Grand Forks County, North Dakota - The whole text, 1900 (part 2 of 4)

Pre-Settlement Annals 33

In the election of 1853 there were 128 votes cast at Pembina. In this election liolette, Gingras and Kittson were sent to the legislature, the two former to the house and the latter to the council. For several years thereafter, Rolette was sent to the legislature, in 1855 as a member of the council. "Joe was a trader without method and with but 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 competitiim, which was entirely too sharp,"

It was during the session of the winter of 1856-7 that Kolette saved the cnpital of Minnesota to St. Paul. A bill providing for its removal to St. Peter had been introduced by VV. I). Lowry, member of the council from St. Cloud, and had passed the council February 12, and the house February 18, 1857. Itonly needed tiie signature of Gov. Gorman, who had been appointed by President Pierce to succeed (Jov. Ramsey, to become a law. Rolette was chairman of the committee that had the matter in charge, and the session being within five days of its close when he received the bill on the 27th, he made away with it by absenting himself from the session, and, with the connivance of friends who were hostile to the project, hesecluded himself in his room at a hotel called the Fuller house. Tradition states that these friends of .loe got him intoxicated, and detained him at the hotel in that way. These interested in having the bill become a law made strenuous effoit^-i to have Joe found, but without avail. Unable to report a true bill fur the governor's sigtiature, the legislature adjourned and the project of removing the capital fell by the wayside.

The Grip Of The Fur Tradk

The vast region now comprised in the Canadian provinces to the north of onr boundary was controlled by the Hudson Bay Fur company. As the charter granted to the original company had never been annulled, the region in question could be opened up to general settlement only by an act of Parliament that would terminate their control over this region. On the other hand, the portion of the valley within the United States could be occupied by settlers at any time, subject only to the extinguishment of Indian titles, which, in this case, was effected about as early as any need of actual settlement required it. Both the agents of the fur company and the independent traders were doubtless opposed to the opening up of the country on either side of the boundary line so long as they could by any means prevent or hinder its inevitable occupation.

The colonization of a reajion in wliich the larger game, and the smaller fur bearing animnis abound, leads to the gradual extinction of the fur trade. When such a region begins to be settled, the larger animals quickly retire before this first wave of advancing civilization; then, a little later, as the settlements spread and agriculture and its associated commercial operations are introduced into the newly occupied country, the smaller ones lessen in number, or, as in the case of the beaver, entirely disappear. Hence the reason of the hostility that the Northwest Fur company exercised toward Lord Selkirk's colonists in 1815 and 1816. They saw in the planting of this colony in the wilderness a menace to their business and its profitable gains. Had not L<>rd Selkirk possessed the requisite influence, the province of Manitoba would never have contained an agricultural population for nearly sixty years later, than, in this instance, happened to be the case.

The fur traders of later times are believed to have circulated exaggerated reports respecting the rigors of the climate so as to deter emigration to the valley. In the nature of the case, considering the steady and continuous west-by-north movement of the surplus population of the northern states, ever on the increase by the yearly arrival of thousands from Europe, the possession of the Northwest by the fur traders necessarily became limited in time, being one of those conditions of life, which, both in the Canadian Dominion and in United States territory, must sooner or later reach its destined end, and be terminated, either by peaceable or violent measures. The former method happily prevailed, but, in the meantime those engnged in the fur trade held a close grip upon the country. It is npparant that they preferred, that things should remain much as they had been and continue so as long as it was possible to maintain this phase of life. This long period of seventy or more years duration, devoted to the fur trade in the Red River Valley, has very aptly been called the "halfbreed epoch." Its duration was too long for it to be classed as an incident in the history of the Northwest.

In 1857, the English House of Commons took the initial step toward opening the British possessions in North America. in the control of the Hudson Bay company to civilization and unresticted commerce. The committee having the matter in charge reported in favor of terminating the control of the Hudson Bay company at the end of their then 21 year ternri expiring in 1869.

In 1857 the Hudson Bay company completed arrangements with the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States whereby goods for that company could be carried in bond through the United States, thus practically doing away with the Hudson bay post known as York Factory, to which goods were then being shipped, vessels arriving and departing once a year. In the sum- mer of 1858 two or three shipments of goods were so made, leavu\(r the Mississippi river at St. Paul and conveyed thence by Red Kiver carts under the direction of James McKey.*

As soon as boat navigation on the northern lai^es and streams opened in the spring, the company's fleet of Mackinaw boats was put into active service. These boats had a capacity of about five tons each. There were distant posts on the Saskatchawan, Athabasca and Mackenzie rivers to which supplies had to be forwarded that had come by vessel from England the previous year, and was brought by the boats up as far as Norway House near the foot of Lake Winnipeg. Leaving Fort Glarry, the boats took down to Norway House the collected stores of furs, which, for the time being, were left at this post, then reloading with the supplies mentioned, the boats passed up the Saskatchawaii, some of them going as far as Edmonton. On their return to Norway House they brought back the winter's catch of furs forwarded from the distant posts, and taking on the boats again the peltries that had been left there, they proceeded down Nelson river to York Factory where a vessel was ready to ship these collected stores to England. Reloading with the cargo that the vessel had brought over, the boats returned up to Norway House where the goods were stored as first mentioned, and then returned to Fort Garry, by which time September had come. Boats merely going from Fort Garry to York Factory and back, could make two round trips a year. Meanwhile, such stock of furs as had been collected at Fort Garry after the departure of the fleet in the spring, was forwarded through the United States. The freight taken through this country in bond, was merely for the supplying of Fort Garry and its outlying posts, f

Fort Abercrombie

In 1858 a military post called Fort Abercrombie was founded on the west bank of Red river fifteen miles below the site of Wahpeton. The fort was laid out in August, and was occupied but one year, when Secretary of War Floyd, as a part of his plan to despoil the North of government property and supplies and prepare the south for rebellion, dismantled the fort, sold the buildings at a great sacrifice, and withdrew the troops. In 1860 the post was again occupied and rebuilt under charge of INLijor Day, and maintained until the building of the Northern Pacific railroad rendered its farther occupation unnecessary.

* Sketch by Capt. Russell Blakeley - We do not know in what publication this valuable historical article on the opening up of the Red River Valley first appeared; bxit it is contained in The Record Magazine for April, 1897: also "The Long Ago," pp. 36-40. The sketch is also nearly all used in this work, but owing to our plan of following Red River Valley history in as strict Chronological order as conveniently possible, it has been necessary to use it in detached paragraphs.

About the time the fort was established, speciihitive parties endeavored to create a number of townsites in western Minnesota, some of them being located on Red river. There bein^ then so few white inhabitants in this regjion and the country undeveh)ped, these ventures, even if attempted in ^ood faith, could not be otherwise than unsuccessful.

Redmen Bury The Hatchet

It was to the interest of the fur traders to keep the separate tribes of Indians at peace with one another as much as possible, but in this undertaking they were not always successful. In the fur trading days the allied tribes of the Sioux were the deadly enemies of the Chippeways (also spelled Ojibways) and the more northern tribes. About the year 1858, members of these tribes, or of most of them, met on the plains of Nelson county, near Stump lake and agreed at this council to bury the hatchet. The pipe of peace was smoked, and they mutually agreed, one tribe with another, to cease from their murderous forays against each other. William H. INfoorhead, one of the old timers of the lied River Valley who came in 1857, happened to be in the Devils lake region and was present at this peace council.

The Beginning Of The Red River Steamboat Era

About this time interest began to be taken by those engaged in commercial pursuits in the navigation of Red river by steamboats, since it was known that it had long been used to transport goods by the use of canoes. In October, 1858, Captain Russell Blakely, of St. Paul, accompanied by John R. Irvine, visited the ]led River Valley for the purpose of examining into the practicability of navigating this stream by steamboats. Resulting from the report of Capt. Blakely the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce offered to pay a bonus of $2,000 to whoever would place a steamboat upon Red river.

The Red River of the North is neither a wide nor deep stream, and is, or formerly was, practically navigable from J.ake Winnipeg up stream as far as Breckenridge and Wahpeton. This, at least, in respect to the latter points, was practicable when the river was above its ordinary stage. After the founding of Moorhead and Fargo the bridges stopped the boats from going above those places. The river is very crooked in respect to its minor bends, increasing to a long stretch the distances that the boats had to travel over and above a nearly straight course such as the railroads in the valley now have. Thus, the distance from the mouth of the Boh des Sioux at Wahpeton to the international boundary is 186 miles by a straight course, and 397 miles by the numerous twists and turns of the river channel, yet in all this part of its course the river does not deviate from one side to the other of a meridian line more than five or six miles. At Wahr R E - S E T T L E M E N T A N N A L S 37 peton the river at its ordinary stage is 943 feet above sea-level; the altitude of Lake Winnipeg is 710 feet, hence the fall of what has here been alluded to as the navigable part of the river amounts to 233 feet. For nbout 24 miles as the river runs, or twelve in a straight course next below the mouth of the Goose, the stream crosses a morainic belt of bowlder clay that extends across the valley here at this point, and its bed is obstructed with bowlders, forming the Goose rapids. The fall in this part of the river is twenty-four feet in its low water stage and fourteen feet during high water. These slight rapids were often a hindrance to the passage of the boats during any season of low water in the days of steamboat navigation.

