| Summary: | The Selkirk of Grand Forks going downstream to Winnipeg in 1879, pictured here just south of the NPRR tracks after taking on a new load of wood upstream J2Q tMHW The Pluck, built in Moorhead's Alsop Boatyards, regularly plied the river between here and Winnipeg during the seventies. As late as 1887 men who worked and lived on board were listed in the city directory. Mr. Probstfield now lives, then known as 10-mile Point, Robert Davis then resided. Eighty rods north of him was the home of John Hanna. Ed. Griffin, now living at Fargo, and James Anderson, alias Robinson Crusoe, were also in the vicinity, Griffin at the mouth of the Wild Rice. This was before Georgetown was established and these were practically all of the white settlers south of Pembina in the Red River Valley. "Probstfield succeeded in obtaining supplies at Lafayette, consisting of pork and flour, and the night was spent in baking biscuits. He started on the return early and the hungry men soon had relief. That night the expedition reached Lafayette — the mouth of the Sheyenne — and in a few days the machinery which had been left at various points enroute, owing to the bad roads, was brought in. A pit was dug and the men set to work with a whip saw to cut lumber for the boat. By this process two men could cut about 250 feet per day if the timber was frozen. When not frozen not more than 175 feet could be cut. It was a tedious process but the material was supplied by and by and the hull of the boat completed. After the completion of the hull it was run up to Abercrombie where the cabin was put on. There was plenty of business on the river and Northup had trouble enough of his own and proceeded to St. Paul where he collected his bonus for the construction of the boat and then tied her up. He had agreed to put a boat on the Red River but not to run her, and by refusing forced her sale to Blakely and Carpenter." Other accounts say that the prize Northup claimed was $1000 or $2000, not $10,000. Probstfield saw a good deal of the steamboats that succeeded the Northup boat, but this story is told elsewhere. The boats passed his Oakport farmstead and stopped to buy cordwood and vegetables from him. Sometimes, he alleged, the boatmen forgot to pay for the wood fuel they took on. Probstfield and Andrew Holes were passengers on the second Red River steamboat, the International, when the boat made its first trip to Fort Garry in 1862. Also built at Georgetown, this was a much larger and much better craft than the Anse Northup and was an important Red River boat for fifteen years. Sioux Uprising An 1899 article on Randolph Probstfield gives a graphic account of this attempt at settlement which began in 1859, when the first steamboat was put on the river. Although the setting is Georgetown, not Moorhead, Probst- field's story shows why colonization in the Red River Valley was held up for a dozen years; the coming of the railroad in 1871 provided the link to civilization that was all important, of course, but the twelve years between 1859 and 1871 were troubled by other problems also. D. W. Meeker published this account in the January 5, 1900 Holiday Supplement to his Moorhead Independent; he had un doubtedly interviewed Probstfield, who lived his usual active life on the Oakport farm until his death in 1911: "1859 and 1860 had been years of hardships. There had been a flood in 1861, the late season and the excitement of the war. The Sioux, then occupying the Lake and Big Timber regions, were angry and threatening, and the Chippewas were clamoring for treaty rights. There was bad blood between the Chippewas and the Crees, and when the war spirit is on the Indian, or his heart is bad, there is no telling where or when he will strike. "Finally the expected happened. The settlers at Breckenridge were massacred and Fort Abercrombie, which contained two companies of troops and such settlers as could be alarmed and brought in for safety, was besieged. The news first reached Georgetown on the night of August 22, 1862. Two companies had previously been stationed at Georgetown but they had been withdrawn and the post was left defenseless. About midnight Mr. Probstfield was aroused by loud knocking at the door by George Lullsdorf and E. R. Hutchinson, with orders to dress quick and hurry to the post for safety. There they found consternation, panic, confusion, frightened men and weeping women. The night was passed in terror. A Hudson Bay company train had arrived that night loaded with goods for the north, and with the men of this train and those at the post and the settlers who had come into that point, they mustered 44 134 Wright Funeral Home Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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