  Many of his descendants fought in the Revolutionary, Civil, and World War I and World War II.

Thomas Cresap was instrumental in opening up new territories.  They first settled in Maryland and moved west as new territories were opened.

Mrs. Clarence Cresap's father and mother came from Germany as young people.  Her mother and two other girls, at the ages of 17 and 18 came alone to relatives in America.  Her parents, the Jacob Rohdes came later and homesteaded near the Sheyenne River north west of Valley City.  This land was later sold to Mrs. Clarence Cresap's father, Robert Vogel and family.  They lived there until the parents death.  A son, Herman Vogel, lived there till his death.  Then it was sold outside the family.

Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 285