Today is Mother’s Day in North Dakota. Ragnvald Nestos, North Dakota’s thirteenth Governor, recognized the importance of mothers in North Dakota in a ceremony on the State Capitol grounds in Bismarck on May 10, 1924. During the ceremony, the Governor planted a white birch tree in their honor. The ceremony came soon after the First World War, and several members of the American War Mothers were in attendance.

Nestos had this to say: “… If there is any commemoration in the year that should call forth the best traits of men and women, it is certainly the celebration of Mother’s Day. We have met today…to plant a white birch, the tree selected as the most suggestive of Mothers’ pure and unselfish love… Naturally, our thought and appreciation today will go first of all to the loyal and devoted mothers who, while their sons were engaged in the world war, suffered each day in their love and anxiety for the life and welfare of a son… But I want also to pay my respects and homage today to the pioneer mothers of our state…There is no more inspiring story of conquest and of unselfish service than the story of the wives and mothers who followed their determined husbands, seeking a home and economic freedom upon the broad North Dakota prairies.”

Written by Jayme Job

Sources:
The Bismarck Tribune. Saturday, May 10, 1924: p. 1.
The Fargo Forum. Saturday, May 10, 1924: p. 2.

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