Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, D.T. [N.D.]) 1878-1884, 1880-06-25

pie built by our first Grand Master is to
day experimenting the construction o.
this, and though men may differ we mus
charity which has always been the
CHIEF PILLAR OF OUR ORDER
and which has enabled its benefcient in
fluences 10 be felt and seen in every land
and which will enable 1t to live and pros
per until time is no more, and let us hence
forward unite with hearts and hands tc
develope our country and improve ou1
welfare. Personal feelings and animosities
should sink away when public veal is the
sacrifice and let no man for a moment
think by destroyingor or Gripping any enter
prise however great Or however small, he
isdoing public service but rather lei
every man extend toevcry enterprise wheth
cr it be great or small a helping hand and
kind word and he will reap in our in
creased prosperity a rich reward. If we
adopt this policy although this super
structure may be as beautiful as the foun.
dation IS strong and desirable, in a few
years other public buildings will be crec-
ted eclipsing it in size and beauty to sup,
ply the wants Of a great city.
COL. THOMPSON'S REMARKS.
Sixty years ago Ohio was a densely
timbered wilderness, inhabited chiefly by
savage Indians and dangerous wild beasts.
Cincinnati was but landing place for the
flat and keel boats that foated down from
Pittsburgh to New Orleans; the wonder
full means of western transportation.
Forty years ago the forests of Ohio had
been swept away and their places filed
with waving cornfelds. The Indians and
wild beasts had been driven out and a
dense population of civilized humanity
surrounded by myriads of domestic ami
mails and other concomitant conditions of
elevation and enjoyment. Cincinnati had
attained gigantic proportions; was noted
for her manufactures; was known abroad
as "Queen of the West, ''and had wharf
lined with magnificent steamboats, for a
greater distance than had ever been oc-
cupied by all other crafts but twenty
years before. The transition during these
few years in Ohio was so transcendently
great as to astonish and bewilder the en-
thusiastic great men who were leaders
and directors in this apparently magical
transformation.
THEN AND NOW.
Forty years ago the Territory of Iowa
had recently been organized. It extend
ed over an immense area Of the great
American Desert. Its boundaries inclu-
ded all the vast surroundings of that state,
now constituting Kansas, Nebraska, Min
nesota, Wyoming, Montana and Dakota.
and at that time the entire population of
all this extended region was but forty
two thousand souls. Now there are near
ly five millions.
At that time the entire country west of
the Mississippi bottoms was known as
the ''great American Desert" The Gov
ernment had procured the extinguish
ment of the Indian title to strip of land
about forty miles wide extending from
Missouri up the west bank of the great
Father of waters. This was known as the
original Blackhawk purchase, was the
nucleus OF all settlement on the Great
Desert and the foundation upon which
the Territorial organization had taken
place two years previous. at that time
there was not half as much land in state
of cultivation in all Iowa as there is now
in Burleigh county. 10 day the produc-
tion end created wealth of the states and
territories grown out of this "great Ameri-
can desert" have amounted to countless
millions.
BISMARCK TEN YEARS AGO.
Ten years ago the ground now beneath
US was occupied as an Indian village. Te-
pees and wigwams covered the plain
where Bismarck now exhibits her un-
mistakable earnests and evidences of
future greatness. The narrowest and
best natural crossing of the great Missouri
river for hundreds of miles distant was
between this favored plain and Fort Alb
raham Lincoln. 1t had ever been the fa-
vorite crossing place for migratory buffalo
and Indians. Their anciently well-worn
paths and trails of lodge polls from every
direction and from all parts of Northern
Dakota, converge to this grand crossing.
The still existing mounds and remains of
Indian villages for miles around; the ad
mirable adaptation Of the whole country
for hundreds Of miles in all directions to
the production of subsistence for game of
Nll hluIlo, UilC tl1lS HC1lClttl S1S
tribution of pure running water; the vast
forests Of desirable timber covering the
expansive Missouri bottoms, fringing the
banks of it's many tributaries and filling
the valleys between the occasional coteaus
and numerous remains Of recently slain
elk and buffalo still scattered over our vi
cinity, all indicate Enthusiastically that this
very spot was formerly and up to the
time mentioned, the very heart and CEN
tire of the most desirable Indian paradise
FIRsL WHITE SETTLEMENT
Eight years ago the first white settle
ment was made here, the city was survey
ed and located soon after and during that
summer several of our original settlers
now present located on lots by the erect
ion Of tents, rude shacks or temporary
houses 70 them this was terra incog-
nita; but they knew the contemplated
railroad would soon be here and that this
would be the crossing of the greatest nav
igablc river in the world by the greatest
and most useful transcontineutal thorough
fare ever contemplated; so notwithstand-
ing they feared the hostile Indians swarm
ing all around them, feared the climate
and adaptation of the country to settle