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 Forty Years 
 
 IN 
 
 NORTH DAKOTA 
 
Forty Years 
 
 IN 
 
 ISrORTH DAKOTA 
 
 IN RELATION TO GRAND FORKS COUNTY 
 
 LARIMOBE, N. D. 
 
 PRINTHD BY H. V. ARNOLD 
 
 1921 
 
■hi 
 
 Pafoliaher'e Booklet No. 2i, 
 
 ?&IKTED FOE DISTBIBUTIOM IK LA&UlGam 
 
 Author 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Tbis wjoirk was cootemplated as probable for isaet 
 > %7 means of oar private outfit of printing material 
 A^ .r^^^^r some tica« befor« the year came around that com* 
 pleied forty yeare resideace here. The 'first nine year« 
 ^}f that period was under territorial fOTernment, when 
 t&e two states of Kortb and South Dakota comprised a 
 tfiBgle large territory. Tbas work as a whole is not so 
 much a record of personal experiences (though for the 
 earlier part of it these form a considerable portion) a« 
 it is an account of observed facts and conditions in 
 (different decades, and of observed development, both 
 in town and the surrounding country. Some attention 
 ba9 been given to customs in vogue and the life condi- 
 tions of each decade aT>d ttbe changes that bare modi^edl 
 them from what th^y were previously. 
 
 The pioneer period round LarimoFe was short, extend* 
 ing from 1878 to 1882. The agricultural development 
 of the county itself bad hardly more than begun in t¥e 
 iflrst of the years mentioned. After the year 1881 that 
 kind of development in the Elk Valley progrfissed very 
 rapidly. The creation of Urge farms in the wester^ 
 part of the county rendered the bintory of eaob town- 
 ship afi'ected durinsr the -period ccvered, somewhat 
 different from what otherwise would have been th<^ 
 case, since the tendency of the large farms waa towar4 
 lessening a larger resident agricoltoral population. 
 
 [The boy Fred A. Wiijrht mentlone d in the flrf t cbapt>»r at b*?-^ 
 companding ns to North Dakota, left Rraud Forks for CMe&g^ In 
 the spring of 18Sl. He reappeared here In the spring of 188S aaft , 
 worked a month oo the Arnold farm. He Bpent most pf hie «i*« 
 
 •Itfein Chicago and diedthero teeeuBher I IJDil?.] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 'L I'ii© Jottra«y to North Dakota 5— 26t 
 
 II. Eatabliehing ft 8«tfclemont 27—42 
 
 III. Subdiyision of the Township 43—54 
 
 IV. Aflfalra in Eightj-oae 55—70 
 
 V. The Boom Year and Later 71—90 
 
 VI. Lagging Years for Town and Country 91—107 
 YII. The Late Eighties and Early Nineties 108—127 
 VIIL Railroad Diviiion Times 128—159 
 IX. After DiviiioB RemoTal 160—172 
 
 Business Places and Vocations in 1920, 173 
 Larimore Necrology 1910 to I9?0, 175 
 
Forty Years 
 
 IN 
 
 NORTH DAKOTA 
 
 I. 
 
 THE JOURNEY TO NORTH DAKOTA 
 
 nPBE Southeastern counties of Minnesota were 
 ^ quite generally settled by emigrants from the 
 eastern states during the decade of the fifties. No 
 8mail proportion of these settlers came frona the 
 8tate of New York and from the New England 
 «^.ates. By the ye-ar 1860 the counties of south* 
 eastern Minnesota had become fairly well settled. 
 It was a region of small farms from forty to two 
 hundred or more acres. The rolling prairie tracts^ 
 woods and bluff-lined valleys and ravines of the 
 counties adjacent to the Mississippi river did not 
 adrr.it of lartre estates. Before the Civil war the 
 method of disposing of government lands was to 
 sell it directly to the settlers at $1.25 per acre at 
 land offices and in amount by forties, eighties and 
 quarter-sections. Hence settlers purchased land 
 according to their means, receiving a land office 
 receipt until their eovernment patent or deed wa« 
 forwarded from Washington. 
 
 For a Ion a: term of years these Minnesota settle* 
 ments made but slow progress in comparison with 
 
t i^ilT^ YEAR3 IN MORTH ©AROTA 
 
 those made In eBstarn North North DakoU during 
 ;he early eighties, thfjujrh her« condition! were 
 <iifferent mainly o»'in^ to railroad conatruction. 
 In Houston County, Mi in., the first rails were 
 laid in 1865. On the farms during the most of the 
 «xti^^3 th? rt^idences were generally of a plain, in^ 
 different character, aome of them being log houses* 
 There were but few framed barns in the section of 
 the county in which the writer resided, the lack of 
 97hich waa obviated by constructing straw bams, 
 f\» they were called, built of large crotches set in 
 the ground, poles and fence rails covered over and 
 around th*»ra with wheat straw in threshing time. 
 The frames of these structures might last a lone 
 time but the straw had to be renewed each year. 
 In gome cases the sides were built of logs but cof» 
 >iTei like the others with straw, piled up and round* 
 iid no as to shed rain. The hogs and cattle raised 
 by the farmers were of the common western sort, 
 little or no attention being paid in the sixtiet in 
 regard to improving breeds. 
 
 The raising of wheat was the principal market* 
 Me product. Corn was raised mainly for hogi 
 ^nd oats for horses. Onlr three or four farmers in 
 the community, comprising some forty families, 
 had frranaries on their premises, and other com* 
 munitiea in the county were probably hardly any 
 better ofP. As in the case of barns, makeshifts 
 had to be provided, such as building bins of fence 
 rails lined and covered over with straw, or bins of 
 scantling and pine boards also covered with straw* 
 The marketing of a load of wheat, about fortf 
 
f«« JOURMSY TJ NORTH DAKOTA 7 
 
 bushels, was ao small task. Every farmer had the 
 eotnmoQ farm wagon; the body had to lifted off 
 the wheels and bolsters and placed on the ground 
 near the bin; a fanning- mill was set in one end of 
 the wagon body and the wheat cleaned and sacked. 
 The wagon body bring replaced, the sacks. «ach 
 holding a little over two bushels, were loaded into 
 it and the wheels being greased the load was ready 
 for the long haul to market. The community roen^ 
 tioned, called Portland Prairie, i? about fourteen 
 tniles back from the Mississippi river and some five 
 hundred feet higher than the river bottom lands* 
 It is not comprised in any one township and has 
 some extension across the state line into Iowa. The 
 market towns on the river were then Brownsville, 
 Minn., and Lansing, Iowa, both about 22 miles 
 distant which involved staying in town over night. 
 There were three school houses in the commiin* 
 ity each about two miles from one another. In 
 one ®f them religious services were held each al«» 
 ternate Sunday. The mail came from Brownsville 
 once a week, bringing besides letters, weekly and 
 monthly publications, since daily papers formed no 
 part of the contents of the mail bag. During most 
 of the decade the people got their flour, feed and 
 meal ground at a mill in a creek valley south acroas 
 the Iowa state line four to six miles distant from 
 different farms of the community. From aix to 
 eight miles due north is located Caledonia, county 
 seat of Houston County, already something of « 
 village in those days. Pere the farmers of tht 
 surrounding country did much of their tradifig« 
 
i 9QWfX TSUM m liOaTH DAKOTA 
 
 Hq commuQity in a proj^ressive state such as is 
 Ulasesota, was apt to remain stationary for man^f 
 jears though it is true that those remote from 
 iai^road coxntnunication made only slow progresa 
 for more than a decade after the pioneer period of 
 the niddle and late fifties had passed. A railroad 
 had been built across the northern part of the 
 fouoty in the Root river valley in 1865 and '66, but 
 beinff about twenty miles distant it was too far 
 away to influence very ciuch eommunites in the 
 southern part of the county, in 1872 the west side 
 ffiver line was constructed alonsr the eastern ?«#£re 
 iif the county* A srnall miirket town called New 
 Albin was built on this line la the northeast cornet 
 ?f Iowa, and this beins: some fourteen miles dis- 
 tant, the farmers could now take « load of whea^, 
 ^ere and return home with their purchasea^^bt 
 ^ame day. In 1879 a narrow gBx^gt railroad or one 
 with a three feet track was eonstructed mere ceo* 
 trally thru the county, starting from the river lin« 
 and terminating at Preston, in Fillmore County, 
 having a length of 56 miles. Locomotives, cars, 
 etc., on such lines were about one- third smaller or 
 lighter than what was then common to the standard 
 Sines. This road made Caledonia a market town, 
 especially for hogs and cattle. After 22 years use 
 the three feet track was altered to the standard 
 gauge of 4 feet 8^ inches. 
 
 Considerable progress was mpid^ in the Portland 
 Prairie community during the decide of the seven* 
 ties. Some new and larger bouses were built and 
 ot^^l*s were made CDore poomy by fidditip^; p)prA 
 
rsLVL lovwonr to wortr Dakota u 
 
 framed barntt and crranariet were added to the few 
 in the eommuaity previously; drilled wells beiran 
 eominfi: into use on some of the farms; moreover 
 light wagoDS and buggies and musical instrumenta 
 became more common than before and in 1876 a 
 church was erected in the community. From 1870 
 the people had semi-weekly mail service. A last 
 item in the way of change was that the old decaying 
 rail fences began to be replaced on the farms by 
 the kind constructed of oak posts and pine boardt. 
 
 The foregoing sketch is descriptive of the com- 
 munity in Minnesota from which there emigrated 
 k the spring of 1880 the first three occupanta U 
 Larimore township in Grand Forks County, K. D. 
 In respect to the development of the westera part 
 of this county, to be referred to lately thf eketdi 
 may be serviceable by way of contrast, though th0 
 Minnesota community had a priority of beginning 
 by about 26 years, 
 
 Ellery C. Arnold was born near Manvflle, R. !.• 
 July 4, 1828. His ancestry had lived in New Fng* 
 land since about 1636. From 1846 to 1866 tho 
 family to which he belonged resided at Bridgetoo* 
 a village adjacent to Pascoag, R. I. From 1861 to 
 1854 he was with his father, Amos Arnold, In Cal- 
 ifornia durirg the gold mining period. In 1866 
 he was married to Adeline A. Steere of the aamo 
 village in which his father's femily resided. Tho 
 same year Amos AmoW and family moved to Tan- 
 ielBon, Coon. About that time the elder Mr. Arnold 
 purchased of a Hhode ialand neighbor % quMxtu 
 
^.■. 
 
 10 mi-it z YEAfU W HOKrH DAKOTA 
 
 i^ectiofi of lacid in the Mi?3ne3ota community thatl 
 haa baen mentioned, and ou recommendation of a 
 son who had g-occ west in the spring of 1856. In 
 i86l E. C. Arnold ana fas^ily moved out there and 
 wflg on the journey when the Civil war broke out. 
 Later in the yearhi^i father went to Minnesota to 
 9ee his land and while there he had the local car- 
 penters build a houiie on it. No small part of the 
 community had, in fact, been settled by families 
 Xrom the neighborhood of Pascoag and from Black* 
 Dtone, Mass., just over the Rhode Island line. In 
 June, 18G4, Mr. Arnold with the portion of bit 
 family utill at home, moved from Danielson to the 
 west. E. C- Arnold and some other men of the 
 community were drafted late in the fall of 1864 
 and had to serve about a year in the Federal army, 
 $h?ir regiment (5th Minn.) being retained ia the 
 South some months after the close of the war for 
 jjCarriiion duty. 
 
 E. C Arnold had three children, Horace F., bona 
 At Danielson, Conn., June 19, 1867; Addie L., born 
 in same town June 2'i, 1S60; and Smma C, bora 
 at Portland Prairie, Minnesota, August 14. 1864, 
 Amos Arnold had twelve children. Ellery C, beinfl: 
 the oldest and Henry V., the vounpest, the last born 
 atBridgeton, R. I., March 26, 1848. 
 
 We shall next make some brief statement of the 
 causes whereby in the early eighties Houston 
 County was depleted of nearly two thousand of ita 
 population. It is not a large county, being about 
 twenty-four qfiilea square. coinpHsiPff ^^^ square 
 
TKli XuUU^lSY TO WOUrH DAKOTA 11 
 
 ^iWn; ia 1675 it conUiued 16,566 population. At 
 ^aa beefi iadicfited, the raising: of wheat was the 
 «hief depeadence. ir. 1878 the crop was unusually 
 Ei^ht and of poor QDfciit> tt.d the oext year the 
 farmers said that which was raised was '*no better 
 than chicicen fetd." The ultimate failure of wheat 
 Taising in southern Minaeaota and northern Iowa 
 had been I'oresecM by many from the analofi:y of the 
 older 8tAt<*B and now the people of those sectioni 
 fci^nd themseivea confronted with the reality. It 
 '?7a3 said by some that farmers must pay naore 
 attention io stock raising with improved breeds of 
 both hogs and cattle. But there were hundreds 
 ci the small farmers who were unable to cope with 
 the changed situation, sinee to adjust matters ta 
 the required new conditions would take several 
 yearu« Most of the small farms had mortgages ott 
 them and their owners saw little hope of improv« 
 |ng their prospects except by emigration to newer 
 parts of west. Hundreds of the small farmerai 
 therefore either turned their places over to the 
 mortiragora or sold them to their more prosperous 
 aeighbors subject to any mortgages on them, and 
 In canvas cov^^red wagons they journeyed to west^ 
 ern Minnesota, Dakota Territory and Nebraska. 
 Some emigration from Houston County had taken 
 place in the late seventies for the census returns 
 for 1880 show a decrease in population of 227 less 
 than the state census of 1875. The government 
 censiJD of 16P0 p^eve the county 14,653 population 
 and its Isrge decrease after IS70 probably has never 
 eioce boeo regatne4« 
 
S2 I'OtCT* YEAIW IN ^R/KTH DAKOTA 
 
 In the spring of 1879, H. F. Arnold accompanied 
 A family of his acquaintance who resided near 
 Hokah, Minn., and who were emigrating, to North 
 Dakota, to where they located rear Valley City. He 
 returned to the home community late the next fall 
 in much better health than when he had left it the 
 prev iou3 spring. Hi3 account of the country and 
 «f what were then its prospects, induced his father 
 |o follow the example of others who had already 
 emigrated or intended to do so in the following 
 spring. E. C. Arnold only had a fifty acre farm 
 with a mortgage of a few hundred dollars on it» 
 *ad under the existing wheat situation the outlook 
 for the future was not promising. The publisher 
 of this pamphlet at once decided to accompaAy the 
 party when the project was first discuased. 
 
 Early in April, IbHQ, some days were spent in 
 iimking preparations for a long journey with ox 
 teams. Two farm wagons had to be provided with 
 bows shaved out of long, slender saplings as framea 
 for the canvas coverings of the wagons. The space 
 inside was made wider th|in usual by blocking out 
 the lower ends of the bows where they were bolt- 
 ed to the sides of the wagons. Both H, F. Arnold 
 and n yse:f had Pets of carpenters tools so that 
 ncne had to be borrowed of neighbors. And the 
 task ot fitting out and repairing the wagons re- 
 quired the use of many tools. April had come in 
 warm and pleasant so we could work comfortably 
 out of doors. Finally the wagons were rather 
 heavily loaded with household goods, trunks, bed^ 
 ding, and some light Carfning i^nplements, etc. 
 
THK iovnHut Ta inorts Dakota 13 
 
 The one span of horses oa the place was sold with 
 eome other thiasrs and five yoke af oxen purchased 
 at $80 to $90 per yoke, the fifth pair having: been 
 trained to pui) in harnesses. This crave two yoke 
 of oxen to each team and an extra pair of animals 
 to change off, if need be, with any of the other 
 ^our yoke of oxen. A cow and grown colt were 
 ^Iso taken along. 
 
 There accompanied us a boy of eighteen yeara 
 of age named Frederick A. Wright, son of a near 
 .^aeighbor. His father told me privately that he 
 was willing to let his son leave home at that age 
 80 as to get some experience in the world. There 
 were three boys in the family of which Fred waa 
 the oldest, but according to current report they 
 Had not been brought up on the part of their father 
 In the way that is apt to make boys contented witli 
 their home life. Fred brought to E. C. Arnold's 
 place just prior to our departure a common sized 
 trunk well tilled with his belongings. Three yeara 
 later he told me that if he was to experience em- 
 igrating again he would take with him as baggage 
 nothing more than a valise or grip. 
 
 On the 12th of April, 1880. after passing thn» 
 the village of Spring Grove, located on a plateau, we 
 pulled out of Houston County near a small village 
 called Riceford. This plac^ had already begaii 
 to show the effects of the construction of th^ 
 narrow gauge in so far as vacant sites were iq 
 evidence from which buildings had been moved to 
 to the new village of Mabei a few miles distut* 
 
ill f*Olcrt VBSAtU IW NORTH &AKOTA 
 
 The ratiroad had taken in Spring Grove but had 
 Vef t Ricef ord to one &idie two or three miles, perhapa 
 o^ringr to its location in a creek valley some seventy- 
 five feet deep. The part of Fillmore County first, 
 entered is more level and prairie-like and less cut 
 by hills and valleys than Houston County. This is 
 owing to a greater distance from the Mississippi 
 river, for westward, creek and river valleys become 
 less deep- We camped three nights within the 
 limits of Fillmore County. The second stop w»i 
 made within a mile of Preston and on the eastern 
 edge of Camp Creek valley down which the railroad 
 runs before swinging into the south fork of Root 
 River valley in which Preston is located. 
 
 We had started out on the journey with a good 
 supply of baked bread and groceries and a cook 
 atove was carried in the rear end of one of the 
 wagons where it could be lifted out and used, if 
 Eeed be, Sundays, sinee it was made a point to lay 
 over on those days and give the animals and our« 
 selves a rest. Aboutalt that was needed for the 
 ordinary camp halts was a pot. a skillet for coffee, 
 A few tin plates and tabte knives. The loads in the 
 wagons were arranged so as to sleep upon them in 
 quilts and blankets. The night halts were usually 
 by the roadside not far f com some farm house so 
 as to obtain hay for the animals. At first some 
 fifteen miles per day were made, but after gettiofip 
 past the hilly country of southeastern Minnesota, 
 long stretches of level road with few and moderate 
 ascents began to occur, so that this average wai 
 increased to eighteen or twenty milea. 
 
TBK iOVKNKf TO HfORTS DAKOTA IS 
 
 Entering Preston the next morninf » April 14th. 
 we made a brief stop there. This place was then 
 about the size that Larinnore is now, the countf 
 seat of Fillmore County, and had a population of 
 1.825 that year. This county lost 2,196 of iU pop- 
 ulation during: the eighties. North Dakota gaining 
 «o small part of this number. Preston is built oo 
 <^ terrace not very high above the river plain, th^ 
 depot of the narrow gauge being at the foot of it. 
 Crossing over an elevated tract of country to the 
 aorth of towut the road next descended into a 
 creek valley. After crossing the stream the road 
 struck up a branch valley or ravine and we came 
 out of it on the common country leirel at a small 
 village called FounUin, a station on the Southern 
 Minnesota railroad. Passing some little distance 
 beyond this place the road descended a long slope 
 into another creek valley and next we had to pull 
 over another broad upland terrane about two milea 
 over between valleys. This was the last bold hill 
 we encountered. We were now in the valley of 
 the north fork of Root river and camped that night 
 near Chatfield, the end of a branch line of railroad 
 from the north. This town is located on a bench 
 or high terrace considerably above the valley bot- 
 torn land and the railroad. This was the third and 
 last night that we camped in Fillmore County. 
 
 Soon after leaving Chatfield we were in Olmsted 
 County. Both the highway and the railroad ran 
 northward up a small creek valley of moderate 
 depth, and near its head we followed a road west- 
 ward toward Rocheatere Tkte country was mvf 
 
16 f^Ktt YiBAtia CN tH&tVA DAKOTA 
 
 moreievet than heretofore, and the ascents and 
 descents, where encoantered on the roads, were of 
 a gentle order, hence we beg:aa making more miles 
 per day. We camped next near a small village 
 named Marion. On looking out of the wagons 
 the next morning, April i6th, we found that two 
 inches of snow had fallen during the night The 
 road was somewhat sandy and the snow melting 
 off early in the forenoon we pushed on to Rochester, 
 This was the larg^t town thus far reached on the 
 journey, having a popuiation of 6,103 that year. 
 We made a short stop here and on leaving took a 
 road leading northwest toward St. Paul, presum* 
 Ably a stage road before railroad days in Minne^ 
 fiota, but Rochester was a railroad point in 1864. 
 
 Before reaching Cannon Fails, 44 miles from 
 Ivochester as the roads ran, we passed thru placet 
 Xi&med Oronoco, Pine Island and Zumbrota, th«i 
 latter located in the valley of the Zumbro river 
 and the terminus of another narrow guage track 
 that came up the valley from Wabasha. After A 
 short stay in this town we passed up the valley two 
 or three miles and then pulled up a moderate hil( 
 to the common country level and went into eamp 
 beside a poplar grove. We were now in Goodhue 
 County, and the next day being Sunday, April 18, 
 we did not resume our journey until Monday mora* 
 ing and then passed on to Cannon Falls and beyond* 
 Soon after emerging out of the valley of Canno^ 
 river we entered Dakota County, and for a die* 
 tance of 35 miles to St. Paul no other towns were 
 Ine^t with on the route followed. 
 
tm JotfaNfff TO i^oRrK dakota 11 
 
 Aiter paaaiaff thru Caaaon Falls we traveled ii» 
 d nortiiward direction much of the way on the high 
 Und above the Missiaiippi, which is elevated a little 
 »ver three hundred feet above the river itaelf . 
 Approaching St. Paul, a long descent was made ta 
 H bridge end which in crossing the river has agrad* 
 tiai upward slant to the other end at the loot of 
 Wabasha street, so that small steamboats can pats 
 fiader that portion of it. We had no occasion ta 
 tarry long in St. PauU but pulling up the street 
 iibout a half mile to what was then the end of it, 
 we bore westward to Minneapolis, i had been ia 
 both cities previously, in 1873 and 1878, at whic^ 
 time they were far from being what they are now 
 both in size and population. 
 
 Some two miles out of the city, as its oiatskirU 
 then existed, we passed on the country road the 
 smoking ruins of a building evidently burned dowa 
 the previous night, Several years later I learned 
 that it had been (tailed the ''old dub house." Most 
 of the country between the twin cities was then 
 open and of the nature of farms, though nowgea- 
 erally built over. The day we passed thru St 
 Paul was April 21st, and we camped that night 
 somewhere between the two cities. The next 
 forenoon we passed the State University and stop. 
 ped several hours in the business part of the last 
 Side, Minneapolis, as H. P. Arnold wished to look 
 tip and call on a university student who waa from 
 our home community; his father also had a CiviJ 
 war time acquaintance to find- Meaawhilt Fred 
 and I remained witb th^ teapui. 
 
M FOMfr «fii^«t;» KK MCWtTB DAKOTA 
 
 The next objective piiot, %% one of the stagres ot 
 the jouFDey, was St. QlQud , 64 miles distant f roA 
 Minaeapoiia. W^ foiiowed the east side of the 
 river, both th^ highw^ay aad a railroad running 
 aorth westerly on the river plain. In this shortet 
 stretch of the journey v9e passed thra Anoka and 
 Sherburne cauaties and the villages of Anoka an^ 
 £lk River, camping ia the last named place and 
 ileeping under a shed instead of in the wagoaa. 
 y^e lay oyer Sunday, April 25th, within two miles 
 of St. Cloud. On this oe^asion the cook stove waa 
 temporarily taken out of the wagon for use in the 
 camp. On aay day of our journey we were aeciia* 
 ;tomed to make noaa halts for dinner and to rest 
 and feed the stock, bags of corn or ground feH 
 oceasionally being purchafied in towns where some 
 ^top was made. 
 
 At St. Cloud the Mississippi runs thru a narrow 
 gorge the cliffs of which rise some sixty feet above 
 the water, spanned by both wagon and railroad 
 "bridges. Crossing the highway bridge we were in 
 St. Cloud, at that time a town of 2.462 inhabiUnts 
 and county seat of Stearns County. After a stop 
 of an hour or more in this town we resumed the 
 journey. Ever since leaving Fillmore County we 
 had seen granite bowlders near the roads, but the 
 bedrocks were of limestone and sandstone, the 
 bowlders belonging to the glacial drift. But in the 
 t)eighborhood of St. Cloud granite in place begaa 
 %o be observed in the form of low ledges or bosses 
 ^veral rods in diameter protruding above the sur* 
 face imd small lakes h^ui occur. Neither laket 
 
>3»r fflacial drift exists in Houston County for that 
 «'e£:ioQ is part of what K^clogiata call 'The Driftless 
 Area of the Upper Mississippi River." 
 
 From St. Cloud we tdck a route that diverged 
 ^jieveral miles south of the Great Northern railroad, 
 ^hen called the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba* 
 i>ut we reached this line agrain at Sauk Center, 42 
 ttiiles from St. Cloud. Thereafter all the way to 
 Fergus Falls, a third stage of the journey and a 
 long one, the road did not diverge far from the 
 railroad. In fur trading times this route had been 
 4 Eled Kiver cart trail to St. Cloud and earlier to 
 St. Paul; in 1859 ft became a stage road and when 
 the railroad was built during the seventies it took 
 essentially the route that had been marked out by 
 the Red River cart ti^aina. Stearns County is quite 
 a large one, but We pulled cut of it April SO and 
 crossing the southwest part of Todd County, w^ 
 entered Osakis in Douglas Caunty, This place is 
 located at the southern erM of a lake of the same 
 name which is seren miles long and two or three 
 miles in width. We Went on to Alexandria where 
 we arrived May 1st. 
 
 We camped that night about two miles out from 
 town between two lakes, Bdme fifteen or twenty 
 rods apart, the railroad alsopassing between them. 
 A creek connected the lakes and that evening a 
 party of men and boys came out from Alexandrim 
 to fish in the stream bv torchlight, remaining fat 
 into the night They appeared to have made qult^ 
 a haul as they left several suckers with us before 
 returning to town. Next day being SQAdfty» w^ 
 
rercaiaeti id eamp by the lake, havins: fried (ish 
 that day. A U or wegla^z aeighbor had emiRrateH 
 to Oousrias County in 1678 and havinir learned ia 
 Alexandria his loeation near the road that we wer« 
 travelins:, we stopped for about a half hour to seft 
 and talk with him* The country for miles toward 
 Fergus Falls was then but sparsely settled and 
 away from the railroad probably not at all. It 
 abounded with lakes, timber and gravel knolls. 
 &nd was frequented by water fowl, including pel* 
 ican8> Pasainif thru two small villages far apart* 
 Evanssrille and Pomme de Terre, we crossed a low 
 divide where waters take their course either to 
 the Gulf of Mexico or Hudson Bay, and a few 
 miles farther on we entered Fergus Falls May 6tll« 
 this stage of our journey comprising approximate* 
 ly l'S& miles fby mere rcracl irt*Qkoning, though th« 
 distance from St. Cloud to Fergus Falls by railroad 
 isll£ miles. These stages were comparable t# 
 divisions on a long railroad )ine, in our case mereljF 
 maz^ked by cities cr large towns on the route. 
 
 Fergus Falls was quite a large town at thattha^ 
 having water power to run its mills and located 09 
 t)tter Tail river, !iavitfg 1636 population. We next 
 bore northwest thru the southwestern part of Ottat 
 Tail County, the ojeetive point now being Fargo^ 
 about sixty miles distant by the toads. We pasael 
 thru two or three small railroad villages on th4 
 moderately elevated land between the Otter Ta^ 
 and Red rivers, and next came upon the Barnes 
 vilie flats, a moist tract in the broad valley of Red 
 river « We bad aomatroubie in erotiiog this tracts 
 
TbLK Jl>i;KH«t TO VtORTBL DAKOTA 21 
 
 «s the narrow tires of the rear wagron sometimes 
 cut thru the prairie turf, letting the fcri^ard 
 wheels dowQ into a whitish, putty-like clay and 
 nearly to their hubs. There was no resource but 
 to partially unload the wagon and have the oxen 
 pull it out. We h:-id several experiences of this 
 sort until we reached more firm ground. We 
 camped on the flats over Sunday in sight of Barnes* 
 ^iile some three miled away, but this place was left 
 :o one side. The last camp for a night in Minne* 
 *,ota, and in Clay County, was made within two 
 .nniles of Moorhead, The Wright boy, curious te 
 *ee Fargro, footed it to that place in the evening 
 ^nd returned to the camp late at night. He found 
 ^argo a smaller place and Red river less wide there 
 5han he had expected. 
 
 Ihe next forenoon. May U. we passed thru Moor* 
 kiead and going down a moderate slope of the river 
 bank we crossed a low bridge over Red river, then 
 up a similar slope into Jpargo. The wagon bridge 
 was just below the higher Northern Pacific railroad 
 bridge which spanned the river from the top of 
 one bank to the other without any intervening 
 pier. For the convenience of people on foot a 
 walkway, with railings, had been provided alongt 
 the north side of the railroad bridge on about the 
 same level as the track, Just below the wagoi^ 
 bridge was the steamboat landing of that time. 
 Fargo was then not very much larger than Lari* 
 more is now and had 2,693 inhabitants that year« 
 Moorhead was a smaller place but contaiiied ft 
 steam flour mill on the river b^ik. 
 
M I^KTr VBJtRi IN WORTH DAKOTA 
 
 We were now ia Cais Couaty, Dakota Tesritory. 
 The teams were unhitched for the day on some 
 vacant lots north of the track and not far from 
 the Headquarters Hotel, which in those days was 
 also the Northern Pacific railroad depot. No other 
 railroad then entered Farg^o. Near where we had 
 stopped a brick rouadhouae was being torn down, 
 for the railroad company had moved their yards 
 farther out from town. No steamboats come to 
 i^'argo now but the day we were there two, the 
 *'Pluck" and the "Selkirk" lay moored in the 
 river, in the afternoon the last named boat de* 
 parted down stream with barges attached, loaded 
 with freig-ht and agricultural machinery. Ourinfit 
 the day H. F. Arnold traded off the horse that had 
 been brought along tlhua far, for some breaking 
 plows. To load them, e&riy in the evening we 
 hitched up and wer»t to a machinery stand an<i 
 ^then pulled out of town to its western outskirts 
 where we camped for the night. The Wright boy 
 was absent when these movements were made and 
 did not know where to find us. He passed the 
 iTiight in some way \>n Fargo and next day struck 
 out on foot for Casseiton. following the railroad, 
 as he knew that would be our next stopping point. 
 
 We left Fargo on the morning of May 12th and 
 taking a road to the south of the Northern Pacific 
 railroad, we commenced what was to be the last 
 long stage of our journey- We traveled westerly^ 
 crossing the Sheyenne river a few miles out from 
 Fargo, but did not reach Casseiton that day. The 
 next forenoon we crossed part of the Cass Farm 
 
mn /OVKKTBt TO MOKIH DAKOTA t3 
 
 imd entered the village, where we found Fred 
 AwaitiDgr our arrival and who had passed the night 
 there. Casaelton is about twenty miles west of 
 Fargo and in 1880 was a small village of 361 in- 
 habitants, having been kept down by the large 
 Icarms around the place. This was the last village 
 passed thru on our journey. We did not stop 
 there long and next sve journeyed north, at timet 
 bearing west« About four miles out of Casselton 
 we passed in sight of a large railroad force laying 
 the rails on the roadbed of a branch line running 
 corth which had been graded the previous year. 
 Our objective point was now Grand Forks County. 
 
 For twenty miles oa either side of the Northern 
 Pacidc railroad each aiteroate section of land was 
 a railroad land grant and much of the southern 
 h&lt' of Cass County wag then absorbed by big 
 ^arra3, and there were others in its north half; con- 
 sequently for twenty miles or more northward from 
 Casselton we saw but few actual settlers. Even 
 the road dwindled to a mere wagon trail and as this 
 began to get but faintly n eiked cd the prairie 
 Bod we struck a ''half breed trail" over which Red 
 Riv^?r cart trains had moved in fur trading days. 
 This we followed several miles to where it crossed 
 Elm river, near where Blanchard in Traill County 
 is located, but which wag an uninhabited section 
 of that county, as we saw it. 
 
 The next day, May 17th, we reached Goose river 
 a little below where Mayville is now located. The 
 course of Goose river had already been occupied 
 by Norwegi&-^ settiers a« far up stream as any 
 
*84 rOKT\i: YK\&i IN >«)RrH 'DAKOTA 
 
 Umber existed. Ihere wtis a store at the edge of 
 the valley of the stream, the bottom land appear* 
 ing to be about a hundred feet below. We wert 
 told that there were bridg:ea over both forks of the 
 xiver about three 'miles above where the valley 
 was shallow and so we followed -a road aloDg the 
 < south side of the vaKey to that poiDt. Here a 
 road was reached that led from the upper Goose 
 i-iver settlements northeast to Grand Forks. The 
 Goost' river settlers were then living: in log houses* 
 The next camp for a night was on the prairie 
 somewhere i)ear the site of Hatton and during the 
 day following we reached whatis now Waahington 
 township in the southerh p»rt of Girand Forka 
 County and went into camp on 'the oorth side of a 
 streamlet called Coven creek, and beiide the road 
 that has been mentioned. The praixte thereabout 
 was roliingand uninhabited except bT a lone wo- 
 man occupying a-cabin en -the couth £ide of the 
 xreek and to the «a8t of the road, her husband 
 4>eing away at work somewhere. Vt e arrived at 
 this camping place May 20th ard did not leave it 
 again until the forenoon of 'Monday, the 24th. In 
 the meantime H. F. Arnold went to Grand Fbrkii 
 to confer with Geo. B. WiDship ana to look over 
 the county along what was then 'expected woi:^}^ 
 be the course of the railroad "when it advanced 
 west from Grard Forks. For about two yeara 
 prior to June, 1879, kinship had ptafblisbed a week* 
 ly paper in Caledonia, l/jinn., but at the datexr^ecr* 
 tioned he suspended it end Ehippc<d his printing 
 matenais to'^npind l<cika vAnxe 4)^ fouodect H^ 
 
SoraM, at first ai » weekly publication. While 
 ^w&y from c&mp* U. F. A.rnoId learned from « 
 te&mster Bonaetliinsr concerninff a large pr&irid 
 tract already called Elk. Valley and having gone to 
 it and examined the land, he decided to locate 
 there and at once returned to our camp. 
 
