The following sketches represent the old settlers of Fargo, North Dakota. These sketches were written in 1909 while most of the men were still alive. They are, unfortunately, very brief.
J. B. Chapin
J. B. Chapin was born in Genesee County, New York, January 22, 1822, resided in his native state until 1852. In 1871 Mr. Chapin came to the Red River, locating first at Oakport, and then at Moorhead, where he engaged in the hotel business, and in 1873 came to Fargo to take charge of the Headquarter Hotel. In 1874 he had the largest tract of land in Cass County under cultivation. Chapin never did anything by halves; his farm eventually became part of the city; raised as high as 30,000 bushels of wheat per annum. He engaged largely in building and in real estate operations. He built the opera house, blocks and stores, and residences, including the Continental Hotel. He was mayor from 1880-81, and it is said that he did more than any other man for the booming of Fargo.
Andrew McHench
Andrew McHench was born in New York in 1832 and moved to Ohio in 1854. He graduated at Antioch College when the venerable Horace Mann was president. In 1857 he located at Henderson, Minn. There he was engaged in mercantile pursuits. He went to Minneapolis in 1866 and from there to the Red River Valley in the fall of 1870, settling at Elm River with his family in the spring and at Fargo on July 3, 1871. Here he plowed two acres of his claim in 1871, raised his first crop of grain in 1873, and brought the first reaper to the valley. Mr. McHench has been prominently identified with almost every public enterprise here since the city of Fargo was founded. The need for space will not permit us to say all that we would like to about him.
James Holes
James Holes was born in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, January 29, 1845. He located in Fargo on July 18, 1871. Educated in common schools of Pennsylvania and New York; married in 1887 to Rhoda Harrison and they are the parents of three children. Mr. Holes is an independent in politics. His name and what he has accomplished, appears so frequently in these volumes, that a longer sketch would be superfluous.
Captain George Egbert
Captain George Egbert was the first mayor of Fargo and served five terms consecutively. He was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, November 15, 1820. He was largely engaged in mining in his early life; located in Fargo on July 5, 1871. In connection with George Benz of St. Paul, he built the first brick block in our city in 1878. Previous to this he built the best frame business building in Fargo, which was used at that period for a Masonic lodge. He was interested in the Egbert, Haggart & O’Neil addition to Fargo, and in the $16,000 hotel erected thereon.
John E. Haggart
John E. Haggart came to the county early in 1871, and in August located the Haggart farm, five miles west of Fargo. In 1872 an election was held to recommend a candidate for appointment as sheriff. Mr. Haggart received eighty-five out of the ninety-four votes cast. He was away, however, when the county was organized, and another was appointed. In 1874 he was chosen sheriff by a vote of 216 to 91; in 1876 by 300 to 12; in 1878 by 869 to 1; in 1880 by 1,235 to 0; in 1882 a practically unanimous vote, and in 1884 by 2,915 to 1,271 for his two opponents. Mr. Haggart was deputy United States marshal most of the time for twelve years. His name appears many times in the history of the valley.
Terrance Martin
Terrance Martin moved up a stock of goods from the Pacific Junction and established the first store at Fargo. This was in November, 1871. In 1872 he built the Sherman House, which was replaced by the late one in 1877. He was a Democrat and held the office of register of deeds. He farmed extensively.
Harry O’Neil
Harry O’Neil was born in Liverpool in 1839 and came to New York in 1859. He spent five years in the Hudson River railroad office and later was employed with the construction or operation of the Union Pacific road. In 1871 he came to Fargo, locating here in December. Possessing great faith in Fargo and its future, he erected houses and blocks and was engaged with Chapin in the building of the Continental Hotel and was connected with Haggart and Egbert in the construction of the Windsor; was a subscriber to the stock of the iron works, electric light, street cars, etc. At the present time, his interests are large and varied.
Gordon J. Keeney
Gordon J. Keeney was born in Erie, Monroe County, Michigan, in 1846. After graduating from the law department of the Michigan University, he was admitted to practice in that state. He came to Minnesota, was admitted at St. Paul, and went to Duluth and opened a law office, but the farther West appealed to him, and in 1871, July 5, he crossed the Red River on a raft four miles north of where Fargo is now. Mr. Keeney secured the appointment of United States postmaster at a point on the river, near the crossing of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and established his office on what afterwards became his homestead, and part of the town site of the city of Fargo. In 1872 he was admitted to the bar of North Dakota and received the appointment of United States attorney for the third district Territory of Dakota, which position he held for two years. Associated with A. J. Harwood, he edited and published the “Fargo Express.” He was active in the organization of the forming of the County of Cass. Mr. Keeney was very prominent and active in the building up of Fargo and was a close second to Mr. Chapin. He has always kept well posted in the affairs of his adopted town and is looked upon today as the historian of Fargo.
