Forty years in North Dakota in relation to Grand Forks County

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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 0 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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