Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 11

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432

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tribes of Little Six, Medicine Bottle and Little Crow pitched their teepees about his place. These tribes numbered in the neighborhood of a thousand Indians. A prisoner, a son of William Myrick, a child of eight years, was bought from them. That fall Mr. Moorhead married Liz- zie Lauvier and made a wedding trip to the famous hunting grounds of the Souris or Mouse river. He built a house about a mile and a half from the present site of Towner, McHenry county. He remained there all winter in trade with the Sioux. Mr. Moorhead died at Pembina, July 3, 1897, respected by all, and was buried with Ma- sonic honors on the nation's birthday. To quote from the Pembina Express :

"Personally, Mr. Moorhead was genial, simple hearted, generous. He was public-spirited, and in the days when Pembina was very far from civiliza- tion, when its population was largely made up of a lawless class of men, Mr. Moorhead was made the first sheriff, an office at that time requiring courage and tact of no mean order. His early life was amid associations of the far frontier type, and it would be strange indeed if the tree did not par- take to some extent of the qualities of the soil from which it grew. But at the bedside of the sick and dying, this rough frontiersman was as ten- der as a woman, as thoughtful and gentle as a trained nurse, and when there was suffering he was always depended upon, and it seemed but natural that he shoul perform the last sad offices for the dead. Despite his faults, he was universally liked, and among the old settlers a particular favorite."

About the same time that Mr. Moorhead came to the Pembina settlement the steam navigation of the Red river of the North began to occupy the minds of those interested and commenced to de- velop. In all this western country there has been, prior to the advent of railroads, an era of steam- boating that grew and flourished into a great in- dustry until the railroads killed it off. They no doubt were an important factor in the advance- ment, settlement and civilization of the states west of the Mississippi river. But a few years ago, comparatively, the northern waters of the Missis- sippi were alive with craft, carrying the freight and transporting the passengers of that region. Now there are but few of the river craft. The same is true of all our western rivers.

The Red river of the North, which is neither wide nor deep, was practically navigable from Wahpeton to its mouth. The river is very crooked,

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

although never departing far from a straight meridian in its course through North Dakota. It travels nearly four hundred miles in traversing the one hundred and eighty-six miles from Wahpeton to the international boundary line. At Wahpeton the river, at its ordinary stage, is 943 feet above sea level; the altitude of Lake Winnipeg is 710 feet, hence the fall of the navigable part of the river amounts to 233 feet. For twelve miles as the river runs, next below the mouth of the Goose, the stream crosses a morainic belt, and its bed is obstructed with boulders, forming the Goose rapids. The fall in this part of the river is twelve feet in as many miles. In the earlier days of steamboat naviga- tion these rapids were a hindrance to the passage of boats during the season of low water. Below Winnipeg an outcrop of limestone causes a lower set of rapids. The rise of the river during the highest spring floods is as follows at the different places named : Wahpeton, 15 feet ; Fargo, 32 feet ; Belmont, 50 feet ; Grand Forks, 44 feet ; Pembina, 40 feet, and at Winnipeg, 39 feet. These figures indicate what is called the range between extreme low and high water. The maximum point of ex- treme high water is at Belmont on account of the narrowed channel of the river between high banks of compact bowlder clay ; the next point of extreme high water level at Grand Forks is connected with the entrance into the Red at that place of the Red Lake river. The years in which extraordinary floods have occurred on Red river, and been recorded, are those of 1826, 1852, 1860, 1861, 1882 and 1897. Down to 1890, congressional appropriations for improving the river in the interests of navigation amounted to $128,000. The first of these appro- priations was made in 1876.

In October, 1858, Captain Russell Blakely, of St. Paul, in company with John R. Irvine, made a trip up the Red river. They reached the river at Fort Abercrombie, which they found in charge of Captain Nelson H. Davis and Lieutenant P. Haw- kins, of the Second United States Infantry, with their company. They made observations in regard to the possibilities of navigation on the stream. In consequence of the report made by Captain Blakely the chamber of commerce of St. Paul agreed to pay a bonus of $2,000 to the first steamboat to navigate the waters of the Red river.

