Dinky Trains

Courtesy Robert Cameron, this example of a Dinky train used to travel the rails in our area back in the 1950s...

Old Article About Even Older St. Vincent

NOTE: Since writing this, I have been told this article is from the 50th Anniversary Edition of the Kittson County Enterprise, published in the 1930's (of which my mother had a copy, location now unknown but I looked through it many a bored summer day as a child, amazed at my county's history...) - August 1, 2010

Some time ago, I took down notes from an article written about St. Vincent in an old document. I normally take great pains to document source material, but for whatever reason, I cannot find the source documentation for the article, a fascinating excerpt of which is below. I do remember in general that it was written nearly 100 years ago. Although there have been efforts to document stories, there has never been the "ambitious effort" the writer assumed would happen in the near future. As you know I am trying to do that, although I have a feeling that many stories are lost to time, which is a big shame...

As St. Vincent is the oldest city in Kittson County from the standpoint of settlement, we find that the frontier lore and traditions of the Lower Red River Valley on this side of the boundary and west (sic) of the Red River are centered about this old town. Most of the "firsts" in St. Vincent are dealt with in the history of the county in this issue. Here we shall deal principally with the village proper. First however, we direct attention to the fact that there was a trading post at St. Vincent as early as 1780 and that the XY Fur Company erected a post there in 1800 and that prior to that time Peter Grant had maintained headquarters there as a fur trader. Of course, the Selkirk settlers who founded a colony at Pembina in 1812 spread over into Minnesota and later the Swiss and other settlers connected with this colonization enterprise settled to some extent in the St. Vincent community.


But while these settlements opened the way for later development, the harsh conditions of the frontier accentuated by the rivalry of the fur companies, which sometimes resulted in bloodshed, discouraged settlement on a large scale. Then, too, the remoteness of the region, lack of adequate transportation facilities, and improper protection against the severity of the winter operated to check settlement. St. Vincent seems to have been but little affected by the visits of explorers and government expeditions, such as those by [Major] Long and [Major] Woods.


Steamboat traffic, however, had an important bearing, not only on the village beginnings but on settlement in the community. From the early 1870s well into the 1880s, steamboat traffic pumped life blood into the Northern Valley. Then late in 1878 came the St. Paul, Minneapolis, & Manitoba Railway, now the Great Northern. St. Vincent's career as a village began soon after. The St. Vincent township board (the township is the oldest in Kittson County) held its first meetings May 15, 1880. The first officers were: R.W. Lowery, Chairman; G.A. Hurd, F.M. McLaughlin, L.A. Nobles, and F.M. Head. The village was organized April 16, 1881. The first Mayor was James L. Fisk, and J.W. Morrison was the Recorder. John A. Vanstrom was the first Assessor. It will be seen that he also served as Register of Deeds and later was elected Sheriff. The first St. Vincent school board was organized January 7, 1880 with John B. Tree as Chairman, George Ash as Treasurer, and John B. Hutchin as Clerk...


...St. Vincent today is a village rich in tradition and historic incidents. While little attempt has been made to probe for details of the rugged history of the community, it is probable that within the next ten years interest in local history will result in an ambitious effort to assemble and preserve major facts of the record of the region from distant exploration to the present...

Dakota War of 1862: Pembina's Role

You'll notice the title of this post is "Dakota War of 1862". I almost used the more well-known "Sioux Uprising", but decided to go with the less inflamatory (and in my opinion, more accurate) title above. It's not that "Sioux Uprising" is inaccurate, and there was certainly an uprising - and horrific killings that arose from it - but there were equally horrific reasons for it coming to the point that the native tribes felt they had to act - or rather in this case, REact.

The prevailing attitude of the US government and the majority of the settlers in 1862 is represented by a famous quote from one of the government traders who operated in our territory. "If they are hungry," said Andrew Myrick, "let them eat grass or their own dung." They weren't hungry, they were starving due to government corruption, and most felt that of the two options available to them, fighting was better than starving to death.