S. G. Roberts
S. G. Roberts was born at Brooks, Waldo County, Maine, in 1843, lived on a farm until the age of sixteen, enlisted in the Seventeenth Massachusetts Infantry in 1861, and was admitted to the bar at Minneapolis in 1871. He came to Fargo in January, 1872.
Hon. Nahum B. Pinkham
Hon. Nahum B. Pinkham. Mr. Pinkham was born in Anson, Somerset County, Maine, August 21, 1842, reared and resided on a farm until 1868, with the exception of the time spent in the Civil War. He enlisted in 1863 and served in Company H, Nineteenth Maine Regiment until the close of the war. He passed a long and honorable service and was wounded at the Battle of Spotsylvania. In 1871 he came to Cass County, Dakota, and took up land as a homestead; he was admitted to the bar at the first term of court, but he has made farming his chief business. He was married February 6, 1875, to Miss Rose E. Knapp; they have five children. Mr. Pinkham was the first county attorney elected in Cass County and was in the legislature in 1889, and 1890 in the senate.
Clement A. Lounsberry
Clement A. Lounsberry. Colonel Lounsberry was born of New York and New England ancestry in DeKalb County, Indiana, March 27, 1843. When the War of the Rebellion broke out, Colonel Lounsberry was a homeless boy, working on a farm in Michigan. He enlisted as a private and was at Alexandria the morning Ellsworth was killed and was with Grant in his last campaign. Colonel Lounsberry’s war record is a brilliant one, and want of space prevents giving his entire record, which has already been given in “Michigan in the War,” published by the state of Michigan. In civil life, Colonel Lounsberry was four years County Auditor of Martin County, Minnesota; ten years postmaster at Bismarck; four years director on the penitentiary board, and for many years has been a special agent of the land office. To Colonel Lounsberry is due the credit of establishing the first newspaper in North Dakota, and he is widely known as a newspaper writer, author, and publisher. He conducted the “Bismarck Tribune” for years, the “Record-Magazine” at Fargo, and at the present time is a generous contributor to magazines, books, and papers. The statement can truthfully be made that Colonel Lounsberry is the historian of our state.
Jacob Lowell
Jacob Lowell came to Fargo on October 11, 1870, in company with H. S. Back. Mr. Lowell played an important part, not only in the early history of Fargo, but in its growth and development.
Newton K. Hubbard
Newton K. Hubbard was born in Hampden County, Massachusetts, December 17, 1839, the son of George J. and Marian (Adams) Hubbard, natives of Massachusetts and Connecticut. His father was a farmer and passed his life in New England, and reared a family of five children. His paternal grandfather was Captain George Hubbard of Revolutionary fame and was a member of the Connecticut troops. Mr. Hubbard of this sketch attended the schools of his native state and the Providence Conference College in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. He taught school in Painesville, Ohio, until the spring of 1861, when he enlisted in Company D, Seventh Ohio Volunteers. He saw service of three years and three months, first with the Army of the Potomac, and later with the Army of Tennessee. He was taken prisoner and confined for nine months, and was finally exchanged in the spring of 1863. He was in many engagements after that, and was finally mustered out at Cleveland, Ohio. Later Mr. Hubbard made his home in Geneva, Ohio, and in 1870 went to Duluth, Minnesota, and in the fall of the same year came to the Red River Valley and located on the Elm River and carried the dispatch from Mr. Cook, which located the railroad at that place. In company with Jacob Lowell, he located at that point.
In 1871 he purchased at St. Paul a stock of general merchandise and under the firm name of Hubbard & Raymond opened a store at Oak Lake, and successfully carried on stores at Brainerd, Moorhead, Glyndon, and Jamestown. At the end of two years, the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Hubbard remained in business in Moorhead for some time. In 1874 he formed a partnership with his bookkeeper, E. S. Tyler, and they opened a store at Fargo. This continued until 1882. Mr. Hubbard had previously disposed of his store at Moorhead, and Hubbard and Tyler built the Headquarters Hotel in sixty days. He bought Mr. Tyler’s interest in 1880 and conducted it successfully and sold it out in 1882. For some years after that, he was in the real estate and banking business and was one of the organizers of the First National Bank. In 1875 Mr. Hubbard was married to Elizabeth C. Clayton, and they have had one daughter.
Biography of Newton K. Hubbard of Fargo North Dakota
Edward M. Darrow, M.D.
Edward M. Darrow, M.D. The pioneer physician and surgeon of Fargo and the Red River Valley was born in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, January 16, 1855, the son of Daniel C. and Isabelle (Murry) Darrow.
Dr. Darrow was reared in his native town, where he attended school. In 1874, before leaving college, he began the study of medicine, and the following year entered the Rush Medical College of Chicago, from which he graduated in 1878. He commenced to practice at Fargo in the spring of that year and has practiced his profession here continuously since.