 When we lei t Coven creek the Wright boy sep- 
 i&rated from Ui»&ud took the road to Grand Forks, 
 his trunk b^ing goclen to him later on some trip 
 raade to that point. We traveled west and nortb 
 into ivhat U now Avon township and next day w% 
 ]iad to lay over there on account of fog and driz* 
 juiag r^ia. The d&y after, it cleared up and wft 
 proceeded north to Turtle rtver. following a gravel 
 ridge» for that section of the county was then 
 .treeless &ad roadleus. The best of the land ia 
 /\voa and Arvilla townships had been tiled upo& 
 by proapective settlers the previous fall and as 
 •vUey were allowed »six months thereafter in which 
 to edtabiish n residence on their claims, they werd 
 no\^ beginni&g to appear and put up claim shacks. 
 One of these, Homer D. Smith, met with in Avon, 
 was afterwards a lon^ time resident of Larimoree 
 Another man, George Ame» by name, was builds 
 in^ a Siii&li framed hotisa about three miles east 
 of where Larimore WE8.y«t to be. In 1898 it was 
 moved into town and remodeled and is the south* 
 ern of the two dwellinga next west of the electric 
 pfant. We cam® to Turtle river about where the 
 buildings of the Crystal ^Springs farm are located. 
 There were cattle feeding on the valley bottom^ 
 nbout eighty ^eet below and the noise of cow Mii 
 
26 HJRTTf Y«AJR3<XTf NOKTH DAKOTA 
 
 cameup fi-om the depths of the valley. There 
 was a wafiron trail near the prairie edge of the tim- 
 ber that had been^truck out by settlers along th€ 
 stream ia going to and returning from Grand 
 Fork8» A family named Leavitt vvas liviLg at 
 what is now called Thomas* grove, who had emi- 
 igrat^d from Mitchell County, Iowa, the previous 
 year. Following the trail to this place, the cabin 
 stoetag ofl the high ground at the edge of the timber, 
 #^e turned south for a quarter mile and camped at 
 ^he prairie edge of a marshy basin which is less 
 than two miles north of Larimore. 
 
 H. F. Arnold cut some brush for certain guide 
 marks in pulling in upon the unsurveved Elk 
 Valley and along what would sometime become a 
 section line road. A tall bush was set up on a 
 iiection mound on the township line one mile north 
 of where the railroad now runs at the Towner 
 avenue crossing, and another bu6h was set at a 
 mound and stake one half mile east of that. These 
 two gave range marks to set other bushes at inter* 
 vals where theri* were no mounds and maintain aa 
 apprcxin ateiy correct east and ^est lite Icr Ecme 
 three miles on what later was called the Stumjj^ 
 Lake road, which crcsees the raihcad at the Dick- 
 con place. The day we came in upon the prairie oit 
 Slk Valley was May 27th, and several hours were 
 spent looking over the land with a view of making 
 a selection of claims. Toward evening we pullefi 
 to the center of Section 10» Town 151 North, Rangj^ 
 55 W est, later nskmed I^a;r4mor.e towo^ip. 
 
«Rr.\BusHiMa A 38rrLss«B:^T 
 
 Before: going: into the details of establishinir 
 and opeoingr a farm in a hitherto unoccupied 
 township in the western part of Grand Forks Co., 
 we shall give some attention to aspects and con* 
 ditions as found existing in this section durinR the 
 warm months of 1880, and for the sake of contrast 
 With present times. 
 
 A settlement of some fifty people had been made 
 at Grand Forks in 1871, but those who came that 
 year and others who came later had to waitdurinfir 
 several years for immigration and development 
 of the county back -from Red river, ideanwhile 
 Ihose already here were mainly concerned with 
 the developing river traffic, stage coach stations, 
 the military posts, the vanishing fur trade and n 
 Httle in the way of mercantile affairs. 
 
 There were several causes why immigration into 
 the Ked River Valley was retarded during most 
 ^f the decade of the seventies, altho railroads ha^ 
 reached the valley at Breckenridge and Moorhead 
 before the close of the year 1871. In the firsrt 
 place, the people of the tr iadie n^cetein Etfctca 
 knew litcleor nothing in regard to the real capa< 
 bilities of the valley and most of what they sup- 
 posed that they knew was of the nature of adverse 
 reports concerning the country, to the effect that 
 "it was a barren desert fit only for Indians ani 
 Buffalo," ita winters bein^ e»me^ing tertibte. 
 
f8 roicry rsxRj M houth Dakota 
 
 The middle seventies wa^ a period of financia! 
 deprecflioo. reDdering people less disposed to emi* 
 irrate than when times are normal; but as effective 
 as anything in keeping emigrants out of the Red 
 Hiver Valley during that interval was the news* 
 paper reports in regard to the ravages of douda 
 of Eocky Mountain iocasts in western Minnesota 
 dujring two or thret! seasons. All oi these thiogt 
 combined were enough to deter emigrants fron^ 
 seeking homes in the Northwest. Toward the cloi« 
 of the decade newspaper reports concerning yields 
 df wheat on the big farms then being opened adja* 
 cent to the Northern Pacific railroad attracted 
 wide attention. Thereafter immigration into the 
 valley began increasing each year until it reafihed 
 a flood tide in the spring of 1882. We had arrived 
 in the midst of this transition interval. 
 
 The ranges of townships in this countjr next 
 east of Range 55 had be^n subdivided and open to 
 settlement as early as 187t^, but had not been filed 
 Vpon except along Turtle river as late as the early 
 fall of 1879. In October of that year, a railroad 
 force having finished grading from Fisher to Eaait 
 Grand Forks, crossed the river with their out|^$ 
 and graded a roadbed west for ten miles out fron^ 
 the village. It seems to have been this fact that 
 induced the persons already mentioned to put io 
 their filings on the best claims they could find ii( 
 Avon, Arvilla and Hegton townships. Beyond the 
 west line of these townships the land had not been 
 subdivided, though two rangen of tc^ n^hips had 
 been laid out by placing EROunds j^nd tt^es em^ 
 
iSSYABLianamo a iisrrbisMiiKT 29 
 
 i^alf mile all around their borders. While lettleri 
 seem to have avoided the open prairie lands tha^ 
 were neither surveyeaticr la market, the case stood 
 differently with them in respect to the partially 
 tifnbered quarter sections along the streams. All 
 Along Turtle river and its Bouth branch, settlers 
 had filed on the land f>o far as it contained timber 
 in 1878 and '79 and were living in log cabins. At 
 Bachelors Grove, a body of between three and four 
 (idQdred acres of timber in the unsurveyed ranges, 
 there were in 1880 eight or ten men holding claima 
 aa sQuatters, some of whom had been living thera 
 tor two years. 
 
 The Elk Valley tract ia a long prairie mainly 
 level and extending along the base of the hills or 
 uplands from the vicinity of McCanna to Mayvilltt 
 end Portland. This tract is keystone-shaped and 
 varies from four to twelve miles wide, narrowing 
 toward the fiorth and widening toward the south, 
 for a distance of at least thirty-five miles. It is a 
 deposit of lake sediments, mainly sand, laid dowi^ 
 in the ancient Lake Agaasiz. Along ite axis, as at 
 Larimore and Northwood. these sediments whicl| 
 rest upon the bowlder clay, are about sixty feet in 
 depth, the lower thirty or forty feet being a quick* 
 sand abundantly filled with pure water, the sand, 
 clay ana boil above forming a natural filter. Th9 
 eastern side of this tract is slightly rolling and t(h 
 ward its western side near the uplands there wer^ 
 sloughs and lakelets, now more or less drained. 
 
 As stated, we found Larimore township devoid 
 of occupants, and untouQbeil by the plov. Tbt 
 
I© rORTY YKAftJ tH KORtS DAKOTA 
 
 i&nd within the limits of th« township wai entire!/ 
 treeiesa, no timber beia^ visible iny nearer ouJ 
 iocation than Thomaa' grove, then called Leavitti 
 Ifrove. The natural prairie prrass on the flat land 
 did not grow many inches high, but on the slope 
 of the uplanda it grew higher and in summer could 
 be seen waving owing to the gentle breezes uauaU 
 ly prevalent. Late in July and in August its shade 
 i>f green began changing to a lighter color owinff 
 to maturing. The Elk Valley (more of a geo* 
 graphical designation than any actual valley) had. 
 in eai iier times, been a notable range for buffalo 
 and doubtless had ot'ten been visited by halfbreed 
 ?ernbi:ia buffalo hunters- The bones of these an- 
 imald lay scattered all over the flat land and to a 
 iese extent over the hill country. Those of single 
 animals covered small areas four or five rods in 
 diameter, as dragge*i a:?ide by foxes and coyotes, 
 and were generally observable in that way. The 
 motJt prominent objects were the whitened ikuUs, 
 the horns usually gone, their pointed corea pro* 
 trading outward at an oblique angle four or five 
 tnchei. Some twelve years had passed since the 
 la3L of the buffalo had been hunted here; the bonea 
 were bleached from long weathering and those 
 that had lain on the ground longest were partially 
 decayed. In the late seventies the Elk Valley was 
 occ-ssionally visited by hunting parties from Grand 
 Forks, out after any chance elk, deer or antelope 
 that might still be found in this region. 
 
 In coming in upon the flat grassy plain we halt* 
 ^d first in the northeast cornier pf Section 10 aa^ 
 
i^ear & small shallow depression then containing 
 water, but toward evening: we moved to the center 
 of the section. The next day, May 28, the wagoofl 
 were unloaded and a temporary abode fixed up to 
 use during warm weather. A patch was plowed 
 for a garden and the turf was used to make walls 
 about three feet hig-h and over all the bows and 
 canvas of the wag-ona was stretched. The bodies 
 of the wagons were taken inside for bunks and such 
 other thingfs as would be injured if exposed to a 
 i^hower of raih. 
 
 It was desirable to know where the corners of 
 Ihe quarter aectioas we had selected were located 
 before doing: any breaking. A wad of binder wire 
 had been brought along from near Casselton and 
 a small rope one hundred feet in length was braid- 
 ed from the wire. H. F. Arnold made a right an- 
 gled triangle from long slats that had been used 
 to strengthen the wagon bows and provided it with 
 sights. Taking this to mound stakes on the town- 
 ship line U mile north of our location, north and 
 south lines were ranged and marked and with the 
 east and west line of set bushes that has been men- 
 tioned aid sn\2 maaaufing of half mile stretches, 
 corners were approximately ascertained. On the 
 first of June we began breaking the prairie sod, 
 running three plows. 
 
 The previous spring appears to have been unus* 
 ually wet and this included a snow storm out of 
 season. When we arrived in the country, it waa 
 noticable that all shallow depressions were filled 
 with water. Over about a half mile west and 
 
92 lA>i«Tt VSARd Vi WOKTH DAKOTA 
 
 southwest from our location there was then Al 
 •hallow lakelet, tenor fifteen rods wide and nearly 
 a half mile io length. This was of use in waterintp 
 tl^e Btock. The grass vrks now grown so that they 
 tould feed but when working they were ffivea 
 some ground feed. Along near the east aide of 
 the lakelet mentioned there ran a wagon trail ot 
 ftuch recent origin that it was merely rutted oa 
 the prairie sod. It was occasionally used by per- 
 •one traveling in canvas covered wagons from the 
 Goose river settlements to those on th« upper 
 <«aches of Forest and Park rivers. 
 
 On Sundays i was accustomed to stroll arouid 
 on the prairie, making ol;>6erva8ionB. On what ia 
 now the Gailbraith place I came upoa a long and 
 extensive depression about ten feet deep and sepa* 
 sated from the low land north of town by a swell of 
 the surface. Part of the bottom was sheeted over 
 with water but the soulhern end was merely moist 
 j^round. On this area the ground was thickly 
 covered with broken buffalo bones, fragmenia of 
 Red River carta, lodge poles and others used for 
 frames in smoking pemmican. The wood waa 
 partially decayed for it had lain in this hollow 
 since the middle sixties. This had been a eamp of 
 the Pembina halfbreeds, who were accustomed 
 each summer to take to the plains, with their carta 
 accompanied by their wives and children and a 
 priest, to be gone several weeks. The slaughtered 
 animals were cut up and brought to camp by the 
 carts, the larger bones being broken to get the 
 iparrow for the pemmican. the making of which 
 
vm mainly done by the women. Of many animals 
 ilain of some they took oaly choice parts, leavinfr 
 the bulk of the carcasses to the foxes and coyotes. 
 From this old camp site we obtained a wagon load 
 or two of wood, among it several oak axles of carts 
 ^Cseful in other ways than fuel. 
 
 Soon after this we dug a well, the water beiag 
 reached within twelve feet from the surface. A 
 headless barrel was placed in the bottom an4 
 pieces cf boards and material brought from the 
 old camp site was used to curb it up. Along at 
 drst the water was drawn up with a pail but in the 
 fall a small iron hand pump was got so that the 
 «tock could be watered directly from the well. 
 
 We mailed letters and received mail at H. B. 
 Hanson's place on Turtle river some seven miles 
 Co the northeast of our location. A mail route 
 had been opened from Grand Forks to Fort Totteil 
 with three intervening postofiices on thf ^oute ii| 
 the log cabins of settlers. Two were 0.9 Turtle 
 river and the third at Stump lake. From Blake* 
 ley's in Mekinock the route lay north of the river, 
 but crossed the stream again at a ford near Hanson's 
 and thence bore west by south across Elm Grove 
 and Niagara townships, cutting across the north* 
 west corner of Moraine township. W. N. Roach 
 had the mail contract and started on his first trip 
 October 12, 1879, accompanied by Jas. H. Mathews 
 ard had a wagon trail to follow as f ar as Bachelor^ 
 grove. Mathews called it by that oeme fceceue€ 
 so many of the F^uatt^ra found there were single 
 men. At first it M h^ep eaJled Thomsons gro?««. 
 
U rt>itTi VlSi^ft^ l?r NdKtH &AKOTA 
 
 Hanaon came from SMit County, Minn., in June, 
 1879, and the poatoffice in h\9 !ofr house was called 
 Hegton before the township was given the same 
 name. Since the postoffice had to have a name when 
 the application for it was sent to Washington, he 
 took the first ay!Ub!e of the name of the locality in. 
 Norway whence he had originally came, and added 
 to that the common Enj^lish affix **ton'* and thu» 
 made out a name, which was better than repeating 
 ftny name from over in Minnesota. Only one round 
 trip per week was made with the mail and the route 
 came to be called the Fort Totten trail. 
 
 One morning a lone elk was seen leiaurtly stalk- 
 iaa: across the prairie abouc a half mile north of 
 dur habitation aad heading eastward. H. F. Ar* 
 Siold Drought oat a Winchester ritie and fired & 
 lew shots in the direction of th< elk, but the dis« 
 \hnc& ^'us too far. The animal at first looked in 
 our direction without stopping and then struck 
 into a trot until out of si^ht. 
 
 The ponds filling: depressions bred innumerable 
 mosquitoes and on still evenings we had to smudge 
 the cattle. One night in the midst of a heavy 
 wind and thunder storin the oxen broke from their 
 tetherings and made olT in the direction that the 
 storm urged them. H. F. Arnold started out next 
 day in search of them and the second day found 
 them at a distance of nine or ten miles southeast 
 from our location and brought them home. 
 
 While breaking, small flocks of blackbirds came 
 and followed along the newly turned furrows for 
 worms and ant's eggs. Ihe iodividoal birds of a 
 
RS1PASLf9HVMQ A BKl^LEMEKT 35 
 
 flock aeemed to belong to four varieties, for while 
 gome were quite black others were light black* 
 then §ome were marked with yellow and red, but 
 all were mixed together. They, were remarkably 
 tame, for whenever I stopped the team they would 
 approach to within a few feet of where I stood. 
 I did not disturb them, as I wished to ascertain 
 how tame they might be in a region where they 
 had not been shot at. At times they would hop 
 upon the upturned furrow making the air voca! 
 vith their peculiar sonj?. There were some prairie 
 chickens in the coaatry, but as these birds follow- 
 ed up th3 cultivation of wheat and corn they were 
 aot namjroas, A. fev daeks ware seen frequent* 
 fng the sloughs and ponds in the depressions, 
 while wild geese were birds of passage, as nowo 
 The English sparrow whe absent, not then havinflT 
 intruded into the country. 
 
 We had not long bec-n settled in our temporary 
 abode when we began to receive occasional callerSo 
 Probably the first was a young man who drove up 
 in a two horse farm wagon, but did not remain 
 long. He said that he was looking over the coun* 
 try for a locRtion, and had passed the preceding 
 winter in the Territory. Asked as to the character 
 of the winter, he said that it had been a severe 
 one, the snow deep and that it had been much blown 
 about by the winds. He thought that a succession 
 of such winters would result iii driviog many peo- 
 ple then here out of the country. 
 
 Another day, late in the afternoon, a man who 
 appeared to be about thirty years of age^ arrived 
 
from aeroii tht hitl country. He carried a blan* 
 ket and a few campiaK uteosils ic a ba^ suspended 
 from hi'i shouldera by atraps. He aUted that be 
 bad traveled from Vailey Uity, moat of the way 
 across aa uniahabited stretch of country, and was 
 making: for Smugglers Point, cow Neche. He 
 remained with as until the ntxX moraing aad then 
 reiumed bia journey. 
 
 In Jua3 the U. S. census waa taken and Paul 
 Johnson, of North wood township, was assigned 
 the western part of the county, so far as he could 
 Jdnd any inihabitants in it. He found only three 
 in Larimore township, then unnamed. In what is 
 ftow Niagara township there were more, all timber- 
 settlers, located in the west end of Bachelors grove 
 and two small grovea in coulees or ravines io tht 
 eastern slope of the uplands. Johnson stated that 
 he had then been located five yean oo Goose river* 
 The course of this stream^ being farther south, 
 had been eceupied several years earlier than the 
 upper reaches of Turtle river. By the year 1630 
 every quarter section in Grand Forks County oa 
 which there was any timber, had its claimant. 
 
 The wagon trail over west of our location was 
 traveled by canvas covored wagons, usually draw» 
 by oxen. Two or three of these teams going ent 
 way or the other, were observed each week. Tba 
 township then being entirely treeless, they wer« 
 apt to remain in sight between one and two hours. 
 On rare occasions aome of these travelers called at 
 our abode to make Inquiries about the country* 
 jDnce that auamer tw^ gf these teams travdiog la 
 
eompatiy camped on the trail by the lakelet for 
 two days and then journeyed southward. We 
 learned later that theee campers settled in Traill 
 County. It seemed singular that such a fine body 
 of land as the Elk Valley tract presented should 
 not have been appropriated by squatters, but there 
 was then no difficulty in regard to obtaining land, 
 and people seemed ta prefer to select locations in 
 aurveyed areas. There were then people at Grand 
 Forks who were watting for the survey of the £lk 
 Valley, understood to be done that year. 
 
 During the latter part of June, Fred Wright 
 came out from Grand Forks on ^ Saturday to pa/ 
 us a short visit- On going to Grand Forks in th^ 
 latter part of May he had worked at odd jobs and 
 then Winship, who had known something of hini 
 \n Caledonia, Minn-, took him into the Herald 
 oiffice. Soon after dinner time, Sunday, I noticed 
 that the oxen, turned out to gra?e, had got on the 
 trail and were moving northward with the cow ia 
 the lead, E. G. Arnold and myself started ont 
 after therr*. the animals havirg thrf e quarters of 
 a m:i2 the start and were moving as fast as they 
 could walk. We had an arduous chase after them 
 but they stopped at Elm grove ^\iere we turned 
 them back again. The grave popBisted of three or 
 four acre's of tall timbey n|th a^ log cabin in it and 
 was located near where tho Elra Grove church now 
 stands. A short time before we reached the grov« 
 and turned back the cattle, we had met on the 
 trail a lone rridale aged Norwegian woman who 
 was cooposed/y knitting^iWJ fiJbe leisurely trudged 
 
99 Tfy^SfTt YKAiti m HC^RlHi DAKOTA 
 
 9\ong the trmili. Oa returainj: we overtook her. 
 She could talk English quite well and was sociable 
 and camtnunicative. She stated that she lived in 
 the Park river countrr and was on her way to Goose 
 river where she had land interests. Asked if she 
 was not afraid to travel in such a lone way, she saidi 
 that she was not, because there were no bad peo* 
 pie in the country. When we arrived where we 
 turned off the trail, the woman was invited to oar 
 camp to rest a while and get some refreshment 
 She accepted the invitation, remained about an 
 hour and then proceeded on her way. While we 
 had been f^one, young Wright had started back to 
 Grand Forks, then a growing village. 
 
 Once a week some one of us went on foot acrosf 
 the unsettled country to Hanson's fcr our mail. 
 We could easily crross the south branch at a point 
 on what is now the Marien farm where the creek 
 was then narrow enough between sodded banks to 
 be lightly leaped over. The stream had once flow- 
 ed on the opposite or south side of the valley. 
 At the point of crossing the north side of the val* 
 ley rose steep and sandy about twenty feet high. 
 This made a land mark to locate from a distance 
 the point of crossing. North of the valley some 
 distance a depression a mile long, forty or fifty 
 rods wide and about ten feet deep with a flat 
 bottom, was met; with. The route lay along the 
 east side of this basin and just beyond its northerq 
 end one came upon the Fort Totten trail, withiq 
 about two miles of Hanson^s place, whoae loeatios 
 was tn Section 19, Hegto& township. 
 
One Sunday in makiDfr t ramble I directed m^ 
 course west by south for 3i mile* or more. Thia 
 brought me to the Moraine township line mlreadj 
 marked north and south and all around it by aline 
 9f mounds and stakes, one half mile apart The 
 township was not inhabited and remained so. for 
 the most part, thru the next year. Along the slope 
 e( tbe bills and enough above their base to avoid 
 the wet and sloughy land below, ran an old disused 
 faalf breed trail, the aamc we had followed some 
 miles to Elm river. It was still well defined oq 
 the surface, though gr^8> grown, and had been 
 Kittson's cart trail from Pembina and St. Joseph 
 ^WalhaUa) to St. Paul, in 184^ Major Woods and 
 Capt. Pope traveled over it oo their expedition 
 from Fort Snelling to Pembina. 
 
 The white man's wagon trail ttruek out on the 
 prairie turf by the common farm wagon, and only 
 traveled occasionally, conaisted el two rutted 
 paths, worn by the wheels and hocfa of the horees 
 and oxen drawing tht^m. A strip of grass a foot 
 to flixteeo Jnches wide remained in the center, but 
 If the trails became much traveled this was grad* 
 ually worn away and they became more like beateo 
 roads until relegated to the section lines by the 
 breaking and cultivnticn of the land- Now the 
 half breed or fur trader's cart trails were of a dif- 
 ferent order. They consisted of three parallel 
 paths, the two outward ones worn by the large 
 wheels of the carts with rims 4 or 5 inches thick, 
 and the cecter pat^ by tfee animals used, ponie« 
 and oxen» harnessed single bdtwjeen the phills. 
 
4i potert rsu^i ut pwnn Dakota 
 
 At»mr the bttt of the bill country there was 
 «Ofnethtfi|r else marked eaottgh to attract sooaa 
 ^ people*! attentloA. ThU was a ridge line, not 
 entirely eootlotiottf in solaces, from about five to 
 ilf teen rods in width, and uauaUy seven or eight 
 feet high. The narrow form makes a fine rounded 
 f idge, white the wider form is more like a low 
 tweU of the surface. Between the ridge and tht 
 toot of the lowest slope of the hills there is apt ta 
 occur a concave hollow, but on the east or valley 
 lide the ground dtps gently inward across a aooe 
 of bowlder clay under the gravelly top soil. Th* 
 fidge itself along the foot of the hills is composed 
 ;^f sand, gravel and pebbles, derived from northern 
 archf»an and white limestone rocks. These matt- 
 rials were thrown up during storms b.v tb« wavea 
 9f the glacial lake Agassis, swept shoreward by the 
 scouring of the top of the bowlder clay from about 
 a mile inward from the beach line which marka 
 the highest stage of the ancient laka« 
 
 To the northwest abcut fiveifiiles from our ctmp 
 the tops of trees were in view risirg from a coulet 
 or ravine. This locality was called Whisky creek 
 Altho only a small streamlet ran down the coulat* 
 That this locality was inhabited could be inferred 
 from the fact that during still evenings in Junt 
 the smoke of a smudge fire was observed rising 
 from a grove near the head of the coulee, presum* 
 ably at the Hitstad place. Elm grove, ne foage? 
 in existence, atood a »hort distance east of the 
 lower end of this coulee* 
 
Wm ftnishfed breaking for that season about the 
 feOthaf July. Accord injr to measurements made, 
 the prairie aod turned over amounted to as much 
 us I6ii acres, doce on three quarter sections. As 
 the season for backsetting was not yet at hand, 
 a, F. Arnold and hia father fitted up the tw* 
 wagons and taking four yoke of oxen they left for 
 Grand Forks to be gene & week or more, and 
 <;j(uring their absence i remained alone io the town* 
 ;$hip, its sole inhabitant, there being do other 
 persons nearer than the vicinitv of Thomas* grove. 
 A EenjamJD family had come from Grand Fork* 
 U>at summer and built a cabin on the edge of the 
 basin on the present Peatman place and about a 
 quarter of a mile south of where the Leavitt fam* 
 ily was living at the grove. I do net recall thai 
 any one came to the camp except a young Norwe* 
 gian who came over from the trail in a wagoi| 
 without the usual c&uvas covering. He said that 
 he was born in Spring Grove township, Houston 
 Co., Minn., and was looking over the country; h% 
 seemed to be in a hurry and soon drove back to tht 
 trail. When seen the canvas covered wagons made 
 CDRspieous objects on the level, treeless plaint. 
 As stated, they were usually drawn by oxen and 
 their owners fitted them with bows and canvts 
 coverings to camp and sleep in nights, since theil 
 Journeys lay thru much uninhabited country. 
 
 Left to myself end meiely Icckirg after the 
 camp for the time being, 1 had some opportunity for 
 ohsenHnc weather conditions and certain aspects 
 pt land and sky. The weather was ideal eoongb 
 
ftt that season, thedaya like perpetual sunihine, dry 
 &tid warm without betag decidedly aultry. To one 
 if'ho had lived in Rhode island and Connecticut ia 
 Hbout the same latitude as Dcs Moines. Iowa, and 
 in southeastern Minnesota, aspects of nature here 
 were somewhat different. The summer days are 
 longer; the lay of the (and is somewhat different 
 and its veg:et&tian iiot whoHy the same. At the 
 Sast the gopher i& not known, but in Houston 
 County the small spotted variety and the burrow- 
 ing: pocket gopher were present, as here, but twa 
 *ther species were also to be found here, the com- 
 Bion yellow ones and the rather rare gray kind 
 called ground squirrels. Even the heavens pre- 
 sented some noticeable difference; here cne has ta 
 iook 6iJ degrees higher toward the zenith for the 
 pole star than in central Iowa, while the bright 
 star Vega which sets in the northwest in the lat« 
 jtude of southern Mifcretcta, here swings just 
 clear of the northern horizon, always within what 
 is called the circle of perpetual apparition. 
 
 When the teams returned from Grand Fork* 
 some lumber was brought. We now built of ship- 
 lap a cabin twelve feet square with a shed roof. 
 Four bunks to sleep in were provided on the north 
 side beneath where the roof was lowest. These 
 were arranged so as to have two lower and two 
 upper ores. No tarred peper wes prcvided at 
 first, one of the wagon canvacees being battened 
 on to the roof instead , erd ctr lekrgings mere 
 moved into it from the camp close by. 
 
o 
 
 III 
 
 SUBDIVISION OF THE TOWNSHIP 
 
 N the 5th of August E. C. and H. F. Arnold 
 again departed for Grand Forks, taking th^ 
 iame number of teams as before. One of the 
 wagons had its bows and canvas covering replaced 
 tor camping purposes while away, besides, Grand 
 Forks, over thirty miles distant by trails or roads, 
 «ould not be reached with ox teams the first day. 
 While down previously an engagement was made 
 with McKelvey to do some backsetting for him on 
 land across Red river from Grand Forks. There 
 was no East Grand Porks on the Minnesota side of 
 Red river at that time. It was intended thin time 
 to be gone about a month and I was left with the 
 pair of oxen that worked in harncsees to do some 
 of the backsetting. This was turning back the 
 dried and partially rotted turf of the breaking 
 season with the addition of an inch of the subsoil 
 from the bottom of each furrow. I think all of 
 the pjowp. were run for a short time before the 
 second move to Grand Forks was made. 
 
 The railroad track was laid across Red river and 
 into Grand Forks as soon as a bridge could be 
 finished which was early in January, 1880. Trains 
 began running into Grand Forks from Crookston, 
 but in a few days a blowing snow storm blocked 
 the line and it was not cleared again until March. 
 What waK merely a village at the time the railroad 
 arrived, now fceganto luild cp rspidly duriLg th» 
 
fo!low2fif wtrir seEeona. The census irave Grand 
 Forks 1,705 inhab4tanWi that year. In July the 
 ten milea stretch cf roadbed* graded in the fall of 
 1879, was ironed and a small village was atartedi 
 At the en^ of the track, at first called StickQey» 
 ^ut the next year th<> railroad maa^gemeiit chaagt 
 «d this nanne to O^ata. On the occasion ol their 
 l&rst trip to Grand Porici. £^ a and ^.. F. Araold 
 taw a loeomotivf there and as this was bieaded %th 
 mud th> Slk Valley, it was aa eaeouragiag sight* 
 
 Id June of that year« Gea, G, Beardsley, wh(k 
 was a contractor fct goveroirent surveys, left 
 fargo with two weli-equipi>ed parties for siinrey* 
 Ing work. One of ^heae parties weal t^ Sheyeao« 
 f47er, and probably w^^rked ic Barnea County. 
 the other party came to this coui^ty to sobdivtd^ 
 iato sections and ({uarter*s«ctiocs the lasd lying in 
 raniiTes 65 and 56, The Utter range now borderi 
 on Nelson County, but there was bo Kelson County 
 existent in the territory in IbSQ and Grand Ferl^i 
 County at that time extended three ranges far thcf 
 west, and also included the south half <yf WaltH 
 County. 
 
 The p^rtv that worked in this cotinty eom|>riae4 
 fitjht or nine m«n in charjfe of a young man d| 
 the name of James E. Dyke who^ home waa im 
 Pembina County, They were well provided witll 
 tent9, ox teams and provisions and also had a peay 
 and cart and a saddle horse. They tottmeBeed 
 work in the southwestern part of the county aa 
 now bounded, working northward, eubdividing t 
 township in one range, th«x^ U the other amd to oa 
 
«lier&ately. Dnrinff the first w<*ek in August the 
 p&Tiy wer4 ix^ Moraine townahtp. or wh^t to thern 
 was "TawR 15i North, Rangre 66 West." and no* 
 thing more, except that they did not consider it 
 ft tract of country so apt to invite settlers as the 
 Hat valley land below. Belore moving camp to ga 
 into the the next township to be subdivided, a maa 
 was fent out to select a aite and who also took 
 aote of any obstaeics to the teama on the way that 
 led to it. It was their aim to pitch the eamp as 
 near to the center of a township as would be near 
 Abater. On Sunday, August 8th, the surveying 
 party moved their camp into Larimore township 
 and located it for a week at the southwest corner 
 of Section 13 and on the east side of a slough. 
 
 The laying out of townships in p^rts of ranges, 
 or in blocks in some county, was done one, two or 
 three years prior to their subdivision. 3oth of 
 these forms of surveying work involved separata 
 contracts by different parties. It was the aim of 
 the General Land Office to keep pace with tha 
 factual needs of settlement. The surveying party 
 evidently worked according to some arranged 
 system that would economize time. Their aim 
 was to complete the Fubdivision of a township 
 within a week, unless delayed by bad weather, la 
 running lines across the township the process waa 
 as here described: Dyke carried his three-legged 
 surveying instrument theodolite) by a strap that 
 passed over one shoulder and adjusted it on tha 
 grouud for siajhtiog every fifteen or twenty rods, 
 A poleman held the pole in position when 19 Una 
 
»Qtil afiother maa had cut with a sp&de a pointed 
 piece of turf about Bzven inches wide and a foot 
 and a half loQg:^ braced upright with another pieee 
 of sod and set it close to the pole. The polemaa 
 and his assistant then went forward another 
 etretch while the surveyor lugired his instrument 
 forward from his last position and set it for sight* 
 f ng agaiFi do that it£ piumoiet was suspended just 
 over the point of the upright paece of turf. In 
 the meantione two chainrnen were measurinfl: o£F 
 the ground and I think tkev preceded the man 
 <that held the pole. 
 
 A pooy and light c^rt accompanied the party 
 to carry the mound stakes used to mark corners. 
 Each half mile measured off constituted a brief 
 haltia^ place. A stake, which had to be the right 
 one for any special corner if it was for a section 
 corner, was taken from the cart and its pointed 
 end driven a few inches into the ground by being; 
 thumped with the back of a spade. It was set 
 juat where measuring and aligning indicated that 
 it should he placed. A last act was to place a 
 pieee oi turf on the top of the stake the better 
 to mark its position to the mound men whent 
 ever they could get around to the line then beingf • 
 run. The party then continued to work forward. 
 
 The surveying was done only on section lines, 
 since there was no occasion to run quarter-seetio^ 
 lines, for the centers of sections where the corneirai 
 of four quarters converged were not marked by 
 stakes and mounds. Settlers were left to fin^ 
 their own corners at such points by ranging acrosa 
 
the section from the quarter stakes on theseetipa 
 linies. in this state section lines are legal roada 
 and where bo uied the t(»ndency w&$ to oblil^raitf . 
 ^^ stakes and mo\indi\' 
 
 The stakes or postB at section corners which ai;t 
 the cornere of a square miieo^ land, w^re abo^t 
 Ihrse inches square and three feet in lea«:th. The 
 ioxiT sides near their tops were inscribed with, 
 vetters and fij^ures indicating town, range and the 
 jiumber of the section that any of the four sidei 
 faced, the posts being: set cornerwise to the direc- 
 tion that the lines ran. The quarter-sectipn stakes 
 iieasared about two by three inches and were set 
 %t the half mile points between the section posts. 
 These were merely marked }iS. The stakes or 
 yoats were finally mounded by two of the mea 
 who attended to that part of the work, pyramidi- 
 c&l mounds of turf and ez^rth being built around 
 thefii. These mounds were about four feet square 
 &t the base and 2} feet high, the posts projecting 
 about eight inches above their apex. Ii^ the casc^ 
 cf quarter-section mourdB, the earth acd turf 
 yemoved on two sides of a mound left depression^ 
 eight inches deep and in elongated diamond form. 
 The direction that these pointed indicated whether 
 they were on north and south or on east and wejs^ 
 section lines. Any one driving oyer aa uaeettlec) 
 township with a printed plat in hand, by eoBiuU* 
 ing the markings on a section post could indicate^ 
 on the plat the point in the township where he 
 stood. This practice was oft^n resorted to bif 
 parties out looking up claims, 
 
The stakes used by the surveying party ^^ere 
 cut where tbey could liad oak timber and were 
 marked in camp with cutting: instruments, usually 
 on the evening: before the cJay they were to be 
 \i3ed. The party did not work later than five o'clock 
 in the afternoon. One mornine: Dyke and some of 
 his men stopped Afew minutes at the cabin while 
 on their way to work, and marked with a blue 
 pencil on a township plat the three quarter-sections 
 00 which breaking had been done and also took 
 4lown the names of claimants. This was to indi* 
 cate that these quarters were squatter's claims. 
 Dyke stated that the Elk Valley was the best look* 
 in^ tract of country he had seen since takini; the 
 aeld that season, and expressed some surprise 
 Ifhat it had not been generally occupied by squat- 
 ters in advance of the survey. 
 
