Welcome back to the little guy zone, which I wrote about in a previous blog post. 

To recap, I do not have a true definition for a little guy, but I do get a feeling whenever I come across one. Smallness is often a factor but not required. And in line with the Midwestern use of “guy,” being a little guy knows no gender. It’s just a little guy. 

This time the little guys arrive with a Halloween twist. For your viewing pleasure, here are some of my favorite delightfully unsettling little guys being preserved in the State Historical Society museum collections.

1. Several heads!

Along with the little lady on a donkey from my last little guys blog post, the French Gratitude Train also contained some weirder little guys among its gifts: these carved disembodied heads resembling world leaders of the era. I especially like them because they also remind me of the singing busts from Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride.

These “carved effigy heads” arrived in North Dakota on the French Gratitude Train in 1949. The train was an expression of gratitude for the food and clothing Americans sent France after World War II. SHSND 1990.25.116a-e 

“Haunted Mansion Singing Busts for Projection - Enhanced and Deflickered,” Montclair’s Lair. Their resemblance to the French Gratitude heads is uncanny.

2. Obligatory doll entry 

What would this list be without a creepy doll? An incomplete one, that’s what. We have a few creepy dolls in the collection, but this little lady was the worthy winner of a place on this list. And now she can live in my nightmares and yours! The doll belonged to Jennie M. (Kelley) Chenery of Jamestown, Dakota Territory, who received this doll as a gift in 1874 and played with it as a child. Like many dolls, when laying down, her eyes are closed, but when she sits up ... well, you can see. She’s got one good eye, and the other one is looking into your soul, probably. 

This doll is just too creepy. SHSND 13407

3. A familiar face 

This depiction of the McDonald’s mascot Grimace graces a cookie wrapper from 1985. What does he want? The cookies? They are long gone. Stop looking at me, Grimace. 

Grimace will haunt your dreams. SHSND 1985.82.36 

4. Creepy cutie 

Everyone meet Patsy! She is a taxidermied deformed calf, born as an incomplete twin with a second head on her chest sporting rather alarming teeth. Patsy was born in April 1976 on the Selmer and Mary Ann Kjorstad farm near Williston. According to the family, she could run and do everything the other calves did. Unfortunately, Patsy caught pneumonia and died in June of the same year. Patsy is certainly in the creepy-but-cute category. 

Patsy, the two-headed calf. SHSND 2010.52.1 

5. A weird little creature’s holiday greetings

Bismarck artist Clell Gannon, whose humorous block print of a slouching man surrounded by sketches of cats made an appearance in my last blog post, is back again with another little guy! Instead of spectral cats we have an … elf? Thing? Whatever they are, they are bringing some positive energy into the holiday season, despite my confusion and unsettlement with their hairy legs. 

An early holiday greeting from …. whatever this is. SHSND 2013.111.78 

This has been your Halloween edition of little guys! Do you have some little guys, creepy or not, that you’d like to donate to the State Historical Society? Let us know by filling out our donation questionnaire. Have a wonderful Halloween with all the creepy little guys in your life!

In 1889, when North Dakota and South Dakota became states, the governmental records of Dakota Territory were split between the two. Each state received different parts of these records, but all were to be kept, protected, and accessible. Recently, the State Historical Society of North Dakota and the University of South Dakota partnered to virtually reunite territorial records and to create better access to them. We received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to do so. Soon researchers will be able to view all these collections easily and from anywhere.

The growing community of Lisbon shortly after the territorial census, circa 1890. SHSND SA B0009-00001

Amid the many interesting notes, correspondence, and other official documents held within these collections is information regarding the 1885 territorial census.

The 1885 territorial census was authorized through federal legislation in 1879. While establishing that a census be taken every 10 years, this legislation also made provisions for U.S. territories to conduct a census in between national censuses, partially paid for by the U.S. government. This documentation could show faster growth and opportunity in a territory, which could provide helpful support for procuring statehood, encouraging settlement and industry, and determining political delegation numbers.

Page from the 1885 territorial census. SHSND SA State Series 30111

Dakota Territory took part in this census, and the information gathered was valuable for residents at that critical time on the cusp of statehood. The information also remains important and informative today, documenting population in an era when fewer written records were kept. Aside from counting and listing the names of inhabitants, censuses often include additional information, and the 1885 census was no exception. Enumerators, or census workers, gathered additional information on separate pages, or schedules, relating to agricultural production and to industry, such as the type and amount of power used and what machinery was required. They also compiled a schedule relating to deaths that had happened in the year prior to the June 1, 1885, start of the census.

Directions to census workers on how to prepare and fill out the 1885 territorial census. SHSND SA State Series 30110

Two additional schedules were added to the mix in Dakota Territory, though these were optional to return. One documented ex-soldiers of the Union army; the other ex-soldiers of the Confederate army. As a result, the 1885 territorial census is one of the few records available in North Dakota that holds any record of the presence of former military personnel in the state.

It is worth noting that although most of the 1885 territorial censuses are located at the National Archives, the original census sheets for Dakota Territory remained within North Dakota and South Dakota. The North Dakota State Archives also retains correspondence and other information about the operation of the 1885 census. And while the census itself is a straightforward, historically interesting document, the correspondence relating to the undertaking of the census holds some surprises.

One of the most striking items I’ve found is a 13-page letter written to then-Territorial Governor Gilbert Pierce from A. W. Edwards, supervisor of the census for North Dakota. In April 1885, Edwards traveled to Washington, D.C., to figure out how the census would work—such as how much money the government would provide and the process of getting blank sheets printed. Edwards detailed the assistance, or lack thereof, and the red tape he encountered. He wrote: “I think I will know by tomorrow night as much about the census as any other man here or elsewhere. … I am satisfied that I already understand more about this than anyone in the Interior Department. The fact is, everybody seems at sea. The new officials can give no attention to any matter, and the old ones, won’t. Everybody is clever and polite and kind, but won’t give opinions, or decisions, or assistance.”

First page of A.W. Edwards’ April 1885 letter to Territorial Governor Gilbert Pierce. SHSND SA State Series 30110

With a little help from some old friends and a bit of luck—as well as adopting a hands-on approach when able—Edwards found what he needed. But according to his letter, he was one of the few. He even mentioned that the census supervisor from Colorado spent almost two weeks unsuccessfully trying to find answers to his questions there. Edwards, with his new knowledge, planned to have the Department of the Interior send wires to the various other appointed “supervisors of the different states that they will furnish blanks … and in that way the government printer will do the whole job.”

Edwards did not mean for this letter to be placed “on file as an official document, as it is not intended as a matter of record.” Yet that is exactly what happened—a note in red on the back of the final page of the letter states that it was “filed by Gov. Pierce.”

A note in red ink indicates that that A.W. Edwards’ letter was filed despite his stated wishes otherwise. SHSND SA State Series 30110

What a window into the past these documents provide us, from the banal everyday listing of who was living where to the intricacies of the inner workings of the contemporary federal government! Take a look at the 1885 census (at least partially viewable online through websites like Ancestry and FamilySearch) and reflect on how important that information was, both when it was compiled and today as we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. These critical territorial records will definitely remain important in the future, as we prepare them for digitization and to be accessible to a new generation.

Who knows? Some of these people milling in front of the George Jennings' grocery store in Bismarck may have even been counted in the territorial census, 1884. SHSND SA 2011-P-009-00002