THIS township is 132-60 of the government survey and was for a long time a double township, having the township to the east under the same organization. The James River in an irregular line forms its western and southern boundaries leaving large parts of the south tier of sections to Clement Township and taking about 600 acres west of the range line from Wright Township.

Mr. Elling O. Ulness moved out from Kindred, Dakota, in 1883, and filed on the northeast of Section 25. In 1884 he took the house he had on his place in Kindred and another building apart into sections and drew them on wagons to his new location on Section 24. He farmed his land and also put in a small stock of goods, using the building he had brought overland for this purpose. He kept the post office named after him in his store.  The store building was about 16 by 24 in size; one side was stocked with groceries and the other with dry goods. It is said that one thing he never kept for sale was liquor of any kind, but he could always be relied upon to have coffee and tobacco. This little store was the only place where supplies could be secured between La Moure and Columbia. He probably got his supplies from LaMoure, and he hauled the mail part of the time himself from that town in addition to keeping the post office. Later Edgar A. Kent carried the mail for a period of four or five years, traveling on horse back.

When the town of Glover was started Mr. Ulness moved his store and the post office to that place, but he continued to live on his farm on 24, coming up to the store every day and going back to the farm at night. He kept the store in Glover till about the fall of 1888, when he sold out. From that time on the building was used as a warehouse till it was moved out to Section 18, 132-59 where it still stands. By the help of Mr. Whitfield it was loaded on wagons and moved out in the winter of 1897-98. This was the building from Kindred constructed of hewn oak from timber grown on the Sheyenne River there.

Peter B. Bergestrom came from Sweden to America in 1880 and worked in Illinois for two years. He heard of the new lands to be had and came out to Fargo in 1882. He went into a land office at Fargo and a locator there fixed him out with a location at 10 cents an acre, and Mr. Bergestrom made the filing in May, 1883. It was six months before he saw the land. He left the train at LaMoure and walked overland, finding his location from neighbors who directed him to the right place. He made his home with Mr. Howe over to the south for a week. He had a hammer and a saw with him and hired some lumber brought out from LaMoure and put up a 12 by 12 "mansion," and with a plow brought out by the lumber hauler they made a firebreak, which saved his shanty that fall. When the shanty was made he put in a stove and made a bunk in one corner. He filled his bunk with slough grass and covered it with a few old clothes for bedding.

Mr. George Whitfield was originally from Hamilton, Ontario, and came into Dakota in 1881, where he secured work around the Fargo region. He wanted land and in the spring of 1882 he came out to the Glover region.  He came by train to Valley City then walked across country from there alone. At that time there were only two townships in Dickey County surveyed, one around Ellendale and the northeast one. Mr. Whitfield found a good quarter on the northwest of 24, 132-59, then went back to Fargo to file. He and his brother Harker W. Whitfield came out in the summer of 1883. The brother had squatted on a piece of land in 24, 132-60, so they were located near each other, a fortunate circumstance, as George Whitfield was ill all summer, about the only work he was able to do being to help his brother dig a slough well on the northeast corner of his homestead. After Mr. Ulness had established his store Mr. Whitfield moved his buildings over onto the northwest corner of his claim to be as near the center of things as he could and still remain on his own land.

Swen Henry Johnson came out to Bear Creek in 1886 and later worked for some time for George Whitfield. His parents lived in Bear Creek at that time but finally located over in Ransom County. Swen made several trips on which he carried supplies out from Glover a distance of nine and a half miles by carrying the goods on his back. In 1890 he was married to Miss Mary Seter who had a pre-emption on Section 2, 132-59, where they lived for about eleven years, then they went over to the Johnson home in Ransom County.

Mr. Whitfield had to use a mixed team sometimes in the early days; a mule, a yoke of oxen and a bull making up the team at one time. All plowing was done with single furrow plows at first, but toward the end of the 80's gang plows came into use. Harrowing or dragging was done with the driver walking behind the implement in the soft fields, drag carts were unknown. Grain binders were much like those of today except that there was no bundle carrier.

The Oakes branch of the Northern Pacific was graded and track laid in the fall of 1886. This line went right across Mr. Whitfield's farm, but he managed to get the grain off ahead of the graders. The track layers followed from the north very soon, but for a time the depot was the only improvements that were put in at Glover.

