CHARLES W. BEYER, whose place of business is in Bottineau, Bottineau county, North Dakota, is the pioneer machinist and blacksmith of the city and one of the first in the county.
Mr. Beyer was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1862. His father, Ferdinand Beyer, was a native of Switzerland and came to America in his youth. The mother was a native of Canada and of Highland Scotch descent. Charles W. Beyer was the eldest in a family of ten children and was reared in the village of Carleton
Place, Ontario, where he received a common and high-school education in the village schools. At the age of thirteen years he began work at the machinist's trade. His father was a machinist and operated a large shop, employing a 45 work force of about two hundred men. He did engine building and repairing and all kinds of machine work.
Our subject worked in his father's shop and in other machine shops until he reached the age of twenty-one years. He then came to Bottineau county, North Dakota, in 1883, and took up land one and a half miles from Bottineau. He made the trip in covered wagons and with ox teams. At that time the nearest trading point was Bartlett. In 1884 he opened a blacksmith shop on his farm and did general repair work in connection with his farming. He remained on the farm for several years and owned at one time three hundred and twenty acres, and has owned different farms at different times. However, his blacksmith business kept increasing until at the present time he has a shop 25x100 feet, equipped with four forges, two engines, two trip hammers, lathes, polishers, drills, etc., and employs a force of seven machinists. He has the best equipped shop in this section of the state and does all kinds of machinist work and repairing.
Mr. Beyer was married, in 1884, to Miss Jane Stewart. Mrs. Beyer is a native of Canada and is of Scotch descent. To this union six children have been born. The family is highly respected in the community and the parents are striving to give them the benefits of thorough education. Mr. Beyer is a Republican in political faith and has been active in public affairs. He is president of the town board and has been at all times a leading man in his party in the county.
ALEXANDER G. BURR, one of the leading attorneys of Bottineau county, and well known throughout the state for his ability and success at the bar and in business, is a resident of the town of Bottineau, where he enjoys a large and lucrative practice.
Mr. Burr was born in Perthshire, Scotand, in February, 1871. His father, Alexander Burr, was a Presbyterian minister, and was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1830. He came to America in 1873 and to North Dakota in 1883, and his death occurred in 1897 in Bottineau. The mother of our subject, whose maiden name was Mary McLachlan, was also born in Scotland, and belonged to the Clan Cameron, famous in Scottish annals.
Mr. Burr is the second child in a family of five children, accompanied his parents to Canada from Scotland, and was reared in the' former country until he was twelve years of age, with the exception of one years spent in Trinidad Island. In 1885 the family came to Bottineau county, North Dakota, where our subject grew to manhood. He attended the common schools in Canada. He taught school five terms in Bottineau county, and then took a course in the University of Michigan, graduating from the law department of that institution in 1894. He then returned to Bottineau county and opened a law office. He was elected state's attorney in the fall of 1894, and resigning that position in June, 1896, entered into partnership with W. J. Anderson in the law business in Grand Forks. He was in Grand Forks three years and did an exclusive law business during that time, in 1899 he returned to Bottineau county, since which time he has practiced in Bottineau. He is also doing a large real estate business throughout the county.
Mr. Burr was married, in June, 1900, to Miss J. Roberta Carothers. Mrs. Burr was born in the state of Pennsylvania. Her father was a Presbyterian minister and superintendent of the Iowa State College for the Blind. She is of Scotch-Irish descent, her family having been in America several generations. Mrs. Burr taught school in North Dakota before her marriage. Mr. Burr has taken an active interest in public affairs since his settlement in the county. He was president of the first teachers' association in the county, organized in 1889. He is also secretary of the Old Settlers' Association, himself being one of the earliest pioneers of the county.
GEORGE H. CAPES, a prominent citizen of Lincoln, Bottineau county, belongs to that great army that the British Isle's have nurtured and educated, only to pour out upon the plains of America, to help in the conquest of the wilderness and the building of a great nation. He was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1861, and was brought to Canada by his parents when a child of two years. Thomas Capes, his father, was a farmer, and was married to Miss Mary Scrimpshaw, the daughter of a very prominent veterinary surgeon. Several members of the family, brothers of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Capes, are eminent in professional circles in Cleveland, Ohio.
George Capes is the third in a family of nine children born to his parents, and was reared upon a farm. There was much work and little play attending the boyhood of a farmer lad in western Ontario at that time, and young George was ready to manfully meet his duties. He had but a limited country school education, and at the age of twenty left home to make a way for himself. He bought a farm of a hundred acres, and for two or three years lived by himself and carried on farming operations on a considerable scale. In 1885 he sold out .and came to North Dakota to make a home for himself in a new country. In 1886 he settled in Grand Forks county where he found employment on J. M. Hubbard's farm and worked there for some two years to learn the manner of farming in Dakota, which seemed to him different from the East. Meanwhile he had located a farm in Bottineau county, and in the summer of 1886 made his claims. He hired a few improvements put up, such as a claim shanty 12x12 feet.
In January, 1888, he was united in marriage with Miss Christina McHaney. She is of Irish parentage, and was born in Saginaw, Michigan, where her father, William McHaney, was a ship designer. She is the mother of four children: Lloyd W., Helen G., Cecil G. and Stella M., all natives of Dakota. In the spring of 1888 he settled with his wife on the farm, and began its cultivation in earnest. Oxen furnished his first motive power, and all his resources were fifty dollars of borrowed money. In 1888 he had .six acres of wheat, and this was destroyed by late frosts. He worked out at anything he could find to do, and this was as hard a year as he ever knew. For the next two years he had very fair crops, and in 1891 had a yield of twenty-three bushels to the acre, and put eighteen hundred bushels of wheat into his granary.
