Compendium of History and Biography
of North Dakota
Published by George A. Ogle & CO. in 1900

ANDREW J. AMES, a prominent attorney of Towner, North Dakota, is now serving as states attorney of McHenry county, and is an efficient and popular public official.

Our subject was born in Byron Center, New York, January 18, 1838. His father, Charles Ames, was a shoemaker and farmer and the family are of English descent. Jonathan Higby. the mother's ancestor, came to .America prior to the French and Indian war in this country. The grandfather of our subject, Isaac Ames, was an American sea captain, and took part in the early wars. The parents of our subject were married in the state of New York, and of their family of nine children our subject was the eldest. He was reared on a farm in Seneca county, Ohio, and attended the common schools, and later an academy. He began for himself when he was eighteen years of age, and April 18, 1861, he enlisted in the Twenty-fifth Ohio Volunteers. They were sent to West Virginia and the first engagement was at Phillippi, and he was through West Virginia and Virginia, and participated in the battle of Cedar Mountain, Chancellorsvile, Antietam, South Mountain, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. He then left the Army of the Potomac and went to Folly Island, of Charleston Harbor, and he assisted in taking Fort Craig, and also in the bombardment of Fort Sumter and Batteries B and C. The regiment then veteranized, and then went back to the sea coast in South Carolina, and took part in the sea coast defense, and opened communication with Sherman's army. They participated in all the minor engagements in the rear of Sherman's army, including Honey Hill, and the regiment remained in South Carolina until July, 1866, when they were discharged. Our subject was in active service five and a half years, and was wounded several times. At Chancellorsville he was wounded and was in the hospital eight months, and later received a sabre wound in the head at Rappahannock Ford, and was later wounded at Gettysburg. From one of these wounds the ball has never been extracted.

He returned to the carpenter's trade in 1866, and in the spring of the following year settled in Douglas county, Minnesota, with his family. He followed farming there five years, and in 1870 was elected register of deeds, and re-elected twice, serving six years in that capacity. He was appointed justice of the peace in 1871, and held the office eleven years. He studied law and was admitted to the bar December 7, 1878, and practiced some in Minnesota, and in 1886 he went to Fargo, North Dakota, and engaged in his profession there, and was admitted to the North Dakota bar in September, 1886. He went to Towner in October, 1888, and established the pioneer law office of McHenry county. He was appointed legal advisor for the board of county commissioners and in the fall of 1889 was elected state's attorney. He resigned, and was again elected in 1892, and resigned the office. He was re-elected in 1896, and again in 1898, and is now serving the last part of two terms in that office. He has built up a good practice in his profession.

Our subject was married, in 1864, to Miss Phoebe Harford, a native of New York, and a daughter of a farmer. One daughter has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Ames, who is named Mary J. Mrs. Ames died in 1886. Mr. Ames is a member of the G. A. R., and has held numerous offices in the post. He is a Republican politically, and is prominent in the affairs of his party, and is chairman of the county central committee, and attends all conventions.

FRED M. DOMPIER, a prominent and enterprising business man of Towner, McHenry county, is a native of Vermont and was born on a farm July 15. 1863. He is engaged in the meat business and also conducts an extensive ranch near Towner and has accumulated his possessions since taking up his residence in Dakota.

