Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-07-13
Some Interesting "Reminiscences Of
Olden Times, From Col. Louns.
berry's Pen.
a Review Of Early Days in Bis
marck And All Along the
Line.
Various Items Of Local News Gath
cred Here and There For
Tribune Readers.
Then and Now.

sak8As Sts xn00 ana NOW. gItEN sgtaf&Tr'
In the light Of the present absence Of
communication between Bismarck, and
the east-except by telegraph will be
interesting to note some "reminiscences
Of the time when communication by rail
was once before unknown-not from.
strike, but from the fact that no road
existed. Col. Lounsberry, now OF the
Fargo Argus, has some notes Of his first
trip to Bismarck, in the fire annual of.
that paper which are interesting. He.
says:
left Minneapolis April i, 1873 for
Duluth, came on to Brainerd and Glyn-
don, reaching Fargo April 4th, stopping
ut the Headquarters hotel then being
opened by ]. B. Chaplin, having been
erected the summer before by the North
ern Pacific railroad. On the steps Of
this hotel, at that time, I completed my
arrangements previously undertaken
with Thomas HI. Garfield, to establish a
paper at Bismarck, and May 9TH re-
turned and took a freight for Bismarck.
Flood kept a stopping place at Valley
City at the river crossing and there was
u Y there and a boarding car in connec
ton with 9 work train, but no village
and no country settlements. At James
town there was q box car used for board
ing and general hotel purposes, q few
tents and board structures and military
companies at Fort Seward, but abso-
lutely nothing in the way Of settlements
in the country and between the Shey-
enne, OF eight miles west of Fargo and
the west line Of the state excepting at
Jamestown, Valley City and Bismarck
there were no settlers. Bismarck was a
city of tents, log shacks covered with
earth, and temporary structures then
being built Of pine or cottonwood lum-
Der, the pine selling at 800 per thou
sand. Every other building was a
saloon; several of them much worse. The
road was completed to about Steele,
from which point I rode by team. I
pumped q hand car most of the way
from jamestown to Steele, arriving at
Bismarck May 18th. I went out that
night by moonlight, because I did not
have time to go'durinR the day, and Sc
lected my soldiers homestead within
what is now the corporate limits of the
capital Of the state. I selected a claim
for Col. Harry Brownson in the same
section and another for A. G.. Jordan,
brother Of j. J. Jordan, who had a work.
ing interest with me in the TRIBUNE
which he retained during that first
season.
I reached Bismarck again with my
material about June 4, erected a build
ing on the ground assigned me by Gem
eral Manager Mead and Gen. r. L. Ros-
ser, and Jordan and I by our own
hands, largely erected our building and
July 6 the first number of the Bismarck
TRIBUNE was born and it has never mis-
sed an issue from that day to this. II.
G. Jordan was news foreman and night
editor Of the Minneapolis Tribune be-
fore coming to Bismarck with me and
j. j. Jordan, now postmaster at Fargo
and editor of the Republican, wa at the
ami time foreman of the job rooms.
Mark Kellogg was an attaohe Of the
Tribune in it's early days and was killed
with Custer on the Yellowstone. He
was my correspondent, QUILTED by me
and all Of his expenses were paid by me,
and his reports were sent to me, edited
by me and then sent to the New York
Herald.
Twas the Herald correspondent and
furnished them the biggest scoop in the
history Of journalism, but suggested
that they claim Kellogg as their CORE.
spondent, as he represented them
through me, and they did, and paid his
children $1,000. I was to have gone
with Custer myself, but sudden illness
in my family prevented. I would Lave
been with Custer as Kellogg was but for
that. Kellogg's notes were gathered up
by Gen. Brisbin, together with his own.
notes Of the march and the battlefield.
With these, and my first notes announc-
ing the fate Of Custer and his men, I
held the wire while ] interviewed Gen.
Terry, Capt. Smith, Dr. Porter, Fred
Girard, Grant Marsh, persons wounded
in the Reno affair, and others. The tele-
graph tolls amounted to over $1,000 on.
that single dispatch. / fled copy Of
the new testament and directed certain
chapters Of that to be sent it they run
out Of copy while I was preparing more,
being determined to hold the wires
against all other newspapers, in order
that the Herald might have the greatest
scoopon earth. The papers sold on the
Yellowstone at 81 9 copy, and at Bis
marck at25 cents.
Terence Martin, then running the
Sherman House,,where the Merchants
now is, was the first subscriber Of the
Bismarck TR1BUNE-the first paying
subscriber to the first North Dakota
wy ~ -