In these early days life was simple and in most cases happy. There was much work to be done, but people had time to visit their neighbors and help each other. They felt a personal interest in the other settlers and their friends meant more to them in those days of pioneering. Food was plain but plenty; there was no lack of simple, substantial food and clothing. Wool was raised on the place and sent to the woolen mill at Grand Forks to be exchanged for cloth and yarn. The market for most farm produce was slow and it was difficult to get hold of any real money, and what was secured was needed for taxes, machinery and such supplies as could not be produced on the farm.

Mr. Samuel Glover was from Delaware, Ohio, and he had originally intended to settle in Kansas but not liking that country he decided to go further north, as the "chiggers" and other torments of that warm country were too much for Mr. Glover and his wife. He had a quantity of Northern Pacific stock which was not very valuable at that time but it could be traded for railroad land at par. He came up into this new part of Dakota to look around, and after careful inspection he bought 30,000 acres of the railroad lands, and a year or two after that purchase he organized his affairs, erected buildings and hired competent men to carry on farming on a large scale.  When the railroad sold this large block of land to Mr. Glover they became interested in its development and told him that if he would actually develop it they would build through to Oakes, which was done and a station established and a town site laid out and named after Mr. Glover.

Much of the Glover holdings were over in LaMoure County, but these were disposed of in later years. Much of the land held in Dickey County was held in tact, although it has been subdivided into smaller farms and managed by tenants or local managers. Mr. Alderman is the manager of the Glover Holding Company and has lived in Oakes, from which place he directs operations. Ed Hisley was one of the foremen on the ranch and worked for the company on one of the subdivisions near Glover, although he had some land of his own. Nels Anders was another old employee of the Glovers who has remained with them for many years.

One of the big industries connected with the Glover operations was the sheep business. There were at one time 40.000 head of sheep, brought in by several different shipments from Montana. Some of the cattlemen were not pleased with the invasion of the sheep, and as several hundred sheep died it was thought they had been poisoned by the cattlemen using salt-peter. The sheep were watered at springs along the bluffs or at the James River until the flowing wells were put in, in later years. There were several of the sheep plants in different places and these had to be supplied from the home ranch, and it required considerable driving to get around to all of them. 

After the post office was moved up to the town site and the name changed to Glover several business houses were established and the town became the trading place for a good sized region.. A very convenient church was built in the new town and church services and Sunday School maintained.

One of the new business men who came to Glover and whose family has been prominently connected with all the activities of the town is that of Mr. O. Andrew Olson. Mr. Olson was born in Norway, came over to Quebec and later to Wisconsin, where he was in business until 1888 when he came to Glover. Mr. Ekern with whom he was working in Wisconsin had heard from a traveling man that there was a good opening in the new town in Dakota, so Mr. Olson and L. P. Ekern came up and looked over the location. They bought out Mr. Ulness and took over the post office. They continued in business as partners until 1893, when Mr. Ekern inherited a legacy from his father and went to Superior, Wisconsin, to engage in the wholesale business. After 1893 Mr. Olson took over the Glover business and continued it until his death in 1905, when his sons, J. Oscar and C. Edwin and the daughter, Mrs. Clara Groshans took over the business and conducted it for about twenty years, when they sold out. The younger people had become interested in farming on their own account and found plenty to do in managing that business.

Glover people have always been interested in good schools, and have maintained a good two-room school in the town. With the change in the farming business that has come since the World War there is not the same volume of business^ there used to be, but it is still a prosperous village and the business center of a good population. From one of the families there has gone out a young man who has made his mark in the world in a way that does not come to every one. John Stenquist received his inspiration as a country boy from his course at the State Normal and Industrial School and finally graduated with high honors from Columbia University. In the time of the World War he was asked to assist the officials who were giving the army intelligence tests, a service which he performed remarkably well.  Not being satisfied that the tests for intelligence that were being used were adapted to determine the mechanical ability of the young men, and remembering his own start on the road to education, he invented a mechanical ingenuity test that was something completely new and that met an unnoticed need. Mr. Stenquist is now the psychology research director of the schools of the City of Baltimore, Maryland (1928).

In 1921 township 132-59 was cut off from James River Valley and the two towns maintain their separate organizations, although retaining much in common interest from so long association..

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!