FOR several years after the events of 1863 and the expeditions of Captain Fisk there seems to be very little account of visits of white men to Dickey County. In the early seventies the Northern Pacific Railway had reached Bismarck and the Missouri river route was being used so there was little call for overland expeditions through this part of the territory. The Indians that were left here were not disposed to cause trouble, the more hostile ones being farther west.

There must have been occasional visits, as the range lines and the town-ship lines of the government survey were run through this region by 1870, In 1872 the county of LaMoure was formed but there was no attempt to establish local government as settlement had not begun.

The first attempt at any organization of the region in which Dickey county lies was made when the territory of Minnesota was made to include that part of the territory east of the Missouri and White Earth rivers. At that time the county of Wahnatah was created as one of Minnesota's nine counties. This included what is now Dickey county and much other territory in Dakota. But Wahnatah county was never organized, and in 1851 Pembina county was made to include all eastern North Dakota and a part of South Dakota east of the Missouri river. At the admission of Minnesota as a state all eastern Dakota was left without a government for three years.

When the territory of Dakota was created a new division of counties was made, and all the northern part of the territory was included in Buffalo county. By a law of 1870 Pembina county was created to include the territory between the Red River and the Ninth Guide meridian, a part of which is now the western boundary of this county, as far south as the forty-sixth parallel of North Latitude.   That part of Dickey county south of the forty-sixth parallel was in Hansen county. In 1872 the county of La Moure was created. This county was to extend south to the line between townships 129 and 130, but was to exercise full jurisdiction as far south as the forty-sixth parallel. The strip of land from the forty-sixth parallel to the Seventh Standard parallel of the government survey seems to have been overlooked in that part lying south of LaMoure county, as Beadle county south of the Seventh Standard parallel did not seem to include this strip while McPherson county did include the strip south of the county known as Logan.

On March 7^th, 1881, the county of Dickey was created by act of the territorial legislature. This county was given the territory between the seventh and eighth standard parallels and from the line between ranges 58 and 59 to the line between ranges 66 and 67. This took twenty-one town-ships from LaMoure county and three from Ransom county, and included a strip on each side of the forty-sixth parallel that had not been definitely included in any county for some time. The boundaries given the county in 1881 have remained unchanged, and Dickey is one of the very few counties that have not changed boundaries at some time in their history.

At the time the new county was created there were no settlers within its borders, but the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway had laid its tracks and into this territory for about seven miles. In the late fall of 1881 four men, haying made up their minds that a town was going to be located about where Ellendale stands, filed on the four quarters known later as the "center of Ellendale" and put in a part of the winter of 1881 and 1882 in their claim shanties. This was not at the end of the rails, and thinking that the town would be located where the rails stopped a Mrs. Bishop from Fargo came out and filed on the south-east quarter of Section 29, township 130 of range 63. The town was located on the southeast quarter of Section 12 in township 129, so Mrs. Bishop came to the new town and kept a hotel, said to have been a very good one.

There were several people in the county in 1881 besides the construction crew of the railroad. Some of the visitors came up to the end of the rails to look the new country over, among these being Mr. Thomas Shimmin. Mr.  Nels Knudson who afterwards located on the northwest quarter of section 14, 132-61, looked over his future homestead in that year.

In 1882 there was a great incoming of settlers. Eastern papers had told of homestead opportunities in the new territory. The Indian scare was over, soldiers in the recent Civil War could get scrip entitling them to entry on government land and the years in service could be counted off of the residence required. Many took advantage of this offer; others sold their scrip to let someone else have their right. Some adventurous spirits had settled in the new country and had sent the news back to their old neighbors.  Settlers had worked out from Jamestown, a new town on the main line of the Northern Pacific railway, to make a few scattered settlements to the south of that city. There had been great numbers of new towns located on the extension of the Milwaukee railroad. Columbia on the James River was a thriving business town and the county seat of the new Brown county.  Aberdeen, at the point where the line to the new country north of the main line branched off, was already a promising settlement, and the open home-stead land was being taken so rapidly that the new comers had to go back farther for good land.