Mr. Capes has passed through every variety of experience that belongs to pioneering in the northwest, and is full of interesting narrations. In 1893 he bought his first span of horses. He now owns a farm of three quarter-sections, with about three hundred and thirty acres under improvement. It is well provided with buildings, a barn 40x60, a granary 24x36, a comfortable house and all needed machinery. He has eight head of cattle and eleven horses-and everything has come to him by hard work and economy. He is an independent voter, takes a lively interest in local affairs and school matters, and has held numerous town offices. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America, and is highly respected in every relation of life.
F. W. CATHRO, cashier of the Merchants Bank of Bottineau, is one of the leading business men of Bottineau county, and is known throughout North Dakota.
Mr. Cathro was born in Ontario, Canada, May 7, 1863. He is of Scotch-Irish descent, though the family have been in America about two or three generations. Mr. Cathro was reared on a farm in Canada, attended the common schools, and graduated from the high school of Parkhill, and also from the London Collegiate Institute in 1882, having completed the scientific course of that institution at the head of a class of sixty-four members. He then followed farming in Canada two years, and in 1884 went to Michigan. He taught school in that state one winter, then took a trip through the south and the northwest, and finally came to North Dakota. He located first in Grand Forks, where he taught school and farmed. Returning to Michigan, he entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. In 1886 he came to Bottineau county, took government land, erected a shanty, and began farming, at first with a team of oxen. He also took up school work, and in the fall of 1886 was elected county superintendent of schools, and was re-elected in 1888, serving two terms. He was appointed deputy state superintendent of schools in 1889, and served in that capacity two terms, being located at Bismarck. In the spring of 1893 he returned to Bottineau, and the following winter the Merchants Bank of Bottineau was established, with W. H. Macintosh, president : W. R. Macintosh, vice-president, and F. W. Cathro, cashier. The other directors were H. G. Kalbfleisch, W. G. Stoughton and S. Cathro. The bank opened for business March 4, 1893, being the second bank established in the city. Mr. Cathro is also president of the Omemee State Bank, which was established in 1899, Donald McKennon being vice-president, John McKennon cashier, and W. H. Macintosh one of the directors.
Mr. Cathro is also interested in agriculture, and holds stock in the LaPorte Cattle Company, which owns fifteen hundred acres of grazing lands and fourteen hundred head of cattle. He is also a stockholder in the Bottineau Machinery Company, engaged in the machine and lumber business in Bottineau.
Mr. Cathro was married on December 25, 1888, to Miss Mary Griffith, and to this union three children have been born. Mr. Cathro is a Republican in political faith, and has taken a leading part in political affairs of his county and state. For the past six years he has been state committeeman from the twenty-eighth legislative district, comprising Bottineau and McHenry counties. He is thoroughly a business man, and uses his influence in behalf of all enterprises and measures that are for the best interests of his county and community.
BRUNO CHARBONNEAU, a familiar figure on the streets of Willow City, Bottineau county, was born near Montreal in 1856. He belongs to a family that has kept its French blood unstained, and though he is in the sixth generation in America, he is proud of his unspotted lineage. His mother was French and his father, Oliver Charbonneau, born in Canada, has spent his entire life in agriculture. The old Canadian homestead where the first Charbonneau's settled is still owned by members of the family.
The subject of this article is the third in a family of eight children born to his parents, and was reared on the farm. He had an excellent education, completed the common school, and spent three years in the higher studies. He became proficient in French and English. When he was fourteen he entered a store in Montreal as a clerk, and was engaged in this manner until he was twenty-one. At that time he opened a general store in his native village eleven miles from Montreal, and spent the next five years with a younger brother in this business, but he was not satisfied with the outlook for a young man in that small place. He traveled for some time in Canada and in the New
England states, but did not think the older East was the proper country for a young man of energy. He turned his eyes toward the northwest, and came to St.
John. North
Dakota, in 1883. The nearest railroad station at that time was Grafton. He drove overland from Winnipeg, and very shortly located himself on government land in Rolette county. He was married, in 1882, in New England, to Miss Philomene Paquette. She was born in Canada, and is of pure French blood. Her progenitors have also been in Canada for many generations. They have no children of their own, and are rearing one adopted child, Susie, born in St.
John October 13, 1887.
On his settlement in North Dakota Mr. Charbonneau immediately put up a log shanty. 13x13 feet, and began his farming operations with a yoke of oxen which had been brought in, in 1883. He contented himself with them for three years. With them he hauled all supplies from Devil's Lake, and in the course of these journeys had many trying experiences. One night he was caught by one of the worst storms known in the country. It was in 1885. He had camped on a hillside, and the rain became a torrent. He had two of his brothers with him. and they had all the experiences that go with pioneering in the Northwest. He remained on the Rolette county farm until the fall of 1890. He is the owner of a hundred and sixty acres on the boundary line in North Dakota , and has made it a very complete farm, While there he taught school for a time. He was elected a county commissioner in the fall of 1888, and served three years. In the spring of 1891 he established a lumber yard at Rolla. and was in business there two years. In 1893 he put his brother in charge of the yard. This brother has become the probate judge of that county, and is one of the leading members of the North Dakota judiciary. Mr. Charbonneau came to Willow City and opened a second yard for the handling of lumber. The lumber business has had many attractions for him and at one time he was the proprietor of four different yards. He still holds his farm, and would not imperil it under any consideration. In all his experiences he has never signed a mortgage. He is largely interested in real estate and loans in Bottineau county. He is a Democrat but has never been willing to accept a nomination to any office. He is the present chairman of the Democratic county committee and is an active worker for the party.