The range between extreme low and high water at the different points named is as follows: Wah peton, 15 feet; Fargo, 32 feet; Belmont, 50 feet; Grand Forks, 44 feet; Pembina, 40 feet, and at Winnipeg 39 feet. The maximum point of extreme high water, occuring only during occasional spring floods, is Belmont, in Traill county, where the river channel is narrowed betweeu high batiks of bowlder clay; the next point of extreme high water level at (}rand 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 lied river, and been recorded, are those of 1826, 1852, 1860, 1861. 1882 and 1897.

The steamboat era on Red river may be considered as having had its beginning in 1859 and as practically terminating in 1886, in consequence of most of the boats having been driven out by the railroads by that time. There are two rather distinct periods to this era. The first came within the epoch of the fur trading business and was not helped by any settling or agricultural development of the country; the second period was coeval with tlie settling and earlier stages of the development of the valley. Of the earlier Red River steamboats, four of them have now become historic. 'I'hese are the FVeighter, the A.nson Northup, the Internatiorial and the Selkirk. For the present, we are only concerned with the first three of these boats.

The Episode Of The Freighter

The dates of many of the facts relative to Red River Valley history, as usually published in various pamphlets, sketches, etc., are very discrepant, though generally they vary but one year forward or backward of that which should be the correct one. But in respect to the last trip ever made by the steamer Freiii;hter, they reach a perfect climax of confusion. While the general facts of the matter need not be called in question, the date of the attempt that was made to transfer this boat into Red river seems to be involved in almost hopeless entanglement. Manifestly, only one date to the incident here following can be the correct one, yet every year from 1857 to 1862 inclusive has been assigned by different sketch writers as the one that terminated the career of this boat. In this respect, nearly every writer mentioning the circumstance, and assigning a date, is at variance with nearly every other. Moreover, some have confounded the Freighter with the Anson Northup, rendering a bad matter in respect to chronology still worse.

In the spring of 1859 or '60* an attempt was made to transfer a steamboat from the Minnesota into the Red river of the North by passing it through the long trough connecting the valleys of these rivers and in which nestle lakes Traverse and Big Stone. The heads of these lakes are about five miles apart, but the low bottom land between them called Browns Valley, is occasionally sufficiently flooded in the spring so that they are connected together, although draining in opposite directions. It was known that on a few occasions laden canoes had made this passage from Pembina to St. Paul. A small steamer called the Freighter was then plying on the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, with Capt. C. B. Thiemmens, master. J'he boat was owned by Capt. John B. Davis, of St. Paul, and is stated to have been a flat bottomed, square bowed aff"air, about 125 feet in length, of 200 tons burden, and was presumably of the stern wheeled style of build. Its owner seems to have conceived the idea of taking the boa.t into Red river in the manner above mentioned. Those directly interested in the enterprise were .1. C. Burbank, Russell lilakely and associates, parties who about that time organized a company to operate a stage line from St. (Uoud to the lied River Valley.

The Freighter was accordingly run up the Minnesota river during the spring rise, but the water subsiding, the boat groundin the river ciiannel and was left stranded about nine miles below the outlet of Big Stone lake, f It was then deserted by its crew, and one account says it was pillaged and nearly destroyed by the Indians. Capt. Davis afterwards stated that if he had started the boat off from St. Paul some three or more weeks earlier he could have gotten her through Browns Valley and into Red river with lictle trouble. 'J'he boat was afterwards sold for

* N. H. Winchell, a good authority, in the Geological and Natural HIstorv Survey of Minnesota, vol. i. p. 134, gives the date as 18.59. Russell Blakely states that it was in 1860. This attempt to take the boat into Red river is said to have been an incident of a gold excitement that had broken out on the Saskatchawan. If this statement is correct, then the episode of the Freighter would have fallen in the spring following this gold craze.

t The distance to the place below Big t^tone lake at which the Freighter was abandoned has been misstated nearly as often as the date. Warren Upham. who saw the remains of the hull of the boat in 1879, and states that the boat was burned after being abandoned, adds that the locality where she grounded is near the east line of Section 33, Odessa township. Big Stone county, Minn. (Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, vol. i. p. G24.) If the hull of the boat was ever burned it was not until sometime after the cabin, machinery and other tixtures had been removed. In that case it could have been set on tire with equal facilitv bv white men as bv the Indians.

Tre-Settlement Annals 39

its machinery to Burbank & Co., at sheriff's sale, and finally its heavier equipments were removed as presently to be stated. In after years no repetition of this experiment was practicable on account of mill dams on the upper Minnesota, and ultimately numerous bridges over the upper portions of both streams.

The First Steamer On Red River

The first steamboat to navigate Red river was called the Anson Northup and this boat was placed on the river in 1859. Some years before the civil war, a, steamboat called the North Star was in use on the Mississippi above the Fallsof St. Anthony. 'I'his boat was bought at INFinneapolis in the fall of 1858 by Capt. Anson Northup, who took it up the river to Crow Wiug where it was dismantled. Here lumber was sawed for a prospective boat to navigate lied river. Early the next spring an expedition left Crow Wing consisting of 34 ox teams and 44 men enroute for the Red River Valley with the boilers, engine and furnishings of the North Star and the sawed lumber. The expedition followed one of the cart trails to Detroit lake, the remainder of the journey being across a stretch of country without trails, bridges or inhabitants and i ather difficult to pass through in March.. A townsite named Lafayette had been laid out a year or two before this time opposite the mouth of the Sheyenne, and this place contained a log cabin or two. Tlie party arrived here on the evening of the first of April. Here the hull of the boat was built. This being completed and the boilers and machinery having been placed in position, it was launched and next run up to Fort Abercrombie where the cabin was constructed.

This first boat to navigate Red river had a capacity of from 50 to 75 tons. Its machinery had previously been used in other boats and is said to have been brought to the west from the state of Maine about the year 1851. The steamer started for Fort Garry on IMay 17, and arrived there on June 5, 1859. She returned up to Fort Abercrombie bringing on the trip twenty passengers. Here she was tied up and when Capt. Blakely and others desired her further services they were informed that they would have to buy tiie Anson Northup if they wanted to run her. Capt. Northup had agreed to place a steamer on Red river for the bonus that had been offered, but had not agreed to run the the boat on any regular trips. Later on the boat was bought by J. C. J^urbank.

Stage Line To Red River

The Hudson Bay company maintained a few posts this side of the boundary line in the capacity of a commercial organization. One of these, called Cileergetown, located on the Minnesota side of Red river, 16 miles north of the site of Moorhead, was established August 12, 1859. The post was located by James McKey. During the same year an association called the Minnesota Stage company wms organized by J. C. Burbank, Russell Blalcely and their associates, to put on a line of stage coaches between St. Cloud and F'ort Abercrombie, the route being by way of ^auk Center,Osakis, Alexandria and Breckenridge. This stage line resulted from mail contracts of 1858, whereby mail was to be carried by way of the places named to Fort Abercrombie and other worthwestern points. An expedition was sent out in June to bridge streams and open the road. This being done and stations established, the stages began running in the fall of 1859. The next spring the stage line was extended down to the Georgetown post.

There accompanied the road-making expedition a party of ladies and gentlemen from Great Britain bound for the Hudson Bay posts in British America. Of the party were the Misses Ellenora aud Christina Sterling, of Scotland. The party, it seems, expected to travel by boat to Fort Garry, but Captain Northup havinir refused to run the steamer, a flatboat was built at Fort Abercrombie and the party proceeded down the river, the flatboat being in charge of Geo. VV. Northup. On the trip down one morning a small band of Chippeway Indians fired several shots at the party. George asked why and what reason they had for shooting at them. Their answer was: "You must not talk our enemies' language if yon don't want to be shot at." It took twent3'-two days to reach Fort Garry, and the ladies went on to liake Athabasca where they arrived just as winter set in.

While on his return to St. Paul, Capt. Blakely learned of the purchase of the Anson Northup by his associate, ]\Ir. Burbank. He appears to have returned at once to the valley. Under her new ownership the boat made another trip to Fort Garry. The water now being low the boat could not get through the Goose rapids. Her cargo was unloaded, the intention being to have it taken to its destination by McKey's carts, when the timely arrival of Capt. Blakely resulted in the construction of wing dams, and the goods being reloaded, the boat proceeded safely to Fort Garry, but the crew returned to St. Paul by a cart train.

In the spring of 1860, Capt. Blakely and associates completed a contract with Sir George Simpson for the transportation of 500 tons of freight annually from St. Paul to Fort Garry for a period of five years. 1'he steamer was refitted the same spring, was renamed the Pioneer, and was con)manded that summer by Capt. Sam Painter, with Alden Bryant, clerk.

