ELM Township lies in the southern tier of townships in Dickey County, being Township 129, Range 64. The Elm River flows through it from north to south, making it a fine location for stock raising as water is abundant and the grazing luxuriant. In its early organization it was the east half of Lorraine Township, but it soon was made a separate civil township.  Patrick Whelan and his wife came into the country in 1883, from the City of Quebec and went to his brother-in-law's place in Dickey County that spring. Mr. Whelan had been in Dickey County in 1882 to look over the country. He went back and brought out the family, in which there were six children. Mat Whelan was born in Dickey County. Mr.  Whelan located in Elm Township, on the place where his son Mat has since resided, taking it as a homestead, southwest Section 8.

When the family came out they first went to the John Keogh home and stayed in a sod house there the first summer. Mr. Keogh was a brother of Mrs. Whelan and his homestead was on the northwest of Section 3, 129-64.  He had come out in 1882 and taken his homestead on the Elm where he could get water for the stock. The Whelans stayed with the Keogh family till they could build a small frame house on their own homestead. This frame house had one big room and a hall, and was used as a school for many years after 1889.

Mr. Whelan had been working in the lumber woods before moving out to Dakota. After getting his family established he went back to the lumber woods for the winter. He did not bring his stock with him on his first trip but went back to Minnesota where he had been working and brought out the team he had been driving in the woods the winter before and also brought a cow. Mrs. Whelan stayed in the little claim shanty that first winter while he was away. She had the cow to look after and one of the Koegh boys would come over three miles or more to visit them.  There were seven children, the oldest being the twins, eleven years old.  Mr. Whelan had cut and carried in wood before he left and piled it up inside, so that they did not have to go out for it . They had a well on the prairie where they drew water with a bucket and pulley, about thirty feet. Their nearest neighbor was John Hickey who lived a mile east. Mrs. Whelan spent the winter taking care of the children.   During some of those early years she borrowed a spinning wheel and made yarn and knitted the socks and mitts for the family. She had brought wool along for the first lot and later they kept sheep and raised the wool.

Mr. Whelan only went back to work in the woods the one winter of 1883-84, and after that wintered with the family. They stayed on that homestead until the children grew up or till about 1902. He had a tree claim also. The boys went out to the hills and dug up some trees and planted them, but the ground was dry and none of them grew. They also planted lots of tree seed that they picked in the gulches. One man who wanted some trees planted hired some boys to plant his seed for him and he did not watch them very closely so they poured most of it down a badger hole. He had as many trees from the badger hole as from other parts of the field.

They made their hay in the hills like many others, as there was not much upland hay on the flats on account of the prairie being burned off so much and the seasons so dry. They thought the slough hay from the hills best anyhow.  They also cut wood in the gulches of the hills for fuel.  Mickey Baldwin had a boat on the upper Elm, and when Whelan came along the first time to look for his claim Baldwin charged him a dollar to cross. But Mr. Whelan was an old lumberman and when he came back he found a timber on the creek bank and rode it across the stream and beat the ferry man out of his dollar.

Mr. Whelan had a big gray team and went out breaking for the homesteaders for $4.00 an acre. He would harvest his own little crop and then go out to earn what he could. One year he would have a good crop and then there would be a poor year and the necessaries of life were scarce, but there were many in the same condition. The county had to bond to help the settlers get feed and seed, and sometimes charitable people in the east would send out goods and supplies for the people on the plains who were in need.  Along in the eighties a threshing machine set a fire and burned the Whelan barn. The father was in Ellendale and the mother could not save it so the barn, hay rack, wagon and load of hay went up in smoke, but she saved the house. As a means of earning money the family used to herd cattle after they got established, getting a dollar a head to keep the farmers' cattle all summer.

In the big blizzard of 1888 the Whelan dog drifted away and went with the storm, finally reaching Frederick, about seventeen miles away.  A farmer there gave him shelter and a month later the dog followed a man to Ellendale. Mr. Whelan happened to be in town and recovered his dog.  In 1896-97 there was a hard winter and the Whelan's had to haul hay out of the hills where they had put it up during the summer. Snow was so deep they could hardly get through. They had to use a rope at times in the blizzards to make it safe to get to the barn and back in the drifting snow.  The father and one of the boys went to the barn on one of these trips and nearly missed the house when they were coming back. The boy was hanging to his father's coat tails. John Callan was out there on a cattle buying trip with a buggy and team of ponies and was held at the Whelan place by a blizzard for three days.

There were a few deer in the country in those early years, and as late as 1896 Sid Collins on the Ashley mail stage used to haul out an armful of hay when taking the mail to feed three deer that were wintering along the road near Coldwater.

The Whelan children went to school at the Flint School in summers.  School advantages were not plentiful in the winter time. The Whelan's had a cannon ball which was picked up on the old place in the early days. It was a solid iron ball, but was lost years ago. About 1905 the Whelan boys were on the Whitestone battlefield and picked up some arrow heads and an army hat ornament. The family got the mail at the Lorraine post office kept by Theodore Gray for a time. Mr. Gallagher carried mail from Lorraine to Pierson's place, the mail being brought out on Everett Gray's line from Ellendale to Ashley.

