USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 28
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Henry C. Ash came to Yankton in 1859 and built a large hotel ; Mrs. Ash being the first white woman to make her home at Yankton and her daughter Julia (Mrs. C. H. Bates), the first white child born in the town.
JUDSON LA MOURE
Pioneer of Union County, 1860. Legis- lator from Pembina County later
HUGH S. DONALDSON
First legislative representa- tive from the Red River of the North, 1862.
COLONEL ENOS STUTSMAN
CHARLES E. GALPIN
Indian trader and husband of Mrs. Picotte
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MOSES K. ARMSTRONG
Moses K. Armstrong reached Yankton October 12, 1859, and took an active part in assisting the settlers in the adjustment of their settlement claims to the public surveys. He was elected to the House of Representatives in the first Territorial Legislature, 1862, re-elected to the second Legislative Assembly, and was elected speaker on the resignation of Hon. Andrew J. Harlan. In the fifth session of the Territorial Legislature, he served as member of the Council, and was elected president of the Council in the sixth Legislative Assembly. From 1871 to 1875, he was delegate to Congress from Dakota Territory, and at the request of Col. Clement A. Lounsberry of the Bismarck Tribune, introduced a bill for the division of Dakota, and for a division of the Pembina land district, creating the land offices at Fargo and Bismarck. Similar bills were introduced in the Senate at Mr. Lounsberry's request.
THE FIRST SURVEYS IN DAKOTA
The surveys in the colonies were of tracts in irregular form, excepting in Georgia, where in 1733, eleven townships, of 20,000 acres each, were surveyed into lots of fifty acres.
The new surveys gave townships of thirty-six sections, each one mile square, containing 640 acres, or quarter sections of 160 acres.
The system of surveys of public lands in vogue throughout the United States, was adopted May 7, 1784, by Congress, upon a report by a committee of which Thomas Jefferson was chairman. The origin of the system is not known, beyond the facts reported by the committee.
In the Government Building at the World's Fair of 1893, in Chicago, there was exhibited the original standard surveyor's chain, authorized by Act of Con- gress, May 18, 1797, for executing surveys of Government lands. The chain was made by David Rittenhouse, of Philadelphia, in 1797, and was still in the same hardwood box in which it was sent out by the manufacturer.
The first Dakota surveys were near Sioux City, Iowa, the boundary being Big Sioux River for 70 miles above its mouth. Townships were there laid out in 1860 by John Ball, and subdivided in 1861, by Cortez Fessenden, lines being extended from older Iowa surveys of 1853. Snow and Hutton ran the straight Dakota-Minnesota boundary in 1859.
The exterior lines of eighty townships in Dakota were run on the lands in the Big Sioux region ceded in 1851, left out of Minnesota by the admission of that state in 1858. The subdivisions of some of these townships were made by Thomas J. Stone, of Sioux City, in 1859. The surveying party which made the survey of 1859, came overland from Dubuque, Iowa. Thomas C. Powers, after- wards United States senator from Montana, and identified with the steamboat interests on the Missouir River, notably of the "Black P Line," was one of this party ; also William Miner, identified for many years with Bramble & Miner at Yankton, in general trade.
The township lines were run at Sioux Falls by W. J. Neely in June, 1859. and some of the section lines by John K. Cook in September, 1859. Cortez Fessenden and Moses K. Armstrong, in 1864, ran additional township lines, and Carl C. P. Meyer the section lines that year.
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The township lines were run at Flandreau, by W. J. Neely, in September, 1859; the section lines by Richard F. Pettigrew, in September, 1870. Pettigrew was delegate to Congress from Dakota Territory, 1881-83, and afterwards United States senator from South Dakota.
John Ball surveyed the township lines at Yankton, in September, 1860, and the section lines in October of that year.
The township lines were run at Vermilion, by John Ball, in October, 1860, and the section lines by him in November of that year.
At Elk Point the township lines were run by Ball in 1860, and the section lines by Fessenden in 1861.
At Springfield, the township lines were run by John Ball in October, 1860, and the section lines by Cortez Fessenden in August, 1862.
The township lines at Tyndall were run by Ball in October, 1860, and the section lines by Fessenden, in August, 1862.
At Canton, the township lines were run by Cortez Fessenden in 1862, and the section lines by Fessenden, Mellen and Nye, in 1863.
At Parker, the township lines were run by Armstrong, in September, 1866, and the section lines by George P. Waldron, in October, 1867.
At Pembina, the township lines were run by Armstrong, in September, 1867, and the section lines by him in October, 1868.
