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Collection Summary
Collection: 00032 - North Dakota Oral History Project Photograph Collection
Folder: WI-04
Item: 00001
Title: Mr. and Mrs. John Ulysses (Lucinda Thankful Wilder) Silker, Theola and Wyatt
Date: 1905
Creator: Amsbaugh, Mabel B
Inscription/Marks: [Facsimile file] Written on back of photograph: "Mr. and Mrs. John Silker, Theola, and Wyatt.
Summary: Seated studio portrait of John Ulysses, Lucinda Thankful Wilder and their two children Theola Marguerite and Wyatt Edward Silker. John and Lucinda Silker by Clayton Brown (Williams County History p162-163). John and Lucinda had a small acreage on the outskirts of Anamosa, Iowa. They had both taught school in various places in Iowa before their marriage. John was attending the University at Fayette, Iowa, but had to leave on account of a bout with typhoid fever. In 1902, they immigrated to North Dakota and homesteaded in Athens. At that time Wyatt was eight and with a team of horses, a cow and their meager household goods and farm machinery and Lucinda and the children rode on the train. They lived on the homestead for the next 30 years. Their first house was built of logs cut on the Missouri River bottom. John found it necessary to go to Chester, Montana, and take a job freighting supplies for a sheep ranch in order to make a grub stake. Lucinda and the children lived in rented rooms in Williston. Theola remembers following Wyatt to school and climbing up and down over a stile in the fence around the schoolhouse. She was only three years old and this made quite an impression on her. Later the children both attended Twin Lake School. The school was the social as well as the education center of the community. Theola remembers once particular meeting when Herman Zahl “spoke a piece.” It must have impressed her. When they had lighted Christmas tree it was John’s responsibility to stand near and watch the candles in case of fire. Theola thinks that Mr. Dusell was probably Santa Claus in many instances. Lucinda’s maiden name was Wilder and her parents moved to Athens shortly after the Silkers came. Wyatt, Clair Wilder, and Bill O’Brien, another cousin, were all members of Company “E” and left with it for France in World War I. Wyatt and Bill were transferred to Company “M” and wer both wounded in action. Wyatt was both gassed and shell-shocked and finally was killed October 1, 1918, just five or six weeks before the armistice was signed. According to reports he was killed by our own artillery barrage in an over-the-top assault on an enemy position. He was reported to have left the hospital on crutches after his first wound in order to be with his company. Wyatt was killed in the Battle of Verdun and is buried in the Argonne National Cemetery. An account of Mrs. Silker’s trip to visit his grave was written up in the “Williston Herald” on August 8, 1930. The Silkers left the farm in 1932 and never returned. The farm was first rented by a man named Huska and later sold to Walter Koepke. John Silker died in 1933 and Mrs. Silker lived in Williston until 1946 when she moved to Minneapolis to be with us. She came on to Denver with us and died here in 1957. Theola married me, Clayton Brown, son of A. H. Brown, and we now live in Denver.
Red ID: PH_I_120875 Image ID: 167784 Image Notes: 00032-WI-04-00001

Collection: 00032 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: North Dakota Oral History Project Photograph Collection
Date: 1880-1977

Summary: Consists of copies of photographs belonging to people interviewed for the North Dakota Oral History Project. The Project was undertaken by Larry Sprunk, with the cooperation of the North Dakota American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, the North Dakota Farmers Union, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota. The primary objective of the North Dakota Oral History Project was to conduct oral tape recorded interviews with North Dakotans who lived through the state's history and who could speak of this history from a first-hand basis. Interviewees were photographed at the time of their interviews. In addition, the project borrowed over 6,000 historical photographs which were copied and added to the State Historical Society's collection. Many interviewees also donated family histories, documents, letters, ledgers, books, and artifacts.

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