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11/5/2007: Frank Zastoupil’s grandfather journeyed from Bohemia in Austria-Hungary to Russia when the Czarina Catherine the Great offered Russian land and religious freedom to new settlers. The Zastoupil family dwelled in a village surrounded by fellow Bohemians. They farmed side by side in their new country, danced polkas and waltzes, sang with great passion, and shared joyful social lives.
11/2/2007: A North Dakota settler’s most deadly enemy didn’t have sharp claws, it couldn’t utter threats, it didn’t even have opposable thumbs. It was the weather. From the scorching heat of summer, to the blinding blizzards of winter, North Dakota homesteaders struggled year round to triumph over unruly conditions. Everyone faced these trials, from young Ole Melhouse, to widowed Carrie Severson; the prairie weather spared no one.