The township lines at Wahpeton were run by M. T. Woolley, in September, 1870, and the section lines by Horace J. Austin, in 1870.
The township lines were run at Grand Forks by George N. Propper, in Sep- tember, 1870, and the section lines by George Mills, in September, 1873.
The township lines were run at Fargo by R. J. Reeves, in October, 1870, and the section lines by J. W. Blanding, in November, 1871.
At Bismarck, the township lines were run by Charles Scott, in October, 1872, and the section lines by George G. Beardsley, in November, 1872. After the completion of the railroad as far as Bismarck, the twenty-eight townships along the line from Windsor Station to Steele, had their exteriors run by Gen. William H. H. Beadle and Charles Scott, in 1873, and the subdivisions were completed by these deputies, viz., General Beadle, five townships; Richard F. Pettigrew, fourteen ; Amherst W. Barber, five; Mark Bailey, four.
THE HOMESTEAD LAW-STORY OF THE FIRST LAND OFFICE- THE FIRST LAND ENTRY
The Homestead Law became effective May 20, 1862, after a forty years' battle for its enactment. It became one of the cardinal principles of the republican party, brought into power by the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860; success in part being due to the secession of the southern states in 1861.
The surveyed lands of Dakota Territory became open to homestead entry on the first day of January, 1863. Land officers had been appointed for the first land office in the territory, at Vermilion, and many intending or actual settlers were eagerly awaiting the day. On the last night of the old year a group of friends were having a social chat at the new office, expecting a rush of business on the opening day. One of these was the young printer, Mahlon Gore, from Battle Creek, Mich., who, in 1860, became a pioneer of the settlement. Be- fore they realized the lateness of the hour, the register said, "Here, Gore, didn't
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you say you meant to be the first man to make a homestead entry ? The clock just struck twelve, it is New Year's Day and the Homestead Law is in force, so now is your time if you wish to head the list." Accordingly the entry was immediately made, for the S. E. 1/4, N. E. 14 section 9 and the S. W. 1/4 of N. W. 1/4 and lots 3 and 5, section 10, township 92 north, range 49 west, fifth principal meridian, as the homestead of Mahlon Gore, and became the first land entered in Dakota, under the public land laws. This is the story as related to Amherst W. Barber, one of the early surveyors of the territory. After forty years of successful journalism Mr. Gore passed away in 1916, at Orlando, Fla.
Following Mahlon Gore's entry were those of John Guardipe, John B. Le- Plant, Joseph Benoit, Peter Arpan, Clammor Arpan, on January 1, 1863; Frank Verzni, William Mathers, Benjamin Gray, January 2d; Johnson Farris and Martin V. Farris, January 3d; Charles La Breche, Benjamin Guardipe, Charles Chaussee, January 5th; John Brouillard, January 9th ; George Stickney, January 13th. June 15, 1868, Joseph Rolette, of Pembina, made the first entry of public land in North Dakota, at the Vermilion office, and the first legal transfer of land in North Dakota was made-that described in Part One-of a part of this tract to James J. Hill, the great railroad builder, on which he established a bonded warehouse for shipments on the Red River in the Fort Garry (now Winnipeg) and Indian trade.
Those who had settled upon public lands prior to the surveys, were allowed ninety days preference in which to file their claims to homestead or pre-emption entries. The names of only those who made entry during the first few days are here given.
THE PEMBINA SETTLEMENTS-THE CUSTOM HOUSE
The settlement at Pembina mentioned in detail in previous chapters, had a history covering fifty years before any settlement was attempted in South Dakota. The surveys, excepting one tier of towns east of the Red River in 1860, were not commenced in that region until 1867, and the land did not become subject to entry until 1868.
Norman W. Kittson, referred to in Part One, in the Red River country and Minnesota, became identified with the Indian trade at Pembina in 1843, and in 1853 was appointed postmaster at that point. In 1855 he was elected to the Council in the Minnesota Legislature. The customs office was established at Pembina in 1851, with Charles Cavileer agent. Mr. Kittson was succeeded as postmaster and custom-house officer by Joseph Beaupre, of St. Cloud. Minn., a contractor for wood and supplies. Beaupre was succeeded at Pembina by James McFetridge, who was a member of the Council of the second session of the Territorial Legislature, 1862-63. Joseph Rolette, frequently mentioned in Part One, in 1847 led a raid on the British traders across the international boundary and burned their buildings. He was elected to the Minnesota Legisla- ture in 1853 and 1855. William H. Moorhead settled at Pembina in 1856. Peter Hayden, found at Pembina in 1867, by Moses K. Armstrong, surveyor, claimed to have resided there since 1821.
