Line of Fire

Back in the day, just as now, lawmen worked together between Canada and America.  There was less red tape then, although that was there, too.  The excerpt below is about one of the early lawmen of our area, this time on the Canadian side of the 49th parallel.  He has been mentioned in passing before, in the story of Sheriff Charley Brown.  You could say he was Charley's counterpart over the line.

It's fun to learn more of his story, and the context.  We're very lucky to have this recounting - I have read that "virtually no documentation was preserved for the MPP"...

The North-West Mounted Police were not the only officers who made life difficult for bad men in the Canadian West. Even before the Mounties arrived on the prairies, the newly formed province of Manitoba organized a small, but effective, police force. The Manitoba Provincial Police began in 1870 with nineteen men. It was operated out of an old Winnipeg post office that was converted to a police station and courthouse. A log house behind the building was used for a jail. The force was poorly funded, so the officers had to provide their own firearms. They had no standard uniform. Within a few years, the department dwindled to a mere eight men. Some constables were dismissed for inappropriate behavior, such as public drunkenness, others resigned to seek better paying employment! 

In 1874, Richard Power, a twenty-three-year-old who had become an original member of the force at the age of nineteen, was made Head Constable - the equivalent of Chief of Police. The rapid decline in the force's number was only a part of the reason for this young man's promotion to such a position. Even before joining the MPP, he had allegedly served as a scout for the United States Cavalry. He was also a lieutenant in the Winnipeg militia. Power's contemporaries described him as "a fine looking man, magnificently proportioned, every inch a soldier with the courage that nothing could daunt. Power wore a Colt .45 with a nine-inch barrel, and a gunbelt that was always full of cartridges. Local newspapers called Power "a terror to evildoers." In A few short years, Power had shown himself to be a courageous and enthusiastic policeman. Some thought he might have been too enthusiastic. He had once been sharply reprimanded for shooting a Native during an arrest. 

By the time Power took command of the Manitoba Provincial Police, Winnipeg had been incorporated as a city and had its own police department. That left the rest of Manitoba under the eyes of Power and his tiny department. Power strategically placed men in the more populous settlements outside Winnipeg; towns like Selkirk and Kildonan. He kept a few men with him at his headquarters in Winnipeg. Most Manitoba communities had to depend on special constables - civilian volunteers - to keep the peace. If there was any real trouble, Power could send one of his constables out to see to the matter. The policing situation in rural Manitoba was not unlike that of rural Ontario and other points east. 

Manitoba, especially the country along the American border, was woefully under-policed, but the situation was same on the other side of the international line in the Dakota Territory. There was a sheriff in Pembina, just over the border, and another many miles away in Fargo. For those lawmen, just looking after their towns was a full-time job. They didn't have the resources, or manpower, to go chasing after the desperadoes who roamed the plains and hills of the Dakota country. Rustlers, gunmen, and other men on the dodge had only to keep out of the Sheriff's way to avoid arrest. With so much open country, that was not a hard thing to do. Moreover, American lawmen were often unwilling to apprehend fugitives wanted in Canada, unless there was a reward involved.

Hill Farms

Co-Workers of my Grandpa Fitzpatrick at
Humboldt Hill Farm:  'Illegal' Canadians?

We often hear about illegal aliens working in America nowadays.  We normally think of them as coming from Mexico, South America, or even refugees that have entered the country illegally.

This problem is nothing new.  About a century ago, Kittson County Sheriffs faced the same problem, except the illegal aliens were coming from the north - Canada.  The irony of it is, manpower was in short supply in the local area, and these Canadian men were more than willing to work, yet the law sought to kick them out back to Canada.

In two cases involving Canadian employees on the Red River Valley estates, Hill tried and failed to leverage support from Minnesota's former governor, Senator Knut Nelson. The first problem began in 1913 when Walter Hill, at his father's insistence, hired a Canadian veterinarian recommended by Thomas Shaw and ran into problems with the Immigration Bureau.  In March 1914 James Hill wrote to Nelson, asking him to intervene, but with no success.  A similar conflict arose in 1915 on Hill's bonanza estate at Humboldt, which had remained primarily a productive wheat farm, raising extensive crops under hired management.  In 1915 problems emerged with the farm's traditional Canadian labor force when the sheriff arrived in the middle of harvest and "took away four...shockers."  They were charged as illegal aliens, but Hill's manager asserted that the men had been working on the farm without trouble for fifteen years. Hill again turned to Senator Nelson for help, but despite his protestations, the men were deported back to Canada.  Hill did not let the matter rest.  He asserted that immigration officials aimed to "make fees" by bothering "a number of poor men who...are trying to earn a living." The acting secretary of labor,  J.B. Densmore, corrected Hill, pointing out that the agents did not profit from arrests; he then closed the case and refused to make further inquiries.  Thus, by 1915 Hill's political influence had virtually vanished. Without the muscle of the railroad and with few federal connections, Hill found himself in the uncomfortable role of a private citizen...

