USA > North Dakota > Dickey County > History Of Dickey County, ND, 1930 > Part 5
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When the Grand Rapids stage was routed over another line Keystone was supplied by a mail route from Ellendale. To accommodate the new settlers in the Merricourt neighborhood a postoffice was established at the claim house of a settler about three miles northwest of where Merricourt is now located, and the mail for this office was brought up by the Ellendale- Keystone mail carrier and out to the Merricourt office. After Monango was located the Merricourt mail was brought out from there until the Soo line built in to Merricourt.
Yorktown was settled in 1883 and a postoffice established there but for a time no provision was made to carry the mail regularly. The settlers were taking turns in bringing the mail from Ellendale, or any one who was in town would bring it out in a grain sack. But when the Northern Pacific built into LaMoure the stage line which had been going through Keystone was changed to run by way of Yorktown. Martin & Strane, an enterpris- ing pair of young men who had a livery barn, a hotel and an implement store in Ellendale had the contract for carrying the mail over the Grand Rapids line and were transfered to the line to LaMoure.
The route of this new line was out of Ellendale almost due northeast.
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It did not have to follow section lines or deviate from its course except where some settler had a crop growing or where sloughs made it necessary to drive around them. It went on the section line past the place known as the Emery Ranch where it went a half mile east then up the quarter line to the center of the section and then northeast again. It went through Yorktown to the corner of the section on which that settlement was located then due north to the county line.
Charles Saunders and L. H. Hull were two of the early drivers over this route. They used a sort of bus, not a regulation stage, but a rig with three seats and a canvass cover. They used two horses at a time, and would drive out of Ellendale in the morning to Yorktown, then taking a fresh team from the Morey barn would go on to LaMoure. Here they would take dinner and with a fresh team drive back to Yorktown, change to the team they had driven that morning and come into Ellendale. It made a round trip of seventy-two miles and was not an easy day's work for the driver.
The life of a stage driver had some picturesque features, but times had changed and a higher type of civilization was found in this new country. Travel was heavy and on the Grand Rapids line they had to use four horses some of the time. One morning Everett Gray was in Ellendale about the time for the stage to pull out for Grand Rapids. The man who had been driving on this line was drunk, and one of the managers, Martin or Strane, saw Everett near by and called out, "Can you drive four horses?" Mr. Gray promptly said, "Yes, of course", although he had never done it. Anyhow he soon found himself perched on the seat of a Concord stage bound for Grand Rapids. He knew if he could get out on the road without an accident he could get along. He drove the leaders and let the wheelers follow and got along all right. He drove for several months and after a few trips learned to handle the four lines as well as any one. The stage usually had six to eight passengers; the baggage was carried in the boot and on the top, one passenger with the driver and the others inside. There were all kinds of people travel- ing; drunks and preachers, lawyers and laborers, and every other kind. The fare was four dollars from Grand Rapids to Ellendale by way of Keystone, and after LaMoure was established they went into that town for a time and then on to Grand Rapids, fording the river near LaMoure twice in order to reach it.
Charles Saunders on the Yorktown line had a nervous time one morning when starting out of Yorktown. A "tough bird" as he called him, had been hanging around and the hotel man warned Saunders to be on the look- out when starting out of town. Saunders was driving a pair of cayuses and they whipped out pretty fast as they went past an old sod barn. The tough "guy" stepped out but he was too slow and the stage did not stop for him. Later, he was arrested ("picked up") for robbing his partners of a valuable bunch of furs.
The weather sometimes bothered, and with uncertain roads it would
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sometimes be as late as eight o'clock when the stage would reach Ellendale, but Mr. Saunders missed only one trip. That time he left Yorktown to go to Ellendale and ran into a storm. On this trip he had no passengers. His horses swung up to a shack by the road and stopped. He looked out and knew the place and started his team again for Ellendale. After a while the horses stopped again and Mr. Saunders found he was at the same shack again. He looked at his watch, gave the horses a cut to go on the road and started out the third time. Again the horses swung off the road and in fifteen minutes were back at the shack again. This time Mr. Saunders un- hitched, led one horse inside to test the floor, then brought in the other, opened a straw tick to feed the horses from it, then blanketed the animals and laid down in his buffalo robe and went to sleep. When he awoke the sun was shining in his eyes through a knot hole and the storm was over, so he hitched up and drove into Ellendale.
