| Summary: | PIONEER PICNIC, 1907 From A.H. Laughlin's speech at Pioneer Picnic, Sheldon, 1907: "Ransom was a favorite hunting ground for the Hudson Bay Company in 1844." "General Sibley returned by way of the Maple River, found good drinking water." "Owego Colony had twelve buildings in 1870". (Ed Wall told Miss E.B. Greene there were 20, and that they had a fence all around the village made of good split oak posts.) "There was an unfinished house built by coal explorers, on the SEV4-32 in Owego Township." "January 26, 1882, a beautiful morning, A.H. Laughlin and H.A. Palmer, unloaded a car of seeders at Kindred and started on foot for Sheldon. There were only three stopping places along the way: French's, Porter's, and Manning's. At the first place, the Mrs. had nothing to serve them, at Porter's, she was out of groceries but gave them some tea, and Mr. Laughlin asked if they could have a little heat from the stove. Before they left there, a four-horse sleigh loaded with goods from Goodman's store in Sheldon stopped at the door. A cold storm had come up soon after they started in the morning. There was no room for them to ride to Sheldon, except a small box. Palmer sat on that, and Mr. Laughlin hung on too and used a bundle of brooms for shelter. They were nearly frozen when they arrived in Sheldon, and spent two hours in intense pain. The room at the hotel was so poor they found an inch of snow over the quilts and their hands nearly frozen in the morning, but proceeded to Lisbon. The baggage did not come for two weeks and they were also out of money!" COMMENTS From Miss E.B. Greene Feb. 1,1957 Miss E.B. Greene The town was named for a man named Sheldon, who owned part of what became the town site. I don't know whether he ever lived here, but don't think so. Uncle Ham and Joe Goodman had the first store and it was located first south and east of where the town is, so when the site was settled on they Sheldon, ND. moved it in. , Dr. Henning was the first Doctor so far as I know. He later went to Fargo and practiced there many years. I think a Charles Cole had the first drug store and a Scotchman named (E.B.) Bruce started a State Bank, which he ran by himself. I just remember him. He used to take long walks in the country and was quite Scotchy. An early lawyer was Scott Sanford, who was a friend of Dad's (M.B. Greene), so I remember him slightly. A dentist by the name of Marsh was there in the early years. I think he was a colorful character.but my memory is too vague about that-anyway a child's idea. In what includes our Sheldon Community there was a group of Scotch Canadian families who came from Ontario before Sheldon (about 1880, I think), and settled north of town (Jenksville). The Greenes were south of town. The Creswells also were there on their farm (where Ed Mougey lives) before the town came. Their first house was a sod house. I do not know of any written record of those first years, though there may be something somewhere. The Old Settlers Picnic records .might tell something. A lot of the pioneers were living then and at least it gives the dates of when they came.Of course we You date it. ourselves were only babies or small children, but we heard a lot later. We had a Negro barber at one time (not early times) who had a son named "The". He went to school with the rest of us-no segregation. The first school I remember was over near the swimming pool. I don't know the early teachers. A Mr. Stocking taught once. Later Miss McKeen taught primary. There were two rooms and the stove in the big room balked. The principal dismissed school and when the kids came back, there was a note written on the black board saying there would be no school till the school board fixed the stove. The board fixed the stove and asked Miss McKeen to take charge, hired a primary teacher and went on. At the end of the term, the Prof came back and demanded full pay for the year. The Board refused and he sued and won the case. A young lawyer in Ed Pierce's office had the Board's case and he asked them to let him take It to the Supreme Court. They told him tp go ahead. He did and won the case for them. Miss McKeen later became Mrs. Judge Lauder? of Wahpeton, and the young lawyer Judge Engerud of Fargo, one of the best in the State. Dad was on the School Board so though small, I was very much Interested. I think this was in the early 1890's. FIRE IN May Principle Business Street Reduced to Ashes. Heroic Efforts Made to Check Flames Last Saturday morning about 1:30 a.m. while our town was wrapped in slumber, a fierce red light shone forth and changed the darkness at midnight into the glare of noon. The strange shining through many chamber windows awakened the occupants who on looking forth discovered a huge mass of flames leaping upwards from the rear end of Froling's grocery store. The alarm was quickly spread but mo$Ye rapidly did the flaming monster throw its fiery arms around the adjoining buildings. So far as we can learn, the first person on the ground was Clarence Murray and when he reached the scene the fire had possession of three buildings, Froling's, Glassford's, and the billiard hall. Next to the billiard hall on the west was the bank building which in a few minutes was in flames. The bank building was on the corner and 17 SHELDON 8,1897 the flames did not extend farther west. To the east flames fanned by a stiff wind from the southwest, spread with almost incredible rapidity, leaping from roof to roof and bursting through solid walls as though they had been built of paper. Nothing was saved from the three first buildings consumed and little from the others, as not more than thirty minutes elapsed from the time of the first alarm until the entire block was enshrouded in flames. At the State Bank, they succeeded in saving some of the furniture, but Dr. Aylen, who occupied the upper story as an office, lost all of his instruments and almost all of his medical library, consisting largely of rare and valuable works. His safe however, preserved its contents in safety. The doctor had no insurance and the loss is a heavy one to him. Otto Dahm who occupied the billiard hall, next to the bank, lost one billard and two pool tables, with Bar and fixtures and a quantity Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited in Multi-page TIFF Editor.
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