| Summary: | apsfi* ' ■; ;.-'.- : iPy*^ _ Whitman Submitted by Gena C. Moen March 24, 1982 "Dahlen on the Soo — Whitman in the slough!" It is said that the town site was surveyed and laid out in winter — hence came the slogan. Mr. E.A. Whitman, a railroad civil engineer, laid out the lines and town locations so Whitman, North Dakota, it became. In the summer of 1912, the Soo Line townsite manager came and sold lots in the new location. On hand at the sale were: K.L. Wright, Lamb's Bank and Lumber Company representatives, John O' Connell, CM. Spone, Ben Sell, and others. The tracks were laid and the railroad began operating that same summer. (I recall the first train going west — we could hear and see it from the home farm.) The Soo Line's first agent was John Gray, followed by Crowser, Staveneau, Emery, and Preston, until F.C Chandler and his wife, Violet, moved in in 1925. The old depot burned in 1922 while Mr. Emery was agent. Mrs. Emery, despite the pleading of Mary Zelenka, threw her baby out the upstairs window and jumped after it. The baby was slightly bruised, but Mrs. Emery was not hurt. A depot from Tilden was moved in and this became the home for the Chandlers for 42 years. Mr. Chandler was very active in all community affairs, the Minnkota Electric Cooperative, and he was one of the organizers of the Nodak Rural Electric. Mr. Chandler retired in 1967 and moved to Michigan, ND. In 1968, approximately 1 50 people gathered at the Whitman Hall to honor Mr. & Mrs. Chandler for their many years of service in the community. Mr. Chandler passed away in 1969, at the age of 74. Violet lives in a retirement home in Minneapolis. Grain elevators were built and running before the harvest. The Atlantic Elevator was managed by Bill Shirek, Lambs Elevator Company by George Aiken, while C.J. Moen managed Spaulding. Northland was run by Emil Pihlgren. (Sister Sal and I could hear his jalopy coming half a mile out west, so if we hurried down to the road, we'd catch a ride to Sarnia School No. 2) Mr. Hartman opened the first restaurant in a tent where the Rysavy Tavern now stands. Later he built a long narrow frame building bought by John Solberg. Frank Slais 176 built a hotel next door and ran it until he sold it to Frank Zizka in 1916. Zizka enlarged the building, bought the Solberg lot and built a poolroom connected to the hotel. In 1927 the Zizkas installed a Delco generating plant and wired most of the places. He sold the plant to Sandford who in turn sold it to Elmer Solberg. Solberg quit the business when the R.E.A. began in 1940. In 1920 the Farmers Co. sold out and the Post Office was moved across the street to its present location the same building with a hotel, cafe, pool hall, and barber shop. Might as well state here that Stanley Jechart was the first and only barber that Whitman had. He evidently started there in the early 20's. He married Minnie Slais in 1932. A house was moved in from his father's place, which was their home until it was sold to Frank Maresh, Sr., in 1942. Rose Maresh lives there at the present. Jecharts moved to Devils Lake in 1943 where he continued as a barber as long as his health permitted. He passed away in 1953. Minnie Jechart lives in California. Frank Zizka was postmaster from 1920 to 1945 when he turned it over to his son-in-law, Stewart MacMillan. Laddie Rysavy bought the building in 1947 and served as postmaster for two years and then turned over to his wife, Evelyn. She took it over in 1949. After 31 years of faithful service, she was honored on her retirement in 1981. This closed the post office after 69 years and mail is now delivered to the Whitman patrons by the rural carrier, Maurice Robinson. Back to 1913 when Ben Sell built a grocery store Mrs. Sell became the first postmaster or postmistress. Mr. O'Connel built a drug store. Sell sold out to the Farmers' Company managed by George L. Lamb in 1916. The same company bought the O Connel Store and managed the two stores. (For the next three years, the official postmaster was William Shirek with Mary Zelenka as assistant.) This general store was later sold to a Skjulstad from Grand Forks. He sold it to the company known as the Whitman Mercantile Co., later the Johnson Stores Co. Harold Gargrave managed the store - a little romance going on here as he married his dry goods clerk, Albena Pavek, in October 1921. The Gargraves lived here about 18 years before moving to Fordville, ND, in January of 1939. After six months, they moved on to Larimore, ND, Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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