History of New Rockford: July 15, 2024

Reports on Jan. 26, 1907, showed the following:

The First National Bank of New Rockford, James E. Hyde, cashier, showed resources (assets) of $81,222.72 down $7,772.59 from the $88,995.31 of November 12. Checking accounts were $18,398.79, down $475.52 from the $18,874.31 of November 12.

The Bank of New Rockford, Assistant Cashier P.J. Braman, had resources (assets) of $191,959.36, down $17,828.49 from the $209,787.85 of November 12. Checking accounts amounted to $75,489.15, down $21,738.10 from the $97,227.26 of November 12.

The Farmers and Merchants Bank, E.R. Davidson, cashier, had resources (assets) of $83,123.39, up $19,872.42 from the $63,250.97 of November 12. Checking accounts amounted to $43,108.35, up $11,531.98 from the $31,576.37 of November 12.

In a little less than nine months the Farmers and Merchants Bank had become the second largest in New Rockford.

On January 26, Robert Goodall was a business visitor. E.S. Severtson came home from Fargo, where he had gone on January 16, by driving up from Carrington; he had left the rotary plow at Guptil while it was filling with water. Ed Seastrand of the Sheyenne Valley came in from Barlow; he had been visiting relatives in Goodhue County, Minn., made it back to Jamestown, hitched a ride on the rotary plow to Guptil, walked to Barlow, secured a team, and drove them home. The Palace Drug Store and the post office blocks in Fessenden were destroyed by fire; it was a $21,000 loss with $10,000 in insurance.

On Sunday, Jan. 27, Phillips Academy student Mae Engberg learned that her brother had gone from their Barlow home to Carrington, where he would take the Soo Line to Fargo, so he could help care for their father, who had pneumonia. A number of teams went up to the Divide and brought back some “cool” [coal]. George F. Fahrer drove up from Carrington, completing his return from Bismarck. Dr. Charles McNamara and Frank Fahrer drove up from Barlow; Fahrer suffered a frostbitten face in the cold weather. Dr. G.D. Murphy drove to Carrington in order to take the Soo Line to the Twin Cities. Mrs. R.M. Kennedy was driven to Carrington, where she would catch the Soo Line on the first stage of a trip to New York state after receiving a telegram that her father was very seriously ill there and not expected to live; on her return trip, her husband met her in the Twin Cities and they arrived in New Rockford on March 5. W.R. Erwin left to visit his old Iowa home.

On January 28, Fred Speck came in on business. Miss Carolyn Waters arrived from Sheyenne, where she had been snowbound “for some time.” Otho Lathrop drove up from Carrington, where he had come from Minneapolis on the Soo Line; F.C. Davies did the same. That afternoon, druggist Mark E. Williams drove to Carrington, where he took the Soo Line to Minneapolis, where both his wife and father were recovering from operations. C.W. Hall drove to Sheyenne on business. George Johnston of the Independent Dray Line drove to Carrington and brought back kerosene for the New Rockford stores; he repeated the trip on January 30. That evening, a masquerade ball was held in the Hotel Davies dining room and another such ball took place in the Opera House, where free dressing rooms were provided. The New Rockford Orchestra provided music for the latter. At the Davies, music was by A.W. Johnson, J. Harvey Johnson, Mont Biggs, and the Misses Faust and Waters. Prizes were awarded – Best Masked Ladies: 1st prize, Miss Emily Andres (Hearts and Flowers); 2nd prize, Miss Rose Geiger; Best Masked Gentlemen: 1st prize, Verne Norton; 2nd prize, Paul Baeder.

On January 29, Mrs. Peter Crane of Tiffany visited her daughter Miss Amy Crane at Phillips Academy. A son was born to Mr. and Mrs. John Kennedy.

On the morning of January 30, student Harry Ford arrived at Phillips Academy with the mail for which he had waited the night before. He passed out several dozen letters to 34 students who had been without mail for two weeks. That afternoon, a temporary star route mail service [a contracted mail delivery service] was set up between Carrington and New Rockford which would operate until the trains started their regular schedule again. That afternoon, William Walter Treffry and Emma Louise Gorkow were married in Marshalltown, Iowa; the couple were due in New Rockford on February 2 at which time they would go to the groom’s farm southeast of town. That evening, Miss Katherine Henry, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Henry of rural Sheyenne, and her husband actor Eugene West, performed at the Opera House, sponsored by the New Rockford Century Lodge #60. They presented four original one-act plays: “Weather Bound,” “A Stammered Proposal,” “The Tie That Binds,” and “Taming a Husband.” Three were humorous and one was more serious. Local talent provided songs and music. There was a large audience.

On January 31, Pat Byron came up from near Barlow on business. Charles Hutchison was a business visitor. Rudolph Indergaard came in from his farm; he had plenty of coal, but said the winter was the worst he had seen “to get around in.” That evening, Gullick Larson was standing on a snowbank in front of the “Transcript” office, facing the railroad. When the editor went out to see what was wrong, Larson said like most New Rockford residents, he was “looking for that dod-gasted rotary.” He then went inside and “had a social smoke.” The witty Mr. Larson was blind. That night, the rotary plow and its supply train [loaded with coal?] came up from Jamestown, but a storm the next day forced the Russell plow and a fuel train that had left Jamestown to stop at Edmunds.

The Feb. 1, 1907, “Transcript” contained two poems about their wife and mother, who had died at 28, from Jerry [or John] Van Heizen [Huizen] and their four children.

That edition said that while being storm-stayed in Sheyenne, several traveling salesmen wrote a five-column newspaper called the “Sheyenne Blizzard.”

Early in the week, O.B. Stedman came down from Sheyenne.

Rev. F.L. Gehrs of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod (Emmanuel Lutheran Church) had been transferred to Marion, N.D.; he and his family left on February 19. [They had come to New Rockford in 1903.]

A.B. Corey was one of the heirs to a $20,000,000 estate in England; he had been informed that his share would be $350,000.