These stories can also be heard on Sunday mornings around 10 am on WILD 102’s “Look Back in Time” program. Each week’s radio story will be posted here on our website.
Weekly radio stories are researched, compiled, and read by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member.
March 3, 2024
One hundred years ago, Levi and Marie Mitterling were married. On January 10, 1974, the Roseau
Times-Region published an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Mitterling who were celebrating 50 years of
marriage. Here’s that story from 50 years ago.
Levi Mitterling was “on his own” when he was 11 years old. He moved from Pennsylvania as a young
fellow, working in South Dakota and North Dakota, and it was in North Dakota he met the young lady
who had come to the United States from Finland. Her parents had come to farm in North Dakota, and
she was working in Steele when she and Levi met. They were married that fall.
On December 23, 1973 they had marked 50 years of marriage together and Sunday they were hosted at
an [open] house to observe those 50 years.
That half-century has been marked by years of hard work, of drought and hardship, but they haven’t
dimmed the sparkle in their eyes or their keen interest in life.
Levi had been working for a farmer when they were married and he rented a quarter from the man,
“machinery, horses and all.” In 1924 he bought another quarter complete with “run down old buildings,”
and they started to make their life together.
“We farmed some grain, had cattle and sheep, chickens and everything most farmers had in those
days,” Levi recalled. “We didn’t have too much farm land,” he said. Their house, a flat, three-room affair,
was “a real dilly,” Mrs. Mitterling laughed. When winter came they burned lignite coal and cow chips.
“We could buy lignite for $2.50 a ton if we unloaded it ourselves and we burned it in the cook stove. We
didn’t dare stir it or it would go out,” he explained.
They milked a few cows and Mrs. Mitterling would churn butter which they took to Steele to sell to the
hotel and restaurant. They also sold a little grain, “not too much, but enough to help buy groceries.” She
made all the clothes for their two sons and the family … sold eggs, and they managed to get along.
“Then we got the drought for ten years,” Levi shook his head. “I believe we lived for less than $15 a
month … we had to!” They did have a deep well and managed to water a garden, “so we never went
hungry.” He recalls vainly searching the sky for clouds which might provide rain and recalls that almost
everything burned up in the hot sun and wind.
“Then one evening in 1932 the black cloud came … it was a storm that damaged every building on the
place. Our sheep barn was torn to pieces, the roof on the house was damaged, the side of the hen house
was shoved in … the granary was damaged, and the brooder house ripped up. Three hog houses were
torn up and we could hear the boards going over the house … but nothing was killed!” he exclaimed …
“and there wasn’t a drop of rain!”
He recalls planting potatoes in low spots on the farm in 1932 and “getting back only about as much as
we planted.” There was no hay on the place that year and he drove to a lake bottom 23 miles away
where he got eight loads out of 60 acres and I had to give half of that for rent.” He remembers selling
hogs for two cents and lambs for four … “and I still had to pay the freight.” He also sold some calves for $4
to the government which permitted him to butcher them.
A banker persuaded him to rent a farm in eastern North Dakota in 1934 as crop conditions were better
there. They moved to Leonard and that next year it was so hot the wheat rusted … “but we had a good
garden.” In 1936 it was so hot and dry that corn burned from the top down like it had been frosted. A lot
of horses dropped dead in that heat … and “the wind was like it was blowing off the top of a hot stove.”
In 1937 they had a little rain and got some hay, but that fall the farm was sold and they moved to Nome,
North Dakota. “There the grasshoppers were very bad and so were the mosquitoes,” he laughed. In
1938 and 1939 they dried out again and in the fall of 1939, they moved to the Pencer area. “I got sick of
it and was ready to move back east,” he said, but his brother Ted persuaded him to come to Minnesota.
“I remember listening to some fellows complaining about the rain,” he mused. “It hurt me since I knew
what rain meant … I told them they didn’t know what it was like to dry out … you could lose everything.
If you have rain you at least have pasture!” “Since I have been here I have not had a failure … even if we
didn’t get into the field until late May,” he emphasized.
He farmed 160 acres in Pencer and again “we had everything from pigs and chickens to cows and
turkeys.” He put a basement under the house, fixed up the buildings and found that “it was easier to
make it go here.” He and Mrs. Mitterling farmed there until 1954 when they sold the farm to their son
and moved to their present farm in America Township. “We farmed here until 1967 when we put it in
the soil bank and decided to take it a little easy,” he said.
The Mitterlings have always been active in their communities. He served on the Beaver Town Board as
well as the school board. He was on the church board of the Mission Covenant Church for many years
and has been a Sunday School teacher for years as well. Mrs. Mitterling also taught Sunday School and
belonged to the ladies aid.
Retirement isn’t exactly “retirement” for the Mitterlings. They keep plenty busy with their chickens. “We
sell over 100 dozen eggs a week … and our neighbors buy eggs, too,” he revealed. He feeds and waters
the chickens three times a day, “and that takes time,” he grins. He also splits wood for exercise, loves to
fish and wouldn’t miss hunting! “We have real nice neighbors so we do get out and visit a bit, too,” Mrs.
Mitterling said. They feel people are more sociable here than they were in North Dakota.
What of their future? Levi smiles. “You can’t tell what you will do an hour from now. We’ll take it a day
at a time and will do the things we think we can do, God willing,” he emphasized.
What has been the most important think in their lives together? “Pulling together. It is absolutely
necessary if you are going to make it go,” they emphasize.
Levi puts it this way: “You’ll not get far if one horse goes ahead and the other one goes backward!”
Thank you to 
(www.roseauonline.com) for letting us share our county’s history with your listeners by donating air time, studio time, and production staff every week.