Anson Northrup bought the steamboat North Star, then running on the Mississippi river. He took it up the river and laid it up at Crow Wing. The machinery in it was old and patched. It had

been brought originally from Maine and placed in the Governor Ramsey, and later in the North Star. All winter was put in in getting out new lumber for a boat, and in the spring of 1859 lumber and ma- chinery was hauled across to Lafayette, at the mouth of the Cheyenne. Thirty-four teams were employed in this hauling. The boat was speedily put together and launched, and christened the An- son Northirup. The boat ran to Fort Abercrom- bie, from which point it left for Fort Garry, now Winnipeg, May 17, and arrived at the latter place June 5, 1859. After her return to Fort Abercroni- bie with twenty passengers, Captain Blakely and the others interested in her continuing her trips were coolly informed that, as it had earned the bonus and there was no money in running it, if they wanted it to run they could buy it. She was afterward purchased by J. C. Burbank for the Min- nesota Company.

One of the pioneer settlers of the Red river val- ley, Nicholas Huffman, in a paper read at the Old Settlers' meeting, in 1898, says :

"There was an old steamboat lying in the Min- nesota river, six miles below Big Stone lake, which was intended to come over into the Red river in 1857. There was a big flood in the Minnesota river and Captain John B. Davis thought he could run the Freighter, for that was the name of the boat, into the Red river, but the waters went down and the boat was left stranded. The boat was sold at sheriff's sale and was bought by J. C. Burbank, of the stage company. There was a Welshman left in charge of the boat, and here he stayed nearly four years away from wife and children, with nothing to eat, only what he could hunt or fish.

"In the fall of 1860 we took a lot of teams, wag- ons and tools, under orders from Burbank, and took the boat to pieces and brought it to George- town. We found the boat and the little Welsh- man all right. His hair had over three years' growth and his whiskers were long. You may be sure his clothes were not of the latest fashion or in first-class condition. Coffee sacks, window cur- tains, etc., had been used to keep him covered. We divided up our clothes with him, but they were not good fits as he was so small.

"A second trip was necessary for the machin- ery. There were two big boilers, but we brought them safely to Georgetown, where the boat was rebuilt. We did not reach Georgetown till after Christmas with the last load, and the weather was

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

very cold. The water was bad and the men suf- fered a great deal."

The Minnesota Company mentioned above was the result of the mail contract letting in 1858, and was organized by J. C. Burbank, Russell Blakely and others. They had the contracts for carrying the mail from St. Paul to Fort Abercrombie and other northwestern points. They proposed to open roads and put on stages to run from St. Cloud via Cold Springs, New Munich, Melrose, Winnebago Crossing, Sauk Rapids, Mendota, Osakis, Alexan- dria, Dayton and Breckenridge, to Fort Abercrom- bie. The party left St. Cloud in June, 1859, to open this route. Accompanying the expedition, besides teamsters, bridge builders, station keepers and laborers, were Miss Elenora and Christiana Sterling from Scotland, Sir Francis Sykes and others. Northrup having refused to operate the steamboat, those bound for the north, including the baronet and the ladies, caused to be built a flatboat at Abercrombie and they went down the river in it to Fort Garry. George W. Northrup was in charge of this, one of the first boats on the Red river. This Northrup was a noted character in this part of the country at the time. He was one of the most popular of the famous frontiersmen, and for years was employed as guide and hunter by military expeditions and hunting parties, and his name figures in most of the stories told by old set- lers in the Red river valley and the vicinity. He served as sergeant in Company C, Brackett's Bat- talion, and was killed in a combat with the Indi- ans on the headwaters of the Little Missouri, July 28, 1864.

In the spring of 1860 the steamboat was re- paired, rechristened the Pioneer, and, under the command of Captain Samuel Painter, it made trips all that summer. This same year the machinery of the Freighter, mentioned above, having been hauled to Georgetown, a boat was constructed there into which it was put, and the second steamer, the International, entered upon the trade of the river. A. W. Kelley sawed the lumber and Edwin R. Abell put in the engines. C. V. P. Lull operated the steamer for a few trips, but was suc- ceeded by Norman W. Kittson. One of the causes of the complaints of the Indians which led to the hostilities and massacre of 1862 was the objection of the red men to steamboats on the rivers. They argued that they drove away the game and killed the fish, and that the noise of the whistles disturbed the rejse of their dead ancestors. They demand-

ed four kegs of gold money or that the boats cease running. In 1864 the International was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company. The opposition of this famous and powerful organization to the settle- ment of the valley, it being against their interests, proved too strong, and any development was out of the question until the termination of the charter of that company by the British government in 1869.

