| Summary: | -AND OUR PEOPLE MARY FARRELL ANDRUS (1870-1959) Written by her son, Charles Andrus, editor of the Fargo Forum. Mary Farrell, born in Iowa, was taken by her parents (the Peter Farrells) by covered wagon to Wyoming, as just a baby. The wagon train was attacked by Indians and two persons were killed before the Indians were beaten off. Her mother had wrapped her in a featherbed and placed her in the bottom of the prairie schooner. An arrow buried itself deep in the wooden sideboards, but no one in the wagon was hurt. The family came to Emmons County where her father homesteaded in 1884. She attended high school in Bismarck and was in the first class to graduate at Valley City State Teachers College. There were only three people on the faculty and a mere handful of students. She taught school when only 14 years of age, and continued teaching until her marriage to the late W. B. Andrus. Theirs was a remarkable courtship. They became acquainted in Emmons County when she filed as a candidate against Mr. Andrus for County Superintendent of Schools. When teaching school at the now abandoned town of Winona, she was called upon to assist in dressing the bodies of six members of the Spicer family who were murdered by Indians. Later she was at Williamsport when a mob hanged three of the Indians who had confessed to the Spicer crime. She solved her transportation problem by traveling to and from school on a bicycle which is still in possession of the family. On one occasion she rode her "wheel" from Williamsport to Winona, a distance of 50 miles. She made the trip alone and experienced one of the major scares of her life when she ran over a rattlesnake coiled in the prairie road. A. ARCHAMBAULT H. A. Archambault was an early day fur trader on the Missouri River. "Shambo" as he was called, was a Frenchman who married an Indian woman. With the decline of the steamboat business, he located at Emmonsburg where he operated a toll bridge over Big Beaver creek, and ran a small store and road house. Here came the rollicking pioneers who found pleasure in company of the witty Frenchman. Whenever a settler decided to locate in Emmonsburg, it was "Shambo" who extended the "Welcome Wagon" treatment. He provided a small house for the newcomers to live in until they could build their own, and shared the vegetables from his garden. When an interpreter was needed in dealing with the Indians, Mrs. Archambault was summoned. "Shambo's" popularity spread from the River country to the county seat at Williamsport, and the editor, D. R. Streeter, refered to him in the Record as the "Duke D'Archambault." In 1889 the county commissioners concluded to build an iron bridge over the Beaver in place of Archambault's toll bridge. On the day they were to locate the site, Shambo invited the commissioners, James B. Gayton, Wm. L. Yeater and Rufus W. Child, the Co. Clerk Ed Herrick, some engineers and contractors, the editor of the Emmons County Record and many of his friends and neighbors, to a dance and banquet. The evening when the business had been settled, there was music, liquid refreshments and a "stag dance". At midnight the guests were summoned to a "feast". According to Mr. Streeter's account of it in the Record, "There were dishes of smoking boiled meat on the table. The meat was a bit tough and tasted something like mutton. Commissioner Child (McCrory's partner in the sheep business) who sat next to the writer, said he thot it was an old wether, but it hadn't been sufficiently cooked. However, all ate lavishly of the meat, and when everyone had finished and the dishes were empty, the host arose and said; 'Now, yo Noosepopier man, yo say Shambo eat dog. Now yo and your frens eat dog too!' "But no one believed him. "In the springtime the view from the hills above Emmonsburg is one of the prettiest in the country. Next morning Mr. Herrick and the writer started up the hill to view the scenery. About fifty feet from the house they discovered the hide, head and entrails of a big dog that had recently been slaughtered. 'Well, we ought to be thankful that that doggoned Frenchman didn't feed us the hide and inards', said Herrick. Then the twain returned to the house to 'show their companions. Some very loud barking followed. "Will Yeater, Tom Kelly, Ed Herrick and the writer rode to the 'feast' together. Kelly and Yeater afterwards disclaimed eating any of the meat; but as they growled most of the time on their way home, the reader may draw his own conclusions." WILLIAM SPENCE BUCKNER (1836-1911) William Spence Buckner was a negro of free birth. He was educated in Ohio and went to Montana in 1857. He served in the Civil War with the 1st Iowa Infantry (Zouaves) for almost 5 years. After the War he returned to Montana and came to Winona, D. T. in the early 1880s. He was a cook and barber. His children were Olivia and Annie. He was buried on the Jack McCrory ranch. MARTIN APPERT (1858-1942) MAGDALENA MARTY APPERT (1867-1925) Martin Appert and Magdalena Marty met in Chocio, Minn, and were married Jan. 28, 1884. They came to Emmons County, D. T. when gathering buffalo bones for the market was the chief industry, and filed on SEy4-28,135-77. After spending the first winter in Bismarck, they returned to their homestead, located about 4 miles southwest of present Hazelton. In 1908 they moved into Hazelton, but the land is still in possession of the Appert family. Front row: Harmon, Lacunda (Kalberer), Mr. and Mrs. Appert, Rufina (Andrus). Back row: Amelia (Smith), Mary (Anderson), Tony, Lena (Zirbes), Frank, Josephine (Irvine), Joe, Sophia (Schoen), Rose and Leo. 109- Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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