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WILLIAM H. MOORHEAD, A PEMBINA SETTLER OF 1857-A STORY OF TOWNSITES INDIAN TRADE AND BUFFALO HUNTING
William H. Moorhead was born in Freeport, Armstrong County, Pa., Sep- tember 20, 1832; was educated in the public schools of Pittsburgh and Allegheny. He left Pittsburgh April 1, 1852, arriving at St. Paul, Minn., May Ist, where he worked at his trade of carpenter for two years. The summer of 1854 and the following winter he spent at Sauk Rapids, trading with the Winnebagoes, who were subsequently removed to Blue Earth County. Returning to St. Paul, he organized a company to lay out townsites in Northern Minnesota and the Red River Valley. These were the days of paper townsites, laid out on land secured at $1.25 per acre, and sold to the guileless at $2 per lot ;- "just the cost of re- cording the instruments," in the language of the circulars, which were discussed in the country stores throughout the eastern states, and resulted in hundreds of families moving west. There were mill-sites everywhere and waterpowers with- out number, but no improvement of a permanent character. The company con- sisted of Mort Kellogg, J. K. Hoffman, Joseph Charles, E. R. Hutchinson, Walter J. S. Traill, a Mr. Horn, and Moorhead. All were residents of St. Paul. Moorhead, Hoffman and Joseph Charles were the committee to lay out the sites. Procuring a surveyor they went by skiff up the Mississippi to Crow Wing River, and then proceeded up that stream to the mouth of Leaf River, and up that stream to Leaf Lake. From that point they made an overland trip to Otter Tail Lake, a distance of four miles, and from there to the outlet, and laid out Otter Tail City, which became famous in the early history of Minnesota, and was the site of the United States land office, afterwards moved to Duluth. From Otter Tail they went down that river forty miles, and laid out another town, which was called Merriam. They nailed a tin plate to a tree and marking the name of the "city" thereon, proceeded to St. Paul, and having purchased provisions, cooking utensils, tools, etc., they returned with two loaded teams, and erected five log houses at the outlet of Otter Tail Lake. At "Merriam" they erected temporary quarters, but it being impossible to get supplies, they cached their outfit and never returned for the buried articles. In it was a compass worth $80. At Leaf City, after leaving Merriam, they met Joseph A. Wheelock, after- wards a noted St. Paul editor, his brother, and others, who were as destitute of provisions as themselves. They made their way to St. Paul, where they offered their shares at $100 each. They valued their property at $150,000, but as a matter of fact they were penniless. Moorhead traded one share to his landlord in St. Paul for his winter's board, but in the spring the shares were without value and the paper town scheme was ended.
In the spring of 1857, Mr. Moorhead met Hon. Joseph Rolette at St. Paul, together with James McFetridge, who were buying goods to take back to Pem- bina, and they engaged him to erect their new buildings at the mouth of Pembina River. They left St. Paul July 7th, and arrived at the mouth of the Pembina River the Ist of August. Moorhead completed the buildings and remained with Rolette as a clerk, until February, 1858, when he made a trip to St. Paul with a dog train, not seeing a house after he left Pembina until he reached the Mississippi. He left St. Paul with a loaded train March 18th and arrived at Pembina March 30th, the dogs drawing 450 pounds of merchandise. The trip
JOSEPH ROLETTE Who entered the first public land in North Dakota. June 15, 1868
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was a hard one, as he became snow-blind, and it was with great difficulty that he found the way back.
June 8th he left Pembina on a buffalo-hunting expedition, returning in August with fifteen carts loaded with furs, hides and pemmican. That fall he went to the Lake of the Woods and Lake Rosa, to trade with the Chippewas, obtaining much fur, and thence to the Turtle Mountains, where he had good trade with Indians and half-bloods. The same was true at Devils Lake and where Minot now stands, where he remained during most of the winter. In the spring of 1859, he went to St. Paul with twenty-five cart-loads of robes and furs which he exchanged for goods, loading his carts in return for Pembina. He made several trips of that kind, with unvarying profit, until the spring of 1861, when he was compelled to remain in the garret of his house twenty-two days by the high water of that spring. The water was then five feet higher than it was during the season of high water in 1882, the "spring rise" remembered by many of the settlers of that time.
