Sisters of Charity on the Frontier

This column ran in the March 9 edition of the Prairie Post

Somewhere back 138 years ago Sisters Charlebois and Rose Clapin arrived in Jamestown. They intended to start a school for the residents at Fort Totten. Unfortunately they never got past Jamestown.
We don’t know the date the two members of the Sisters of Charity order, often called the Gray Nuns, arrived in Jamestown. It was likely late in the year as the railroad had only built as far as Jamestown that summer. The line did not extend any further to the west.
Even though the Sisters had been requested by Maj. William Forbes, the Indian Agent at Fort Totten, there was no one in Jamestown to meet them. Evidently some sort of miscommunication left the folks at Fort Totten unaware they had visitors waiting in Jamestown.
A little detail like 90 some miles of open country with no roads, stage stops or other amenities wasn’t about to stop Charlebois or Clapin. Remember it was 1872 and the railroad had just arrived in Jamestown and the Fort Seward to Fort Totten trail was just beginning.
The nuns tried to hire some of the local Jamestown residents to take them on a trip to Fort Totten. There were rumors that not all the residents at the Fort Totten agency were entirely friendly and travelers on the trail could be picked off so the brave frontiersmen passed.
After a while Sisters Charlebois and Rose Clapin gave up and returned to Montreal. The idea of a school for the young Indians as Fort Totten was put on hold.
Maj. Forbes managed to convince the Gray Nuns to try again two years later in October of 1874. This time the plan went a little smoother.
Sister Clapin was again part of the expedition which this time included Father Louis Bonin and three other Sisters and a Novice.
Instead of being left at the Jamestown Depot this time were met by the assistant Indian Agent Major James McLaughlin. McLaughlin would latter go on to serve as the agent in charge at Fort Berthold and the town of McLaughlin would be named in his honor.
He escorted the group to Fort Totten. Due to the heavy snow it took almost a week to make the trip.
The school operated by the Grey Nuns grew slowly. By 1880 the school had about 100 students, three years later it burned to the ground. They rebuilt and the school continued to grow.
The sisters also operated the hospital at Fort Totten.
Overall, the mission school and medical facility was a success. But you have to wonder how well it would have turned out if some Jamestown resident had the guts to haul the two good Sisters north two years earlier.
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Posted by: knorman on 3/10/2010 at 6:25 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Celtic Woman

Watched Prairie Public TV last night (Monday). It was pledge week so they had an excellent concert program on featuring the Celtic Women.

If you're not familar with the group my wife tells me they are four ladies, from Ireland obviously, that do tradition Irish music as well as other genres. I'll add they do an excellent job.

I particullarly like their version of the gospel classic Amazing Grace, performed with full orchestration, background choir and a whole bunch of bagpipes. The song, powered by bagpipes and orchestra, was a powerful reminder of faith, of a higher power, of the grace that gives each of us our daily life. It was a moving experience.

But I got over it by switching channels and watching "Two and a Half Men."

Posted by: knorman on 3/09/2010 at 10:30 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

A history of flooding on the Red

This column ran in the Mar. 2 edition of the Prairie Post

Enos Stutsman had a problem.
Stutsman was the Custom Agent at Pembina, Dakota Territory in the late 1860s and early 1870s. It was his job to make sure only legal goods crossed into the United States from Canada and the proper taxes or tariffs were paid.
Kind of a tough job. Stutsman, who moved about on crutches due to legs shortened by birth defects, had a crew of six at the Custom Bureau.
“We are utterly destitute,” he wrote in a letter to headquarters. “Of protection from the military and the courts.”
The nearest courts where smugglers could be prosecuted were in Yankton or St. Paul.
Stutsman asked for a military fort and a Federal Court in the northern part of the Dakota Territory.
He argued there was so little in tariffs collected that, unless they added a fort to capture smugglers and courts to give them fair trials and then impose large fines, it hardly seemed worth having a Custom Bureau in Pembina.
We don’t know how much weight the War Department gave Stutsman’s request. We do know they only authorized a fort near Pembina after it was requested by the Minnesota legislature out of concern for Indian attacks on their northern frontier.
But before the fort was built there was a little controversy. The Department of War wanted to build the fort along the Pembina River about 27 miles west of the city of Pembina and the Red River.
It seems the Red River’s propensity to flood was even known 140 years ago. This location was chosen because it hadn’t flooded in the big flood of 1825 when the Red River rose 9 feet in 24 hours.
Stutsman and others put pressure on the Army. The fort was too far away from the point where commerce was conducted, Pembina, to do any good in catching smugglers.
They got the Army to move what was later named Fort Pembina to a hill just 200 yards from the Red River. After all, that particular hill hadn’t flooded since 1851.
Other than contributing his name Enos Stutsman didn’t have anything to do with Stutsman County. He died in 1873. I have never found a record that indicates he ever set foot in the county that bears his name.
We do know that when it came to planning forts he should have bought flood insurance.
 

Posted by: knorman on 3/03/2010 at 3:51 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Floods and the Government

This column ran in the Feb. 23 edition of the Prairie Post.