DAVID CLARK is one of the most progressive and prosperous farmers and ranchmen in Bottineau county, North Dakota.
Mr. Clark was born on a farm in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, September 3, 1850. His father, William Clark, was a farmer and came from Scotland to Canada in 1872. David Clark was the eldest in a family of eight children, five sons and three daughters, and grew to manhood and obtained his education in Scotland. He was reared on the farm and knew the meaning of hard work in his youth. The family settled in Ontario, Canada, and David started out for himself, taking any work that was offered. He was employed in saw-mill work for the first four years, and at the end of that period put all his earnings into land. He then engaged in stock raising and farming in Canada for thirteen years and owned two hundred acres of land there. He met with success, but in order to provide homes for his children he determined to go where he could get plenty of land, and in 1888 came to Bottineau county and found a location four and a half miles southwest of the county seat. He purchased the relinquishment of a claim and began farming at once. He is now the owner of six hundred and forty acres of cultivated land, and in the spring of 18-purchased three hundred and twenty acres of grass land in the Mouse river, which is now his ranch property. It lies in McHenry county. On his home farm he has a barn 40x56 feet with stone basement; a granary 18x50 feet; machine shed 16x36 feet, a comfortable residence, and other improvements and conveniences, making one of the most complete set of farm buildings in the county. He also has about three hundred trees and much small fruit. His farm is equipped with modern farm machinery, and he keeps eleven horses for farm work. Upon his ranch he has a comfortable residence, a barn 36x95 feet, and a shed 12x60 feet for hay, machinery and workshop, and an additional shed 14x36 feet, and still another 18x96 feet, also a windmill for pumping, grinding, etc.
Mr. Clark resided on his farm until 1896, when he removed to his ranch and resided there until the spring of 1899, since which time he has been a resident of the city of Bottineau.
Mr. Clark was married, in 1873, on July 3, to Miss Jessie Stephen. Mrs. Clark was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and came to America in 1873, and her parents and family, who lived in the same town in Scotland as Mr. Clark's family, came to America in 1882. Mr. and Mrs. Clark are the parents of nine children, named as follows: William J., managing his father's ranch: David A., living on his father's farm; Annie, now married; Mary, at the ranch; Ellen, now married; George, on the farm; Eliza, Irvine and Rhoda, at home. Mr. Clark is a Republican in political belief, and has taken an active interest in public matters, and has been a member of state and county central committees of his party altogether five years. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and is a popular and valued member of the community. He has won his way to affluence by virtue of his energy and good management, and is now one of the substantial and well-to-do citizens of the county.
JOHN H. COOK, in part the proprietor of the largest livery barn in Willow City, Bottineau county, has achieved a decided success in Dakota agriculture, and presents in his own career a good illustration of its opportunities for poor men not afraid of labor and willing to work and wait.
Mr. Cook was born on a farm in Connecticut, June 5, 1862. His father, Nicholas Cook, was German born and bred, and in the old country had followed the shoemaker's trade all his life. He married in Germany and brought his family to this country in 1861. John H. was the oldest in a family of twelve children, and grew to early manhood in West
Goshen, Connecticut. At the age of seventeen he left his home, and made a bold strike for Dakota, landing in Cass county in 1881. He was engaged by the Amenie-Scharon Land Company, and employed in farm labor for the next six years. In 1887 he left the company and came to Willow City, and was the first man in charge of the Anthony & Dakota Elevator Company's elevator in this village. He and another agent were the first two grain men in town. He bought the first load of wheat shipped from this market. This was bought on September 3. 1887, and from that day he has been continuously in the employment of the same company. Their first elevator had a capacity of sixteen hundred bushels of wheat. Their present plant can take in fifty-five thousand bushels, and is provided with a gasoline engine, and every requirement for handling an immense business expeditiously and economically. It is the largest elevator m town, and handles the most business. Without doubt its success must be attributed to the energy and careful management of the hustling agent of the company in this city.
In 1889 Mr. Cook filed a claim on a section of government land, put up a claim shanty, and lived there four years. He was married, November 30, 1888, to Miss Lizzie Taylor. She is of Scotch descent, and was born in Canada . Her father, John Taylor, is an old settler. He was born in Canada , and has made his way successfully in this country. Mr. and Mrs. Cook are the parents of four children : Clifford, Lillian, Margaretta and Melvin- all natives of Willow City . He was quite extensively engaged in farming during the first four years of his residence in Dakota, but in 1892 he left the farm and moved into Willow City . He now owns four hundred acres, and has one hundred under active cultivation. He still retains his livery interest. He is a Republican, and has served two terms on the town board, and at present is one of the school directors. He takes an active interest in political affairs, and is often seen at county and state conventions of his party. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being one of the charter members of the local lodge. He is also a Mason. He stands high, and an enumeration of the more prominent business of Bottineau county could not be made without mentioning him among the very first.
