Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-10-25
IRAN
APID DIS
BY Scoop"

800 Fpf = -. ~ -
to q brillian success or compel them
to drop out OF the lead forever.
Grand Rapids was brought to such
a crisis, and dropped for years into
oblivion. The turning point was a
railroad-would 1t or would 1t not
come? The town grew briskly, the
country around It settled up swiftly
and everyone was ready for the con-
ing Of the promised. road which would
assure the permanent success OF the
growing little city.
The First Insling.
The first inkling that the people of
Grand Rapids had that all was not
right was the unexpected end of a BIT:
ter county seat. fight between Grand
Rapids and LaMoure. The knell to
their hopes was the laying of the road
through LaMoure, instead Of Grand
Rapids.
Grand Rapids, to begin with, was
the first settlement in the county and
one Of the first three or four in the
eastern end Of the state. The town
of LaMoure did not exist. The near
est town was Glendale. What rec.
ords there were were kept in a build
ing dignified by the name of the court
house, and it vas assumed by all that
this was really the capital Of the
county.
Fargo 4 Southwestern.
Recognizing the fact, the Fargo &
Snnthyyocfor ~nlonnoI 70 bu;IJ co,tI,-
west out of Fargo through Grand
Rapids. Grand Rapids had settled up,
and boomers who came later started
LaMoure-eight miles south of Grand
Rapids. The boomers of LaMoure
used every means in their power to
attract settlers to their town. The
rivalry became keen and before long
the towns were engaged in a bitter
newspaper war Tor the county seat.
Too late, the Grand Rapids people
realized that legally they had never
had the county seat. No election had
ever been held-it had been kept
there through lack of a better place.
The election was called, and after
a great deal of electioneering. the La
Moure people won: During the night
the county records had been stolen
from the courthouse in Gland Rapids
and taken to LaMoure.
Never lost Hope.
Grand Rapids did not lose hope at
this, however. The final blow came
when the Fargo & Southwestern
changed its route. a, tritle southwark,
bringing it into LAAIoure instead OF
Grand Rapids. Then the rush began.
One BY II the business mel Of Grand
Rapids packed up and moved TO the
county seat, to the railroad. and
Grand Rapids died a~fnoiseless death.
Shortly after Wei e Dickey built
their road from jamestown south
ward through Grand Rapids to La
Moure. but Grand Rapids chance had
gone with the county seat.
Many of the residents CT the old
Grand Rapids are in b lsines in La
Moure. A few. however, are still
about Grand itapids, John Kinney and
A. w. Cunningham being among the
few. X. c. S. Deisem. is o a mer.
chant in LaMoure. He had been in
partnership at Grand Rapids, running
a general store under the name Of
Deisem & Franks. Franks and he
separated waen Deisem came to the
county seat, but Mr.. Deisem retained
his ownership Of the Grand Rapids
store up to 1904. wlile running his
store at LaMOure. n y
Still Have the Curtains.
Even now, the curtains on the front
of the Grand Rapids store retain the
old name-Deisem & Franks. The
building was built in 1882, and for
that primitive time. was a model. II
is built of brick is Of a good design
and sufficiently large. It is easy to
see it was meant for a metropolitan
store.
The newspapers Of the county took
the brunt OF the county seat fight, as
they did also the work of boosting the
territory. Charley Cleveland was the
first newspaper man in the county.
He started Grand Rapids Journal in
1882, selling it two years later to Joe
Chapple, who continued it for four
years. W. J.. Mexican, q brother of
William Mexican Of SanbOrn, started
the Chronicle in LaMoure, Which,
later passed into the hands Of C. G.
Howsfield. Waldo Potter. Davis E
Warren, and is now owned by Fl. Il,
s. Deisem, a nephew or G. S. Deisem.
Grand Rapids stands for-anybody
can tell you. Nobody ever mentions
Grand Rapids without. hearing the
name Of Joe Mitchell Chapple, the
youthful published Of the journal. All
the o%ldtiners Of the state knew him
and recall many ~laughable incidents
intimately connected with his newspa.
per experience in Grand Rapids In the
frontier days.
chappte Buys the Journal.
When Chappl who was on his
mothers farm near town, came into
town one day and proposed that he
buy the Journal from Charley Cleve
land, who wanted to leave, Deisen
staked him. Kinney and Cunningham
and has shipped over 10e 900 bushels, Of
grain. H Ortby Is the general manager
The Dwight elevator OF the Dulut]
Elevator company handled last year 90
ono h,,shels ~ prni N A1hcrf M. Olson Is