For his services as stage driver he received $14.00 a month and his board and room. The fare from Ellendale to LaMoure was three dollars, and the driver was collector, conductor, brakeman and guide. This stage had to ford the Maple river when the ice went out in the spring. The drivers knew where they could find good bottom and would push in and flounder across. They had a bridge most of the time, but when it was out of order or gone they forded. At places they had put rocks in the river to make a good bottom. These drivers were heroic men and hardly ever missed a trip in bad weather. Bundled up in his big fur coat, cap and mitts, cold weather and severe storms would not deter him. Saunders, Gray, Hull, Sutley and others were men who helped bring the benefits of civilization to this country, and Jackson Strane, an early sheriff, backed the enterprise that brought connec- tion between the homesteader and his friends back home.
Settlers to the west of the Milwaukee line to Ellendale needed mail services and several lines were run from the towns along this railroad. J. V. McMillan got a contract to take the mail between Ellendale and Bismarck. He knew in a general way where the route was to run. George Cochran took out the ponies for the relay stations and was the first driver. The line ran west from Ellendale about three miles then over to the north township line and west to Coldwater Lake in McIntosh county then on south of Kisling- berry Springs to the northeast corner of Hoskins Lake, then to the north- west to Bismarck. At first there was no stopping place except a settler's home at Hoskins Lake. The driver stopped for the night wherever darkness overtook him and made himself as comfortable as he could with the equip- ment he carried on the stage. If he were fortunate enough to reach the shack of a settler he found a stopping place with him.
In 1883, Mr. J. H. McClure, a man from Monmouth, Illinois, got the job of carrying the mail over this route. The line was changed about this time to run to Ft. Yates. Ditto, an old Texas man, and Mat Gray had come up with Mr. McClure and were also connected with the stage line, Gray
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doing considerable of the driving. There was only one rig and this would leave Ellendale one morning and would make Hoskins Lake that night. The next day the stage would go on to Fort Yates, delivering the mail at the log building at Winona where the post-office was kept. The day after this the stage would leave Winona in the morning and reach Hoskins Lake that night and come on to Ellendale the next day, using four days for the round trip. They used a three seated spring wagon to carry the mail and occasionally a passenger, and did not try to run in the winter. In this year of 1883 the place at Hoskins Lake was made a regular stopping place, as lumber was drawn out from Ellendale and a good frame shanty built. There was no stable, but a corral was built of poles. There were some trees on the lake shore and a spring furnished water.
Mr. Bariah Magoffin, a Kentucky colonel, had bid off some of the mail contracts along the Milwaukee line and took the mail contract to Hoskins in 1886. Eb Magoffin, the son, had to do the driving for several weeks be- fore they could get a satisfactory bidder to take over the contract. They were using a "democrat" wagon and had four horses for the line. By this time Mr. Bacey had established his ranch at Coldwater Lake and a post- office known as Coldwater was established with Mr. Bacey as postmaster. The mail stage would start out of Ellendale in the morning and drive to Bacey's ranch where they could get dinner and a fresh team, then drive to Hoskins' and stay over night; then the next day drive back to Ellendale. The trip now took two days, as the line from Hoskins' to Fort Yates had been discontinued. The stage passed Lorraine postoffice east of the hills where they would leave mail, and there was a postoffice at a farm house be- tween Hoskins' and Coldwater. The fare on the stage was $3.00 from Ellendale to Hoskins' and the passengers paid for their own dinners.
Several contractors had this line in the following years, and several different drivers ran the stage. A new postoffice, Pierson, was established north of Lorraine on Section 18 of Township 130-64. Lorraine postoffice was kept by Theodore Gray and the mail was sent from Lorraine to Pierson by Hugh Gallager who lived about half way between the two offices. When Gallagher himself was too busy in harvest he sent one of his girls to carry the mail bag.