JOHN DINWOODIE. Mr. Dinwoodie was born in Berwick county, Scotland, in May, 1852, and has brought to the making of his Bottineau county home many of the best characteristics of his race. He is an honorable and industrious man, and by thrift and energy has won a very considerable standing in the world.
He was the second in a family of ten children, and was reared on a farm. Penury stared them in the face, but they were all willing to work and endure, and they came through nobly. Mr. Dinwoodie partially supported himself from the time he was nine years old. In so busy a childhood and youth there was little room for education. The boy had to work early and late. At the age of eighteen he left home, and in 1881 went to London, Canada. He brought little money with him, and had five dollars only when he entered Ontario. The next year he traveled west to Manitoba, and worked at Brandon, while engaged in looking over the country. It was too far north to satisfy him. He came into Dakota and made settlement on the southwest slope of the Turtle mountains in March, 1883. He was the only man in Bottineau county with one exception at that time who is now residing within the county. He put up a log shanty, 12x14 feet, and spent the rest of the summer harvesting in the Red river valley. He saved what money he could, and came by railroad to Devils Lake, and then a-foot to his home. He spent the next winter in his log cabin, making the best shift he could to get along, as he had not money enough to buy him farming tools. His brother, David Dinwoodie, was with him at this time, and in the following spring they were able to break a little land. In the fall of that year he worked for ex-Senator Roach at Larrimore, and spent the next winter at their log cabin home. In 1885 he harvested his first crop of any extent-fifteen acres of wheat, yielding thirty-three bushels to the acre, and five acres of oats, yielding in all over three hundred bushels. They sold their grain at Minnewaukon, and bought a team of mules, and the brothers began farming in earnest. They were in partnership until 1889.
Mr. Dinwoodie and Miss Elizabeth Fletcher were married in 1889. She was born in Ontario, Canada, and her father, George Fletcher, is an old settler in Dakota. Mrs. Dinwoodie is of Irish descent and has five children: Annie P., George F., Eliza P., and the twins, Ruth and Esther. They have had the common experiences of pioneer life, but have worked and waited, and the "day has dawned." Blizzards have raged, and fires have swept the prairies, and droughts and floods have dismayed and overwhelmed the country, but they have clung to their home, and now they are counted among the most prosperous citizens of the county. When they first located the nearest post office was at Devils Lake or Delorain, Canada, and many a night Mr. Dinwoodie has slept under his wagon while engaged in hauling supplies or taking grain to market. He now owns a farm of five hundred and twenty acres. One-half of this is under cultivation, and the rest is in pasture. He started in as a grain farmer, but is rapidly working into cattle raising. In the fall of 1885 he had one cow, bought with money earned in the harvest field. He now has a herd of nearly forty cattle, and proposes a considerable increase very soon. Upon his farm there are several acres of timber, and all the fruit trees that are suitable to the soil and climate. He has a comfortable farm home, good barns, sufficient machinery, and an abundance of good water from several living springs. He keeps twelve horses, and owns as fine a farm as is to be found in the county. Mr. Dinwoodie is a Democrat, and in former years took much interest in politics. He was chairman of the county central committee several years. In 1896 he ceased his active labors in behalf of the party. To a very great extent the party workers became a part of the free silver movement in 1806. This did not include Mr. Dinwoodie. The gold Democrats had no presidential ticket in North Dakota that year so he did not vote. He is a member of the American Order of Foresters, and is popular in its fraternal circles.
WILLIAM DINWOODIE, an enterprising and progressive farmer of township 162, range 75, range 75, was born on a farm in Scotland December 12, 1850, but is thoroughly Americanized in his ways and thoughts. . His father, James Dinwoodie, was a shepherd, and married Elizabeth Peterson, whose people were also shepherds.
William Dinwoodie is the oldest in a family of nine sons and one daughter, and grew up on a farm. He was inured to hard work, and walked three miles to attend the nearest school. At eighteen he left home and worked for Richard Frier, a sheep breeder in the Scottish lowlands. He was with him three years, and was managing shepherd for David Brownfield seven years.
Mr. Dinwoodie was married to Miss Mary Ketchin, November 22, 1870. She was born in the lowlands of Scotland, and her father, Archibald Ketchin, was a butcher. One of her uncles served in the British army. She is the mother of five boys: James, born in 1882; Archibald, 1885; John T. E., 1887; William R., 1890, and David P. in 1892.
As might be expected Mr. Dinwoddie is well posted in the sheep business, and has given it much thought since coming to North Dakota. He arrived in Bottineau county July 3, 1885, and his family came a week later. He took a pre-emption claim and built a log house and farmed for four years with oxen. He has tried to engage in general farming from the first, and there has hardly been a year in which he has not had from thirty to four hundred head of sheep on the farm. In 1889 he traded oxen for a span of horses, and this was the first span in Bottineau county. There were mares and from them he has raised thirteen head of horses. His experience with sheep is worthy of special mention. He has kept careful count and in 1899 each sheep netted him one dollar and one cent each. In 1900 from fourteen ewes he had eighteen lambs, and what he has done is a line for the future. He now owns a fine farm of four hundred acres, and has two hundred acres or more under cultivation. He is a Democrat, and much interested in school and church matters. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian church, of which organization Mr. Dinwoodie is an elder.