In the meantime a few had made homes in the Red river valley, mostly French-Canadians and mixed-bloods. H. D. Betts was appointed by Gov- ernor William Jaynes to take a census of this part of the territory early in 1861, and by his sworn statement made July 26, 1861, it is seen that the whole number of white males in the Red river val- ley, on the Dakota side of the river, was fifty-one, of whom forty-two were over twenty-one years of age. The number of white women was twenty-five. The mixed bloods amounted to two hundred and sixty-four males and two hundred and sixty females; a total population of six hundred. At the St. Joseph settlement, then the most promi- nent, it is said by a local writer, there resided in 1861 the following: Edward Willis and family, Charles Bottineau and family, Joseph Vizeno and family, Antoine LaFere, Roseau Gorman, Charles Gladin and wife, James McCay and wife, Felix LaTrue and family, Pierre Bottineau and wife, Zail Georgie and family, P. Leyufer and wife, Miban Lanna and fam- ily, Marcel Billenois and family, John Melich and family, Baptiste Shoutts and family, Oreis Lafram- bes and family, Francois Vion and family, Baptiste Shapois and family, Basil Ladoeur and family, Baptiste Bonvier and family, Marcel Surp and fam- ily, P. Lachotte and family, Daniel Olsen and family and Bedeaux DeLorme and family. At Pembina lived Antoine Geroux and family, Peter Hayden and family, Joseph Rolette and family, James McFet- ridge and family, H. S. Donaldson, William H. Moorehead, Joseph LeMay and Joseph Brebois. At Abercrombie and vicinity were Joseph Stone and family, Henry Meyers, Hiram Stone, William Daney, James Bennett, Mark Bridges and family and Harry Day. Robert Slember and Harry Block lived at the mouth of the Cheyenne. These were nearly all of the white male settlers in the valley. Of the leading mixed blood families at that time were the Grants, B. DeLorme, Antoine Conlan, Joseph Poleaux, B. Shorereman, P. Veneta, W. Laframbe, P. Wanton, A. Cocke, B. Lascurn, Antoine and Charles Sampeur, Michael and Antoine Gladin, Pierre and Zedore Crambean, Joseph Amente. Joseph

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

Zaumnia, Louis Belyand, John Angie, Paul Bouvier, Marcel Oliver, Antoine and Francois Billenois, Jamies Frednia, Joseph, Baptiste and Isadore Fein; Louis Vion, Marcel Surp, Jr., Joseph Lachotte, Marcel Mattelle, Antoine Zangrous and A. Moesetts. These made their homes at St. Joseph. At Pem- bina and down the valley resided, of the mixed bloods : Francis Renville, Francis Renville, Jr., Narceni Grant, Charles Centernia, P. Picotte, F. Deaman, and F. Deaman, Jr., Francis Deshlen, John, Francis and Joseph Coutier, Joseph Fredore, Joseph Dacolerts, A. Shoretts, Baptiste Larocque, Baptiste Lataix, Louis and Antonius Lataix, Martin, Andre, David, Daniel, and Elio Jerome, Michael Henem, both senior and junior, Andrew Henem, Baptiste, Morgan and Joseph Smith, Baptiste Bremo, A. Lo- rene, B. Davis, Benjamin Menshaw, F. Persia, Joseph Larocque, Joseph Gadeon, A. Larocque, B. Laconte, N. Lacesar, A. Blue, Eustace Jordan, Bap- tiste Blue, Louis Swenia, Louis Robpeur. The local writer from whom these names have been gleaned, says of them: "There are manifestly errors in the spelling of some of the names, as the enumerator tried to follow the French sound without undertak- in to follow the spelling. The list serves to show that many of the families now in the Turtle moun- tains are of American ancestry, though remotely connected with the old time Indian traders and hunt- ers." A half breed by the name of Gingrass, about 1858, opened a store at St. Joseph, and in 1859 Charles Bottineau did the same. In 1860 W. H. Moorehead was appointed postmaster at St. Joseph now Walhalla, and occupied that office until 1864, when he was succeeded by John Hunt. In 1864, Mr. Moorhead on his removal from St. Joseph lo- cated on section II, township 163 N., range 54 W., erecting a building which he occupied as residence, tavern, saloon and store. As at this time there were but three houses between Pembina and St. Joseph, and as this house was on the direct road from the latter place to Winnipeg, he had most excellent cus- tom. A United States custom house was estab- lished at a point that was known for some years as Smuggler's Point.

In 1863 Mr. Canleer, as already mentioned, re- turned to Pembina, and being commissioned post- master, assumed the functions of that office. In 1864 Joseph Lannon located at that spot engaging in the retail liquor business. No more white set- tlers came to this place for several years.

