MAKOTI - Life for a laundrywoman and an officer's wife were quite a bit different back in the 1870s, Kathy Elijah and Cheryl Stein told an audience during the 50th annual Makoti Threshing Show on Saturday.
Elijah earlier gave a presentation on different types of hats that were worn by women during different eras. Some hats were tiny and pinned to the side of the head rather than on top of the head because of the hairstyles that were in vogue at the time, said Elijah, who showed hats that would have been worn in the 1920s and 1930s as well as those worn during the 1960s. Elijah was wearing the long dress of a pioneer woman of the late 1800s.
Stein, who is a member of different historical groups and the advertising manager for the Makoti Threshing Show, said they wanted to include something of interest to the women during the 50th anniversary celebration. Her presentation was on how life would have differed at a place at Fort Lincoln for the upper class officer's wife and the lower class laundress.
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Andrea Johnson/MDN •
Kathy Elijah gives a talk about the history of women’s hats Saturday during the Makoti Threshing Show.
Outside the hall, there were children's games offered in the pioneer village, a clown, a magic show and a kiddie parade that was offered on both days.
There was also a flea market people could visit.
Threshing demonstrations and displays of old machinery were spread across the grounds.
Sometimes it took awhile to get a piece of antique equipment up and going and a crowd waited patiently while steam bellowed from a tractor and men tried to get things moving again.
Merle Dreher, president of the Makoti Threshing Association, said some tractors were left inside because there weren't enough men to operate them. Of the men who started the Threshing Association in 1960, only a few are still alive. They try to pass on the knowledge about how to keep antiques running so that the younger generation will be able to see how things used to be done in the old days. If there are volunteers to run the equipment, those in the know will give them a few pointers. Some equipment, like steam-powered tractors and other vehicles, requires that people take special classes and become certified before they are permitted to operate them.
Dreher's son and grandson are among the younger men and boys who were operating equipment during the threshing show.
The threshing show drew hundreds of people from miles around, including several people who had attended the Norsk Hstfest in Minot over the weekend and heard about the threshing show.
Sharon Andes, a volunteer, said a couple from England were among the people who visited the threshing show on Saturday.