The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1914-04-10
Ancient History
A Northern Minnesota Editor Writes of
Early Days at Big Stone Lake

ANVItutiH MiuHcSUtd EultOf W VFlteS vi
Early Days at Big Stone Lake
Some Of the older residents of
Milbank will probably remember
q. Frank Peterson printer who
worked on the Milbank Index
and later on the Herald Advance.
Frank is now publishing a paper
at Bear River in Northern Min
nesOta and in a recient issue he
reviews some Of the early day
newspaper his tory in this section
Frank was the son Of George
Peterson one Of the pioneer set
| tiers on the east side of the lake
near Foster, and in reply to an
item in the Big Stone Headlight
that the editor was former Or
tonvillian he says.
The Headlight man may have little
| amusement at our expense but the
Journal editor has a vivid memory of
| his first trip to lnkpa. the present
| site Of Big Stone City, which in later
years has become one of the most
popular summer resorts in the north
| west. There We're four settlers on the
west side Of Big Stone lake at that
| time, namely, Sheriff Whipple, Dan
Tenny Moses Mireau and Sol. Roberts
with none between the la Ike and the
| Sisseton reservation and but few be-
| tween the lake and the breckenridge
division OF the Great Northern, even
unto the days when M. |. Mathews
salted his calves ears.
| Na hold tipSt kaoc coy OF 10
ford under Jac Brynildson, now Of
Candy, this state. who was pill
mixer in those days, and was holding
down d premption in connection up
the lake. Later we pulled the lever
on about every Washington press in
that section including that of the
| Headlights When the first train went
over the Fargo Southern we were
holding down a case in company with
| Mike Dolan chum Of Mary McFad
den's with Col. De sey on the Grace
vile Transcript Earlier in the season
we had manipulated the Washington
| on the Herald for w w. Downie and
| Henry Neil with John Murphy as
Office devil, and right here we would
| remark that there was some class to
| John
About this time Nels Foss an elon-
gated son Of Norway who had been
! holding down a homestead in the
summer and type cases in the winter
! for J. Fl Sheets and "Chief Fred
/ Tutte and Andrew Hess maze a loan
on the farm and in company with l..
/ Il. Jones, and Frank Shumaker with
his Job outfit esta biished the Head
light Later Prof, NJ T. Narney,
VINO laid the foundation Of Ortonville's 5
excellent school system was proof
reader with George Varney andSkinny
/ Hyde as cOmposltors when not a..
school. The Narney family has since
passed aWayand until recently Skinny
| Hyde was punching tickets on the
/ Duluth, Missabe x northern, and this
week we are In receipt OF a letter from
/ our Old time friend Frank Shumaker,
stating that big business, had sat on
| his Sterling Debenture Company in
New York but he hopes to save the
stockholders from serious loss. Jones
and Shumaker Withdrew from the
Headlight and started the Peoples
/ indicator a green back publication
while L. Nj. Grant put out a three
columnfolio from the North Star Office
and for a few weeks Ortonville with
its 500 population had five newspapers
Across the Minnesota valley VIM.
| Downie and Sam Jones were making
a vain but heroic effort to spike down
the county seat, but early one winter
morning Milbank called for it, and
later William and Hettie followed it.,
and then the Headlight moved across
the valley into South Dakota. Ii our
memory serves us correctly the Head
light editor was just taking his first
term at Brookings when the journal
| hp holding a DOSItIOn with
Col. ID. NJ Evans on the Milbank
endeX
The same evening the He adlight
arrived Com. Bill Thomas arrived in
port from Side La ke The Commodore
was foreman of Harris Graphic pub
lished at Nilbank and Revillo. Bill
intmates that he would rather take
his chances with gasoline launch on
Side lake than to repeat our trip to
Ortonville from Milbank one evening
with pair of bronks. A few min
u,es later Geo. Lockwood, one of the
pioneers of Milbank, pulled our latch
string. to remind us OF old times.
It is thirty seven years since the
Journal editor first visited the upper
Minnesota Valley, and where during
the fourteen years following he had
ample opportunity to observe won
derful development from an endless
and unbroken prairie without field or
claim shanty into we'll settled and
thriving communities. Given an
equal number of years, and in spite
of all speculative drawbacks, the
Bear River country promises TO make
the upper Minnesota valley look like
the Sahara desert in comparison.