Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-04-06

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gear. The period since 1879 is the new era.-ED.
CHAPTER XIV.
BISMARCK IN 1878.
~~HE advent of the railroad marked
@t a new era in the history of the
promising little city at the cross
ing. The construction car, the
gravel train and the hand car
furnished the means of transportation to
many. They came every day, singly and
in groups, eager business men, fashily
dressed gamblers, land seekers, gaudily
bedecked women of the town, ex-laborers
on the grade, spectators, honest men seek
ing new homes-men who had failed else
where and sought to begin life anew.
together with politicians on the keen look
out for Office and its emoluments. To
judge from their expressions the new town
was a disappointment to all of them.
They had evidently expected to find rows
of brick blocks, flourishing schools,
churches, postoffice and fashionable society.
The slow and painful process by which
the pioneers had evolved something out
of nothing and started these enterprises
upon the first stage of their progress was
unlntelligible to them. They looked with
wonder upon the log shacks and board
,shanties in which the pioneers had spent
the winter, Inc criticiped the uncouth
houses of the business men, which were
really sumptuous Tor a new country desti-
tute OF timber or of trees worthy the name
and having no means of transportation,
but which in comparison with the long SET
tied localities in the east-which the new
corners had left behind them, doubtless ap-
peared very small and uncomfortable.
In the spring of 1873, changes had been
made in the troops stationed at the Miss
ouri river forts, and the 18th Cavalry under
command of Lieut.. Col. George A. Custer
came overland via Yankt0n, to take station
at Fort Abraham Lincoln-the new name
of Fort Mexican. General Carlin remained
in command of the infantry post on the
hill, and General Clusters command en-
camped at the foot of the hill. The cav
airy quarters near the river were built
during the summer. A large force of
laborers were at work there, and a credi-
table newspaper called "The Mechanics
Far Vest was published by them. After
the arrival of the 18th Cavalry the character
of. the town changed materially for the
worse. New dance halls were opened on
Fourth street, the demi-monde congregated
there In large numbers and there was no
cessation in the daily and nightly routine
of revelry and wickedness.
The streets of Bismarck were then in
their natural condition, not graded and
overgrown with grass. In front of our
house on the corner of Main and Second
streets. was a depression in the ground
that was often filled with water from the
rains that now began to fall. This pond
came close up to the street and my little
daughter Rose and her favorite playmate
Johnnie Humbert-little mischievous tots,
delighted to evade the vigilance OF their
nurses, and wade into the middle of the
pond out of reach, where they would
stand gleefully splashing the water over
each other regardless OF the mingled
threats and %entreaties of their nurses, who
not daring to venture into the muddy pool
would circle around its edge like hens
whose brood of ducklings had taken to the
water.
1t was our custom each pleasant even
ing for the family to set outside the door
on Main street, each armed with a palm
leaf fan, with which to keep off the mos
quitoes. There was a little grass plot out
N side the door, and until other buildings
were erected in that block, was a nice,
quite spot, after the mail had been de-
livered and the people gone. AS we sat
there one evening in May, 1879, we were
joined by two pleasant gentlemen who in
tr0duced themselves as q. A. Lounsberry
and A. G. Jordan, and stated that they had
come to Bismarck from Minneapolis to
start a newspaper. AS all the people of the
new city were most anxious to have a paper
established, we were happy to welcome
them, and give such aid as we GUILD to the
new enterprise.
In May, 1873, the survey camp was
moved from Bismarck across the river to
where Mandan now stands. As they
we're making ready to begin the survey of
the line for the extension of the Northern
Pacific railroad west from Bismarck, they
were attacked by Indians, and ram, leav-
b ing their instruments behind them.
Troops from Fort Lincoln hurried to the
rescue and killed seven Indians.
The Bismarck TRIBUNE was established
July 1873, and the people came gener-
ously to its support, as they did to all en-
terprises of a public nature that promised
to benefit the town. The first newspaper
Office was built on south Main street, and
was q one-story frame building. The
people were greatly interested in it, look
ing upon the starting Of a newspaper in
the new town as equal in Importance to
the completion Of the railroad, as indeed it
was. On June %. 1873, the third expedi-
ton to the Yellowstone left Fort Rice to
complete the survey of the railroad, and
the exploration. of the Yellowstone coun-
try. The engineers and surveyors of the
Northern Pacific railroad were under the
direction of Assistant Chief Engineer