In the early 1900s, people thought they knew what to make of a hermit. The word conjured images of eccentric loners to be pitied, holed up in shacks, shunning neighbors and modern conveniences.

But did fear about a dangerous recluse in Niagara, North Dakota — later dubbed “The Great Plains Butcher” — seal the fate of a seemingly harmless, if odd, farmer just a half-hour away?

Consider the case of Olaus Berg.

Born in Norway in 1849, Berg immigrated to the U.S. in 1872, becoming a naturalized citizen a decade later. By the 1880s, before North Dakota was even a state, he had carved out a 160-acre farm in Vesta Township, seven miles northwest of Park River, North Dakota.

According to the 1900 census, Berg owned his home and farmland, with a granary containing 1,500 bushels of No. 1 hard du

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