From Honest Abe? by Fern Eastman Mathias

Hostilities in northwestern Minnesota

Further north, the Sioux attacked several unfortified stage stops and river crossings along the the settled trade route between Fort Garry (now Winnipeg) and St. Paul in the Red River Valley in northwestern Minnesota and eastern Dakota Territory. Many settlers and employees of the Hudson Bay Company and other local enterprises in this sparsely populated country took refuge in a prairie "fort" known as Fort Abercrombie, located in a bend of the Red River about 25 miles south of present day Fargo, North Dakota. Over a period of six weeks, the Indians launched several attacks on Fort Abercrombie which were repelled by the white defenders and which came to be known as the "Siege at Fort Abercrombie". Steamship and flatboat trade on the Red River came to a halt, and mail carriers, stage drivers and military couriers attempting to reach the Pembina and Fort Garry settlements and St. Cloud and Fort Snelling were killed by the Indians. Eventually the garrison at Fort Abercrombie was relieved by a United States Army company from Fort Snelling and the civilian refugees were removed to St. Cloud.

The Chippewa or Ojibwa Indian bands from Pembina and Red Lake were awaiting a treaty goods shipment for a contemplated land cession of 1862 along a ford of the Red River near the junction with the Red Lake River near present day Grand Forks. The shipment never arrived, and the treaty negotiations were postponed until 1863, when the Treaty of Old Crossing (1863) was consummated near Huot, Minnesota, a ford of the Red Lake River utilized by oxen-drawn Red River carts. The Ojibwe at times were accused of complicity or direct involvement in the attacks, but no evidence exists that any of the atrocities associated with the conflict between Indians, whites, and half-breed settlers of 1862 were perpetrated by anyone other than the various bands of the Sioux Indians.

From Sioux Uprising

After seeking sanctuary in Canada with other Dakotas, he was confined as a Prisoner of War at Fort Pembina in early 1864, and from there imprisoned in Iowa. It was during his incarceration that he converted to Christianity and became known as Jacob Eastman, adopting his late wife Mary's surname. Two other leaders who had been captured and held at Fort Pembina around the same time, Chiefs Shakopee and Medicine Bottle, didn't survive the kangaroo court and were hung. It is said that as he stood on the gallows Shakopee heard one of the first trains arriving in our country and said, "As the white man comes in, the Indian goes out."

From Honest Abe? by Fern Eastman Mathias

In April 1863, Little Crow and a group of 60 men traveled to St. Joseph, Canada, [sic] some 30 miles west of Pembina where he attempted to follow up on overtures other Dakota had made to the British in Canada. He also requested Canadian assistance in freeing the Dakota still held prisoner in Minnesota. Little Crow's men also wore British medals given the Mdewakanton for the assistance they gave to British forces during the War of 1812. A British official present wrote that the Dakota spoke of, "great friendship to the people [of the colony], but they vowed vengeance on the Americans." Little Crow then moved on to Pembina were he tried to enlist the Pembina Ojibway in his war. Red Bear, the Ojibway leader was not interested and met Little Crow while draped in an American flag.

From Punishment of the Dakota

The horror of the Sioux uprising so infuriated the whites that with one sweep the standing debts to this tribe were abrogated, those under arrest were driven onto barges, and after great hardship were unloaded far beyond the existing boundaries of the white man's land. Not content with banishment, Minnesota officials, with the aid of the War Department, carried out punitive expeditions against the escaped bands far out in the Dakotas. Sibley's expedition of 1863 to the region of Devils Lake, and the winter skirmish of Hatch's Battalion at Pembina the following winter, were highly publicized drives that did little to correct the depredations within the State itself. But not until still more troops had been sent to join Sully's expedition in 1864-65 did Minnesota lose interest in wholesale acts of vengeance and turn to the less spectacular business of bartering with the Chippewa.

From First Americans

Selkirk Historial Park

In the background is the World War I memorial, on a raised step.  The inscription on this memorial states "Erected by the people of Pembina Township to the memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice for Our Country in the great World War" on one side. The other side has the names of two soldiers and the date of 1918. While it was erected in 1918, the dedication was not held until May 30, 1920 with Governor Lynn J. Frazier delivering the address. The memorial was moved from its original location in Selkirk Park to the Pembina State Museum in 1998 due to a flood control project. [Photo:  Robert Cameron Collection]

The [Pembina] Park has had many names - Selkirk Park, Selkirk Historical Park, Memorial Park, and Pembina State Park...

Emerson from the Air: 1950 Flood

Fargo Marathon: St. Vincent Native Runs

I am a bit tardy in posting this since the Fargo Marathon was almost a month ago, but I thought it was fascinating to read that a native of St. Vincent was a runner, and he placed very well!

