The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1921-01-06
YE OLD TYNE LIVERY BARN
HAS BEEN REPLACED BY THE
GARAGE; ONE LEFT IN MIN0T

The old fashioned livery barn is
practically a thing of the past. Out
of half dozen thriving barns of two
decades ago, only one has survived in
this city and this one does little or
no livery business, confirming it's bus
mess principally to the feed end Of
the game. We refer to the old SEQ
field livery barn on First St. S. E.,
now conducted by VIM. McGregor.
Twenty years ago there were half
dozen little gold mines in this city in
the form of livery stables. They were
stocked with cayuses galore. There
was row after row Of buggies, double
buggies, Surveys, rubber tired buggies,
democrat buggies, top buggies and
open buggies, phaetons, basket phae-
tons, C-spring Victorias, laudaus and
the piano-box buggies. These have
all been dragged to the auction room,
stored in dim, dank, dark corners or
J left on some vacant lot to rust and
rot, exposed to the elements, to give
room to the putting, coughing, snappy
motor cars.
The largest livery barn in the city
two decades ago was owned by jim
and Art Scofield. 1t stood on Main
street where the NJ. G. Olson clothing
store is now located. No location was
too good for the livery barn of TWEEN,
! ty years ago. A little later the old
livery barn was converted into an inn
plement house and new and more pre-
| tentious barn was built on First st.
S. f. The Scofields were known over
several states as horsemen. They
! owned a horse ranch, bought and sold
"broncs" that had never yet been sub
dued. They had high board corral at
one side of their barn and bunch of
these cayuses would be driven into
the corral and Jim Hurley, Gil Bradley
and other daring horsemen would las
so, bride, saddle and break bronze
to ride in about five minutes. True,
tenderfoots would not care to mount
the animal, for he was certain to buck
but this was only little appetizer
for the true man Of the North Dakota
! plains.
! Angus Mcdonald, he of Dacotah
hotel fame, operated a livery barn on
First street N. E., then known as
Ramstad street. This barn was locat-
ed on property now owned by the
| Piper-Howe Lumber Co..
| Tom Johnson owned livery barn
at the corner of Central avenue and
First st. East. Tom used to charge
the writer $500 for team to drive
out to his homestead near Glenburn
and no matter whether I'VE kept the
team one day or three or four, the
price was always the same, four dol
lars. Tom probably knew that four
dollars was about the size of our pile
! in those days and he showed excellent
Judgment in not charging more than
! he was able to collect. And besides,
| Tom must have known that the writ
er was not very good horseman.
"Give me nice gentle team, Tom, y
we'd say to him, and Tom would.
They were usually so burned gentle
from a recent long drive that they
couldn't be licked off from walk.
We always surmised that whenever
Tom had team that needed the rest
cure, he'd tuln them over to US.
"Bill" White operated rather pre-
tentious livery stable at the corner Of
First avenue and First St. S. w., just
south of the Independent present To-
cation.
There we're other places of like ma
ture but one by one they have disap-
peared to be replaced by garages and
auto repair shops. There are twenty
some of these latter places in Minot.
The livery stable Of quarter Of a
century ago was the commercial and
news disseminating center of the
town. Here all the village jokes were
planned and often carried out. The
man on his uppers would always hunt
up the livery barn for a free bed and
there was usually enough cleaning up
to do around the place in the morning
to earn his breakfast.
! With the livery barn has gone the
old-time community sale stable, the
common stable hands, while the old
time cabbie Of 20 years ago has disap-
peared entirely and with him has gone
the old rafting sea-going hack and
| hanson cab.
The lad who welded the currycomb
and rubbing cloth in the livery stable
at $500 week, has been replaced by
the young hopeful who commands
from 9Oc to $3.50 an hour for groom
ing the motor.
This change has all been brot about
by the motor. Where few years ago
the farmer would get up as the rose
colored streaks were beginning to
chase dark shadows away at the break
of morn, hurriedly did the morning
chores, hitched up the horses to the
old wagon, loaded in the members Of
the family, tapped first one and then
the other Of the horses with the old
hickory 2gad," rumbled slowly with
much noise and no little dust to the
city, to see the circus parade, today
he tarries around the farm until few
minutes before parade time, hustles
the family into the flivver and in a
short time they're in town, parked
along the street, waiting to see the ele-
plant.
The old smelly livery stable was an
interesting place 1t always had it's
little stuffy office room in the, corner
with its coal stove that was forever
out or too hot for comfort. There
was always the bundle of blankets on
the sagging cot in the corner which
the night man would share with you