| Summary: | T II E FIRST SIX Y E A R S OF G R A N D F 0 R K S 75 Having driven down, he held the first public religious service in the settlement in the house of dipt. Alex. Griggs, on Sunday, February 11, 1.872. A matter of this kind in respect to places that grow to importance from small beginnings is always worthy of record as being prophetic of the founding of future churches. In 1872 the stages were making the trip from Moorhead to Winnipeg in about three days. That year a fast stage was run for awhile, or during the boating season, making the trip between tlie points named in twenty-four hours, the object being to divert, passenger travel from the river to tlie stage line. In a good stage of water the boats usually made the trip from Grand Forks to Winnipeg in thirty-eight hours. This same year Alex. Griggs broke six acres of the virgin prairie on his claim at Grand Forks. A few settlers had located along the river in Grand Forks, Walle and Bentru fownships in 1871, hence a little breaking had been done in the county before this, particularly at Eight Mile Point south of Grand Forks. But the amount then done in each case was small. There are now but few buildings at Grand Forks that belong to the period that is marked off by the first half of the 'seventies; one such is a log house on Cottonwood street; then, on the east side of Third street about one hundred feet north of Division avenue, is a small wooden hotel that was built in the summer of 1872 by E. B. Andrtis. It bore no name on its front, in those days, but was jocosely called the "Hotel de Grab" owing to an alleged scarcity of victuals upon its tables and the consequent necessity of grabbing in order to get a fair meal. As early as the summer of 1872 an effort was made to establish a school in the settlement. As has often happened in western settlements, two rival factions arose, disputing over the location of the proposed schoolhouse. This was carried so far that two small schools were gotten under way for the time being. One of these was conducted in a small framed shack situated near the stage station and was taught by Miss Blanding; the other school was kept in a small shanty located near where the Great Northern prssenger depot now stands and was taught by Geo. Ames. As usually occurs in such cases, a feeling was engendered in the community that lasted until tbe principal actors in the matter had left the country; then, with tbe establishment of public schools the controversy seems to have been so,far forgotten that no mention of these early schools occurs in tlie sketches. Tlie Selkirk was usually laid up each winter at Grand Forks. This initiated a boat yard heie. It was established by Kittson, who was then connected with the tranpoi tation business of the Hudson Bay company, About this time the few ' boats on the river passed under his control and so he came to be called Commodore Kittson. I). P. Reeves was "placed in charge of the. boat Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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