hon. fred j. traynor, a.b., ll.b.
there is nothing remarkable about my experience in working my way through college. i do not deem it worth the telling, except that it may help to encourage the boy who thinks that it is more than he dares undertake to obtain an education without means to back him.
i was born in ontario, canada. i was fortunate in being able to get an excellent common school training and three years of high school work before having to get out and dig for myself. since the age of fifteen, when my father died, i have been at all times self-supporting, and, before coming to north dakota at the age of twenty, i had taken such employment as was obtainable. in the summer of 1898 i had saved enough money to make the trip to north dakota, looking for opportunities. teaching seemed to be the most feasible stepping-stone, so that fall, after having spent three months as a farm laborer in this state, and having saved what i had earned, which, together with a little i had left of what i had brought from ontario, made about $90, i entered the preparatory department 147 then in existence at the university of north dakota.
it was a month after the opening of the school year when i entered school that year with the idea of taking a winter course for teachers in order that i might take the state examinations for a teacher’s certificate in the spring. instead of taking the course intended, however, i fitted in as nearly as i could to the regular course of study for the last year of the preparatory department and used what spare time i could obtain to study the common branches upon which i would have to take examination for a teacher’s certificate. by close application to business i was able to carry along the regular course of study and also to secure the coveted teacher’s certificate in the spring.
i left the university that spring at the end of the winter term, march 22, or thereabouts, and taught school from then until about the last week in october. i left the university on friday and commenced the term of school on the following monday and had no vacation during the summer; and, in addition to that, i succeeded in obtaining the permission of the school board that had employed me to teach six days a week during the last five weeks in order that i might get back to the university a week earlier than otherwise. my salary was $40 per month. i had barely scraped through from november 1 until march 22 on that ninety dollars, and had to make a loan of twenty dollars from a friend to tide me over until i got a month’s salary. at the 148 end of the term of school i had paid back the $20 and saved about $110.
during the spring term of the university, while i was teaching, i continued my studies as if i had been at the university, endeavoring to do the same work that my class-mates at school were doing and reporting from time to time to the professors. i burned midnight oil many nights, but north dakota spring weather is healthful and invigorating, and i gained flesh on it and was able to take the examination with my classmates in june to get better than a pass mark in all subjects. then i commenced on the subjects. i expected to begin on in the fall, as i knew i would be about a month late entering college.
the story of my life for the next twelve months is much a repetition of the previous year, except that i did not have the extra work of preparing for teacher’s examination. i had to borrow about $36 to tide me over until i got my first month’s salary, but i paid this back during the summer and returned to school late in the fall as usual with about $120. the following spring, in fact, before the winter term had ended, i was “broke,” as each year seemed a little more costly than the previous. president webster merrifield, then and for many years previous at the head of our university, was the good angel who came to my rescue. every boy was his friend and he was the friend of every boy in the institution. always looking for an opportunity to 149 help those he thought worthy, he divined my need and offered to help me with a loan that would tide me over the spring term. at first i declined the tender of aid, but later thought better of it and accepted a loan of $60 and gave my note, payable one year after the expected date of my graduation. that summer i took a position as timekeeper for an extra gang doing surfacing work on the line of the great northern railway in minnesota and returned to school at the opening of the school year that fall with about $75 ahead.
the university of north dakota, at that time, had about two hundred and fifty students, including those in the preparatory department. a little book store and postoffice was conducted by students in one of the university buildings. president merrifield controlled the appointment of the postmaster and manager of the book store, but the students getting the positions had to finance the book store themselves. i applied for and received appointment in the book store and postoffice, and retained an interest in it during the three years following. i had to do some skirmishing to borrow $100 to add to my $75 to provide my share of the capital necessary to make advance payments on our stock of books, and was denied a loan from friends i thought knew me well enough to trust me. again a generous professor in the person of the dean of the college of arts came to my aid and made me the loan. i shall not soon forget his kindness. 150
during those last three years of my college days while completing the courses of arts and law i was able, writing life insurance among the students as a side line in addition to doing my share of the business in the book store and postoffice, to make my entire expenses and leave school free from debt.
devil’s lake, n. d.
