History of New Rockford: April 6, 2020

Early Sunday morning, Feb. 22, 1903, a daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. James A. Manly. That day Granville Egbert was up from Barlow. Mrs. Annie Oliver and Miss Hazel went to McHenry to visit.

On Feb 23, William Cornish came in from Tiffany. George D. Setz was in from eastern Eddy County. Peter P. Hallquist was down from the Sheyenne Valley on business. Mrs. Axtle Johnson came back from Fargo in improved health; she had gone there for treatment of “a nervous disorder.” Dentist F.D. Norton went to Minnewaukan on professional calls.

On Feb. 23 to 24, P.P. Andreas was down from Sheyenne and John Cole was in Carrington.

In the early morning hours of Feb. 24, there was “an exciting dog fight on Chicago Street” that lasted for a few minutes. That morning a daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. John Wenz. John Edinger was in from west of New Rockford. Peter P. Hallquist came in from northwest of town. W.G. Carter and Sidney Lewis of eastern Eddy County came in on business, as did John Welsh and Josiah Hoffman of Tiffany.

On Feb. 25, Misses Lena and Gertrude McGeoch returned from a visit with their parents at Oberon. Arthur Warren was in from Plainview. B.W. Hersey, Herman Carr, Arthur Parker, and C.H. Ruland of Tiffany were in on business, as were August Kiehlow and Andrew Johnson, Sr. Standard Oil man Peter Johnson was up from Carrington. E.S. Severtson returned from a business trip to Fargo and the Twin Cities. Miss Georgia Hersey left for Austin, Minn., to attend school; her mother and her brother Charles accompanied her as far as Jamestown and returned the next day. State’s Attorney James A. Manly and attorney R.F. Rinker went to Sheyenne on legal business. That afternoon a son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Henderson; he was a drayman for Captain P.H. West. Also that afternoon Rev. J.R. Beebe married Alfred C. Hogue and Hattie Brittain at the Congregational parsonage; the groom had been employed by the Gull River Lumberyard since the previous fall; the bride had arrived by train from Missouri that day. That evening Mr. and Mrs. E.B. Thomson attended the Century Lodge No. 60 AF & AM annual banquet and ball. The “Transcript” said, “…as a social success it far outshone anything ever attempted in that line in the city.” The Masonic Hall was decorated in the Lodge colors and those of its Auxiliary, the Eastern Star. For the banquet, 122 places were laid in the Hotel Brown. Out-of-towners in attendance included four from Fargo; Messrs. Anderson, Richter, Johnson, and Kermott from Sheyenne; and John Cain of Esmond. Former New Rockford resident Chris Rageth of Harvey played in the five-piece orchestra, as did Harvey residents H.M. Knickerbocker and Mike Golgano, along with Mr. Smith and George Fahrer of New Rockford.

On the afternoon of Febr. 25, Andrew Ohrner, 44, died after many months of suffering with carcinoma. He had come to New Rockford in 1885. He had been diagnosed with cancer of the neck nearly two years before, but it became much worse last July. An operation in St. Paul and an x-ray treatment did not help. A consultation with a South Dakota cancer specialist brought no relief, and the cancer spread rapidly to his mouth and throat. He left a wife, five children, a brother Matthew, and three sisters. His funeral was held at 2 p.m. Feb. 28, in the Congregational Church with Rev. J.R. Beebe and Rockford Lodge #46 of the AOUW Lodge in charge. His body was interred in the cemetery north of town. [His grave is in Prairie Home Cemetery today with the dates of February 17, 1859-February 25, 1903, on the stone. In the same lot is the grave of his wife Minnie, May 22, 1866-September 2, 1950.]

On Feb. 26, Fred Allmaras from southwest of New Rockford, Ludwig Hanson and Henry B. Johnson of Plainview, and Fred Laasch were in town. Martin Walsh, Sidney Hewes, and Alba Hersey of Tiffany, Nels K. Mattson from the Sheyenne Valley, and Burrill A. Daniels were in on business. Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Skidmore were in shopping.

On Feb. 26, accused murderer William Cahill’s attorney M.T. O’Connor applied for blank subpoenas from clerk of court Cyril J. Stickney and his deputy Peter M. Mattson for the purpose of serving them on material witnesses who might leave the state. Stickney refused, and O’Connor condemned his refusal as leaving Cahill “in a very helpless and precarious condition” in regard to such witnesses.

O’Connor also condemned Mattson as “…a man devoid of all respect of the rights of all other persons save and except his bosom friends and confederates who are the blind piggers, bootleggers, blacklegs, and gamblers of this town.”

The Feb. 27, 1903, “Transcript” said that a Bible class organized by Rev. E.P. Johnson/Johnston met every Sunday at Tiffany. The paper commented that the severe weather of the previous week had moderated.

A letter from former resident C.H. Hambrecht at LeRoy, Minn., said that newspaper reports of his injuries in the Clinton Hotel fire at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, were greatly exaggerated: he had to jump from a third-floor window, landed on a gravel roof about 20-feet down, and suffered a severely sprained back and several cuts on his head.

A note said that former resident Professor Ira Oard was the leader of the Capital City Orchestra in Bismarck; he had composed “Governor White’s Inaugural March,” the music of which could be obtained from Mrs. J.M. Mulvey.

Another note said that H. Peoples had visited C.J. Maddux in San Diego and the two had gone to Mexico together.

An ad—Gustave Lauch, contractor for brickwork & plastering. [This ad was similar to previous ones in which the name of Lauch’s partner, the accused murderer William Cahill, also appeared.]

During the week a steel ceiling was put up in the Hotel Mattson dining room.

Early in the week Christopher Gregory of Tiffany suffered a mild stroke, but was improving by week’s end. H.G. Hudson was laid up with rheumatism part of the previous week and early in the current week.

On Feb. 28, attorney Michael T. O’Connor was arrested on a complaint by Peter M. Mattson for criminal libel. O’Connor waived his right to a preliminary hearing and paid $250 bond to guarantee his appearance at the next term of the District Court.

On Feb. 28, a 9-lb. son was born to Mr. and Mrs. George F. Fields of Tiffany. Barlow druggist O.A. Burger was in New Rockford. G.J. James came down from Oberon. Col. Seth Bailey came in from the Gudgell Ranch. Henry Garvin was in on business from southwest of town. Mr. and Mrs. H.F. Rodenberg returned from a buying trip to the Twin Cities. At 2 p.m. in the courthouse, a meeting was held to discuss the construction of a telephone line to the southwest of New Rockford.