From Profiting from the Plains: The Great Northern Railway By Claire Strom

Homestead

1906:  My Grandparents in front of their new home...

These are my grandparents, Elizabeth and Albert Fitzpatrick, standing outside the home they built as newlyweds. This is the same house my Mom grew up in, then my sisters and I, and even (briefly, for 1.5 years) my two kids, many years ago.

I am grateful to my cousin Delphine for sharing the photograph from my grandparents' 50th Wedding Anniversary collection. She told me:

I still remember the house after they built that porch on it that went around 2 sides of the house. We use to love to run around on that porch...

My great grandparents came first to St. Vincent - the Fitzpatricks and the Fitzgeralds.  Through marriage, my grandparents brought the two families together.  They built their first home together in the "farm district" (the image above shows them standing in front of it shortly after completion...)  After showing the photo to several people from the area, I received some informative feedback and memories, including this one from Mike Rustad:

Liz Fitzpatrick,
Practical Nurse 

Leona Gooselaw Hemmes...said that your Grandmother was a very therapeutic person, an excellent cook, and was a wonderful conversationalist. It was a good thing, too because women in her birthing facility stayed a minimum of six days and sometimes longer. Your grandmother, in Leona's words, was a wonderful woman who assuaged the fears and raised the hopes of mothers...

That definitely sounds like my Grandma. She loved people, having them around her, sharing a good meal with them, sharing good conversation and a laugh or two.

Cheer(io) the Crow

Nancy gives Cheer a treat...
[Diamond Family Collection]

I recently posted a story about a crow who was raised by humans, and therefore had an unusual relationship with them and the the other residents of their small town. I wondered, did anyone have a photo of him? Turns out, someone did...

Growing up in a farm community it was not common for people to have actual pets.  We had several dogs and one was Dennis’s pet and there were always cats in the barn. 

When I was about 10, Dennis and Mickey Boatz robbed a crow’s nest up at the north farm and came home with three baby crows.  Dennis, Marlys and I adopted them, and kept them in a small wooden chicken cage in the yard.  We hand-fed them a diet of raw liver and dry food.  I named mine “Cheer” because he loved to eat Cheerios cereal. Cheer was the only one that survived.
When he got big enough to fly he roamed the town of Humboldt and actually got to be a pest.  He learned to peck on windows and wake people up as he was ready for food.  Jamie Rustad has a photo of him sitting on her playpen and he would steal her food.   So Dad decided we needed to remove him from town. We captured him and he took him back to the north farm and let him go.  I remember being so upset about losing my pet. 

Well, Cheer beat Dad back to town!!  He would sometimes come when I called his name and land on my head.  They are a pretty large bird when full grown so you knew he was sitting on your head. 

I was concerned how he would survive the winter but he met with an accident late that fall and died.   I have fond memories of my pet crow and a summer of adventure in Humboldt. 

Nancy

Cheer the Crow pays a visit to little Jamie Rustad
[October 1956 - Rustad Family Collection]

Lake Stella Revisited

Lake Stella as sunset approaches
[Courtesy:  Jamie Rustad Meagher]

Sunset on Lake Stella
[Courtesy:  Jamie Rustad Meagher]

Day's end at Lake Stella, looking west towards the Red River...
[Courtesy:  Jamie Rustad Meagher]

St. Vincent Over the Years: Demographics

St. Vincent 1900 Census - William Ash, Enumerator
[Click to enlarge]

Census Population Counts:

1880 - 489

1890 - 507

1900 - 256

1910 - 328

1920 - 343

1930 - 304

1940 - 327

1950 - 272

1960 - 217

1970 - 177

1980 - 141

1990 - 116

I don't remember where I ran across the census figures for St. Vincent through the years, but since then I have often wondered why the dramatic decrease in population from 1890 to 1900, compared to other fluctuations up or down?  It definitely wasn't because of crop failures; according to this source record from the time, things were going well in that department:

Having heard that crops were poor outside the Red River valley and that many would leave as soon as threshing was over, 1 walked and drove through Pembina, Walsh, Cavalier and Towner counties, North Dakota, and Kittson county, Minnesota, but found that generally the farmers in that vicinity were not suffering, and that their yield was so much better for 1890 than in preceding years that most of them would remain. - From Sessional Papers of the Parliament of the Dominion of Canada, Vol. 4.

After that, there are changes both up and down fairly steady for a half century, then when 1960 hits, the steady decline began.

According to Rural Depopulation, the region in which St. Vincent is located - the Great Plains - has been experiencing depopulation "...more prevalent and more severe" than in any other region in the United States. In fact, the Great Plains is "...home to 304 of the country's 662 depopulating rural counties."  On top of that, "...populations in rural counties in the Great Plains are significantly smaller than populations in...other depopulating regions, and the population density (people per square mile) is substantially less."  That last statistic is the most disheartening, because low population makes viability of more and more small communities impossible.