ANTON EGGE, busily engaged in digging out wealth and comfort from the soil of North Dakota, may be found steadily at work on his broad acres in township 160 north, range 75 west, Bottineau county.
He was born on a farm in Norway, November 23, 1851, but has been so long a resident of this country that he is thoroughly imbued with its friendly and progressive spirit. He left Norway in 1880. and coming directly to this country, landed in the city of New York, and without delay made his way to Minnesota. In that state he had friends and acquaintances, and in Red river valley he engaged in farm work for a number of years. In the spring of 1886 he entered Bottineau county. North Dakota, and filed two claims, putting up a shanty of sod and boards for his temporary dwelling place. For many years he lived a solitary and lonely life, doing his own housework, and pushing the improvements of his farm. His first crop was in 1887. and ran fifteen bushels of wheat to the acre. He had that year but a small acreage. The good crops were almost totally destroyed by frost the next year, and in 1889 and 1890 were poor. It was not until 1891 that he had his first really good harvest. Since that time he has been fairly successful.
Mr. Egge and Miss Paulina Sandberg were married in the spring of 1897. She was born in Norway, and with her mother and sister came in the spring of 1893 to this country. She is the mother of one boy, Arne.
Mr. Egge is the owner of a handsome farm of three hundred and sixty acres of choice land, eighty acres in pasture and the rest under cultivation. There is a fine grove of forest trees on the place, and some fruit trees. It has good farm buildings, a farm house, a barn, 32 X 50 feet, and other buildings. He has horses and sufficient machinery to do the work. He is among the early settlers of the county. He has made a home for himself and his family, and, as he thinks of the raw prairie on which he located not very long ago, he may well congratulate himself upon his industry and thrift, by which the change in his circumstances has become possible.
PETER R. FERGUSON was born on a farm in Ontario, Canada, in 1839, and has been a resident of Bottineau county for some fifteen years. Coming into North Dakota late in life, he feels that he has made his final move until he is called "home." Peter Ferguson, the father of our subject, was a farmer and blacksmith. He was a native of Scotland, and came to Canada when he was only twenty-two years old, bringing with him a wife and two children. Her name was Ellen Robinson, and she was also Scottish born and bred. Peter R. is their fifth child, ten of their children reaching maturity.
Mr. Ferguson left home when he attained his majority, and became a farmer for himself. He owned a small place, and continued in Canada for the next ten years. During that time he worked out to a considerable degree among neighboring farmers. He was married, in 1865, to Miss Maria Ward, a daughter of the Reverend James Ward, a tiller of the soil, and a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church, both in England and Canada. Mrs. Ferguson was born in Ontario, and had the usual experiences of what was then very close to frontier life. She has presented her husband with ten children: Hellen, Theresa, John S., Rhoda B.. Emma, Peter B., Felicia, James, Edgar, Clarence and Coral.
The family left Canada, after selling out the farm and other farm holdings, and entered Manitoba in 1872. For the next five years Mr. Ferguson was engaged in farming in that far away country. He was not satisfied, however, though he had a good farm west of Winnipeg. Three years of grasshoppers was too much for his equanimity, and he retired from the farm, and entered a mercantile business, and combined certain important real estate investments with it. He had a store, 25x75, and did a large business for some ten years, when he disposed of his Manitoba interests and sought a home in this state. He drove overland from Gladstone, and settled in Bottineau county. He located upon government land, and procured his supplies at Devils Lake. In common with others in that early day he used oxen for several years after coming into the territory ; they were so much better adapted to local conditions, and it is only at quite a recent period that they had retired in favor of horses. He put up a shanty, 18x24 feet, and in 1886 harvested his first crop, his wheat running fifteen bushels to the acre. He had an ample supply of oats, potatoes, and started out much better than the most of those who, like him, were trying to win homes from the prairie. He fought prairie fires, faced the blizzards, and feeling that he had reached what would be his final home, held on, and is now enjoying the fruits of adventurous years. He owns an entire section of land, and in 1900 had four hundred and fifty acres under cultivation. It is a well-equipped farm with ample buildings and sufficient machinery.
Mr. Ferguson was elected county treasurer in 1886, and was twice re-elected, completing a continuous service of six years. In 1897 he left the farm, which continued to be his residence during his occupancy of office, and moved to Bottineau. He put up a house in the village, 18x26 feet, with kitchen and other extensions, and one and a half stories high. He also erected a barn, 26x48 feet, with twelve-foot posts, and is now cozily fixed in one of the most pleasant homes in the county. He is a Populist, and takes much interest in party affairs. He attends numerous conventions and is a man of more than ordinary influence. He belongs to the Masons, and is deservedly popular in the mystic order.
EVAN B. GOSS, who has done so much for the promotion of the best interests of Bottineau county, and especially of the thrifty young city of Bottineau, of which he is a well-known resident, was born in Kent county, Michigan. His father, Benson Goss, was a farmer, and reared his boy to a life on the farm. He was of Irish extraction, though born in the state of New York. The family crossed the ocean four generations ago and settled in the Empire state, and there they remained until Benson Goss sought a home in Michigan. The mother of Benson Goss bore the maiden name of Sophia Blackstone, and she married into a family represented in New York and Vermont. The maternal ancestors came from Germany and Scotland, and the grandmother bore the strongly Scotch name of Matilda McMillan. She married John Nutter, a farmer and carpenter, and was a woman of character and strength for that far away time.