In the fall of 1881 David Monteith came out from Lancaster, Wisconsin, prospecting for land, in company with Tom Shimmin and Miles Helm, but he returned without taking up land. Preparation was made in the following winter, and about April 1^st, 1882, their party landed at the end of the track north of Ellendale with two car loads of stock and household goods. Andy Monteith, a boy of ten years, came with them. Miles and David Monteith were cousins, and another man, Jim Helm, was with them on this trip.  They finally located on Section 8, 129-64. Miles Helm had dug a well in the fall of 1881, but the water was not good. Tom Shimmin had a set of carpenter tools and a gun, and he provided meat for all and helped get up the shanties, after which they all went with him over into the hills and built the first improvements on the land that he still occupies.

The group seeded about sixty acres in sod crops, but owing to drought they did not get any harvest. Andy, the young boy, got a job herding cattle.  The cows were picketed out with ropes, near the shanty. The Monteiths were ten miles from Ellendale, where the nearest school was located so until 1884 they could not go to school; then one was started northwest of where Ralph Griffin lives. Andy herded cattle for Callan & McClure on the old Whitestone Battlefield, but did not know the historical significance of the place. There were no bones or relics left at that time. Of the Monteith children who came in that early day, two have passed away. Andy and Jennie (Mrs. Walter Haas) are still living in the county.

The John Keogh who built the shanties in Brown County for the Grays was located on the banks of the Elm River west of Ellendale. On one occasion when he was out with a borrowed wagon he had been drinking and he let his horses go to a slough along the road to get water, and they got mired and drowned. Had he let them alone they would have got through the slough, but he tried to make them do as he wished.   At last getting discouraged he called, "Help! Help! H-E-L-P, won't anybody help John Keogh?" Tom Shimmin heard the SOS and went to his rescue but the horses were dead. It is also told that when he began to sober up he studied the situation and asked, "Who am I. If I am somebody else I have found a wagon. If I am John Keogh I have lost a team of horses. Who am I, anyway?"

Among the early settlers about whom we have been able to collect little information are James McGlynn, who located on north half of Section 32; Mr. McShane on Section 32; Mr. James Scott on Section 28, and Dr. L.  D. Bartlett who had a fine place on Section 33 and who was a member from Dickey County of the Constitutional Convention which framed the state constitution in 1889.

A. J. Anderson who first lived on a rented place in Riverdale township, took a homestead entry on the southwest quarter of Section 3 that is still owned by his sons, Louis, Sam and Harry. They are among the solid citizens of the county, Louis being one of the leading Masons. The brothers raise corn and feed-grain, and fatten stock on the farm.

Everett Gray lives on the northwest quarter of Section 5, a piece of land for which he traded a horse. His life story is a history of Elm and Albion Townships, and his name occurs frequently in other parts of this and Albion Townships, and his name occurs frequently in other parts of this history. F. W. Fuller came out from Minnesota in 1906 and bought the east half of Section 5. He has a family of four sons and five daughters, two of the sons, Will and Elmer being business men in Ellendale. Ed England who came from South Dakota in 1906, married one of the Fleming sisters and now lives on a new place he is improving on the southeast quarter of Section 10. He is active and public spirited, especially in school affairs, and has an ambition to give his large family a first class education.

On the northwest quarter of Section 23, Will Philips has built a first class farm home, and is making a success of stock raising and mixed farming.  He owns and rents several quarters of land that are well watered by the Elm River. He has a family of nine children, who as fast as they are ready for it are receiving an advanced education at the Ellendale Normal. His wife was one of the pioneers, being the only girl, Mary, of the Lynde family which came to the Forbes neighborhood in the early days, and their children give promise of following the Phillips and Lynde example, as they are already becoming teachers and entering business in the county.

Frank Anderson is a substantial farmer on the Southwest quarter of Section 23. He married Miss Bertha Strand in 1909, and they have ten children.   Mr. Anderson is a very energetic man, giving much attention to improved cattle and hogs.

A distinguishing feature of Elm Township in recent years is the very-active Elm Community Club, membership in which includes the entire family and is not limited to residents of this one township as it includes several families from Lorraine.   This club has been organized for several years and held its meetings in the homes of its members, but as its member-ship was large and its meetings of great interest the club out grew the capacity of the homes and some means had to be found to afford a meeting place.   In the same generous spirit that has characterized its work the club set out to build a home of its own.   Mr. Luke Whelan donated a building site on the southwest of Section 7.  Then contributions were sought from friends, several Ellendale people contributed, and in this way some funds for a beginning were raised, and a basement was dug and walled up in 1923.   The labor for construction was donated and the hall completed enough for dedication and use in 1924.   To meet the further expense community sales were held, plays and a dance were given and the money used as far as it would go. A furnace was installed in the basement and electricity for lighting was obtained by a transformer from the high line that furnishes electricity for the town of Forbes.  It is not yet (1928) completed but a new floor was put in and the building painted in the summer of 1928. The next items are to be new seats and completion of the basement and interior of the main auditorium.   The building has been found very helpful in the work of the Club and for school rallies and exercises and is now the home of one of the most active and progressive community clubs in the region. 

For a voting place the old town hall near the center of the township is still used. The district maintains three good country schools. The people get their mail from Ellendale and Forbes. The township is crossed from east to west by State Highway No. 11, leading due west from Ellendale on the quarter line to the east side of Section 8 where it turns north a mile and a half to again go west to Ashley, Linton and Bismarck. One of the best bridges in the county spans the Elm River on Section 10. The Great Northern Railroad crosses the township east and west but has no station stop in this township.

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!