Whatever the cause, the Great Plains of which we are a part, has been at a crossroads for a long time.  People living here recognized this, and have been working hard to find new ways to keep their communities alive and healthy.   Are we headed towards becoming the American Outback?  Only time will tell...

Profile: Ruth Younggren

Ruth Younggren, a first grade teacher of poor children in Minnesota, yearly spent the first two weeks teaching the sounds of English and their corresponding letters. Then through the year, she taught 50 spelling words each morning to her first graders. These first graders were not only good spellers, they were excellent readers and creative writers...

- From How it Began

Ruth Younggren - or Miss Younggren as I knew her - has always been a person in my childhood memories that revives uncomfortable feelings in me.  She was a teacher who made strong demands on very young children.  Many children thrived on her challenges and literally blossomed.

However, even at the time, I instinctively knew she was being very unfair to certain classmates of mine.  If you were intelligent and were willing to work hard, she loved you.  If you had trouble understanding and didn't know how to ask for help...if you were shy and couldn't ask for help...then you might find yourself humiliated.

Miss Younggren used, among other things,
the Dunce Cap, as 'motivation' ...

I personally witnessed a fellow classmate be repeatedly denied permission to go to the lavatory.  He ended up urinating his pants while sitting at his desk, desperately trying not to.  Another time, a classmate tore her dress on the playground; instead of finding a less embarrassing solution, Miss Younggren made her remove her dress so she could mend it while the girl sat at her desk in her underwear, arms crossed and head down.

Some reading this may ask, why bring this up years later?  My answer:  While talking about this now can't help the children affected back then, it is important to acknowledge what happened, to shed light on dark events.  I have often felt bad for those who had to go through that, while I did not.  There were a couple of times I had to endure a lecture from Old Man Carelessness and stand in the corner, and once I even sat on a stool in the hallway for all to see, wearing the dreaded dunce cap.  It didn't permanent scar me, and I actually was one of the top students in the class.  But for the others who were literally humiliated, I felt bad.

It was a time where old practices still tenuously held on, but were soon to change.  I experienced a bit of the old, as many reading this might have, too.

Humboldt Stories: Cheer(ios) the Crow

The other day, I mentioned crows, which brought up some interesting responses.  My cousin told me how our Grandpa and Grandma Fitzpatrick had a pet crow of sorts that lived on the farm.  Someone had split its tongue so it could talk.  It wasn't kept captive, but hung around the farm, picking up human speech, and evidently would spout off some phrases once and awhile.  That sparked a memory from Mike Rustad...

We love crows in Vermont too. They are intelligent, loyal, and wonderful birds. I love them and feed them! Ever since the Diamond's crow Cheer (named because he like Cheerios) graced our life, I've loved crows. He  was an amazing pet crow that would sometimes take crackers from my baby sister's hand. Very gently. But Harvey Diamond had a lot of neighbor complaints and decided to drive Cheer out into the country. He shed a tear, but never fear - When he returned to his home in Humboldt, Cheer was waiting for him. Cheer lived a long life, but died in a tragic accident. He would perch on the Diamond's children's playhouse. One day a burst of wind caused the window to fall on Cheer and he was killed instantly. I remember crying because I lost a my dear bird friend.

St. Vincent Promoter: Col. Fisk

Who was Col. Fisk?

Try as I might, I have not been able to find out anything definitive about the mysterious 'Colonel Fisk' mentioned in old newspapers and even in histories of St. Vincent. He appears to have been an early resident during the boom times, perhaps a land speculator. Having recently been watching Deadwood again, I imagine him as St. Vincent's version of Al Swearengen, sans the murderous tendencies. However, there is some speculation that he may have been Colonel James L. Fisk.

That said, the Fisk Family Papers state:

Col. Fisk, aka James L. Fisk       

ca. 1835, the eldest of the Fisk brothers,  James Liberty Fisk, is noted primarily for organizing and leading emigrant expeditions from Minnesota to Montana, 1862-1866, using the "Northern Route." ...  James was editor of the Helena Herald for a period in 1867 and was also active in the Montana militia. Withdrawing from the newspaper, he later promoted various projects in Montana, Dakota, Minnesota, and Washington. He died at the Minnesota Soldiers Home in Minneapolis in 1902.

Honoring the Past in Art

Hallock, 2010 - Beau Bakken creates mural on side of
his parents' business based on an old photograph...

Hallock, 1910 - Note the building on right, midway down
with same balcony on it as recreated in the 2010 mural...

Hallock, 1911 - A year later, this photograph is a nice, clear shot
of the same street; on left, far down is building with balcony...