Nick Huffman said in the sketch written by him: ''Stations had been built along the [stage] road, and teams by the hundred were hauling freight for Fort Garry and Georgetown. The old steamer Ans Northup was then making regular trips from Georgetown to Fort Garry. There was life and good pay everywhere. John Campbell and Bill Kerr were batching at Campbell station. J got work and good pay haying. Captain Munn sent for me to work Oil the steamboat, which they then called the Pioneer. There was no pleasure in this as the water was low and the men had to haul on the lines all day and chop wood all night by lantern, and we had a hard time to get the boat to Georgetown. "

The mail was now extended from Fort Abercrombie to Pembina, and William Tarbell and Geo. W. Northup were employed as carriers, using carts in summer and dog-trains in winter. Ultimately the Pioneer passed into the hands of the Hudson Bay company, was dismantled, and her engines used to run a saw-mill.

The International

The next boat to be placed upon Red river was called the International. She was built at Georgetown in 1861.* This boat contained the machinery and other belongings of the stranded Freighter which had been hauled by ox-teams across the prairies late the previous fall and in charge of C. P. V. JiUll.f The timber for the hull was cut along Red river, and sawed by the old fashioned pit method, one man working the lower end of the saw below in a pit, and another the upper end upon the log above. The International measured 137 feet in length, 26 feet beam, and was rated at 133 tons. She was owned by Burbank & Company.

Nick Huffman, evidently referring to the year 1862, wrote: "In the spring we all went on the boat, with Capt. Barrett, Pilot John K. Swan, and the usual crowd of rousters. We run by day, and chopped wood by night, as the Indians did not allow any woodchoppers to stay on the river, and so the boat had to get its own wood. The Indians owned the whole country then. It was steamboating under difficulties as the Indians were inclined to be hostile and took everything from the settlers. The whole crew soon gave out and had to quit."

* According to the sketches the date of the International runs from 1859 to 1863 inclusive. A. W. Kelly, of Jamestown, N. D., came to St. Paul in 1861, arriving there on the day of the battle of Bull Run. He then went to Georgetown where he helped to build the International. This fixes the building of the boat in the latter half of the year 1861. The boat was probably not launched imtil the spring of 1862.

t "There was an old steamboat lying in the Minnesota river six miles be-" low Big Stone lake which was intended to come over into Red river in 1857. There was a big flood in the Miiinesota river and Captain Davis thought he could run the old Freighter, for that was the name of the boat, into the Red river, but the water went down and the boat was left stranded. The boat was sold at sheriff's sale, and was bought by 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 and fish.

"In the fall of 1860 we took a lot of teams, wagons and tools, under orders from Burbank and took the boat to pieces and brought it to Georgetown, We found the boat and the little Welshman all right.

"A second trip was necessary for the machinery. 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 very cold." - Nick Huffman's Story.

Russell Blakely says: ''The Indians had protested against the use of the river for steamboats complaining that the boats drove away the game and killed the fish, while the whistle made such an unearthly noise that it disturbed the spirits of their dead and their fathers could not rest in their graves. I'hey demanded four kegs of yellow money to quiet the spirits of their fathers or that the boats be stopped. At this time Clark VV. Thompson, superintendent of Indian affairs and Indian Commissioner Dole, were on their way to the mouth of Ked Lake river, opposite Grand Forks, to hold a treaty with the Indiajis. They were turned back by the opening of Indian hostilities in August, 1862,"

The Sioux Indian outbreak was confined more to central and western Minnesota than to the Red River Valley, though in the upper part of it they killed a few settlers, plundered teams loaded with supplies, burned what there then was of Breckenridge and besieged Fort Abercrombie for six weeks. Most of the settlers then located along the Minnesota side of the river, in that part of the valley were warned in time and fled for shelter both to the fort and the fur trading post at Georgetown.

Duriijg these troubles the International was taken to Fort Garry. A cart train from 8t. Paul loaded with Hudson Bay goods had just arrived at Georgetown in charge of Norman W. Kittson; the teamsters and others were organized into a defensive force consisting of 44 men, but as they were indifferently armed and the post unable to stand a siege, it was decided after keeping guard for two weeks, to abandon it and seek safety at Fort Garry. Pierre Bottineau was sent to Pembina for a relief guard, and the people, carts and goods were ferried across the river at night. Elm river was crossed the first day and the Goose river on the second when the relief party was niet. Among these men were Joe Rolette, \Vm. Moorhead, Hugh J)onaldson and other old time frontiersmen. I'he third night out, the party camped three miles south of the site of Grand Forks. At the forks of the river they found several hundred Chippeways who had gathered to meet the Indian commission. This band took whatever food they could lay their hands upon and allowed the party to proceed to Fort Garry without further molestation. The Georgetown post remained vacant until 1864 when it was again occupied.

The International was brought to Fort Abercrombie in 1863 by Capt. Barrett, and in 1864 was sold to the Hudson Bay company, it having bocome apparant that the country could not be opened up against the interest of that powerful organization. They did not want immigration and trade, nor mails or other appliances of civilization. The boat made but one trip that year. The cart brigades again put in an appearance and the country became devastated by grasshoppers.* * Sketch by Capt. Russell Blakely.

On aeooQDt of the Sioux outbreak of 18^2 and continuation of Indian troobles into the jear following, it was thought to be ad- to occupr the valley with troops. The Seeretarj of War eomisBioned Major E. A. C, Hatch, of St. Pan], to recruit a battalion of four companiei: of cavalry. It was late in the fail bebefore the expedition with it« aocompanin^ wa^n trains »ot started. They marched by way of St. Cloud, Sauk Center and Alexandria, tmt they divided the line of marcJi at Pomme de Terre. Major Katch with one division, proceeded to Georgetovn direct, but Lieut. Charles Mix, with the other division, went by way of Fort Abercrombie. Major Hatch arrived at Geor^town Oct<»ber oO. and Lieut. Mix came in several days later. The expedition reached Pembina November 13, 1863. The march down the valley was an arduous one on aeeoont of scarcity of forage for the teams and cold weather. Upward of ^0 animals, horses, mules and oxen, were lost. That winter the troops built Fort Pembina. Gov. Alexander Ramsey, of Minnesota, made a "treaty" with the Indians in Octot)er, 1863, and this, with the patrolling of the river, endcl the trouble with them in the valley. In the spring of IS^ Hatch's battalion left the valley and returr-i - "-t. Paul.

CoDDiGgnam's was also a military expedition made in 1^5. It eonsisted of a regiment of cavalry, and upward of two hundred ciTilians, employed in various capacities, such as teamsters, cooks, etc The expedition left Fort Sneliing with >fajor Cunningham in eommand, and crossing the state oi Minnesota, they marched to Devils lake by way of the Sheyenne river. The object of entering l>akota with United States troops at that time appears to have been to mxke a reconnalaBance or to aemit thtoogh the ooantry and impress the Indians with a show of military strength, for their depredations in other parts of the territory had n/jt wholly ceased. From Devils lake the expedition proceeded eastward toward Sed river. This was in August, and the line of march wa<« probably through the «<LUth western pitut of this county, for the expedition headed for the i^eorgetown post on their way back to Fort Snelling. This expedition had some influence on the settlement of the eastern part of North Dakota, for it oiade the country better known to men of Cunningham^s command. who,'some years later, emigrated hither.

About the year 1S67 or dS, the last of the buffalo that roamed over the ea-tern part of >orth Dakota disappeared from the Red Kiver Valley. The bi-^jn instinctively avoided all localities frequented by man, and on that account the herds did not ap- proach very near to the old Red River trail during the later years of their visits to the valley, but rather ranged somewhat back from the river, 'i'hat they were extensively hunted in this part of the state, the abundance of their bones that the settlers found scattered over the prairies bore convincing testimony. The last roving herd left in the west was wiped out in eastern Montana in 1883. A few were saved from total destruction by being protected in the Mational Park, also some in corrals by a few ranchers. While the last of the herds were being killed off, their hides by the car-load were shipped over the Northern Pacific railroad, to be followed a few years later by car-loads of their bones over the same and other lines, destined to eastern sugar refineries and bone mills. The immense bone piles at some of the railroad stations in North Dakota, as collected by the settlers and sold to shippers during the later 'eighties, presented surprising objects.

Manitoba Opened Up

In Afarch, 1869, the Earl of Granville succeeded in terminating the Hudson Bay contracts and that company surrendered possession of the country, thus ending a twenty-one year contest on the part of the Imperial government for the opening of the country. The organization of the Manitoba government was provided for in 1870, and on August 23 of that year, Colonel Wolsey at the head of the GOth Canadian Rifles entered Fort Garry, and on September 2, Lieutenrnt Governor Archibald arrived and the colony was duly organized. James W. Taylor, the American consul, arrived in November.

At the time of the surrender of their privileges to the crown, the Hudson Bay company occupied twenty districts and possessed 120 posts in Manitoba and the Northwest territory, and employed 3,000 men. Fore Garry was their principal stronghold. The first Fort Garry was established in 1821, at the time of the coalition of the Northwest and Hudson Bay compunies. A second fort, that so often mentioned in Red River Valley history, was built in the vicinity of the first in 1835, the old one heing disnjantled. Both of these forts stood upon the site of the city of Winnipeg which was founded in 1870. The political power of the Hudson Bay company now being gone, they dwindled to a mere commercial organization, and in that capacity they continued to maintain a few posts this side of the boundary line so long as it was of any profit to them to do so. The British Northwest now being open to settlement, a large immigration soon followed from Ontario and other eastern provinces of Canada.

