The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1919-02-13
|, MONTHLY G. N. PAYROLL
AVERAGES 1921, 652
Supt. McCandless Tells Some Inter
esting Things About the Oper-
ating of the 100 Miles Com
prising MinOt Division

eStlng InlngS ABOUT the Oper-
ating of the 100 Miles Com
prising Minot Division
Supt. X. A. McCandless of the Mi
not Division of the Great Northern
delivered the following address at a
recent meeting of the Minot Rotary
Club, giving some unusually interest
ing facts:
Mr.. President and Fellow Rotarians:
Having been delegated to make a
short address on the subject of
Transportation" it did not occur to
me at first that there would be any
particular difficulty in exceeding the
time allowance, as it was my inten-
ton to simply tell you, with wealth
of detail, how we'll the city Of Minot
was served by the Great Northern
railroad; but further thought con-
WINGED me that no sooner would a
good start be made in that direction
than the sweet voiced singers located
at the foot of the table would render
their sympathetic little ballad EMIT
led: eve Don't Believe YOU. And
then, as another detriment, on return
ing to the city last Saturday night
after an absence of several days and
reading the paper containing the re-
turns received by our Association of
Commerce on the service being given
by the Great Northern Railroad at
the joint freight and passenger sta
tions, realized just how far would
get in attempting to put over anything
along the lines referred to. How
IL r,+
liberty to carry out my first inten-
ton, ! still want to say that the Great
Northern railroad does furnish high
class, high grade transportation SER
vice to all railroad patrons of Minot,
and if any doubt exists in the minds
Of any here as to the truthfulness of
/ this statement please arrange to get
Billy McHugh and Joe Belanger to-
gether and put the question to them
and the unanimity of opinion you will
get from them will fully convince
you of my veracity.
am not going to attempt to give
you the history of transportation from
its infancy up to the present time.
The subject is too big and, related
by any but an expert, would I'M
doubtedly prove dull and uninterest-
ing to you I will attempt to give
you few little facts in connection
with railroading land this will natur-
ally relate to the Great Northern rail-
road) and the part it plays in connec-
ton with the material interests of our
city. The city of Minot has always
been considered one of the most i'm
portant points on our line. There
are probably few, if any, here who
know that this city was named after
a Great Northern man. This was
Mr.. Henry D. Minot who, many years
ago was president of the Eastern Min
nesota railroad "a part of the Great
Northern railroad at that time) and
man whose ability was very highly
regarded by the late Mr.. James ].
Hill. Mr.. Minot afterwards left the
service Of the railroad company, and
was I believe, killed in railroad ac-
cident in Massachusetts,. For num-
Der of years the line from Minot as
: far east as Cass Lake, Minnesota,
was called the Dakota Division and
the headquarters of the Division were
located at Larimore, North Dakota.
The line from Minot west was oper-
ated by the Montana Division with
headquarters at Havre, Montana. In
1906, on account Of the growing i'm
portance of this territory, rear
arrangement of divisions was made and
the Minot Division Of the Great
Northern railroad was formed; con.
sisting of the Main Line from Devils
Lake to Williston, North Dakota, and
the north branch lines in that terri
tory. With the construction worl;
which has since been carried out, the
Minot Division at the present tins
comprises 100 miles Of track, the OPP
Grafton of which is supervised from
the Division headquarters located
here. On a general average, tota
of approximately 1000 men are EN-.
ployed, large number of whom make
their homes in this city. For thu
twelve months ending December 81
1918, the payrolls for the Minot Di
vision amounted to S2,659,83 or ar
average monthly roll of 1921, 652 TIL,
greater portion of this amount wa
paid out to employees making theil
homes in this city and it can be
readily seen from the figures givel
the Importance Of this one line o.
transportation to the business men O
this city.
Great strides forward in perfectine
the transportation system in this ter
ritory have been made in recent years