In 1897 Franklin had the contract for hauling the mail to Ashley and he hired John Kosel to drive the stage for him. Mr. Kosel had a claim about four and a half miles east of Coldwater. He got $700.00 a year from Franklin and whatever he could get for hauling passengers and freight. He handled what he could in his buggy, charging $2.00 each for passengers from Ellen- dale to Ashley. A new postoffice had been established near his place, known as Albertha, and Mr. Kosel would take the mail from Albertha to Ellendale, stopping at Lorraine; then in the afternoon he would drive back to Albertha and his home. The next day he would take the mail from Albertha to Cold- water and Ashley, returning home the same day. It took from six in the
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A HISTORY OF DICKEY COUNTY, NORTH DAKOTA
morning to six at night to make the return trip, especially on the Ellendale end. Some winter mornings he was out of the hills on the way to Ellendale by the time the sun was up.
Mr. V. E. Haskins, a neighbor in the township north from Mr. Kosel had the driver's job for some years. He followed the same plan as Mr. Kosel, taking two days for the round trip but being at home every night. At this time the route went west for about two miles from Ellendale, then over to the township line and into the hills about where the new state high- way is located.
Later the railroad was extended to the new town of Forbes and the postoffices at Lorraine and Pierson were discontinued; Albertha postoffice dropped out and a new office at Wirch was established, with most of the people served by the old postoffice getting their mail at Forbes. The stage line was continued until 1910. The laying out of new highways and their completion in 1926 saw the establishment of an auto bus line through Ellendale and Ashley to Bismarck, but the days of the old frontier stages have passed.
There was also a mail and stage line from Ellendale to Port Emma and later to Ludden and connection made to Milnor, which brought out mail for the settlers around these towns and the newer settlements that later found themselves on the Great Northern. In all these small towns the arrival of the stage was the event of the day. It brought the mail and occasionally a passenger, and the driver brought any news that had come too late for the papers or the letters.
The postoffices in Dickey County have been as follows: Ellendale established early in 1882; Keystone on April 6, 1882; Port Emma also in 1882; Hudson in May of 1883; Ludden (old town) July 2nd, 1883; Eaton, Yorktown, Ticeville and Merricourt, all in 1883; Weston on October 18th, 1883; Ulness in 1884, afterwards becoming Glover in 1887; Wright about the same time; Ludden (new town) in 1886; Oakes on Sept. 6th, 1886; Guelph in 1887; Fullerton in October, 1888; Clement on August 24th, 1888; Silver- leaf in 1887; Lorraine in 1897; Pierson on Feb. 16th, 1898; Wirch in 1900; Albertha in 1896; Forbes in 1905; Wolf in 1910. In the southeastern part of the county mail has been received from the postoffice of Frederick and Hecla, South Dakota, and the rural delivery has supplied mail to Dickey county residents from LaMoure and Kulm. For some time the Alpha, S. D. post- office was supplied out of Ellendale. By 1912 the number of postoffices in the county had been reduced to twelve.
Soon after the first settlers began to come to this region some one thought of carrying the goods and supplies by water. A boat was built at Columbia in 1883-1884 from lumber freighted down from Jamestown. The boat which was named the "Nettie Baldwin" from the daughter of a Colum- bia banker, was in commission for something over two years. It was a flat- bottomed scow drawing only a few feet of water, a sternwheeler, very diffi-
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cult to steer because it would swing from side to side. The shape and handl- ing of the boat was such that in rough weather it was difficult to protect the cargo, and in its last season it spoiled a cargo of flax by getting it wet. It carried its load on the deck, and when not carrying much freight it could carry twenty-five passengers. Its first arrival at Port Emma was on April 17th, 1884, and the fact that this place was a port of call gave the town its new name. The steamer went up as far as Hudson, coming up one day, remaining over night and going back the next day. On some occasions it went up to La Moure.
When it came to building bridges across the James it was a question as to whether it was a navigable river. Most people considered it was not but the steamboat operators held that they were actually navigating it and objected to have bridges built without a draw. In 1886 a bridge was built at Port Emma. The captain of the steamer to make a demonstration and force the authorities to put in a drawbridge, came up the river and was preparing to whistle for the draw when he ran aground in the mud and could not get up within whistling distance of the bridge. That fall the steamboat transported some grain down river but went out of commission; its engine and boilers were removed and its hull laid up at Columbia.