After the water went down, Moorhead moved to Walhalla, where he engaged in trade with the Indians. He was scarcely nicely located before the Indian war broke out, resulting in the Minnesota massacre of 1862. The Indians were on good terms with Moorhead as he was at their treaty, on the plains of Nelson County, in Northern Dakota, when the tribes of Sioux, Creeks, Chippewas and Assiniboines, who for years had been at enmity, always hanging on each other's trail, murdering the women and children of the hostile tribes, met, and buried the hatchet, smoked the pipe of peace, and thereafter dwelt together in harmony ; but. as they expected him to sell them ammunition, and not liking their attitude because he refused, he moved to Devil's Lake, where he remained during the summer and winter of 1862. There were then about one hundred families of half-bloods and Indians at the lake.
In the spring of 1862 Moorhead returned to Pembina Mountains, and about the first of May the band of Little Crow, embracing Little Six, Medicine Bottle and others, about one thousand strong, pitched their tepees around his place. Among them, as a prisoner, was the son of William Myrick, about eight years of age, who was ransomed by Frank Gingras for one sack of pemmican. His father had been killed by the Indians and robbed of his possessions. The Indians left for the plains as usual in June, when Mr. Moorhead made his spring trip to St. Paul with his carts, requiring forty days for the trip, and then went to the plains on a buffalo hunt. That fall he married Lizzie Rivier, and made his wed- ding tour to Mouse River, leaving November 10th with five carts and one travois. They got lost in a snow storm, and it took seventeen days to make the trip. Moorhead built a house after his arrival at a point 11/2 miles from where Towner is now located. He remained there during the winter, trading with the Sioux, and found among the Indians a boy ten years old, who had been so long among them that he had forgotten his name and could not talk much English. All he could make known was that his parents lived on a hill in Minnesota. The lad was never able to learn who his parents were or what was their name.
The buffalo were very scarce during the spring of 1863, and as a result many families suffered with hunger. Many of the inhabitants of the plains had to boil their raw hides and harness to keep from starving. Moorhead had 250 tongues of buffalo, nicely dried, which he had saved for Governor Ramsey of
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Minnesota, Jesse Ramsey, and other friends in St. Paul, but he gave them to the starving ones.
April 10th the hunters started for the mountains, leaving Moorhead and family with about eight pounds of pemmican, to follow. They rejoiced when able to kill a badger on their way, but after traveling about six miles farther, they overtook their party. Every pot was boiling with a piece of fat buffalo. They had encountered a herd of buffalo and had killed 300. The stale pemmican was thrown away and the party remained three days, living on the fat of the land. For eighteen days they were not out of the sight of buffalo, while pursuing their way to the mountains.
MOORHEAD, LAMOURE AND OTHERS-DATE OF LAND ENTRIES
Hon. Judson LaMoure made the second pre-emption entry in North Dakota, December 19, 1870. At the same time William H. Moorhead, Charles Bottineau and fourteen others, made entry, and during the next eleven days, eleven more, making twenty-eight entries of public lands, and all about Pembina, prior to January 1, 187I.
Outside the Selkirk and Pembina settlements, Lewis Lewiston built a home where Moorhead is situated, in 1860, and raised 100 acres of oats that year. Moorhead was then known as Burbank Station, on the stage line extended from St. Cloud, Minn., to Fort Abercrombie and thence to Georgetown, in 1859. Walter Hanna broke one acre in 1858. Richard Banning raised one acre of potatoes in 1860.
Clay County, Minn., was then known as Breckenridge, and Wilkin as Toombs County, and settlements were progressing well in the Red River Valley until interrupted by the Indian war of 1862.
JOSEPH ROLETTE AND THE MINNESOTA CAPITAL BILL
"Jolly" Joe Rolette was one of the early characters in Dakota whom the City of St. Paul, Minn., has embalmed in its history as one of its saviors.
Rolette was a trader without method and with little idea of the value of money, and, if the whole truth were to be told, it would appear that the opposition traders sent him to the Legislature in order to take him away from his business, and leave the trade open to them without his competition, which was entirely too sharp. His career in the Legislature and the fact that the bill removing the capital from St. Paul to St. Peter was disposed of by him, while a member of the Legislature, excites the inquiry as to how it happened.
One who was present in those old times, says drinking and carousing was not an uncommon thing at the capital; indeed, a jug of intoxicating liquor was placed in the hall of the House of Representatives, and a decanter set on the speaker's desk for the use of the members. Interested parties left Rolette-who as a mem- ber of the committee had the bill removing the capital to St. Peter in charge-in a room in the Merchants Hotel, and provided sufficient entertainment to keep him jolly and forgetful, until the Legislature adjourned.
