The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-05-13
RECALLS TIE BISMARCK
OF DAYS OF CUSTER

that George Taylor of this city was in
Bismarck with party of surveyors
that were attempting to find a way
through the Bad Lands. Bismarck
was only tent town and Jamestown
was only Ft. Seward, an Indian out
post. It was with more than usual in
terest that he read the following &C.
count from the Mckenzie IN. d.
Gazette of early days in Bismarck from
the pen of an old resident of Burleigh
county, of whom he knew. And Mr..
Taylor says every word of it is true
that she recounts as follows:
Il have lived in Burleigh county
since 1873. 1 lived up to my ninth
year in Bismarck when my father,
R. R. Marsh, moved onto, some land
he had taken as a homestead in Boyd
township and where we are at present
residing. l lived on the farm with my
parents up to my seventeenth year
when l met and married VIM. L. Will
ton, after which we moved to Bis
marck where Mr.. Wilton was employed
for number of years by l.. C. Green
as clerk in the old Custer hotel which
then stood midway between Main
street and Broadway directly across
from where the 500 hotel now stands.
After the Custer hotel burned Mr..
Wilton was employed for while in the
Ross dairy in Bismarck. In 1898 we
moved into the country once more,
living on the J. C. SWEET place between
three and four miles west of Menoken
and finally when my father died in
, 1901 we moved back on the old home
place in Boyd township where we
have lived ever since.
"R. R. Marsh came to Bismarck
(then called Edmonton) as steward
on his brothers Capt. Grant Marsh,
steamboat, and as the river season
was nearly over he decided to remain
in Bismarck and open a hotel. Bis
marck was city of canvas in those
days as nearly everyone lived in tents
with an occasional log house to be seen
Lumber was scarce and high and most
; ly sawed out of green cottonwoods
and when the boards dried the result
was like a suit of cheap clothes after
a good wetting. So only a few had
frame buildings but my father, of
course, thought he must have a square
frame front even if the rest was Of
logs. So he built a square front with
"Worlington House" painted on it In
big letters, and I've often heard my
father laughingly tell of how when the
wind blew hard he'd have to get q
bunch of men to help hold the Wor
lington House front in an upright
position.
"The only means Of travel or trans
portation was by steamboat or stage
and when the river froze up and the
stage stopped for the winter there
was no further communication with
the east until the next spring. Sc
when my fathers younger brother
Munro Marsh, became short of trous
ers that winter my father laid him
on an old fashioned army blanket, the
kind that used to have big ~. 8.
in black letters in the center Of them
and after marking around him made
Uncle Marsh q pair Of trousers. The
next summer the N. P. railway reach
ed Bismarck and did away with suct
difficulties.
Gen. Geo. A. Custer was then
stationed at old Fl. Lincoln and az
a good many Of the soldiers were
SO well acquainted with my father
and his oldest brother, Capt. Grant
Marsh, (who by the way was the
first white man to receive the news Of
Clusters defeat on the Little Big