The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-12-27

year ago gathered together and print.
ed In its columns some interesting
"reminiscences of the early day Christ
mas as spent by the old timers of
North Dakota.
The Evening Times reproduces the
article as follow:
Mrs. Linda Slaughter, one of the
old timers, now living near Fargo,
said: I'm 1872 spent Christmas at
Camp Hancock. The buildings were
the same as today, one story, hewn
long houses, that have since been
raised and remodeled. The two sets of
officers quaters were occupied by
Capt. E. E. Clarke, post commandant,
and DR.. B. F. Slaughter post surgeon,
the two lieutenants, Humbert and
Chance, being absent of leave of alb
sence. The building nearest the
street was the surgeons quarters and
we had Christmas tree there on
Christmas eve, the first in Bismark.
The children of this modern Bismarck
will no doubt think 1t funny tree.
l had taught Sunday school of the
little children of Edwinton all sum-
mer in my tent at Camp Hancock, and
when Christmas came and had the
luxury of living in real house, of
course, the Sunday school scholars
must have a Christmas tree. But
what should it be made of? Not a
green branch or twig in the entire
country. But we had a Christmas tree,
notwithstanding. DR.. Slaughter pos
sessed pair of magnificent elk horns
of which he was very proud, and we
had the post carpenter fasten them up
right in the center of the dining room,
and decked them up with pretty rib
bons and bright colored fringes and
fastened little gifts to its many prongs
and supplemented it with a treat
made up of all the goodies" the COM
missary and village store could fur
nish. There was eleven happy little
boys and girls at that Christmas tree
gathering and they sang II Want to
be An Angel" and Happy Land" and
listened to the "Old, Old Story" that
Sunday school children in Bismarck
hear today. Then we played games
until bedtime, and they were sent
home happy. On Christmas day din
ed with my husband and a party Of
guests from Fort Mexican latter ward
Fort Lincoln) with Capt Clarke,
whose bachelor dinners were always
greatly relished, not alone because of
his skill as caterer, but because of
his conversational gifts. He was a
brother of Grace Greenwood and per-
feet host. On this occasion the din
ner as recorded in my journal of that
date, exquisitely cooked by his good
housekeeper. "Aunty Harris" con-
sisted of sucking pig roasted whole
with red apple in it's mouth and
banked by a bottle of fine catawba.
The pig was Christmas gift from an
officer of Fort Mexican. That same
evening DR.. Slaughter and l enter
tanned the Reading Circle" society
composed of officers and ladies from
Fort Mexican, which held semi month
ly meetings at our quarters to read
the shorter plays of Shakespeare, each
one taking part, and as some of the
leaders were gifted with dramatic tai
ent this compensated in great measure
for the lack of theatrical amusement
on the frontier. The officers were in
uniform and the ladies were gayly
dressed. The staple articles of re-
freshment at these meetings were
buffalo tongue sandwiches, but on this
occasion we had a hot supper, with
bear steaks as a novelty, with hot
apple jack brewed with canned apples
and commissary brandy by one of the
ladies, as an accompaniment for the
gentlemen.
The day was also celebrated by the
soldiers Of Camp Hancock by a good
dinner in their barracks. There were
two hotels in the new city then, the
Capital on Main street, kept by Mr..
and Mrs. H. R. Marsh, and the Edwin
ton on Third street kept by Mr. and
Mrs. ]. B. Bailey, and a fine dinner was
served at each. Eiwinton as Bis
marck was then called was a small
place. The houses of the citizens
were small and poorly constructed of
canvas and green cottonwood logs.
But the people were friendly and hos
pAN1OAO oAu Oil CuJOyCu I1AC udys 1IlOSc
who had abundance saw that no one
else lacked Christmas cheer. The sit
uation at Bismarck at that time cannot
he understood by those who were not
here The country was then unsettled.
The Indians and buffalo ran wild, and
safety was found only in the vicinity
of the military forts, of which there
were Fort Sully, Fort Rice, Fort Stew
enson. Fort Buford, with the Indian
agency of Standing Rock (now Fort
Yates. Fort Mexican Nincoln), and
Camp Hancock, the two latter estab-
lished in 1872, and Camp Seward at
the present site of Jamestown
There were no settlers between the
Missouri and Red rivers. The mails
were brought up the river overland
from Yankton, semi-monthly by Indian
scouts, who were enlisted in the
y. s. service Owing to frequent at
tacks from the hostile Sioux on the
Ariraree scouts the mails were often
delayed for weeks. In the fall of 1872
our last mail reached us by the last
steamboat that came up the river,
shortly before the election in Novem-
Der. 1t was not until after Christmas
that an officer at Fort Mexican, return
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