The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1914-08-20
old SETTLERS
MEETING At FARGO

EMS TELLS VI MEETING OF
EARLY SETTLERS AT STATE
FAIR JULY "a, AT WHICH SHE
PRESIDED.
S. G. Comstock stepped forward and
asked them to listen to an old man
garrulous. But what treat was
there! For he paid fine tribute to
the biggest little city in the U. s., as
Fargo is. Well he knew it too, for he
is Moorhead neighbor. And Towner
knows him well as a partner of Com
stock & White, the original owners of
the townsite.
He told how he came to the Red
river valley of the North when there
was only one plowed field therein, and
that was in Pembina. The writer Of
this article met, in St. Paul in 1895,
the first white child born in the Terri
tory of Dakota, tho it was then part
of the Territory of Minnesota. It was
Charlotte Van Cleve, one of the rank
ing citizens of Minneapolis, and she
was accompanied by her friend, Mrs.
John A. Logan. The two old ladies
were hostesses at big outdoor recep-
ton on Summit avenue, near the Kilt
on mansion. Commodore Kittson was
one of the OK cart Pilgrims who traded
with the Indians for buffalo pelts by
the thousand, and the white men of
those days heard an inward voice say
ing 1T is not good for man to be
alone" So they looked on the Indian
maids with favor, and some of them
were married in good faith. Such q
one was General Sibley of the Sixties
fame. But Charlotte Van Cleve was
the child of a missionary who was
stationed at Pembina, for the settle
ment there dates from 1912, when the
Earl of Selkirk brought band of
Sutherland Highlanders to Fort Gar
ry and established them on British
soil under the British flag, as he full
ly believed. They did not settle this
question till the early '40s when the
Ashburnham treaty settled the "54-4O
or Fight" question, by giving the Hud-
son Bay Scotchmen the right to come
down the Mouse river after cached
furs while Maine and the Down East
erners pushed their boundary line up
to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Is
land. Then the Fort Garry Scotchmen
slipped back to the Lake of the Woods,
tho some of them stayed by their
clearings and threw in their lot with
Uncle Sam. Their descendants are
to be found in Mellory holding Burns
Day on January 25th, just like the
rest of us adopted Americans.
So s. G. Comstock called on John
Paulson of Hillsboro to verify his
statements, and he was backed by
Henry Erickson Of Moorhead and Mrs.
|Weisbacker. He went on to claim as
Pioneers of the Red river James j.
Hill and told how he suggested to him
that he had better run his road out ia
the Pacific Coast. "No," said Hill, u
am over SO, too old for that" Yet
see the Empire Builders work today
Then he claimed the Dalrymples
as pioneers. And are they not? The
Grant Dalrymples keep open house
over the week end for their many
friends, and nowadays a phone mes.
sage brings Mrs. Grant with q cal
from Casselton to Fargo to gather uI
her friends. ~.
Then there are the Clark Dalrym.
pies near Hillsboro, where Miss Doro'
thy drives spanking team that hel
father only smiles at, while they Gov.
er 8 miles in 80 minutes without
breaking their trot, or turning hair
Who is witness thereof? Well, a Ger.
tain rising young lawyer in Fargo
might be "hoist with his own petard,'
by putting him on the witness stand
and asking him "Why don't you speak
for yourself, John" Well, Time will
tell the rest Of that story.
But Comstock's prediction of fu
,ure looming up for Fargo and its
neighbor fully equal to Minneapolis
and St. Paul is likely enough. May
,e there to see! IN
| And then w. H. White presented
his quota in writing, for he feared tc
ak too long. He told of the pioneers
Of the mixed train coming to BrainerG
i the early years of the '80s and find
ng Sunday school fourishing in q
OF cabin, where Mrs. J. D. Campbell
lad gathered the young men and
naidens around her for good Sab.
bath day. When she moved to Moor
head she kept up her good work. Lat
er, on, in Fargo's early days, she help.
4 ed organize the first union Of the w
C. T. u. and the young people became
Good Templars, who met in the hall
she and Mrs. Jennie Benedict, now
Mrs. S. j. Hill bought and fitted up
The Good Templars lodge that flour
ished in Towner in the early COS, was
an offshoot from the Fargo one, and
W. D. Gillespie, the architect, used to
come and sing, "Sunny Jim" to US.
Mrs. j. D. Campbell also helped to
organize John f. Reynolds Relief
Corps when the territory was divided
into two states, and she reused the
campfire by telling the tales Of Wash
ington, d. c., where she lived during
the Civil war. X @
Then w. H. White called on Judge
Charles Pollock, the Father Of the
Prohibition law, to head q nominating
committee, who should choose new
officers. Their work pleased 50 well
new president. He Is the neighbor Of
IEnvornnr Hanna and hia a0n Edwin