WAVES ON THE PRAIRIE

Waves crashed against the bow of the small sailing vessel.  E.W. Everson then just nine years old, braced his feet against the deck and smiled.  The warm June sun seemed to smile back, glimmering across the ocean.  A few more days, he thought.  A few more days, and I’ll be in America.

It hadn’t been easy for E.W. to leave Norway.  He and his father, Andrew Everson, had said their tearful goodbyes to the rest of the family weeks ago.  It still hurt bitterly to think of Mother and his five brothers and sisters at home without him.  Father told E.W. it would be difficult, but someday the family would all be in America together.

Father had borrowed money so that he and E.W. could go to America.  There they would work to earn money.  Once their tickets were paid for, they would save enough to bring the rest of the family to America, too.

It would be a wonderful new life for all of them.   To E.W., this thought was more beautiful than the sun shining on the ocean waves.

After nine weeks and three days on the Atlantic Ocean, E.W. and his father landed in America.  They made their way to Pierce County, Wisconsin—a strange new world for a boy who didn’t yet speak English.

The Civil War had just ended.  Wages were low, and E.W.’s father had to take work wherever he could to pay for their tickets.  This meant he couldn’t take care of E.W.  The boy would have to learn to take care of himself.

E.W. only stayed with his father for a short time before he went to live and work with another family.  That was a sad day, but E.W. and his Father agreed they would continue to work until their family could all enjoy America’s freedom together.

After E.W. left his father, he began a pattern of living with other people and working for them.  One of these people was an Irish immigrant named Mike Cafree.  Mike Cafree taught E.W. how to speak English with a strong Irish brogue, and he taught him how to work hard.

After about a year, E.W.’s father finally had enough to pay for their tickets and send for the rest of the family.  E.W. was proud of being able to help bring them to America, but it was still difficult to get enough money to live on.  E.W. stayed and worked with Mike Cafree for another two years.

When E.W. was thirteen years old, he stopped working for Mike Cafree and began working for other people.  He worked for a peculiar but nice man named Solomon Tidd who was good to him for about four years.  Another man he lived with and worked for, an old man named Webster, let E.W. go to school in the winter.

E.W. loved school and jumped at the chance when one of his sisters married Simon Nelson, he went to live and work with them. He went to school during the winter and worked for other people in the summer until he was a grown man.

These were happy days for E.W.  Although the work was hard, the opportunities he had to learn and to make money were very precious to him.  He was glad he had come to America.  His family was glad, too.

One year soon after E.W. had finished school, he went to work in St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota.  He worked at several different places, enjoying his freedom and the many opportunities open to a young man in America.

Then, one day, he started to cough.  He had tuberculosis.

The cough got worse, and worse, until he was so sick he couldn’t get out of bed.  All his money went to pay for his care.  When it was gone, he knew he would have to work later to repay the kind people who still cared for him.

Slowly, E.W. got well enough to work again, but the cough stayed with him for the rest of his life.

E.W. was hoping to work on the North Wisconsin Rail Road in order to help pay for the care he had when he was sick.  A man named Dr. Hoyt convinced E.W. not to.  He said if E.W. didn’t get into the country and rest for a while, he would die.

E.W. went home to his family.  He rested there for about four weeks, but he couldn’t stay still.  He finally took a job harvesting and stacking wheat.  When harvest time was over, he worked as a clerk in a hotel, drove mail from town to town, and then unloaded logs from rail road cars.

One spring, E.W. struck out to North Dakota.  He was well enough to work on the rail road, and he worked near a town called Mapleton.

E.W. loved the way the sun sparkled in the tall prairie grass.  It reminded him of the sun on the ocean waves.  It reminded him that even though America required hard work, it was a place of hope and freedom.  E.W. filed a claim there, which meant he was able to get some land of his own.  Something else happened that year:  E.W. fell in love.

E.W. walked the rail road track very long distances to visit this girl named Betsy who worked as a waitress in the café in Oriska, North Dakota.  E. W. soon became her best customer.

Betsey Mossing was also an immigrant from Norway.  She had a lot in common with E.W.   Betsey had road a pine log wagon all the way to North Dakota from Minnesota.  Both E. W. and Betsey were searching for that American Dream they had crossed an ocean to obtain.

Both Betsey and E.W. knew what it was like to work hard.  They knew what it was like to have hope even in the hard times.  They both loved the freedom and opportunities in America.  It wasn’t long before they were inseparable.

E.W. married Betsey in October and they made a home in their new world together.  They had eight children of their own—three boys and five girls—and they adopted another baby girl when she was eleven months old.

Life was good.  E.W. and all his loved ones were in America.  They had worked hard to make new lives there, and they were happy and blessed.

E.W. had filed the first claim for land in Greenfield Township.  As the community of Walum grew up around them, he became involved with more than just his land and family.  He was Justice of the Peace for 16 years.  He served on the school board.  When North Dakota was finally made a state, he became a state Legislator.

As one of North Dakota’s first lawmakers, E.W. was able to see that not all men cherished the freedoms that America provided.  There were some men who wanted power more than they wanted freedom.

During this time, North Dakota farmers were having a hard time with fluctuating grain prices for their crops.  They were angry and wanted some changes made in the government that would assist keeping prices high.

After several attempts to gain influence, the farmers finally became discouraged.  Some of the men who wanted power saw this.  They organized the farmers into a political party called the NPL or the Non-Partisan League.  They promised the farmers that if they would vote them into public office, they would make changes to the laws.