 Oaring the early part of the week in which th« 
 towsnhip was being subdivided, I made a visit one 
 moruing to the surveyor's camp, which wat 1| 
 mile south by west from the cabin. The men 
 were afield, but the cook and a camp helper were 
 present. They had two large tents, two yoke of 
 62en and wagons there. The camp helper showed 
 me a stake several rods out in the slough and said 
 that it marked the center of the township. I told 
 the cook that there was a cow kept about th« 
 cabin, that I h^d mo^e milk there than I could us6 
 before it spoiled and that they would be welcome 
 to it free of charge by sending some one to get it^ 
 The cook stated that milk had been a scarceartiele 
 iik their camp and that he ir^ali be gUi i9 avad 
 
himself of such an opportunity, and for i«T«ral 
 morr^ia^s thereafter the camp helper came and 
 got & supply. Just before the camp moved per- 
 mission was asked to store in the cabin a wagoQ 
 load of their goods until they could come and haul 
 them to the neict camping place. Presumably 
 they did not want to le^ve them any length of 
 ^ime near a wa? pn trail and as the next move wai 
 to be up the slope of the hills into Niagara town- 
 ship, they preferred not t^ load their wagons toa 
 heavily. The goods were contained in unopened 
 barrels, boxes and bags and large cans. On th« 
 it^fternoon of Sunday, August 15th, I saw the 
 teai:53 of the surveyor's camp filing diagonally up 
 the slope of the hills and evidently making for 
 iha Whiaky creek ravine. In about a week the 
 cook &nd hi3 helper came with an ox team for the 
 goods and on departing he tore open a sack of 
 tinground coffee and left with me several pounda 
 of this desirable commodity. 
 
 Amidst the backsetting work I would take an 
 5il:'teraoon off to cross the country to Hanson'* 
 after any mail that came to us. I sometimes saw 
 Roach there on his return trip from Fort Totten. 
 He drove a light team with a span of good road^ 
 sters. He did not take the road himself every 
 trip but occasionally sent a man in his place. One« 
 or twice that fall I saw the Indian caravan of forty 
 fifty ox teams camped oijv the prairie by the For| 
 Totten trail, and on their way from the fort and 
 reservation to Qrand Forks after the tons of gov- 
 ernmeBt auppliei then delivered there. Each team 
 
BO ffi^tCtt tm^S» W NOHTH DAKOTA 
 
 had its Indian driver, but the caravan was in 
 charge of a white man, agrent or wagon-master, 
 who used a horse and buggy, Cooical tents or 
 tepees were taken along for camping purposes a^ 
 night. Smaller parties of the red n^en also used 
 the Fort Totten trail in passing back and forth 
 between the Fort Totten and Red Lake Indian 
 reservations. Among the^e, ling*rrirg specimens 
 of the old Red River cart of fur trading timet 
 were still to be seen, and once i saw one in poa« 
 aession of a white man who resided at Stump lake. 
 They resembled the two. wheeled tip cart of thd 
 whites, but not a particle of iron was used in their 
 sanstructioQ. Once or twice I saw Beardsley, tht 
 »ttrveying contractor, at the postoflice that fall. 
 
 One morning Dyke and two other men vf\i^ 
 were recent comers from Ohio, drove up to the 
 eabin in a light horse team, while on their way to 
 get upon the wagon trail. One was a brother ot 
 Major Beardsley, as he was called, and the other a 
 man named Gates. They located prairie claims in 
 the vicinity of Bachelors Grove and probably went 
 back to Ohio for the winter when that eeason 
 approached. 
 
 During the last two weeKs that I remained alonn 
 in the township, the cow took a notion one morn* 
 ing to run away. In trying to overtake her the 
 cow her&elt ran and disappeared into the wooded 
 Turtle valley near the Leavitt place. Later alon^ 
 I learned at Hanson's that she was to be found ^% 
 Thos. Christiansop's place en the stream stcvn 
 Sanson's (C^nstlltQspn Q^^we here in 1879 and !• 
 
^till Uvi&g where he located.) As it would require 
 9^ tetber-Fope to get the cow home is so much opea 
 country, i made a special trip after her and lead 
 her back to the cabiq. 
 
 The next day, which was September Zd, £. C. 
 and H. P. Arnold came b|;ck with the teams and 
 with them came i^rs- Arnold and two d&Qjrhtera, 
 During a part of the time since we had left the 
 home community in Minnesota, the women folka 
 were in Rhode Island visiting: relatives and came 
 from there directly to Gr^ed Forks, the small 
 f^rm all of the family had new left having been 
 rented* ^hey arrived at Grand Forks shortly b«» 
 Ifore the backsetting job was ^nished. There w^ 
 brought back on this return trip irtcre lcii.ter,aii 
 Oliver riding plow and a couple of large boxes of 
 household goods that had i^een sent to Grand 
 l^^crks. The lumber was used at once to enlarge 
 the cabin so that it measured 20 by 12 feet- TheA 
 or later in the fall it was covered over outside 
 with tarred paper. 
 
 Daring a good part of September af^4 October 
 we attendipd to backsetting. H. F. Arnold got 
 the loan of a mowing-machine and a large amount 
 of prairie hay was cut early in the fall, using on 
 the mower the oxen that worked in harnessea. 
 We also did that fall some backsetting for persont 
 owning land in Arvilla atd Hegtcn townships, 
 probably getting fallen or dead wood on Turtle 
 river for this outride work. Below the junction 
 of the two branches of the river, therf were seU 
 tied several fafniUes ?i^bo bad emigrated to these 
 
$d ifMtcrf TKAittS W tiOUXA &AKOTA 
 
 perts in 1878 from Kandiyohi County, Minn., and 
 ail of them were dweiiiog in lo(r cabics« ai was 
 customary with pioneer settlers who located on 
 the timbered Btreams. They stated that they found 
 the land in Rang:e 54 already in market when they 
 arrived. One of these settlers nanried Henry 
 Mornran lived at what was later known as the 
 Terpenaingr farm. On its north eide there is quite 
 an embay men t in the valley devoid of timber and 
 on this open tract Morgan had planted potatoes 
 ^nd turnips. As he was building a new log house 
 and the last week of October had come, we got the 
 job of plowing and harrowing out the potatoes, 
 palling and catting the tops off the turnips and 
 getting them stored in a cellar. The job lasted 
 several days, there being more than an acre to the 
 field, and for the work we got our winter's supply 
 of potatoes and turnips and some loads of wood. 
 Some of the potatoes, exceptional of course, meas- 
 ured five inches in length by two thru the middle. 
 There was a good deal of dead wood in the Tur« 
 tie valley at that time* including the charred and 
 blackened trunks of standing trees partially burn- 
 ed away where prairie fires ^ad entered the valley. 
 On the Morgan place a swirling eddy in times of 
 spring fioods had deposited a mass of floatage stuff 
 and drift wood over a considerable area of ground. 
 It was from this locality that we later hauled what 
 wood we obtained on the Morgsn place. Some 
 crotches and poles were also obtained from Turtle 
 river with which to build a winter shelter for the 
 ^ow and oxen, similar to the straw barns oi early 
 
4ay8 fa Mimnegota, but in this instance it was coV' 
 ftad in with coarse hay nauch of which was cut 
 vsrith a scythe. A cellar hole had to be dug under 
 the cabin for the potatoes ard turnips. 
 
 One Sunday that fall Dyke and two other mtVk 
 drove down from the north and stopped at the 
 cabin for dinner. This gave me the opportunity 
 to make some inctuiries coneerning: their surveying 
 work. Dyke stated that the ^methods they used 
 4id not insure exactitude in regard to marking 
 corners. These pp^ight vary from being correctj 
 lis he exprsise'^ it» "by a few links of the chain." 
 The corners wt had marked approximated sa 
 cloudy to what they had later made them, t^at 
 the surveying party thought that we had used 
 a surveyor's compass and chain. As all adult per- 
 Hons then ir; the territory were supposedly born 
 outside of it, I asked Dyke from what state he 
 had came and he stated that he was from near the 
 Kennebec river in Maine. 
 
 During September and October persons were 
 to be seen occasionally driving over the countrj 
 in light horse rigs, looking at the land. Amonc 
 these was Oscar M. Towner who came as a sort ef 
 advance agent of the later formed Klk Valley 
 Farming company. On Sunday afternoon, Sept. 
 I'Eth, as I was taking a stroll, I saw two teams al 
 a distance unload lumber in the center of Section 
 13, this bein^ the first risible act of starting the 
 subsequent big farm. Only two claim shacks 
 were put up there that fall. Other parties also 
 began tean:>iDg in iymber and building ehacka 
 
«St ifOmrf YEARS Ui iHiMTH I^aHOTA 
 
 vrithoal floors, merely to indicate until the land 
 aame into market, that the qiiarters the shacks 
 iitood ap^n, had been "taken." borne plowing wa» 
 lone around them as a protection against chance 
 prairie fires and then they ¥.eie left until the foJ- 
 iowing spring, none cf these parties atiemptisi^ 
 lo pass the winter on their claims. 
 
 The greund froze up that year about November 
 dth, leaving about thirty acres oi the backsetticg 
 unaccomplished, and that could easily have been 
 «ione but for so much outside work. H. F. Ar^ 
 Siold made two or three more trips to Grand Forks 
 md Ojata for lumber and supplies. Later in the 
 season he got a position in the office of clerk of 
 court in Grand Forks and spent the winter ther«t 
 It was during the early part of winter that £. C* 
 Arnold and myself hauled the supply of fuel from 
 Turtle river and its south branch. At tinr^es itt 
 November and December I worked on a cabin o^ 
 16 by 12 feet ou my own claim, in which to pasar 
 the winter. It had not been wholly completed 
 either outside or inside when on Sunday afternooii« 
 December 12lh, i tock n y bclrngitirs erd a stock 
 of provisions into it in cider tcpess the winter &• 
 best 1 could, 3con covering the cabin with tarred 
 paper, completing the icsioe and digging a eella» 
 hole beneath the floor. E. C. Arnold, wife and 
 two daughters, and myself, were the only inhabit 
 tants in the townehip in the winter ol HfiiMh 
 
xrFAlRS IS KIGHTV-OKE 
 
 THE winter that now followed wm a«l, m m 
 whole, a Tery told one, nor wag tbece mmdm 
 snow on the ground until the latter half of it^ 
 The coldest morniDsrs remembered came betweeo 
 Christmas and New Year's, reaching a cliBaax olf 
 l^w temperature at perhaps 40 degrees below zero., 
 After that there were cccasiocally days of still at* 
 mosphere and dear sky, but the temperature wat 
 n) ways at the best during the winter months more 
 or leas below the freezirg peict. The days which 
 ^d a ieng:th of about seventeen hours of sunshine 
 ^jQ June, had now shortened to about 8) hours. 
 
 As stated, the cabin I had buiU was sixteen fa^l 
 m length, and it was of the shed roof form eight 
 feet studded on the south side and six on the north 
 side. This gave slant enough to gbed rain off the 
 tarred paper covering. Inside, the cabiQ waa 
 divided off by a partition which was made to jog 
 in some three feet so as to construct a bunk* The 
 smaller room had no floor and was used for & 
 woodshed part, in this wae the door leading out- 
 aide< but opening inward, and in the partition waa 
 another door made of flooring material. There 
 were two windows to the cabin, a full one of 12 
 bv 8 inches lights in the south front and one sash 
 to light the east end woodshed part. On the whole^ 
 the cabin was built to live in end was no flimsy 
 structure like those |kut up merely to claim, laud. 
 
I ffifide the bunk tiis:h ccioutirh to shove a trunk 
 under it. A lay«r cf b&y wns placed ia the bottom 
 v>i the buak, thsa with quilts aad blankets and 
 ioMr overeoatii that I had brought into the country 
 ^9r«ad over all or sandwiched between, I managed 
 to sleep fairly comfortable. The stove used wa» 
 a moderate sized sheet iron one with two holes for 
 >ot9 and skillets. A table was made from pieeea 
 »f pine lumber and as I had no chair to sit on, a 
 atn^li bench made from the last of the lumber 
 that was left had to suffice for the time beinff. 
 Whoa ike weather became very cold 1 occasionally 
 hr^ard nii?ht3 reports comparable to those made by 
 lArg** firecrackers and which came from the roof 
 t»r)ard<3. In building the cabin the ola-fashioned 
 cut :i&il3 had been used, since the steel wire nails 
 had not then came into general uee on aeccunt of 
 being more costly than the old kind. 1 thereforr 
 sttrmi?^d that the reportn were caused by th« 
 breaking ct the oails, bvt seen came to know thai 
 this was not the cause. The &team from kettle* 
 entered the joints between th^ roof boards and 
 formed a cementing of ice and at times eoated th« 
 undrr side of the beards with frcgt cwirg to a 
 lack of ceiling otfrhewd. Ibk crxtiscticn of th« 
 boards on unuasually cold nights caused the iee 
 in the cracks to snap asunder in some places, thsA 
 producing the loud sounds occasicrally heard. At 
 times that winter I experienced more or less dis- 
 comfort, but faced such corditioDS ^rfliirclhiiDgly 
 with what J presume was the pioCf*er spirit, and ia 
 hopes of better surroundings in the aear! future. 
 
It (tavolved upoo myself to make most •t tke 
 irips to the po»toffice to get any chane^Ietteraandl 
 alae our weekly papers. On February Sd I mad^ 
 9\itk a trip, there being some three inches of snow 
 AOL the ground. In the afternoon a light snow 
 began falling. While talking with the inmates is 
 the log cabin, Mr. Hanson said that the snow fait 
 was increasing and advised me to lose ne time in 
 getting back home for he feared that a blizzard 
 ml^ht ensue. In returning I conoid distinguish 
 mv tracks made in the snow on the way to the 
 pos^oflice aad followed themdoaely, though inth» 
 last anile I be^an to tire down some owing to th» 
 fncreasin^ depth of the snow. J reached my cabio 
 In the evening just before dark- Sometime in the 
 night a gale of wind sprang up and next day a 
 blizzard was raging. The storm came from the 
 southwest, hence the weather was not very cold. 
 The storm raged for three days with occasional 
 lulls. After that we did not get to the postoffice 
 again for two or three weeks and then only by 
 going around by Leavitt's, since the direct route 
 across the country could no longer be traveled, 
 
 I aimed to do considerable writing during that 
 winter but found that I could not accomplish 
 much of anything until March and April. To sit 
 long at a table made my feet cold; then if it came 
 a moderate day outside, the sun shining in at the 
 window combined with the warmth of the 8tove» 
 caused the frost above to melt and drip down upoa 
 the table. I had braught but little literature 
 with me, but a f ries^d in CftUforola sent mc the 
 
3uaday San Fr aneiaca Chronicle and occasionally 
 dome other literature. I ion^ed for certain sc ©Us- 
 iific works bat for some years thia sort of reading 
 matter lay beyond reach. 
 
 For water i had to go down to the other cabin. 
 * little over a half mile south. The tirst snow fall 
 ct^ntained dust and did not make water when it 
 was D3elted that waa lit to use; but after the bliz- 
 ftard there waa a bank of clean snow near the door 
 ^ di'S into SLud cieit for all the water needed. 
 
 In the latt«r part of March, £. C. Arnold and 
 rxiy^saU with two ox teams made a trip to Ojataor 
 Xo & i&rm (wo miles south of that place after oats 
 Onrfi wheat for .^edinir i^ the 9prin^. In plaeea 
 ftJoGgr th<? route the snow was aa much as twenty 
 inches deep but the trail was kept packed down 
 hiBtxd by passing teams, for at that time builoin|r 
 zirrateria^a had begun to be hauled to what was to 
 becoiae the Klk Valley Farm. We did not reach 
 Qjata tha tint day but stopped with a young: man 
 Who was liringr by himself somt: two miles from 
 the place. There is not ir>vch of anything: at 
 Ojata now, but at that time a small village waa 
 grouped about this temporary end of the railro^ 
 ten miles weat of Grand Forks. We cleaned th* 
 teed grain with a fanning-miU in a granary OBtb* 
 farm menticzied. sacked it up and got back t« the 
 young man's hostelry in the evening. All of the 
 seed grain needed could not have been gotten that 
 trip. Some lumber was got for a floor and bin in 
 the woodshed part to my cabin and a load of oatt 
 was stared there. «iilH Deeded in seeding time* 
 
2>ttrla7 the laat of March and oarlj part •! April 
 ihere ^«tied almost daily a euccessioa of little 
 ijlitiard* of short duration and then the sun would 
 appear Eirain. Scire of them lasted hardly more 
 Oian ten or fifteen minutes, the wind coming from 
 southerly quarters. But as late as the lOth of 
 April the great body of scow that had accumulated 
 on the ground showed no |ign of melting, l-ighi 
 northwest winds seemed to keep the temperature 
 % little below the freezing point thruout each day. 
 The sun was getting high above the southern 
 horiton at midday and a glistening cr^st formed 
 ^ the surface of the snow. This reflected the ray» 
 af the sua with a fierce glare such as I had never 
 »£€cbeforev A day or two more and the snow 
 aext to the ground began turning to slosh. A 
 fouth wind eosued ano in the night following the 
 booming ftotiad of rushing waters could be heard 
 in the coule«3 of the hills two miles and more t« 
 the weat. That part of the Elk Valley near the 
 hills became flooded over f orj some time with broad 
 shallow lakes until the water could drain away. 
 Within four days there had ensued a tranaition 
 from the chilly air of wictcr totbf genial vaiiLtk 
 of spring and appearance of migratory birds. 
 
 Before the snow went off I went to work eo • 
 small barn at the farm, about 28 by 24 feet, witk 
 pine Bills six inches square. It was never finished 
 further than to put up studding all ftround and 
 to board up the sides and ends of what waa to be 
 its lower story. As left when the lumber on hand 
 gave out, it had neither fl^ora »or reof . Uter i^ 
 
ihe seasoa a shed roofed strueture of the eabii^ 
 farm was bailt ia the north end, the boarded up^. 
 walia of the intended barn being utilized on three 
 sides. Thia was for a span of horses ^ot that 
 •pringr and presumably for the cow also. 
 
 Tn putting in the crops th&t season H. F. Arnold 
 engaged a young man named Bosard to come ukk 
 from near Ojata with teams and a seeder to do^ 
 tbe bulk of the work. Two young men had beea 
 hired thai spring to work oa the farm until tbe< 
 5frouad froze in November. Their names were 
 WiUiam Flumfelt and James Eyington, both from 
 Ontario, the home of the latter being id Johns* 
 tow& township in this county. After the leeding 
 jiob was finished the main work was breakios iaor# 
 Und . 
 
 With the opening of spring thoae who had pot 
 claim shacks on the land in Larimore and other 
 Elk Valley townships the previous fail, began al 
 once to occupy their claims and to put the shaekl 
 into habitable condition for temporary abodes. 
 ViTlthout watting for the land to come into market 
 these settlers commenced breaking on their claims^ 
 To the extent of thus occupyicg land before having 
 any chance to file upon it at the nearest U* S. Land 
 Office, the Elk Valley settlers were sciuattera om 
 government land. 
 
 During the breaking season of 1880. Albert F. 
 Clark, who was from Clayton County, Iowa, and 
 who had rented a place on Turtle river, broke 29 
 acres in the aoutheast qcsrter of Seeticn 12. 
 That is the quarter seotiofi upon which the weat 
 
part of Lsirimorehas beeo built. Clark's break- 
 mg extended north and south close to the township^. 
 line aod the buildings on the west side of Towner 
 avenue stand on sites once a part of the breaklBs:. 
 Ciark did not build on his claim that year, but \m> 
 March, 1881, he erected a small one-story house 
 oa it near it3 southeast, corner.* in the spring of 
 l-dSl Clark sowed op«U cm, his breaking:, the 0QI7 
 tsrop it ever bore. 
 
 It was the custom of the surveying contractors 
 to rsUin their tov^nship plats until their season's 
 ^7ork was completed in the fall when they were 
 turned io to the local land office, the district itself 
 iiornpnsine: .^verai counties. The plats were theo 
 sent to the interior Department at Washington 
 for record ?iiid approval. Then after several 
 months they were returned to the district land 
 office RXkii the land comprised in the survey repre. 
 fenced on the plats waa declared to be open to 
 settlement; in other worde, sqt&tters and other 
 persona might now make their filings, it wap 
 arranged to have two lawyers take tilings at the 
 Elk Valley Farm. The land came into market 
 iibout the middle of May, 1881, but the lawyers 
 were not pre.^ert at the farm until a day or two 
 later. Some put in their filings there and others 
 at Grand Forks where a U. S. Land Office had 
 
 • CIftrk'8 hooae stood on the present Swain House pronisefl^ 
 In the late eighties It waa aiov«d to the north side of a livery 
 stable wVicb stood on the site of the Mercantile block and wat 
 used for a veterinary'H office. When D. P. McLbId built a resl« 
 denceon the corner north of the Johnson Hou«e in l^^Sl. theoffio*. 
 WM« again a.oTea aco B.acie ab til to U>e WMt aldf of his hooM' 
 
bedQ opened (a A.pril 1880. There was oeareelr 
 
 any attempt made that year to file on land iD> 
 Moraine tovrnship, nor in Niagara township ex^ 
 c^pt by a few squatters who for the two or three 
 preceding: years had been holding down elaiiaa 
 th'at had some timber on them. 
 
 ^ccjrding: to eomrnon saying in those timet th# 
 settlers were entitled to 48d acres of land or thre« 
 quarter sections; but it did not follow that the^ 
 h»i the opportimity to secure that amount of lan^ 
 la as a-ijoinin^g body, unless by purchase after 
 proving up. A squatter was entitled to hold th^ 
 Qtt^rter section he resided upon and nothing more. 
 Such quarters were pre-emptions. A pre-emp* 
 tiou right aad a homestead could not be ftled otk 
 at the same tine; anyone holding a pre-emptioa 
 ai%i who wished also to take a homestead, had 
 first to prove up on the pre-emption and thiseoold 
 be done after six months residence apon it and 
 hy paying $L25 per acre for the same at the U. SL 
 Land Office. But long before that time all of th6> 
 desirable quarter sections in the vicinity of aaell 
 person's location would have been filed upon by 
 ©ther parties^. A tree claim right might be ftled 
 at the same time as either of the others. Bnt 
 here also there were limitations. Only one sncli 
 claim was alio^ved to a section and none at all if 
 that section contained any natural timber. Therd 
 were many tree claim rights ftlefl in this county, 
 but quite generally they were later changed ta 
 ho iiesteais or relinquished to others for some coii'. 
 sideration for bomeste^ or pfe-amptioa filings. 
 
£t. C. Aroold g9t the northwest quarter Section 
 10 and was enabled to file a tree claim right on 
 the southeast quarter of the same section, lor a 
 claim shack had been built on it in which the two 
 hired men slept and some breaking done. H. F. 
 Arnold's pre-emption was the northeast quarter 
 of Section 10. It was also desirable to secure th« 
 southwest quarter of that section, since this cor* 
 Oered where the buildings were located and wa« 
 Gfi value for hay land* A brother of Mrs. Arnold 
 residing in St. Louis, and ^ho had been in th« 
 Civil war, sent up a soldier's claim right which 
 held the claim until H. F. Arnold could prove up 
 on his preemption, get a relinqaiahment from 
 his uncle, and put a homestead filing on the claim. 
 Addie L. Arnold got the claim next west of thia 
 last and located in iSecticn V, while |i. V. Arnold 
 obtained the southeast quarter of Section 9. Al* 
 logether in th<e early eighties the farm began with 
 six quarter sections representing: 1^60 acres of land. 
 Thus at the outset was established one of several 
 large farms in the west pert of tljeccutty. 
 
 In the spring of 1881, two ycvcg men caUeiJ 
 Stevens Brothers opened a store located on Sectiott 
 10, Arvilla township, which, however, was then 
 called Orange township. About the same tim« 
 Towner and Clark established a sniall lumber yard 
 on the premises of the latter, the lumber beioff 
 teamed from Ojata, eighteen miles distant. Ther^ 
 was considerable building done at the headquar* 
 te'-s of the Eilk Valley Farm that season. By that 
 time wagon trails were becoiaing marked out OA 
 
th^ s>rair$e sarfaec^ pajUff no atleatidB to the iee« 
 tioo HneB and niDDif g in aL^ direction acrcM 
 <:laim8 where not interrupted by &ny breaking. 
 
 Oa June 17th as 1 was makirtg a trip to Stevena 
 Ernttheri store I met a party of railroad surveyors 
 ruDQioff a line westward on the <]uarter-8ectioft 
 Une one half mile north of where the railroad now 
 pasaes thru Larimore. This took the aurvej right 
 by the few buiidings then on the Arnold farm. 
 Hoscever, this was only a preliminary line* subject 
 to atteration, and wae only carried to the borders 
 lit Moraine township. 
 
 A day ot tvto before the Fourth of July 1 went 
 «7ith Byington to his home in Johnstown wherehe 
 had au elder brother and two si iters living. After 
 leaving HaoKon's place on Turtle river, we passed 
 cA«e dwelling north of there and saw no other until 
 Gilby township was reached. Our route lay thru 
 the north part of Hcgton and the south part of 
 Wheatdeld townships, the country thereabout oot 
 being settled at that time* 1 recollect crossing a 
 halfbreed trail in that section which ran aorth* 
 ward. When we returned on the 5th we stoppf4 
 a short time at Hanson's and found Gates there 
 (mentioned pngre bO) who told us of the shooting 
 of President Gartield. The particulars of this 
 detestable tragedy were gotten later in the news» 
 papers. 
 
 About harvest time H. F. Arnold got a bindet 
 which bound the bundles with wire the sizs of 
 that used in making brooms. The wire binder 
 had been in use for leveral yegrs^ while Ikt twtae 
 
biod«r f7;te JGgt thf^ts bein? pf>r?eeted. t «iw &• 
 more wir9 biaders aftur that year, as though th« 
 oachtnerr dealers arranged with farmers to hav# 
 tinem turned in for alteration aud in exchange for 
 twiod biodera, with no great loss to the farmers 
 themselves. In threshing the wire bands were 
 cut with a too! like nippers held in one hand aod 
 which also held the wire until thrown hack where 
 A pile or wad of ft gathered at the foot of tha 
 band cutter's stand. 
 
 the threshing at the Arnold farm was doae 
 e&rly in October. The grata had been stacked aa 
 &ad b^en eastamar/ in Minnesota. Ahorsepowar 
 machine and crew came and did the work wiUl 
 th? help of those on the farm and I think a few 
 hired persons and teams besides. It took seTerM 
 days to complete the job. On those machines 
 four or five span of horses were attached to a 
 rig called the * 'horsepower*' set about three rede 
 back from the separator, kept circling around bj 
 a driver, and treading a ring on the ground about 
 the same diameter as a merry-go-round. The 
 concection with the separator was made by % 
 jointed shaft which slanted up to one end of the 
 cylinder shaft, with bereled gears, but where H 
 left the rig It was cIofc to the prccnd end cov* 
 ered so the horaea could tread over it. The horses 
 drove the separator with about the same vim as a 
 steam engine does. The itraw was elevated some 
 ten feet high by a slanting carrier and run into a 
 higher straw pile, two or three men working with 
 pitchforks on the pile whea it got large end high. 
 
h\\ thb wsbs a cantiauanee in Dakota of threshinsr 
 Taet'aods Ions: in use f n Minnesota and other wheat 
 raisifigr states, 
 
 ilcccrdiG^ to machine measure the crop on the 
 farm amoaated to 2,438 busheia of wheat, a large 
 ^rnouQt of oats and I think some flax that had been 
 ^own Oft new breaking:. Before threshini^. lumber 
 had beca gotten, and a temporary granary sixty 
 ^:>r oiore feet ia leni?th built. Much of the wheat 
 W43 stored in this structure until next spring and 
 %hen being cleaned by runnin^r it thru a fanning 
 otiil, it was sold at $1.25 per bushel for seeding 
 jmrpo3€9. There was considerable breaking dane 
 on the farm that firot crop .vear, aa much or more 
 Shaa daring the breaking: season of 1880. 
 
 Larjmore township was organized in August^ 
 1831. The organization included Moraine town- 
 shi J uatii 183 i, thousrh when this movement was 
 effected there was sarcely an inhabitant residing 
 within tha limits of the latter township. Lari* 
 uTiore township was named after N. G. and Joha 
 W. Larimore, who, with JohnN. and Thos. Booth, 
 grain commission men of St. Louis, constituted 
 the Elk Valley Farming company. In the same 
 month Lucius? P. Goodhue established a country 
 store near the future townsite. This stood on a 
 slight rise of ground south of the railroad and joit 
 east of the present Imperial elevator. 
 
 As before stated, the first railroad survey in thia 
 vicinity was merely a preliminary line. It wat 
 next changed a half mile south so as to pass eleia 
 to the south side of the proposed townsite* and 
 
thea continued west on the south side of the road 
 le&di&g to Moraine townBbip» but before reaching 
 the foot of the hills thia line curved toward the 
 aorthv^est. The railroad company also surveyed 
 a Hoe from the site of Larimore to Forest river. 
 yhe grading that year between Ojata and the 
 Larimore townsite had been finshed and gradert 
 ^ere at work west of it to a point a half mile south 
 of the buildings on the Arnold farm when a party 
 id iNorthern Pacific Railroad surveyors appeared 
 running find staking out a line from May ville to 
 Foreitriveft ao extension of what was called the 
 Oaaaelton branch of the Northern Pacific, which 
 'isad baen completed to Maj-viile, The graders 
 weil of the townsite were now called off and set 
 to work on the line that the Manitoba company 
 had surveyed to Forest river. Nor was the grad* 
 ing directly west of Larimore ever resumed; both 
 that and the second survey were later abandoned 
 for the route a mile farther north where the rail- 
 road now runs across the Elk Valley. 
 
 In October Alex. Oldham, the county surveyor, 
 came from Grand Forks and began laying cut the 
 townsite on Clark's claim and on another acrosi 
 the tojvnship line next east of it. . We think that 
 the surveyor or whoever drafted the plat he used, 
 got the site crowded on its south side too close t# 
 the railroad right of way, since lots in several 
 blocks were afterwards detached to irake enongh 
 Boace for a merchandise track and passway; be- 
 sides, the row of blocks on the north side of the 
 townsite are wider than elsewhere upon it. The 
 
4lrit buitdittir erteted on the tu^nstte for husIaeM 
 p\XTpoi€9 wa8ftir«ncral merchandise store putupt 
 df Nicholas S. NeUon who came f rem Grand Forks 
 t? establifh himself here and the building: inqae«^ 
 tion occupied the site ot the Elk Valley Bank for 
 iboat twenty y^ar?. Other basineaa places and 
 fomt ahaeks followed during the fall, the ereeU«A 
 of ioae of them g^oingr oa while the laying out of 
 IH^ towosite wat still in pro^rtss. 
 
 ruHnir the fall tk6 Northern Pacific branch wm» 
 jl^rad^ north vfard from ftfarville, tbe grad« be« 
 fnif carriid mme uven mlea beyond Larimort. 
 It cr^siei the dast p<irc of the to ^rnsite in a oorlh- 
 ^e^terly direction, bat that portion of the grtdt 
 t^TJi LarVrftor<> and beyond waa never ironed. 
 This grade H almost entirely oMltvratcd. tbouyli 
 the ramaina of eccbankmcnti where it crossed tke 
 loath branch of Tnrtle rlver» near the £Mtfat% 
 S^l&ea» are still observable. Beth of tbe railyard 
 companies wasted thcusande of dollars la tim 
 vicinity of Larinore on surveys and grades tbal 
 th^y never ntllited. 
 
 At the farm the fall work was mainly ptawlef 
 ttnder the f.tQbhte cf the tint land cropped aa4 
 backsetting sQch breaking as had beta dOM tM# 
 ^ear. Late in the fall the prt-emptioa elaSmt #f 
 fi. C, Addie L., and H. f. Arnold were provea «p« 
 The holder of a pre-emption might reside ot i| 
 for two years after Klirg on tt before makingani^ 
 final proof by eommutation, tbat is, proving resi« 
 dejiee hy witine^ses and by paying ^ fall the osoil 
 goveramefit price tper Hft* 
 
the railroad reached Laritnort Wednesday after- 
 soon. Novembftr 22, 1881. There were about 
 thirty perfions in the place whcD the track came, 
 mostly carpenters^ laborers and owners of build* 
 inga. To this number a considerable railroad 
 force was now added who were housed in boarding 
 cars. Siiia lay* 9?efa spent in puttinir down i^ 
 tiid^ track, turntable, buildinsr a depot, etc., then 
 tbe new piece of road thus far used by the supply 
 Vr&ins, waa opened to e:eneral traffic on Sunday, 
 Oacember 1st. At first miiced trains were run to 
 Lari nore every alt^rnatd day and the first one to 
 arrive brought mail to the new town. Goodhue 
 having previously been appointed postmaster. 
 A hotel and a boarding: house were early com* 
 plated, one or two lumber yards were established! 
 fever^l stores opened, a blacksmith shop and % 
 livery stable running, and l&stly, a bank bailding 
 istarted, all before the middle of December. The 
 bank stood on the corner cow occupied by the 
 C. N. Swanson residence; it was a two-story strne« 
 ture and measured 60 by 24 feet. 
 
