Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 22

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

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state. Under this plan, at two appointed times each year ( the third week in December and May) the ex- aminer sends to the several schools questions in all the branches prescribed by the high school board. The examination is conducted by the principals in acordance with prescribed rules, strict compliance with which is certified by the principals, and the written papers are then sent to the examiner to be read under his supervision. Certificates, which are accepted in lieu of entrance examinations by all col- leges in the state, and by most, if not all, colleges in the country, are in due time sent by the examiner to the successful examinees. Under this system an open highway is provided for every pupil in the re- motest district school in the state up to and through the state university. By the recent act of the leg- islature, North Dakota has made education, in all its grades, absolutely free to every child within its borders. With the exception of Minnesota, it is safe to say that North Dakota possesses the most completely developed system of public instruction of any state in the Union.

"Twenty-one schools in the state have been class- ified by the high school board as state high schools. Seven of these (Casselton, Devil's Lake, Grafton, Grand Forks, Larimore, Lisbon, Valley City,) are classified as high schools of the first class; seven ( Bathgate, Bismarck, Drayton, Ellendale, Hills- boro, Oakes, Park River) as high schools of the second class, and six (Buffalo, Langdon, Mandan, Pembina, St. Thomas, Thompson,) as high schools of the third class. High schools of the first class maintain a four-years' course of study prescribed by the high school board; high schools of the second class, a three-years' course, and high schools of the third class a two-years' course. With the exception of Greek, for which substitutes in literature, mathemat- ics and science are offered, this course is substan- tially the same in quantity and quality as that pur- sued by the best high schools and academies of the New England and Middle states.

"The institutions of higher learning have not lagged behind the other grades of schools in the general progress. Indeed, they have from the start, set the pace, with the glad consent and cheerful co- operation of the other grades.

"In 1889 the university was the only institution of higher learning in actual operation in the state, with a faculty of ten members and an enrollment of one hundred and fifty-one students, all but twenty- four of whom were in the preparatory department.

In 1898 there were four state educational institutions (the State University at Grand Forks, the State Ag- ricultural College at Fargo, and the state Normal schools at Mayville and Valley City and the two de- nominational colleges (the Congregational College at Fargo and the Red River Valley-Methodist- at Wahpeton), with a combined faculty of sixty- three members and with nearly or quite one thousand students in attendance.

"During the past term the university registered about three hundred students, considerably more than one-third of them in the college department, eleven being in the graduate department as candi- dates for the master's degrees. Next October the university will open a law department with a suffi- cient attendance already pledged to assure the suc- cess of the school. The higher and secondary, as well as the common schools, are all in a most flour- ishing condition, the only complaint from any quar- ter being that present facilities are proving entirely inadequate to meet the demands made upon them.

"It does not come within the proper scope of this article to make any estimate of the population of the state, based upon the present school enrollment ; but as current estimates are all considerably below the population which should belong to us as judged by the ratio per centage (the per cent., that is, that the school enrollment bears to the total population), elsewhere considered conservative. I venture to touch upon the subject in closing my article. Tak- ing as the basis of our calculation the enrollment for the school year ending June 30, 1898, 67,376, and using as our ratio percentage 16.8, which was cor- rect for 1890, we get 401,047 as the present popula- tion. This is undoubtedly too large, as the propor- tion of school enrollment to total population is much larger than in 1890. If we take the ratio percentage given by the United States commissioner of educa- tion for North Dakota in 1896, viz: 18.8, we get as our present population, 358,033. Using 22.19, the official ratio per centage of the North Central division of states (including North Dakota ), we get 303,600 ; and using the official ratio percentage for the coun- try at large, 20.37, we get 330.761. All these calcu- lations indicate a population considerably larger than that estimated by the governor of the state and reported to the World Almanac for 1899, viz : 235,- 000. Assuming the correctness of our school enroll- ment, I believe a conservative estimate would place our population in excess of 300,000 June 30, last.

"WEBSTER MERRIFIELD, "President University North Dakota."

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THE STATE UNIVERSITY.