The Approach Of The Railroads

The railroads have wielded a vast influence on the later development of the Red River Valley. As we shall have to take up again this subject, as these neared an<l were next built through this county, it will be proper at this point to give some account of the time and manner of their approacli to the valley itself. Two great railroad lines, more than any others, finally exercised a potent influence on the settlement and development of the valley. These were the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads. While the latter road has always borne its present name, it should be stated of the former named system that its lines were at first called the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad. This name was retained until 1879; in that year there was a reorganization of the company and the road then took the name of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba JIailway. In 1890 the Great Northern system took its present name. The original road was chartered in 1856.

On June 25, 1862, in the midst of the civil war, a short ten mile stretch of track was put in operation between St. Paul and the village of St. Anthony, now comprised in the east side of ]\linneapolis. This short line was the first railroad to be built in Minnesota and it was the beginning of the present Great Northern system. An isolated railroad system, coniprising a few short lines of track and owned by different companies, next began to radiate outward in various directions from St Paul and Minnen polls. These lines were confined to eastern Minnesota and were isolated in the sense that, while interconnected, none of them for about a half dozen years had any connection with any of the lines then radiating from ^lilwaukeeor Chicago. To equip them, the rails, cars, locomotives, etc., all had to be brought up the .Alississippi river from the nearest points below St. Paul at which they could be delivered to the boats by railroad.

By the year 1866 the northern line of the St. Paul & Pacific had been extended up to Sauk Rapids, near St. Cloud, 76 miles above St. Paul. In 1872 this line was built through St. Cloud to Melrose, 34 miles west of the former place, and here the track halted for several years. In the meantime, the southern route of this system was begun at Minneapolis in 1867, was pushed year by year toward the Red Pviver Valley and reached Brecken ridge, according to some old settler's recollections. October 21, 1871. .

The conception of a railroad from the head of Lake Superior to Puget Sound originated during the early years of railroad construction in this country. After the beginning of the first transcontinenral line, the original conception took definite form and shape and a company was organized to build it. The road was chartered by Congress July 2, 1864. Preliminary work on the Northern Pacific was begun near Thompson, Minn., February 15, 1870, and by the close of that year 50 miles of track had been laid west of the point of its divergence from the St. Paul & Duluth railroad. The next j^ear 179 miles more of track were added to that first laid, thus completing the road as far west as the Red river at Moorhead by December 1, 1871.

Along Red River In 1870-71

There had been a few frontiersmen located along the Minnesota side of Hed river above Georgetown since about 1858, but the Dakota side of the upper part of the valley practically remained unoccupied until about the year 1870. John Lindstrom, now a resident of Lind township in this county, came from Douglas county, Minn., and settled on the Dakota side of the river May 18, 1870. He writes to author as follows:

"When I came to Dakota in 1870, I settled on the Red river in what is now Cass county, fifteen miles north of where Fargo now stands. At that time there were very few white people anywhere on the ])akota side of Red river. At Fort Abercrombie there was the garrison, but below that place there were no settlers for fifty miles. At the point right opposite the Hudson Bay post of Georgetown there lived a Frenchman called Jjick - I never heard any other name applied to him - who traded with the halfbreeds and Indians that came along the river. I used to trade with him too, sometimes. He charged fifteen dollars a barrel for flour, thirty cents a pound for pork, two dollars a gallon for kerosene, two dollars a gallon for black strap molasses, four dollars a gallon for vinegar, three pounds of sugar for a dollar, and 2| pounds of coffee for a dollar. He sold gunpowder, shot and gun-caps, always charging three times as much as at the general stores.

"Jack also sold whiskey, but the sale of that article came to a sudden stop when the soldiers who were to garrison Fort Pembina went by his place. Tliey camped for the night south of his place, but they found out that he sold whiskey. So two of them walked down there so as to 'get the lay of the thing' as they generally expressed it. They took a few candles along which they traded off for whiskey so as to find out where it was kept. The next morning, as they were about to pass by, the whole gang turned into his place, crowded into the house, coralled Jack at the table where he was eating his brejikfast, and some of them commenced to help themselves to what was on the table so as to draw his attention while the others helped themselves to the whiskey. The keg was nearly full, and as this held ten gallons, they could not afford to leave what their canteens would not hold, so they shouldered the keg and walked off. Their officers took them about three miles down the river; there they had a rest which lasted until the next morning and they had a glorious time, singing and shouting. This wound up Jack's saloon business, for he was afraid of having more customers of that kind.

"One day a contractor that hauled goods to Pembina came along the river with about twenty-five yoke of oxen and as many wagons. His teamsters were all white men, or would have been such if washed. Each man drove two or three teams, according to his ability, but his cook was considered one of the smartest of them, though he only drove two teams. But in addition to his driving the teams he was furnished with an old smooth-bore musket and ammunition so as to do a little hunting along the road. When they had gotten between Georgetown and Elm river, a bear came along on the outer side of the road so as to cross it behind the line of teams. Some one, as a joke, shouted to the cook to take his gun, run out, and kill the bear. 'J'he man took his gun, loaded with duck-shot, and the rest of his ammunition, and ran out to meet the bear. All thought that they would lose their cook, but none of them had sense enough to warn the fellow back. But fools generally have good luck and so had this one. When he had gotten within five rods of Bruin, the latter parly thought he had better get ready for a fight. Rising on his hind legs he waited for ah attack. The cook fired his charge of shot square into the bear's forehead, but the gun being dirty, the shot scattered and blew out the bear's eyes. That was the only thing that saved the man's life. Now there was time to reload and a man was hastily sent out by the train boss to shout to the cook that he should go close up to the animal, take aim behind the shoulder, and fire forward. He did so, and put an end to the roaring and distracted animal.

"But the greatest novelty we had to look at in those days was when the Hudson Bay company's freighters passed by us, going between Fort Garry and St. Cloud. Sometimes they had trains consisting of one hundred and six Ked River carts drawn by ponies or oxen, both kinds of animals beins: used in the same train. The drivers rode alongside on horseback. They were generally halfbreeds, as could be seen by their long hair hanging down on their shoulders and mocassins on their feet; otherwise they were clothed like white men. From eight to ten carts were managed by each driver. The equipment of each man was a short whip, generally hung by a string around the wrist of the right hand, a muzzle-loading shot gun, a powder-horn and a shot-bag. The boss was always a white man, and he generally had one or more white men with him as a kind of bodyguard.

"The last buffalo seen in this region was in 1867 when one was seen and shot on the Dakota side six miles below Georgetown. Jn 1871 there were some wild Texas steers roaming across the country, one being shot at Rush river, one at the mouth of the Sheyenne and another near the mouth of Elm river."

The First Settlement Civil Organization

E HAVE now arrived at the period when settlers be^an to occupy the west side of Red river with - the intention of establishing permanent settlements. With the spreading of the incoming population over the North Dakota side of the ey, this work is not specially concerned, excepting in so far as this immigration was confined to the limits of Grand Forks county with its present boundaries. That subject will presently be given considerable attention, since county histories, at least in the western states, are mainly concerned with settlements, phases of life and the progress in different decades of their material development.

As viewed from the historic standpoint. Grand Forks county, relative to its progress for the last thirty years, may be said to present the following points as characteristic of this comparatively brief period: Here was made the second settlement, so far as the occupation of a townsite is concerned, of white families in the state; the first was made at Pembina by a part of the Selkirk colony about 1813. During the first seven or eight years of the period referred to, the settlement of the county progressed in a slow and fitful manner, not much advancement being made within that time to any particular distance west of Ked river excepting up the course of Goose river. In the meantime, conditions were such that the agricultur<il development of the county was being held in abeyance. During most of this interval the history of the county is chiefly bound up in that of the settlement at Grand Forks. When, finally, its interior portion began to be occupied by the incoming settlers, it was along the timbered streams and not upon the open prairie that these earlier locations were made.

Then, from one to two years Inter, a movement west from Grand Forks began by which the prairie lands were rapidly taken, this westward advancement of population being throua:h the central part of the county, but with considerable deflection in some localities north and south of the course of the main movement. In 1880, the year that the railroad development of the county began, immigration into it commenced in earnest, the floodtide reaching high-water mark in 1882, so that by the year following the county had been quite generally overran and the most of its vacant lands filed upon. Toward the end its settlement progressed with accelerated rapidity.

Within about ten years after the initial settlement had been made, the railroad development of the county was begun and was completed to its present mileage in a little more than seven years. Within this second interval the existent towns and villages of the county, built upon these lines, had their beginning and have been gradually building up since that time. The city of Grand Forks, especially, has made phenomenal progress since becoming a railroad center. Since 1882, yet more particularly within the last dozen years, the farms, generally, have been undergoing improvement, increasing in respect to what is really substantial valuation, and the aggregate wealth of the county has also increased until it is now rated as one of the wealthy ones of the state. Though considerable was brought in, the most of this wealth has been created here.

