History of New Rockford: Nov. 30, 2020

On Sept. 2, 1903, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lahart returned from the Twin Cities. Miss Ida Saunders came up to visit her cousin Miss Laura Reams. H.W. Clark and crew went to Barlow to begin building the Congregational Church. Miss Effie Treffry left for her home in Denver, Colo., via her former home, Marshalltown, Iowa, after visiting her parents Mr. and Mrs. George Treffry. Miss Nellie Oliver returned to McHenry after a visit with Miss Sarah West.

On Sept. 2 and 3, the Congregational Academy committee met in New Rockford and organized. It included Messrs. Paton and Putnam of Carrington; Phillips of Jamestown; Mack of Fessenden; Shaw of Fargo; Baldwin of Oberon; and Rev. Beebe, Goss, Severtson, Rager, and Brownell of New Rockford. Elected officers were Rev. J.R. Beebe, president; Rev. Robert Paton, vice president; John F. Goss, secretary; E.S. Severtson, treasurer; and A.M. Baldwin, member of the Executive Committee. The men were still looking over possible sites in New Rockford for the Academy.

On Sept. 3, Sheyenne postmaster L.B. Garnaas was in New Rockford. James A. Mulvey arrived for a visit without his moustache. William VanHorn of Hensel, Ontario, arrived to visit his sisters Mrs. R.R. Woodward and Miss Jennie VanHorn; on Sept. 8 he left to take a position in Carrington. John P. Welsh bought an 18-horse power Minneapolis engine and an Advance separator from the Clure Implement Co. and took them to his farm northeast of town. That night a heavy frost damaged some of the late flax.

That day Conrad Hoepfner, who once had a laundry and shoemaking business in New Rockford, died in Winnipeg. He had also lived in Casselton and Park River, where his funeral took place. [C. Hoepfner had a shoe and harness business by July 1886-June 1892; brief dray line in mid-1888; New Rockford Laundry by Nov. 1888-Nov. 1892].

The Sept. 4, 1903, “Transcript” was Vol. XXII No. 1. That issue mentioned the “Edmore News” and the “Wells County News,” which had begun its eighth year the previous week.

That issue commented that since Park Commissioner J.W. Stoddard had left on his western trip, Chicago Street “has lost its well-kept cleanly appearance.”

An announcement stated that Rev. Taylor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had accepted a call to serve as the pastor of the Presbyterian organization at Tiffany for one year.

An announcement: the following businesses would make two deliveries a day, 9 o’clock to 4 o’clock. “This move has been made necessary by the abuse of the delivery system in the past.” Rodenberg & Schwoebel, John M. Mulvey Hardware, H. Peoples & Co., Prader & Goss, George F. Fahrer Meat Market.

E. Starks began inserting an ad for his wood, coal, and feed business [he continued it on the 11th, 18th, and 25th]. In it he claimed that “…some people are enabled to undersell their competitors” by using a Short Measure Starks knew of such a person and “We Can Prove It, Too.”

Furthermore, wood purchased from Starks was always measured correctly and his scales were “balanced right.”

J.C. Whiteman and Lutzie Prader were getting their large threshing rig ready for the harvest. Olof Lundquist and his brother Conrad were busy night and day getting threshing machines ready for harvesting. Pat Walsh said his Tiffany farm had produced “…the best crop of flax…he ever had.” Recently a spark in the cylinder of Joseph Maxwell’s separator caused a small blaze which was extinguished by a bucket of water.

Several threshing rigs had been started during the week, but there were also some idle ones due to a lack of men. The paper stated that Eddy County would need 200 to 300 men over the coming six weeks.

Contractor Charles Culp and crew were building a 1½ story cottage for Daniel Labhardt on Villard Avenue East. Samuel McDowell was having the building just north of Rood’s Livery Barn on Chicago Street South remodeled and would use it as a wood and coal office; during the week he put in a set of scales.

Mrs. A.J. Larkin, who had been injured recently when she was thrown from her carriage while visiting Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Larkin east of New Rockford, was recovering. Dr. G.D. Murphy had been ill during the week.

Early in the week John T. West came in on business. During the week Miss Lenora Knox visited Mrs. W.H. Neimeyer in McHenry.

During the previous week Mr. and Mrs. Ed Cosgrove, Mrs. Orrin Foster, and Mr. and Mrs. Jeremiah Nobles spent a couple days as guests of Major and Mrs. F.O. Getchell at Ft. Totten. Martin Larson of Tiffany put in a well for Peter Anderson, who lived a few miles north of McHenry; in one day Larson’s well-drilling machine went down 118 feet.

Over the previous two weeks, carpenters and painters had been working on the “Transcript’s” press rooms; the remodeling would make all printing more efficient.

On Sept. 4, John C. Lowe, superintendent of the newly established Minot Business College, was in New Rockford “looking after business interests for that institution.” A group of Illinois men arrived, and M.F. Kepner, secretary of the Farmers’ Land Co. escorted them as they looked over various pieces of land.

On Sept. 4 and 5, Taft & Cummings of the Farmers’ Land Co. were in town on business.

On Sept. 5 George Treffry started his “mammoth” Avery threshing machine. Mrs. L.J. Brown returned from Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. George Moxley and children came down from Esmond to visit Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Bennett. Cora Ethel (Mrs. John T.) Medlicott came in from Balfour to visit for a week with her parents Mr. and Mrs. James Davidson. Miss Frances Thomson went to Dickinson to resume her teaching duties after a summer with her parents. That afternoon Ole J. Myhra [Myhre], 70, died in his home five miles north of New Rockford of lung fever. He had come to North Dakota from Norway 14 years prior. He left a wife and 11 children. His funeral was on Sept. 7, Rev. Frost, with interment in the Greenfield Cemetery. [His grave marker in the Grandfield Cemetery says Ole J. Myhre March 17, 1833-Sept. 5, 1903.]

That night someone broke into the Hotel Mattson’s ice house and stole all the spring chickens that were stored there for Sunday dinner. “A madder lot of people” than the boarders would have been difficult to find “If the perpetrators of the scurrilous trick had been found they would certainly have been mobbed.” The same night the Hotel Brown office [present site of the Brown Memorial] was entered and the cigar case carried across the street, one side was broken in, and all the cigars were taken. It appeared that whoever did the job was “well acquainted with the surroundings.”

On Sunday, Sept. 6, it rained; threshers were back at work on Sept. 9, but it rained again on the night of Sept. 10. Robert Walden arrived from British Columbia to be with his son Harry, who was suffering from lung trouble. After he finished some business matters, he would take his son to Arizona Territory.