The farmers did what the NPL leadership asked.  They voted for several Legislators and a governor from the NPL, but when the NPL had the power they asked for, they began to pass laws aimed to destroy America’s freedom.  E.W. was Enraged & determined that this would not happen in his backyard, his great state of North Dakota or to his neighbors.

Under the influence of NPL, the North Dakota Legislature passed laws creating a state-owned bank and a state-owned flour mill.  Then they began passing other laws that limited freedoms.

Most importantly, the men who were in charge of the NPL didn’t really represent the farmers at all.  The farmers had no way of getting someone in office who would really look after their best interests because they couldn’t vote on the leaders of the NPL.

E.W. knew something had to be done. He was never a man for sitting still, especially not when honest farmers were being betrayed by the very people who promised to help them.  With all the freedoms he had worked for and learned to love at stake, he knew he had to act.

E.W. United Conservatives in all three political parties, Republican, Democrat and Independent into a new political movement called the IVA or Independent Voter’s Association.  The IVA set out to counter the destruction caused by the Non-Partisan League.

The men who supported the IVA worked hard to inform the farmers and other citizens about the Non-Partisan League’s efforts to destroy freedom.

The Non Partisan league had deceived the North Dakota Farmer. Then they united with the I. W. W. or International Workers of the World that had deceived the worker. These two entities now merged threatened America as a Nation.   This was a Socialist Squirrel takeover of the American Dream.

Some of the Non-Partisan League leaders dubbed E.W. the “Grizzly Bear” because he was so ferocious about protecting freedom.  This is where we get the name of our effort today, the Grizzly Groundswell.

E.W.’s hard work had become a fight.  He fought with words and with petitions.  He and his family were laughed at and scorned.  A newspaper called the NonPartisan Leader, which was run by the Non-Partisan League, printed cartoons that poked fun at E.W. and all he held dear.

It was hard to keep trying in those circumstances, but E.W. held strong.  For him, protecting freedom was like the trip from Norway, when he knew he would be in America soon.  He planned to work hard and trusted that everything would turn out right.

Eventually the leadership of the Non-Partisan League was revealed to have broken laws.  They had betrayed farmers and citizens on the very issues they had promised to change.  They did not lift their neighbors, the farmers up at all, yet they tore them down and betrayed them by creating laws that tore away the American dream they all sought and worked so hard to obtain in North Dakota.

E.W.’s IVA pushed for a special vote called a recall vote. It was held in 1921.  The Non Partisan League governor and two other NPL leaders were thrown out of office.  This was the first Governor recalled in United States history!

New leaders who loved freedom and wanted to protect it took their place.  They worked hard to reform the most destructive laws passed when the Non-Partisan League leaders were in charge.

E.W. and his IVA’s effort stopped the Non-Partisan League and the I. W. W. just as they were positioned to be a national threat.  When he was sure that people who loved freedom would stay in office and make good laws, he retired.

By this time, E.W. was 56 years old.  He had worked hard all his life and fought for freedom with everything he had, but there was one fight he couldn’t win.

The tuberculosis cough became worse.   Try as he might, he couldn’t overcome the worsening cough.  He died on March 27, 1931 content with his life and what he had done but never knowing that he was a hero.

It was this very fact that made E.W. who he was.  He never cared about being a hero.  He only wanted to protect freedom, and he was willing to work hard to do it—even if it meant working hard to the end of his good life.

More than a hundred years later, E.W.’s great grandson stumbled onto this story.  He marveled at E.W.’s courage, his willingness to keep going when things got hard, and his love of freedom, his state of North Dakota and his County of the United States of America.

It sparkled like the sun on amber waves of grain across his Grandfathers field in Walum, North Dakota.

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Waves On The Prairie is our Children’s Book of the life story of E. W. Everson, my grandfather.  It is his story that inspired me to found and grow this Grizzly Groundswell.  I do not have the money to publish this book yet, but this story needs to get out there to win hearts and minds to our effort.  So accept it as a gift and please if you can support our effort.

1. Please send a monetary gift to our effort through paypal
   1. 
2. Please advertise with our efforts email me for more details:
   1. GrizzlyGroundswell@yahoo.com
   2. Grizzly Advertising
3. Please join us in our effort as an author, radio show host, promoter, and any of the thousands of needs we have to grow our efforts.

On www.WGGRN.com our 24/7 Radio Station we will be playing “Waves On The Prairie” read by our Grizzly Groundswell Members, and supporters Starting January 1st from 11Am-noon CST each day.

If you would like your voice heard reading “Waves On The Prairie” on WGGRN.com, Please do the following:

1. Record your voice and others reading the Children’s story “Waves On The Prairie” into a MP3 128mbs/44khz/stereo format.
2. Send the audio to GrizzlyGroundswell@yahoo.com
3. Listen to WGGRN.com for your fellow Grizzly Groundswell and yourself Reading “Waves On The Prairie”.

It is my hope that you receive as much inspiration in this story as I do each time I hear it.

WGGRN.com is producing a number of new shows and original content in 2010.  If you wish to join us in this productive year just contact me at the email above.

We are looking for:

• Monetary support and Advertisers!
• Voice Actors
• Script Writers
• Authors
• Radio Show Hosts
• Advertising Sales professionals

Next Tuesday at 7PM I will share another Story and project with you.  It is entitled “My Name Is Temerity”.  This is another creative opportunity for you to share your Thought, Voice and Image along with our grassroots Conservative ideals and values to the World.  Get Grizzly with us in 2010!