In October, 1870, Judson LaMoure, who had made his residence at Elk Point, now in Union

county, South Dakota, removed to Pembina. On the establishment of a United States district court at the latter point he was the first deputy United States marshal, and was also connected with the United States survey department. He was one of the first to extensively engage in farming, and for three years was deputy collector of customs. Mr. LaMoure for many years served in the territorial and state legislatures and was one of the prominent figures in the annals of the state.

In 1868 two men, Nicholas Hoffman and August Loon, who had been the old mail carriers on the Pembina-Abercrombie route, settled in what is now Grand Forks county, on the Red river.

In compliance with orders, Company I, Twenti- eth Infantry, under Capt. Lloyd Wheaton, on May 10, 1870, embarked on two flat boats, and floating with the current of the Red river, reached Pembina May 19. They went into camp at the confluence of the Red and Pembina rivers on the south bank of the latter. The next day Company K, of the same regiment, Capt. A. A. Harbach commanding, reached the same point. It seems that a board consisting of Col. George Sykes, of the Twentieth Infantry, and Capt. D. P. Heap, Engineer Corps, had been ap- pointed to select a point for a new fort in this re- gion, and had determined upon a site near St. Jo- seph, now Walhalla, twenty-nine miles west of Pembina, but this point not being approved by the powers that be, the captains named above and Cap- tain S. T. Norvell had selected, under authority, a site for a fort at the confluence of the Red and Pem- bina rivers. The troops had come thither to build the new post, which they did.

May 19, 1870, Ole Strandwold, a representative type of the hardy Norse race, crossed the Red river and settled in what is now Cass county. He came here from Douglas county, Minnesota. J. M. Ben- der, who had come into the territory the previous fall, came north in the spring of 1870, with ox teams, and made a settlement about nine miles north- west of Fargo. P. McMahon located in the same neighborhood the same year. Morten, Lars and l'aul Mortenson, typical Scandinavians, located the same year at the junction of the Cheyenne and the Red rivers. Warner Mattieson Satre, Olaf Hakans, Rustad Hakanson and C. O. Bye settled in what is now Cass county, also, in 1870. D. P. Harris, about the same time took up a claim on the west bank of the Red river and built a log cabin in which he passed the following winter. Peter Johnson was

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

another settler of this year, locating about twenty miles south of the present site of Fargo.

In November, 1870, Andrew McHench came to the territory, and for a short time remained in the vicinity of Fort Abercrombie. April, 1871, he and his family and belongings came down the Red river in a skiff and took up their headquarters at the mouth of the Elm river. On the inception of the new city of Fargo, he removed thither. He was the first county superintendent of schools, and after- wards was a member of the territorial legislature.

In 1863 James J. Hill, now president of the Great Northern Railroad, made a visit to the Red river valley, by dog sleds, and upon his return to St. Paul sent Capt. Alexander Griggs to examine the river and to decide what kind of a boat would be neces- sary to build to control traffic. In 1870 Captain Griggs, who had removed to Fort Abercrombie, built a boat and floated down the river on an explor- ing expedition. On reaching the junction of the Red river and Red Lake river he drew his boat on shore, built a cabin and took up what was called a squatter's right. This he covered by a homestead entry later on. He returned to Fort Abercrombie and there he built the steamboat "Selkirk," which was launched April 23, 1871. Down the river it steamed, and for many years continued to ply the waters of that tortuous stream.

In the winter of 1869 some families of the name of Hicks, located near the present village of Hick- son in Cass county. Among the other settlers of this year in that county were Charles Farrell and Charles Mow, who located on the Cheyenne river.

In 1871 agents of the Northern Pacific Rail- road, whose engineers were fast approaching the Red river, sought a place on that stream where both banks being high the railroad could pass without the use of a draw bridge. Many people were convinced that at the point of crossing would spring up a town, which would, so they thought, be one of the great trade centers of the northwest. Several parties were watching closely the action of the railroad builders so that at the proper time they could locate, at least a part of a townsite. Among these were the Lake Superior and Puget Sound Land Company, a side issue of some of the leading spirits in the Northern Pacific Railroad. Others were Jacob Lowell, Jr., H. S. Back, and A. M. Hench. James Hales rep- resented the land company here. Most of these people had spent the winter near the mouth of Elm river, thinking that that would be the crossing place. They waited in vain. Finally this idea was aban-

