History of Grand Forks County : with special reference to the first ten years of Grand Forks City, including an historical outline of the Red River Valley

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: State Historical Society of North Dakota
• Subjects: Grand Forks; Hudson; Hudson Bay; McKelvey
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ndsl-books/id/39032

T II E F I R ST SIX Y E A R S O F G R A N D F O R K S 79 Grand Forks by steamer.* "The first issue of the Plaindealer was on or about July 2, 1875. I cannot remember the exact date." So states the founder of the paper himself. For nearly four years this paper had tlie field all to itself in this part of the valley. On July 8, 1875, the Plaindealer was chosen as the official paper for Traill county instead of a Fargo paper previously used to publish tlie commissioners' proceedings, for it is presumable either that they had offers of publishing their proceedings made to them or that its first number had just attracted their attention. Mr. Walsh continued to publish the Plaindealer for about two years, after which others in succession took charge of the paper, among whom was I). McDonald. In 1875 Frank Viets bought of the Hudson Bay company their hotel and general merchandise store, and this ended their trading business in the valley on this side of the boundary line. Tliey still retained some real estate property at Grand Forks, but what remained of it three or four years later, was purchased by E. V. Holcomb and John McKelvey. Another event for the village in 1875 was the appointment of Alex. Griggs as postmaster, succeeding 0. S. Freeman. Business on the river was now developing in considerable proportions, and Grand Forks became something of a headquarters for river men, but tlieir number here, even in tlie best days of steamboating on Red river, was never very large. The steamer Sheyenne was built at the boat yard here about 1874-5, and was designed to tow barges. This was the first side wheeled boat to be placed on the river, tlie others being of the stern wheeled type. The Sheyenne was built under the supervision of Capt. E. V. Holcomb and tlie river men spoke of her as "Holcomb's pet." Two more steamers, the Minnesota and Manitoba, were built at Moorhead in 1875 at tlie instance of the merchants of Winnipeg. This was called the Merchants' line. In the same year Commodore Kittson and associates organized tlie Red River Transportation company, which absorbed most every boat on the river. Before this the firm was Kittson & Hill. That year W. J. Anderson first came to Grand Forks as an agent of the newly organized company. The steamer Alpha was also built by this company at McCauleyville. In September, 1877, a boat called *' From statements made hy Geo. II. Walsh.—If tlie lirst numher was issued on the first Thursday in July of that year, the date was July 1, 1875. In 3881 the oiliee of the Plaindealer was burned down with tlie loss of all of the old tiles and the later ones down to the date of the fire. Hence the discrepancies of the sketches as to the date of the lirst issue of the Plaindealer. The loss of the old tiles of this paper is probably an irreparable one from the standpoint of the county's history. It may be remarked here that tire old lilesof a weekly paper published in any settlement in its eariy days, finally become of considerable value, provided die place ultimately grows to one of importance, for they reflect the life of any past era in a manner (hat cannot be expected of courthouse records. Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.