Our subject's father, Isaac Dompier, was born in France and came to America about 1850. He was a well digger and farmer. Of a family of seven children our subject was the second in order of birth. He has one half-sister and one half-brother. He was reared on a farm and received a limited schooling, and at the age of thirteen years left home and hired out at farm work, selling wood, etc., and at the age of sixteen entered the city school at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, paying his own way, and after completing his studies there he began business pursuits in Maudada, Minnesota. He remained there two years and in 1882 went to South Dakota. He soon afterward purchased horses and worked for others in Potter county and later took a pre-emption claim and began farming for himself. He freighted from Pierre to Forest City and La Beau and spent three years in Potter county. He went to North Dakota in 1885 on a visit and looked over the country along the Mouse river and selected land one-half mile west of Towner, and in the spring of 1886 sold his interests in Potter county. South Dakota, and with his family went to North Dakota. He began stock raising with sixteen head of cattle and built a log shanty and the first two weeks camped out. He drove overland from South Dakota and followed ranching there five years and then sold the ranch and purchased another in Pierce county, twenty-five miles southeast of Towner. He invested in sheep and cattle raising and also horses and resided there seven years and then removed to Towner for permanent residence. He had spent the winters in Towner for some years. He now has a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres with limitless range, and has plenty of timber, spring water and a complete set of buildings and his farm is one of the best improved in the county. In 1899 our subject established a meat market in Towner and in 1900 erected a two-story brick building which will be used for a market on the ground floor and the second story is devoted to a billiard hall and opera house and is the finest building in the county. Mr. Dompier has met with severe losses during the winters since locating in North Dakota, but has remained to gather a good estate and enjoys a good income.

Our subject was married, in Minnesota, January 7, 1883, to Miss Lusetta Lattin, a native of New York. Mrs. Dompier is a daughter of John Lattin, a pioneer settler of North Dakota. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Dompier, who are named as follows: Jessie M., Lenn J., Orpha L., Lee A., Fred M. and Alice E. Mr. Dompier is a  Republican politically and is a man of intelligence and keeps pace with the times.

JOSEPH B. ELLIOT, leading stock man and farmer of McHenry county, is one of the pioneers of northwestern North Dakota. His home and farm are located on the Mouse river, and presents all evidences of modern enterprises in agriculture.

Mr. Elliott was born in Maine, in 1845. His father, Ezekiel Elliot, was a lumberman and was of Irish-English descent, his ancestors coming to America prior to the revolution. The mother of our subject, before her marriage, was Nancy Brey. When our subject was two years old the family removed to Wisconsin, and a few years later he went into the pineries of that state. He therefore received limited schooling, being engaged in the pine woods.

At the age of fifteen years he enlisted in Company G, Twelfth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and was immediately sent south. He joined the army of the west under General Grant, and was later under Sherman. He participated in the first attack on Vicksburg, and later in the siege of that place. At Natchez the regiment veteranized, and was then sent on the Meridian campaign, and afterwards with Sherman on the famous Atlanta campaign and subsequent march to the sea. He was at Raleigh, North Carolina, when Lee surrendered, and then went to Washington, and later to Louisville, Kentucky, where he was mustered out. He saw over four years of hard, active service, closing it by marching in the grand review at Washington, D. C. He returned to Wisconsin at the close of the war and engaged in lumbering, log-driving and rafting. He then went to Iowa, and later to Wadena, Minnesota, in 1878. He purchased a tract of land on the Leaf river, near Wadena, and built a sawmill and engaged in the manufacture of lumber with great success for five years. He then sold out and for two years was engaged in the machinery and tombstone business. In 1887 he drove overland to North Dakota, reaching the Mouse river in McHenry county, July 5. He brought his family with him, and also considerable stock, including several head of cattle. He began cattle raising, at first putting up a tent. After the first year he became permanently located and put up a log house which he lived in until 1895, when his present residence was erected. He now owns eleven hundred acres of land, has a complete set of good farm buildings, plenty of machinery, and his farm is well stocked.

Mr. Elliot is a Republican in political faith, and takes a commendable interest in all affairs of a public nature. He was among the earliest settlers of the county and is well known and esteemed throughout the region. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.

GUSTAV  C. GETZLAFF. This well-known pioneer of McHenry county, North Dakota, owns a very complete farm in township 159 north, and range 76 west. He is of German nativity, and was born November 5, 1860, in a little German hamlet close to the famous city of Stettin. Here his father, August Getzlaff, was the owner of a small farm and was a carpenter by trade.