doned, and after several deceptive feints, the road displayed unmistakable signs of crossing at a point some miles below Fargo which has since become known as Bogusville. Those who had been eagerly watching for surveyors' stakes along the banks of the Elm, now abandoned the hopes they had cen- tered in that locality, left their claims and moved up the river to Bogusville. Much time was consumed here and yet nothing decisive was done. Finally, on the evening of July 4, 1871, the engineers of the railroad made a rush for the site of the present city, and the Lake Superior & Puget Sound Land Com- pany's men took possession of nearly every claim in the vicinity. The land company withdrew however, and the railroad company received title to section six, while section seven was divided among S. G. Rob- erts, A. J. Harwood, Patrick Devitt, Gordon J. Keeney and Harriet Young. The railroad company bought the claim on the opposite side of the river ; the town of Moorhead was laid out, and the crossing located. There was no town platted on the west side of the river at that time, but the high price of lots on the east side drove many squatters over, and before winter, Fargo in the timber, as it was called, had a population of some two hundred or more in- habitants. The first merchant was Terrence Martin, who opened up a small store in a tent that same fall. It was discovered, however, that all the ground west of the river was in the Indian reservation, and this fact was used by the land company for all it was worth. All people on this land were trespassers, and efforts to oust them were made. Finally troops from Fort Abercrombie were called in and all except the employes of the railroad were ordered to with- draw. This mandate was never enforced, the gov- ernment extinguishing the Indian title and throwing the reservation open to settlement. This was con- summated in 1873.

In the meantime Peter P. Goodman, who had lived for several years on the east side of the river, and who had been through the region west of it, in 1871 crossed over and made a settlement just northı of where Fargo now stands. The same year came Roderick D. Nelson, who took up a squatter's claim before the Indian title was extinguished. Two miles south of Fargo, on July 5, the same year, G. J. Keeney located a claim. He soon removed to the young city and was identified with A. J. Harwood, in the first newspaper in the Red river valley, the Fargo Express. C. A. Roberts located on a claim near Fargo, July, 1871, but soon removed to the rising village. Among the early settlers of the same

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

year at the same place, was Schlstedt. His mar- riage with Miss Christina Torgarson, in February, 1872, was the first ceremony of the kind in Fargo. John E. Haggart came to the territory June 18, 1871, and August 8, following, took up a claim on the Cheyenne. T. Martin was another of the arrivals of this year.

In the meantime Walter Traill, agent of the Hudson's Bay Company, had established several stores on both sides of the Red river. One of these, put up in 1870, at Fargo Point (now Belmont ), Traill county, was in charge of A. H. Morgan. In the spring of 1871 Sargent and Clark opened a store at Caledonia. George E. Weston, who had been in charge of the company's store at Georgetown, Min- nesota, in April, 1870, crossed the river and took the first claim within the bounds of what is now Traill county. The following year brought a num- ber of pioneers into this part of the territory, among whom were Carl Mergenthal, M. L. Gummer, Alvin Arnold, Christian Kaldor, Andrew Peterson, Ste- phen E. Randall, Ingebret Larson, Peter Paulson, Michael O'Flaherty, John Weller, Christian Olson, Anders Johnson, Rev. John Ostlund and others. Peter P. Goodman in 1871 made a settlement on a claim in what is now Cass county.

Among the others who came to what is now Cass county, in this year, 1871, were C. E. Petterson, M. L. McCormack, Jos. Greenwood, Halvor Beatru, Jas. Jenks, A. C. Kvello and A. H. Moore. The latter has the credit of erecting the first house on the town site of Fargo.

Ole J. Hertzgaard and Knudt Iverson, who located on the Cheyenne in what is now Richland county, in April, 1871, are supposed to be the first to settle on that stream. About the same time Peter Trana settled in the same neighborhood. In the same county among the first settlers were M. T. Rich, after whom the county took its name, D. W. Smith, J. W. Blanding, J. Q. Burbank and W. E. Root.

In what is now Steele county, the first settler was probably Fingal Enger, who located there in 1872.

Settlers now began to flock into the Red river valley, so that towns, cities and villages sprang up on every hand, and farms both great and small, began to develop. The rapid growth of this part of the state can be best seen by a glance at the following enumeration of its population in , 1880 by counties : Cass, 8,998; Cavalier, 6,471 ; Grand Forks, 6,248; Pembina, 4,862 ; Traill, 4,123 ; and Richland, 3,597. This makes a grand total in the valley of 34.299.

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Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 11

Author: Publication date: 1900 Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle Number of Pages: 1432

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432