The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-02-06
Colonel Steele One of
Characters in Early
History Of N. Dakota

over, one of the three was John Van
Dusen of the Troy farm in the east
ern part of Kidder county. Major
wired Governor Ordway asking the
appointment Of these men, and before
evening had a dispatch back announc-
ing that these men had been named.
Colonel Steele could hardly contain
himself-he was so happy over the
result, and said that he would never
forget the major, as this action made
it so that his town would get the
county seat
Colonel Steele took the train that
evening for st. Paul to see the North
ern Pacific officials about some more
land, and to make arrangements for
booming his new city. Three or four
days later The Pioneer Press came out
with big write-up of the new town
Of Steele. AS soon as Major Edwards
saw this, he threw the paper down in
disgust. He said: That fool Steele
has been gotten drunk by George
Bohon, and has given The Pioneer
Press the order for the record books
and other supplies for the new county
of Kidder.'' Sure enough, this proved
to be the case. The Pioneer Press
was then in the county supply BUSH
ness, the same as The Argus.
The major sent "Goldie' West out
to Kidder county to get some data,
and for quite q number of weeks a
series of articles appeared all headed:
Steele by name, and steal by nature
One evening just after supper ] was
in front Of the Sherman house, stand
ing where the Waldorf is now, and 1
saw Colonel Steele pass rapidly going
towards The Argus office, which was
where the Prescott hotel is now locat-
ed. started down that way, and saw
the major get up from in front of the
office, and move very quickly upstairs
Il think it was the quickest move he
ever made. Steele went up the stairs
three or four steps at jung. When
/ reached the office, Steele was stand
ing over the major with one hand on
his shoulder and the right raised with
fist clenched; it looked like trouble.
Steele was damning the major, who
replied that he had deceived him, and
no one could do that twice. He finally
got the colonel to take a seat, and be-
fore he left he had given an order for
over $1,000 worth of job work. Steele
did not know that just under the
newspaper on the majors desk was a
big revolver, with his hand on the
same. 1t was q close call.
when the capital removal matter
came up, the colonel put his city for
ward as one of the contestants. To
make his offer good he deposited a
certified check for 100000 with the
commission, thinking to bluff Alex
ander Mckenzie out with his offer on
behalf OF Bismarck. The check was
drawn on Steele's own bank at Steele
which had a capital of $4,000, and
deposits OF about $4,000. He also
entertained the commission and their
followers in most royal style, but he
could not win.
AFTER leaving North Dakota,
Colonel Steele invented the steam
method of heating passenger cars, in
stead of the old coal stove method.
He secured the adoption Of the plan
on a few of the railroads, but many of
the managers were skeptical. His
system is now in general use but
somewhat modified, but he was O
pioneer in this line.
''At the time OF the Spanish Ameri-
can war he organized company in
New York city. to install crude oil as
fuel for FORCES. This makes q far
greater heat than the old coal FORCES,
even with forced draft. These were
introduced into all naval yards, and
into many large manufacturing con-
Germs. The demand was not great
enough, because Of the expense OF
proper installing and maintaining.
AT the time OF the trial of Harry
Thaw for the killing Of Architect
White, Colonel Steele was one OF the
jurors. Tic may be that this had some,
thing to do with Thaw's fate, ais the
colonel had charge Of the interests OF