History of New Rockford: Feb. 3, 2020

On Jan. 1, 1903, hardware merchant H. Arveskaug went to Leeds for New Year’s and to spend a couple days with friends. The January 2, 1903. “Transcript” was Vol. XXI No. 18. C.J. Maddux was the publisher; A.C. Olsen was the editor and manager. That issue mentioned the “Devils Lake Inter-Ocean.”

The “Transcript” was upset that New Rockford had “allowed a foreign telephone company” to set up in the town when local capital should have done it. The company “cares nothing for the town” except to make a profit. New Rockford needs an electric light plant, a waterworks system, “and we have to get busy ourselves or ‘some outsider’ will jump in and build them.”

A letter from former New Rockford banker P.J. Hester said he and his family were living at 8 Magnolia Ave., San Jose, Calif.; they had arrived the week before the letter was written. Roses and other flowers were in full bloom. San Jose had 35,000 residents, with some of its businesses 135 years old.

New Rockford businesses included the Central Drug Store, Buck & Couch, props.; Prader & Goss general store; Thomas Ose Hardware; Powers Elevator Co., M.B. Hersey, manager; coal, wood, feed, lumber.

Professional ads—G.D. Murphy, M.D. phone 26a; physician & surgeon, office and residence over the Babcock & Bucklin drug store; Chas. MacLachlan ph. 43b, Stimson Ave. West and C.J. McNamara, Hotel Mattson, ph. 8a, physicians & surgeons; offices in the Masonic Block [J.M. Patch Block] over Buck & Couch’s drug store; office ph. 43a.

The Buck & Couch drug store in Barlow was open; the druggist was Otto A. Berge, formerly of Harvey and a graduate of Drew’s Institute of Pharmacy in Minneapolis.

A steer branded with a “lazy seven” on its left hip strayed from John Welch’s farm 16 miles northeast of New Rockford.

After his hand had healed sufficiently, veterinary surgeon J.C. Whiteman was able to be out again. Because druggist William Bucklin was visiting his former home in Langdon, Lloyd Whiteman was assisting in the drug store during his absence.

John Vogt was planning on leaving for a couple months’ visit to Illinois the upcoming week, and Donald Niven was planning on going to his former home Owen Sound, Ontario, and several eastern cities [he left on Jan. 6 and returned on Feb. 7].

On Jan. 2, Charles Lyman returned from a trip; on New Year’s Eve he had married Kathryn Stewart of Carrington in Fargo. Mont Biggs returned from Indiana. George E. Bloss, father of Frank Bloss from near Bowdon, came over to visit relatives a few days before he returned home to Westfield, Wisc. Miss Cora Davis came in from Churchs Ferry, where she had spent the holidays.

That evening the Zoller-Wood Homestead of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen Lodge installed its officers: B.C. Larkin, Foreman; W.O. Baird, Master of Ceremonies; H.M. Clark, Correspondent; Donald Niven, Master of Accounts; John Dodds, Physician; Mrs. Viola Woodward, Overseer; James Hamilton, Guard; Mrs. J.W. Stoddard, Watchman; A.H. Crawford, Sentinel, Mrs. E.S. Severtson, Lady Rowena; Mrs. G.D. Murphy, Lady Rebecca. Mrs. B.C. Larkin, Miss Ethel Bauer, and Albert Burke joined the Lodge.

On Jan. 2 and 3, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bloss were over from near Bowdon.

On Jan. 3, Mrs. Frances M. Violette, 22 years, nine months, and 22 days old, died at her home nine miles west of New Rockford from blood poisoning following childbirth. She had been married to Lee Violette a little over a year. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W.W. Overton. Her funeral took place on Jan. 5, Rev. J.R. Beebe. Interment was in the cemetery north of town; in Prairie Home Cemetery there is a tombstone for “Fanny M. Violette March 11, 1880 - January 3, 1903.”

On that day, NR school principal Miss Lydia Messerschmidt returned from Fairmount, N.D., where she had spent the holidays. Second primary teacher Miss Harriet A. Jefferson returned from Argyle, Minn., where she had enjoyed the holidays. Arthur Davidson returned from a two-weeks’ business trip to the Twin Cities and Chicago. Homer Allison, editor of the “Esmond Bee,” was in New Rockford, then left the next day to visit his brother E.C. Allison and family in Jamestown. Esmond grain buyer John Cain was in New Rockford. Master Willie Shanahan went to Devils Lake to study at St. Gall’s College the rest of the winter term. Miss Frances Thomson left to teach in the primary department of the Dickinson school. Miss Nell Davidson left to take a shorthand course at a commercial college in the Twin Cities. Miss Harriet Davidson returned to Hamline University after spending the holidays at home. State Senator J.D. Carroll went to Bismarck. That evening the New Rockford Fire Department elected the following: R.U. Austin, Chief; J.L. Kinnaird, Assistant Chief; A.J. Clure, secretary; William Bucklin, treasurer; W.F. Steinweg, Captain, Engine #1; Andrew Dodds, Captain, Engine #2; Dobson Reams, Captain, hook and ladder truck; Olof Lundquist, chief engineer; John Olson, assistant chief engineer; and J.W. Rager, trustee.

Also that evening Mesdames C.A. Lathrop, William Bucklin, R.U. Austin, and Annie Oliver joined the Degree of Honor.

On Sunday, Jan. 4, barber Granville Egbert and druggist O.A. Burger were up from Barlow.

On Jan. 5, Fred Peitsch returned from California. O.O. Wolden, landlord of the Hotel Wolden in Sheyenne, was in New Rockford. “Sheyenne Star” editor C.C. Manning was in New Rockford on business. Horace Courtemanche, Thomas L. Adam, and Charles Hensel were in town. Arthur Larkin returned from his grain-buying job on the Great Northern line. Miss Blanche Brownell returned to school in Jamestown after spending the holidays with her parents. Miss Elsie Keime returned to school in Valley City after being with her mother for the holidays. Jay Mulvey went back to the Shattuck Academy after the holidays with his parents. Chris Jensen went to Moorhead, Minnesota, to enter Concordia College. Mrs. J.W. Stoddard left for Barnesville, Minn., to visit her daughter Mrs. F.E. Diemer and family; she stopped in Carrington that evening to attend the Degree of Honor ceremony. That night someone broke into A.M. [Aurelius Marcus] Greely’s chicken coop and made off with six pullets.

On Jan. 5, some members of the Degree of Honor (Mesdames Baird, Severtson, Tomlinson, Woodward, Bucklin, Rager, Kinnaird, Beardsley, and Misses Schmid and Turner) took the train to Carrington for the installation of new officers in the Carrington lodge that evening. A Carrington delegation met them at the station and escorted the ladies to the Kirkwood Hotel, where landlord L.C. Green had “an elegant supper” for them. The women toured the town for a while and then went to the installation, after which they enjoyed a literary and musical program, a dance until midnight, and then a walk across the street to the Workmen’s Lodge rooms for a banquet served by the Carrington lodge, followed by more dancing. The group returned to New Rockford the next day.