Chapter 5
The Era of Big Farms

It's estimated there were 91 different bonanza farms in operation up and down the Red River Valley and further west along the Northern Pacific's rail line. Near Oliver Dalrymple's operation west of Fargo was the Amenia and Sharon land Company; a farm of 42,000 acres owned by 40 stockholders from New England. To the north was the Grandin Brothers Farm. A huge operation which owned 75,000 acres of land and its own steamboat fleet for shipping grain. On the southern end was the Dwight Farm, where 60,000 acres of land were supervised by John Miller, the man who would go on to become the first governor of the state of North Dakota.

Other notable farms in the area were the Coopers Brothers Farm, the Downing Farm,the Adams Farm, and the Bagg Farm.

The Farm Manager

The people who owned bonanza farms were not farmers in the traditional sense. They were bankers, investors, land speculators, and businessmen. Many had no personal knowledge of how to run a farm and depended on a reliable manager to run the operation for them.

A farm manager's main concern was the management of personnel rather than the actual farming. They had a huge labor force to manage. Finding a way to keep the farms tightly organized was a top priority.

Military Influence

In the late 1800's, the Civil war was still fresh in the minds of many Americans. Nationalism was high and the military was an institution to be emulated. On a typical bonanza farm the military's impact was easy to see. With as many as 100 workers living on a single farm, efficiency was the rule of the day. Work crews lived in bunkhouses and followed strict rules. Often swearing was not tolerated. Drinking of alcohol was forbidden. And because of the fire hazard, smoking was hardly ever allowed. The only vice usually permitted workers on a bonanza farm was chewing tobacco.

If caught breaking any of the farm's rules, workers would often be fired on the spot. Of course this never kept the men from trying to sneak a drink in the barn loft or have a smoke in the outhouse.