 Althouj?h the ji^round had frozen on the surfaet 
 liibout the same time as in the previous year, so aa 
 to stop fall plowing:, weather conditions remained 
 Ane until January 4thc when a »now storm sad 
 belo'*' zero temperature stopped active work. Il| 
 the latter part of December, Stevens Brothers 
 took down their store in Arvtlla townsliip prd 
 rebuilt it faein? Booth avenue in the bioek wm| 
 of the one now occupied hf tbe public sctieol 
 buildioffs a a I g/aaaasiuoi. L. P. Goodhue moved 
 
7t WfCTY t&KtOA IN nORTH DAKOTA 
 
 his store bodily to the townsite about Chrittnat 
 and placed it on Towner avenue where the Co* 
 aperative store now does business next north of 
 the Mercantile block. In December a man began 
 buying wheat in town as brought in sacked up. 
 A pair of scales was placed just within the doora 
 af a box car, the wheat weighed, several sacks at 
 a draft, and emptied into either end of the ear. 
 The price paid at that time was dS cents to $1.0(^ 
 per bushel. The first hardware store in town 
 was built in December by Baughman & Moore« 
 r.WD Ohio men and they had it opened shortly after 
 the end of the month and year. Several saloons 
 were also open before the year closed. 
 
 The settlers who came upon their claims ia th« 
 apring of 1881 could not raise any wheat crop thai 
 first year as the land had to be broken and back* 
 set and the turf dry rotted. A man of the namt 
 of Thompson who lived in Grand Forks had filed 
 on the quarter next west of £. C. Arnold's claim, 
 had some breaking done on it, and worked on the 
 Arnold farm to some extent while occupying hit 
 claim shack. He was to make final proof of hit 
 claim December 20th, and of the four witncssea 
 of his residence on the claim named in the pub» 
 lished notice, he chose myself and Wm. Plurofelt, 
 Byington had returned to Johnstown and F1iib« 
 felt was then living in Larimore. This to^k «• t« 
 Grand Forks, the first opportunity that eumt im 
 my way to see the place. Though not the aita of 
 a small city, it was then soorethicg of a tewi. 
 
V, 
 THE BOO^ YEAR AND LATER 
 
 A3 has been incidenUlly stated, the year 1882 
 marked a fioodtide in regard to imroigratioii 
 into eastern North Dakota and which extended 
 westward in this latitude as far as Devils lake. 
 In the main, those who came thatyear were either 
 Rgriculturists or intended to become euch by 
 taking up laad. But with them came also a Urf« 
 sleraent habituated to town life, intending t* 
 ®ng:age in nereaatile pursuits and numerous other 
 vocadana in the new raiiroad towns and villages 
 then being started. In a larg«- measure the im- 
 migration movennent of that year was inaugural 
 ed by extensive advertising on the part of real 
 estate men and otherg Interested in townsites, 
 who flooded the eastern states with boom liter- 
 ature describing the capabilities of the country 
 In glowing terms and with avein of exaggeration. 
 In former years people came into the Red River 
 Valley by emigrant wagons or in small parties by 
 stage, or by steamboat or flatboat down Red riv«r; 
 now it wag hs'^^ming possible to reach the valley 
 by railroad and to load freight cars with horses, 
 farming implements and household goods and 
 bill them thru from distant points. In this way, 
 settlers came from as far east as New York stat* 
 and from as far south as Missouri and Kentucky. 
 The myth that Dakota was part of a supposed 
 "Great American Desert** was already dissipated. 
 
7) r««rr r&ja w ttott^m Dakota 
 
 As tt&ted!,, the frtoter wfts cpen like op to earljr 
 in Jaft-i&rjr aad the character of the weather be- 
 fore Bad after the railro&d canoe* facilitated such 
 hailding: operations as were in proi^rees en the 
 t^^Qsite dariogr several weeks prior to the adveot 
 of real v7iot«r weather with snow aad 8t9rm8. 
 ?eople ta the surroundlcfir country could now get 
 their mail in towa ia-jtead of eoiofir or sendiag to 
 Sanson's, four or fire to seven miles distant for 
 ACine of them. Oat at the farm two miles west 
 (4 Larimore« ther^ was tittle to do those short 
 printer days besides taking care of the stock. It 
 «iij about three miles from my eabia into tows 
 aij oae of the wasroa trails ran, and I had bought 
 raitariaU aid pat the inside of the cabin into fair* 
 \y comfortable condition for tte seccnd wtDtcr to 
 bo spent in it. There was cow such a variety of 
 atores in the new village that one could buy any 
 of the common cosnmoditiei ceeded, though at 
 (irst the merchantsjiid not aim to carry in hand 
 very lar^e stocks of goods. 
 
 Darin? the winter H. K* Arnold managed to 
 secure four quarter sections by buying up soait 
 relinquishments of parties who had cot proven 
 up. A. pre*emptien right of 160 acree in Sectiona 
 4 %ni 9 had been died on by a person of the namo 
 of Challenir, also a tree claim right, the south- 
 eait quarter of 4. He went into business at 
 Graf cm aid H^ac* eiuld n^t reside upon the first 
 nor develop the other. The tree claim right waa 
 therefore jrelinquished to Addie L. Arnold and 
 ths homestead to E« C. Arnold. The third of tho 
 
THE l^CK^W f BAH AK1> LATltl 75 
 
 leireral relintiuishmeBts was the eouthwest quai'* 
 t«r of Sectioa 10, held as before mentioned, as a 
 aoidier'a pre-emption, on which H. F. Arnold put 
 t homestead filing. The fourth of the relinquish* 
 «d quarter* waa purchft&ed for 5^360 f rem a party 
 who had filed on the northeast Section 16. This 
 ciaim lay directly south of the one that H. F. Ar- 
 nold had homesteaded, but at that time it wag not 
 considered a» valuable as the others, since in ease 
 the snow went oS suddenly in the spring, most of 
 \t was subject to being fiooded, A.ddie L. Arnold 
 put a homestead filing on it. The reltnquiehiceDt 
 taken over by E. C. Arnold was a mile in length 
 and a quarter mile in width, or eighty acres t^ 
 i>Hch of the two secliors coiot^ining it. There 
 was a claim shack twelve feet square on it near 
 the section line trail that later became the Stomp 
 Lake ro&d, and this was mot^ to the southeast 
 eorner of its south eighty a mile west of the farm 
 buildings. The quart>er on which H, F. Arnold 
 made his homestead filing previously was consid- 
 ered as part of the farm (p- 68) but the oth^ir 
 relinquishments added 480 acres to its already 
 large area making a total of 1,440 acres. 
 
 Quite a body of snow accumulated on the ground 
 during the latter part of winter but it melted oft 
 suddenly during the last days of March, floodinf 
 the plain nearest the hills as in the spring of 1881, 
 The night of the Slst a brisk wind and cold wave 
 eame from the northwest, the temperature sink- 
 ing to zero or a little below so that ice eerered 
 the waters on the moroiog of the first ef Aprils 
 
?4 i*Mfert xwiM IN woftTJd Dakota 
 
 To return aow to the immis:rtt!on movement of 
 1882, The vanguard of the d< w arrivals begaQ 
 eoraing into the country duringc the last half of 
 March while the enow still lay on the ground, but 
 the bulk of the immigration came in April and May 
 and fiome in June. We can ouly refer to such 
 part of it as made Larimore their objective point 
 which was then as far west as they could get by 
 railroad in this part of Dakota. Those who ar« 
 rived in March had to find ehelt^r hb they could; 
 Hi xne bought lumber and put up ahaeks near the 
 end of the track in what ib no7»: the southwest 
 i;art of ta^u; presumably others who shipped id 
 ^heir effects p&rtiaily unloaded the box cars and 
 ivrad vi tfia n a while; in fact, to one aide of the 
 track there were gathered at times piles of im* j 
 .Tji?r&Rt*s be!oagiQg3. Their families, generally, 
 iid not come until after they had got settled OQ 
 ciaiuis. The chief bliizard of the winter 'cam« 
 from the southeast on the 4th of March and one 
 ftr t«va leaser storms of short duration also ensued 
 after the immigrants haii be^un to arrive; but to 
 m&ny of thv^m the transition from winter weather 
 to actufcii spring that year seamed to occur In thif 
 northern latitude with n^frktd Ircility. 
 
 The opening of spring Inangurated an interval 
 of unusual activity on the part of those already in 
 the country end those arriving later in time to 
 take part in the movement. The townsitc com- 
 pany and the Elk Valley Farming company were 
 identical so far as financial interests were coa- 
 cerned, and thru their ageot. O. M. Towoer^sold 
 
VS& 1^K)]« rSAR Aim LAT9R 75 
 
 8 iftfl^c eamber of Iot« betvtreen the layfo^ out of 
 the ti^wQgite and the end of March, and many 
 more in April and May. Two blocks in the mid»t 
 of iown, those containing the city hall and the 
 Gchooi buildings, were reserved fcr public pmr- 
 posei. The buildinga piit up ir, 1881, rrainly ia 
 November and December, formed in the spring 
 something: of a hollow sc^uare, bounded north! by 
 ft fe^ business buildings in blocks 48 and 4d on 
 Third street; on the east by iotattering buildini^t 
 ftn both sides of Towner avenue; south by the 
 Srst depot, a temporary storehcuse fcr Fort 
 Totten supplies, and a lumber yard or two with 
 their offices; and on the west by Booth aveoud 
 with just a few structures, ore of ^hich was 
 ^tdvcDO Brothers store. Nor were the buildings 
 within these limits erected upon undisturbed 
 ground; the party who first owned the quarter 
 on the east side of the township line had brokea 
 a strip of ground there in 1880; nsxt west of that 
 came the stubble of Clark's twenty acre field of 
 oats, and adjoining it west he turned over in '81 
 thirty more acres of the prairie turf which was 
 nev«r even backset. There were no framed resi- 
 dences built on the townsite in 1881; people lived 
 in shacksi in the lofts over business piaees or 
 stayed at a hotel and one or two boarding places. 
 Usually the business men had left their families 
 in their former homes until they could build resi* 
 denees in Lariraore. 
 
 With the opening of spring a veritable buildiff 
 boom seemed to have struck the new town. Ili« 
 
t6 PoaiT tBAKtt w norm Uakota 
 
 rftrio\if persons wbt hiid bought lots were now 
 apparently seised with & mania to erect buEicess 
 baiidingi« or residences upon ibem acccrdiLg to 
 bcation, the iatter eort being more needed in 
 some cases thaa the first mentioned kind. Thra 
 «acb day the noise of sa^s and clatter of hammera 
 van iac?33aat aad aa the days lengthened, carpen* 
 ters often put in ttxtra tims after the supper hour, 
 }a thia rush of baiidio? no attention was paid to 
 permanent foundations; inetc&d, wooden blockt 
 generally were used and cellars were Urge holes 
 da? in the graaad with a trap door above them 
 i.i the fioor. Called cellars and stone foundft* 
 ti.>ii4 waj a matter left for future conaideration. 
 Tne inside walls of business buildings usually 
 were ceiled with flooring materials with the same 
 overhead. Everything was then wooden buill 
 in the new town. 
 
 Among the buildings erected that spring were 
 two large hoteU in the southwestern quarter of 
 block 37, that is to say, in the block next to the 
 north of the one that now contains the Methodist 
 church. Both hotels fronted Booth avenue and 
 the oia oa the c^r/ier of the block was erected by 
 Geo. D. Leavitt acd hia brother-in-law, a man of 
 the name of Coleman. They called it the Grand 
 Central. Later in the year it was purchased by • 
 man named Frank C. Swain who enlarged it and 
 re-aamed it the Swain House. The other hotel 
 stood next n^rth of it, and was erected by L. C. 
 Neil who called it the Sherman House. On the 
 corner ndxtsauth of the hateU stood e foxDit^re 
 
TUB BOOK YBAX Am> tATSB 7? 
 
 Atore owfted by 0. B. Thomas and managed hy 
 Orr Saaders; then across the avenue west stood % 
 iWQ'Btory general merchandige store, dinnec8ioi.& 
 $0 by 24 feet, owned by Cantwell, Ballard & Co.^ 
 this latter corner location now being occupied bf 
 the residence of A. P. Lord. 
 
 To any one not familiar with the early history 
 of Larimore, it may seem singular that two large 
 hotels and two business houses should ever have 
 been built in a location a quarter of a mil;e north 
 of the railroad depot and in what is now merely 
 4 residence section of town. The grade of th« 
 Northern Pacific "Casselton Branch/' it has been 
 stated, crossed the more eastern part of the town* 
 site in a northwestern direction. There was a 
 printed plat of the townsite circulated at that 
 time and this represented the depot of the branch 
 line a3 prospectively located in the block next to 
 the north of the one containing the hotels. The 
 object had been to place the buildings mentioned 
 between two depots and not far from one of them. 
 Larimore was represented on a newspaper map aa 
 being quite a railroad center, branches of both 
 the Northern Pacific and Manitoba railroads being 
 shown as entering the town from the south. Now 
 it was this illusion in regard to supposed futur# 
 prospects of the new town that spurred on tht 
 local building boom so long as it lasted. 
 
 The train to Larimore was still a m^ed ob« 
 but since March it now arrived daily, a (oag Udb 
 of box cars loaded with emigrant's outfits, mer» 
 ehandise, lumber, farm maehinery andslao atock 
 
•:ar3 with horses. The passeii^ier coRch«», etc.,, 
 wer<? at the rear end of the train and when these 
 cskme td a stop at the depot a crowd of people, 
 most 9tU men, ftled out and scattered over town. 
 Mo«taf th«m were new corners, lured here by 
 iDoom literature and newspaper write-ups, and 
 came to investlt^ate the prospects of both town 
 jicd country. Sarly in the season Moraine town* 
 tihip was overrun by settlers, larg:ely from New 
 Tork state aad MichijTiifi, and enough came from 
 Nfaa'ara CounSy, N. Y., to give the same name to 
 ihe towhship r.ext north of Moraine. A stage 
 ime t>r tv\fo was iy^ned to Scump and Devils lakes 
 'Mid the Fort Totten trail, as a mail route, was 
 discontinued that spring:. Two roads on section 
 iices ieading westward from Larimore,on€a half- 
 ciile .youth and the other the oame distance north 
 of th'.j huilcJirig-s on the Arnold farm, were much 
 traveled by loaded teame thatspringc and summer 
 ^rrying: buildJiu/ materials, hcuetholdaroodsand 
 merchnadise into the couctry west, even as far aa 
 the north shore of Devils lake. The most nojrthero 
 of these routes waw called the Stump Lake road. 
 A railroad aur^eyiag party catre to Lariniore 
 in May and resumed \^ork in the country west, but 
 aline they surveyed in Nelson County was thrown 
 ap for another route several miles farther north 
 where ths railroad is now located, it appears that 
 wh?5n the enflrineericpT department of the railroad 
 came to examine the levels where the line ae run 
 would surmount the eastern slope of the uplands, 
 it would Feqfuiro frradea steeper than was desirable 
 
aYid hecieft a L'e<[ocatioiQ of the line was ordered 
 which took the road more diiigotitUy up the slope 
 ^i the hillg ia Elm Grove aod Niagara townships^ 
 the aseeQt ia dve or bix milea being nearly three 
 ktiadred feet. This last ourvey started from the 
 grrade of the coi th iisiic^ 6cme 2| iscileg northweit 
 of Lartmore, and from this junctioti antii sear the 
 billiii the railroad i£ on a (^tuarter-secticn line. !% 
 JuQQ gan^a of cuea were set to work gradi^ thia 
 &6W •steceioci of the road acd a track was laid 
 |or about a miU out of towa to form a temporary 
 yard for s&thering ?aiUot<l KaterieU. 
 
 Th^ settlers of Larimore to'jff'nKhip, grenerally, 
 had Bowa in the gpring what fcr ihtt jeer vctjld 
 he their firat crop raised upon such tracts of land 
 as each had been able to break on their daimti 
 the previous year. Usually the fields under cul* 
 tivation were not large. The Arnold farm thai 
 year was rented to Wm. H. Whitney and Martia 
 T. Copp, brother«-iri-law, immigrants from May- 
 villa, N. Y., who had come i:\ March and brought 
 househaod srocfig ^vd horses. Mayville is located 
 on Lake Chautauqua, &nd they had operated % 
 flteaniboat on the lake, being acquainted wltb 
 Rev. John R. Vincent the orfgiretrr of the Chau» 
 tauqua idea. The family ccnsietf d of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Whitufy, a maiden sister of the latter, aad 
 M. T. Copp. Capt. Whitney eIro had a bos, ft 
 young roan who cetr^e later In the year. 
 
 The reasfja of renting the now large farm was 
 that H. F. Arnold havip.g plscrcd .doring the 
 
S© ?osTf Y»A»9 m tnmrm Dakota 
 
 previous wiater «eT«r«l projects not directly 
 eo&Qected witb 4t« maeaerenneat, except ai itifc 
 insome mig:ht be a means of providiDg: necessary 
 funds, might have the tirce needed to develop 
 these projeet«. The iari^eet was a colonizationi 
 pivLU to assist sotpe reiatives in settling on unsob* 
 divided lands in Nelson County; another project 
 pf&a tc build a houss in Grand Forks eo that the 
 fanily coald raaide there winters; lastly, since oa 
 real hoases had then been built in Larimore, soeqi^ 
 fimall one-story cottages to rent seemed td be ik 
 ^j'obsbia £o>t iavdsttnent. Uow as these plaQt 
 $ould not be carried into effect and the farm, so^ 
 far as ihe^ broken, probably net exceeding ZSQ 
 9,iire3, managed at the same time, the wholt waa 
 rencdd for the year 18^;^, as mentioaed* to Copp 
 £f>. Whitney who were capable mtinagerj*. 
 
 The drst thing to be done: that spring was •• 
 er<fct two small one-story hcu£e» on tWQ of ihfi 
 relinquishments. The first atood in Settien 15 a 
 haJf miie south of the farm buildings aboi^t wher# 
 one of the Elk Valley Farm retiidt^nces is now 
 located. The other was built across the roid 
 from it near a corner of the southwest quartfy 
 Section 10- The boupcB having been completed^ 
 the family distributed thcmseivee vpcn the thrc* 
 homestead relinquishments until toward the close 
 of the year, while the Copp Whitney family occu* 
 pied the long cabin, which by that time had beea 
 lengthened to thirty-f?ix feet. Mrs Whitseyand 
 her sister did not at first come to th^ f^T^ owi|ic 
 ta a lack Pf aecomraodationa. 
 
THS l»L»Jtt YSAK AWfl- Lxtlgft 81 
 
 During ths winter H. F. AraoU had arranged 
 by ccrrespondenc* with relatives in Rhode lelacd 
 lo come to Dakota and take up land. iThese were 
 t'*?o fiistere of Mrc. E. C. Arricld, Kosamocd A* 
 .Steere and Mrs. Francei E. McKetitie (a widow)^ 
 l^ud their aged mother. A brother of the two 
 listers, James M. Steere. resided in St. Louis and. 
 hiii a wife and three children and it was arranged 
 ^0 have him send his f amity and bring up with them 
 from Missouri three near relatives of Mrs. Steere. 
 «H v/omen. Mr- Steere wrm employed in a rail- 
 road office* and could not coCiC at that time. 
 
 H, ¥■ Arnold looked over Kt^eoA County in the 
 aisTitig aiid fnad^ choice of a location in Town 15S 
 Kanj^eSii, about five trilea northwest from where 
 Michittan City was started about a year later, 
 Thtre is a l«ke in the east part of the township 
 libout U mile iong and a quarter of a mile wide 
 which H. F. A^rnold named Lorttta lakcaft«r the 
 ?niiib aa-ne of his eldest sister. East of the lake 
 the land is somewhat rolling but the west side of 
 it h more level like. Four quarter sections were 
 gelecUMi on that side of the lake adjacent to ite 
 aorthern end upon which to build housea for tha 
 people whcf v,orr to come up from St. Louis. Te 
 furnish part of the lunr:b>r to build tb€ bcuses the 
 temporary granary on the farnr. was taken down 
 ani Copo and Whitney, who helped the writer in 
 this work, remarked that they did not think that 
 taking down a building Btill good for some yeare 
 to come and carting the luinber cff the place wet 
 ^ny wise pr^ceediOig, « ^urtniae that tisn^ proved 
 
B% fK>Kn Ti&AJKA m wyaLVd dakot 
 
 to bs quits correct. In May, Copp ecd Whitrey, 
 
 having: horse teams, h&uled several loads of build* 
 tag materials out to Loretta lake. H. F. Arnold 
 and myself accompanied them the first trip and 
 all of us spent several days there, doirg: lome 
 preliminary work, nuch as locating ccicere cl 
 Quarter sections. The north and south toiKOfhip 
 Une which already was marked by mound posts* 
 r&n close east of the lake, and its north line was 
 a^out 1^ mild distant, thus farnishin? points for 
 ranging:. We had come provided for a camp and 
 some of the lumber made a temporary shelter. 
 
 The construction of four one-story houses wai 
 (kaiiruQ toward the end of May, then the other 
 three men returned back to the farm and I was 
 left alone for a week in the township, probably 
 the only inhabitant then within its limits. I had 
 the first of the four houses, 18 by 12 feet, well 
 mlong when Copp and Whitney arrived late one 
 afternoon with more lumber and there came with 
 them a carpenter with his chest of tools. By the 
 time th^ first house was completed, or soon after, 
 Mrs. J. M Steere and children, who had beea 
 staying for some time at the farm, moved out to 
 the lake, being well supplied with houshhold goods 
 that had been shipped up from St. Louis. Th« 
 relatives of Mrs. Steere, whose family name was 
 Baker, arrived later. There came with them % 
 young man, a relative, not old enough to take up 
 land, to work on the place, and he was provided 
 with a wagon and yoke of oxen from the Arnold 
 farm. The houses were located near each other 
 
rHK mjKnn tiPA« aki> iatkr 8t 
 
 in the corners of four quarter sections- They 
 h&d shingled roofs, but were not finished inside, 
 nor did they need this for summer and fall use. 
 Before all of the work was wholly done the other 
 ^an left for Stump or Devils lake and himself and 
 liis tool chest were taken south some five railed 
 % the ox team to the F)rt Totten trail whert lie 
 «ouM intercept one of the stages. 
 
 The Rhode Island contingent came later and 
 located about the southern end of the lake, shti 
 4>ofed cabins being provided. These presumabljp 
 were built by H. F. Arnold and his uncle, Jas. M. 
 Steera, who came up from St Louis for a While 
 l^at summer. On Sunday, June 25th, one of the 
 ioagest days of summer, the writer returned to 
 his cabin at the Arnold farnn, which at that time 
 was owned severally by different Dieaabers of the 
 family. The young man mentioned was to make 
 ^ trip with the ox team for supplies and the jour- 
 ney back was in that way with tools and camping 
 outfit. We reached the summit of the uplands 
 nbout sunset. The Elk Valley in its livery of 
 green looked fine after a month's absence, witli 
 Larimore toward its eastern side, then wholly 
 unobscured by any cultivated trees. Just after 
 my return t added twelve feet to my cabin whicb 
 gave it a length of 28 feet with ample room. 
 
 To return now to affairs in Larimore. Early 
 in June a disturbing report was circulated to the 
 effect that the Northern Paeific Railroad compaey 
 would not build into Lartmare as they had eithef 
 
64 ro«TT trsiLK» IK m)?ira Dakota 
 
 Bold or traded the grade of thetr Casselton Branch 
 Hne to the Manitoba eomp&ny, consequently no 
 competing: line of railroad into Laiiirore was to 
 be expected' Altho this report was n«t officially 
 confirqied until October, it forthwith checked the 
 bttildinj? boom in progress and stopped the sale 
 of to ^a lots. Before this report was heard of» 
 Captain Whitney, hearing the distant sound of 
 ham mere in town, remarked to the writer, ' Thig 
 fcljiu^ is not going to last; after a while the rail- 
 road will raj/e on and Larimore will dwindle to 
 A one-horse town/' Ctrpcct^is v^trfe stil! kept 
 at work to finish a few basiaess places that were 
 already under way, and also some residences of 
 whi^h latter as many as forty were built on the 
 towu3ice that year. Persons who had built their 
 busineas places north of Third street and in blocks 
 48 and 4i» bordering that Etreet, now began to 
 realize that in all probability a mistake had been 
 made/in regard to their locations. Only a few dayi 
 before the boom had begun to collapse, Frank C. 
 :Swain purchised of Liavitt & Coleman the Grand 
 Central hotel for $(5,750. 
 
 in the midst of an iaterval of ia'leciaion that 
 folio <ved the C&sselton Br&nch runrcr, the new 
 town experienced a disaitcr. Early on the morn* 
 ing of June 'Zyth fire broke out in an addition 
 being built to the rear of the Union House. Thii 
 was the first hotel built in Larimore and occupied 
 the site now covered by the Ecvth half of the 
 Larmour block. The tc\vn had no fire protection 
 nod all of the buildings in the block wbcreit bor^ 
 
ders Qtk Tovraer avenus wer* destroyted except th# 
 Nelson store on the cornier which was MTcd by 
 pulling down an unfinished store aad a barber'a 
 shop next to the north. Le&ping aeross the aTtnve 
 thefiamea also took everything on that side fronft 
 the present Wiiiiamxi' corqer south as far as the 
 alley. In that block a store and a harness shop 
 fronting Seeond street were also destroyed. In 
 the block east of the city hall there were then n» 
 huiidinffs on the avenue except at tbe cornera 
 and on the south one KiefFer & Rega^ had a new 
 store destroyed into which they had just begua 
 to move goods.^ Altogether about twenty business 
 places vrere destroyed. The lo&s was estimated 
 at $55,000, only about one-third covered by in* 
 fiurance. Gradually most of the burned buildings 
 were replaced by others, not as good in some 
 instances as those destroyed on the same sites. 
 
 In 1832 there were as many as nine hotels ia 
 Larimore, also two or three boarding places. 
 The Swain and Sherman houses were the principal 
 ^nes anong them all. As many as nine saloons 
 were open, besides the bars maintained in some 
 of the hotels. Those, indeed, were territorial 
 days when the people could not vote for presides* 
 tial electors, nor elect their governors or district 
 judcres; when also the name North Dakota though 
 used in print for a convenient designation for the 
 north half of the territory, still, had no official 
 significance. Two elevators were built that year 
 south of the track and to the west of the erossiagi 
 After the fire H. A. NoUimeir whose grofsry store 
 
trest of WilttamB' corner had been burntd deim^ 
 rebuilt it on the corner where the Mmiosie Tempi* 
 new Btands. His new building wae two stories ia 
 heiffht and meaaured 60 by 24 feet, a village hall 
 reached by stairs on the north aide.eomprisinffth* 
 ddcond story. This bi^gan to be used by traveiiaf 
 troupes of entertai&ers and on Sundays for reliff* 
 Hous services. Oity om denomination, the Prafl< 
 byteriaa, erected a church in Larimore that year* 
 this stood until the late fall of 1887 on the comer 
 lots now occupied by the residence of Amoa D. 
 HenrT. Later in the fall, most of the earpenteri 
 kav'ing departed, the town t)cgan to aasome ai 
 ^.trdixi&ry routine, its popalation probably not es* 
 oeedlnar nine hundred. Early in November the 
 hall mentioned was fitted op for school purposet* 
 Two weekly papers called the Pioneer and the 
 Leader had been started by Grand Forks parties. 
 Over the west part of town residences were i* 
 seattered order and it was the same in the east 
 jnd. Of the basiness buildings in existence at 
 the close of the year, not many are now left and 
 the fronts of those still left on Towner avenue are 
 now as later remodeled. Kot a few went by fire ia 
 different years and others were torn dowa to be 
 replaced by more substantial structures. A few 
 have been rebuilt over leaving: only parts of the 
 orifrinal materials ia them. The same conditions 
 apply to the houses with the additional item thai 
 some of them and others of later date were moved 
 durintc years of depreeaio^ U^ farms in the ear* 
 rAUadinsr couAtry« 
 
rak woom vbia« awd later 87 
 
 In the eountrj around Larimore fair crops 
 ^Sfere raised, much of the land Bown to wheat in 
 1882 bein^ on ground broken the previous year* 
 The price paid for wheat, though fair, was lee« 
 than for the crop of 1881. In August the writer 
 tnade a second trip out to the Nelson County set* 
 tlement to do soice work there. E. C. Arccld 
 9ame out later and we put up a stack of hay. At 
 that time the railroad was being graded a few 
 miles south of the setviemeEt. We returned t» 
 the Arnold farm by an ox team Sunday, Sept. 1#. 
 A large construction force had began laying th« 
 Xrack of the railroad and during the week after 
 our return they were laying ties and rails, at 
 brought for>»ard by construction trains, along 
 the slope of the hills. 
 
 Thru most of the fall following the writer wat 
 one of a threshing crew on a steam machine own- 
 ed by Geo. Knauss who had rented a farm acrosf 
 the track from the Arnold farm. He had thresh* 
 ed at the Mathews farm and then came to do the 
 rather large job of Copp & Whitney. This was 
 done from the shock, but elsewhere we mainly 
 threshed from stacks. Threshing rigs were still 
 limited and farmerb had generally stacked their 
 grain, not knowing when they could have a ma- 
 chine come on their pieces. In thcfie days the 
 machines had straw-stackers, or the straw was 
 drawn in heaps right and left by a man operating 
 a drag pole with a span of horses. The "blower" 
 was then an invention that lay many years in the 
 future. Having finished a nunr^ber of jobs Berth 
 
09 VQucrt xmM m ifos-m Dakota 
 
 aad northeast of the track, we next worked 
 
 southward in the eastern part of Arvilla towQ£hip 
 aad as far as Avon township. Thifi was in Octo* 
 ber and occasionally we were delayed a day or tw* 
 by fall rains wetting the outsides of the stacks. 
 In sttcb instances myself and two Illinois men 
 who had elaims between Stump lake and Bartlett, 
 would foot it to my cabin, stoppirg Icng enoughi 
 in town to sret a meal at some restaurant and buy 
 provisions for short stays away from the machtneo 
 FotatoeB 1 had in abundance from a garden plot. 
 Our w-Agei wero $2.00 pet day paid by farmer9 
 directly to the hands not of the machine men attlie 
 toicl j^ion of eat:h separate job. We had blank* 
 nts ^ith us and usually slept in barns. Our work 
 end^id early in November, it had its hardships 
 to aorne extent, but we rather enjoyed it. Th« 
 machidi? did not run Sundays and I will not iay 
 that on passing thru town S&turday evenings w« 
 observed strict temperance prirciples. However, 
 with so many drinking places in town it was only 
 on rare occasions that I ever entered any of them 
 and then only because in company with others. 
 
 Having uo'?^' spent two and a half years \m 
 Dakota Territory, I left Larimore early oo tht 
 morning of November 16th for Houston County* 
 Minn. From Minneapolis the route taken wm 
 aouth thru Northfield ard Fetihetiltto Owatonna; 
 then east thru Rochester and south again to Pre»» 
 ton. I traveled leisurely, paying local fare bt- 
 tween some points after leaving Misneapolii, aa 
 to Northaeld lo as to atop off betwseo traUa.^AJi 
 
m&ttert utood by takliiir thie round abont Tont^% 
 tt iavolved etopping over eight Bt Owatocna, 
 Chatfietd and Preston. Some parts of the trip 
 were covered on foot; thu8« at 0%»atonna there 
 WM no train east for several hours bo 1 had tint 
 to reach Claremoat, tea miles distant and alio 
 footed it from Chatfield to Preston, eiiiteen miles. 
 the day bcint? Sunday; the li^lh. In h'orth Da* 
 k>ta the ground had frozen and Red river wat 
 covered with ice, but in scr there Iflinnesota the 
 leather was still mild and pleasant. From Prea- 
 ton the remainder of the journey was by the 
 cuarrow gauge to Spring Grove and thence ott 
 foot to the old home community. Things had 
 eiot e^anflTdd much during my absence, but the 
 fact that a steam threshicg t^^chite obecrvc^} ie 
 the commnnity threEhfrg oats at a time when 
 wheat had ceased to be rattled there, seemed to b« 
 a peculiar innovation on the old ways of doinif 
 things. In Dtcember I returcfd to Larimore* 
 My recollection is that fonr inches of snow fell 
 just before I cftre away tct fourd ncce io tb# 
 Red R'lP^T Valley, 
 
 While absent the raflrctd hsd been opened at 
 far west as Bartlett and trains passed back and 
 forth on the quartrr-secticn lire of the nortH 
 side of my claim, besides cutting cff a little of iti 
 northeast corner in makirg the curve where the 
 junction of the n^ain and north lines has existed 
 since 1884. Thercrd, Vcvcvtr, cid not reiraia 
 open long. No enow ferces for shallow cuts had 
 been put up, cocee^itteDtly a blizzard which eaue 
 
«bout the oiiddle of Jaouary caused a blockade 
 «ad the eiLteabioa mas Qot a^ain opened until 
 spring. Meanwhile a stagre aud loaded teami on 
 runners traveled the road» from Larimore as far 
 WifSt &3 Devila lake. 
 
 During the fall of 1882 there was au exteoeiTe 
 amount of proTirg up on ciaiirs so that owDert 
 might leave thena for the whole winter if that 
 "WAd the priaeipai motive. A copy of the Lari* 
 more Pioneer for October i?» has what amountt 
 to aeyen columns of final proof Dotices, the col* 
 amns of the paper then being 21 inches io l^^nKth, 
 ^aeh notice was 1} inch long, in nonpareil type 
 <the smallest size used in cou&try papers) and sel 
 solid. At the Arnold faroa the three rciiqcish* 
 ments that had been hoti:e£te&ded were prcvea 
 up by commutation so the fannly could iiicve t» 
 Grand Forks for the winter and occupy a houM 
 ^hat H. F. Arnold had built there. The baildioff* 
 on these outl.Ting: quarters were all moved to ths 
 farm headquarters late in the fall. In the sprinir 
 a return was made to the farm. 
 
 Tte railroad was conrpkted to Devils Lake eity 
 July I, 1883, and the mixed trcin grave place to 4 
 regular pasfei per train of three cars which in- 
 cluded a baggage and railcpr in ere. Ifceie wat 
 daily service, a train each way rucrirg between 
 Crookston and Devils Lake, the two trains patsing^ 
 each other about the noon hour at Larimore, 
 stopping for dinner. Travelicg west fcom toieft 
 by stage was now ended. 
 
