History of New Rockford: June 24, 2024

On the morning of Sunday, Jan. 6, 1907, a special train brought teachers Miss Lillian Lund, Miss Millicent Wiche/Weibe, and Miss Lillyan Faust back from their holidays. That afternoon, a special train brought students Misses Harrison, Solsberg, and Erikson from Esmond; the girls would live in the Phillips Academy dormitory.

On January 7, the New Rockford School re-opened after the holidays. A train made it to New Rockford, but there was not another one until January 11 because of the snow nearly every day in between. Newlyweds A.C and Edith Olsen arrived on the train on the 11th. Former Phillips Academy student William Pfau of Barlow started for Grand Forks and UND, but the snow stopped the train, so he visited in New Rockford until January 11. O.C. Gronvold left for Mountain Home, Idaho, with an eye to moving there; he returned on February 5. Wilson Flory left for his home at Pique, Ohio, after a lengthy visit with his son O.T. Flory; another son, Earl, accompanied his father despite being ill. Mrs. Frank Allmaras went to Nebraska to visit relatives. Miss Effie Dafoe returned from Sheyenne, where she had been employed as a stenographer in the Nels Mattson real estate office. A son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Ed Hogue.

The Eddy County Commissioners met on January 7, 9-12, and 14-19. On January 7, N.C. Gunvaldson was elected chairman. On January 9 the Commissioners (Gunvaldson, Dafoe and Dailey) appointed the following as road supervisors: District #1, William Mattison; #2, Austin Randolph; #3, Frank Chandler; #4, C.H. Ruland; #5, A.J. Richter; #6, J.R. Craig; #7, Charles Brolin; #11, Knute Bymoen; #13, Michael O’Keefe; #14, James Hobbs; #16, W.S. Randolph; #17, M. Birkland; #18, Martin Walsh; #19, F.H. Dutee; #24, H.B. Johnson. The Eddy County Commissioners filled the membership of the following boards: Board of Health – [R.P. Allison, president, according to the newspaper, but not in the minutes], Dr. Charles MacLachlan, Supt., and W.C. Dresser, vice president; Board of Insanity – County Judge D.F. Ellsworth, State’s Attorney R.P. Allison and R.F. Rinker. They voted to pay the following: $103.30, R.M. Kennedy, coal to court house; $43.50, Great Western Elevator Co., coal to court house; $58, Andrews & Gage Elevator, coal to court house; $13, R.M. Kennedy, coal to county poor; $45, Mrs. W.C. Schwoebel, county auditor’s clerk, Dec.; $45, Mrs. A.G. Gardner, register of deeds’ clerk, Dec.; $4.25, G.W. Egbert, shaving prisoners; $19.10, New Rockford Light & Water Improvement Co., lights for Dec.

On January 19, they voted to pay $40, John Collins, Dec. janitor’s salary; $45, Ruth Gronvold, county treasurer’s clerk, Dec.; $6.20, Annie Labhardt, laundry for jail; $26.64, Rodenberg & Schwoebel, supplies for county poor and jail.

On the evening of January 9, with the members of the A.O.U.W. (Workmen) Lodge present, the Degree of Honor met in the Masonic Hall and installed the following officers: Mrs. Emma Beardsley, Past Chief of Honor; Mrs. Cora Kinnaird, Chief of Honor; Mrs. Annie Ohrner, Lady of Honor; Mrs. Louise Campbell, Chief of Ceremonies; Mrs. Elizabeth Schwoebel, Recorder; Mrs. Pearl Gardner, Financier; Miss Rosetta Schwoebel, Receiver; Mrs. Alice M. Rager, Usher; Mrs. Viola Woodward, Inside Watch; Mrs. Bertha Thomas, Outside Watch; Mrs. Marcella Buck, Trustee; Mrs. Emma Beardsley, Delegate to the Grand Lodge; Mrs. Minnie Bennett, alternate. A social hour followed and then music, dancing and “a dainty lunch.”

On January 10, a meeting of the stockholders of the Farmers & Merchants Bank was held. They elected the following Board of Directors: Dr. Charles MacLachlan, John F. Goss, Jakob Allmaras, A.D. Tomlinson, Anton Haas, A.R. Johns and E.R. Davidson; Anton Haas, president, A.R. Johns, vice president, and E.R. Davidson, cashier were re-elected to their positions.

Madame LeMay, “The Renowned Clairvoyant and Trance Medium,” who had been in New Rockford since November, finally vacated Room 20 at the Hotel Davies and left town. H.J. Mitchell had been in Bismarck, but rode the train to Jamestown, then it took him all night to get home to New Rockford because of the snow drifts.

The Jan. 11, 1907 “Transcript” printed a Closing Agreement in which the following New Rockford merchants agreed to close their business places at 6 p.m. from January 1 to April 1; further, at that time the shades would be drawn, their doors closed, and no potential customers would be admitted: H. Peoples & Co., Prader & Baeder, Rodenberg & Schwoebel, E. Saad, John M. Mulvey hardware, Hays & Adams hardware, Dowkes & Campbell meat market, and H.H. Miller meat market.

There were three freight trains at Carrington that could not start north because of the snow drifts; they were loaded with coal and provisions for New Rockford and points north. New Rockford had a “real coal shortage.”

Bad roads and poor railroad connections had kept the enrollment down at Phillips Academy: about 55 students had enrolled; 27 were in the Boarding Club; and 14 girls, including Mae Engberg and Ella Conolly of Barlow, lived in the dormitory.

In “School Notes”: high school student Martha Kuhlmeier was snowbound at her Bowdon home; Fred and Edna Maurer, whose parents had moved from Fairmount, N.D., had entered school; on January 7 Wanda Keime and Ethel Hobbs entered the high school, bringing its enrollment to 27; Miss Keime had been attending Jamestown H.S., while Miss Hobbs had been employed at the McHenry Post Office; on January 10, having been snowbound, Ernest Lykken, a 1906 graduate of the School of Mines at UND, visited the New Rockford schools; the Athletic Club was moving the punching bag platform to a new location in the gym; the picture won by Mary Bennett in the “Minneapolis Junior Journal” essay contest was placed in the 4th and 5th grade room; Marguerite and Clifford Carroll were ill that week; a ten-volume set of the 1900 official census had been added to the school library; the “Grand Forks Herald” and the “Congressional Record” were available on the high school reading table; the School Management class was using White’s textbook; additional seats for the students had been ordered.

Early in the week R.P. Allison went to Bismarck and then to Fargo on legal business.

On the morning of January 11, Peter Schafer/Schaefer returned from three weeks in South Dakota. James Jensen arrived from his home at Pleasant [in Renville County near Tolley] after being snowbound on the train since January 8; he was taking the commercial course at the Academy. Marguerite and Rudolf Steinweg arrived to visit relatives [the Rodenbergs]. Blacksmith Nathan Stanton came home after visiting his old home Marlette, Mich., where he had gone on December 19. S.N. Putnam and Axtle Johnson came home from Bismarck; Representative Putnam had been named chairman of the House Appointment Committee and sat on the House Committees of Ways and Means, Enrollment, and Education and on the Joint Committee on Rules. H.W. Wilson returned from a business trip to Wimbledon, and Dr. G.W. Murphy came back from a professional visit to Fargo. Peter Smith’s brother-in-law arrived for a visit. Henry Flaskerud of Sheyenne returned from a visit to Fargo.