| Summary: | A HISTORY OF CRYSTAL, NORTH DAKOTA ONE HUNDRED YEARS: How does one record the events of a century? Is it possible to imagine our forefathers leaving their established, comfortable homes in the various parts of Europe — England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Iceland — enduring the discomforts of ocean travel of that age? Then arriving in a strange land, they traversed the uncharted, treeless prairies, making their way by horse or oxen through mosquito-infested grass higher than their heads, enduring the rigors of a frigid northern winter, with no means of communication, no postal service nor health care, no train service. Gradually from a heterogeneous background, this community became a true melting pot with some immigrants coming by way of Canada, others through Minnesota and Wisconsin, up to Fishers Landing, Minnesota, and then by wagon or river boat to Pembina and across the land through prairie and small creeks to their new homes. The earliest settlements at first were the trading posts at Walhalla and near the Red River near Drayton. The land-seeking Greenway Expedition, aboard a regular emigrant train, with men, women, and children from Ontario, Canada, arrived in Winnipeg to find land, but soon learned that homesteads there were very scarce because of the Mennonite Settlements and the earlier rush to that country. They were informed of plenty of land across the line in the United States, so they went on to Emerson, Manitoba, to investigate. Finally, they decided to settle near Joliette and filed preemptions which had to be sent to Fargo for filing. While they were waiting for the return of their papers, they set out to explore the neighboring country. Returning to Pembina, they met John Bechtel, of Cavalier, who told them about this section of the country. Giving up their preemptions, they came out to this locality and liked it so well that they stayed. The natural timber — chiefly elm and boxelder trees —- along the creeks, a good water supply, the view oi the western hills, and the quality of the ground appealed to them. No survey had been made, but the men took possession of land and held it until it came into market (NORTHERN REVIEW, 1903). A member of the expedition was Albert Francis Appleton, born January 14, 1850, at Bishop Monkton, near Ripon, West Riding, Yorkshire, England. Brought to Canada by his parents in 1851, he lived in Ontario, eventually marrying Martha Tay. In 1879 he and his family (three children), together with his nephew, Joseph Fay, James Corbin and sons, James Bedford, and David McKenzie, made settlement in what is now the present town of Crystal May 28. Others coming the first year Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited in Multi-page TIFF Editor.
|
|---|