\ 
 
 i/^GGIHG Y»AftS ifOR TOWM AHD COUNTRY 
 
 BBGINNIMG with tSu year las^. m series of 
 iadifferent or lagaring years followed in the 
 wake of the busy boom year described ia th# 
 preceding section. The railroad had now f on« 
 on to Devils Lake and Larimore was no longer iU 
 terminus and an outfitting point for the wide 
 scope of country lying west. Matters had reached 
 the stage vfhere the town would have to depend^ 
 from a business point of view, on the merits of 
 the surrounding country. There is a certain rati* 
 in regard to the volume of business a town or A 
 village can transact and the country population 
 within a radius of ten or a dozen miles- A town 
 aurrounded by small farms is apt to be more 
 prosperous than one where a large proportion of 
 the land is absorbed in large farms. There had 
 been created around Larimore several big farms, 
 the physical nature of the country, treeless, level 
 or but slightly uneven, where in some localities e 
 plow could be run several miles without being 
 lifted from the furrow, rendered the creation of 
 large farms a possibility. The Elk Valley Farm 
 of between eight and nine th^u.3and acres which 
 borders the south side of town and railroad njrht 
 of way, was the most extensive of all, and ha<| 
 been formed by a company of a few men whe 
 had capital, by buying up the claims of onginel 
 filers on the land after they had proven up. 
 
ft» rOkCn IttL^hM IK KOETB DUCOTA 
 
 k'hd ch&a^ in boelfiess affairs in Larimore waa 
 firet felt by the tuereauiiie claesee owicf to a 
 ialUcir off in their trade. U was now seen that 
 itx ditabiishioi; business 6nr e in toi^n the matter 
 had been soine what overdcne cwicg to illcEcry 
 expectations. Omricgr the fipricg of 18^8 a few 
 firms dosed up and followed the railroad to Bart- 
 iett and Davi]« Lake, Others pulled out later* 
 Their vacated buildiogs either reoaictd a loBg 
 while empty or in seme cases were rented or aoM 
 for other purposes, it tziight be, than trade. 
 
 in proviQ^ up a pre-emptipn, $200 had to h% 
 piiid into the U. S. Land Ofiiee for the quarter 
 iiection obtained in that way. Then five dollar* 
 {!ach was usually paid to the two witneeaes re* 
 QUired to testify in regard to the residence of 
 the claimant on the land; lautly the iinal proof 
 notice run for six weeks in the nearest newspi^ 
 per also cost five dollars. The person making final 
 proof on his claim quite generally yielded him* 
 self a victim to the offers of some Loan and Troal 
 Company who furnished him three, four or fiv»^ 
 hundred dollars, as the case might be, and took, 
 a mortgage on his land at 12 per cent. In addU 
 tion to that the borrower was asked to sig* a 
 uote for $40 called a "bonus'* which was a steal 
 pure and simple. The proving np on homesteada 
 by commutation involved a similar process where 
 there was borrowing of money in the eaae. The 
 consequences of proving np in that way a year 
 and a half earlier than was neoeaaary in most 
 eases, will be referred to later* 
 
ehe Arnold far». it has baaa aUtad, eoaiiated 
 c-t U40 acres, or aiae cjuarter sections, of which 
 i\^XLX were reiioQuiehir.entfi. With the exceptioB 
 wf the aouthwcst quarter of Sectkn 10, it would 
 hare beea better Qot to have bought the latter, 
 but rather to have put the same amount of money 
 with other money uo wisely diverted from the 
 farm, into permanent farm buildinge and made 
 AtK quarter sectione the nucleus for somethiog 
 iarffer if desirable. In a new country, if a boooi 
 waaues, the price of land is apt to rise to aratiier 
 high value; but in gucce^ding years with indiffer* 
 ent crops and low prices a reaction ensues and the 
 price of land drops to a mere nominal figure. In 
 1882 several quarter cecticns were sold around 
 Larimore for $3,000 per quarter; a few yeari 
 iaier they were considered £8 worth only about 
 half that gum. Under the latter conditional 
 when the price of land had again fallen to a mere 
 nominal value, with judicious management, the 
 farm might have been gradually enlarged by 
 5>urchase8 without incurring either incettedrcee 
 »r mortgaf ea. As it was, the proving up done ia 
 1881 and 1882 was after the manner described, se 
 that each quarter on which final proof had beea 
 made, had a mortgage attached to it. In the 
 case of pre-emptions a settler did not have te 
 prove up under two years, by which time most 
 of them might be supposed to have had the mesBe 
 to do so without recourse to money loaners. 
 
 A fact or two should be stated at this pei»t. 
 The settlers who came here in the spriaff ef IWt 
 
bad Ibased their eftleulBtiooa for the future upom 
 esiatir.ff eooditioQe as they foucd them- dollar 
 wheat and a ff ood yield per ficre at raited fron 
 vifiria soil. This was Dot a t&fe basts upon whiek 
 to lay plans for the future. In busmett affaira 
 there is apt to come the aafordseon, the unknown 
 contingency to take account of if thought of at 
 ftU« &ir. Copp once stat4sd to the writer that the 
 crop of 1881 and price gotten for it had proved to 
 hs a detriment to the immigrants of *82 since it 
 had giv^n them a falsa view of what was to be 
 xh^ real normal conditions of the country. There 
 ^oema to have existed a mania for proving up 
 ^£^1719 as early as possible and needlessly in many 
 cases. Even at the Arnold farm it wu thought 
 tl^at, with a large amount of land on the place 
 ^tfili unbroken, the mortgages already incurred 
 If ould be a light burden, easily cleared up at the 
 ai^piratioQ of their five year's time limit, butwttK 
 the changing conditions beginning in 1863t it did 
 iiot follow that this would be the case. In regard 
 to iacurring needless encumbraneee on the farms, 
 a9 m&ny did» there should also be taken into ac« 
 count the speculative spirit of the times. 
 
 Gopp& Whitney continued en the farm until 
 the fall of 1886, renting on shares a part of it 
 while H. F. Arnold managed the rest of it so far 
 as the whole was then being brought under cpl* 
 tivation. During the breaking Ee&eco cf that 
 year, 285 acres were turned over and 482 aerea 
 of land broken during the three previous yearf 
 w^l^e under caltivattoa. Of this latter eereage 
 
Copp & Whit&ey managred over two hoadrod of 
 the same aad probabl? also did most of the sew 
 breakiDff of that year. 
 
 The seasoD of 1882 waa not aa gocd for eropt 
 as the two preeedinsr yeart had bees. Fart of 
 the season was dry and the wheat stalks wer« 
 ahorter than usnal. Besides, there maa lome 
 ditmaire here and there sustained by hail. The 
 ^ield ran from fifteen to twenty bushels per a«re 
 aad a Uttie larger in exeeptional cases. The 
 (threshing around Larimcre was mainly iiniehed 
 *>y the end of September, mostly from the shocks 
 AS but little stacking was done, and owin^r to the 
 conditions mentioned and to the fact that there 
 Tiere now more machines to do the work. On the 
 Arnold farm the part of it cultivated by H. F« 
 Arnold yielded over 4,000 bushels of wheat sod 
 2j^,555 bushels 6t oats were obtained from siztj 
 acres. The part of the farm managed by Cop^ 
 & Whitney yielded S,212 bushels of wheat from 
 176 acres and they also obtaiticd 1,276 bushels of 
 oats from thirty acres. 
 
 There were as many as ft dozen st^am maehinea 
 at work in the vicinity of Larimore that year. 
 Most of the engines were nrovcd from farm te 
 farm bf t^o span of horses, one span attached te 
 ft toagae aad the other in the lead. The tractioa 
 ifear engine was coming into use and a few were 
 wholly of that kind; then there were others that 
 in moving had a span of horses attached to the 
 tongue, more to guide the machine than to pull* 
 the tractioa gear being the maiQ moving pewer. 
 
The^ngi&ei that were moved abcui with kariei 
 tiad 0ix-iceh tires, tbe wheals cot large, and aa 
 with a waffon, the rear ones were the larreat. 
 
 X^ threshiofl: on the Arnold farm that jtar 
 waadoQe by Geo. Knause who had bought a bcv 
 i»sttfttaad turned his other over to his brothar«ia* 
 law« a man namrd Staples. Both men were f ram 
 <9a9tern Pennsylvania, Knanss being an ej^periena* 
 ed thresher and sought the larger jobs. Staples, 
 ^ho had gone east, brought from NertharaptoA 
 County, Pa., about harvest time, a half douA 
 young naa f.>r his thrashing crew. I worked an 
 4^i8 oatfit daring September, or until the Tallty 
 threshing was completed, after which Staples 
 l^alied into the hill country to do a few stack jobs* 
 Mr. Knauss now asked me to join bis crew whicH 
 was then at what was called the Forgham plaeai 
 in Chester township, for he had been cbliacd to 
 move eastward to get any October threshing te 
 do. We did several jobs on both sides ef tha 
 railroad and then quit for the season. 8taple«* 
 crewSall went back to Pennsylvania that faU, 
 complaining that they had hardly more than made 
 enough money la Dakota to cover their railreadi 
 fare both ways. 
 
 We shall now add a few notes that pertain te 
 the town before closing these principal memeriee 
 of the year 1888. Among the buildings ea Third 
 atreet was one called the Larimore Leader office. 
 This paper was owned by Bennett ^ Mmrphy >f 
 the Grand Forks Ptaindealer. Its editor apeot 
 much of hl8 time in Gtacd Fcika. Uai^isg tba 
 
«#ffiee ifi eharee of a boy, and teudtoff up eopy by 
 mail for him to work oit. A lawyer located aear 
 the oiliee also paseed into it eoiTie fdttoiial writ- 
 iQ8:i. OuriQg the sumcier and ai&o in the fall if 
 a ghower itopped threshlDg for a day or two, I 
 WK8 in the habit of svritioi^ locals and headed 
 articles for the paper relative to the fartna west 
 ^l Larimore and boqq acquired the faeilitj of 
 puttiDfiT some of them in type and otherwise help- 
 iu}£ out the office boy at ihta ease. The eonomoB 
 priaeiples of priDticc: i had understood wbea m 
 school bay in Connecticut. 
 
 Karing the drst half of the year a ehanirc was 
 d^ected fro OS a village to a ecuuicipal form of 
 iroreroaieat. First, on Friday evening January 
 &, 188S« a meeting of citizecitt was held to diseaaa 
 the matter. During the month a charter waa 
 drafted and considered. A confirmation of th« 
 ch&rter and city officiaU chosen wasnaxt obtained 
 from the territorial legislature. The first offieiat 
 qoieeting was held March i5th. The city council 
 Hi at first constituted cccEikted of W. N. Raaeli, 
 mayor, and six councilmen, as follows; firatward. 
 |i. A. Noltimeir and W. M. Scott; second ward« 
 O. A. Wilcox and J. F. Stevens; third ward» Sol. 
 K. Bailey and J. H. Ballard- A city clerk, mar- 
 shall and treasurer were appointed. Later, aide- 
 walks were provided for on the business atreets. 
 So far as any had been built it had been 9laol( 
 walks at the option of owners in front af their 
 properties. The three wards originally attabUak* 
 ^ iiave nerer been iqcrcpt^cd in nutttiter. 
 
DariDi? thf last half cf the year a fine pablie 
 icbooi building was greeted io the center of od« 
 of the t«re blocks that had been reserved for pub* 
 Uc parposefi. This y^ss iit central bnildinf o| 
 the three in which the city fichooU now asseable. 
 Meanwhile the school?, assei^bled in Neltimeir'a 
 §iall and in the vacated Ballard bnilding that hat 
 been mentioned as having occupied ths site el 
 4. P. Lord's residence. Three schools eonveBed 
 la the new building right after the dose ef the 
 Chri^tmad holidays, higher, intermediate and pri* 
 mary departments, which was as far as they ad* 
 \^anced toward a graded sch&cl »>itcc: for ft 
 anmber of years. 
 
 The Fourth of July was ofe»erved in town for 
 (he first time in 1833. The gathering was in th« 
 i^orthwest quarter of the school block, th« new 
 building not being cotnmenced ontil Avgvst« Of 
 course the whole block lay vacant, but the stand 
 and sale counters were plaeed in the part of it 
 mentioned. Besides the school building, fear or 
 five residences were built in Larimore that year. 
 
 The most important matter relative to th% 
 country eurroucdirg Lariirore etd fcr the year 
 1884, was in regard to the wheat crop. It waa 
 no failure but the reverse so far as it well eould 
 be. There were abundant rains during the grow* 
 ing season which in succession came at the right 
 tim«; and otherwise weather eonditious wert very 
 favoraMe. The result was the productirr ef tli« 
 largest crop thus far known in thia sectieo^ lar 
 
luAOaiWG TEAKd rOR TOWN AND Ct UNTRY 9& 
 
 &a8 like results ever bccR I'uli^ repeated Kere. 
 U chanced that crcp ceLcuUi£ mtie vtviusily 
 isood fche country ever t|jat ytsr sLd it the {b\\ 
 the market price ci v^heai ke{.i dircpplLg ae the 
 threBhiag ectfrcu picj^atfitc, inn- tt tclCcctts 
 per bushel asc even les& liCitil it (quitltQ th« cost 
 ir>f producticn or Grcf ^tii telt^ tltiffcvie, Ihe 
 farmers cccn plaice o that with tht pi o£t abundant 
 crop they had ever i&ieed hcie the> ccv.c make 
 nothing that year atcvc tx|^tcs*& ted that they 
 had cropped iheir IsLd Icr iht ttii ht cl elevator 
 men and Minneapolis miilerh, instead of for them* 
 selves. In short, the wheat cxop et 1384 was re« 
 yarded as a calamity to this section of the eoun« 
 iry rather than cf try Itttfit to Itid t%ii.ib.. 
 
 At the Arnold. f aim, H. F. Arnold bcLght a 
 TfCW threshing outfit that year, the engitie being 
 v;hoUy of the tractor kind. He therefore did hia 
 own part ci the thies^hicg and a few jobs for 
 others outfiide the farm iirrits. His o^n crop 
 ftfiiounted to 8,S00 bushels ci vheat fioni 247 
 acres and about three thousand bu&bels of oatt 
 from sixty acres. Geo. Knaues did the threshinff 
 for the part of the farm carried on by Copp & 
 Whitney.. From 324 acres ecwn to wheat they 
 got 8.9^3 bushels, ai&o 1,672 additional bvebelt 
 from land rented of an outside party. They fur» 
 ther realized 1,333 buBhels of oats from 31 acr#t 
 and 500 bushels of barley, the latter from fif teei 
 rented acres en tl-e Ibcn fsct < If ion. 
 
 During part of September I worked with Gea, 
 Rnaass' out6t on the large farm of George Bull 
 
lOO tfosftt "tWiWa m NusTHK Dakota 
 
 located aext cast of of the Mmthews farm. The 
 <^utfit started in there early la September. At 
 the same time Staples' machine ^ab ranninir on 
 the Mathewa farm. The crew of Knauss' outfit 
 alept in tents, first spreading on the ground A 
 quantity of straw. Previously rain had left the 
 {cround somewhat damp and in about ten daya 
 I was rendered unable to work owing to a lame 
 back. Had I known just what to do for it as I waa 
 iiformed a month later, to try a porous plaster* 
 i could have resumed work in a few days. As the 
 matter stood, i did no more threshing work that 
 fall. This I thought to be unfortunate for the 
 going wages were ^2.ii) per dcy. After thatyear 
 A put in threshing time on the Arnold farm. 
 
 In the breaking season ot the previous yea? 
 Opp & Whitney agreed to bresk and backset 
 most of the remainder of the prairie turf on m? 
 claiia. a little being left on the highway and the 
 railroad borders. They wished to keep their 
 teams at work and I was not to pay for the work 
 done until a crop had been rcturced from the 
 breaking which amounted to 115 acres. Theerot» 
 fr<sm this new groiird yielc'ed 3,711 bushels oi 
 wheat; then there were twenty-five acres of older 
 ground which brought the total yield on the 
 quarter up to 4,681 bushels. The renters did not 
 sell the bulk of the wheat raised by them en the 
 fam until the price had dropped to abent the 
 lowest fisrure, so that all that I realized from the 
 crop of 1884 after their elfin hud tc<B settled 
 amottttted to nineteen dollars. 
 
UkOQlfiQ YBAIW foil TOWK aW» COCTWIRT 101 
 
 ffiarlr itt November I left Larimore for another 
 fiait to Houston County, Minn. This time, leav- 
 ing on the afternoon of one day, I think I was at 
 the home place on the evenicg of the next day, 
 though on some tripe by the river route I bad to 
 Btop over ni£:ht in UiC^oese. It wae while 1 waa 
 on this visit that word was received from Mr. 
 Whitney informing: me as to how much was my 
 iiue over his breaking and backseting accountc 
 
 In 1883 and 1884 Third street, so far as block* 
 
 iS and 49 were concerned, vied with Towner 
 
 (ivenua as a bcation for business places. No one 
 
 Joolvin? at the present time residences and Meth- 
 
 O'iist church in these blocks with berms. eurbing, 
 
 cement walks and shade trees bordericg the way. 
 
 would now imagine that buch was ever the case. 
 
 On the corner where the Swanson residence now 
 
 is,: stood the First National Bank of Larimore, 
 
 C. G. Wolcott, cashier; next came a clothing store 
 
 then vacant; next a saloon; Mrimre Leader office; 
 
 Elk Valley Farming Co. office; Drug store; Post- 
 
 omce;*Goodhue's naw store on site of Methodist 
 
 church; Harding: building en next corner; Adams* 
 
 jewelry store, a small one-story building; Flour 
 
 and faed dtore; another drug store; Eureka salooa; 
 
 and Baughrnan & Moore hardware store on site 
 
 of the Regan residence. None of these building a 
 
 were joined one to another, while in a few in- 
 
 stances there were vacant lots betweea some of 
 
 them, not utilized at that time. 
 
 During the year under considcraticn a roller 
 flour mill was erected by W. C. Lcistikow, owner 
 
IQ2 kVKTt imhBB IN tlOflTII DAK0T4 
 
 ot a miil at Grafton aod liU father-ia-law, Ante» 
 BettiBgeo, on a location goutb of where the Im- 
 perial elevater stands. The Uk Valley Farmins; 
 eompany, the buaineeamenof Larimorean^ some 
 farmers contributed a bonus oi $6,000 toward 
 havisiT the mill establiahed here, it was run a 
 tew years and was destroyed by 6re on the after- 
 noon of March 16» 1888. 
 
 Another event of that year of permanent Im* 
 portance to Larimore was thecoustiuction of the 
 j^orth and south railroad lines. The old grade of 
 wHat had been called the Northern Pacifie Cassei* 
 ;o^ Branch line was remodeled and steel railt 
 )aid from Larimore to Mayville, 28 miles, ^hich 
 completed another route to St. Paul by (^sing 
 the gap represented by the unironed gif^de. la 
 regard to the north lite ccly a tew n ilea of th« 
 old grade of 1881 were utilized, the contiruaticn 
 of this line to Park River having been relocated 
 and new grading done thru McCanna,0rr,Ink8teF 
 l^nd other places. Tracklaying began en the south 
 line Monday, June 23, and on the north line one 
 week later, June bO, lbfc4. In July two tracklay^ 
 Ing gangs were f.t work aiiLuit^Eecusly. On the 
 north line old iron was laid and the track reached 
 the site of Park River, then a wheat field, on the 
 23d of August. The place that ferew up there 
 remained the terminus of this branch until 18S9, 
 during which tiire a mixtd train was rnn en this 
 line. On the south line a pa^Eenger train was rv» 
 between Larimore and Breckenridge with coiy 
 l^ectiona for Mic^eapolia an& ^t, I Uil 
 
i^OOlHrQ Yls^H^f rCHR YOrVTM ASTD OOVNTEY 10$ 
 
 ^f" Bhall Slow pasd on to the year 1885 and give 
 ^ame notea that concero that year. The fact ha» 
 ^en fitated thatscKne cf the bisildir^^ m leri* 
 £a ore erected ID 1&£:2 \iiere tocatcd wbeie they 
 $tood Uiider illusory expectEticte. Scorer or 
 AAler a re-adjuatment wae bcund to t^ke plf ct so 
 M to briafl: the two largest hotels aad some of the 
 business places ibto acccrdacce v^ith coaditiona 
 fits ejcistiDfir by the year L885. In fact, the moving 
 t>f buildtni^B began in December, I8b4, when L. C« 
 ^'^eal purchased four lots in Block 50 next north 
 ixt what 13 now Bennett's machinery stand and 
 ^liidVFed the Sherman House to this location where 
 U fronted Towner avenue* Here it remained be- 
 'woen three and four years when another removal 
 wm c-tleeted. During the f^^ime CDontb the Free* 
 !:^yterian church was also moved to the site of the 
 g>resent church edifice on the corner of Ihjid 
 street and Booth avenue. At that time it was 
 the only'church building existent in Larimoie, the 
 ather three denominationu then represented here 
 udng temporary quarters* 
 
 Where Block 63 opposite the city hall borders 
 1 owner avenue there were some vacant lota that 
 had never been built upon. Certain business 
 buildings now beiran to migrate to this loeatioa. 
 First the Ballard building that has been mentioii* 
 ed, was amoved in there late that seaeoD, beinff 
 ti\aced on the fourth lot north of Regan '^s corner. 
 In the sprlns: some Third street buildings from 
 Block 48 were tnovetf to tfee vacant lots. These 
 were the First National Ba&k, one of the !driiir 
 
194 rOKVt lIBxSa tit K0ST1B DAKCTA 
 
 ttor«i aad L. P. Gocdhae'e ^central merckandiBe 
 ctore. A la\xr office that stood oq Booth avenua 
 epposite the achooi groucc^ v^&s &Ie& tr.ovcd over 
 and placed next 8outh of what for thirty*five 
 yaart was the Olcnetead etore. Gradually th« 
 othsr buainess places on Ihiird tiiett ^erc vacat* 
 ed. The moet Dotable moviDg jcb of all was t% 
 transfer the Swain HoU£€ Ucw BIcck b7 to ita 
 iS^rese&t site. This v>as acccon^^liehed in July^ 
 18)S5. Id those times there were no telephone or 
 9tber wires to eocounter aod certain buildinga 
 an Booth and Terry avcnuee that would now 
 >bfltruct the way on the route taken in ixcving 
 the bailuiog, then had no existence. 
 
 A temporary building 120 by 40 feet was pot 
 UP th^t year by Portland. N. D. parties to be used 
 f a^ a roller skating rink and public gatherings. 
 it stood on the two lots made vacant by tht re^ 
 o^oyal of the bank building. On the evening o| 
 August 8th memorial services ^ere held in this 
 structure for General Grant. The building wa« 
 also used for ccnvfcticxs. Attcr clout tw« 
 years it was taken down and the lumber carted 
 away. 
 
 St. Stephens Catholic church was erected that 
 year. The Episcopalian ^uild had fitted up tha 
 vacated Stevens Brothers store for a temporary 
 place of worship and it was also used by the 
 Methodist society until the next year when they 
 similarly fitted up a vacant ?tcre en Third street. 
 A drusr^istfirro, Benham & Davis, erected a new 
 drug store adjoining what ip t^ow ^tha WUliainf 
 
iU^QOiua niAK« wm town Mn» oovn tst 101 
 
 Fliftrtnaey but whick ftt that time was tht Elk 
 /alley Bank. A few residences were erected ii| 
 town that year. In the middle eighties 6ye er 
 fix new houses each year seemed to be needed at 
 a time when the number of hotels and busimeta 
 places in town were actually decreesirfi:. 
 
 We do not have at hand any further reeerda 
 in regrard to crop statistics pertaining to th« 
 Arnold farm though such are presumably buried, 
 »t least in respect to some cf the paisirg years, 
 in the old files of the Larimore Pioneer. The 
 wheat crop of that year was below the averagt 
 I'leld but prices .were better than in the pteviovf 
 year. Farmers with one or two quarter eectioofl 
 t>n the £lk Valley flat now had them more or leae 
 thoroughly under cultivation and whole quarters 
 kad been broken on the Arnold farm. 
 
 in Moraine township where the land was hardet 
 to subdue than on the valley flat» less progreaa 
 had ;been made. Some quarter secticca wer« 
 owned by persons who did not occupy them and 
 on which fifteen to forty acres were brckeo. The 
 original pettlers were mainly preEcr.t and culti* 
 vating from 75 to over 300 acres. There was a% 
 that time an Arnold farm of 1.280 acres in tliit 
 township owned severallv Ity Geo. P., Charles J., 
 Ida K., and John J. Arnold, of Lockport, N. Y, 
 Of this amount. 640 acres were in John's Barc» 
 hi mself a n^n-resident. Two brothers, Jamea H., 
 and A. K. Magoris, of Binphamtrn, N. Y., alse 
 owned seven quarters or l,120pcre8of laid ift ike 
 BQuthern portion of the tc^cehip. 
 
The ^«ar 1886 as wetl iig tbe &e?eral yeari that 
 .liiceee'ded it wat a eoaticuation ot the cccditicra 
 I'^hat begati Co be felt in 188S. U should be said 
 e.hat feimo9 in thia /section of country were by 
 iRo meaas decidedly hard, like regiccs which now 
 aad then have & crop failare, but nevertheless, 
 wer^ not satisfactory either to the tradeeoTien in 
 town or the farmers m the surrcucdirg country. 
 Wheat was the main dependence of the latter 
 ♦had prices usually ranged from 66 to SO cents per 
 Voishel. Most all of the sniaJler farmers as well 
 Ri most of those whc had acquired moderately 
 large farms had their quarterc mortgaged to 
 iftaney loaners—why and wherefcre ha»? already 
 ?H3eo ststed—and were drifting into the status of 
 beiuff the slaves of these mortgagors. Occasional 
 haii storms in those times struck here and there 
 ^heu the wheat was about ready to cut, to tha 
 damage of some farmers, more or less, end in a 
 few instance?, entirely cleiinirg out others. In 
 the latter cases where no heil ineurar ce hsd teett 
 earried, ^matters went hsid with tuth perfcre. 
 
 On Friday nieht, June 4, 1886, a frost cutdowa 
 the growing wheat, then some four inches high^ 
 leaving the fields a black looking waste. But tho 
 roots were not irjured and the summer raina 
 brought the wheat forward more luxuriantly 
 than before. The letter p^rt of the growirf 
 season was dry and the wheat gtalVs shorter than 
 usual so (hat the threthirg season wound up 
 early. The yield was belcw the average but the 
 quality of what was raised was generally food. 
 
Ourinji? the middle eiprhtiea a considerable 
 number cf busiiaesjis chfci^i Si tctk | iect. ^cire 
 moved from where they were to other and nore 
 4o»sr&ble loc&tiot^£ in iovsT. llti^ were acne, 
 ti^ew comera Abo Id various traces bdq voc&ticiit 
 in ec^nie meascre t&kirig the pUces of others who 
 ^ad left town, Oq Third street only the Baugh- 
 man hardware f<toie» the lii.rckastiltcD acd the 
 KIk Vailey Farming Go. building, ueed for a law 
 Lvffke, were atili doio^ buamess. Of other build* 
 ings there th%t had cot been moved out, several 
 t^ere empty while one waa fitted up in 1886 for a 
 place of worship by the Methodist society. One 
 <#thcr, used by the Elk Valley Cornet band of 
 i|xat time for a practice room, was burned down. 
 
 There were in existence in the spring of 188> 
 sine business places on Main or Second street, 
 IfrGQtirg toward the two reserved btccks» and 
 ©ccup>irig SL position ih bkcks 76fccd 77 from the 
 Lutheran church corner to Willians Fhsriracy, 
 Of these placee two wtve sftkciDs, ihite were 
 feed, grocery and general merchandise stores; 
 the Lsrimore Pioneer cfFice; a drugstore; a hotel; 
 and a hardware store on the corner where th« 
 Lutheran chutch bow standee At the dose of 
 1886 only the Pioneer cflfice and the hotel were 
 doing business and the latter was torn down the 
 next year. Fcur or 6ve ot the buildings noted 
 were moved to Towner avenue which was Qow 
 becomiogr the general busin^fes qijartcr ot tcmSo 
 
vn. 
 
 THK LATB ElGHTtES AKD EARLY NINCTIES 
 
 'T^HE principal events for tke year U€7, t© far 
 •*- ai Larimore was specially concerBcd, were, 
 first, th€ establiehmeDt here of aoire sort of rail* 
 road division keadquartere; ecccrd, the inetiti:t« 
 intr of what were called tournaonente, these beinf 
 held annually for several Tears; ard third, a fir* 
 late in the fall which destroyed a to^ of bufinesa 
 buildingrs on Towner avenue. Otherwise there 
 <»nsued various minor changes or nnutaticLs ia 
 relation to business matters, churches and public 
 affairs in general. 
 
 The division force, which was rather limited, 
 (iame about the first of February and established 
 itself in the depot and part of the freigrhthouse* 
 a room being partitioned off. Altho the division 
 headquarters rcnrained here until 169'4it seetred 
 never to have made any particular difference for 
 the betterment of the town, The Harding build« 
 ing on Third street, which stood rnpty, was 
 moved back from the sidewalk and remodel«| 
 into a residence for Cept C. h- Jetks, ttperic* 
 tendent of the division. F. p. Hughes of Arvilla, 
 who had taken up his residence in tcwn in ftdarch* 
 bought the vacated Then: as furcittre store (yp. 
 76I-77) ai^d moved it to a position north of th€ 
 depot where it wfie remodeled into a railroad 
 eating house. (At this writing the building ttUt 
 stands there« empty for many y dsrs,.ia ft rviasvi 
 
«oaditio&p ready to be tore down.) Dadley H. 
 Heresy, of Arvilla, bought four lots in block S2« 
 ^ear the depot, ioteadicg to move a large hotel; 
 there from Arvilla, but it proved to be too heavy 
 tiM: the appIi&EieeB vecd eo ilc pic jrct wai gives 
 loip. but the Best year the Sherman House wa« 
 moved to these lots, this being its third loeatioD. 
 ^even houses were luilt in Laiinicie in 1^86, bui 
 there wer^ only three or four erected during thia 
 i^rst year oi ihfi division hefidquarteri. 
 
 There was at that time £n engine houee herein 
 wooden structure with three staDs for loeomo- 
 iHves, but it was never tDlarged- It stood east 
 Kf.f the present roundhouse and south of the most 
 western part of town. A long eo&l shed tl^e» 
 occupied the south side of the track whert tkt 
 curve occurs opposite block )»7. That spring l^ 
 number of supply trains were running, engaged 
 \fx transpoi^ting railroad materials to Miaot t^t 
 an extension of the road to Great Falls that year<< 
 $ixty-pound steel rails were laid from Grand 
 li'orks to Larimore in 1886 and this work wa« 
 continued to Devils Lake in 1887. The steel rails 
 displaced old wrought iron ones which had bees 
 used elsewhere before being iilaid in Dakota m 
 the early eighties. Heavier loeonnotiveSp called 
 moguls, could now be used on tbt- road. 
 
 In the latter part of May, 1887, the writer 
 went out to the Nelson County colony location to 
 do some work there. I had not been at the set« 
 tlement near the north end of the lake since the 
 early part of Septen^l^cr* 19§2. but had wuAt s 
 
brief vfsit {n July, 1883, to those settled arount 
 tile southern end of the take while retarniog from 
 a trij» out to Stump lake' About four yearg had 
 therefore passed since I bad been at Loretta lake» 
 Those who had been settled there had Iodst since 
 itiroven up and were grone. The lands of the St. 
 Louis part of the celery had been divided be* 
 tv^een H. F, Arnold and his uoele. Mr. Steer* 
 had, I think, srott^'n rid of his portion of the land 
 for what it ^ould brin^ and the same may be said 
 of those around the southern end of the lake. At 
 that paint the fields ence cultivated had rererted 
 back to prairie and i onl.T saw the ruins of one of 
 the cabins. Of the four houses at the northern 
 «nd of the lake only one remained occupied by a 
 rentv-tr who was putting in a crop of barley and 
 had two men at work for him. The other houaea 
 had either been torn down by settlers for fuel or 
 9o!d and moved away. From this location to 
 Michigan City, a distance of about five mileai, 
 there were no houeeg nor any ether cultivated 
 fields, mainly owing: to the low price of wheat ia 
 those years. K. F. Arnold retained his portion 
 cif the land, 240 acres, into the next decade when 
 he turced it over to a Michigan City banker ta 
 whom it was mortgragfed. The outlook may hava 
 b^en promising: enough in the eprirs: of 18£2» 
 but judged by the final outcome, this colony pro- 
 ject ought never to have been undertaken at all* 
 since it entailed financial less to ell concerned. 
 
 The people of Larimore made no effort to e^U 
 ejbrate the Fourth of July in 1687, they hf ard a 
 
t&\i CAtlft aKOH vma Kf*t) EiHSLY KnOETIBS 111 
 
 little later tbat other towos in the county had 
 ffeaerally done bo. The businees n en and come 
 others tbereopcn grot up ^hst v^Bh called a tour* 
 aament which included horse racing and other 
 attractions. A race track was provided on vacant 
 irround close to the northwest (.art of town. 
 Here the first tourc&oient was observed during 
 two day^, July 19 and 20. Ihere was no fencing 
 off of an enclosure, every tbirg teiRg in the c|>ea 
 except a ^rand stand* Besides the Larimore band 
 one from Grand Forks was in attendance. Co« 
 object of these tournaments, which were held 
 annually until about 1892, was to bring into towa 
 the people from the surroi^rdicg coi^ntry. 
 
 During that year the Methodist society ereeted 
 a neat looking church on the corner site where 
 the present church now stands. Their temporary 
 place of worship was a two-story building witli 
 living rooms above, but the whole was now re* 
 modeled into a parsonage, having been maved 
 back from the plank sidewalk of that time. The 
 church was a wooden structure and coat $1,488« 
 It was dedicated January 1, 1888. 
 
 The wheat crop that year was a fairly good 0|s« 
 as there had been abundant rains at the right 
 season and prices vere a little r ere fatifftctcry 
 than for the previous three years. 0. H. PbiHips, 
 a dealer in farm machinery, stated that he knew 
 of sixty steam threshing outfits being used within 
 fifteen miles arrurd Larimore. The burniag of 
 strpw in field thrffhitpwre then cuile fercral, 
 atasking of wheat for that work baviog ceased. 
 