Since the county was overrun by settlers, or what is more to the point, since the last decennial census, its gain in population has resulted more from what is called natural increase, and from the building up of the towns and peopling of the same by later comers than from any farther occupation of land or division of farms into smaller holdings. Since 1883, speculation has subsided, society chrystalized, education advanced and existing conditions along all lines have had time to become long aud firmly established.

Before -speaking of the creation and organization of the county, it will be in order at this point to take a glance at the conditions existent here about the time that the first settlement was made within its present boundaries. We have only to go back about thirty years. In the case of counties originally well forested, and which contained swamps and small marshes capable of being drained, the changes that have been wrought in their physical aspect within thirty or forty years after settlement have often been of a very marked character, but with counties like Grand Forks, the changes, though considerable, are more of a superficial nature, the result of town and other building, railroad construction, cultivation of land, planting of artificial groves and hedge-rows on the farms and shade trees in the towns.

Aspects And Conditions In 1870

There being no great amount of timber land in the county in comparison with its area, the greater portion of it lay in 1870 as wild prairie land exists in its primitive state. The natural prairie grass was short, only attaining a height suitable for use as hay in moist or wet places where there had been some gathering of the waters when the snow melted. Of wet, sedgy places, occupying shallow depressions of the prairie, there were then a far greater number of them than there are now. Interspersed with the prairie grass there grew quite a variety of botanical plants, many of them of the flowering kind. The buffalo had but recently disappeared and had not been gone long enough for their wallows to have become grassed over or their trails obliterated, but the elk, antelope, coyote, fox, etc., still remained as denizens of the country. The gopher was not abundant, for the coyote and fox thinned their number. Thus these prairie lands lay vacant, awaiting the coming of the settler and the touch of the plow.

There were then no claimants to the limited tracts of timber that border the interior streams of the county. The timber was more or less clogged in places, with the floatwood and flotage of these watercourses, the fallen and dead timber, vines and underbrush, and occasionally there were to be found a few fire-scarred and blackened trunks of trees still standing where they had grown. There were then to be seen in places along the streams the worn trails of the buffalo, where they had wended their way down the slopes to drink or to cross from the prairie on one side to that on the other. Where the banks were steep the herds made iise of the coulees that occasionally occur in such places, in their movements in and out of the stream valleys. Follovved upward, the trails were soon lost on the prairies, and upon any of the slopes they were deepened somewhat by winds and rains at the time that the buffuloes used them, and not wholly so by the treading ot the animals themselves.

In the spring and fall, wild fowl of all kinds that were birds of passage to this region, paused for awhile iti and around the ponds and marshy plRces of the valley plain and higher back country, in large numbers, and with little probability of being disturbed by man, though it should be said that Indians and halfbreeds occasionally visited the county during their hunting expeditions, but at that time there were but few even of these. In the same yejir also, there were a couple of cabins of white men at the forks of the river, the only habitations in the present county, and a well worn cart route passed the same point, the timbered banks of the stream each summer being made resonant with the noise of trains of the creaking Ked Uiver carts of famous memory, mingled with the oaths and shouts of the drivers.

Civil Organization 51

There was plying on the river in those days a single steamboat - the Internjitional - owned by and operated in the interest of the Hudson Bay company. During the spring, when there was a good stage of water, the boat sometimes went up stream as far as Fort Abercrombie in running between Fort Garry and any of the up river points, and later in the season only as far as Georgetown. In the fall, when the water ran low in the Goose rapids, she only ran up as far as Frog Point. The boat was then making as many as three trips each season and the cart brigades but one.

The Old Cart Trails

There were three cart routes or "half breed trails," as the early settlers called them, that crossed through different parts of the present county. Tiie river route has already been referred to. It was one of the cart routes from Pembina and Fort Garry to St. Paul and later to St. Cloud after that place became a railroad point. It followed the general trend of the river, of course, cutting off the bends. It was already old when Griggs and Vaughn first saw it in the fall of 1870, and it probably dated from the early 'forties if it was first struck out by the independent traders of Rolette's time. At all events, it was no recently marked way when Major Woods and Capt. Pope followed its course in 1849, and the mail appears to have been carried over it ten years later than that date. In 1870 it was a well worn trail. ''Hundreds of carts in summer and dog-sleds in winter traveled over it," writes Vaughn, and at the close of the preceding part of this work anotlier old timer has mentioned what impressed himself concerning it during the same year.

Next in age was the old Georgetown trail that passed through the western part of the county. This had been abandoned for several years when first observed by the settlers who had located in that section, and it was then already grass-grown. It followed the lower slope of the uplands through this county, at least to a considerable extent, if not wholly so, and on account of avoiding such wet or sedgy places as existed toward the western side of the Elk Valley, then occurring more frequently than now. This trail led from Fort Garry to Fort Abercrombie, thence to St. Paul by orie of the Minnesota routes that have been mentioned. A branch trail, or cross-cut, from Georgetown ran northwest through parts of Cass and Traill counties intersecting the inland trail, and together these formed a continuous route between the Georgetown and St. Joseph posts, thence to Fort Garry. Hence it came to be called by the early settlers of Traill county who found it still plainly marked upon the surface the "old Georgetown trail."

up about 1859. Mr. J. F. Mager, now a resident here, came in over that trail that year with his father, and he states that it was not a trail at that time in the proper sense of the word, as it was hardly discernable and, at points, would have been lost entirely but tor the knowledge of their Indian guide."

The reason why this route was opened so far west of Red river was probably due to the fact that in spring and early summer the route near the river, in some places, became well nigh impassable. On that account a more dry route upon higher land was desirable. In 1870, men with teams, materials and supplies were sent from Fort Abercrombie to re-establish Fort Pembina. Some were sent down the river by flatboat, but one party, which included about twenty-five carpenters, were obliged to proceed by the back country route. At first they traveled by way of the trail along the river, but this being found impassable for the many loaded teams accompanying the party, a detour was made Mild the more western route was struck at Maple river.

The third one of these cart routes that crossed the area of country now comprised in Grand Forks county appears to have l>een a cross-cut between the river and inland trails and which formed a route from the Hudson Bay post of Goose River (now Calerlonia) to St. Joseph and Fort Garry. This trail led in a northwestern direction and passing the "lone tree," it crossed Turtle river at the Newell C. Morgan place, thence bearing westby-north it recrossed the stream near the line between Elm Grove and Hegton township, and intersected the other trail some distance north of Elm grove. The "lone tree" is a large Cottonwood in Section 21, Blooming township, and is now surrounded by smaller ones of the same kind. In the old days it stood as a landmark to travelers coming down the trail and going to Turtle river and the section around Gilby,

Now the halfbreed trails were unlike those worn upon the prairies by the settlers in using the common farm wagon. They consisted of three separate and closely parallel paths, each about sixteen inches in width, the outer ones being worn by the thick rimmed, heavy wheels of the carts, and the center one by the treading of the animals drawing them, both ponies and oxen being used and harnessed single between the phills of each cart. Thus peculiar roadways were worn upon the prairie surface by the passage (»f the cart trains that annually traversed these routes and the worn trails remained visible for many years after they had ceased to be used.

The Creation Of Counties

The territory of Dakota, which, as originally formed, extended from the state of Minnesota, as at present bounded, westward to the Rocky mountain divide, was created by act of Congress shortly before the opening of the civil war, the bill having been signed by President Buchanan on March 2, 1861, which was two days prior to his being succeeded by President Lincoln. The bill had passed the Senate February 26, and the House March 1. The newly inaugurated president appointed William Jaynes, of Illinois, governor of the territory. He arrived at Yankton on May 27, 1861.

The first territorial legislature, consisting of thirteen members of the house and nine of the council, convened at Yankton March 17, 1862, and held its session until I\lay 15, following. This body created four counties in what is now North Dakota, and which bordered on Red river. These were named from north to south as follows: Kittson, Chippeway, * Stevens and Sheyenne. Not a single county in either North or South Dakota now bears any one of these four names. There were no white inhabitants in any of these counties when they were created, excepting a few at Pembina and St. Joseph, (now Walhalla) and the officers, soldiers and employees at Fort Abercrombie. They were never organized, and although they found a place on maps and in some of the school geographies of the next few years, nothing appears to have been done toward permanently maintaining them either under their prescribed boundaries or names.

In 1867, a large county was erected out of the present eastern portion of North Dakota. It was named Pembina county, and the territorial governor appointed Charles Cavileer, Joseph Kolette and Charles Grant county commissioners, who met and organized the county, August 12, 1867. The following county officers were appointed: John E. Harrison, register of deeds; Wm. H. Moorhead, sheriff; James McFetridge, judge of probate; and John Dease, superintendent of public instruction. Pembina was made the county seat.