Another interesting attempt to navigate this river was tried as late as 1912 and 1914. Mr. A. H. Alexanderson had been working on the Benton Packet Line out of Bismarck and was interested in boating. In 1909 he was doing carpenter work in LaMoure and Dickey counties, and conceived the idea of building a boat on the James. His boat was to be eleven feet wide at the bottom, 16 feet at the top, and sixty-one feet long, but these dimen- sions had to be changed to let the boat through some of the bridges. The work of construction was done on the south bank of Bear Creek near the N. P. bridge a mile and a half north of Oakes. The boat was launched about the middle of July, 1910. The work was well done and the boat drew only about a foot of water with all its machinery aboard. It had to be floated down Bear Creek to the James, where it was first put into commission about the first of June, 1912. Five excursions from the bridge west of Oakes were run that year, and some excursions from LaMoure and other points on the river were made. The boat attracted much attention and many people took a ride in this novel way. The captain lived on it the summer of 1912 and again in 1913 when one or more excursions were run, but the water was low that year.
On July 4, 1914 the boat made its last trip when it took a picnic party from Mr. Jacobson's to the grounds at Wright's grove, a distance of fourteen miles in an hour and a half. That night the boat was taken back to the starting point about five miles below LaMoure, where later it was pulled up on the bank and taken apart for the material to be used for other purposes. This was the end of the "Wander Land". Another boat was built by Captain Alexanderson at this place below La Moure in 1914 and named, "The Red
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Wing". This was a smaller boat than the "Wander Land" and was run on the river in 1915 and 1916, and in 1916 was taken down river to Columbia where it was still in service in 1925.
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A HISTORY OF DICKEY COUNTY, NORTH DAKOTA
CHAPTER VII A PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT
[Interviews with the pioneers and papers collected by the Dickey County Historical Society are the authorities for this chapter.]
D ICKEY County was settled by a people who came here to make their homes, so they early gave attention to schools, churches and fraternal organizations. The first school in Ellendale was a private enterprise. On August 26th, 1882 a meeting of the citizens was called in the Milwaukee depot for the purpose of arranging for the organization of a school. It was voted not to form an organized district but to raise money by popular sub- scription. A committee for this purpose was appointed and the following week this committee reported that they had secured one hundred thirty-two dollars. This money was turned over to Mr. Samuel B. Meacham for the purpose of repairing his building for school and engaging a teacher. The teacher hired was his wife, Mrs. May Meacham, who opened the school on September 25th, in the building now used (1929) as the office of the Northern Power and Light Company. Mrs. Meacham was to furnish the building and teach for three months for one hundred dollars and one ton of coal. Twenty pupils were enrolled the first day but a total of thirty-one pupils were admitted during the three months' term and the average attendance was sixteen. Books from all over the United States were used with scarcely two alike. The only piano in town, belonging to Miss Blanche Davis, was in the school room to help in the opening exercises. Mr. and Mrs. Meacham lived in the same building and did their cooking in the school room for several weeks, until the room in the rear was completed. This was the first school in Dickey County.
A common school district three miles square was organized by the new county superintendent, Mrs. F. F. Bergendahl. The first organized school in Ellendale was located in the south part of town and Mrs. E. J. Herbert was the teacher. The attendance grew rapidly and more room had to be provided so bonds were issued and a new building erected.
A school was organized in Keystone in the summer of 1883 with Mrs. W. A. Caldwell as teacher. This school was held in the "tabernacle" which was built by Haggerty and used for a hotel, a large building with seven foot posts and a flat roof. There were tiers of bunks along the walls for the ac- commodation of guests. The school furniture consisted of little plank tables at which the students sat in chairs, two at a table. The next school was held in the upstairs of the Wilson house, and then a place was provided for it in
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the original Caldwell store. When the town was moved over to Monango the children went to school in a little school house a mile or two west of the town. Mrs. Mary Crabtree Morrison was the teacher, and after this one winter in that location the school was moved to Monango.
