The Sidney herald., 1956-01-26

of th2 century, interest In trrtga-
ton was evidenced. The Heclama-
ton Act passed in 1902 gave fur
Their impetus to the desire to IT.
rigate land and raise feed fol-
livestock. Actually, the first wat
err was delivered in June 1909
The project was expanded as the
years went by and finally COM
pleted in 1881, at a total cost oil
$4,100, 900. The townsite of Sid
ney was dedicated in 1905. The
city was incorporated in 1911. In
1912 the Northern Pacific Rail-
way completed a branch line
from Glendive to Sidney. In 1918
the Great Northern Railway con-
nected the Northern Pacific line
at Sidney with a branch line
from Snowden on their main line
In 1914 by popular vote the
county of Richland was establish
ed and Sidney was designated
as the county seat. For the rec
ord, this fairly well establishes
the Sidney we know as of today
The oldest Chamber of Com
merce in the United States was
organized in New York in 1853,
and its object, simply stated, was
to promote and extend commerce,
This formed the prototype of all
the Chambers of Commerce which
have now come into being in
the important places in the Unit
ed States.
/ understand the first CONNER
cial club in Sidney was formed
in April Of 1908 in the law Of
fees of Frank ]. Matoushek. Fiji
teen Sidney businessmen were
present. Officers elected were:
W. X. Adams, president; w,
Grimes, vice president; August
Vaux, secretary; Frank j. Matou-
shek, treasurer.
This group was the immediate
predecessor of the Chamber OF
Commerce" organized February
%, 1916, and most of the bust
nessmen who were instrumental
in organizing the first club were
still active at the time the Cham
Der of Commerce was organized,
Shortly, the Chamber will be
celebrating its 40th. anniversary
To have arrived at this milestone
is an accomplishment of which
you truly should be proud. This
has probably been the result OF
unselfish giving of your time to
your fellow businessmen with nc
pay but the privilege of doing it
Your Sidney Chamber is doing
an excellent job, which is recog-
nized over a wide area. l urge
your complete support.
Then, given the opportunity
coupled with imagination, en-
thusiasm and teamwork, the OBJ
jectives of this organization can
be a force for making this area
a greater trade center. Maybe
proper timing of efforts is also
important. I might illustrate II
this way: When an auto stops by
the roadside in the daytime,
that's trouble; when it stops there
after dark, that's romance.
Holly became a part of this
community In 1925, when the fac
tory was built and operated for its
first campaign in the fall of that
year. Usually I disapprove of the
generally accepted practice of
quoting a lot of statistical infor-
nation when conversing with a
group. There is always the posi-
bility of being misquoted and,
besides, the presentation. is fire.
| quently dull. There are some facts
in connection with our living in
this area that might be interest
ing to you, at least they were to
me, and, if you will be lenient
with me, I will try to be brief.
During the time of our residence
here, the Company has paid $10,-
600 900 for labor. I tried to visu-
alize $4,000 900. Did you ever
try to get a mental perception of
that much money? Maybe this
might help. If you could make a
stack, laying flat one on top of
another 10000 900 silver dollars,
this column would reach Is miles
skyward. The farmers in this COM
munity have received approx
mately $4,000, 900 from the Com
pany for beets delivered and, in
addition to this amount, a substan-
tial sum from the government ben
eft payments. That represents a
lot of beets. In fact, if all these
beets were stored in one long
pile 200 feet wide and 20 feet
high, the pile would extend from
here to Fairview and half way
back to Sidney. The factory here
has produced almost 1917 million
bags of sugar and that's a stable
pile of sugar. In fact, if this were
stacked in the form of a pyramid,
it would cover a base 8 acres in
area and extend over 200 feet
high at the apex assuming the
natural angle of repose. The base
of the largest pyramid in Egypt
covered about Is acres
1t was not until 1882 that the
Company decided to carry on ex-
tensive livestock feeding in this
area. Since that time, we have
fed $4,000 head of cattle and over
100000 head of sheep. Don't be-
come alarmed. I'm not going to
tell you how many sleepless nights
it would take to count that many
sheep.
/ told you / would not stress
but / noticed the con-
of one thing we always
believed to be true. When live
stock feeding became established
in this area, more and better beets
were grown, and this area is not
.eterioriating from a productiv-
ity standpoint. Dexter Lille tells
me that better beets and high
are a must i'm this area.
Dex, we agree with you, and