Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-03-09
CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XIV.
BIsMARCK-PER1oD OF 1873.
T-\ ARLY in 1873 the agitation of the
tOwnsite question began and was
a source of vexatiOn to the citi-
zens who were now divided into
several parties. There were those
who adhered to the railroad company and
believed in the right of the Puget Sound
company to eAin title through the Pencil
pre-emption-now homestead claim-for
Pennell had married "Dutch Mollie" and
she was keeping house in theP S. q u. 5.
headquarters. This added TO the unpopu-
larity of the company and intensified the
feeling of dislike on the part of the other
claimants toward its agent.
The various other claimants to the town
site, each had their circle of friends
who believed in their right to gain title by
their homestead and presumption claims to
the same tracts. claiming that if
the railroad could gain title by the pre-
tense of holding it for agricultural pur-
poses, others could also. There was also
a large number who believed that the
actual occupants of the lots were the
owners, under the townsite act of congress
of March, 1868. Much ill vii! prevailed
among these factions, and the life Of Col.
Sweet, attorney for the L. S. & P. S. Co.
and N. p. r. R. Co., was said to have been
; several times in danger from the other fac
tons.
Meanwhile, the mail difficulties of the
citizens increased so greatly that some
thing had to be done. 1t was decided to
ask for the location of a postofice and the
establishment of ANAL route. But who
would keep the postoffice? The postal
law forbade that a p0stoffice should be
kept within certain distance of any place
where liquor was sold, and none of the
business houses could take it on that ac-
count. Scarcely were we settled in our
new home before a delegation Of the bust
ness men of the city called to ask us to take
the Office in our house. Of course we did
not want it, but being now property hold
ers, we wished to help in all ways that
would conduce to the prosperity of the
town, so l consented to take it temporarily,
until some other place could be found for
it. A petition for my appointment as P. M.
Of Edwinton, was sent to Washington,
when it was learned that Maj. s. A.
,Dickey, brother OF Congressman Dickey of
II Pennsylvania, M post-trader at Fort Nc
sKean, had already received the appoint
ment. AS Maj. Dickey did not reside
within the delivery of the proposed new
Office, he could not serve, SO he appointed
me his deputy and sent his resignation in
my favor to Washington. Then it was
found that a married woman's right to
make a bond was not recognized by the
government, and I could not hold the
Office.
tf Then DR.. Slaughter consented to take
the Office on the same condition as that on
which he had bought me the COW, viz: that
he was never to be called upon to have
anything to do with il, and I readily as
sented to the agreement, because l we'll
knew that if the postofice, like the COW,
should prove too much for me his generous
nature would prompt him'tO come to the
rescue. DR.. Slaughter was very busy now.
Besides his official duties at Camp Hancock
he had a lucrative practice among the citi-
zens of the town where he was the only
physician. Yet / do not think he ever
charged q patient or made out a bill. The
poorer people he visited gratutiOusly, and
it was. expected as a matter of course that
whenever. the doctor went among them
the doctors wife perforce must 60 along.
Nor did l ever go empty handed. In this
way I came to know the people intimately
and fromsvisiting the sick in their w~retched
mes.Isaw how hard it was to be poor and
friendless and I learned also that one of
iife's truest pleasures is found in using the
means and the gifts with which providence
has endowed us, for the amelioration Of
g the sorrows of those weaker and less fortu-
= nate than ourselves. And now the friend
ship and gratitude of those people as mani
tested toward my husband and myself in
those early days of hardship are very
pleasant to recall. On the other hand the
gamblers and saloon keepers, when get
ting q prescription, paid for it with the first
bilIthey CHANGED to take from their over
flowing pocket.books, it mattered not
whether it were five or fifty dollars for
everybody had plenty of money and no one
Yer waited for change.
pr. Slaughter. was appointed post master
OF Edwinton. Buffalo county, in August,
1873, and was commissioned as such. His
salary was fixed at twelve dollars a year.
The next winter the law was changed,
allowing a married woman to fill the office
of postmistress, when my husband resigned
in my favor and I was appointed postmis-
tress of Bismarck, Burleigh county. and
commissioned as such in August 1874.
The first mail that arrived after the Office
was established, April 18th, 1873, was an
event to be remembered. There had been
no mail for several weeks and I had gone
horseback riding forgetting all ABOUT nv
new official dignity. On returning 7 saw
that my house was surrounded by the
entire population of the town, men, women
and childrenl all seemingly in a state Of
great excitement. L ever thought Of the
mail but concluded that the house must be
on fire. and palIOnpd mn nsS fast &c ~,