| Summary: | Randolph Probstfield and his family The young state's development was held up by the Civil War and even more by the Sioux War of 1862, but in the Red River Valley that Indian uprising meant the end of white settlement for nearly a decade. Clay County (then called Breckenridge County) had 79 residents when a census was taken in 1860 by Surveyor Oscar Taylor. The names of these early but not permanent settlers are available; they include the Slayton party, identified by age, sex, and occupation, as well as the Lewis Lewiston family. Many of the names are French: it seems probable that these people were employees brought down from Canada by the Hudson's Bay Company. Five years later the population was reduced to 17, and for several years it was probably reduced to one man, Randolph Probst- field, who had been listed on the 1860 census as R. M. Probstfield, male 28 — farmer. Probstfield — Northup Probstfield's story is told elsewhere, but the account he gave of his coming to the Red River Valley is worth noting. D. W. Meeker of the Moorhead Independent presumably based his 1899 article on an interview with Probstfield: "He had heard of the rich agricultural lands of the Red River Valley and decided to seek fortune in this undeveloped country. His narrative from the time he left St. Paul, February 26, 1859 for the Red River Valley is particularly interesting. Accompanying him were George Emerling and Gerhardt Lulls- dorf. . . . The journey to the Red River was a hard one in many respects. There was no snow until they reached Sauk Rapids. At what is now Little Falls, or near there, at Luther's, they left their wagon and took sleds. "Crow Wing, 15 miles below what is now Brainerd, was the outside settlement except that there was a land office at Otter Tail City. . On the way from Otter Tail they caught up with Anson Northup's expedition en route to the Red River for the purpose of building a steamboat. Desirous of opening trade with the Hudson Bay interests the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce had offered a bonus of ten thousand dollars for the construction of a steamboat on the Red River of the North and Anson Northup had untertaken to earn that money. His expedition consisted of 44 men and a large number of ox teams. Baldwin Olmstead, Lewis Stone, and George Stone were interested with Northup and were leading characters in the expedition. The machinery was from the old North Star, which ran on the Mississippi above Minneapolis, and was taken from the boat when she lay on the Gull River, about six miles by land from Crow Wing. "The snow had become very deep, and it was snowing every day. About March 12 the expedition was out of hay and Probstfield went to the south end of Otter Tail Lake and it took three days for the trip. The snow was three feet deep and more coming. Reaching Oak Lake they could go no further and were compelled to cut down trees to enable their ponies to live. So far they had followed the Hudson Bay and half-breed cart trails. From there they must try an unknown country, buried in snow, and it took several days' exploration before they dared to strike out. After ten days waiting the Northup party caught up with them and the explorations having been completed they struck out for the mouth of the Sheyenne, about ten miles north of Fargo and Moorhead. They struck the Buffalo, six miles east of the Red River, March 31, 1859, and Probstfield rode into Lafayette late in the evening for provisions, the whole party being out of supplies. This point was then known as Lafayette. Edward Murphy from Montreal, Charles Nash and Henry Myers from New York were then living there. Across the river two men were holding down a townsite known as Dakota City, for Pierre Bottineau and others of Minneapolis. The men were Frank Durand and David Auge. That was before Dakota was created and the territory was unorganized and unattached. "Richard Banning lived one and a half miles north of Sheyenne City. One half mile further north George W. Northrop and his partner Cloren lived in a nameless city. Northrop was a great hunter and trapper and was often employed by English noblemen to accompany them on buffalo hunts. He was killed under General Sully during the Indian war July 28, '64. Ten miles south of Sheyenne, where Surplus Tractor Parts Corporation Ulteig Engineers, Inc. 133 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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