Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-01-23

surprise and disappointment OF the
Door devil who wanted. lust one o
mD to win. were festive diver
SONS h kept The Herald compost
tors entertained from early eve until
ne small hours OF morning. Grand
those days
At this time. The Herald had a.
good sized working force. anon
them were the following: I. H.
Brock and Thomas Smythe.t editors;
sisted by Eddie o'Connor; CIR. Hun
ter: collector and solicitor: J. F. Car
'ruthersI Bert McMaster and Az H.:
Eaifor. job printers John and Joe,
Gillooly and Emma H1Egins. book
binders; Chapes Smith and E. D. Bar
calow, preasroom. MY record Of h
ctompositors is not complete, but my
impression is that A. J. Tagley. Frank
J. Duffy. w. H. Dudley and Gene
Crane were the regular composltors.
Bob Atchison handled the Associated
Fress dispatches. n Don Mcdonald.
as postmaster. next door, received and
doled out our mail to us. He had q,
him. and the postofnce wasfof course
q most pcpular .resort. 4.
The promoting OF stovwnsites. along
the supposed line %of. the ST. Pauljs&
Manitoba Railway was the chief oc-l
cupation Of many promoters during
the winter Of '82. Mr.. HIPS road was
gradually working westward from
I.arimore. and in their minds eye the
townsite linen saw thrifty little towns
located on their land at various places.
between Larimore and Devils Lake:
Harrisburg. in Nelson county, was n
Of the most promising; and on the
chn~o0 If CtSvNN~ r n La Vxyh3Nh xnyno 3D.,
vertised as the "Minnetonka of North
Dakota" the city of Wamduska was
located; and expected to- be the future
county seat: Further west, on the
shores of Devils Lake. the Great City
OF, Odessa occupied a large place On
the In addition. there were
several other townsites along the line
that the busy promoters had not had
time to plat and properly name. Near
~ every claim-holder had a townsite.
in his mind. and his illusion was not
dispelled until the surveyors definitely
located the line of railway several
miles north of these embdyo cities.
all was not lost. by any means; these
townsites made good farms. and a
good farm is better than a paper
.townsite. with railway service sever
miles away.
Among these townsite boomers,
confident they had a sure thing. were
Geo. H. Walsh. ]. LaMoure. WnF.
Bulge. O.. NJ. Towner. j.. H. Bosard,
Geo. B. Clifford. J. Mendelsohn, CT
Zero T. Harris and Alex. Griggs.
Adjacent to Grand Forks were a
lot of growing towns whose future
was settled by the advent Of the
railway. Hughes & Hersey were do
ing wonders at Arvilla: they built a
hotel there that was the admiration
of the country. The towns OF Thomp-
son and Reynolds were prodig:es in
their time. and both felt confident that
their location was just splendid for a
future prosperous interior city. The
town of 'Dimock" got lots of adver-
Using during the winter: but for the
life of me l cannot locate it now. 1t
probably disappeared with the snow
whether it's" promoters ever sold lots
enough to a the expense of plating
advertising.
During the month of June Gov.
Ordway made a tour of the Territory,
or rather that part of it where new
counties were to b. organized and
through the central counties up t. the
James River Valley. thence to Devils
Lake and eastward to Nelson and
Walsh counties. The townsite BOOM
ers, Walsh. LaMoure. Towner. Bulge,
Griggs and others,met him by appoint
ment at Wamduska. I had received a
slip" of this meeting. and ~suspecting'
politics would mingle with bust
ness to some extent. Idrove out there
to see the country and get an item
for my PAPER The house of Cicero T.
Harris was the place of meeting, and
both Mr. rand Mrs Harris were hospita-
bile to the verge of extravaganza. They
turned their house over to the gang
and the afternoon and evening was
most hilariously spent.
At this time I saw clearly what was
going on. I was convinced that the
governor had Joined forces with the
gang. and that politics as we'll as
business was the cohesive force that
bound them together.
Growth of Grand Forks.