| Summary: | area. The lands were unsurveyed and the elk and deer ran wild. They squatted on the land until it was surveyed and could be claimed as theirs under the Homestead Act. In the fall of 1879 the grass was especially heavy and numerous prairie fires harassed the settlers, and heavy blizzards covered the doors and windows of their cabins and shanties. When you start to review the history of the town of Park River, you find you are actually involved in the history of three distinct settlements: Kensington, Garfield and Park River. The process of founding the town of Park River was not without some tragic aspects. A budding village of Golden Valley called Garfield, six miles to the Northwest, and Kensington Settlement two miles to the East, both aspired to be the metropolis of Walsh County. But when Jim Hill, the empire builder, decided that the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Manitoba railroad should go through what is now Park River, and not Kensington or Garfield, these settlements lost their identities as possible sites for tne town of Park River. KensingtonSettlement Let us consider first the Kensington Settlement. The Homestead Act of 1862 brought settlers into the Red River Valley, though the first didn't arrive in the Park River area until 1878. They could get title to 160 acres of rich black soil if they lived on it for five years, or if they paid $1.25 an acre, they could get title to it in six months. Most of the early settlers sought claims along the river for water and timber. Partly to bring the settlers closer together, they divided the timber with others, so most of the claims of 160 acres were Vi of a mile along the Park River and 1 mile in depth. The very first permanent settler in the vicinity of Park River for agricultural purposes was Charles G. Oaks, an old Hudson Bay employee, who settled at what was known as Kensington in November 1878. Mr. Oaks and those who came later, constituted what became known as the Scotch Settlement. The next oldest settler was Charles F. Ames who settled here Jan. 16, 1879. The first birth in the neighborhood was Nellie M. Ames in March, 1880, the daughter of Charles Ames. Sarah Ross was the first in the settlement to die. On the occasion of her death the settlers purchased four acres for a cemetery. McKenzie's wife died soon afterwards and the counters from his store were used to make her coffin. Charles Ames had put in a Diamond feed mill and a horse power. Settlers came on snow shoes often 15 miles to have graham flour made by this mill. Others came with oxen from greater distances, taking three days to make the trip. The water witch attracted considerable attention and successfully located underground streams of running water- in many cases within a few feet of where the much more expensive method of using wellsweeps with a bucket on a rope had failed. The incident is told of one of the first settlers who had his ear frozen off, and returning to Canada, left the ear to hold his claim until his return. Some of the early settlers who came to Kensington in 1878 and 1879 were Charles G. Oaks, Charles F. Ames, William and Alex Bruce, James Smith, George Brown, Ed Carman, Thos Wadge, Charles Honey, Wm., Ed and B. Code, William Craig, John and Fred Robb, Pete Campbell, William Burbidge and John Baird. Another of the very first settlers were Mr. and Mrs. John Wadge and their daughter and her husband- Mr. and Mrs. George Nicklin. These settlers came from Ontario, Canada, in 1879. The Nicklins settled in old Kensington where they built a log house. A daughter was born to them on Aug. 4,1880. She later became the wife of G.W. Young, a prominent Park River lawyer. Mrs. Young claims to be the first white girl born in Kensington. An account written by the late Chester Thompson of Park River tells that in December 1878, his father- Thomas Thompson, Cabin built by Charles Oaks, donated by John Harris. This cabin in River Park was A.I. Anderson, Hans Robertson and Hans Johnson started from the area around Bachelor's Grove or Elk Valley and came to Kensington area. They found one settler named Charley Oaks who had squatted on a piece of land about two miles east of Park River. They arrived in the evening and found two women in a log cabin there. They learned there were two families living in the small cabin and that the men had gone to Grand Forks for "Chester Thompson" FRED HULTSTRAND "HISTORY IN PICTURES' North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU, Fargo, N.D. 58105 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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