112 tOKtt t8Alu$ IN (<0R1» DAKOTA 
 
 In hC«¥cint>ef th% writer made a third trip ta^ 
 the old home eommunity ir Boutheaeterc Miccc* 
 sota. While down there a ceighbcr icfctmcd m^ 
 that iie had ieen in a paper an account af quite ft 
 f^rc at LarifDore. When bocd after, I could get 
 the paper, the location and extent cf the fire was 
 rendered plain, Ali of the buildicge that had 
 b^en moved to block 63 from Third street and 
 elsewhere were deFtM>ici ^^hile those at the 
 bioek camera that had been built in 1882 where 
 they stood, escaped the flames. The fire broke 
 '>.it io a bakery, the farmer Goodhue store, be- 
 tween two and three o'clock Sunday morniDg, 
 November 20th. Only a hand eoirine was avail* 
 ah<c at that time and this was found to be frozcA 
 up and had to be thawed out, hence the fire got 
 cidder headway. The fcllowirg places were de« 
 slroyed in ordf*r from north to south: Law office 
 of J, Stewart WcUa; Mor.v drvg store; Bocdelid 
 bakery; First National Bank; barber shop of !£• 
 Marment; the Ballard building; and a small ware« 
 nouse of KeifFer& Regan in the rear of thellatter. 
 The law office und bank were rebuilt that year; 
 later three disused store buildings were moved 
 in there, to-wit, the former Baughman hardware 
 store, the once Stevens Bros, store and the vacate 
 ed drug store that stood on Main street. Lastly 
 the Wisner residence was built there in 1894. 
 
 The wheat receipts for the mill and elevators 
 for 1887 were reckoned Pt 890,000 buehelp. The 
 fire losses were reckoned to aix.cont to $20,€&0, 
 partially insured. 
 
For the Qext two yeart there wai oot much in 
 iho way of «h&iiffe!pertatniDe: to town. Places of 
 busisesB were aow alaioct cDtirely coDfiocd to 
 Towner avenae. Tbe nine hotels of former years 
 bad dwindled down to three or four. Alocg m 
 tbe middle eighties the circus began eomiaff t# 
 XiSrimore, but these shows were of the lesser kiad 
 BQcb as take in moderate sized towns. There 
 i^as no available hall here then, hence traTeliair 
 Uoupes could Rive no cntertsinnrietits hire, but 
 Charches were occasionally used for lectures. 
 
 Id tlie summer of 1388 the writer made a trip 
 oat to Minot. The place was then two years old« 
 Slot cfuite the size that Laritnore is now and there 
 were only two hotels there. The tcmn mainly 
 depended on tbe railroad for support for owiof 
 io drougth years in thi^t part ci Dakcta thera 
 liad been little or no agricultural development ia 
 that rcirion. Within the loup of Mcvfe ri^cir 
 there were no real villages as yet, only three or 
 f our statlonss on the railroad. 1 walked oot of 
 town three miles to view the high railroad trestle 
 acroog Gassmen coulee, where this opens into 
 Mouse river valley and that was as far west as ( 
 fver g )t. Returning to town on the bottom laad 
 of the valley, it was observed that settlers alocfl: 
 the river were living: in log: eabing. 
 
 The year 1888 was a frost year for wheat, rain« 
 ing such fielde as had been sown late. There wae 
 frost August 9th and 16th affecting some loealtiea 
 but not others. Crly hcilf rf iry quarter was ii| 
 wheat that year, the re$t being .aader sammeF 
 
fallow, and I tost my ghare of the crop, the eoet 
 »f seed and the cost of putting: it in the groui^d^ 
 also any work for that season done on the faici, 
 ftQ estimated total of $700, which was quite a let 
 hack. By this time what was the headqaartera 
 i>f the farm around the center of Section 10 bad 
 become fairly well provided with buildicgt, a 
 lar^e barn, a granary and a machine shed haTi&f 
 been built, while part of the old cabin ivas new 
 used for a blacksmith shop. 
 
 In 1889 a new elevator called the St. Anthony 
 & Dakota was built here. Had thiaelevator been 
 In ezistenee when the mill burred dcwn it wcvld 
 probably have been destroyed also as the flames 
 were partially in that direction. The elevator 
 referred to is now the Imperial, after beiofi: ra« 
 built over and much ealarged' 
 
 A Lutheran church society was now organized 
 in l,arimore but as neither this society nor the 
 Episcopalian then had any church building:, they 
 were accorded the use of tho£e of theHethodiit 
 and Presbyterian societies. 
 
 VhM^ far the people who had made this section 
 their homes had been living under a territorial 
 form of government. There was really HttU 
 difference between living under a state govern- 
 ment and the other and so far as businees affairs 
 and the ordinary life of the people were concern^ 
 ed no difference was apparent. What real differ^ 
 ea^e existed, was in the main political. The new 
 state adopted a Dnhibition constitution and tha 
 last of the saloons disappeared from Lariaarc. 
 
VH& LATC EJGHTTGB A£*'D SaRLY NINlTXeS 118 
 
 The govfiTntnent census for U£0 tbc^c d that 
 Itariraore had 5SS icViElitirU— a cere ^illjge 
 population-~and probabl}' tbat ^es ti lew in 
 number as the place ever got. PresuiKabis there 
 were over six hundred peop^ in town daring the 
 preceding wi&ter, but in the spring bcoic had 
 left town for the farms. 
 
 That was the year in which the city hall Wftt 
 hxxWt. The question had been raised by the Lar- 
 imors Pioneer whether block 64 had been held in 
 feaerve or not for some public biiildirg and it 
 was understood that the Klk Valley FsiCiitg Co. 
 would deed it to the city if one was erected io 
 the block. The city council held their mcttiigft 
 in the Elk Valley office then still remaining on 
 Third street, and this Ucy tock the matter in 
 hand, discussing the advisability cf Ivildirg & 
 city hall. On May 2 1st a special election wa© 
 held relative to isei^in^t bends in the eum of $5,500 
 to erect the proposed htilcitg fcit there were 
 only a few opposing votes east. Farners with 
 their teams contributed woi k by hauling stone for 
 the foundaticn and bri«li ard Lvilciitfc materials. 
 Work on the building began in June, progresee^ 
 thru the summer acd f&ll ttd it v&s dccicettd 
 by a ball December 19th, The building measures 
 86 by 40 feet, with fire engine and other roome 
 below and hall and stage for pv^Uic (nteitaic* 
 men Is above. This was the fi«rst brick building 
 erected in Larimore. 
 
 The Larimore Pioneer ie nearly as old as thm 
 town itself, it was st&itcd in February^ US2, 
 
hy Geo. B. Winship, of the Grand Forks Hert Id. 
 and Warren M. SzoU ox the same cffice- The 
 first issue, dated February 21, lfcfc2, y^ki priLUd 
 at the Herald office, bu; th^^ laext fourteen is^ucs^ 
 were printed in a kuikirg cia lie til ttitti to 
 Ihe aotttbeast of the Elk Valley Bank. Mr. gcott 
 «rectad a two-stoiy Luiicitig ex h. coiter ti K^io 
 •Weet and I^^rry avenue ^hich web cccciifd 
 abaut the first of June. The Ic^er Etcry ^tie 
 rented a while hy a dry goods firm acd the hih 
 Valley Eaoic began huoinei^s there in IBh^, Ere 
 long Wic3hip sold his int^reet in the Pioneer to^ 
 Mills Church. By the year 1886 a remcval had 
 been made to the lower story of the buildirir. 
 About 1886 Scott and Church di\^ided their inter* 
 ests, 3;::>U redainiog the paper and Chureh tak« 
 i&g the building. In 18^7 the clfice was moved 
 i.o the second story of » lairge wooden buildinir 
 an Towner avenue ir> bl&ck 77c In Augmat, 1888^ 
 Seott sold the Ploreer to M. M- Miller and ia 
 October, ifefcO, it wau puxtbaEeo ty H. F. Arnold 
 who had entered state politics and been tlected 
 senator for the fifth district. 
 
 {m, p. Mason located at the correr r^f r the de- 
 pot in the year ucdcr eonsidcraticUp buying oat 
 $L small restaurei t ehei rj f stsblifhed there for 
 several years. Thie place he later enlarged and 
 being a native of Chic, it hae bcfc ctJl*d the 
 Buckeye now these thirty years, though theewner 
 at tivnes has been out of it, hotel keeping and la 
 the earoentering line. It chances te betbeftcaV" 
 est business site to the depot. 
 
It was in the summer of 1891, I thiDk, that I 
 had occssbn to cross Moraine to^Behip item, 
 ftear its western border, follovic^ tie road that 
 passes directly west fuir tc? n ttd en fecticn 
 lines entirely thru the town&hip, Withir the 
 limits of the township 1 did cct pEss a single 
 dwelling, all cfibirs cr httFte of any sort once 
 i.i proximity to the road having disappfBied; 
 Qor did the road itself appear to be much travel- 
 ed, bvit had begun to resemble the early prairie 
 wsjjon trails that preceded section line roads. 
 Oa either side the land in places showed signs ©f 
 former cultivation, but the fields had reverted to 
 grass and weeds. The settlers alorg this road 
 had in the main pcsseftsed single quarters only 
 &r>A these had been abfiidcncd to mcrtgfgcrs, 
 the former owners hsvirg either moved to town 
 or left the country. This was a consequence of 
 proviug up on loaned money, (receivirg by loan 
 more than was needed for that purpcie) an4 
 paying I'd per cent intercRt. It would have been 
 better, in many cases, where continuous resi- 
 dence on a claim ensued, to have tskcn them 119 
 fi3 homesteads instead of pre-emptions. The 
 papulation of Moraine towcfbip by the ceneus of 
 1890 was 64 inhabitants, 1 also Ffw ex tcitic ta 
 similar to those referred to, in the southern part 
 of Niagara townehip slrcut t^it tine. 
 
 There was a fair average wheat crop that yeir 
 some fields producirg freer twecty to twenty- 
 five bushels per acre. By this time ie threshicr 
 ft convenient method of dispositff of the straw 
 
lid ffv&ti tHAJia ii% MOtna Dakota 
 
 ^&d bnaa daviged. U coasisted of two ilide ran<» 
 aars, a cross piece 8 by 4 inchos and tea feet i» 
 loagth in which upri&ht piLS 6cir.e two feet hiirli 
 x'7«^re set about two feet apart. Ihie rig called 
 Che "straw bucker" waE drawn back and forth 
 by tnro horses ridden by boys who kept ten or 
 tceeive feet apart. The backer did not have to 
 ^e turned around as there were rings at one end 
 of the ropes, by which the rig was palled, aad 
 these slipped along on iron reds attathed to the 
 outward sides of the runners. The palling ropes 
 were as much as twelve feet in length. By this 
 ^rraai^ecnent the straw was dragged, a load at 
 a tii-ne, to the right and left of the machine and 
 left ageld for burning in long huminocky ricks. 
 Oae of the riders had to pass beneath the straw 
 stacker, a dusty place, but oeeasiocally the boys 
 changed sides. The ccginee were usnally straw 
 barners and when needed the boys delivered a 
 load close to the rear of the engine by riding in 
 on both sides of it- 
 It will be our purpose to make some mentloB 
 of all of the weekly newspapers ever published 
 in Larimore, of which there h&ve been five sack 
 undertakings. The Larimore Leader never sor* 
 vived the year 1884. On November 7, 1891, E. E. 
 Sloniker, who had been foreman of the Pioneer 
 office, issued the first nvnrber of e paper called 
 th? Lariii'ire Times and in a building on the site 
 of the Cn-operative store. In about two moathe 
 the outfit was moved to Morthwood and merged 
 with a local paper there* 
 
tiLa LJiT^ ia(£icsn2e» IWM» SIAEtLY MINimES 11& 
 
 there were bui»i&e!BSi chiuDgea taking piece id 
 town each year including chsngea in regard to 
 tbe ministry over the several churches. Now that 
 the town had a city haii occagiocei ectertain- 
 ments by traveling troupes could be presented 
 in it, also whatevet wae gotten up by home tal« 
 ent. There was a hotel on the ccrLer of Front 
 street and Terry avecue, one block north of th« 
 depot, called the Commercial House and whick 
 had beea built in the spricg of 1S82. It had been 
 closed for some time, but in 18^2 it ^ss again 
 {Opened by Theodore Johnson and has ever since 
 been called the Johnson House. In August of that 
 year the first graveling cf cur streets ^as dene. 
 
 The Larimore Pitnecr had tew been n^cvtd 
 from the upper story of the building in which it 
 wai published to the lov^er one. The printing of 
 the paper thus far bed been on a hand press, but 
 In 1892 a cylinder presa was purcbsfcd en which 
 the paper is still being printed. The south half 
 of the wooden block in which the Pioneer was 
 printed was purchseed by H. F. Arnold during 
 the early nineties and Capt. Jerks having moved 
 to Grand Forks when the division of 1887-92 left 
 Larimore, the residence on Third street Taclited 
 by him was also bought. 
 
 In 1892 a new and heavier set of steel rails 
 were laid f"»r the railroad bo that locemctlves of 
 heavier v^ight tha.^ moguls could be used on the 
 main line. In 1890 this system tock the rf nre of 
 th^ Great Northern Railroed erd thru ccrcccticQ 
 with Seattle was established Jaoudiy 6, 18i»'8. 
 
Iq 1893, which was the year that the World*^ 
 Fair, as it was called, was held at Chicago, LarU 
 mare beg^ao showi&g riprs of picking v>p a little* 
 ?fi>ai 1887 to 1892 scarcely any new reeidencca 
 ^^ere added to those existiiig in to^n, butdurirg 
 the 3ummer J. B. Streeter Jr., of the First Na- 
 tional Bank, took in hand the remainder of the 
 disused business buildings on Third St., and had 
 them remodeled into dwelling htuEeE. The old 
 <8!ureka saloon was moved a block farther east for 
 thesaaae purpore. in thcte times GWtJlitgt %tit 
 scattering in the west part of to^n, there Icii-if 
 half blocks and even v^hcle blockB ccnttmirg 
 aaiy one, two or three houses and siitilar con* 
 ditioQ3 prevailed in the east end. Theresas then 
 ft<*.arceiy anything north of the blocks thtt bcrder 
 on Third street. 
 
 A notable event fcr Lsrinnore iu IfSS WM the 
 visit of the World's Fair Foreign Ccn^mhB'itnejB 
 who came to study sgricuUvial ctiiitifie *t 
 typical places In the Noithwest. lYty csirc to 
 Larimore by special train August 29tb and ^«re 
 taken to the Elk Valley Farm in carriages. Her« 
 thay witnessed a harvest scene, f or ty*two binders 
 bain? at work in one large field. At the Cweft 
 or Kentucky farm a lunch was served in • tent, 
 N. G. Larimore, Gov. S^hortficge atd invited 
 guests being present. 
 
 The wheat crop of that year vbb e ofieldtrc^ cs 
 b«ing a little below the average, gcing geteially 
 15 to 17 bttflhels per acre. There had been more 
 than the as«ftl acDomnt of acpw the prevloua 
 
winter, ti'^uch Incicatcd ty etorn s an4 drifU 
 toward the latter part of it The month of April 
 *afl almost coBEtiiSitb clcic-n &o thni tie enow 
 did cot wholly meK off uiitil the last ^bJ'E of the 
 month. Hence farmeiF vexc late in getting in 
 their crcps that year. 
 
 Daring the year Fricker & W<ich erected s 
 fltnall roller flour mill on the 8ite<>f the one that 
 had been burned dcww m 1888. Ihe first named 
 party was a practical mill man, the other a well- 
 !taowii physician of Larimore. As first built tk« 
 mill measured 42 by 5i6 feet, three storice high 
 vith a one-story wir.p 4€ by 30 feet. In after 
 times the mill way much ealarffed, changed own- 
 ership, and was irregtiljirly rvn. It tht end. th« 
 machinery of the ir,iii havirg been mcved t^ 
 Moitana, it was torn do^n severs! yesreego. 
 
 Th^ tendency of large faroQS to keep down any 
 town surrounded by thefr*. by reapcn ef di»in- 
 Iflhing the trade of the country trifcutfiiy t©6tcfc 
 places, has been rcfen^d tc •}K pirnr^« ^» 
 that where a family resides upon each qwter 
 section CT tvr it givet a Isigfr pcrnlrtirr f 
 the said triLutery arce <f ccvrtn ^i^ »tich of 
 what each perFonceecs the tracefntn svpply* 
 The lack of a larger population in the eouat^ 
 surrounding iBrin-cie.. ^Wh %ejy little wasfct 
 land, was particulsrly JTeit duritg the yittr thai 
 hare been passed in rf'vicw !n 18^0 Lari»ore 
 township had only 110 pc pclstir n. Ccntiist tfcii 
 with certain agricultural tcwnships in sccthef st* 
 ern MinneeoU. a land of ifcail faifcs, gi;d witfc 
 
^aasiderable waste l&cd inclndirg tin Icr tra« t^, 
 yet showing a popuUticii frtir 4ti> to ever a 
 thousand. The to?fDfihip froTr? ^hich the wiiitr 
 came, which was puiHJy hu figricultursl ote, had 
 i.087 inhabitaota bj the census of 18^0. 
 
 Oace in a conyersation with Mr. Kitffer in re- 
 gard to the foregoing subject, he referred to the 
 Mk. Valley Farm in particular, advancing the 
 opinion that so far as beoefittiDg the town in a 
 mercantile way the land coinprited in the farm 
 jnight as ^eli have been a morass, for, he said, 
 IhQ eonpany had their supplies shipped to them 
 Tiy tha ear load aod bought little in town. He 
 admitted that some trade was derived from the 
 employees on the big farm. But on the eupposi- 
 tion that tne lesser sized Large farms did their 
 trading in town, still, the principle iVti it is the 
 population on many farms collectively that build 
 up the country market towns, holds good. Thii 
 eannot be the case where large areas cf the land 
 are absorbed into big farms. We herewith giT© 
 & statement regarding the acreage of a number 
 of large farms withiu a dozen miles of Liirimor* 
 aceording to a plat book published in l&iS* 
 
 Elk VA.LLBY FA.&U. 
 
 LartTiore Township — 
 
 Et?bteen qvarrer fectloos, *,%$0 acres; 
 ArviM* Township— 
 
 2, 7^0 acres. 
 HeJit'^n Townshio— <>i^ acres. 
 A»<»i Trtwnsh»p— f 407 acres. 
 Praec l>iras^ip— i6e aerei. TpJ^ %»f lfm> 
 
ABVILL4 ToWNSHIf. 
 
 New York Farn, J. H. Mfttbewe, i,a8o acrei. Algo^ 5^ 
 acres ia Avon towBihip. Toui, 1,840 acres. 
 Bitil ft Ramsdabl, 1,280 acres. 
 Dadltj H. Hvsrsej, 3,066 acres. (Crystal SprisKa Fars.| 
 
 Clm Gaovs TowNSHir. 
 
 T. S. Sdisoo, 1,600 acres. Includes 480 acres iBarka4 
 «*T. S. Sdisoa Jk J. B. iStreetcr Jr." 
 Simon A. McCanna, I«I44 acres. 
 Nelson & Parcel!, 1,760 acres. 
 C. L. Grabcr, 800 acres. Hiraisa Spade, 640 aer«a> 
 
 MotAiNE Township. 
 
 Farna owned setefaily by John J., George P., CbariM G.. 
 aad Ida H. Arnold, of Lockport, N. Y., 1,249 acres. 
 Jasses H. & A. E. M&goris, 800 acres. 
 
 Arnold Faroa cf La^icsore tc'woship, owned levtratly bf 
 Horace F., Ellery C, Henry V., Addie L., and Eava C. 
 Arnold, x,6oo acres. 
 
 The sixteen hundred acres ccnrrilfcd iu the 
 Arnold farm in 1893 did not include the north* 
 east quarter Section 15 as that had been traded 
 to the 5lk Valley Farminir Company ia 1885, 
 their lands already bordering: it on three lidea. 
 What haa been mentioned as the Them pecc claim 
 bad been purchased, also another quarter teetiom 
 at the foot of the hills, its south aide bordering 
 the Moraine township road. 
 
 in th^ Utter part of March, while winter still 
 held sway, I had a severe attack of ecitc kird cf 
 stATDach complaint frcn which I had oeeasioBall^ 
 auffered for g ;rear or inor« |)Mt. Hitherto it 
 
VZi l^tm* YBAM^ IJf tiOmU DAKOTA 
 
 had been of the nature of sudden brief attacks, 
 lasting only amonrjent or t^c, sifter v^hicb I feife 
 AS usual except for scn:e mcmecti^iy ^erVtet^, 
 But I now experienced a diftercct fcim cf the 
 complaint and after a hcrrio night, alcne in my 
 cabin, I managed to reach thru the enm the 
 haaiqiiarters of the farm a half mile south. Dr. 
 Rounsevell thought that 1 hsd little chance of re- 
 covery, my vitality had sunk so low, but 1 pulled 
 •:hra it nevertheless. 1 attributed the ccaplsict 
 t3 smoking, but the doctor said it ^£b gtetralgift 
 induced by the use cf dry crackers insteEd of 
 bread— that it was a painful, but tct tacin iViy 
 a daDjjerous complaint if its ceuEe was ren:cved. 
 i was confined to the house ever a n^cnth, Itt 
 could have been out two weeks earlier hac weath- 
 er conditions in April {ermitttd. After the ye^r 
 1896 i did not require the services of & ph^sici^n 
 again for nearly twenty years. 
 
 Dr. Rounsevell advised ne to n:cve into town. 
 Having: owned some property there since 1885, 
 I built a small house on it in the warm season of 
 1893 and p-.it fn the threshing: pericd en the Ar- 
 nold farm. The last week of October was spent 
 in Chicagro and I cheered to be theie at the time 
 that the mayor of the city. Carter Harrison, was 
 asgassinated. I had attended the Centennial 
 Exposition in 1876 and thought then that cothirar 
 of the «*ame ««ort in this country would exceed it 
 durinc: the rpnsirf'er cf the century. But tH« 
 exper^t^ntion H'd net prrf rr to be wholly realised 
 in comparison with thu? World's Fair. 
 
t^E LaTK KKOtfTilW AN© KaRLY NINBTIB3 125 
 
 During: the nineties there were feverel C'iffcr- 
 eat foremen at the Picnt^er rfiice eacl remainins: 
 as much as two years. Often youtg nr>en in sith 
 positions aspire to run a paper tKtn^seUct^ seme 
 day. Another foreman cf the cfrce tanLtc V^iU 
 liam Miller^ after vacating his position, started 
 a paper in town called the Larimore Graphic, 
 the first issue of which was publiehcd b« j u n I € r 
 7, 1893. There were not enough people in town 
 and surrounding country successfully tc support 
 two local papers, hence after about one year's 
 experience Miller DQoved to Minnewaukan. 
 
 Most of the months cf Lecen bcr trd Jf rtsry 
 were of that sunny aad mild sort of weather that 
 occasionally prevails in this latitude, a prolong- 
 ing of late fall conditions into the wint» months 
 9wing to the prevalence of frut^f r]> winds and 
 the ground bare of sncw. Weather conditions 
 of that kind at that season of the year shortcQ 
 the actual winter which if spt tc set ir. later. A, 
 similar state of weather conditions prevailed one 
 winter in the late eighties, tbf re being only six 
 weeks of snow and that melted off about the first 
 of March. 
 
 In April, 1894, a notable railrcad strike oceurr» 
 ed on the Great Northern which hsieo eighteea 
 days. It was said that for eleven days of this 
 Interval no train passed thru Larircre. Peirjr 
 out rear the track ere evfrirg, the writer ftw 
 a nassenger train from the wept quietly enter 
 town with:>ut sounding bell or whistle for the 
 crossing or on approaching tke depot. Tuntg 
 
It9 irVKTt YKA&f IM m>fiiTH DAKOTA 
 
 the coDtinuRDce of the Lti:ike trail frcm the ce^t 
 was brought op from Grsvd ForVB by a lailrrt^ 
 velocipede and a horse iesn). On M«y 8d t leitle* 
 .meat was reachod by crbitieticD, trd in tfce 
 p'/ening the railroad iren of Lariirtore celcbtftfd 
 the end of theetriki^ with powder ttd acvila fed 
 a bonfire. During the yf ar such divisicn force 
 as had by that time been located here were grad* 
 i$Uy transferred to Grand Forks. At that tim« 
 ihe force consisted of ab&ut twenty ttco, the 
 t.ii3t of #hom left November 19th. 
 
 What is now the North Dakota Co&ferenec of 
 ih\3 Methodist Church beg:aQ as a mission confer- 
 ence in 1886 with jjbout thirty menrbere atd twe 
 rear» later was recognized as a full ccclcrcikce. 
 During: the early eighties the Methodist churches 
 i»f eastern North Dakota v ere UEccr the juris* 
 ^ictios) of the Mime^Fota Cocffierce. In May, 
 18^5. &he North Dakota Confeiefcce held tl»** 
 sessions in the city hall, Larimcre, this haTing 
 been the only occasion that this city has ever beea 
 chosen for the annual meetis^s* of this confercccis. 
 Uaually larger places fcsve beet prefer?* d. 
 
 There were now six church societies ia towa, 
 to wit, Roman CafhoHc, Prcfibyterien, Methodist, 
 EpiBcopelisr, Lutbercn ard Free Methodist. 
 The Norweflrian Luth&r£!n srciety ocly, as yei, 
 had no church buildirp, bvt were acccrc'ed the 
 use of other places of wcrfbip. At f iJt « »iris* 
 ter from Northwocd preafhed ccce a trcrtK 
 The Bpiscopaliac puilc built A cknrch in Block 
 66 in i^n. The Free MetkodiaU purckaaed ia 
 
Ta« LAT8 ElQUnits ^ND fc^AJtLt NIKKTIBS 12? 
 
 1892 the buildmr in Block 77 that W. M. Scott 
 bviilt for & priDtiog office (p. 116) «iid they fitted 
 up most of the lower 8toc> && a place io which t« 
 bold services, 
 
 la those years Larimoie \%'&8 active ic a locial 
 w^y, tocludicg: various foroaa of eatertaiDDii-iit« 
 The towa h&d become quite a resort for teachers 
 meetings and for hcldicg miccr ccDveEitic(>£. 
 There w^ere oceasiooai chureh suppers as now, 
 &ad lectures in some of the churches^ Theatrical 
 and minstrel troupes cr n e at itteiv^ls ttd gave 
 i^atertainnjents in the hail scd ir.cre rarely hcBie 
 talent presented somethirg there. Ihtre had 
 been balls and banquets annuallj ever sirce the 
 town had started.' In each of those later yeart 
 *ne or two social clubs ^ere in e^ciftcrce ecd 
 the school, whi«h had tsken a graded foriK, had 
 Us literary society, 7 he Ifecicf aleo had their aid 
 Bocieties in connection with church \\ork. A few 
 fraternal orders, such as the Masonic and the 
 O 1 1 Felloes, were represented here and a Grand 
 Army post was not lacking, under whose auspicca 
 Decoration dfiy began to be observed. It waa 
 in 18y5 that the bicycle bfptEi te be in evidence 
 \n Larimore. The town was now on the eve of 
 anither start forward in material iBPprr vcnreEt 
 o^in? te railroad icfiueccee lasticig ficv Ui6 to 
 X907. 
 
vm. 
 
 RAfLROAD Dr/ISIO?^ TIMES 
 
 AX thig point* before speakin? of the priaeipil 
 characteristics of what are remembered as the 
 railroad division days, when for about eleven years 
 the Dakota Divisiia of the Great Northern Rail- 
 way had ita heaiq lartars located here, wa will 
 revert back to what were our ooportunities of 
 procuring sro'^l r^alin,^ matter after settling itk 
 North Dakota. To my nothini? of newspapers, 
 mat^azines ani namphlets, enougrh books had been 
 read before conriint? to Dakota pr^<;amably to make 
 ft small library whi?h in^lalej a nimber on Civil 
 war topic?. Altho cm^ii^rable in the way of fic» 
 tion was read frirn S>yh'iod no vard, our sreneral 
 preference wa? for hi^torit^al, and certain classes of 
 scientific work?, a^ w^il p.g ofher? containing: useful 
 Information. pro(?ureahle on^y at intervals. 
 
 While livmtf out a*^ the fa^m ii the ei^rhties and 
 earlv nineties, a number of books were loaned to 
 us without the a<*kinflf. amon^r which were such 
 work? n? O^een'^ ••t^i<?»-r>pv of th<* Enfirli*»h People**; 
 plain**'? "'^'Vf^nty Y^ar? in Concrress"; Logan'a 
 •*Hi«i*'orv of t:he Great r->n?Diracy" and Stanley's 
 •*Tr» Dn»*k«<'t Afn<^!4". Wf» were also loaned th& 
 Centnry Mao^azine at the f.^m^ that nublication was 
 r^inniiT ?t? Cvil war «t^»nV9 ani r>'^»"t? of Hav and 
 Ki^olav*? '*^^raha'n Lincoln: A. History." thialast 
 b^inqc <»^ntin'i<»'1 throncrh n vear's niimSers of the 
 magazine. )^n those yaars too we oceasionally had 
 
^>kiT V$AhS IM NORTH DAKOTA 120 
 
 books from the school library to take oat to the 
 farm and read at leisure. This was io the early 
 Dineties, the library, which had been started in 
 1889, havinsr in its earlier years a printed catalog:. 
 
 When 1 came to North Dakota I had already 
 beg:un to take a deep interest in the subject of 
 Prehistoric Man then developing: more rapidly than 
 Sn previous years. I had made the statement in 
 print about the year 1879 that in course of time 
 this subject would bejorin to find some reeogrnition in 
 the school books and in the new century I begran to 
 see the statement verified as much as could be ex- 
 pected in that clas3 of works. Two other subjecta 
 In which considerable interest was taken at that 
 time and ?ifterward were Historical Geology and 
 the Glacial Period. The first of these two topici 
 concerns the physical changes and revolutions of 
 the crust and surface of the earth aside from the 
 science of fossil remains. In regard io the second 
 topic, there was no urvanimity of opinion among: 
 geolojfists in regard to the causes of the observed 
 glacial phenomena at the time the subject attracted 
 the writer's attention in the late seventies. The 
 majority of the greoloigrets were settling: their minds 
 to the conviction that the drift and transported 
 bowlders wHs an effect of land ice or a grlaclal ice- 
 sheet, but some still supported the marine submer- 
 IT'^nee theory with floatincr icebergrs, a view that 
 had been maintained by Sir Charles Lyell. The 
 IceberflT theory was the mo^ obvious one that could 
 have been propounded, but about 1890 it begran to 
 be cast aside as bo tb fnn^egvAte aud errQoeou& 
 
ISO if\M.tf tnnKB CM fiowra Dakota 
 
 Anothar error of that time in re^arci to the Glacial 
 Perbd was tha general suoTjosition that there had 
 «niuai in Pleistocans tima^ but one ice age only* 
 Thiq vie'V was miintained by Prof G F. Wni^ht 
 as late as the early nineties at which time most 
 Ideologists in this country held that the evidence! 
 pointed to at least two stasres of ^laciation. Later 
 on, the members of the U. S. Geolocrical Survey 
 recognized five glacial episodes in our northern 
 states, and four have been traced out in Earope, all 
 having long interglacial epochs between them. Oil 
 the foregoing -iubje^rts the writer began aeciiring 
 a cumber of books during the eighties and later 
 and much of the literature published by the U. S. 
 Geological Survey in one way and another came In 
 his way. It may alio be added that for many years 
 pirior to the Worl-! wnr. I bought the McClure 
 Magazine when thit puhlic^tlon was of the form 
 and size of th« ordinary magazine, contained much 
 excellent reading matter, yet was sold at ten and 
 later at fifteen cent? per copy. 
 
 On W<>'^nesday ev^^nlng. February 26, 1896, a% 
 about 7:45 o'clock, the clanging nf a belt In the 
 tower of the city hall ringing a fire alarm roused 
 peotjle into the streets. A winter mild soel! waf 
 prevotapf-, nri^d there was no snow on the srround as 
 t3«iii<»llv 's the ♦•n«e at that season. The bell Bound« 
 ed the Vn'i^ nf ♦'he old wooden built deoot an<5 
 C'>'^ne'»t,e<^ fri»l<?'ht house, but also rang In the tocsin 
 o' wh^t w<<s tf» he a new era for Larlmore. In 
 starting oot I beard a man. probably temporarily 
 
ftAlLttOAD OlVfSION TIMES 131 
 
 #tj!t of employment, say "Let the old building: bum 
 90 some of us can get work." The fire ha J 3tartei 
 in thr freight house p-irt of the building and de- 
 iiDUe the efforts of the fire department both that 
 and the depot completely burned down. Work on 
 fi new depot and freight houae began July 18th; in 
 the meantime the depot force hai got established 
 in the old Hasrhea buildinar near by. The railroad 
 cn^ofigement decided to make Larimore the head* 
 Quarters of the Dakota Division of the Great North- 
 ern Railroad, hen^e a two story brick depot was 
 erected with a connected brick freight house. 
 
 While the depot wag in progress the work of 
 constructing extensive railroad yards northwest of 
 town was carried forward bv a large grading force. 
 For the time being, a ten-stall brick roundhouse 
 was begun and co'npl*=»ted during the year, Th« 
 roundhouse was pi seed directly upon the section 
 line road several rods west of the railroad crossing 
 80 that the road had to be changed in order to 
 make it circle around the roundhouse so far at 
 necessary. A large coal chute was also erected^ 
 about a quarter of a mile north of the roundhouse 
 but it was not gotten ready for use that year. The 
 new depot was completed in October and in the 
 yards about four miles of track was laid that fall, 
 six parallel tracks exclusive of the main one, beinfir 
 laid at that time The upper story of the depot 
 was divided into office rooms and in December 
 beo^^n to be rccppfed by the division force, most 
 of the m'^n coming from Grand Forks. Thus th« 
 {division headquarters was again established here. 
 
f^; ifiJta't IfSARH »N tiOWtU DAKOTA 
 
 The work inau-jrur^ted here by the railroad com^ 
 paay was not all accomplished in any one year, 
 but additions were made to it at interval in later 
 years almost as Ion? as the division remained at 
 L^rinore. In 1899 ten more stalls w*re added to 
 the roundhoase, brincrin? the form of that 8tru2- 
 ture to 30Ti<*thini^ of the nature of a half circle. 
 The space of t'^o stalls at the fi^nther end of the 
 new part was utilized for a machine shop in which 
 to do repairing work on locomotives. A boiler 
 house was also built near this part of the round* 
 house. In the summer of 1901 a brick storehouse 
 90 by 30 feet was hnflt a few rodi northeast of the 
 roundhouse. ^ blacksmith shop which later was 
 burned down, an oil house, a olace to store oil in 
 barrels^ and 9 cfnd<»r pit completed the list of 
 structures in the vicinity of the roun'^house. At 
 intervals additions wf»rf» made to the trackasre of the 
 yards, oarticularlv in 1905. when four more tracks 
 were laid about thre<» quarters of a mile In lengrtb* 
 And located toward the north line junction. 
 
