Max Stoye

Let me tell you a story of a man from Crosby ND. His name is Max Stoye. He came to Divide County USA from Germany to make a better life for himself. He soon found himself a 45 year old single father of 2 young men.
His sons received draft letters to join the war (maybe WWI). He was heart broken, he couldn't let his boys fight his beloved Germany. He went to the County board and begged  for his sons to be able to stay at home and farm his family farm, they were all he had left. They refused. His sons were sent off to war.
He took his own life......
My Step-Grandfather Andy Ingwalson was Max's friend, and when the Catholic Churched refused to let him be buried in the Church Cemetary Andy did what he could to find him his final resting place.  Andy  took the Priest out to his own farm land and got approval for a burial plot out there along the road. And, at the appropriate time the Priest and Andy said prayers and a goodbye to a man who now had lost his sons too.
Max Stoye's grave is along a road, and along a driveway where there is a large oil holding facilitie. He will never know the wealth his land had under it, or prosper from it. Someone has put flowers by his head stone, maybe the person benifiting from his lands wealth, maybe someone who has heard his story.
War is horrible, it changes lives. It changes lifes of those that go to war amd those that are left behind. This is just one of those that were left behind. And the story also of a friend who wished it had ended differently.
Year 1908