Evan B. Goss is the oldest in a family of four children reared on the farm and was inured to hard work. He was a close student, and his father afforded him opportunity for a good education. He attended the local school and the Rockford (Michigan) high school, from which he was graduated when sixteen years of age. He was a student in the literary department of the University of Michigan, and was graduated from the law department of that university in 1894, receiving the usual degree of LL. B. Further studies the next year brought him the degree of master of laws. In 1894 and 1895 he practiced law in Grand Rapids, Michigan, having an office with Walter Hughs, an attorney of some prominence in that part of the state. He came to North Dakota in the closing days of 1895 and established a law office in Bottineau, beginning business the first of the new year. Bottineau was not nearly as large as it is today, and many discouragements waited on the young attorney. He held on, and is now enjoying the reward of persistence.
He was married, in 1898, to Miss Lou Wright. She was born in Canada, though her parents were old settlers in the Red river valley. Her father, Isaac Wright, was widely known on the old frontier and had many friends among the pioneers. She was an experienced .school teacher, and had taught in many different localities. Mr. Goss is a Republican, and was elected as state's attorney in the fall of 1896. He had already been appointed to that position, and in the discharge of its duties has won many friends. He has commended himself to the public by his manifest ability and honorable spirit, and has already won a very large patronage. Like most professional and commercial men he is largely interested in farming, and owns a half-section of land, two hundred and sixty acres being under cultivation and the balance pasture and meadow. He has put up farm buildings such as the place requires, and is proud of his farm. He owns considerable real estate in and around Bottineau, where he has a cozy and inviting home. A. G. Durr, an old settler in Bottineau, and the subject of this article were classmates, roommates and chums at Ann Arbor while making their way through the university. Mr. Goss owns one of the largest and most important law libraries in the state. It cost over twenty-five hundred dollars and is insured for fifteen hundred dollars.
DR. J. A. GREIG, a physician of high repute and a most successful practitioner, resides in the city of Bottineau and has been identified with the interests of the county from its earliest history.
Dr. Greig was born on a farm near Strathroy, Ontario, Canada, in 1851. His father, John Greig, was a farmer and was born at Kingston, Ontario. The Greig family have been in America for three generations and are of Scotch-Irish descent. Dr. Greig's mother bore the maiden name of Catherine McBain.
Dr. Greig was the eldest of a family of seven children. He was reared on the farm and attended the country and village schools. At the age of fifteen years he began teaching and followed that vocation about fifteen years. A portion of this time he spent in college work, being exceptionally strong in class work. While teaching he thus attended the Sydenham high school and Toronto Normal, and received a first-class provincial certificate, upon which he taught for six years, his teaching ranging from the common to the high school.
In 1887 our subject graduated from the Manitoba Medical College and came to Bottineau and established a practice. He had previously visited the county in 1883 and located land and placed his parents on a farm. He has been successful in his practice and until he began recently to withdraw from general practice, and devote more attention to specialist work; he had by far the largest practice of any physician in the county. He was the pioneer doctor in the county and is well known and esteemed by all.
In addition to his valuable practice as physician, he has conducted agriculture and is the owner of four hundred and eighty acres of excellent land, two hundred and sixty of which is under cultivation annually. One hundred and sixty acres lie in the Turtle mountain district and is valuable for timber and hay. He has good buildings and modern conveniences for the conduct of farming and has been remarkably successful in that line.
Dr. Greig has taken an active part in political and public affairs. He is a Democrat in political views and was elected superintendent of schools of Bottineau county, re-elected in 1892 and again in 1894, serving three terms in that office. He is deeply interested in educational matters and has done much to advance educational work in the county. He has been a member of the county board of health for several years. He has been state and county committeeman for his party for several years and has wielded great influence in politics in the county.
Dr. Greig was married, in 1895, to Miss Mary McBride. Mrs. Greig was born in Ontario, Canada, of Scotch-Irish parentage. She engaged in teaching school in Canada prior to her marriage. To Dr. and Mrs. Greig two children were born, John W. and William McBride. the latter of whom died June 13, 1900. The mother and wife died January, 1898. Dr. Greig is a member of the Baptist church and was active in the organization of the church of Bottineau. He takes an active part in the social affairs of the city and is deservedly popular. His portrait, in these pages, shows an intelligent and kindly face.
J. J. EUGENE GUERTIN is a well-known and public-spirited citizen of Omemee, Bottineau county, and has had a varied and eventful experience. He has passed through adversity and is now-reaping the rich reward ot thrift and industry.
Mr. Guertin was born on a farm near Montreal, Canada, February 1, 1850, where his father, Julien Guertin, was the proprietor of a considerable agricultural establishment. The family is of French extraction and its forefathers came to Canada before 1763. The paternal grandfather of our subject fought in the British army during the war of 1812, and his maternal uncles and grandfather were engaged in the Canadian rebellion of 1837-38. His mother was Sophie L. Lanctot and she was also of Canadian birth and French descent. Her people have been in Canada many generations and have been always prominent in local politics. They are members of the Liberal party.