Our subject was the third in a family of five children reared in the village. His father died when he was only five years old, and his mother brought her little flock to America in 1871, and made a home for them on a farm in Olmsted county, Minnesota. Here with the children of school house he received an English education, and grew up as his "mother's right hand man." When he was nineteen he left home and struck out for himself. He learned the brewing business in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He was there four years, and spent two years in Minneapolis in the same line. Meanwhile he learned engineering. In 1886 he came to North Dakota, and in McHenry county on his present farm he put up a shanty 12x14 feet and prepared himself in the simple fashion of the times for homestead farming. He had one hundred dollars with which to begin operations, and it was counted quite a fortune. In 1886 he did little but workout and the next year bought oxen, wagon and other necessities. That year he harvested two hundred bushels of wheat, and the next year four hundred and fifty bushels. In 1888 he bought a threshing machine with complete outfit and has followed it every year since. His present outfit consists of a twenty-two-horse power engine and a magnificent separator. In 1889 and 1890 his farming operations were not satisfactory, but in 1890 he harvested two thousand four hundred bushels of grain from eighty acres. In 1895 he had his greatest year. He had eleven thousand bushels of wheat, running thirty-five bushels to the acre, two thousand bushels of oats, and four hundred of barley. In 1896 he had six thousand bushels ; in 1897, one thousand six hundred and fifty bushels; in 1898, two thousand two hundred bushels, and in 1899, four thousand one hundred bushels. He now owns three hundred and thirty acres. He did have two hundred acres more, but sold them in 1896. His is a well equipped farm with everything, house, barn, outbuildings and stock that is needed by its operators for success and comfort. His house is 18x28, with an addition of 18x32; his barn, 48x44, with attached sheds; a wagon shed, 16x24; machine shed, 18x36 feet, ample granaries, and other smaller buildings. He had an acre of forest trees, and a very good start towards an invaluable supply of small fruit.

Mr. Getzlaff is a Democrat, and is keenly alive to everything that concerns the common welfare. He is a member of the German Lutheran church. Since 1896 he has done considerable traveling throughout the Northwest and to the Pacific coast. He means to enjoy himself, now that the stress and strain of pioneering is over, and to see and know something of the country in which he lives.

ROBERT GORMAN, county sheriff of McHenry county, and a resident of Towner, is one of the substantial and honored citizens of that locality. He is a pioneer settler of North Dakota, and has witnessed the growth and advancement of the community in which he has made his home and is truly entitled to credit for the share he has taken in the same. He is proprietor of a fine farm near Towner, and engages extensively in stock raising with unbounded success.

Our subject was born in western Ontario, Canada, on a farm in 1860. His father, George Gorman, was born in Ireland and came to America when a young man. The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Margaret Craiton, and was born in Ireland and came to America when young. The parents were married in Canada, and of the eight children our subject was the seventh in order of birth.

Mr. Gorman received limited school advantages, and assisted with the farm work. He went to Manitoba in 1881 where he entered claim to land and began farming. He built a small shanty and lived alone on the farm, and spent five years in an attempt to raise a crop, but failure met his every effort, and in 1886 he came to McHenry county, North Dakota, and located near the Mouse river, one-half mile east of the town of Towner. He had a limited start and built a small shanty and lived there alone two years, and his first crop was good. Crops failed in 1889 and 1890, and Mr. Gorman worked on the Great Northern Railroad west of Havre and into the Rocky mountains, spending two summers at this line of work. He engaged in grain raising and also stock raising to some extent. He now has a farm of four hundred and eighty acres under cultivation and one hundred and eighty acres devoted to stock raising. On his home farm he has a complete set of farm buildings, and has one of the best equipped farms of that region.

Our subject was married, in May. 1888. to Miss Amelia Hutton. a native of Minnesota, and a daughter of Robert Hutton, a farmer and early settler of North Dakota. She is of Scotch descent, her parents being natives of Scotland. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gorman, named Samuel, who was born in 18S9. Mr. Gorman was elected sheriff in the fall of 1892, and re-elected in 1896, and in 1898, and is now serving his third term in that office. He is an active member of the Republican party, and is firm in his convictions. He holds membership in the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr., Gorman has experienced pioneer life in North Dakota, and has faced many of the storms of that region. In 1895. with his wife and son, he was overtaken by a blizzard, and after a long search through the storm succeeded in finding the court house in Towner and was there sheltered from the storm. He has remained in McHenry county despite his experiences, and is now one of the solid men of that locality and is deservedly popular as a citizen.