The tenth session of the territorial legislature convened at Yankton December 2, 1872, and continued its session until January 10, 1873. Among other acts this assembly passed a bill creating a number of counties in that portion of the territory now included in the eastern part of North Dakota; 'i'hese were Pembina, (of less area than that of 1867) Grand Forks, Cass, Richland, Cavalier, Foster, Ransom, LalMoure, Renville, and Stutsman, with boundaries more or less different from their present ones. 'J'his act was signed by the governor January 4, 1873.

Probably Judson LaMoure who was elected the previous fall to the house and Enos Stutsman to the council, both from Pembina, were more instrumental in fathering the creation of these

* Chippeway county took in all of Tra?ll and Steele excepting their southern tier of townships, and all but the southern and western tier of townships in Griggs, likewise ail of Nelson excepting its western range of townships, and Grand Forks county in its entirety.

counties than any other members of that assembly, and the latter named gentleman arranged for the naming of them while stopping at the house of Morgan T. Rich, the first settler of Richland county, on his way to Yankton.*

In the act creating these counties commissioners were appointed to organize them. Geo. B. VVinship, John W. Stewart and Ole Thompson were named as the board of county commissioners to organize Grand Korks county. No attempt to accomplish this end was made until July, 1873, when Messrs. VVinship and Stewart met at the tavern or stage station kept by the latter gentleman at Grand Forks. As Mr. Thompson had refused to qualify as a commissioner, the other two designated O. S. Freeman as a third commissioner in place of that gentleman. Alter four days' session the work of completing this first organization of the county was accomplished and with the following result: Register of deeds and county clerk, J. J. Mulligan; judge of probate, Thomas Walsh; county attorney and superintendent of schools, O. S. Freeman. The other oHicers cannot now be so positively named, no record of their proceedings having been preserved, but probably Alex. Griggs was appointed treasurer and Nicholas Huffman sheriff. Alex. Griggs, M. L. McCormack and O. S. Freeman were appointed a commission to locate the county-seat, and they, of course, selected Grand Forks.f

Thus the county was fully organized according to law in 1873. Rut owing to the apathy of the county officers and what, perhaps, was a more potent cause, the sparse settlement of the county at that time, the orgatn'zation was suffered to lapse, which made necessary its re-organization the following year. Mr. Winship has stated that he does not believe that there were then 75 white men in the whole county.

In the fall of 1874, the county was re-organized by the territorial governor, John A. JJurbank, who appointed a new board of county commissioners, to wit, David P. Reeves, Alexander Griggs and George A. Wheeler. Messrs. Wheeler and Reeves met at the residence of the latter commissioner (Griggs being absent) and completed the organization of the county March 2, 1875. The first officers of the county were: James Elton, register of deeds; Nicholas Huffman, sheriff; Thomas Walsh, treasurer and judge of probate; Geo. A. Wheeler, superintendent of schools; Thos. Walsh and D. P. Reeves, justices of the peace. Thomas Campbell and James Mulligan were appointed constables and O. S. Freeman, district attorney, but failed to qualify. The appointment of a coroner was deferred.

Civil Organization 55

Thus by the spring of 1875 Grand Forks county finally entered upon the period of its civil history as a distinct and organized division of Dakota territory. As first created, the county covered a very large area of the Red River Valley, with a considerable extension into the higher country that lies to the west of the proper limits of the valley. It comprised all of the present county, together with parts of Traill, Steele. Nelson and Walsh counties. As to the time when the confluence of Red and Red Lake rivers was first called Urand Forks, we find no mention; but while the locality was likely designated as "the forks" by the voyageurs of the fur companies, we suspect that the prefixed word did not long ante-date the settlement of the place, if at all. But it was aplied to the settlement made there and afterward was also adopted HS the name of the county.

Traill county, formed from parts of Grand Forks and Cass, was organized February 23, 1875. The commissioners met at Goose River (now Caledonia) and proceeded to organize the county. Steele county was of later origin; it was formed from parts of Traill and Griggs and was organized June 14, 1883. In the year 1880, Grand Forks county was still one of the largest, if not the largest county in the territory of Dakota. It still included the southern half of Walsh county, and its western border extended to the vicinity of Lakota. In 1881 two tiers of townships were separated from its northern border and added to Walsh county which was created that year by being formed from parts of Grand Forks and Fembina counties. The county was organized August 30th of the same year. In 1883, townships in three ranges weie also taken from its western part and given to the newly created county of Nelson, which was organized May 15th of that year. This reduced the area of Grand Forks county to its present dimensions.

Legislative And Judicial Districts

During the earlier years of Dakota territory, when the population to be represented was sparse, the legislative and judicial districts were apportioned on a large scale. As the population increased and the counties were reduced in area by the creation of others, the districts became more circumscribed, but like the counties, they increased^in number. In the case of the legislative districts, this resulted in a gradual increase of the members of the territorial council and house of representatives, but the district judges hardly increased in like proportion. At every session of the legislature changes were made either with the legislative or judicial districts, or both, effecting their boundaries, designated numbers, etc., as new ones were created. We are only interested in those in which this county was concerned and can only indicate the general trend of matters.

At first the eastern part of the territory constituted one legislative district, the Fourth, called the Big Sioux and Red River district, rhe members of the first legislature were elected Sept. 16, 1861, and Hugh Donaldson was a member of the house from Pembina that session. In the second session, which convened Dec. 1, 1862 and held to Jan. 9, 1863, James McFetridge was n member of the council and James Y. Buckman and Hugh Donaldson were members of the house. At this session the Red River district was created. For one or two sessions thereafter this district was not represented in the legislature.

Enos Stutsman came to the territory from Des Moines, Iowa, as private secretary to Gov. Jaynes. After representing the Yankton district for several sessions during which p6riod he was three times chosen president of the council, he took up his residence at Pembina and was sent to the house in the legislature of 1867-8 and was chosen speaker of the house. It was this legislature that created the big county of Pembina.

In 1877 the counties of Grand Forks and Pembina conitituted the Eighth council district which was entitled to one member of the council. In ] 879, the counties of Traill, Grand Forks and Pembina formed the Tenth district and was entitled to one member of the council and two members of the house. In 1881, Grand Forks, Traill and Walsh were made to constitute the Twelth district, the member of the council to be elected from Grand Forks county. In 1885, Grand Forks county was designated as the Nineteenth legislative district.

Under statehood Grand Forks county is divided into three districts, the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh, and each is entitled to one senator and two representatives. For the townships and city wards that comprise each of these districts the reader is referred to the state constitution or to the Revised Codes of 1895.

The territorial judges were appointed by the President of the United States, but the legislature created the judicial districts and made the frequent changes of subdivisions, boundaries, etc., that became necessary. The judges were also associate justices of the supreme court of the territory. It was then divided only into three districts. The counties comprising these districts. Avere often grouped together in subdivisions and the terms of court held at some oHe designated place /or each subdivision of a district. In other cases single counties constituted a subdivision, if siilficiently populous.

A North Dakota judicial district was created by the territorial legislature of 1870-1 and Pembina was designated as the. place where the court was to sit. The first session was held there in June, 1871, Judge George W. French presiding. George I. Foster was clerk; li. H. J.ichfield United States Marshal; Judson LaMoure Deputy, and Warren Cowles United States Attorney.

This was the first coiirl held in North Daicota. Judge Peier CI Shannon succeeded French and held two terms of court at Pembina in 1872. Judge A. H. Barnes wms appointed associate justice by President Grant in 1873 and held office until succeeded by Judge Hudson.

In 1877, the counties of Cass, Stutsman, llichland. Hansom, LaMoure, Traill, Grand Forks, Peinbina. Barnes, Foster, Ramsey, Cavalier, Gingras (now Wells). French (now Benson and Peirce), and Itolette constituted a large subdivision of the Third judicial district, the whole district then comprising nearly all of the area of North Dakota. The court for this subdivision was to be held at Fariro twice each year. In 1879 the district was made to comprise six subdivisions with as many designated countyseats at which terms of the district court were to be held. The county of Grand Forks singly was made one of these subdivisions. It was while Judge Barnes was in office that the first term of district court was held at Grand Forks.

In 1881 Judge S. A. Hudson became the incumbent of the Third judicial district, and held the office four years. He was succeeded by Judge VVm. B. McConnell, appointed by President Cleveland, May 8, 1885. The 'I'hird district was still quite extensive. In 1888 there were six districts; the northeastern counties, including Grand Forks, were now formed into a new district called the Fourth, Charles F. Templeton being appointed judge.

Under state government the the counties ofPembina, Cavalier, Walsh, Nelson and Grand Forks were designated as the First judicial district. In 1895 the three northern counties of the five just named v^ere formed into a separate district, called the Seventh, Grand Forks and Nelson counties remaining as the First judicial district. Judge Templeton was elected to fill the office of district judge when the present state government was organized, was re-elected in 1892, and he was succeeded by Judge Charles J. Fisk, who entered upon the duties of his office January 4, 1897.

