A Century On the Land

A CENTURY ON THE LAND chronicles the 1887 homesteading of Geo. Henry Bassingthwaighte from Canada to what was to become Hannah, North Dakota. Born on the land, David G. Bassingthwaite, the third generation owner since 1962, describes 100 years of North Dakota farming in Cavalier County. The book details the changes in production methods and farm mechanization and revealing much about family living conditions in one of the most rural settings in the cold northern plains. This farm, like many others throughout the Great Plains, had remarkable cyclical economic conditions as the rapid settlement brought vast numbers of people to the vacant land. The book shows how the population changed little for a quarter century, then declined 75 percent in half a century. This work started as a genealogical record. It quickly became a far more ambitious research project and something more than a family story. Over 240 photos and graphics are essential to the story.