Peter Byg, Prairie Fire Victim

Peter Byg, Prairie Fire Victim. . Peter Byg was born near the tiny village of Halk, South Jutland, Denmark. After emigrating to America, in time he settled on a claim located 2½ miles southwest of this spot. He built a sod dugout house where he lived with his wife, Anna Raven, and he also constructed a straw stable in which he tethered his cow., Dangerous fires driven by high winds had been the scourge of the Dakota Territory prairie in the late 1870s., The spring conflagrations consumed large areas of tall, tinder-dry grass which had lain dormant during the winter. A huge fire caught Peter Byg unawares on April 9, 1880. He failed to notice the advancing fire pushed by an east wind until it was to late. Trying to outrace the inferno, he rushed to the straw stable to untie his cow but was engulfed in flames. Horribly burned and in agony he survived until morning., Peter Byg, the first adult to be buried in the Benton Lutheran Church cemetery, was interred in an unmarked grave.