Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-01-19
THE PAST.

Ten years ago or a little more found half a
dozen men with very small amount of mon
ey, but with an ihexhaustab,e amount of
pluck wutering under canvass within about
four miles of the preeent site of Moorhead,
awaiting the location of the line of the North
ern Pacific, at the CROSSING of the Red river.
Their patiedce was at last rewarded by the To-
cation of the n. p. where it now lies and
the survey and plating of town site by the
Lake Superior and Pugets Sound Land Co. !"
"a wheel within wheel which in honor of
one of their number and director of the
Northern Pacific Railroad company, they
named Moorhead, which gentleman was also
the business partner OF the then great capital
lst and father of the road Jay Cooke The idea
of the town projectors seemed to be to push
prices rather than improvements and as a ma
tural result it was only the few sturdy spirits
who had an abiding faith in the future of the
homs of their choice, which nothing could
shake or no misfortune overwhelm
that located. Good business lots brought as
high as s., 900 each, q sum that rendered them
undesirable in the opinion of the average
stranger. The road was completed to the
east bank of the river in November 1871, and
in the spring of 1872 the Northern Pacific Rail-
road company began the operation of exter-
minating Moorhead, which policy has been
well adhered to by them most, if not all of the
time since, but which at present is Il little
further from accomplishment than it was for
the first four or five years thereafter.
The first operation on their part was the
removal of all their business-shops, round
house, and al pos$. benefit to be derived
from the terminus of division to the OPP
posite bank of Rid River, where they founded
and have ever since fostered the now flourish
ing city of Fargo. Even the small building
erected ut Moorheal for depot was allowed
to go to ruin, and no pains spared to destroy
the town. The natu raj result was, that few
of the less resolifte ones among the business
men were induced to remove to the new Dakota
town, and the dark days for
Moorhead were in truth made darker.
To crown all came the great financial crisis,
the failure of Jay Cooke 81 Co., of New York
and Philadelphia, who were the N. P. r. r.
itself, almost in point of fact, and which for
Il time checked emigration to or Investment in
the entire section Of country. AS the coun-
try, however, began to recover from the para
lization TO which it had been subjected, the
liberal policy of the road to bondholders in
receiving bonds for lands, soon began to Sc
cure the interest of capitalists in the east in
this great country, by the proprietorship in
its lands, which they thus acquired and
they soon began to put in
money in developing the country and build
ing cities and towns. For time Moorhead
received only the crumbs which fell from the
rich mans table across the river. The few
sturdy spirits who had ever firm faith in the
future destiny of the Key City kept steadily at
work, and gradually established renumera-
tive business in the several lines they had I'M
dertaken, but the real dawn of the present
prosperous era came through the direct me-
dunn of the st. Paul, Minneapolis & Manto-
ba railway. This ehterprising company, anx-
ious to have b share in the trans
portation business Of this great initial point
to the Red River valley projected and built
line from GAINESVILLE on their through route
10 Manitoba, to Mo orhead and Fargo. Moor
head was reached late in the fall of 1880, and
after protracted litigation the Northern Pa
cific railroad and Red river were crossed and
communication with Fargo established. With
the very inception Of this enterprise real estate
at Moorhead began to look up, and when it
was fully realized that this vast and powerful
organization proposed to foster and aid the
Key City, the dawn of that better day so long
waited for at length broke