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Cellpic Sunday – Amenia North Dakota Cemetery Find

Chaffee Family Memorial

Amenia, North Dakota.

The histories of the small towns of Amenia, Sharon, and Chaffee, North Dakota were inextricably intertwined with world history on April 15, 1912. The story started in 1875 with the creation of the Amenia and Sharon Land Company. Large tracts of land in North Dakota were purchased by corporations to take advantage of the latest in mechanized farming technologies.

The large-scale operations that came to be known as Bonanza Farms specialized in the production of wheat and were run by professional managers. One such farm, one of the largest in the region, was operated by the Amenia and Sharon Land Company. There were 27 original shareholders from Amenia New York and Sharon Connecticut. Eben W. Chaffee, the majority stockholder, purchased almost 28,000 acres in Cass County some 20 miles west of Fargo. The land was located near the NP Railroad to make transport of harvested wheat economical. The town of Chaffee, North Dakota was named after this agricultural pioneer.

In 1912, Eben Chaffee’s son, Herbert Fuller Chaffee, and his wife, Carrie Toogood Chaffee, were in Europe on vacation when they got word that they were expecting a grandchild. They purchased tickets on the first ship scheduled to sail to the United States, the ill-fated Titanic.

Herbert Chaffee was lost at sea, his body never recovered. Carrie was able to secure a place in a lifeboat and she returned to Amenia and to the large mansion they owned. There were so many memories in their house that she didn’t want to live there anymore. Unfortunately for historians, the house was eventually torn down.

About the photo: I learned about the monument in the Amenia cemetery through a Facebook post and one Saturday afternoon, I made a trip to Amenia to see the monument to Herbert and Carrie and their descendants. I captured the image on my Samsung S20U Cellphone and processed it in Adobe Lightroom and Luminar Neo. To pixel peep in 2K HD, click on the image and check it out on my Flickr site.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment.

John Steiner

37 comments

    • Thanks for joining my challenge. One of the reasons I don’t have a specific topic is that it allows people to share any recent cell pic that has an interesting story, or that is technically high quality.
      Join anytime!

      Reply

  4. Great historic image John. We have the Sacramento Historical City Cemetery in downtown Sacramento. There is so much history there. I always find something new with each visit.

    Reply

  7. Cemeteries provide such an enlightening historical perspective, the kinds that rarely make the history books, yet every human action impacts generations. What a cool name, “Toogood!” A great shot and an interesting history lesson, John.

    Reply

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