Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1915-11-18

bAoAlcilSN 1iiilii liz SilSi Va JoiiS.
| remember that | got back to
Chicago the day that President
Garfield was assassinated----J July
I'd. ] found that the Bismarck
region was too new for country
newspapers; in fact, from James
town to Bismarck there was no
settlement of much consequence
very far from the railroad. The
railroad west of the river had
not been completed, and trains
ran only to Bismarck, the bridge
not being built until later, and
the Northern Pacific not being
finished until the summer Of
1883, the year the territorial cap
ital was taken from Yankton and
established at Bismarck.
had made up my mind, after
my trip to Bismarck, that l
would 60 back to Chicago and
work at my trade of journeyman
printer until a couple of years
later, when the country would
probably be better settled and
there would possibly be an op-
portunity for establishing a
newspaper in some new county.
In June, 1883, your mother and
/ went to Bismarck. We found
that the new counties in that re-
gion were still a problem of the
future, and | went to work on
the Daily Advertiser. an afternoon
paper, there being three daily pa
pers in the city named during a
part of the capitalization boom
year of 'S3---the Tribune (morn-
ing) and the Advertiser and the
Capital tevenine.) The town was
overboomed and the two evening
sheets in the fall of that year
turned up their toes toward the
daisies,' SO to speak. The sher-
iff put an end to the Advertiser.
The city went all to pieces as far
as progress was concerned, ard
it was many a year before the
country caught up with it and the
present era of bedrock prosper
ity was inaugurated. In the dark
days of the Capital. City practic-
ally any of the many vacant
houses in town could be obtained
by a tenant rent free and Main
street had many empty business
houses.
In February, 1884, the writer,
then employed on the Tribune,
made up his mind that the oppor-
tun1ry to start a country news
paper in that region was too far
in the future, and he went back
to Chicago, your mother staying
in Bismarck to sell the furniture
and dispose of the two cottages
which we had built, if possible.
But she didn't like the idea of
our being cutters" and my hav-
ing to return to the slavish life
of a morning newspaper. A few
months before the new county Of
Emmons, south of Burleigh, had
been organized by Gov. Ordway.
But, only three years before, by
the federal census of 1880, the
county had but 38 people----men,
women and children. So, it
looked to me that the new county
was altogether too sparsely set
tied for a newspaper to make a
living. However, in the early
spring of 'a your mother became
acquainted with Miss Lizzie
Taipe tafterward Mrs. Cordner,
living near Sterling), and Mrs.
.l.4sstead, whose people had
homesteads in Ernmons county,
and who were going there to re-
side as soon as good weather
came. The upshot of the matter
was that your mother became
interested. She saw Messrs. Nc.
Kenzie & Coffin, the Williams.
port toWn-site, part-oWners, and
made arrangements for me tc
start newspaper in the new
town. In the meantime she had
sold the two cottages and lots tt
MIR. Faunce, the Bismarck pain
ter. He paid, as | remember
81, 100 for the two pieces of pro
|perty. As showing how Bis
4 uarck continued son the slide
will mention that a year later
Continued on Page Twelve)