The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-02-13
"REMINISCENCES OF EARLY
HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
WRITTEN BY COL. ]. B. POWER

Col. j. B. Power of the Helendale
stock farm, was connected with the
land department Of the Northern Pa
cihc at it's inception, and was in
charge of this branch Of its business
for some ten years. Later he was the
land commissioner of the Manitoba
system, now the Great Northern.
Some two years ago Colonel Powers
wrote a history of these early days,
comparing conditions at that time
with the present situation. This has
never been published, and The Forum
has been permitted to use this manu-
script by the author. 1t is too long
for n issue, and it will appear in
three installments. 1t is believed that
it will be found to be n Of the best
and most valuable articles ever pub
lished on the Red river valley.
The colenel's paper is as follows:
Bits of history connected with the
early days of the Northern Pacific
railway, the organization and work
Of its land department, the com
mencement of the settlement and de-
veIopment of the country, the open
ing of the ass-Cheney-Dalrymple
farm and a few other things that may
be of interest to the early settlers.
Public attention was first attracted
to our new northwest by an act Of
congress in 1864 granting a charter to
the Northern Pacific Co. to build
a railroad from Lake Superior to
Puget Sound. Duluth, which was
then not much more than a port OF
! entry, immortalized as the Zenith
City of the Unsalted Seas" by Proc
tor Knott's great speech ridiculing the
project, was to be the starting point
of the road.
Interest in the enterprise and in the
country did not, however, become
general until the commencement of
construction of the road, Feb. Is,
1870, when ground was first broken
at the Northern Pacific junction with
the st. Paul and Duluth road (now
| Carlton), and track laid to Brainerd
that year; to the Red river in 1871;
to jamestown in 1872; and to Bis
marck in the summer of 1873.
BY that time our new northwest
was much in evidence; 1t was being
talked about and very much written
about, but of this later.
After the road reached Bismarck
nothing further was done in way OF
extension until 1879, when work wa
resumed, and that year track was
laid to a point some fifty miles west
of Mandan, and in 1880 1t reached the
Dakota-M Montana line where a silver
.-sI-n r,a, lrsxrny, 10 n1v,, ~, oV,on rofA bha
event. A
So far as pertains to our state
history these few facts are all that
are necessary in following the prog
ress Of the road to the Pacific, un-
less, as a historical event of interest
to the whole country, / mention its
continuance westward, until the
driving of the golden spike in Sep
TENDER, 1888 near Gold Creek, Mont,
when the road was in control of the
Willard party, thus connecting into
n solid chain the eastern and west
ern links of the great enterprise.
The operating department of the
road was organized in the spring of
1872, with c.. w. Mead as general
manager. J.. M. Ha~nnaford, her clerk.
now second vice president of the
road, Geo. Sheriff, station agent at
Northern Pacific Junction, now audit
or of passenger receipts, M. p. Martin
in the engineering department in
1872, now in the accounting depart
ment on the west end, and o. C.
Greene, superintendent of t~elegraphy,
are the only ones of all the employees
at that time who are now connected
with the road.
Jay Cooke vas the financial agent
of the company, His wish was to
popularize the enterprises, and to
place all it's bonds and stock in this
c~ountry-in fact, to make it an Am
erican enterprise. SO sure was he that
he could do this, that he refused to
entertain an offer made by Dutch
capitalists in 1871 to take the larger
majority of the first mortgage bonds,
secured by the company's lands east
of the Missouri river.
With this purpose In view he en-
deavored by most literally patronizine
influential financial and principal
daily papers in the none centers az
well as other widely read publications
to have published attractive articles
regarding the character Of the coun-
try through which the road was tx
run, the richness OF the lands, and
the wealth producing possibilities in