The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1917-09-06

bismarck, Aug. 31.-When Major
Frank s. Henry closes his desk tomor.
rom evening he will have completeu
four years service as North Dakota $
land commissioner and will rellnqulsl
his KEYS to his successor, who prob
ably will be William j. Prater' FORMER
treasurer of Burleigh county. MAJOR
Henry leaves behind him record LOT
af;ciency and courtesy which sets a
hiph standard for his successors. NO
atate official ever has retired from
office with a more general good will
frnm everv citizen of North Dakota.
Major Henry has held himself aloof
from politics, and, while he was an ap-
zo;utee of former Governor l.. 3.
Hanna the present administration has
had from him the same efficient SER
vice and effective cooperation Whlcn
was rendered the former government.
Goes to War
Major Henry retires from the land
epmmissionership to devote his full
attention to the military duties which
'deyolve upon him as commander OF the
first battalion and ranking major OF
the First regiment. The major enlist
ad in the old North Dakota guard
when he was 16 years DID, and he has
been in the service constantly for the
last 20 years. He served with the
North Dakota volunteers in the Span
ish-American and Filipino wars in
1898 and 1899, during which time he
was on duty continually and did not
miss a single day, participating in ev-
cry engagement in which his regiment
fought.
He commanded the first battalion
on the Mexican boarder in 1916-1917
and in the record of battalion tests
in which every battalion in the
Brownsville district participated the
first battalion of the First North Da-
kota received a higher rank mark than
any other Recently Major Henry at
tended a two-months school of mus
kerry at Fort Still, Okla, in which a
four-months course was given, includ-
ing machine-gun work, and he gradu-
sted Aug. 1, making him the best in
formed officer in the North Dakota SER
vice in all points of modern warfare.
In June, 1917, he was rendered the post
of adjutant general by Governor Fraz-
Ter but declined, preferring active SER
vice.
As Land Commissioner
Frank S. Henry was member of
the firm of Henry & Henry at Valley
City, handling land loans, fire insur-
ance and abstracting, when Governor
Hanna appointed him land commits
sioner four years ago. He brought to
his new duties ripe experience and
thorough training in the important de-
tails of land loans and the real estate
business generally. During the four
years of his administration of the
North Dakota land Office not a single
detail of his work has been sighted.
Tue business has developed with great
strides from year to year, and the i'm
portance of the properly-systematized,
husiness1ike administration which Ma
jDr Henry has given the state cannot
lie overestimated
important progress has been made
during the four years in the farm
loan, school,, county and municipal
bond business of the state. The care
anu AtoAdSC1llCuL VI JIG luuuS OI
schools and institutions derived from
the sale of public lands is most i'm
portant business problem which has
Increased from year to year. Farm
loans made in the last four years to-
tailed more than three million dollars,
a greater amount than in any other
period in the history of the state. More
than three and One-ha1f million do11arc
worth of bonds, most of which were
school bonds, issued for the purpose of
building new school houses in the
state, were purchased. During the
four years not single farmers appli-
cation for farm loan has been re-
fused when the applicants title was
found good, and there has always been
money on hand to loan on real estate
mortgages and to care for school
bends.
~ Receipts during the last four years
show that collections amounted to