| Summary: | Later, Thomas and Catherine Ryder moved to Pakenham where they rented land and where James finished school the year the Ryders moved to Dakota Territory--1879. The Ryders came on a mixed train to Fisher's Landing. (The Patrick Berrigan family of Ardoch and two Driscoll families who settled near East Grand Forks were also on this train). The Ryders had horses and some machinery with them and drove to Grand Forks where they crossed the Red River by ferry. The next day they drove north to Bellevue where they met two families who had arrived earlier from Pakenham - the John Clifford family and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Copps and their six children; Joseph was a brother of the John Copps the Ryders had worked for in Canada. (Joseph Copps later moved to Minto). The Ryders first rented the Dennis Haggerty farm (now owned by Ambrose Maszk) before filing on a homestead and a pre-emption in Section 18 of Ferry Township (3 miles west of Manvel) the same summer. In January, 1898, the oldest Ryder son, James, Charlie Colosky of Manvel, and Victor Chaffee of Grand Forks (names of the others are not known) went on the Klondike Gold Rush; their Expedition of about 35 men was led by Dr. John Fawcett of Grand Forks. At Edmonton, it was necessary for the men to buy and break wild horses and make sleighs before heading north along much the same route as the present Alcan Highway. A little beyond Great Slave Lake most of the group, including the Manvel men, finally gave up the Expedition. However, four of their group went on; no one ever heard from these four again. James Ryder was 23 when he was second man in the first elevator managed by W. B. Stevenson in Manvel in 1885. He later was manager of the same elevator and also managed St. Anthony's Elevator and Lumber Yard at Manvel before moving to Crosby in 1904. In 1910, James was hurt in an explosion and fire at his Crosby Elevator. He died at St. Michael's Hospital in Grand Forks on February 9, 1911. In 1896 James had married Lydia Quinn; they were the parents of 3 sons and 2 daughters, all of whom are now living at the west coast. Thomas Ryder passed away August 15, 1918, while his wife, Catherine, died earlier on January 2, 1909. Of their other children, Thomas, Jr., died on June 7, 1932; Mary Ryder Shahane died on October?, 1961. The original farm is now owned by Annie Ryder who has made her home in Manvel since 1950. Miss Ryder recalls their neighbor, Thomas Alway, who always dressed up on Memorial Day, drove to Grand Forks and marched in the parade with other Civil War veterans. MIKE SHAUGHNESSY - Mike Shaughnessy, an early settler and owner of one of the first thresh- -28- ing machines in the area, came to the Manvel area in 1877 and homesteaded IV2 miles northwest of Manvel on land now owned by Robert Kinney. The Shaughnessys had five sons and three daughters. . In 1892 or '93, their log house burned down and they built a house from lumber that remained on the farm until recent years. The Bill Tracy family lived there for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Shaughnessy and their eight children later moved to St. Thomas where they farmed for several years and then moved to Saskatchewan, Canada. HENRY SHEPPARD - Henry Sheppard, Dakota Territory Pioneer, was born November 11, 1854, in eastern Canada. He came to the Grafton vicinity as a young man and homesteaded near Acton where he lived until 1916 when he married Mrs. Ellen Hughes and moved to Manvel. Mrs. Ellen Sheppard, a native of Birmingham, England, , ., tt • Mr. and Mrs. Henry Sheppard. came to the Uni- J vy ted States as Mrs. Ellen Thomas after the death of her first husband there. Her 3 small children (Mae, Harry, and George) and her mother came with her. However, her mother died two weeks after arriving; the trip had been too much for her. Ellen Thomas married James Hughes and came to the Manvel community in 1895 when she was 26 years old. Ellen and James Hughes had four children. He died in 1902 leaving Ellen a widow once more, this time with seven children to raise. Manvel's telephone switchboard was located in the Sheppard home (now owned by William Levi) from 1917-1949 when Northwestern Bell Telephone arrived in Manvel. The telephone company was known as the Tri-State Telephone Company. The Sheppards were the managers of the local switchboard for 32 of the 41 years this company was in operation. During that time only a few families had telephones so "central" was kept busy giving the markets besides taking and giving messages. Mr. Sheppard died at home in November, 1948, when he was 94; his four sons preceded him in death. Mrs. Sheppard was 90 when she passed away in December, 1959. Six of her seven children are still living: Harry Thomas, George Thomas, and Mrs. May Stringham, all of Fresno, California; Norman Hughes of Rosetown, Sask.; Mrs. Eli Mor- wood of Forest River; and Edna (Mrs. Donald Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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