Dickey County had been created by act of the Territorial Legislature on March 7^th, 1881. With settlers coming in the early part of 1882 there was need of county organization, not so much for the purpose of keep-ing order and for the restraint of the lawless as to accommodate the people who were establishing homesteads and for the conduct of the business that was naturally arising. For the purpose of organizing the county, Governor Ordway came to Ellendale on July 1^st, 1882 and appointed Q. C. Olin, A.  H. Whitney and H. E. Geschke as County Commissioners. This board held their first meeting on August 18^th, 1882, and appointed the following officers for the new county; M. N. Chamberlain, County Clerk and Register of Deeds; George Kreis, Treasurer; W. H. Becker, County Attorney; H. J.  Van Meter, Sheriff; J. L. Stephenson, County Assessor; Miss E. F. Arnold, Superintendent of Schools; J. E. Brown, Surveyor; Dr. W. F. Duncan, Coroner; J. A. Scott and W. A. Caldwell, Justices of the Peace.

Ellendale was chosen for the county seat temporarily. The question of which town should be the permanent county seat was submitted to the voters in the election of November 7^th, 1882. Keystone wanted to be the county seat and made a lively fight for this distinction, especially urging its central location as well as other advantages, but Ellendale won by a vote of 162 to 62 for Keystone.

The naming of Dickey county is a historical matter that is not clear.  There are those who claim it was named for Alfred Dickey, a prominent resident of Jamestown and the first Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota.  He was a man well worthy of having a county named for him, but there is also a persistent belief that the county was named for a Mr. Dickey who was connected with the engineering staff of the Milwaukee Railroad. It will be an interesting question for investigation by some future historian of our county. It is quite generally agreed that the city of Ellendale was named for the wife of a prominent railroad man who was connected with the Milwaukee road by the name of Dale. Mrs. Dale was Helen or Ellen so the new town was christened Ellendale.

This new town had the advantage of being on a railroad and was the first town to enjoy this distinction in all the region west of  Wahpeton and south of the main line of the Northern Pacific through Jamestown. Many of the settlers in the central and western parts of the county came by way of Ellendale and for several years it was the central trading point for a large territory. People came for lumber for their homestead buildings from as far away as Grand Rapids. The stage lines from Ellendale made it a convenient point for travelers and homesteaders. Most of the new comers filed on land, but a number of towns were established. Those who were located in these towns were for the most part holding down a claim nearby.  In the greater part of the county the land had not been surveyed further than to run the range lines and the township lines.   In order to get his location the settler in many. cases had to find the township corner and do the best he could to measure off the correct distances to the land he wished to locate. Surveyors were at work in the county and sometimes the squatter could get his township surveyed enough to know his location, and so well did the surveyors work that much of the county was surveyed by the end of the first year. Mr. Thomas F. Marshall, later a resident of Oakes and Congressman from North Dakota had charge of much of the surveying for the government. Mr. Souel later of Cogswell, was Mr. Marshall's assistant, as was also Mr. D. E. Geer, one of the earliest settlers of Ellendale.

In running the preliminary surveys the Milwaukee railroad had set two lines of stakes beyond the end of the rails.   By following the line of stakes to the north the town of Keystone was located by Pennsylvania people. A group of Michigan people followed out the line of stakes to the northwest and located the Merricourt community.   Rivers furnished guiding lines and a number of groups came up the James river from Columbia.   Port Emma on the fish-hook bend of the James was founded by J. W. Bush from Canada.  Ludden was located on the east side and across the bend, later to be moved a mile and a half east to be on the Northwestern Railway.   Further up the river the new town of Hudson was located by some people who were acquainted with the river of that name in New York state.   A scholarly gentleman acquired some land holdings lower down on the west side and named his town from himself, Eaton.   For a time steamboats came up the river from Columbia and brought in settlers goods and provisions by this means of transportation.   Yorktown was established in township 131, range 61 by a group of settlers from New York state.  Others were looking for pasture land with good water.  These went west from Ellendale into the hill country and settled a wide domain in southwestern Dickey county, but did not establish a town site.

