| Summary: | Early day Esmond. common to small North Dakota towns of 500 population. Druggists, lawyers, doctors, and the many places selling implements, hardware, groceries and dry goods, have been here. Most of them still continue, but the decline in farm population, unless in some way halted, could cause a further decline in all small towns, and consequently, perhaps in the state also. The climate of North Dakota is often given as the main reason for lack of comparable development here. Yet, the Soviet Union, with its 230 million people, has about four- fifths of its 8 million square miles north of the 49th parallel. Apparently they do not have a California nor an Arizona to migrate to! North Dakota's climate and its environment have much in its favor, much that the average citizen overlooks. Esmond's schools have, through the years, contributed their share of good American citizens, and, after all, are not good citizens essential in the making of a strong nation, especially in a democracy? From the Esmond school have gone men and women who have become doctors; some in "Who's Who in America," lawyers, scientists, teachers, agriculturists, and many who have become just plain, ordinary good American citizens, thus doing their bit to help make this country the greatest on the earth, and the greatest in the history of the world; not perfect perhaps, but being made up of human beings, who are imperfect, perfection is not to be expected. Let us hope that the time never arrives when we will cease to have problems. What a drab world this would be if there wasn't something to challenge us toward something better! Esmond in its Earliest Years The accompanying photo shows what a portion of the business district of Esmond looked like shortly after it came into existence. The exact date of the picture is not known, but it was likely taken about 1903 or 1904. Esmond started the fall of 1901 when land owned by Miss Myra Lillian Harrison furnished part of the town- site; another portion of the town was the property of Dr. Frank Wheelan, one of Esmond's first doctors. Most of the business places shown on the picture can be identified. At the very left in the picture is the "West End Livery" owned at the time the picture was taken by Bob McCarty. Bob had homesteaded on the land adjoining Esmond to the northeast, now owned by Mrs. Virgil Bengson. East of the livery stable two places of business are shown. One was a feed mill, owned by Haddo and McDonald. The other place of business is not- known. At one time the city jail was located in this area. The building at the corner was the Smith and Rogers Lumber Company. It later was sold to Gull River Lumber Company, then to Bovey Shute and Jackson, still later to the Great Plains. Over the years there were several managers of these yards. Some of them were: Mose Greenland, J.C. Hutchinson, Clarence Wilson, Earl Magnusson, a Mr. Davis; others. At present it is the property of "The Esmond Implement Company," Henry Streifel, owner. Mr. Streifel has greatly improved this property in recent years. The next on the picture was the Huyssen and Henricks Implement Store, Charley Huyssen the proprietor. He dealt in grain, lumber and farm machinery such as Mc- Cormick binders, Van Brunt drills, Minneapolis threshing machines and Moline plows. He was one of Esmond's International Harvester dealers at that time. The Memorial Hall is now located where Huyssen had his business. On the second floor of the Huyssen and Henricks building was "Huyssen's Hall," the place where many of the shows, traveling and home-talent, were given. It was also the home of the Odd Fellows and Rebekah lodges. To the right of the Huyssen building on the picture was Mike Krebsbach's pool hall and barber shop. Mike also had lunches and confections in connection with his billiard parlor. This is a vacant lot at present. East of Mike's place was the Drummond-Jensen store; D.J. Drummond and EMing Jensen, proprietors. There were two buildings to this establishment; the main one and the annex to the east. Mr. Drummond was postmaster at a later time. Al Airth's "Esmond Cash Store," is the next. Mr. Airth was N.P. agent for a time; later ran a recreation parlor. He and his family left for the Canadian West about 1911. Joe Leibhan has his business here at present. Next is "The Esmond Pharmacy," H.F. Sitzer, owner. Mr. Sitzer came here from Minto and he remained here in business until his death in 1936. Later owners of this drug business were Phil Pfeifle, Anton Roerick, Mildred Howe and Rose Heisler. The building has been dismantled. The photo shows the next building to be the postoffice. 10 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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