Summary number of finishers: 1112
number of females: 383
number of males: 729
average time: 04:15:57

Rick Clow
bib number: 201
age: 50
gender: M
location: Fargo, ND
overall place: 191 out of 1112
division place: 10 out of 81
gender place: 163 out of 736
time: 3:35:43
pace: 8:14
10k: 45:50
13.1: 1:40:39
20 m: 2:37:35
last 10k: 58:08

From William Ash: Rick told me he has run in the NYC and Boston marathons in the past. He is planning on entering a 50 mile marathon later on.

Storymapping

Exciting times for telling stories of our lives, using technology to make it even more meaningful, and easier for all of us to connect.

Here are some examples...

That's my goal with this blog, too - connecting you with your past, making the present mean even more.

1904 Train Wreck

Posted by Jan Patrick Mongoven on Ancestry.com is the following window into a tragic accident in our region over 100 years ago, that has a local connection...

My great-grandfather, Michael Stephen (Steve) Mongoven, was a Northern Pacific conductor who was killed when his train - stalled on the tracks during a winter blizzard in the earliest hours of Sunday, 7 Feb 1904 - was demolished by the train sent to his rescue. The accident happened about three miles northeast of Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota. Steve had requested rescue and told authorities that his stalled train's location was about one mile north of Grafton...in actuality it was about three miles north. The rescue train from Pembina came down from the north at about 25 miles per hour. It approached Grafton at around 2 a.m., believing the disabled train was one mile north of the town. The rescue engine smashed into the caboose where my great-grandfather and his brother sat waiting. He was killed and his brother was burned and suffered injuries that later healed.

My great-grandfather's body was taken the next morning to his home in East Grand Forks, MN, where his wife was informed of his death. Elizabeth Mongoven was already very ill, recovering from her final pregnancy. In a cruel twist, her newborn baby had died only hours before her husband was killed. The news left her grief-stricken, but she survived and lived to raise her five young children. A coroner's jury was convened on the Monday after the crash outside Grafton. They pinned blame on Conductor Mongoven for an error in judgement...that he had incorrectly informed the rescue authorities that his train was one mile north of Grafton instead of the actual three. Later that year, his wife (with the aid of a family friend who was a Catholic priest) received a $7000.00 payment from Northern Pacific in Minneapolis, and the case never went to court. According to newspaper accounts from the time, there were many who believed my ancestor could not have been to blame, that he was a meticulous individual who knew what he was doing and was not prone to misjudgement. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Profile: Elmer Barry & His Legacy

Elmer Barry, his wife Matilda (Moris) Barry, and their daughters Frances and Margaret, circa 1926

If it wasn't for Elmer Elsworth Barry, Pembina would never have had its first state museum in South Pembina...and an amazing museum it was!

Born in 1886, Elmer worked as a blacksmith, mechanic, steam engineer, garage owner and car dealer over the years, in Pembina.   

But more important to me, he had a passion for local history!  He began to collect artifacts, manuscripts, ephemera, etc. of all kinds, that were local history-related.  He stored them in his place of business - a former smithy-turned-garage, in downtown Pembina.  Eventually, a museum was created to more properly, permanently, and publicly display them as they deserved to be, opened in 1962.

While Mayor Christopher is credited with leading the effort to establish a much needed and deserved museum in South Pembina, it was Elmer Barry that seeded it from his own personal collection.

From June Webster's Elmer Barry: Father of Museum Collection:

In 1962, Elmer retired and placed his museum display in a store building that he owned. A museum was dedicated at Pembina on July 4th, 1962, by the State Historical Society when Pembina observed the 150th Anniversary of the coming of the Selkirks, the first white settlers in Dakota Territory. This museum was to include Elmer's display, but the historical development of the area was to be portrayed and there wasn't enough room left to show all of Elmer's display. So, a second building was built in 1962 by the State Historical Society to display all of Elmer's collection. Both the museum buildings are located in the Pembina State Park, the site of both the Chaboillez trading post established in 1797, and Fort Daer, built by the Seikirks in 1812. Elmer received the Pioneer Historian Award at the Red River Valley Historical Society spring banquet in 1968 for his collection which is valued at $30,000.

From Mike Rustad's Lost Pembina History:

The Pembina Museum, in its day, was the best museum in the upper Red River Valley. The Pembina Museum had far more treasures than today's Grand Forks Museum which seeks to reenact history. Unlike the Grand Forks Museum, the old Pembina Museum had an intangible charm. Pembina was a hub of activity before Grand Forks was incorporated. 

I associate the Pembina museum with trips with my Dad, Rustee Rustad. It was my Dad who created the spark of interest in history through our visits to the Pembina Museum. We would visit the Pembina Museum together frequently while on water hauling trips. We often went to Pembina because my Dad filled up his truck with water at the Pembina water plant.

