Professor Emeritus Features Local Pioneers in New Book

The book chronicles the lives of Randolph and Catherine Probstfield.

Professor Emeritus of History Carroll Engelhardt has published his fifth book, “By the Sweat of His Brow: The R. M. Probstfield Family at Oakport Farm.”

The book recounts the story of a prominent German pioneer family that farmed at Oakport (north of Moorhead, Minn.) from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. Randolph Probstfield is remembered as the first truck farmer in the Red River Valley; for experimenting with varieties of fruit, vegetables, and small grains; and for serving as a Minnesota State Senator during the 1890s.

Engelhardt was featured in a Forum story by Tracy Briggs: “Clay County pioneer a handsome man who probably wanted to talk to your manager.”

Engelhardt is the author of four other books:

  • “On Firm Foundation Grounded: The First Century of Concordia College,” for which he received the Red River Valley Heritage Society’s Historian Award
  • “Gateway to the Northern Plains: Railroads and the Birth of Fargo and Moorhead”
  • “The Farm at Holstein Dip: An Iowa Boyhood,” winner of the State Historical Society of Iowa’s 2013 Shambaugh Award for the Best Book Written about Iowa History the Previous Year
  • “Concordia Fair Doth Stand: The College Begins its Second Century, 1991-2016”