The State University of North Dakota was estab- lished by an act of the legislative assembly of the ter- ritory of Dakota, approved February 27, 1883. The institution was first opened for the reception of stu- dents, September 8, 1884. By the division of the territory and the admission of North Dakota as a state in 1889, the institution became the State Uni- versity of the new commonwealth. By the terms of the enabling act of congress, under which the state was admitted, the university was given a grant of 126,080 acres of public land. This land may not be sold for less than ten dollars an acre, so that the university will eventually have a permanent endow- ment, guaranteed by the state, of more than a mil- lion and a quarter of dollars. The university is supported by appropriations made biennially by the state legislature. At the fifth session of the legisla- ture in 1892, the university was given a permanent appropriation of two-fifths of a mill on the assessed valuation of the state. As this assessment is now in excess of $101,000,000 and is rapidly increasing the university receives about $40,000 a year, and a sum which will increase with each year hereafter. As the growth of the university is fully keeping pace with the growth of the state the increasing income of the university will not more than supply its rap- idly increasing needs.

STATE UNIVERSITY.

The University is located at Grand Forks and is a source of justifiable pride to the people of the whole state.

The main building is of brick and stone, and is 51 ×150 feet in dimensions, four stories high, includ- ing basement. All the work of instruction, except in the law department, is carried on in this building, which contains in addition to the lecture and reci- tation rooms, the chapel, the library, with 6,500 well selected volumes, a well supplied museum, and the biological, chemical, and physical laboratories.

Davis Hall, a well furnished and commodious dormitory is for the accommodation of about one hundred young ladies. All students residing at the university take their meals in the dining hall in the basement of this building. This hall affords accom- modations for about two hundred students.

A combined drill room and dormitory furnishes accommodations for about eighty young men. The gymnasium and a dormitory are combined. This

building accommodates about forty or fifty students, mainly in the preparatory department. The build- ings are all heated with steam and lighted by elec- tricity, all in the most approved modern and scien- tific manner.

A dormitory and gymnasium are combined in another building. This accommodates about forty- five students and is occupied mainly by young men in the preparatory department.

A building is now in progress of erection, for the general heating and lighting of the institution. The buildings will all be heated in the most approved fashion by steam and lighted by electricity.

The dormitories are all in charge of resident in- structors and the morals and health of the students are at all times carefully looked after. The univer- sity maintains two hospital wards of ample capacity under the direction of a resident nurse.

The charter of the university provides for the following colleges :

1. The college or department of arts.

2. The college or department of science.

3. The normal college or department.

4. The school of mines, the object of which shall be to furnish facilities for the education of such per- sons as may desire to receive instruction in chem- istry, metallurgy, mineralogy, geology, mining, mill- ing and engineering.

5. The military department or school, the object of which shall be to instruct and train students in the manual of arms and such military maneuvers and tactics as are taught in military colleges.

6. Such professional or other colleges or depart- ments as now are, or may, from time to time, be added thereto, or connected therewith.

Under the provisions of this section of the char- ter the following departments have thus far been established : Department of arts, department of sci- ence, normal department, department of mines and mining, military department, and department of law.

Under the departments of arts and science three courses of study of four years each are maintained, as follows: The classical course, the Latin-science course, and the science course. These all lead to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Supplementary to these courses there are maintained a graduate course of one year for resident graduates of this institution and of other institutions approved by the faculty, and of two years for graduates of this institution study- ing in absentia. This course leads to the degree of master of arts.

The course in the normal college covers two-

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years or five years including an elementary normal course of three years.

A diploma from the normal department is the equivalent for two years, without examination, of a first grade certificate in any county in the state. Graduates of this department, after one year's suc- cessful experience in teaching, may be granted the state normal certificate, valid for five years, without further examination; after three years' experience they may be granted the professional certificate, valid for life.

As adjuncts to the departments named above the university maintains a preparatory department of three years, embracing the high school course of study prescribed by the state board.