We would take a break on a slow day water hauling and visit the Pembina Museum. We would also stop at Elmer Barry's garage very often to see his collection. The Museum was not particularly well organized, but it was always orderly and interesting. It was truly a boy's paradise with swords, buffalo horns, arrow points, canteens, rifles, saddlebags, and many artifacts from the military outpost at Fort Pembina. The old museum was a treasure trove of history. When the old museum was finally closed because of the floods and the intervention of the State of North Dakota, many treasures were removed to Bismarck and warehoused.

Today, there is an antiseptic museum along with tower. The displays are pale imitations of the Smithsonian or Field Museum's interpretive museums--quite professional but antiseptic. The new Museum has lost its sense of being connected to organic living history. Elmer Barry's great collection of historic items was housed next to his garage. I spent many happy days with Dad sharing stories about Indian culture and Fort Pembina. Elmer had at least one good story about every artifact. The old museum had a Red River Valley Cart [Note: The new one has one, too...] and cannon. There was an unbelievable display of Indian artifacts and leather leggings etc. Later, Elmer's collection was moved to the old museum. The old Museum had interpretative displays reenacting life on Red River Valley in the age of the Indian. I coveted the fur-covered hunting knife! There were also a lot of displays on the Canadian/U.S. fur trade. The age of the buffalo was also depicted. There were old pictures of Fort Pembina and artifacts from each war.

My Dad was a great collector, in the tradition of Mr. Barry. Still, he was not even close to being as comprehensive of a collector when compared to Elmer Barry's prodigious efforts. Barry had bathtubs from the 1890s, oil lamps, old pianos, buffalo robes, cash registers, piano rolls, and every imaginable object from everyday life: dishes, cutlery, etc. Barry was a true genius and today's social historians would see him as a collector with a vision.

The old museum was up close and personal. You could look down the barrel of a gun once shot by a soldier at Fort Pembina. Elmer Barry was not a trained historian nor did he seek to profit from his collections. He collected artifacts for the pure pleasure of sharing a historical tradition. You could touch the beaded leather pouches made by Indians. Today, the living history section of the Pembina Museum may be historically correct but it is packaged, boxed and not very charming. The museum of today is worth visiting but there is much lost history because it is does not contain Barry's collection. I think that Upper Red River Valley residents should petition the state to return Pembina's lost artifacts so future generations can touch a buffalo horn or an Indian ax.

Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the above individual essays belong solely to the author of said essays and not to the St. Vincent Memories blog.

Jerome Family

Andre JEROME was born on 14 Dec 1829 in St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada. He was baptized on 15 Dec 1829 in St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada. He appeared in the census in Sep 1850 in Pembina, Minnesota Territory, USA. He appeared in the census on 6 Jul 1860 in Pembina, Dakota Territory, (Unorganized). He participated in O'Donoghue's "Fenian Raid" in Oct 1871 in Manitoba, north of Pembina, at Hudson's Bay post. He was arrested in Nov 1871. He was imprisoned in Stone Fort (Lower Fort Garry). He was acquitted of "feloniously and unlawfully levying war against Her Majesty", Spring 1872 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He immigrated Spring 1872 to Kittson County, Minnesota, USA. He was recognized as the first settler in Kittson County, Minnesota, USA. He appeared in the census in Jun 1880 in Township 162, Kittson County, Minnesota, USA. He appeared in the census in Jun 1900 in Township 162, Kittson County, Minnesota, USA. He appeared in the census in Apr 1910 in Hill Township, Kittson County, Minnesota, USA. He died on 12 Jan 1916 in Hallock Township, Kittson County, Minnesota, USA. Andre JEROME and Marguerite GOSSELIN were married before 1853.

Another fascinating excerpt, showing the long history and proud roots of the Jerome family: Francoise JEROME Jr. was born in 1706. He was the earliest voyageur from Quebec in the North West during the French regime. In North West, between 1727 and 1757 he was a voyageur and trader. He was appointed to the French post in 1730 at Detroit, south of Lake Huron. He made a contract with the Sieur de la Verenderie [sic] to go to the Sea of the West in 1743. He made the transition to the new fur trade in the British regime as a trader after 1763.

The information above is from Prairie Forum (Spring 2004) - Indigenous Knowledge, Literacy and Research on Métissage and Métis Origins on the Saskatchewan River: The Case of the Jerome Family by Ruth Swan and Edward A. Jerome