Mr. Guertin is the third child in a family of eleven children and part of the domestic burdens necessarily fell on his shoulders. He was a student in the common schools, but finished his school days before he was fifteen. When he was eighteen the family removed to the state of Connecticut and young Eugene thought it was time for him to shift for himself. When he was twenty-two he was married to Miss Virginia Lizotte, a native of the province of Quebec and of French descent. Her family has long been residents in Canada. They are the parents of nine living children: J. Albert, Earnest H., Anna M., Ernestine, Joseph, George, Delia, Clodia and Oscar. After his marriage Mr. Guertin clerked and kept books first in a Connecticut store and then in Rhode Island. In 1878 he emigrated to Manitoba, where he fancied he might do well. The actual results transcended his dreams. He settled on wild land, improved it, held it four years and then sold out for six thousand dollars. He began with next to nothing and in these few years had created this very large estate. With it he went back to Canada and engaged in farming and real estate in Quebec. For three years he remained there, but the wild west had laid hold of him and he could not escape. In 1885 he came to Bottineau county. North Dakota, settled on government land and in due time received titles to three farms. His first location in this county was northeast of Omemee, where he farmed for a year and a half with oxen. He put up a claim shanty, 14x18 feet, and in this spent the first year "batching," with his brother for company. He has thoroughly explored all this country, has slept out nights under the wagon and in a tent and knows every possible phase of Dakota climate.
In 1886 his first crop proved light, but his family came on that year and began housekeeping in a log shanty, 18x22 feet. The crop of 1887 was good, those of 1889 and 1890 were failures and that of 1891 was the most abundant ever garnered in the state. At the present time Mr. Guertin owns seven hundred acres in four different farms. About one-half the land is under cultivation and is under substantial improvements of every kind. In the fall of 1893 he left the country and moved into Willow City and there entered into business life as cashier of the Farmers and Merchants Bank. He held this position four years and was president of the bank one year. In 1807 he established an agricultural implement business at Willow City and Omemee, and the next year disposed of all his banking interests. In the spring of 1900 he moved his family to Omemee, where he has gathered his commercial interests and now makes his home in that thrifty village. He is a Democrat and was elected county treasurer in 1890 and was re-elected in 1892. He attends county conventions and other party gatherings and is an influential member of his party. He belongs to the Woodmen of the World and the Yeomen of America and stands high in local esteem.
WILLIAM HALLS. This gentleman, the popular and efficient sheriff of Bottineau county, now a resident of Bottineau, presents in his own interesting and remarkably successful career, a striking illustration of the fertile field a new country offers to ability and ambition. Coming here a few years ago with no friends but his own strength and character, he holds a leading position in the community today, is a man of influence far beyond his own county, and if not wealthy, is certainly possessed of ample resources. And all this has been accomplished before a man in the older sections of the country would be considered old enough to assume any serious responsibilities. Mr. Halls is a native of Ontario, Canada, where he was born in 1866. His father, John Halls, was a mechanic who came to Canada from his native England in 1827. His mother was Anna Kettlewell, and was of mixed Irish and English blood. Her father was born in Ireland and her mother in England. William was the third child in their family, and was reared on a farm. They had eight children, and the older members of the family had to do their full share of the common house and farm work. When Mr. Halls was seventeen years of age he had finished his schooling at the common school, and was ready to shift for himself. He worked two years at the trade of bricklaying, but did not think it best to remain in Canada. Accordingly in 1885 he came into North
Dakota, and settled on a farm in Bottineau county, which he had selected even before it was ready for entry. He put up a sod shanty, 10x12 feet, and as he had brought nothing with him he could only occupy it enough to keep his claim good. For the next two years he put in the most of his time working for others, and in 1887 bought his first team, which consisted of a yoke of oxen. The next summer he began farming on his account, and that year harvested his first crop. It was killed by the frost, and he did not get his seed off of one hundred acres. In 1891 he had his first good crop, his wheat going twenty bushels to the acre, and amounting to over three thousand two hundred bushels. He continued on his farm until 1893, and during that time traveled extensively through Dakota, Minnesota and Montana. He did considerable work on the railroad and on the cattle ranges, but found no better location than the one he had selected.
In July, 1894, another chapter in the history of Mr. Halls was opened, and that consisted in his appointment as sheriff of Bottineau county. He proved a capable official, and was regularly elected to that position in 1896, and again in 1898. He has always taken an active interest in politics, attends numerous county and state conventions, and is a wide-awake and pushing character. He owns a farm of four hundred and eighty acres, and has furnished it with buildings amply sufficient to all its needs. He has also provided it with good machinery, and has three hundred and fifty acres under cultivation. He was married in the spring of 1895, to Miss Maggie Miles. She was born in Canada . Her father, John Miles, is an old settler in North Dakota . He came from Ireland at an early day, and has done well in the new world. Mrs. Halls is the mother of one child, Alva J. Her husband is classed among the oldest settlers of this portion of the state. He drove overland from Devils Lake , and has hauled supplies from that distant on many occasions. He has endured every kind of privation, and well deserves the abundant success that he well deserves the abundant success that has come to him.
GUNNAR G. HAMMARS, an exceedingly successful lumber dealer ofWillow City, is one of the most popular business men in Bottineau county. He knows his business thoroughly, is alert and accommodating and always ready to do a friend a kindness.
Mr. Hammars was born on a farm near Moland, Norway, July 14, 1855, where his father lived and died. Our subject went through the common school and the local seminary and was sent to Switzerland to attend a polytechnical school. When he was twenty-seven he left home and coming directly to the United States located at Fargo. He was at first a clerk in a store and then was employed on the government survey from Red river to Minot and from the Northern Pacific Railroad north to the Canadian line. He was with the surveying party four years and his work carried him over the greater part of the state. He came to Willow City May 16, 1887, on the first passenger train and immediately opened a lumber yard for Warner Stoltz, of St.