The law department was opened in the fall of 1899, with Hon. Guy C. H. Corliss, formerly chief justice of the state supreme court, as dean. His assistant was John E. Blair, late of Harvard Law School, in 1898. Course in law covers two years, and degrees will be conferred on all completing the course.

The government of the university is vested in a board of trustees, five in number, who hold office for a term of four years each. The work of instruction is entrusted to the faculty of the several colleges. The officers of the university are as follows :

President of the board of trustees, Hon. David Bartlett, Cooperstown; secretary, Prof. Joseph Ken- nedy, University.

President of the University-Webster Merri- field, University.

Secretary of the Academic Faculty-Prof. John Macnie, University.

Director of the School of Mines-Prof. E. J. Babcock, University.

Dean of the Law School-Hon. Guy C. H. Cor- liss. Grand Forks.

Secretary of the Law School-Mr. John E. Blair, Grand Forks.

The professors and instructors in all depart- ments number thirty-seven members.

The university stands at the head of the educa- tional system of the state.

CHAPTER XII.

RAILROADS; NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD: GREAT NORTHERN RAILROAD; MINNEAPOLIS, ST. PAUL & SAULT SAINTE MARIE RAILROAD; CHICAGO & NORTH-WESTERN RAILROAD; CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILROAD.

Toward the upbuilding of a country, toward its settlement and development, there is no more im- portant factor than the railroad. In the 'fifties, and even in the early 'sixties, the railroad was ever prone to follow the paths of civilization and settlement, but now and for twenty years they have led the van. In those days they awaited the results of the efforts of the hardy pioneer, and only sought to run their lines where a heavy traffic and a successful business seemed assured. Prior to this, the going out into a new country meant greater hardships than those of the present day dream of, and the breaking up and development of any new country is hard enough at any time. Without the railroad the greater part of North Dakota would have remained as wild and uncultivated as it was when first the white race be- held its vast expanse, for at least many years. With out the help of railroads it would have taken scores of years to have placed the state where it is today, yea, probably a hundred years. The inflence on and importance to the state of the iron horse has been most wonderful.

THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.

One of the earliest and prominent railroads of the state, the Northern Pacific Railroad, which

stretches like an iron band from Duluth, on Lake Superior, and St. Paul, on the Mississippi, across the continent, to the waters of the Pacific ocean, on Puget Sound. The principal points on this line in North Dakota are Fargo, Jamestown, Bismarck and Wahpeton. Such considerable places and county seats as Casselton, Valley City, Steele, Man- dan, Lisbon, La Moure. Cooperstown, Carrington, Minnewaukon and Leeds, are also on this road, or on some of its branches.

NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.

The following history of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company was written by General James H. Baker, who, at the time of writing, was state rail- way commissioner of Minnesota, and who was fully informed upon the subject matter. He says :

"It has been said that the highways of nations are the measures of their civilization. By means of speedy transit, society, government, commerce, art, wealth, intelligence, are developed and advanced to their highest excellence. The thirty-one roads which radiated from the Roman forum into her vast provinces, like spokes from the nave of a wheel, were proof of the wisdom and grandeur of the Roman rule. The historian who chronicles the steps

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of civilization must tell of the substitution of turn- pikes for muddy lanes, of steel rails for the ma- cadam. In the pre-railway times of England, ton- nage by earth roads averaged twenty-six cents per ton per mile. The railways came and carried a ton of goods twenty-five miles an hour for two cents per mile. The value of a wagon load of wheat is to- tally consumed in hauling it on the earth road three hundred miles. The United States, with 112,000 miles of railway, is the foremost nation in the world in the abundance and excellence of her highways. The locomotive and steel rail is the swift civilizer of the wilderness. There are between Lake Superior and the bright waters of Puget Sound 500,000 square miles of rich territory, ready to be impressed with the prosperity, wealth and civilization of the East. A national railway could alone insure that development in this generation. One, and even two lines, were not sufficient to meet the requirements of the situation.