EDWIN B. PAYNE, M. D., the pioneer physician of McHenry county, is now a resident of the city of Towner, where he has a valuable practice, and is also the owner of a farm and ranch near that city.

Dr. Payne was born on a farm in Connecticut in 1844, June 18^th. His father, Seelye Payne, was an iron manufacturer, was born in Vermont, and his grandfather, Nathan Payne, brought the family to America in 1700. Members of this family served in the Revolutionary war. The Payne's are of English descent. The mother of our subject, whose maiden name was Hannah Thompson, was also a native of Connecticut, and the Thompson family trace their ancestry back many generations in America. Our subject's parents were married in Connecticut.

Dr. Payne was the ninth child in a family of eleven children, and was reared on a farm, receiving such education as the common schools afford during the winter months, and then took a course in an academy. At the age of seventeen years he enlisted, September 1, 1861, in Company E, Fourth New York Volunteer Cavalry, and was sent to Washington. He started on March 10, 1862, and was in active service till the close of the war. He was with the Army of the Potomac in all its great battles and also took part in many smaller engagements. He was captured at Warrington, Virginia, and held a prisoner in Richmond for three months, when he was paroled and soon exchanged and again joined the army. He was wounded at Winchester, September 19, 1864, and was off duty several days. With the exception of his imprisonment and his hospital experience he was in active service, continuously in the saddle during the three years and eleven months that he was a soldier. He received his honorable discharge at Buffalo in August, 1865.

After the war he returned to Connecticut and farmed for a time. He then took up the study of medicine under Dr. Ebenezer Osborne, at Bethlehem, Connecticut, and continued with him in study and practice for seven years. He was admitted to practice in Connecticut in 1881. In 1883 he began to practice alone. In 1886 he came to Dakota and established an office and started a practice, being the first doctor in the county. He also took up a homestead claim near the present site of the city of Towner, and this farm he has conducted continuously since, in connection with his practice. He now owns three hundred and twenty acres of valuable land, a good share of which is under cultivation, and the rest devoted to pasture for stock. For the first few years he resided upon his farm.

Dr. Payne was married, in 1866, to Miss Emaline A. Burroughs. She was born in Kent, Litchfield county, Connecticut, and was the daughter of Eben H. Burroughs, a farmer of German descent. The Burroughs family was brought to America by Priest Burroughs at an early day in the history of the United States. Six children were born of this marriage. The mother died in 1882.

Dr. Payne married, in Towner, North Dakota, June 2, 1887, to Abbie E. Walrath, who was born in Iowa. This marriage was the first that occurred in the city of Towner. To this union four children have been born. Dr. Payne has taken an active part in public affairs and has been for twelve years coroner of McHenry county, and superintendent of the board ,of health for four years. He is a Republican in political faith and is a member of the G. A. R. and Knights of Pythias. He is classed among the pioneers of the county, and he put up one of the first shacks that appeared in the vicinity of the city of Towner.

LEVI B. PENDROY, prominent among the business men of Towner and McHenry county, has been a resident of the county since its early settlement and has been successful in business and in all his undertakings. Mr. Pendroy is a native ofIowa, and the date of his birth is July 12, 1861. He is the third child in a family of six children born to J. M. and Sarah (Haldwin) Pendroy, the former a native of Indiana and the latter born in Ohio. The two families trace their ancestors back for many generations in America.