Paul. He has continued in the employment of that firm to the present time and is regarded as one of their most capable and trusted representatives in the northwest. He improved the opportunity and acquired land in Griggs county and has also had real estate in other counties, but has disposed of it all and is devoted to his Willow City work. He has sold much of the lumber that has been used in the building of the city and the improvement of the surrounding farms.
He was married, in 1898, to Miss Eliza Cleveland. She is a native of Wisconsin, though her parents were born in Norway . She is a lady of much character and has rapidly taken a recognized position of influence in social affairs in Willow City . Mr. Hammars is a Republican and has served on the township board several years. He is among the earliest settlers of this community and has watched its growth from the beginning. He is generally regarded as one of the leading men of this part of the county and his words command the respect of all.
HENRY HOLZ, a hard-working and honorable farmer in township 159 north, range 75 west, was born on a farm in Wisconsin, September 7, 1858. His father, William Holz, was a life long farmer. He was a native of Germany, came to this country about 1850 and settled in Wisconsin. He served his adopted country faithfully as a soldier during the Civil war. His wife was Minnie Hemshrot. She was born in Germany, and came to Wisconsin before her marriage.
Henry is the oldest son of this honest and respectable couple, and had six brothers and one sister. He was brought up on his father's farm, and learned how to work and how to save by actual example and daily experience. When he was about thirteen years old his parents moved to Olmsted county, Minnesota, and continued farming for a year, then moved to Mower county, Minnesota. When our subject was twenty-three years old the family came to Walsh county. North Dakota, and located on government land. Henry selected his own claim, and put up a shanty 12x14 feet. They continued in that county some four years, and then removed to Mercer county and began farming, but poor luck attended them. In 1887 Henry Holz and three brothers came to Bottineau county. They walked from their Mercer county home to Minot, ninety-five miles, and from there to Bottineau county. They located their claims April 27, 1887, and put up a sod shanty, twelve feet square that spring. Others of the family came on the same year, and found locations not far away. Henry Holz continued to live alone until 1895. He has done much threshing throughout the county, and in 1894 lost a separator by fire. In 1896 he lost two the same way, and in 1897 bought another. He now owns an eighteen-horse-power, Buffalo Pitts, and notwithstanding his severe losses has made a decided success of the threshing business. As a farmer he has experienced an even greater success. When he was beginning in this county he had a cash capital of five dollars. He now owns a farm of four hundred and eighty acres with two hundred and eighty-five under cultivation, and four lots in Omeme, North Dakota. The farm buildings are very good. There is a barn, 18x30, with a machine shed 18x40: a granary 16x24, and a very cozy and comfortable house. He is working into cattle and hogs, and has two acres of fine forest trees.
He is a Democrat, and was township assessor for four years, and is now completing the last year of his service in this connection. He is a member of the German Lutheran church, and takes an active part in its affairs, being one of its trustees. He was married in February, 1895, to Miss Emilie Hinz. She was born in Germany, and came to this country in 1885. Her father, John Hinz, came to this country in 1887 and settled in North Dakota. She has one child, Elvira, born January 25, 1896.
WILLIAM W. LUNDY, a prosperous and contented Bottineau county farmer, was born in Ontario, Canada, in February, 1864, and is now a thoroughgoing American. His father, John Lundy, is a farmer, and is still living in Canada, but the son prefers Dakota. The family is of Irish nativity, and Frank Lundy was the first to come from Ireland and settle in Canada, where his son still lives. His grandson, William, forms the subject of this article. John Lundy married Sarah A. Skelton. She was born in Ireland, and came to this country at the tender age of three years. She became the mother of eight children, William being her fourth child.
Mr. Lundy was reared to a farm life, and knew in his own life the meaning of hard work. When he was eighteen he left home and tried the resources of the Canadian northwest. For a year and a half he did farm work in Manitoba, and then came into North Dakota. This was in 1883, and almost immediately on his entrance into the territory he "squatted" on government land, as settling on land before it was legally open to entry, was called. This location was made in Bottineau county, which presents a very different appearance today than it did at that time. He put up a log shanty twelve feet square, which he occupied only a week. He went to work in the Red River valley. All he had was his hands, and making a farm was slow work. In 1886 he was forehanded enough to purchase a yoke of oxen, with these he did his first breaking, and from that time he has made progress every year. He has sold and bought several farms, and now lives on section 14, township 162, range 76. In 1886 he harvested his first crop of wheat. He had six acres, and the yield was good, but he could not thresh it until it was spoiled. His career in Dakota is a story of struggle. He has faced every kind of danger and discouragement, but he did not falter or fall back, and now is comfortable and prosperous. He owns a farm of four hundred and eighty acres, with two hundred and fifty in cultivation, and the balance in pasture and meadow. He has a complete set of buildings, a barn 40x70 feet, and a house 16x24 feet, one and a half stories high. He has the farm machinery that the place needs, and keeps everything up in fine shape. He was interested in a threshing machine business from 1896 to 1899, and has also investments in a mercantile establishment. He is a Democrat, and belongs to the Knights of the Maccabees. He has had an honorable career, and may well be looked upon with admiration by the new generation in North Dakota he did so much to make the country what it is today.
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