"The center and south were already supplied- the line of the northern zone alone remained or com- pletion. It is the true commercial zone. Behind it lie the active wealth, the commercial power, and the marts of commerce of this nation. New York, Boston, Chicago, the great lakes, the great lines of railway, the growing cities and power of the North- west, all the great motive forces of the new world, are on the line of this commercial zone. These forces await the opening of this line to pour through its arterial way the tides of wealth and trade. It is backed by all the commercial powers of the age. The northern route was the only original plan of a railway to the Pacific. The waters of the great lake were assumed as its necessary base, and the con- vexity of the earth gave it vastly the shorter line. Nature had depressed the very mountains them- selves for its passage, while the Columbia river and the archipelago of Puget sound seemed to be planned for its Pacific terminus. In the fullness of time, and upon its own merits, this stupendous work has been accomplished. It is of permanent interest to trace the rise and growth of so great an artery of national and international commercial life, which also insures commercial supremacy to our own state. I purpose, therefore, to present the essential outline of its history from its inception to its completion.

"To Dr. Hartwell Carver belongs the honor of being the first person who first conceived and pub- licly advocated building a railway across the Amer- ican continent, to connect the Atlantic with the Pa- cific ocean. In 1837 he began to advocate its feasi-

bility in the newspapers. His first article appeared in the New York 'Courier and Enquirer,' for the insertion of which he paid the sum of fourteen dol- lars. At that time he was regarded as a Utopian project. His newspaper article, his memorial to congress and his pamphlet, are before me as I write. They evince unbounded faith in the scheme, but the methods proposed there are wholly impracticable. In 1845 he published an Inquiry into the Practica- bility and Benefits of a Railroad from Lake Michi- gan to the Pacific Ocean. In 1848 he memorial- ized congress for a private charter for himself and his friends, and based his claime as 'first inceptor of the project.' His grandfather was that Jonathan Carver who explored a portion of the wilderness of Minnesota in 1764, and whose valuable contri- butions to the history of the country have been justly remembered by naming a county and town in this state in his honor. He himself claimed to 'hail from the far Northwest, the Falls of St. An- thony, which,' he says, 'I call my present and future home.' His home, however, appears to have been in Monroe county, New York, at which place his communications and memorials were dated. Dr. Carver claims that the first suggestion of a railroad across the Rocky Mountains occurred to him while in Europe, in 1832, in passing from Milan to Swit- zerland, while crossing the Alps by the Simplon road, built by Napoleon. The peculiarity of Car- ver's project, like that of all others at an early date, was to connect the great northern lakes with the Pacific ocean, at Puget sound or the Columbia river.

"In the year 1845 Asa Whitney began to direct public attention to and revive interest in a railway to the Pacific. He was a merchant in New York and had spent many years in China. He made numerous speeches through the country, wrote newspaper articles and published numerous pamph- lets upon the subject. His scheme was to build it by means of the public lands based on a system of European emigration. His enthusiasm and practi- cal plans enlisted some of the best men in the coun- try in the project. His celebrated meeting at the Tabernacle, in New York, January 4, 1847, was taken possession of by a mob, who declared the project a swindle planned by a band of conspirators to rob the government of its lands. He died in Washington in 1872.

"Many grotesque and extravagant notions con- cerning a railway to the Pacific characterized the earlier years of its history. Notable among these

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were Carver's extravagant ideas concerning the prodigious cars of two hundred feet in length he proposed to run; to build great arches over the rivers after the manner of the Romans, and to have a gauge of eight feet wide. Perham had an idea tha the could get a million of men to take $100 stock each in the road and thus secure the $100,- 000,000 necessary to build it. Another scheme was to have a system of European immigration which should buy the lands for work upon the road, and thus secure the building as the line was settled. Another fancy was that the excavations of the road through the mountains would develop enough gold and silver to pay for the road. Memorable, too, were the extravagant orations of Delegate Gar- fielde, of Oregon, in congress and on the stump. He portrayed the mild climate of the country in glowing colors, and declared that the winds from the Japan current would follow the building of the road and make a banana belt from Puget sound to Lake Superior. It is well enough to note these early humors, which equal Proctor Knott's famous hyperbolical oration.