A great many people had friends here or came with a group of people from their old neighborhood, but many of the first settlers came out to the end of the railroad as the most convenient point from which to make inspection of land. very soon the better selections were taken near the towns and one was at a loss as to where it were best to look for a homestead. There were professional locaters who had a fixed price for showing the new comer where to find land. Many times a locater would put up some mark to indicate that land had been taken when he was only keeping it for some would-be settler who would pay him a good price for finding the best location. This practice was especially successful with the people of foreign nationality who were not acquainted with the language and ways of the American promoter.  Frequently the locater met a man who was too well informed to be easily deceived. A story of one of the pioneers who came into the territory by way of Fargo will illustrate the process followed by many of the homesteaders.  Mr. E. F. Stevens, a college boy in New York State, had to give up school and in fact all reading for a year on account of having strained the optic nerve so that he could not read. About this time he began to hear of the wonderful free land to be had in the west, but more for the adventure than anything else he decided to go. He was the first one in his neighborhood to leave for this unknown region and really intended to stay but a year.  In Iowa he met a Mr. Richard Fallon, who came with him to Dakota territory in the spring of 1882. They decided to take land and arriving in Fargo about March 8^th found the weather registering a temperature of about thirty-five degrees below zero. Mr. Stevens had given away his over-coat thinking he would need it no more that season, and as he had no gloves with him he shifted his suitcase from hand to hand rather rapidly on his way to the hotel.

They found Fargo filled with transients, land locaters, speculators and boomers of all sorts. They talked with some of the land locaters, men who made a business of examining vacant government land and guiding settlers to these tracts for a consideration. The particular locater who advised them suggested that they take land south of where Independence now is in LaMoure County, land which was later found to be in the sand hills. Mr.  Stevens was a little wary and suggested that if they found the land to be poor stuff he would return to Fargo and map the earth with the locater. He immediately ceased urging that location and suggested land between Bear Creek and the James River in township 132, range 59. Mr. Stevens took a homestead on the southwest of section 8 in that township, where he still lives, and a tree claim on the northwest of section 20, while Mr. Fallon took the east half of section 18.

The filing was made at the Fargo land office about March 9^th, and during that spring the two friends worked on the Cass farm in the Red River Valley. They started for their claims around the first of July going by rail to Jamestown, and then traveled on foot down the valley to Grand Rapids, which was then a small settlement. But few settlers were passed on the way and since they reached the town on the evening of the third they decided to celebrate the Fourth there. The principal event of the day was a conference between the Grand Rapids people and a delegation of railroad officials. The local people offered to raise £50,000 to have the Southwestern built through there but the consideration was not enough of an inducement so the line eventually went through LaMoure.

The early morning of the fifth found the two travelers on their way walking in the direction of their claims. There were no roads but the location was determined from the section corner posts and mounds placed by the government surveyors. All went well until the border of Dickey county was reached. Here the wooden corner posts ceased and locations were marked by notches on stones in terms unfamiliar to the men. They were unable to find anyone to help them out so about 6 P. M. they started back for Grand Rapids. A thunder storm came up and they were miles from shelter of any kind, but luckily found a vacant claim shanty without door or window. By aid of the lightning flashes they took off a loose board and managed to get inside where they spent the night. Day break found them hungry, tired, thirsty and well-bitten by mosquitoes. Here Mr.  Stevens dug the first well in LaMoure County, for by means of his jackknife he made a hole in the sod which filled with rain water and thus enabled them to drink. They finally arrived in Grand Rapids and ate the first meal they had had since the morning before, having walked a distance of fifty miles between meals.

The two travelers now hired a team and a driver who professed to be able to read the stones in Dickey County, and after securing enough lumber at ten dollars a thousand for an eight-by-eight shanty for Mr. Stevens and an eight-by-ten for Mr. Fallon they again proceeded on their way. Upon reaching the border of the county the driver was found to be unable to read the stones, so the lumber was unloaded as near the location as they could guess. A man was finally located near the mouth of Bear Creek, where the stage company had a relay station for changing horses on the route between Columbia and Jamestown, who was able to read the stones and who for a consideration of ten dollars, a mighty sum in those days, consented to move the lumber a distance of three-fourths of a mile to its proper location. Here they built their shanties and stayed in them long enough to establish a residence, then started for the Cass farm near Fargo on foot in order to make some money with which to improve their claims, to which they did not return until the following spring.

Others came to the county in immigrant cars, or hired transportation from a railroad town. The families came on later when the claim shacks were ready. They were a pioneering people who were ready to take what-ever the experience gave them, and they took most of it in the spirit of making the best of what the means at hand offered. Those who came at a later date had better means of transportation and had a shorter journey to their homesteads.

The information on Trails to the Past © Copyright    may be used in personal family history research, with source citation. The pages in entirety may not be duplicated for publication in any fashion without the permission of the owner. Commercial use of any material on this site is not permitted.  Please respect the wishes of those who have contributed their time and efforts to make this free site possible.~Thank you!