The bill was introduced in and passed the Council and had also passed the House of Representatives and was in the hands of Rolette, chairman of the Com-
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mittee on Enrolled Bills. A resolution was offered, directing Rolette to report the bill. A call of the House was moved. Rolette sat in his room at the Merchants Hotel, and the members under a call of the House 123 hours without a recess. They then adjourned, but on assembling Friday, the president, Hon. John B. Brisbin, ruled that the call was still pending, and again on Saturday, with the same result. Finally, late the last night of the session the call was dispensed with, and the committee reported Rolette still absent, and their inability to report a correct copy of the bill in his possession, and they were compelled to adjourn without the bill having been signed by the proper officers.
At that time Pembina was in a legislative district, embracing all of North Dakota east of the Missouri River, and much of Northern Minnesota. When the first Legislature met in Minnesota, it was in the Minneapolis legislative district, and when the first session of the Dakota Legislature, in 1862, met, it was in the Sioux Falls legislative district
SETTLEMENTS NEAR FARGO
In July, 1858, Edward Griffin, Robert Davis and Walter Hanna, of Redwing, Minn., arrived at a point on the Red River seven miles south of what is now Fargo, near Fort Abercrombie, and located the Townsite of East Burlington. Fort Aber- crombie was built in August of that year, and two companies of soldiers were sta- tioned there. Griffin and party spent the winter at a townsite called Lafayette, near the mouth of the Sheyenne River, about eleven miles north of Fargo, where Charles W. Nash, Henry Brock, Edward Murphy, and Harry Myers were holding the townsite for St. Paul parties. Pierre Bottineau had Frank Durant and David Auger holding a townsite on the Dakota side called Dakota City. George W. Northrup, mentioned in part one as interpreter and guide on a buffalo hunt, was holding a nameless city one mile north of Sheyenne, also on the Dakota side. George Myers and Harry and Richard Banning were holding a townsite at Ban- ning's Point, one mile south of the Sheyenne ; Northrup had a trapping party with him. There were fifteen people then connected with these several townsite claims.
THE FIRST FLOUR MILL
In the spring of 1859 Randolph M. Probstfield came to the locality, where he found Adam Stein and E. R. Hutchinson. George Emerling came with him. Emerling went to St. Joseph (now Walhalla) where he built the first flouring mill in North Dakota, excepting a small mill built by Father Belcourt at his mission. Stein and Hutchinson became permanent settlers at Georgetown, and Probstfield seven miles north of Fargo, at Oak Point.
Probstfield was able to purchase supplies at Lafayette. Enroute to the Red River Valley they encountered Anson Northrup with a heavy train of wagons and forty-four men, moving the machinery of the steamer North Star from the upper Mississippi River to the Red River. Northrup sawed the timber by means of a whip saw, and put a steamer on the Red River in 1859, as he had contracted to do. He collected his bonus and left the proposition of manning it to be solved by other parties.
The persons named and James Anderson, living one mile north of Fargo.
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known as "Robinson Crusoe," were practically the only settlers on the Red River south of Pembina at this time, March, 1859.
THE FIRST FARMS IN THE RED RIVER VALLEY
Georgetown was established in 1859, by James McKay for the Hudson's Bay Company ; a warehouse, store building, shops, etc., being erected. Robert McKen- zie was the first in charge. Mckenzie was frozen to death returning from Pem- bina with supplies, and was succeeded by James Pruden, who was followed by Alexander Murray ; Mr. Probstfield taking charge in 1864. At the time of the Indian outbreak in 1862, there were thirty men employed at Georgetown. Peter, Joseph and Adam Goodman, brothers of Mrs. Probstfield, were in 1861 settlers in the Red River Valley. Charles Slayton and family came in 1859, and in 1861 Zere B. Slayton settled one mile north of Fargo.
In 1858 Edward Connelly came into the country with a party of twenty, employed by the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1859 he broke fifty acres for that company at Georgetown. This was the first farm opened in the Red River Valley.
The origin of Dakota farming is given in Chapter IV, Part One. Indian farming and the first white farmer, Alexander Henry, 1801, are there men- tioned, but in December, 1870, there was not a bushel of wheat, oats, barley, rye or corn produced in North Dakota for export-none whatever, excepting, pos- sibly, a few bushels in the settlements about Pembina and the Hudson's Bay station at Georgetown. Hon. Judson LaMoure states that the only land under cultivation at that time, aside from a few small patches for gardens, was by Charles Bottineau, ten acres; Charles Grant, five to eight acres; Antoine Gingras, twenty to twenty-five acres; John Dole, two or three acres; all at Pembina. There were, perhaps, two acres at Abercrombie. Nier Either and Peter Sla- moure broke twenty acres each in 1870, which was put under cultivation in 1871, but in 1870 all of the land under cultivation in North Dakota for every purpose would not exceed one hundred acres.
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