It seems the snow is deep and the chance of a “high water event” exists again this year.
No one anticipates the type of flood we had last year although the amount of precipitation and how quickly the warm spring weather arrives are still unknown factors that will determine what kind of problems the James and Pipestem will create this year.
But one thing is known. The investment that was made in years past in the Jamestown and Pipestem Dams were well worth it.
Construction began on the Jamestown Dam in April of 1952. The structure was completed by the fall of 1953. It held back its first spring time runoff in the spring of 1954.
The spring runoff from nearly 1,300 square miles of land is held behind the dam and then released in a controlled manner.
The Jamestown Dam was a bargain to build with construction costs of about $2 and a total cost, including the acquisition of the land and other costs, of about $4.7 million in 1952. Adjusted for inflation that is about $36 million in today’s dollars.
Construction started on the Pipestem Dam in June of 1971 and was completed two years later. The Pipestem Dam holds back the runoff from nearly 600 square miles.
I couldn’t find the costs associated with construction of the Pipestem Dam but they are probably comparable to the Jamestown Dam costs.
And through the decades these two earthen structures have saved hundreds of millions of dollars in flood damage.
And the saving in damage to property is probably minor when compared to the human suffering associated with floods.
The Jamestown Dam was a project of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Pipestem Dam was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Obviously both agencies of our Federal government.
The two structures are examples of the types of projects we rely on the National government to accomplish. In this case, and in many others, the Federal government has demonstrated its ability to provide a service that improves the lives of its citizens.
The next time you hear someone state that the government never gets anything right you might want to remind them that much of Jamestown would have been under water last spring if it hadn’t been for Federal programs.
Our government isn’t perfect, nothing in life is. But when it sets out to provide a necessary service that can be accomplished no other way it shines.
Sorry, I got on my soapbox a little bit this week. I’ll get back to the history of the region next week.
 

Posted by: knorman on 2/24/2010 at 6:38 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink

I didn't know the Jimmies had a Bobsled Team

It sure looks like Jamestown College to me, but what do I know, I went to VCSU.

Actually it's the Dutch two man bobsleigh team at the olympics.

But if JC did have a bobsled team I'm pretty sure this is how it would look.

Posted by: knorman on 2/22/2010 at 9:54 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Naming a State

This column ran in the Feb. 16, 2010 edition of the Prairie Post

The debate on statehood for the Dakota Territory seemed to have drug on for decades. Politics had divided the move from territory to statehood. It was assumed at the time that the area would elect Republicans when given a chance to vote for Senators and Congressmen.
The Republicans in Washington wanted to bring the Dakota Territory in as two states and double the number of Senators the region would send east. The Democrats in Washington wanted, at most, a single state sending two Senators to the Capital.
That all changed with the election of Republican Benjamin Harrison as President in 1888. To add to the change in the power base the GOP gained control of the House of Representatives in that same election.
There was even concern the President may call a special early session of Congress to pass the statehood legislation. While this didn’t materialize it did start a scramble in the Dakotas to be prepared when the Federal Government changed the status of the region from one territory to two states.
It seems South Dakota was better prepared and had a constitution ready to be adopted as soon as it officially could. North Dakota wasn’t that prepared.
On Dec. 5, 1888 a public convention was called in Jamestown “for the purpose of considering questions of vital importance, particularly the calling of a constitutional convention and securing an early admission into the Union.”
The meeting was open to any public spirited man; women need not apply, and was called to order by E.P. Wells as the chairman of the Jamestown citizens committee.
The group ultimately elected former territorial governor Gilbert A. Pierce as chairman. And while they had no legal authority they did resolve, by unanimous vote, a few things.
They asked the northern part of the Dakota Territory be admitted as a state as soon as possible and it be called North Dakota. They also resolved a Constitutional Convention be authorized by the Territorial Legislature sometime after it convenes in January of 1889.
And they invited South Dakota, Montana and Washington to also seek statehood along with North Dakota.
I bring this up because Jamestown seems to have a history of being the first to use the name “North Dakota” to reference this region. In fact, it was used as a geographical reference when used as the title of the “North Dakota Hospital for the Insane” in 1885.
The convention in 1888 in Jamestown indicates the public wanted statehood and wanted that state named North Dakota.
Which has got to make you wonder a little bit about the creativity of this state’s early leaders.
After more than 25 years as the Dakota Territory the best we could come up with was the north part of the territory. I’m not one to rewrite history and I believe, after nearly 125 years, changing the state’s name would be ridicules.
But would we have warmer winters if they had called the state Fiji?
 

Posted by: knorman on 2/17/2010 at 2:41 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Another favorite auther dies

I just read that Dick Francis, an English mystery writer, has just died at the age of 89. I've enjoyed his work for many years although his writings from the 1970s and 80s was decidedly better than more recent efforts.

Many believe his books suffered in quality after his wife died in 2000 leading some to speculate she may have played a big part in the creation of the novels.

Dick Francis was a steeplechase jockey over in England years ago. I believe he even rode one of the Queen's horses to victory in some big race decades ago. When he retired he turned to mystery writing with most of his books set in the European horse racing world.

His latest work came out just a few months ago and lists his son Felix as a co-writer.

A few weeks ago Robert B. Parker, another of my favorite authors, died. Now Dick Francis. If this keeps up Stuart Woods and Bernard Cornwell will pay me not to like their books anymore.

Posted by: knorman on 2/15/2010 at 9:43 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink