Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1917-11-22
The Early History Of
E T? 3. 1 8 * Langdon and Vicinity

claim a mile west of the town. People
were now coming from all directions,
some to the store, some to the court
house, some to look for laad and some
just merely to see what kind of place
this was. Before l left the Mooney
house l remember having w. j..
K%neeshaw, Jud LaMoure and Mr..
McTavish of Pembina with us for the
night When Mr.. Trenholm went
away Mr.. Fred W. Hall was appointed
Deputy Register of Deeds, Mr.. Nelson
was then living on his claim, and l
found Mr.. Hall and Mr.. Nelson very
interesting companions.
After Mrs. Mooney came there
were more ladies to be seer about the
place, and one that l remember we'll
was Mrs. John Bidlake. sister of Mr..
Robert Fleming. Miss Annie Moonev
was also a visitor at Langdon that
summer.
The next building was the black
smith shop Of Mr.. Gregoire Burbach.
Mr.. Burbach held a farm over in Mr..
Liebeler's nei 5hborhood and came in
quite early in the spring and started
the first blacksmith shop. His work
was chiefly in the pillow line, as most
of the work was done without shoes.
l believe the next matter of in.
terest was the coming of Mr.. C. B.
c. Doherty, from Grafton, to begin
the publication of the Cavalier County
Courier. The printing office was in
the Court House and the press was
run by hand, one page being printed
at a time. The local columns of
the paper held the usual interest and
much space was given over to the
publication of notices of final proof
on land. MIR Doherty lodged with
me in the sto'e until Mrs. Doherty
and baby, lgnatius, came, when the
family went to live in the inner
rooms of the court house. The next
spring Mr.. D herty built a house, the
one that is no7 owned by Mr.. Kop
riva and whore Mr.. Henry Albrecht
now lives. Living VIA the family
then were Mrs. Dohart >. father and
mother, Mr.. AID Mrs. We,lh, who had
moved h re from Pensacola, Florida.
/ During TIE summer Mr.. McHugh
started the baild'ng of a house, which
ne had ready for occupancy in the
fall, and the family at that time
moved from Grafton to Langdon. The
family at that time included Mrs.
We!ch, mother of Mrs. McHugh, who
became a particular friend of mine.
So we had Ms. Mooney, Mrs. Me-,
Hugh, Mrs. Welch and Mrs. Dohertv.
as the four women of Langdon, and
l believe there were no others until
the fall of 1886.
now had become better acquaint-
ed with the surrounding country, and
found five main trails leading out.
ward. These did not follow section.
lines bat were the nearest routes DOS.
sible in the direction of the point to
be reached. They were the roads,
southeast to Easily, and Osnabrock.
east to Olga, northwest to Elkwood.
north to Mt. Carmel and northwest
to Hannah and Cypress.
1t was a lang drive to Hannah and
Cypress, and 1 do not remember be.
ing out there during the summer, but
was over all the other roads and be-.
came acquainted with the first set.
tiers in these directions. l will not
attempt to name all of them, but
some of my earliest acquaintance
were the Wrightson family at Easily,
and the Anderson family at Osna.
brock. On the way to Olga, Pat
Mulligan and Con Jordan and fami.
lies. Pat Scully, Jake Bisenius and
the Mcneil family, the McEwan
family and the O'Briens, near the
O'Brien coulie. Along toward Elk
wood, were the people of Harvev
Center, which at that time was we'll
settled and quite progressive. Farther
along the north road were the William.
son and Hope families on the banks of
the Little Pembina. On the way to
Mt. Carmel were the John Brownell.
William Hunter, and the Nicholas and
James Irwin families. Mt. Carmel
was a place to 60 to church. and
perhaps you will give me credit for
being there often.
And while speaking of churches
believe that all denominations now
represented at Langdon were here
then An interesting circumstance of
going to church was that it took all
of us to make what might be called a
full sized congregation, and who ever
the preacher might be he could always
depend on having a mixed audience.
Late in the fall I went back te