U. S. Land Office

The first United States Land Office in Dakota territory was opened at Vermillion in 1862. The first one established in North Dakota was opened at Pembina, December 19, 1870, with (ileo. F. Potter, Register and B. F. Brooks, Receiver. Its location being at the northeast corner of the territory and not conveniently situated, it was removed to Fargo and opened there Aug. 1, 1874. Six years later a new land district was creatied in the northeastern part of what is now North Dakota, and the U. S. J^and Office at Grand Forks was accordingly opened April 20, 1880, B. C. Tiffany being its first Register and W. J. Anderson, Receiver.

Population

When the United States census for 1860 was taken, there were no white inhabitants in the area now comprised in Grand Forks county. In 1871 there were about fifty at the settlement made that year at Grand Forks. The population in 1875 was something over 2,000. The census of 1880 gave Grand Forks county a population of 6,248 inhabitants, but probably about one thousand of these were located in the southern half of Walsh county, then a part of this county. There was a territorial census taken in 1885; this gave the county with present boundaries, 20,454 inhabitants. The census of 1890 showed that the population was then 18,321. This indicates a considerable decrease since 1885, probably chiefly due to re-emigration. The present population is reckoned at 25,000, which is apt to be an over-estimate.

The Beginnings Of Grand Forks The Townsite

The Red river at Grand Forks averages about two hundred feet in width, flowing between sloping banks, and, at its ordinary stage, is about forty feet below the common prairie level. There is but little show of bottom land along the river at this point. 'I'he Med Lake river, debouching into the larger stream here, so enters it that the timber belt along its south bank and that along the east bank of the Red, merges together so as to terminate in a triangular shaped point.

The city is built upon the valley plain that stretches outward from the west bank of the river, the site being mainly below the confluence of the two streams. The original townsite was mostly platted in the S. Ei of Section 3, which is partly fractional, but the city now covers eight or nine different quarter-sections and portions of others. The most of them are in the north part of Grand Forks township, but the many additions to the original townsite that have successively been platted, has caused the city to overlap into the south part of Falconer township. The site of the city is essentially level and was a good location upon which to found a town. In building it upon this site there was no heavy forest to clear away, no hills to be leveled down, and practically no hollows to be filled.

Geographical Location

It was not Captain Griggs' choice of a location, but far more potent factors that determined the site of Grand Forks. These were geographical location and physical conditions combined with favorable surroundings. These basic factors being what they are, agricultural development of the surroundinjjr country, converging railroads, invested capital and business energy in conjunction with the laws of commerce, have made the city what it is in present times.

The distance by railroad from Fargo to Winnipeg is 229 miles, the latter city being located about 55 miles beyond the international boundary. With the rise of these places as distributing points, each in its respective part of the valley, a large trade and manufacturing center oil Red river was bound to arise somewhere between them, because of a commercial necessity, and because the stretch of country between the others is so wide. A physical fact - the forks of Red river - determined where this intermediate trade center should arise. The geographical location of Grand Forks chances to be an excellent one, being nearly at the midway point between Fargo and the boundary line; near the center of the broad portion of the valley that lies within United States territory and in the line of the route taken by the Great Northern Railway from the head of Lake Superior to Montana and the Pacific coast. Necessarily the city has grown up on the west side of the river. The movement of the products of the country being chiefly from west to east the places on the side of lakes and streaiws that is in the direction from whence the bulk of the produce comes are the ones that are apt to attain the largest growth. Given a townsite equally good on the other si<le, and even granting its prior settlement, the result tor the west bank would not have been much different from what it is now. Nor does it make any essential difference as to who chose the townsite or founded the place; results today would have been essentially the same if other persons had been concerned and even three or four years of either earlier or later beginning would now have made but little difference. The primary acts of a few individuals do not alter very much ultimate results which are themselves the outgrowth of conditions based upon natural and commercial laws.

Forerunners Of Pioneer Settlers

Nicholas Huffman first came to the Red River Valley in the spring of 1860. He was probably a native of Germany, but had likely resided in one of the middle western states before coming to the valley. While living, he furnished the Red lliver Valley Old Settlers' association with a record of his life and experiences from the time he ca»ne here down to the termination of the siege of Fort Abercrombie at which he was present in August and September, 1862.* Unfortunately he never finished his narrative so as to cover ihe period of the fiist occupation of the Dakota * "Nick Huffman's Storj'," published in The Record Magazine, Oct. 1896.

In the fall of 1868, Huifman and August Loon built a log shack in tlie timber on the river bank a half mile above the point where Red Lake river enters Red river. They were the first white men to reside in the present county. They were joined in August, 1869, by Sanford C. Cady, who also put up a cabin during the following year and on the land now covered by Viets' addition to Grand Forks. These parties wereengaged in carrying the mail by sub-contract with Blakely & Carpenter from Breckenridge to Pembina and were found there with one Antoine Gerard or Geroux, a Canadian Frenchman, in the fall of 1870.

These men had their residence and followed their vocation here, but they came not as do bands of pioneers going from an old to a new section of the country wMth the intention ot establishing a new settlement or founding a town; they were here in the interest ot the mail service, not knowing whether their stay was likely to be long or merely transient. They howeyer, considered themselves as squatters, Huffman and Cady virtually being such by reason of building their respective abodes, but they had no conception of the future value of the land that lay around them unoccupied.* Coming earlier than prospectively permanent settlers, these four persons seem like men of another epoch, atui in fact, did belong to another era of the valley in which a different phase of life was existent than that which followed.

Grand Forks'. First Postmaster

It is in connection with these heralds of permanent settlement that we have now to speak of the first postmaster of Grand Forks whose name was entered on the books of the Post Office department, who was duly appointed, qualified and comnussioned before any settlement had been made on the original townsite and before Capt. Griggs ever saw the Red Hiver Valley. .

Sanford C. Cady is a native of Ohio. Like many other of the old time frontiersmen, he came to Dakota ir) the employment of the government, and was engaged between 1866 and 1869 as C'hief Wagon-master in hauling supplies from Fort Abercrombie to the frontier posts. Ke quit the government service in the spring of 1869 and engaged to haul goods to Fort Garry, taking through three ox-teams, the wagons being loaded with. a stock of boots and shoes, and he received $350 for hauling this freight.

Enos Stutsman, of Pembina, was interested in whatever concerned the welfare of the Red River Valley. He was an astute politician, and probably more, (or having seen in his lifetime the rise of several states on either side of the Mississippi, he muse have realized, with prophetic foresight, the then future importance of the great valley plain of the Red river. It whs through his efforts, in sending a petition to the Postmaster General at Washington that the mail station at the forks of Red river was designated as a post-oflSce in 1870, and a postmaster appointed for the place.

Mr. Cad}' was the first postmaster of Grand Forks. Some correspondence passed between Cady and Stutsman relative to the matter, and, among other things, the question of naming the office was broached. I\Ir. Cady suggested Grand Forks, a name, he states, already used by the Canadian French employees of the Hudson Bay company and others. Stutsman wrote him a jocose letter about the application of the word ''grand" to the tame scenery around the forks of the river, varied only by a couple of log shacks, nevertheless the name was adopted, was likewise given by Stutsman himself to the county some two and a half years later, and was first officially used by the Postoffice J)epartmerit at Washington.

Mr. Cady's commission, which is still in his possession, bears the signature of John A J. Creswell, Postmaster General under President Grant, and shows that the appointment was made June 15, that Mr. Cady qualified July 18, while the commission is dated August 2, 1870. In procuring the appointment of a postmaster for the mail station at the forks of Red river at that early day when there were no otiier inhabitants there than those mentioned, at a time too when the mail was only being carried up Jind down the river road once a week at most, and sometimes in a haphazard fashion, Stutsman evidently presumed that a settlement would be made there, and at no distant day.

James J. Hill And Alexander Griggs

James J. Hill, now president of the Great Northern Railway system, was, in those early years, a warehouseman of »St. Paul. History will accord to the master mind of this man that meed of credit which is his due for his conception of making the fertile lands of the Red River Valley directly tributary to the twin cities by connecting lines of railroad, and for the rapid development of the Northwest which he was instrumental in hastening forward to its present stage of growth. With the Canadian Pacific north and the Northern Pacific south, both in process of construction during the 'seventies, it is evident that the settlement and development of the intervening portion of the Red River Valley would soon inevitably have begun to occur. Some railroad company would, therefore, have seized the opportunity if President Hill had not; but it is, perhaps, safe to say that no other man of present times would or could have accomplished with such characteristic energy and persistency of purpose what he has done, at the time it was done, and so quickly and so well.

Much of the goods then being transported to Manitoba passed through the house of the firm of Hill & Griggs, and thus his attention was attracted to the future possibilities of the Red River Valley. In 1869 he made a trip from St. Paul to Fort Garry, passing down the valley by dog-sledge. He appears to have decided at this time to build a steamboat for the river trafl!ic so as to facilitate the transportation business of the firm. Later, we find him purchasing ground at Pembina for a warehouse.

