Shupes Owned Second Car In the County.
Profile of a citizen in the Stanley Sun - October 1940
H. O. Shupe, last week's Mr. Blank was so damn mean when he was a kid says his brother of Mohall, "that he'd pour the slop outside the hog trough to make the hogs squeal." His brother was kidding and H. O. is not mean at all. A good guy and good farmer who likes to fish. He's leaving for Texas in a few days where he will fish most of the time during the winter. Mrs. Shupe had to take up fishing in order to live with H. O. and now she likes it nearly as well as he does.
H. O. will fish with hook and line, spear fish, net 'em or shoot 'em. It is all fishin' with H. O. and if one bullhead wiggles the cork, he'll sit there all day.
He was born at Milo, Iowa on December 4, 1872 the son of M. and Мrs. Неnrу Shupe.1 He had one brother and one sister. When Homer was four months old, his father died from an injury sustained from the kick of a horse. When he was twelve years old, he went out on his own and worked on farms or whatever he could find to do.
In the due course of time he courted many damsels, but one. Mary Prichett2,"was the orneriest one, so I married her," says H. O. The ceremony took place on February 28, 1894. Mrs. Shupe states that they attended the same church in Iowa and Homer Shupe was the cussedest young rascal she ever knew. She was the organist and recalls the time when Homer planted a tack on the organ stool. She sat down on the tack, and she knew for sure who did it, but Homer was studiously and seriously exploring the Gospel Hymnal when she glowered at him.
H. O. and several other young Iowans came to Willow City in 1902 to take in threshing. That fall H. O. bought a farm from John Wright, grandfather of James Wright. The Shupes resided at Willow City until 1906 when H. O. came to Stanley and filed on a homestead southeast where they have lived since. Their belongings arrived in a freight car and the family arrived in a hay rack that had been covered with canvas.
The Shupes have loved N. Dakota since they first saw it. H. O. states that he was never so tickled in his life as he was the day he filed on his 160 acres. He got busy, broke up 60 acres and put in a flax сrор. The crop was good. The Shupes came to town about 4 times a year. Most always it was Mrs. Shupe who came H. O. had work to do.
In the early days the Shupe homestead was the stopping place for homesteaders who lived in the Epworth country. Mrs. Shupe recalls that they brought along a kitchen stove from Iowa and that her first experience of trying to burn lignite was not at all successful. She recalls that sometimes she would have the kitchen full of hungry people and the stove would not burn. H. O. has a couple of bird dog pups that turned up missing, and claims they found them in the oven of the kitchen stove, the only warm place in the house.
Mrs. Shupe says that about that time H. O. hauled out the Sears and Roebuck catalogue, sent for a coal stove and when it came he dumped the wood stove on top of the rock pile and it still sits there. The Shupe home has been warm since and Mrs. Shupe can cook anything that a man can eat.3
The Shupes moved to Stanley In 1915 and bought a home and the Chevrolet garage4 and intended to live there the rest of their lives, but H. O. is no town guy. In the spring of the year he likes to be messin' around, planting things and watching ‘em grow. In 1929 he sold the garage to Ed. Johnson, the house to A. D. Pierce and moved back on the homestead. H. O. has sold the homestead twice but still owns it.
They went out to Portland, Ore. in 1920 and came back in 1921. They own a fine trailer house and have fun with it. The Shupes work when they work when and play when they play. They have midget autos and take in celebrations where the kids have fun, driving them at a nickle a ride.5
The Shupes have been parents to 13 children, three died in infancy and Alan died in 1922. The children are:6
Ona, Mrs. Chas, Fenstermaker of south of Stanley;
Ina, Mrs. Ludvig Steneide of Stanley;
Cecil. who teaches school (aviation) at Brookings. S. D.
Geraldine, Mrs, Clarence Anderson of Bonnors Ferry. Idaho:
Florence, Mrs Chas, Shubert of Devils Lake,
Max, who is a mechanic for the Boeing Aircraft Corporation at Seattle, Washington;
Edna, Mrs I R McGill of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
and Roscoe, the youngster who rides the scooter to school every morning.
They have 22 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.7
-Shupe family 1914 - photo from a genealogy source likely shared from a descendant.
Why did we pick on H. O Shupes for Mr. Blank? Mostly because he has been a success.8 He may not have the jack stored away that Hank Ford has, but we bet that nobody had more fun out of living than Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Shupes.
I like people who like to fish says Homer. “They may be crazy but if that’s so, then I like crazy people. Fishin’ relaxes you, makes you forget your troubles and you live longer.”
And this writer has been fishin’ with the Shupes. Ma Shupe takes along (unreadable word), home cured dried beef, three or four roasted chickens and such like. They’re just kind of thrifty people. Pa Shupe dishes up the grub and understands.
Out on the Shupe farm things are neat as a pin and everything is in it’s place. Wheat is sown when the season is on and the summer following is done at the right time.
Great people these Shupes. Homer could be president if they handed him the job and Mrs Shupe would rather be Mrs. H. O. Shupe than Mrs President. They helped build this community and when they build anything it stays built.
Yes, the Shupes are builders just to give you a slant on the kind of people they are, here’s an (unreadable). In 1906 Homer went around Sikes township on skis, getting the homesteaders to sign a petition for a school in the locality.
He brought the second car that was ever in Stanley and took the city dads for a ride in it. Ma Shupe was the very first woman in Mountrail county to drive an automobile.
And Ma and Pa Shupe will be going to Texas in a few days where Pa will fish and Ma will cook and make many friends. God Bless em!
-another Shupe photo. Presumably that is son Max in the middle who must have been a pilot as well as a mechanic at Boeing.
Homer Orestes Shupe 1872 – 1955
Mary May Pritchett 1875 – 1949
Who would know today that a wood burning stove was not the same as a coal burning stove and that the coal stove was better for cooking. I know the smell of lignite coal and think that smell must have been present in the house most all the time.
Chevrolet started producing cars in 1912. It
Midget autos? Did he build them? This sounds like an amusement park kind of ride.
Ona Maud Shupe 1895–1973
Ina B. Shupe 1897–1993
Cecil Orestes Shupe 1899–1985
Geraldine Shupe 1904–1999
Florence Rosella Shupe 1908–1946
Macles Shupe 1912–Deceased
H O Shupe 1914–1914
Edna Shupe 1916–
Roscoe Shupe 1924–1989
With all these children and grandchildren the number of descendents must be in the many hundreds in 2025. Probably scattered all over the US.
Here’s that ‘success’ them again. It has been a constant across all the Mr. Blank profiles.