"In 1854 Edwin F. Johnson, of Middletown, Connecticut, published a book, with a map, advo- cating the claim of the 'Northern Route' to the Pacific. The question of some railway across the continent was at that time admitted to be of trans- cendant importance, and the public mind was much divided as to which was the best. Three routes were proposed ; one terminating at San Diego; the middle one at San Francisco, and the northern at the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, on Puget Sound. Mr. Johnson advocated, with great minutia of de- tail and marked ability, the northern route. His laborious investigations covered every point in the controversy, and his analysis of the whole subject was so complete that but little has since been added, except by the result of trial surveys and actual loca- tion. Mr. Johnson subsequently served as chief engineer of the enterprise. Under his careful hand the project was no longer a visionary scheme.

"The public mind having persistently urged the necessity of such a national highway, congress finally passed the act of March 3, 1853, which di- rected that the secretary of war should cause to be surveyed, by army engineers, the western country 'to ascertain the most practical route from the Mis- sissippi river to the Pacific ocean.' Jefferson Davis, then secretary of war, designated the several chiefs charged with the surveys, on or near the several parallels of latitude. These surveys were all suc-

cessfully conducted, except that under Captain Gun- nison on the line of the thirty-eighth parallel. He, together with thirteen of his men, were massacred by the Indians in October, 1853. The northern route was in charge of Governor I. I. Stevens, of Washington territory, one of the most intelligent, indefatigable and useful friends of the great en- terprise. Among his assistants we find such famil- iar names as Lieutenant George B. McClellan and Captain John Pope. Governor Stevens' survey fully established, not only the feasibility, but the superiority of the route from the Missouri river to Puget sound. The route east of the Rocky mount- ains, starting at St. Paul, would have been surveyed by Governor Stevens, but his plans were interdicted by Secretary Davis, who was not disposed to give the northern route the chance in public favor its merits demanded. Governor Stevens' elaborate re- ports settled two important points-that the passes of the mountains were feasible, and there would be be no obstructions from snow.

"An intelligent public opinion continued to press the construction of a transcontinental railway. Men of force and character were giving the enterprise support. The people expected it ; the time was ripe for its initiation. A serried girdle of railways was already half way across the continent to the Mis- sissippi river, and the pressure of social and con- mercial forces demanded their extension to our Pacific possessions. The discovery of gold, the defiant conduct of the residents of Utah and the requirements of the war department in Indian mat- ters all combined to quicken the public desire. But the war came, both to delay and expedite the colos- sal work. The great central route and its auxil- iaries werebornin the darkness of the nation's strug- gle, largely as a war measure, to reach and bind our Pacific possessions more closely to the union. This great work was finished May 10, 1869, at Promontory Point, Utalı.

"The people of Minnesota and the citizens of St. Paul were among the earliest and most persist- ent advocates of a Northern Pacific route. Meet- ings were held, information was gathered, and energetic efforts made through a series of years in its behalf. Among others, a remarkable meeting was held in St. Paul, July 10, 1857, of which Colonel William Noble was chairman and Joseph A. Wheel- ock, secretary. It was addressed by Governor Ram- sey and James W. Taylor. Mr. Taylor's address was a very full and intelligent view of the whole question. The resolutions he offered were remark-

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ably terse and vigorous, one of which is as follows : 'Resolved, That the great physical feat will vindi- cate itself-namely, that the commerce and power of the globe lies north of the fortieth degree of north latitude and that four-fifths of Europe, with a corresponding area of the Pacific coast of North America, is north of the center of Minnesota.' L'pon the basis of this comprehensive idea, the civil engineer of St. Paul, Charles A. F. Morris, made a large map of that zone of the world, representing that idea and defining the line of the proposed road. That map is still in existence, and it is a remarka- ble presentation of the grand idea it embodies. Through all the years of its varying fortunes, the city of St. Paul, the people of Minnesota and her representatives in congress were the faithful and unwearied advocates of the route, and contributed valuable facts and information in aid of the project.

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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 22

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