[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 101 (Thursday, July 19, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7946-S7947]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              STRAND FAMILY FARM 100TH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE

 Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I pay tribute today to a North 
Dakota family that exemplifies the spirit of rural life and all that it 
contributes to our Nation. The Strand family, of Regan, ND, will this 
week celebrate 100 years on the family farm.

[[Page S7947]]

  Andrew and Anna Strand arrived in North Dakota in 1901, brought by 
emigrant train to Wilton, ND. Then, with only a team of horses, a 
wagon, a walking breaking plow, a disc, and a drill, Andrew and Anna 
set about making a home in the small community of Regan.
  From those meager beginnings, Anna and Andrew raised a family of six 
children and, just like thousands of other North Dakotans at that time, 
they built a successful family farm and did the hard work that 
eventually carved hardy communities from the prairie.
  Today, the Strand family farm is still being farmed by Andrew and 
Anna's grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Four generations of 
Strands have lived and worked on the land over the past century. As 
anyone who knows will tell you, farming is hard work. And the Strand 
family has kept that farm going through everything from the Great 
Depression to droughts and floods. The family survived even the leanest 
years, times in the early part of the last century when there was only 
one good paying crop out of every 7 years.
  While some have stayed to continue to work the land, others in the 
Strand family have built lives and careers that contribute to our 
State, regional, and national life in a variety of other ways. Andrew 
and Anna's descendants have worked in healthcare, education, music, 
public affairs, and agribusiness, to name only a few.
  Anna and Andrew's children left their mark on our society in a 
profound way. Einar Strand helped build the United Nations building in 
New York. Norton was involved in the agriculture industry throughout 
North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. Alice became the 
head administrator at Ballard Hospital in Seattle, WA. Both Arthur and 
Barney, worked the land as their father before them. Today, Barney, 
Jr., and his son Richard continue the tradition of farming on the 
original Strand homestead.
  The Strand family also contributed to community life in many ways. In 
the early days, when help was needed in the fledgling community, the 
Strand family was there; helping the local doctor on his daily rounds 
during the influenza outbreak of 1918, helping to build the first local 
schoolhouse, building township roads and more.
  Families like the Strand demonstrate the importance of preserving the 
family farm and our rural communities. They also remind us that family 
farms produce more than the food that feeds our Nation and the world. 
Family farms also produce hardy, enduring families that make our 
communities and our Nation strong.
  I congratulate them as they celebrates this 100-year anniversary of 
life on the family farm, and extend the hope that the Strand family 
will continue the tradition that Andrew and Anna started a century 
ago.

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