The first schools were usually held in the sod houses or tar paper shack homes of the pioneers. The furniture was pretty apt to be hand made. Books were procured from the publishing houses and the subjects studied were very much the same as those of the older states, for the pioneers came from places where schools were appreciated. The teachers were graded according as to whether they held a first, second or third grade certificate. The prevailing salary seems to have been six dollars a week, and in some places the teacher "boarded around". In the country schools the term was from two to four months in length according to the amount of money avail- able. In towns the terms were longer, sometimes as long as eight months. The children of foreign parents usually attended school through the third and sometimes the fourth grade. Those of American parentage often went as far as they could in their home school and then went back to the old home or some good high school and completed their education. Most of the schools in the rural districts were attempting to do work up to and including the ninth grade, and that with one teacher. In one town school in 1887 an ex- ceptionally good man teacher received $30.00 a month, and had sixty pupils. After some years the wages advanced and a first grade teacher received $32.00 per month, a second grade $30.00 and a third grade, $28.00. Country board for teachers was $2.00 a week and in town $3.00.
An interesting account of those early school days is given by a former pupil of the Ticeville school. Emily Kennedy relates rather a typical story of these early day experiences. "Our first term of school was held in a small claim shanty belonging to Grandma Woodward, and was taught by tiny, merry, seventeen year-old May Towne. While the discipline was not all that might have been desired it at least was as good as could have been ex . pected in so small a room. A perpetual feud existed between the boys and girls, who sat on opposite sides of the room. We studied aloud, stopping occasionally to hurl a book or an epithet at an enemy across the not more than six feet of intervening space. Cool days found us spending recess periods twisting hay to be burned in the little air-tight stove. We were ex- ceedingly fond of our little teacher, and attested our loyalty by being model students for one afternoon, during the dread visit of the county superin- tendent".
"Our second term was held in the new Ticeville school house. We were fortunate in having as teacher Fred Sinclair, a man of culture and vision. "The custom of "boarding round" inaugurated that year, was discontinued afterward, much to the relief undoubtedly of Mr. Sinclair's successors. We had two or three excellent teachers, among whom charming Julia Graham, fresh from normal school, stands out conspicuously. We thought her
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beautiful and her clothes, from the bustle of fashionably ample dimensions to the rich, red velvet cuffs and collar which adorned her green broadcloth dress, perfect.
"But it was during the year I was able to attend the Ludden school that I came in contact with that teacher, Mrs. Karten,-a woman of vision and talent, who made the school room a place of delight. While it is true that her methods met with adverse criticism, I believe her pupils all found her teaching inspiring. She was a purist and spoke delightful English. She stressed proper pronunciation and at least tried to teach us to enunciate distinctly."
The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway was for a few years the only railroad into Dickey County, but with the great influx of settlers the one station was not accessible to the great majority of the people. As one of the pioneers says, "It was a favorite pastime to lay out a railroad and locate a town site." It was the era of railroad expansion and all of the new towns were expecting to be on an important line. The Milwaukee had taken up the rails for the two miles or more that they reached past the new town of Ellendale and had used the right of way for the storage of material for bridges and ties. The final survey passed between Keystone and Merricourt and extended to a place in LaMoure county where Edgeley a new town was located. The new town of Monango was located and the buildings from Keystone moved over to the new site. Two flag stations and Monango were the only places added by the Milwaukee extension.
Seeing the possibilities in the new country a group of enterprising business men of Ellendale organized a railroad project in 1882, the first summer of the new city. This was projected to run from a point on the Missouri river nearly east to Ellendale then continuing in a nearly easterly direction to the Dakota-Minnesota line just north of Fairmount. The fact that it did not reach or pass through any large towns seems to have been a small matter; in fact it would be a great advantage to the promoters to be able to lay out and control the townsites. The town of Hudson was laid out by this company. The question of terminals seems not to have bothered much as the west end was to be on the Missouri and at the Minnesota line it was hoped some other road would be willing to go on with the project. This project was first known as the Ellendale and Wahpeton Railroad. On May 1st, 1883 it was rechristened the Ellendale and West, and on March 14th, 1884 it was given the name of Dakota Midland Railroad. A good part of the survey was made and in many places actual grading was under- taken, and remnants of the work on the line to-be can still be found in Dickey. Sargent and Richland counties. It seems to have been the hope of the promoters to make the new line sufficiently attractive so that one of the roads looking for an extension through this region would buy out the company and complete the road. James J. Hill was interested in railroading in this part of the country and the Northern Pacific people on their trade with Hill
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