Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-01-19
the landing of the boats, andtusually near
enough for protection, to the military posts

oAAS ~ II VA. VAAo OORSo SSAOt uou0lAy lOUk
enough for protection, to the military posts
and agencies.
The survey and location of the line of
the Northern Pacific railroad, drew mem
bers of this class of men to the crossing, in
tent on early securing a location in the
new city. Their first camp was located on
the east side of the Missouri, opposite the
mouth of the Little Heart river, from
whence the first survey to the Yellowstone
had been made, and (which it was thus
understood the crossing was to be made.
This camp was afterward moved to the
point, and a number of men spent the win
ter of 1912 in log huts at this place.
With them was a number of intending set
tiers, who had come up from Sioux City.
lured into the country by reports Of the
survey Of the railroad west Of the river,
and the belief that a city had already been
laid out and occupied at the crossing.
These latter suffered greatly during the
winter, and in the spring went down the
river on the first steamboat on which they
could work their passage, cursing the coun.
try, and d%enouncing every thing connected
withthe-to them-delusiye railroad. But
new people came up on every boat, and
the camp was moved up river and became
Carleton City, the "f%orerunner of Edwinton.
Meanwhile the new town was receiving
daily additions to its population and new
buildings were rising on every side. My
husband and 1 had early selected the loca-
ton for the new home we meant to build
for ourselves In the tiny city, which we
never doubted for n instant would speed
lily become the metropolis of the west. The
sketches of life on the frontier, which l
had sent to the eastern press, from Fort
Rice, under the nom de plume of s.The
Doctors Wife," had been read by eastern
railroad officials, and twas suggested to
me that I could render both the new town
and the railroad a great service by writing
the facts in regard to both. The road had
many ~enemies-the eastern press, who
were bitterly attacking its managers for
laying out towns and inducing settlers to
follow the line Of the road into the far
northwest. Philanthropic Indian associa-
tions in Philadelphia and Washington
were abusing them for building their line
through the northwest regardless of the
rights of the Indians; while influential
journals were condemning the entire coun-
try as the Great American Desert, unfit for
white men to live in. Gen. Hazen at Fort
Buford was sending out adverse reports OF
the country and denouncing 1t as a barren
region incapable of supporting settlers.
The good general lived to acknowledge
his mistake, but it was necessary then to
counterfeit the adverse opinion of the rail
road and the country then being formed in
the east and which had prejudiced the
minds of many congressman against the
road.
AS I honestly believed that the railroad
would be built and the country could sup
port settlers, I could c"onsclenti0usly
undertake this, and was given a list OF
journals in New York, Chicago and st
Paul, to which | sent weekly letters, de.
scriptive Of the country, and events occur.
ing here, tor nearly two years afterwards.
1t was probably M series Of letters in the
"St. Paul Pioneer" now the "Pioneel
Press" which Col. LOunsberry speaks Of
having read in the winter of 1928, and
which may have had the effect of bringing
him and the TRIBUNE to Bismarck, In
which case l presume l should feel suf6
GENTLY rewarded, without other compensa
ton from the railroad company. But this
agreement was not made without preferred
compensation, and / was given the accom-
panying document which is valuable nov
from a historical point of view:
N. P. R. R. CROSSING OF MISSOURI RIVER
CAMP GREELY. Aug. IT,. 1872.
To Thomas L. Garfield, President L. S. &
P.S. Co.: ,
This c~ertifies that Mrs. Dr.. Slaughter il
entitled to q deed to lots one, two, three
and four, In block eight, in the town o
Edwinton, Dakota Territory, for services
rendered the N. P. r. r., and l.. S. & F. IS
companies. WM.B. CAV,
kOta Division Of the n, P. r. r.
Witnessed by DAN HysToN, u S. A.
A,. ,i45s JOSIAH GRANGE, U. S. A
l had taken possession of my newly &C
quired property in the usual way, viz, b,
marking at the boundries OF the lots ant
placing little stakes at the corners, and ]
fell very rich and important a l carried
one end of a surveyors chain from tn,
south corner of Dimmick's lot, across tn
common, where the railroad tracks nov
are, and across to the corner, opposite thu
store of Cathcart 4 Shaw, where Schoo
Superintendent Perkins Office now stands
Col. Shaw had been a member of Genera
Rosecran's staff duriny the war, and wat
one of the most enthusiastic lof the North
ern Pacific railroad engineers. AS W,
stood there at the corner, he said, with hi!
dark, handsome face flushing with enthus
iasm, II predict that in twenty years
from now Edwinton will be greater city
than st. Louis" and he went on ia, expa
tate, e%lOquently, on the advantages of it
location, and its brilliant prospects, CLOSING
with the prophecy that before many years
we would see long rows of maunifcon