Captain Alexander Griggs is a native of Ohio, and was born at Marietta, the first town that was founded in his native state. He is next found in early life living at St. Paul. For sometime prior to July, 1870, he was captain of a steamboat called the "St. Anthony Falls" that ran on the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. Howard R. Vaughn, now residing at Walhalla, was clerk on this boat. Captain Griggs' home was at Henderson, Minn., a town on the Minnesota river about sixty miles above St. Paul. As a river captain, we take it for granted that he was familiar with the character of the diff'erent townsites on both the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, observing how the towns that are located at or near the mouths of the valleys of the intersecting streams were the ones that were apt to have attained the largest growth. At all events, his experience and observations seem to have had something more than a remote connection with his choice of the Grand Forks townsite.

Griggs and Vaughn spent July 4. 1870 at Henderson; on the 5th they went to St. Paul and turned the St. Anthony Falls steamer over to headquarters; on the 6th they returned to Henderson to bid goodbye to friends and on the following morning they started for the Otter Tail Lake country.

About July 1, 1870, Capt. Griggs took the contract to build for the Hill Transportation company a steamer to run on Red river. This was the boat afterwards known as the Selkirk. On July 7th Howard R. Vaughn and the captain left Henderson for the Red River Valley, not, however, going there directly. They went by rail as far as St. Cloud, taking a couple of boat carpenters along who had been picked up on the way. Their next move was by stage across country by the old time route to a point a« near to Otter 'fail lake as they could make by this mode of conveyance, which was within some miles of Old Crossing, a point on Otter Tail river, sixteen miles east of JJreckenridge. Alighting from the stage, the party next proceeded up to the Otter Tail Lake

* The paragraphs under this heading are' largely based upon "The Long Ago," a i)amphlet of 76 pages, issued by the Walhalla Mountaineer, in 1898. Compiled bv Chas. H. Lee. Pp. 65, 66 and 67. Also upon data kindly furnished the author of this work by Howard R. Vaughn of Walhalla.

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region to procure oak and pine lumber for the prospective steamer, and some lumbermen were engaged in that part of the state. Pine trees were felled and the logs sawed at Krazee's mills; the oak lumber was otherwise procured. Lumber was also purchased to build seven flatboats, each about forty feet in length, and the sawed stock was loaded into them lengthwise, then they were worked down through Otter Tail lake, and with some difficulty incidental to the navigation of small streams, down past the site of Fergus Falls and around to McCauleyville, opposite Fort Abercrombie, where Uriggs and Vaughn and the boat crews arrived about the first of September. For the first time Oapt. Griggs now v^aw the lied River Valley. This journey and the lumbering operations connected with it were the first acts, productive of material results, that in any way led directly to the settlement of Grand Forks county.

During the fall of 1870 there was a great deal of freighting done, Hill, Griggs & Co., being the leaders in this line, and much of the goods were in bond bound for Winnipeg. In order to facilitate the trade, flatboats were built without waiting for the completion of the Selkirk, the merchandise loaded into them, crews picked and all floated down the river. About forty loads of goods were sent down the river that fall in that way. At Winnipeg the boats were knocked to pieces and sold for lumber. J)uring the season Mr. Vaughn had charge of the construction of these boats and the steamer, under Griggs, while the captain himself spent nearly all of his time on the river selling lumber and delivering the goods at Winnipeg.

It was late before the river froze up that year and November came before the last fleet of boats, seven in number, started for Winnipeg. Mr. Vaughn a-ccompanied the boats on this trip. At Frog Point (now Belmont) the river froze up and the boats were laid up for a week. Here ]Mr. Vaughn met Capt. Griggs on his way up the river from Winnipeg. The sun came out warm and the ice melted so that the boats were again gotten under way and taken to Grand Forks, then a mail station and post-office only. Here the goods were unloaded and the boats [)roken up, the lumber being used to construct a temporary storage building both to store the goods and protect them from the spring rains in case they were left there that long.

Capt. Griggs had accompanied Vaughn and his men back as far as the forks of the river, or rather had driven down in a buckboard. He was now acquainted with the river from Fort Abercrombie to Winnipeg and had had an opportunity to look for the best townsites along its banks. He also knew of the approaching lines of railroad and must have inferred that the permanent occupation of the country would not much longer be delayed. Being a man of sagacity and practical business habits, he realized his opportunity, and the sites of Moorhead and Fargo being either claimed or of doubtful utility just at that interval, he accordingly made choice of the next best site to be found between those points and Winnipeg, liking the looks of this locality the best and himself and Vaughn decided to take claims here, or rather locate squatter's claims and settle upon them afterward. The township lines had been run by the government surveyors in that part of the valley that year, hence it was not a very difficult matter to locate corners of quarter-sections, at least approximately, by measuring and ranging from these lines. Capt. Griggs selected a claim, upon which, over three years afterward, he filed a homestead entry and later still had platted upon a part of it the original townsite of Grand Forks; that chosen by Vaughn was below this, lie thinks the land now comprising Riverside or in that vicinity.

Griggs and Vaughn now set a part of their flatboatmen at work getting out logs for two small cabins to be erected, one upon each claim, but the work was abandoned without attempting to construct them that year, or at the most only a few logs were thrown together to indicate foundations to shacks and show some signs of a purpose to pre-empt the claims, for the cabins were not actually put up until the next spring. Whatever was done, appears to have been done hastily, for cold weather was at hand and Griggs and Vaughn and their men soon departed for the winter. In fact, little was really done that year beyond locating the claims. *

Leaving a man to look after the stored goods, the captain and Vaughn next went up to McCauleyville in the buckboard, following the cart road. Vaughn refers to it as a tiresonie journey. He remained at McCauleyville during a part of the winter, but Capt. Griggs returned at once to Henderson, leaving for home before the end of November. Vaughn having received an appointment about the first of January in the Customs department at Pen»bina, he resigned his position with Griggs and removed to that pbice early in February, 1871.

About a month after Mr. Vaughn's arrival at Pembina, word was received by the Customs department that some pilfering had been done among the bonded goods stored at the forks.

* In answer to inquiries made by the author of this work, H. R. Vaughn, S. C. Cady and Thos. Walsh all substantially agree that no log cabin whatever, in the proper sense of the word, was put up on the original townsite of Grand Forks in the year 1870. According to The Record Magazine, July, 1895, Capt. Griggs' "improvement" merely consisted of the foundation to a cabin, twelve feet square and five logs high. A few logs thrown together in the form of a pen did not constitute a squatter's cabin. Nor was Capt Griggs a squatter at the forks of the river that fall; in all probability he, himself, never claimed to have been such. The familiar narrative concerning his flatboat trip down the river, his landing at its forks, building a log cabin and taking possession of the land as a squatter f apparantly all by himself) is legendary, and hardly warranted bv the real facts of the matter.

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Accompanied by Judson I.aMoure, who was Deputy U. S. Marshal, Mr. Vaughn proceeded by pony and sled to the forks in March to look into matters and to arrest suspected parties, but the latter object was not accomplished. The snow that winter lay deep upon the ground and only the beaten track could be traveled without using snowshoes. Besides being rendered snowblind by the glare of the sun on the snowy plain, two or three days of discomfort were spent by them at the forks in the mail carrier's small cabin amidst stored supples, men, dogs and fleas. These canines that bred the fleas were train dogs used in carrying the mail in winter and were fed on half frozen raw fish, taken from the river. Fish, too, of the kind called "gold eyes," is said to have constituted the piincipiil living of the drivers. Sometime after the return of Vaughn and LaMoure the stored goods were sledded to a bonded warehouse at Pembina and afterwards taken to Winnipeg.

We have now to speak of an early settler at Grand Forks who came there in the mid-winter season of 1870-71. George W. Aker left Afilwaukee, Wis., for the Red River Valley in August, was at Alexandria, Minn., September 26, 1870, and thereafter was engaged for some time in hauling supplies from McCauleyville to other points, rwaking one trip to Fort Totten that fall. After this he made two trips down to the mail station at the forks of Red river, the first being mad^i in November of that year, and the second a little later. When Mr. Vaughn removed to Pembina in February, 1871, Mr. Aker accompanied him as far as the forks, and on the journey down there Vaughn arranged with him to occupy and hohi down the claim he had selected until he had leisure to settle upon it himself. This land is now contained in Riverside Park and Skidmore's addition to Grand Forks. Aker cut and liauled out logs for a cabin on this claim which he put up with the help of one, Jacob Whay, in April, 1871. *

Mr. Vaughn having decided to remain at Pembina, and the country not developing as soon as had been expected, nor the townships being as yet, surveyed (i. e., subdivided), he finally tired of holding his squatter's right by proxy and transferred it to Aker in part payment for his services.! Mr. Aker states that the letter of Vaughn first making this intention known to him is dated January 24, 1872.

The history of the city of Grand Forks, relative to the actual settlement of the townsite, properly begins with its first occupation by persons who came to stay, to establish permanent homes, to found a town and to acquire in it whatever property interests might be open to honest endeavor. This event took place in the spring of ]871.

Thomas Walsh was born in Ireland, from whence he came to the province of Quebec, Canada, presumably with his parents, for this was during his boyhood. In after years he joined in the emigration movement of the 'fifties, then flowing like a springtide toward Minnesota territory, and located at Henderson in 1856.