 The re-establ'shment at Larimore of the railroad 
 division and on a scale bo much more extensive 
 than before steadily increased the population and 
 this led to a demand for mor.* housp room and the 
 ere'»tion of nn^ny hon«e« for rentlncr, particuJarlf 
 in th«» interval from 1 W7 tr, t904. Other tradesni^^ii 
 came and '••^abmhei various trades and vocation! 
 b'^re dMTinp' the nAme interval. The censua of 
 IRqH hjid «rTv*n Larimore a oonnTat^on of 553 enlyj 
 ^hat for I9OO showed that there had gas^ m 
 
RAILROAD DIVISION TIISJS 13Sl, 
 
 hisrease of the town population footing up to 123S 
 mhabitants, largely, though not wholly due t^ 
 railroad division influences. While the division, 
 remained here its influence in regard to the matter 
 of incoming population was progressive, so that 
 the state census of 1905 gave Larimore a popula- 
 tion of 1635 inhabitants. In general this increased 
 population was orderly in character. 
 
 The volume of business done annually in places 
 of the size of Larimore during the early nineties 
 has already been referred tOw If the population 
 of the town, say between 1890 and 1896, had in- 
 creased to seven or eight hundred inhabitants just 
 before the coming in again of the division head- 
 quarters, it can be seen that when the number of 
 people residing here had increased to more than 
 double those figures in the later division years, 
 the amount of business done in the general mer- 
 chandise stores was correspondingly affected. We- 
 here have in mind the sale of groceries or food 
 stuffs, clothing and other articles that people need 
 most and constantly purchase. In small towns 
 in need of more population than they chance to 
 possess, every new family moving in is considered 
 as being of some help to existing trade interests. 
 
 The increased population of Larimore along in 
 the height of its eleven railroad division years 
 could not otherwise than exert an influence upon 
 trade and business affairs in Larimore to a marked 
 degree in comparison with conditions during the 
 several years prior to the coming of the division. 
 f he steady increase in popv^ls^tion invited in moi# 
 
IM FOBiiry YSARS IN NORTH DAXOTA 
 
 trades aad occupatioos than had exiated here since 
 the sumnser of 1882. Another local paper, a second 
 Larimore Leader, was started here September 25, 
 1S96, by S. F. Mercer who moved down from Ink- 
 titer and published hia paper in what was then one 
 of Olmstead'^s buildings, comer of Third street 
 and Towner avenue. Its last issue was for May 1» 
 1903 when it was bougrbt out by the Pioneer Print- 
 ing Company. In the times referred to every 
 business place on Towner avenue had its occupant. 
 Several new firms in the line of small trades crept 
 in where there had hardly been such ones before, 
 and some other trade vocations were duplicated. 
 
 Durins: the period under consideration several 
 brick blocks came into existence greaerally where 
 wooden buildings had stood previously. Larmour 
 Brothers and L. A. Brooks erected what is now 
 the Gailbraith hardware and furnitnre stfere on 
 Towner avenue, in 1898 and 189&; J. B. Streeter Jr 
 built what is now the Elk Valley Bank for a real 
 estate and money loaning office; Brooks again put 
 up in 1902 what is now the Yeoman Hall building, 
 and in 1905 H. F. Arnold, who had sold his large 
 farm interests two miles west of town in the springs 
 of 1902, erected what is now the Wisner or Mer- 
 cantile block on Towner avenue. 
 
 At the beginning of the division era in 1896 tha 
 Norwegian Lutheran church society erected their 
 place of worship on Main street but its basemeot 
 or church parlor was not put in until 1915 which 
 made necessary the rai3iT5pr up of the buildir^ a 
 
 .T\' fr-?t higher than it had ?tccd b<:"fcife. Tlie 
 
RAJUiOAD DIVISION TIMES 13&. 
 
 Preaby terian society erected a new church during 
 division times, beginning it in the fall of 1903 and 
 completing it the next year. A Free Methodist 
 society had been organized here and in 1892 they 
 purchased the building that W. M, Scott had built 
 for the Larimore Pioneer and this sect maintaineci 
 itself here down to about 1914. Thus in railroad 
 division days, including the Catholic and the Epis- 
 Gopalian societies, there were six church organiza- 
 tions in town, all having their respective places of 
 worship. The Salvation Army also came in 189@ 
 having their barracks at different places in the 
 East End, but near Towner avenue and they re- 
 mained here longer than the division did. 
 
 Two pool halls and three restaurants exclusive 
 of the Swain, Sherman and Johnaon Houses, were 
 run on Terry avenue between Front street and the 
 depot in those times, but the most marked change 
 that this eleven-year interval produced was in the 
 building of new residences. There had not been 
 previously many houses to the north of Third 
 street and in the Third ward, but that section of 
 the city was mainly, though not wholly, filled in 
 much as it exists still, from 1896 to 1904. During 
 the same interval, a number of new houses were 
 added to those already standing in the First and 
 Second wards. Most of the dwellings now located 
 in the northwest part of the city belong to the 
 specified interval. Four one-story cottages similar 
 in appear ace located on the north side pf Mala 
 street and in the west part of town, were built by 
 J. D. Van Flept. a lumber dealer pf t\^ tjnr.e, ia 
 
i;35 fXRTY YEARS IN NORTH DAKOTA 
 
 1899, and a row of five story and half houses were 
 also built in 1902 on Front street, in the southwest 
 part of town by a local association because of noti^ 
 Qcation by the railroad management that they 
 were needed for engineers and conductors. Nor 
 was this all. Different parties moved in from the 
 surrounding country old buildings and had them 
 altered over into houses to help supply demands. 
 
 The original two-story public school building, 
 erected in 188B, dimensions 52 by 32 feet, with a 
 bell tower in the middle of its west front, was 
 placed in the eenter of an otherwise vacant block. 
 Twice in railroad division days it became necessary 
 to provide additional school room on account of 
 the increasing population. In 1898 a new building, 
 the size of the first, was added to its rear part and 
 connected with it. Again, in 1904, another part 
 designed to include the high school, eight feet 
 larger both ways than the other two buildings, 
 was erected, all three being concected in a row 
 lined east and west. 
 
 The telephone system had come to Larimore a 
 year or more before the beginning of division days 
 and in the late nineties its exchange was located 
 above in the old steam laundry on Main street- 
 During the interval under consideration its local 
 service was gradually extended around town. la 
 1899 the city installed an electric light plant, a 
 brick one-story addition being built on to the rear 
 of the city hall to contain boilers, engines and the 
 dynamos. It was first put into service the eveniRf 
 i)f November 19th of the same yea¥. 
 
R^vniiOilD DlViSIOLSf TJMSS 137 
 
 Beginning ia 1897 the publisher of this pamphlet 
 was much about the Pioneer office, year by year, 
 down to 1918. When I commenced work on some 
 articles there for the paper, a boy of seventeen or 
 eighteen years of a^e was working there but late 
 in the fall he took a notion to abscond from town. 
 it was said, owing to unpleasant affairs at home. 
 After a considerable time he was heard of aa being 
 employed on a paper at St. Thomas, but he never 
 returned to Larimore except for casual visits. 
 The Pioneer was then in charge of E. L. Richter 
 who had been bred a telegrapher instead of a print- 
 er and hence did none of the mechanical work of 
 the ofRce except to feed and tinker on the presses. 
 i remained in the office that winter and later, \t 
 sot being necessary to employ any extra help for 
 iome months. Much of the time the foreman 
 attended to the job work of the office, but would 
 commence work on the paper itself Wednesday 
 afternoons and in the evening we usually worked 
 at the case (once a week only) typesetting until 
 midnight by the aid of kerosene lights attached to 
 the tops of our upper cases. The foreman handled 
 the editorials, communications and longer articles 
 while I attended to the locals and some of the 
 shorter headed articles. The paper was rv^n off 
 the press quite regularly Thursday afternoons. I 
 also attended to the mailing galleys which had 
 been part of the young man's work before he left 
 town. 
 
 The next year was that of the Spanish-American 
 war. The newspapers teemet^ with it but most cf 
 
tcB fORTZ YEAilS IN NORTH DAKOTA 
 
 what they presented as war news was later stated 
 to have been "manufactured." In comparison 
 with the Civil war, this short one over Cuba did 
 not amount to much There was much diacussioa 
 in the Pioneer office among a class of townsmen 
 who used to drop in and the talk mainly centered 
 about the strength of the U. S. Navy and various 
 war vessels. One evening, that of April 11th, be- 
 fore dark, a train with 250 colored troops aboard 
 enroute from Montana to Key West, halted for 
 fieveral moments at the depot and were viewed by 
 a large crowd on the platform. Later another 
 company passed thru town. Movements of this 
 kind carried me back in memory to the first year 
 of the Civil war, when, as a boy in Connecticut, I 
 had seen many long train loads of volunteers pass 
 thru the town where I lived, enroute to the war- 
 and which had been raised in the northern Nevf 
 England states. 
 
 The year 1898 seemed to be a busy one as the 
 course of affairs was viewed from the stand point 
 of the Pioneer office. There was a new foremafi 
 present for the next two years, Ed. Tholin, the 
 former one named Bertramson having gone to the 
 war. There was considerable constructive work 
 in progress in town and traveling troups came and 
 gave entertainments in the city hall, the movies 
 then being still future. There were said to be as 
 many as thirty-two orders, societies, clubs and 
 circles in town that year and the young men and 
 women were active in respect to bicycling and 
 |>arties. ^8 the war progressed telegrapiiic bul}>s- 
 
P.\ILKOAD DIVISION TIMES 13^ 
 
 tins were often put out at the front of the office. 
 These were more reliable than the great man of 
 'war news" contained in the daily papers. The 
 TTar ended somewhat more abruptly than had been 
 anticipated generally. 
 
 On September 12, 1899, there occurred a fire at 
 Northwood whereby the business part of that 
 place was destroyed. Shortly after the fire E. L- 
 Kichter and myself drove down there, the former 
 jpresumably having a business project in view. The 
 people seemed determined to recover from the 
 disaster with commendable energy. The office of 
 the Northwood Gleaner had been destroyed with 
 ftll of its contents, hence it was arranged to print 
 the paper for several months in the Pioneer office 
 in Larimore. The paper had been in charge of a 
 middle aged man named Monteith who came to 
 town and assisted in its publication each week. 
 There was then a lawyer in town named J. D, 
 Campbell who had a younger brother, Daniel L» 
 Campbell, whose vocation was that of a printer. 
 It was arranged in the spring of 1900 that he 
 purchase what money interest there was in the 
 Gleaner and with some printing materials that the 
 Pioneer office could spare, reestablish the paper 
 in Northwood. This was accordingly done by 
 D. L. Campbell and Ed. Tholin. 
 
 Looking back to 1900 it seems to have been a sort 
 of unique year in regard to the trend of affairs ia 
 the Pioneer office. E. L. Richter relinquished its 
 management for about two years and engaged la 
 Pther business, being succeeded by ):\is brothf ~« 
 
"fciO FOHTjr YEAKS IK N(>R'P» DAKOTA 
 
 Dan E. Richter of Minaeapolia, whose proclivities 
 bordered on the sensational. Instead of employ- 
 ing: any young man of the regular craft who hap- 
 pened along, he chose a couple of twelve-year old 
 boys who lived at that time in the close vicinity of 
 the office, and named Percy Montgomery and John 
 Neff. The latter had a brother fourteen years of 
 age, called Joe, who was about the office a goo4 
 deal because the others chanced to be there, but 
 the younger Neff boy was the most capable at the 
 case. In that respect the Montgomery boy was 
 quick-handed and expert in manipulating type. 
 Until the summer vacation the boys attended the 
 school but worked in the office two hours after 
 school and on Saturdays, being a help at times in 
 other ways than case work. D. E. Richter soon had 
 the acquaintance of a number of the young men df 
 town, especially some that were employed at the 
 division headquarters and attended their club and 
 party gatherings in which both sexes participated. 
 In June of that year the annual fireman^s tour- 
 nament of the state convened in Larimore during 
 three days, making a carnival time, two merry-go- 
 rounds being among the attractions provided for 
 the crowds of town and country. This made busy 
 times in the Pioneer office, since a daily paper, the 
 size of two leaves of the Pioneer, was issued for 
 each of those days and gold by the boys on the 
 streets. In anticipation of the tournament, Dan 
 organized and drilled a juvenile fire brigade of 
 some twenty-f#ur town boys whose ages raaged 
 jfrom twelve to sixt^een years. Thfiy were jjeatjy 
 
a.^.IIJiOAD DiVlSION TIMES 141 
 
 uniformed and made quite a feature in the parade. 
 The tournament over, affairs about the office be- 
 gran to take on normal conditions. The schools 
 were now closed for the summer vacation so the 
 three boys mentioned were in the office the greater 
 part of regular working hours, Dan was often 
 absent on business around town for the paper or 
 otherwise. On a few occasions two Mason boya 
 eame in when Dan was absent. The three printer 
 boys were disposed to resent this intrusion into 
 their presumed domain and one day all five got 
 into a violent quarrel, each party heaping upon 
 the other the usual school boy ephithets used on 
 such occasions, including: other objectionable lan- 
 guage. The two boys whose presence in the office 
 was sure to breed trouble, ceased to come there. 
 
 H. F. Arnold, supposedly the editor of the Pio- 
 neer, did little writing for it, leaving that work to 
 D. E. Richter and others. Absorbed in the man- 
 agement of his large farm and state politics, he 
 seldom visited the office. One aide of the sheetsi 
 the paper was printed on called "patents'* came 
 each week already printed, then there were boxea 
 of stereotyped plates a column long but graded as 
 to length of articles and other matter so that any 
 vacant space In the home print part of the paper 
 could be filled in from an inch to a column length, 
 the plates being sawn apart for anything less than 
 a column long. As though these accessories were 
 not enough, editorial sheets were also obtained 
 weekly containing long and short articles both with 
 and without headings. SelectioT^s <?ould be msd«i 
 
142 FORTY YEARS IN NOR^ DAKCmi 
 
 froin theae aheeta and what was thought to be 
 timely, so far as needed, was scissored out and 
 (tasted on small sheets as clippings or as reprint 
 copy. The Montgomery boy handled most of this 
 sort of copy. Some of the copy coming in from 
 outside the ofRce was written, but the boys could 
 use it while Dan, I think, used a type-writer. I also 
 did considerable work at the cases and what was 
 unusual, returned to the cases the varied type 
 that had been used in jobs and in spread adver- 
 tisements. The region of the job cases in a coun- 
 try office constitutes a foreman's domain and no 
 one may use these cases without his permission. 
 
 During several years past Dan had composed 
 some poems and occasionally sent them to his 
 brother to be published in the Pioneer. While in 
 charge of the office he conceived the idea of gath- 
 ering them together and with one or two new ones 
 reprinting them in pamphlet form for distribution 
 among his town friends and to mail to others. As 
 this would involve considerable type-setting, he 
 arranged with the boys to work extra time in the 
 long summer evenings between seven and nine 
 o'^clock or later, when daylight lingered, to put 
 them in type at some agreed upon price for the 
 ^ork done. In that way the project with the press 
 work was accomplished. 
 
 For some reason or other, or perhaps more than 
 any single reason, H. F. Arnold became dissatisfied 
 with Dan's management of the Pioneer and his 
 position was terminated in June, 1901. Charles 
 E- Cox of Lakota who, as ^ boj h^d bee^ educate 
 
RAILROAD DIVISION TIMES 143 
 
 in the Larimore schools, was chosen as manager. 
 He seemed to have a dislike for boys and engaged^ 
 a young man as foreman who was of the regular 
 craft. D. E. Richter, with a wife and two small 
 children, moved back to Minneapolis. It cannot 
 be said that in the long run the management of 
 the office was benefitted by the change that had 
 been made. At that time the edition of the paper 
 did not exceed five hundred copies and although I 
 heard Cox say to a travelling man that he intended 
 greatly to increase the subscription list, it remain- 
 ed substantially the same. 
 
 It was in the summer of 1901 that the^first auto- 
 mobiles were seen in town as driven in by traveling 
 men. They were somewhat crude and open or un- 
 covered machines, seemingly crude in comparison 
 with present day makes and they made considera- 
 ble noise when running. As drawn up close to the 
 sidewalk near the printing office, people passing 
 by would stop in groups and inspect them, being 
 particularly interested in seeing them start away. 
 They were too few for some time to cease attract- 
 ing attention. Like everything else of comple:^ 
 mechanism, the automobile has gone through a 
 gradual evolution upward from what were compar- 
 atively crude beginnings. 
 
 In September, 1901, the writer made a trip to 
 Rhode Island and Connecticut, stopping four days 
 in Buffalo where the Pan American Exposition was 
 being held. Though a notable one, it did not quite 
 equal the World's Fair of Chicago. Most of the 
 time at the East was spent wUh i^elgetives in Woob- 
 
144 FORTY YEARS IN NORTH DAKOTA 
 
 socket, R. I., and a week was also spent in the city 
 of Providence. It had been my custom since the 
 early seventies when stopping in any city to visit 
 its public library and avail myself of its collection 
 in its reference book room. In the public library of 
 Providence there was a large room which contained, 
 what would virtually amount to cart loads of 
 encyclopedises. technical works, genealogies, com- 
 mentaries, and many other works, often in sets of 
 volumes, and which one could take singly from, 
 the shelves to a near by table and examine at 
 leisure. Another large room contained sets of the 
 bound volumes of the prominent magazines of 
 ihe last century. I availed myself of the oppor- 
 tunity thus presented to take notes for assistance 
 in composing some contemplated articles in the 
 Pioneer. After a visit t# the old home place in 
 Minnesota on my return west, I was again back ix^ 
 Larimore the first week in January, 1902. 
 
 When I came back from my eastern trip I {oun<| 
 a new foreman in the office named Charles John* 
 son who remained several years. Late in the fall 
 it might have become evident to a practised eye 
 that the tenure of Cox*s life was thereafter to be 
 short as he was coming down with tubercolosis. 
 Early in the winter he still came to the office as 
 usual and would sit by the stove like one gloomily 
 depressed, saying little to those about the place. 
 Occasionally when some one called in, after briefly 
 talking with them, he would turn to a small table 
 and write a news local. After some time he became 
 45<mfined to his boarding place' and was next takeii 
 
ItAILEOAD DIVrSK)N TIKES 145.' 
 
 to tlie^Arvilla hospital where he diad Feb, 3, 1903., 
 S. L; Richter now again resu:ined the management 
 of the Pioneer office. 
 
 May I, 1903> H. F. Arnold h«d the Pioneer in- 
 corporated under the name of the Pioneer Printing' 
 Company, the stock being capitalized at $10,000. 
 With money obtained by the sale of shares, the* 
 paper that Mercer had been publishing was bought, 
 out so as to have no rival printing office in town. 
 This incorporation project was &ot needed in the* 
 case of a paper of the circulation that the Pioaeer 
 had at that time. Mercer^s paper came with the 
 railroad division and would not have long survived 
 Its removal had its publication lasted until then. 
 
 In the summer of 1900 the writer learned that 
 the children of the Lloyd family Hving on the out- 
 skirts of the northwest part of town had several 
 pounds of type which they had in a small box. 
 It was a kind called brevier and already somewhat 
 old. This I bought of them and learned that it 
 had been obtained from an empty house a quarter 
 of a mile further north which had been left opea 
 after the family that had last lived there had left 
 with their household goods. I was also told that 
 more of the type was in a chamber above in the 
 house. Going there I found some in a partially 
 broken up printer's case and more scattered on 
 the floor mixed with a lot of millet seed from a 
 torn open bag. Altogether I secured what would 
 amount to about one- third of a case when full. 
 There had been other small fonts in capitals be- 
 longing to this amateur outfit, but these had he^ 
 
T<h6 forty YEARa IN N0H5W ^AMOIA 
 
 curried off by different children. The press that; 
 had belonged to the outfit was of an amateur kind 
 the impression made by the platten being caused 
 by pressing downward on a lever with one foot. 
 Parts of the press I found in the barn but the only 
 tihing belonging to it that was of any use to me 
 was an iron tray or form in which the type couldi 
 be placed for printing, its small thumb-screws on 
 one side and one end bein^ in place, and measuring" 
 8i by 5h inches, or fully large enough for imposing 
 a single book page even larger than this page. 
 
 Not much was done with the type the first year 
 v5>r more, being bu«y in the Pioneer office, except 
 t}o let some of the boys of the neighborhood use 
 it for prints of the nature of proofs. Meanwhile 
 an outfit was being built up by obtaining scrapped 
 materials from the office that could be turned tc^ 
 account. Later on some wreckage from Mercer's 
 office furnished still more, including another smalls 
 type font, enough to mare than print a book page 
 and of a size next above the other. I was enabled 
 ^0 make metal composing-sticks (the implement a 
 printer holds in his left hand while setting type) 
 also a temporary wooden press on which two small 
 booklets for children were printed. In January ^ 
 1908, a common iron copy-press, nearly new, came 
 into my possession, and after metal and wooden 
 attachments had been added, it was by that means 
 Improvised into a small printing-press on which 
 many pamphlets have since been printed in small 
 editions, usually not over fifty copies. Later or^ 
 the outfit was somewhat further ^nlarge^. 
 
RAILROAD DIVISION HME3 14T 
 
 The writer first saw the inside of a printinpr 
 office at the age of ten years, having^ been sent to^ 
 one on an errand. This was at Danielson, Conn.,. 
 «nd while in th« office, the things seen there were 
 inspected with curiosity. The sigbt of a handbill 
 in type on a composing-stone with' wood-cut letters? 
 in it, snggested the idea of cutting with knife an^; 
 «hisel an alphabet of plain letters on blocks an inch 
 square made by sawing up pieces of a disused 
 screen frame. The letters were used for play- 
 things, one at a time, by pressing them on paper, 
 paint being used for ink. After completing the set 
 it was found that eight or nine of them like P and 
 R had to be cut over again as the curves had not 
 been cut in reverse. Others such as A, H and Ot 
 could be used as made and others such as B, C, D, 
 by turning them, the letters having no points. At 
 a later date a small font was made, letters a quar- 
 ter inch size which would print bills three or four 
 inches square on a wooden press that was devised. 
 Jtist before my parents moved to Minnesota, I was 
 sent on an errand to the office of a cotton mill. 
 While but briefly there I caught sight of a copy- 
 press, something I had never seen before, and at 
 once I thought, what a good printing-press this 
 appurtenance would make, and following theMea 
 of amateur printing with real type came to mind, 
 but with no expectation that it would ever be 
 realized; nevertheless, my making of pamphlets is 
 a sort of inheritance from boyhood days in the east. 
 
 How the type abandoned in the empty house 
 ©ame there has not yet been accounted ^^ar. I v»a^ 
 
M8 FORTY YEARS *N JiORT® i>A«OTA 
 
 able to learn aomething about the matter while 
 C, E. Cox was maaager of the Pioneer office. A 
 Pierce boy of the average age of a high school 
 boy lived in town back in the nineties and worked 
 for some time in the office. He sent away some- 
 where and bought an amateur press and a limited 
 variety of type for such jobs as card printing, etc 
 He also bought a depleted case of body type, that 
 in question. When he moved away the outfit came 
 into the possession of Cox and probably led to his 
 working in printing offices. With steady employ- 
 ip^nt away from home, the outfit came to be ne- 
 glected and finally abandoned. 
 
 The sale of the Arnold Farm and subsequent 
 building of the Mercantile block have been refer- 
 red to on a previous page. Much having been said 
 concerning the farm in the earlier part of this 
 work, the disposing of this property will now be 
 mentioned more in detail. In the middle nineties 
 tine farm sustained considerable losses by hail; 
 then, in 1900, there occurred a total failure of the 
 wheat crop around Larimore, owing to drought 
 for the first time since this portion of the state 
 had been settled. Moreover, the farm, owing to a 
 lack of conservative management where its in-, 
 come was concerned, had become heavily mort- 
 gaged. There had been in the early eighties di- 
 versions of funds into outside speculative projects 
 which in the long run had brought losses instep 
 of returns, hence the earlier mortgages incurred in 
 making final proofs continued to stick %) the farm 
 
RAlIJfeOAD DIVISI«^ TH«S8 149^ 
 
 whereas some even of these might have been avoid- 
 ed. Along in the nineties three or four more- 
 quarter* sections on the west borders of the farm4 
 had been purchased and where any of them werev 
 mortgaged those mortgages were assumed. Onj 
 tfte whole, at the end of the century;, owing tox 
 loases, it became difficult to make ends meet. 
 • After the failure of the wheat crop in 1900, the^ 
 owner offered to turn th« f^rm over to a Grand^ 
 Porks banker subject to any mortgages other 
 tftan those the banker held, if any there were. 
 The banker said that he did not want the land and? 
 encouraged the owner to try matters one more^ 
 year. The crop of 1801 wasgood, prices fair, and' 
 profitable to the farm, but^the Mter was now sov 
 heavily loaded witbitidebtedness that the owner- 
 concluded no longer to risk matters. Toward the 
 spring of 1902 the farm was therefore advertised 
 for sale. E. G. Arnold advised his son to sell off' 
 outlying quarters, clear up indebtedness, and keep. 
 Section 10. But H. F. Arnold had a deal on with 
 a local land association of that time who bought 
 the farm and did not wisbto take it over unlese^ 
 the headquarters section was included. Thirteen? 
 quarter-sections were corn-prised in the purchase* 
 which included alt stock, machinery, etc., then on 
 the place. The price got was $56,000, while mort- 
 gages, assumed by the association, amounted toi 
 something over $41,000. My own quarter-sectioa 
 was not sold at that time. The association held 
 the land about two years, managed by J. H. Pifer . 
 ^hen it was sold off ta different n^ew oWiii^ra. 
 
150 FORTY YEARS IN NOftTfl DAKOTA 
 
 The selling of the farm, judged in the light of 
 succeeding yeara, was a great mistake. A series 
 of good years and fair prices ensued during which 
 /and, even in the hill country, rose in value. In 
 1912 or about that year, while returning to town 
 from a buggy drive across the farm with my 
 brother, E. C. Arnold, I asked him if he thought 
 that the indebedness on the farm could have been 
 cleared up during the prosperous years follovnng 
 its sale. He stated that he thought it could have 
 been accomplished under careful management. 
 
 Most of the equity money over and above the 
 mortgages, obtained by the sale of the farm and 
 its appurtenances, was invested in a row of old 
 business structures with their lots on the west 
 side of Towner avenue covering five of the lots of 
 the southeast quarter of Block 77, most of which 
 stood on the sites of the Wisner and Swanson 
 buildings. Lot 18 at the corner (Storaker clothing 
 store) was then owned by S. O. Bondelid, and if 
 purchase of the lot and building upon it was ever 
 contemplated, no such purchase was ever made 
 in regard to the case in hand. As the case stood, 
 125 feet of street frontage was acquired besides the 
 south half of the old Pioneer block next north 
 across an alley, already long owned in the family 
 and which made an additional forty feet of street 
 frontage. 
 
 In all probability no other business man of Lari- 
 more would have risked so much money in such 
 dangerous property. The buildings were wooden 
 feuilt with upper stories^ all of them old, while fifty 
 
RAILKOA® DIYieiON TlMSa Ml 
 
 feet of this frontage wss occupied by a livery 
 ttable- If fire once got a start in the last named 
 building likely nearly all in the block would have, 
 gone. On that account fire insurance in the block 
 was high. But all this was in railroad division 
 times when Larimore had a larger population than 
 ever before. It might have been safer to have 
 invested the money in farm securities on land, 
 But at that time mortgages and money deposited 
 by individuals in banks was subject to taxation 
 according to a law passed by a Populist legislature 
 in 1893. The majority of the members knew no- 
 thing about finance and the law presumably was 
 aimed in the first place at bankers and money 
 loaners in retaliation for their high rates of in- 
 teregt in those days. The banks protested that if 
 the law was enforced they would be obliged to 
 close their doors. In the incorporated towns the 
 taxation might be six or seven per «ent of the 
 assessor's valuations. Suppose a thrify mechanic 
 or other individual, besides owning a home, had 
 a few hundred dollars deposited ia a bank, his 
 certificate at that time bearir>g 4-per cent interest; 
 in such cases individuals might be robbed of their 
 interest money under the guise of law as a sort of 
 penalty for having any money in a bank. After a 
 while, assessors, recognizing the injustice of the 
 law, were not particular about inquiries in regard 
 to mortgages held or money in a bank. 
 
 H. F. Arnold was a member of the Commercial 
 Club and certain other members suggested that 
 it would be a credit to himself and to the town to 
 
152 FORTY YEARS IN NORTff DTAKOTA 
 
 move out or tear down some of the old businea* 
 baildinga fronting the avenue and erect a good 
 two-story block on their sites, and arguments in 
 favor of such a project were not lacking. The 
 members probably never had in mind a structure 
 coisting over $12,000 or $15,000 and said that such 
 a block would pay its cost in rentals within ten 
 years. The owner fell in with the project and 
 during the winter of 1904-5 made preparations ta 
 carry it into effect. A large amount of stone for 
 the basement walls of a brick building 75 feet 
 front and 100 feet deep, was hauled in from the 
 country during the winter and brick and other 
 materials were shipped in later. 
 
 In March, 1905, it was announced that on April 
 80th following, the train dispatcher force would 
 be moved from Larimore. This would take away 
 about thirty men, but the freight division was 
 the main factor in regard to the dependence of 
 the town upon the railroad. Were that to go also 
 it woHld be a heavy blow to the town as things 
 stood in those days. In some alarm over the an- 
 nouncement, H. F. Arnold wrote to the railroad 
 management at St. Paul, explained his plans and 
 preparations and stated that if the freight division 
 were liable to be removed he would not build the 
 proposed block. In reply he was informed that 
 the railroad company had no intention of taking 
 the freight division from Larimore and was ad- 
 vised to go on with his plans. This may have been 
 true at that time, but the majority of the business 
 men ^henhere would h*ve mo,r^ than hesitated. 
 
RAILROAD DIVISION 'TIMEa 153 
 
 for quite generally, they distrusted the railroad, 
 company, especially on account of reports of divi- 
 sion removal annually circulated among: railroad 
 e^mployees, as rumors, since about 1903. 
 
 On the strength of the assurance given by the 
 railroad management, and in the face of the warn- 
 ing furnished by the departure of the dispatchers, 
 H. F. Arnold proceeded to carry out his project. 
 First, the livery stable was in part torn down and 
 in part moved out; then a building between it and 
 the corner property, called the "old billiard hall" 
 was torn down. These removals cleared a space 
 upon which to erect the new block. DeRemer of 
 Grand Forks furnished draughts and specifications 
 and sent up a surveyor to determine measurements, 
 and levels, while J- A. Hollahan, a local builder, 
 had charge of the interior construction after the 
 brick walls were up. The excavations for the base- 
 ment and its stonewalls cost upward of $5000 ere 
 any brick was laid. The work of construction 
 then progressed through the summer and fall. 
 
 Agreements were made with tradesmen and 
 others to occupy the building when completed. 
 A part below was designed for the postoffice and 
 an Odd Fellows hall and suite of office rooms were 
 arranged for the upper story. A space in the 
 northwest part about 50 by SO feet and comprisinj? 
 one story was designed for the Pioneer office with 
 several small connected rooms included within the 
 space mentioned. This part of the building was 
 the last to be finished. There was also a space in 
 the south part of what is now the Mercantile stor© 
 
IS4 Pi^RTY YEARS IN NORTS l>AK01?i^ 
 
 partitioned off and running" back the depth of tb© 
 building, seventeen feet in width and which was 
 saed about three years for a billiard hall. The 
 new block began to be occupied in December, the 
 finishing of some interior parts of it being in pro- 
 gress at the same time. The part designed for 
 the Pioneer was completed last of all and the presa 
 and other materials were moved in from the old 
 Pioneer building about the first of February, 1906. 
 On the whole, the n^w block proved to be an ex- 
 pensive fcuilding, costing upward of $25,000, and 
 mainly built on borrowed money with mortgage 
 securities. Under any consideration at that par- 
 ticular time it was a rather hazardous undertak- 
 ing. A one-story brick building of fifty feet front 
 might have sufficed for the time being. 
 
 The block was far under way, when, in October, 
 the owner came to me ia the Pioneer office and 
 stated that it would require some six thousand 
 dollars to complete the building and proposed that 
 I allow him to sell my quarter-section which had 
 no mortgage on it, and invest its value in the new 
 block. At first I was decidedly against any such, 
 project and stated that while the valuation of the 
 quarter remained in the land it was a safe holding. 
 Both he and his father used arguments to the 
 effect that I would receive more annually in the 
 way of interest on the proposed investment than 
 could be derived from renting the quarter and be 
 relieved of the risk of crop failures; that I would 
 save paying taxes on it, and further, that renting 
 land was liable to deteriorate it owic)? to carelesa 
 
RAILROAD Dnri3io<«^ Ttmma 15S 
 
 cWture and introduction of foul seed. On accounts 
 of these repjsesentatLona the sale of my quarter wast 
 authorized. The value of my part of the crop of 
 t>hat year and, besidses,. money 1 had in the banki,, 
 made an indiebtednesa to me amounting: to $6,600. 
 The price of lami had risen since 1902 and thie- 
 quarter was sold for $5,400 exclusive of several* 
 hundred dollars derived, as stated, from my sha^e^ 
 of the crop. For security 1 was given a mortgage 
 on the two lots now covered by the Swanson build^ 
 ing, but at that time thiey were covered with old. 
 wooden structures, which was not ample security, 
 i^ut at the time the deed was signed I was not 
 aware ef other indebtedness that involved the 
 block itself, and moreo,ver, was under the impres- 
 sion that one of the lots specified was covered by 
 the north part of the block. Had I known the facta 
 I would not have been satisfied with the security 
 mentioned. Thus all five lots became niortgaged. 
 The year 1906 was rather disastrous far fires in 
 Larimore. There were as many as sia; calls on tfc^e 
 fire department during the year. Early Monday 
 morning of August 20th, or after midnight, w^at 
 was called the Kelly livery stable occupying most 
 of the northwest quarter of Block 93, Front street, 
 was burned down. Three persons, all non-resi- 
 dents, temporarily sleeping in the hay loft perished, 
 in this fire and there were lost besides, thirty-one 
 horses, two cows, sixteen buggies or other light 
 vehicles, and two automobiles belonging to some 
 travelers who had housed them there for t|j^ 
 night while they stayed at one of the boteln, 
 
156 FORTY YEARS W NORTH DAKOTA 
 
 The next fire broke out about 2:10 Saturday 
 morning, October 13th. This involved the destruc- 
 tion of all of the buildings on the two lots next 
 north of the new blcfCk and upon which 1 held the 
 mortgage mentioned. The buildings extended 
 back from Towner avenue about to an alley and; 
 burned fiercely for an hour, the flames beating? 
 against the dead wall of the block and heating it 
 near the top so that the block took fire under the 
 roof, but the firemen dragged a hose up the stairs 
 and saved the building. The old Pioneer block 
 next north also sustained some damage. Th& 
 loss of the buildings cut off about $900 in rental 
 money and the lots remained vacant until 1914. 
 The third fire which was a burn-down, occurred 
 after midnight, or in the early morning of Sunday, 
 November 11th. An old building on the corner 
 lot next north of the Strandness store used for a 
 restaurant and lodging place, was burned and the 
 lot has remained vacant ever since. The writer 
 witnessed all of these fir>es. 
 