Levi B. Pendroy was reared on a farm in his native state, and took such advantages as the school 44, system of Iowa afforded at that time. At the age of twenty-two years, accompanying the family, he located in the Mouse river country of North Dakota, twenty-five miles from the site of the city of Towner. The trip from Iowa was made wholly by team and occupied several weeks in the journey. They made a location in 1882, in the fall of the year, and erected a log shanty 16.x16 feet, and at once set about the work of farming and stock raising. In 1883 they raised little except garden stuff, but the next year they had an immense crop, the yield of wheat being forty bushels to the acre and oats one hundred and ten. He continued to farm for seven or eight years, and then, in 1892, moved to the city of Towner and for two years did contracting and job work. He then opened a meat market in 1894, and since its opening, July 9, of that year, he has done a prosperous and increasing business. His start was a modest one, having about fifty dollars invested ; but in 1897 he had not only enlarged his business in that line but ha enlarged his business in that line but had added a line of general merchandise. He now occupies a building 40x60 feet, with storage warehouse in the rear, and does an immense business in all lines he handles.

Mr. Pendroy was married, in 1884, in Iowa, to Miss Jessie Robinson. Mrs. Pendroy was born in Illinois, the daughter of J. L. Robinson, who is also an old settler of North Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Pendroy have four children, named as follows: George,  Lulu, Mattie and Myrtle, all born in North Dakota.  Mr. Pendroy is a Republican in political faith, and has taken an active part in political matters in the county. He has attended numerous conventions as a delegate, and has many friends throughout the county. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Modern Woodmen of America, and has been venerable consul of the latter since the lodge was organized.

HANS H. ROTHGARN, the proprietor of an elegant Dakota farm in township 159 north, and range 76 west, McHenry county, was born on a farm in the province of Holstein, Schleswig, Germany, July 4, 1862, where his father, Claus Rothgarn, owned a house and small tract of land. Hans was the fourth in a family of five children. He attended school until the age of sixteen and received a fair education-as good as could be expected in the public schools. When he was sixteen he left the parental home and for a couple of years worked out for the neighboring farmers. When he was eighteen he crossed the ocean and came directly west to Olmsted county, Minnesota, where he did farm work for the next six years. His father, mother and sister came on to Minnesota in 1882 and settled with their oldest son on a farm, where his mother, Elsabea (Lehman) Rothgarn, died in 1886.

Mr. Rothgarn made his appearance in North Dakota in 1886 and located near Grafton, where he worked until the first of November of that year. The winter of that year he traveled through McHenry and Bottineau counties and picked out his present location, and almost immediately made his homestead claim after determining where he would settle. Putting up a log cabin, and there in company with his father and brother, he spent some time "batching it." He put up a sod barn and granary, and did the first work with oxen. In 1887 our subject and his brother harvested their first crop of wheat, six hundred bushels from twenty acres of ground. In 1887 they threshed and harvested in the Red river valley.

Mr. Rothgarn was married to Miss Sarah Hoffmann, January 11. 1888. She was born in Olmsted county, Minnesota. and her father, Charles Hoffmann, is a farmer of that county. He was born in Germany, but came to this country at an early date. She is the mother of five children, all born in North Dakota: Hubert,Richard, Charlie, Andrew and Grace. She has helped her husband to make a model home in the western prairies.

Mr. Rothgarn bought a team of horses in 1888, and looked upon them as tangible evidence of success. In 1895 he had eight thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight bushels of wheat and twenty-eight hundred bushels of oats-all from a half-section of land. It was a phenomenal yield and it put our subject beyond the reach of want. Today he owns a farm of eight hundred acres, with at least a full section under cultivation. Part of his farm is situated on the Mouse river, and affords excellent hay meadows and timber land. He has good farm buildings, and his house is a first-class frame house, two stories high. His barn, wagon sheds, machine sheds and granaries are all as they should be for a well-conducted farm. There is a fine grove of trees around the house, and plenty of small fruit on the place. Take it all in all it is one of the largest, most complete and best cultivated farms in this section of the state. Mr. Rothgarn is finding his way into cattle raising, and he believes in diversified farming. He is a Republican and was elected on the county board in 1897, he has been chairman of the board for the past two years. He has held several town offices since coming into the county, and is much interested in political matters. He is widely known as one of the wealthiest farmers in this part of the state, and has made it all by hard work and wise economy.

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