 Beginning with 1901 more prosperous year* for 
 farmers in the surrounding country ensued than 
 had been the case back in the nineties. As haa 
 been stated, much of the land of the hill country 
 west of Larimore was in the hands of bankers and 
 other money loaners. Early in the decade an as- 
 aociation of these men began getting these landai 
 back into the possession of persons of means, gen- 
 erally farmers from Illinois, Icv^a end Mirceeota. 
 In course of time improved roads, good houses and 
 the big red barns characteristic of pro8per4>ua 
 
i^AlLROAD DIVISJGN TIM^S 157 
 
 fcmin^ communities began to follow. In the* 
 ^arly period following settlement days the com- 
 mon farm wagon is for a long time used with 
 which to drive to town on all sorts of occasions by 
 the farmer and hia family. In the first decade of 
 the century it was noticeable that the farm popula- 
 tion around Larimore were providing themselve». 
 with buggies and other light vehicles. Another 
 change which began in the same decade was the 
 introduction here of threshing-machines with the^ 
 blower attachment by which the straw stack 
 forms itself. This new device ended the services, 
 of the "bucker boys'^ mentioned pp. 117-118. 
 
 The life of the town during railroad division 
 times was more varied than now as there were a,t 
 least 600 more population here than at present. 
 Traveling troupes of various kinds often came 
 and presented entertainments in the city hall. In 
 the building season there was much carpentering 
 work in progress and cement men had much to do 
 in regard to foundations and walks. Any one visit- 
 ing the roundhouse on a Sunday during the warm 
 season would have observed the stalls all occupied 
 by locomotives except the space for two used for 
 a machine-shop, and even in that part there was 
 usually one,. more or less dismantled, undergoing* 
 repairs. Generally too, there were f^ur or five 
 others on the tracks outside apparently awaiting 
 a chance ro get in when some departing engine 
 Fef t a stall vacant. At the same time, two engines 
 were busy in the yards switching or making up 
 height trains. The compapy intended to add 
 
>5S FORTr YEARS IN N(^5TS DAHO^fc 
 
 seven more stalls to the roundhouse but this wast 
 aever done. At all hours of the night men with, 
 hinterns could be seen on or between the tracks, 
 paSBing back and forth between the roundhouse 
 and the depot; then there were the call boys froja 
 zhe roundhouse also out in night hours to summoiv 
 train crews with an hour's notice of departure^ 
 and who had to know where each man was to be 
 found, whether in their homes, in hotels, boardingf 
 places or as roomers in some house. The last h^lf 
 of railroad division times best presented what waa 
 the characteristic life of those days. 
 
 As late as 1906 the railroad company put in 
 four yard tracks up toward the Park River juncr 
 tion and did some other work of the same kind 
 east of the roundhouse. All this did not look as 
 if the company had any intention of removing the 
 freight division from Larimore. It was about 
 that time that the grove of trees on the east side 
 of the track west and northwest from town were 
 set out and gotten into growing condition. 
 
 Every spring for at least four years before the 
 final event, a rumor wopld be circulated among 
 the railroad employees to this effect : **Next fall 
 the railroad company is going to move the division 
 away from here." This rumor reaching the busi- 
 ness men of town had a disturbing tendency; tha 
 tradesmen saw visions of curtailed trade and re- 
 duced profits; heuse owners who had built mafiy 
 dwellings in town to rent saw vieiocs of empty 
 tenen^ents, on which taxes, none to light, would 
 have to be paid whether occupied or not, and rev 
 
iuced rent charges if occupancy were maintained. 
 After 190i this class of owners built no more? 
 houses, thoug^h a few more good ones could haye< 
 been rented. Theue were some fair houses built: 
 m 1905 and 19G6, but they were put up by private* 
 S^arties, mostly in railroad employment,, as homes; 
 for themselves and families. 
 
 In the fall of 1907 it became evident that tbe. 
 removal which rumor had so long predicted or 
 threatened, was at hand. Gradually the train* 
 crews, yard and? roundhouse men were dispersed 
 to other points, mainly ta Devils Lak^, The stalls 
 in the roundhouse began to show an absence of 
 locomotives and the yards a diminishing activity., 
 One after another railroad fa^iilies moved away- 
 leaving the tenements they had occupied emptys, 
 that is, in most cases no other families immediate- 
 ly occupied them. Earfy in November the writer 
 took a stroll one Sunday thru the roundhouse and 
 saw only five locomotives there, two of them ap-. 
 pearing like as if in disuse. In the repair 8hoi> 
 there were four or five men idle, apparently await- 
 ing their assingmeats elsewhere. Subsequently 
 the machineis were removed from this part, and 
 the boilers from the boiler-house, but the yard 
 tracks were left in place and ever since have beea 
 largely used for freight car service. Lastly, the 
 Uiost of the roundhouse windows were boarded 
 up with shutters to protect the glass and this in ft 
 way rendered visible the fact that railroad dfvi8i4>a 
 times for Larimore were ended. 
 
IX. 
 
 AFTER DIVISION REMOVAL 
 
 n^HE removal of the Dakota DivigionheadquaPH 
 ^ ters from Larimore after all of the progreBs^ 
 that had bees made since 1896, was a considerable 
 setback to the town and a blow to its continisedi 
 prosperity. The main thinir in the matter was the 
 loss in population, and that both directly and in- 
 directly aflFected other interests. Of men in rail- 
 road employment as many as 175 had to leave and 
 with their families, where any they had, took 
 away at least three more persons to each man, f op 
 some allowance needs to be made in the case of 
 tanmarried employees and families comprising a 
 man and wife only. In any town of about a thou- 
 sand population anxious to pass that mark, every 
 new family moving in and every new-born child is 
 considered to be an asset. But it was not railroad 
 people alone that left. Persons of minor and of 
 duplicated vocations that could thrive only in 
 places of at least 1500 population, also felt con- 
 strained to go. Altogether over five hundred 
 people had maije their exodus from Larimore by 
 the following" spring. 
 
 Not long after the main outgoing movemeut 
 had passed, I asked a general merchandise mer- 
 chant how trade had been affected. He stated that 
 it had fallen off ten per cent. Ultimately it roust 
 have decreased fifteen per cent, but the grocery 
 trade was propped up somewhat by the dropping^ 
 
AyXlSR DiiVIdlON R-eMOVAL 161 
 
 out of two firms. L. Stern, a Jewish groceryman 
 who kept what he called the "Always Busy Store"" 
 where the Mercantile Store is now, closed out and 
 left town. This left the store room of the block 
 vacant for about a year. The other grocery fircrt 
 was bought out when the present Larimora Mer- 
 cantile Company Store was started. 
 
 Empty houses that were not owned by their 
 occupants, were soon in evidence as was to be 
 expected, and these conditions were continued for 
 several years though meanwhile a certain process 
 of elimination was gradually going on from time 
 to time. Rent had decreased somewhat and the 
 better class of residences in town even where built 
 for renting, continued to be occupied. But there 
 were a number of small one-story houses in town, 
 gome of which were little better than hovels, yet 
 in division times everything was occupied. Where 
 occupants of such dwellings did not leave with 
 the division force they soon deserted these housea 
 for more commodious ones then easy to obtein. 
 In course of time these deserted dwellings were 
 either torn down or moved out. That was one of 
 the processes of eliminting the empty dwellings. 
 But a more extensive method was the selling of 
 the fair story-and-half sort and moving them on 
 timbers and wheels with a tractor engine to farms 
 in the surrounding country. In both of the ways 
 mentioned more than twenty houses disappeared 
 from the sites once occupied by them. Some who 
 had built houses for renting, sold them off their 
 hands to private owaers ^scbaaces cffer^. 
 
MS P-OSTT YEARS VH NORffiT DAKOTA 
 
 During the next half dozen years the writer 
 remembers of only two houses being built in town 
 and two others rebuilt over. L. F. Mason, whc 
 owned considerable town property during railroad 
 division days, stated that this form of property 
 all over town had decreased in value 50 cents on 
 the dollar. Larimore had now to depend agaia 
 mainly on the merits of the surrounding country. 
 The town had to adjust itself to changed condi- 
 tions suddenly imposed, and it took several year* 
 to accomplish this result. 
 
 About the time that the division moved out the 
 culture of potatoes on a large scale for shipment 
 began on some of the farms near Larimore. It 
 had long been known that the soil of the land 
 hereabout was well adapted to the raising of po- 
 tatoes, but they were thought to be too cheap a 
 <?rop for special attention. In 1907 J. H. Pifer 
 built a potato warehouse with cement basement, 
 100 by 40 feet, having a storage capacity of 70,00(> 
 l^ushels. He devised machinery to clean, separate 
 and carry to bins the loads as delivered. Another 
 and larger potato warehouse was built by th^ 
 same party east of the first in 1909. Both are 
 located across the railroad track south of the east 
 part of town and have a spur track running past 
 their north ends for loading cars. 
 
 In the early evening of February 17, 1909, th« 
 two-story depot that had been the division head- 
 quarters was burned down, but the firemen sua* 
 ceeded in saving the long one-story extension or 
 freight house p^rt. T^e fire originated iq the 
 
AFTER DIVISION REMOVAL 163^ 
 
 baggage room, tbence got inside between the 
 plastering and the brick wall and run up under 
 the roof and under the floor of the second story 
 where water could not reach it, finally bursting* 
 Itito room after room until all within the brick 
 waiU had been completely burned out. 
 
 There was at that time a long framed building, 
 mostly two-8tory, that stood on the corner lot now 
 occupied by the National Bank. It had been add- 
 ed to in division times so that all of the space on 
 the lot from Towner avenue back to the alley had 
 been filled in similar to the Storaker store build- 
 ing on the opposite side of Front street from it. 
 The last sixteen or more feet had been a one-story 
 house, but in division years had been used for a 
 Chinese laundry. The part of the building next 
 to Towner avenue had been fitted up for the 
 National Bank which opened for business July 1, 
 X902. The remainder of the building was used for 
 a restaurant and lodging place with entrances on 
 Front street. At about quarter of two in the 
 early morning of June $, 1909, fire broke out in 
 the restaurant and the long building was burned 
 down, except that the firemen partially saved the 
 bank part, though in a damaged condition so that 
 later it had to be torn down. The beck moved its 
 business temporarily across the avenue to the 
 annex to the Elk Valley Bank building- A smal! 
 one-story house near the alley, unaccupied at the 
 time and located on the next lot south, went with 
 the rest in this fire. We have witnessed all of tho 
 large fires here since moving int9 town in 1893, 
 
160 FORTY YEARS M NOB'fH BAKOTA 
 
 On July 12, 1909 work for rebuilding began oil 
 bath of the burned sites. The railroad company 
 erected a better one-story brick depot than what 
 was thought would be done under existing condi- 
 tions. The freight house part had been saved by 
 the firemen at the time of the fire owing to a^ 
 brick cross wall intervening between it and the 
 depot part. The new was joined to the older 
 building as had been the case before the fire. In 
 the case of the bank building, a cement stone 
 Btruoture sixty feet in length and the width of 
 the lot was erected, two stories high. The bank 
 opened in its new quarters January 5, 1910. 
 
 The first moving picture shows to exhibit here 
 was early in the century and in the city hall. 
 Later in the decade a traveling tent show of that 
 kind came and remained a week. Then, begin^ 
 ning in 1908, shows were held more or less con- 
 tinuously under different proprietors and for 
 several years in part of a building then standing 
 on the site of the Masonic Temple. The -'Grand 
 Theatre," as it is called, was started in the annex 
 to the Elk Valley Bank about 1913. The apparatus 
 Bsed in the business has been much improved since 
 the first decade of the century. 
 
 The store room in the Mercantile block, as we 
 have before stated, remained vacant for about a 
 year, involving a loss of at least eight hundred 
 dollars in rental money. In the fall of 1908 H. F. 
 Arnold and others organized the Larimore Mei^ 
 cantile Company which was capitalized at$25jQ0O. 
 
AlPTaS DIVfc^lOH RBMOTAL 165 
 
 There had been conducted in town since 1895 a 
 mercantile company store and this firm was now 
 bought out. In establishing the new mercantile 
 store the billiard hall in the south end of the block 
 was eliminated, the partition removed, and the 
 long narrow hall merged into the common store 
 room. A small one-story building that cost $3,000 
 was added to the rear part of block at that time 
 dose to the Storaker building. 
 
 The year 1910 was a drought year similar to the 
 year 1900- In the fall the mortgages on the.'block 
 and other real estate property would become due 
 and n© sinking fund had been provided to meet 
 this contingency nor very well could be as affair* 
 turned after th« block had been built. In May, 
 1909, H. F. Arnold sold his holdings in the Mer- 
 cantile company to NeJs Hemmingsen. Then in. 
 October, 1910, all the real estate properties in* 
 volved were turned over to creditors. Clay Lari> 
 more and V. S. Wisner coming into possession of 
 the block. There was a mortgage of ten thousand 
 dollars on it held by a Grand Forks bank b^ut this 
 the parties mentioned were enabled to assume. 
 With the party most intimately concerned, care- 
 less of incurring mortgages and lacking in. that 
 prudence which most business men possess, things 
 had at last reached their legitimate outcome- 
 
 The row of **company houses" as they were 
 called, five in number and located in the south- 
 west part of town remained more or less empty 
 for years after the division removal. At on^ 
 time only one of these tenementia was occupied. 
 
Mo ?OftTY YBAiiB m WOKT« »A«OTA 
 
 Tenant families came and went seemingly in » 
 sort of haphazard order as to their time of re- 
 maining, so that sometimes,^ two and sometimes!, 
 ouiy three of the tenements hai families living in 
 them. In August, 1911, all of these houses were 
 empty, their rear doors open or >anlo«ked, seem- 
 ingly with the intent of allowing persons in search 
 of a tenement ready access to inspect them inside. 
 If a family contemplates buying or renting a house- 
 about the first thing the woman thinks of is to^ 
 look its interior over from cellar to chambers. 
 
 The census of 1910 gave Larimore a population 
 of 1224 people, thought to have been somewhat 
 more than the town had in 1908. Until the next 
 government census, Larimore appears to have 
 experienced fluctuations in regard to population. 
 In the spring of 1916 we found over twenty u»- 
 occupied dwellings soattered over town which was 
 ntore than could have been found a year or two 
 previously. These included a few hovels and de- 
 teriorated houses afterwards torn down or moved 
 to other premises being next used for cow barns 
 and hen houses; then occssiocally Fcnne one of 
 the empty houses observed wert to the country 
 as had more often been the case during the years 
 following the division removal. A year or tw© 
 after the observations made in 1916 nearly all of 
 the houses in Larimore were occupied. 
 
 We were not so much in the Pioneer office dur- 
 ing the second decade of the century as during 
 the previous decade and this gave the more time 
 to work on booklets with our private outfit at otsr 
 
APTBR DIVidlON REMOVAL 16? 
 
 heme place in town. In 1912 Earle Champion, who 
 had been brouprht up in Larimore, and who for 
 some time previously had worked in the office, 
 became its foreman and did part of the editorial 
 work such as gathering most of the locals. Each 
 week I made it a point to be there Wednesdaya 
 and Thursdays and often more time than that to 
 help get oat and mail the paper, including soiiie 
 work at the case. Besides, while Earle was mak- 
 ing up each week's issue of the paper on the com" 
 posing stone there were the mailing galleys to 
 correct. Each winter I was in the office during 
 working hours from Decemb<?r until April. 
 
 The possession of automobiles, both in tow^ 
 and in the surrounding country, had annually been 
 increasing and beginning about 1913 auto tours 
 by as many machines as could be gotten together 
 were made from Larimore eath summer for the 
 next few years. The first was as far west as 
 Petersburg, taking in McCanna and Niagara; the 
 Qext tour was to Park Kiver in 1914. In 1915 ten 
 villages were visited or passed thru, the route 
 comprising about eighty miles, being east to Em- 
 erado, then north to Forest River, thence west- 
 ward to Inkster and south to Larimore. The ob-^ 
 ject of these drives usufilly vss to advertise a 
 Fourth of July celebratien or the Chautauqua^ a 
 band being taken along. A safe speed was main- 
 tained and as much as possible, the autos, never 
 much exceeding thirty in number, were kept four 
 or five rods apart. In making the homewErd 
 stretch there waaqp pretence o? |jeeping tog.ethj^V* 
 
K)S FORTY YEARS M NOMW DAKOTA 
 
 th^ drivara sometimes diverging off on differeafc 
 roads and the autoB otherwiee became scattered? 
 widely from oH6 another. Usually the auto party,. 
 Peaviag Larimore about two in th>e afternoon, 
 would be back home between nine and ten o'clock.. 
 In the case of the trip to Park River the party 
 were entertained there in a grove during the even- 
 ing and did not leave until about nine, reachingr 
 home along about midnight. In 1916 a large 
 party planned to visit Mayville, Sharon, Aneta, 
 and intervening places. At Hatton, a storm in 
 yie south threatened, so the party did not venture^ 
 to go to Mayville, but they were overtaken by a 
 drenching rain near Sharon. Some of the autoa 
 reached Larimore after midnight and others came 
 stringing back in a soiled condition thru the next 
 day. During the same years Larimore was often 
 vieited by auto parties from Grand Forks, Fargoi 
 and even Minneapolis, the latter made up of busi- 
 ness men out on inspection tours about the time 
 that the grain was ripening for harvest. 
 
 The first County School Play Day to be enacted 
 here assembled on the school ground May 14, 191B 
 and have become an annual feature for Larimore 
 ever since that year. It ie estimated that upward 
 of five hundred automobiles bring to town from 
 all parts of the county grown people and school 
 children to attend these exercises. Another annual 
 feature of interest are the July visits during five 
 days by the Vawter Chautavqua tent which is 
 pitched on the school ground- TJie pret yieit w«i6 
 tFuly 11-15, 19U. 
 
AFT«a Din^lOU ftElCOYAL 1691 
 
 CoQira«jacing: about 1913, in which year a new 
 Methodist church was built here of brick and tile 
 if7ork, and extending: the time limit no farther at 
 iifeaent than 1917, Larimore began to show signa 
 w»f picking up again to some extent in a material 
 way. Within those five years the Swanion build- 
 ing, a one-story structure 80 by 50 feet, was also 
 feuilt next north of and adjoining the Mercantile 
 block, being erected in 1914 of cement blocks and 
 trick; the Liberty Garage, 140 by 50 feet, in 1915- 
 with walls of cement blocks, and the three-story 
 brick Prevost Hotel built in 1916. There was not 
 isnuch in the way of house building done In those 
 •everal years, nothing that^ was wholly new, in 
 fact, besides the residence of Mrs. Millie Tobiason 
 in the east end of town. 
 
 During the same years, life on the farms wit^ 
 rural mail dalivery, the telephone, better house* 
 than formerly, the big hipped roofed red barns, 
 cultivated groves,, and diversified farming hay© 
 all modified country conditions to a considerable 
 extent around Larimore. During the World War 
 prices and conditions were much in favor of the 
 farmers and during that interval the owning of 
 automobiles by them became a common circum- 
 stance, thus revolutionizing former methods of 
 driving to town and making evening visits quite 
 practicable in the warm months of the year. In 
 the same interval something of a rei^olutioD w^f 
 being wrought on the Elk Valley Farm. The f ai m 
 was districted off into half sections or larger areas, 
 $L fair sort of house a^d oX\\eT b\|ildic|^8 built iipoR 
 
ilO FORTY YEARS IN WORTH DAKOTA 
 
 each tract ^ith a grovvth of trees for windbreaks, 
 i^Qd tenants on each of these areas of land. There 
 were twelve tenant houses built on the farm ia 
 1916 and four more the following year. F. W. 
 Relnoehl, who had been superintendent of the 
 Larimore public schools from 1911 to 1917, next 
 i^came superintendent of the farm. 
 
 It was mentioned p. 121 that a roller mill was 
 erected here in 1$93. This mill stood just south, 
 of the Imperial elevator. In the new century it 
 <^hanged ownership two or three times and waa 
 run only at intervals; then the machinery having 
 been moved to Bainbridge, Mont , the mill wa9 
 torn down in April, 1917. 
 
 The Arnold family had control of the Pioneer 
 from October, 18i>3, uatil Jaaaary 8. 1918, whea 
 they sold their interests in the p^rtr to William 
 Koche and H. E. Goertz of Ickster. The new firm 
 took possession en the first day of February foT- 
 iowin^. Subsequently Mr. Goertz bought out 
 Mr. Roche's interest in the plant. In April, 1920^ 
 9 removal of the place of publication was made 
 from the rear part of the Mercantile block to a 
 j^uilding next south of the Prevost Hotel. 
 
 In the last year of the World War there were 
 upward of fifty young men from Lt^rimore or th& 
 near by vicinity who were in the militate or th^ 
 naval service of the United States, either over 
 seas, on the water, or in training camps in various 
 states. None of them were killed or died abroad^ 
 but four died at training camps whose names ajid 
 dates of their deatha will be specified later. 
 
AFTER DIVWJOjy REMOVAL 171 
 
 ' Daria^ the winter of 1918-19 the queation of 
 iSstalliDg for Larimore a sewerage system and 
 w^terworka waa discussed. The result of the city 
 election held Monday, April 7, 1919 was construed 
 fts a popular endorsement of the project and the 
 city council proceeded to provide for the issue of 
 bonds and contracting for the necessary work and 
 materials. A steam operated ditching machine 
 and other apparatus came from Minneapolis and 
 began work in July. Earthern tile pipes and iron 
 water mains were laid as the ditching progressed. 
 This part of the work was finished in October. 
 The b;;iilding for tha ^^aterworks and the electric 
 light plant in Block 94 was begun rather late in 
 ;the season, the laying of cement blocks beginning 
 October 9th. The north end and east side waUli 
 are of brick. About November 20th cold weather 
 stopped further work until spring. Before this, 
 two large covered concrete cisteiCB cutside and 
 a large well inside the buildirg had been com- 
 pieted. Work on the building was resumed April 
 12th, 1920, and a chimney ninety feet high con* 
 structed of tile blocks was begun that spring and 
 finished May llth. Boilers and new dynamors were 
 installed and the plant was gotten into operation 
 by the 4th of August. 
 
 During the year 1919 there were also built in 
 town the 0. H- Phillips Company machinery depot 
 with walls of cement blocks and brick front; thfli 
 Masonic Temple, a two-story brick structure; 8cd 
 the School Gymnasium, of trick and tile work^ 
 j^pne of which were fully corfi plated ipside p^til 
 
172 ?m,Ti XEAR» IN HOWm DAKOTA 
 
 the following spriag. The old Sherman House 
 had been vacant forsome time when it was bought 
 by J. Pifer, rebuilt over in 1919 and covered with 
 »tucco on the outside, it was not finiBhed inside 
 that year but was ready to be opened as the Hotel 
 Violet, August 24, 1920. In the year last named, 
 W. M. Edwards having bought the Olmstead 
 buildings in Block 63 had them built over into a 
 single structure and sta^oji oataide similar to 
 the hotel, and for an undertaker's establishment. 
 The Ohms meat market adjoining the south side 
 of the National Bank was also built in 1920. 
 
 In the last three years, the residences built are 
 pot so many but that they can readily be named. 
 in 1918 the residence of F. W. Reinoehl in the East 
 End was built; in 1919 that of O. G. Storaker in 
 the same neighborhood, but this was not complet- 
 er} until the next year; in 1920 three small housefr- 
 w^ere built by different parties, Michael Paulsoa 
 in the southwest part of town; and those of N. A*. 
 Nelson and Haakon Lysne in the Third ward. 
 .'The first airplane to visit Larimore ca^me here 
 in the fall of 1919 and made flights from the field 
 south of the elevators. Most of the children and 
 not a few adults resident here now saw an air- 
 plane for the first time. 
 
 To my mind the most marked change observed 
 during our forty years residence here lies in ttia 
 alteration of the face of the (jountry effected by 
 the groves of cultivated tree^ on the fartos^ in 
 contrast with the blank prairie bb ?ecn Ip ISSQ, 
 
Ijunmore Business Places attd Vocations in 192(K 
 
 TOWNKR AVRNUE, Wc«l Side. 
 
 S^aia House, (closed), Mrs. Bertha Masoa. 
 
 Robert Black, Bakery aad Coofectionef jr. 
 
 Taorval Joba«oo, Groceries, in south part of Ltppert Bail4' 
 teg. — Ed. Lippert, Toosortal artist, in north part. 
 
 Mrs. J. G. Bexter, Millinery and Dress Ms^king. 
 
 Fcrd Ohms, Meat Market. 
 
 National Bank, O. A. Hasen, Cashier. — Lambert Mason, 
 Toasorial artist, in vfest end. In second ttory: G. A. Pkas^ 
 Diotist. — ^Northwesterp Telephone Exchange. 
 
 O. G. Storaker, Clothing Store. In same building: E6, 
 ytraefer. Tailoring.— C. L. Eenway, Watches and Jewelry. 
 
 Wisner or Mercantile B^ocH. Larimore Mercantile Com- 
 pany, Nela Hemmiagsen, Manager. — Larimore Postofi^cev 
 Thos. Regan, Postmaster. In second story: J. A. Walsh^ 
 Attorney at Lasv; Ciaads LaDue, Insurance.— Peirce & Thorn- 
 a^, Real Estate Dealers. — Dx. A. V. Thompson, Physician 9: 
 Surgeon.— Odd Fellows Hall. 
 
 Swanson Building, Co-operative Store, W. W. Reis, Mgr. 
 
 Old Pioneer Building. G. W. Mowris, Tontorial artist.— 
 E. Skardall, Electrical apparatus. — £. Litton, Drags and 
 Medicines. — R. M. Pratt, Soft drinks, Ice cream and Confec- 
 tionery. — Weidenhoeft & Doyle, Meat Market. 
 
 Williams Building. John GraS, Merchant Tailor.'^ Vfilliama 
 Pharmacy, T. R. Williams. 
 
 TowNKR AvENUK, East side. 
 
 O. H. Phillips Company Building, Farm Machinery, Lum^ 
 Vcr, Fuel and Cement. C. M. Peatman, president. 
 
 John Wurth, restaurant. 
 
 Richard Johnson, Shoe Store and repairing work. 
 
 Stiandness ftepartroent Store, Theo. Strandnc??, Prop'st. 
 
174 FORTY YEAR* IS NORT» DAKOTA 
 
 Elk Valley Baak, P. L. Armi, presidtatj Psal E. Glaas 
 Cxshier. 
 
 Flk Valley Baak Annex. The Grand Theater, a moving 
 (>icfure establishment, Fraak J. Ujka (u-ka) Mana(;er. 
 
 Ed. O' Bryan, Soft drinks and Confectionery. 
 
 Elk Valley Baak Propsfty; three doors, i. Room vacated 
 i»:^ Ohms. 2. Geo. P. Arnold, Farrier. 3. J. A. Traioor^ 
 Drogs ficd Medicioes. 
 
 Qeo. M. Naylor, Hardware and Farniture. 
 
 G. L. Sande, Clocks, Watches and Jewelry. 
 
 Galbraith Bailding, Galbraith Bros., Hardware and For- 
 piiare. In second story: S. J. RadcliS;, Attorney at Law 
 and Dealer in Real Ejtate.-^H. C. Kreiger, Dentist. 
 
 Masonif Temple. 
 
 Regan Buildings, t^ro doors, x. Farajjrs Store, B. G. 
 Kaugea, Manager. 2. Drdss Making* Hofer Sisters- 
 
 Old Bank Bnildia?, Oiztr W. Bode, Phot>graphic Stadia* 
 Ja second storyt Dr. VV. H. W»lch, Physician aai Surgeov 
 .^W. L. T. Goodison,|Spectalist. 
 
 Edwards Baildiag, W. M. E J wards, Uaieitaker. 
 
 The Old Stand, H. B;nn*tt, Faroi Machinery. 
 
 Liyery Stable and Veterinary, Dr. H. M. Eisealohr. 
 
 Terry Avenue, East tide. 
 
 Hotel Violet, owned by J. H. Pifer; Wm. Mortimer, Mgr. 
 
 William Dresden^ Pool or billiard hall. 
 
 Busy Bee Restaurant, Isaac Davis, owner. 
 
 Larimore Pioneer Office, H. E. Goerti, Editor aad Pt©p'r, 
 
 Hotel Prevost, Mrs. Prevosr, Proprietor. 
 West side of Avenue: 
 
 Buckeye Restaurant, L. F. Maton, Proprietor. 
 
 Sorliie Motor Company, C. A. Sorlie, Managet. 
 'Johnson House, Martin T. Johnson, Proprietor. 
 
 Front Street, Either side. 
 
 ' ^asi End Garage, Andrew Carlson, Proprietors 
 
l-iberty Garage, Cooper Bros. 
 
 L^rimore Vulcaaijing Works, E. I. Woods, Proprictgr. 
 i.aricaore Cash Produce Stqre, J. A. Waldow. 
 LAftojore Lumbir & Fa;l Go.-ppiny, K. D. Hsald, Mgr. 
 B. C. Mtttsrliag, Machiae Shop, Auto repairlag. 
 Ciif Watervyoiks and Electric Light Plant; Henry J. Wylie^ 
 fiiipcriatendeat; John F. Anderson, night engineer; John Rock* 
 <?ay engineer. 
 
 O. Paulson, Blacksmithing and Wagon i^orl^. 
 
 M. C. Kelly, Grqcery ftpre. 
 
 fefAiNSxEEKT, Either side. 
 Btacksmithtng and VVooi working shop osvued by Copper. 
 Yeoman Hall. 
 
 Anderson Paint shop, Carl Anderson, Proprietor. 
 I>arImore Plumb|ng & Heating Co; B. J. Craton, Manager. 
 Larimore Steam Laundry, (closed) 
 
 Great UJorthern Depot, Fred IL Jones, Agent; Louis J. 
 Trudeau, Ef press Agent; Reuben Gray, Baggage Mastet. 
 
 Elevators. Elk Valley or FaroBor's Elevator, Hans Nid- 
 ge*. Agent. — Northwest«ra Elevator, Carl Nijlsen, Agent. -~ 
 {mperiai Elevator, Chas. Wood, Agent. 
 
 O. J. Barnes Potato Warehouses, W. C. Miller, Manager. 
 
 Standard Oil Company, H.G. Hanson, Agent.->6artlei Oil 
 Company, Alex. Steedsmatt, Agent. 
 
 Pray Lines. Arthur H. Bridgeford; Guitav Schafer. 
 
 Larimore Necrologry, 1910 to ld2p. 
 
 tgio—Lttke Whalea, March 4> Scott A. Smith, io St» 
 Paul, March 2i. Mri. Margaret Mc Williams, May 4. T1»<MW 
 J. R. VanSickle, August 9. 
 
 191 1— W. E. HoU, May 2A. 
 
 t9i2— John C. Larson, ^r Arvilla hospital* Qctober I<j. 
 
/t 
 
 l?-3 ?e^I?K V3ATIS IN JiOHTH DAl^OTA 
 
 1913 — N G. Lar'.tnore, ia Si. I.onis, November 18., , 
 
 f9t4— O- A. Wilcot, F^arcb 27. Mm Sadie P. Vlathewa^ 
 Jtilled near depol by horse team accideni, September 1 1. 
 jalios H. Smith, November 16. 
 
 191$ — Richmoad Faddea, |aauary it. Frank J. Stably 
 March 25. Mr3 . Bridget Copley, ia Great FaU«, Moat, April la, 
 
 1916—$. Straadaess, February |q J. A. Lyo^, Civil VST^tr* 
 iityldier, May 3. Ckristiaa Lyane, Attgust 3I. E. C. 4rao}(|» 
 vCitil War soldier, Septeaabsr 30. Jaojes If* Magoris, De- 
 cember 3. Thedore Holtoa, Dec. 15. Samuel Watt, Dec. 31. 
 
 1917— C. H. Olmslead, Civil War soldier, March 7. Lev* 
 Carr, Civil War soldier, June 14. O. H. Phillips, Jaly i. 
 
 1918— Patrick J. Lynch, Confederate Civil War spldiar, 
 September 14. Joha F. Murphy, in Grary, N. D., Oct. 18. 
 Roland LaShelle, in stale of Washington, Get. 22. Thomaa 
 Mootz, October 27. Joseph Moots, October 30. 
 
 {919— Michael Gass. Jaaairy z\. Mrs. J:>3jph Diily, 
 Jane 4. N. J. Powell, August 22. Isaac T. Cobara, Nov, 9, 
 Mrs. H. Champion, Movsmber 2$. Christiao Christiansen, 
 L'ecenber 4. Mrs. Richmond Faddea, December 30. 
 
 1920— Mrs. W. C. Miller, February 12. D»niel McNally* 
 February 23. Mrs. B. E. Mitierling, March 13. Walter W. 
 Webst«r, March ro. N. F. Barton, Civil War soldier, April 
 17. Homer U. Smith, at Arvilla hospital. May 27. Theo- 
 dore Johnson, October |. Peter Wasmnth, November 23. 
 
 Necrology in regard tq several yot^ag people of Larimor© 
 between fonrieen and tf?enty years of ages Ray Tice, Attg;tt3t 
 22, 1914. In 1918; Anna Sandstrooa, November 26; Mira- 
 bel Swanson, November 2S; Doris Dresden, December 17.— 
 Raymond Spiclman, Jnne 10, 19x9. 
 
 World War boys who died in Training Camps io 191$. 
 Theodore Valerius, January 9.— Charlet LeoOlmsUad, 
 April 27.— Vivian OlmBtead, October 17.— Frank Per 
 t^yt, October 29. 
 
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