DUGALD H. McARTHUR. Probably no man in Bottineau county has been more closely identified with its business development and growth than Dugald H. McArthur, the prosperous druggist of Bottineau.
Mr. McArthur was born in Ontario, Canada, June 16, 1864. His father, Duncan McArthur, was born in Scotland in 1810, and was a shipbuilder on the Clyde. The mother of our subject, also a native of Scotland, was born in 1820. Several of her relatives took part in the battle of Waterloo. Seven children were born to this worthy couple, all of whom, together with the parents, are now living in Bottineau county. There are five sons and two daughters, all but one of whom are married.
Mr. McArthur was reared on the farm in Canada, and attended the country schools. At the age of eighteen he obtained a position on a drug store at Toronto, and there learned the business. He accompanied the family to North Dakota in 1885. The father took up farming, but our subject opened a drug business in the old town of Bottineau, it being one of the very first drug stores in that town. The next year he removed the building to the new town of Bottineau, and was the first man to begin business in the town, and sold the first goods ever sold there. His building was 14x18 feet. He removed to his present location in 1887, and the following year one of the worst fires that ever visited the town burned his building and stock, along with a number of the best buildings in the town. His loss was total, having no insurance. He at once started in business again, and in 1892 again removed to his present location, having built a store 24x40 feet, with residence apartments in the rear. He carries a complete line of drugs, druggists' sundries and cigars, and has made his business a success from the start, and notwithstanding his severe loss by fire he has prospered steadily.
Mr. McArthur was married, in 1888, to Miss Amelia H. Knapp. of Hamilton, Ontario. Mrs. McArthur is an accomplished musician, and taught music for several years. Her parents are Canadians, the family having lived there for many generations. To Mr. and Mrs. McArthur two children have been born, namely, Lottie and John. Mr. McArthur is a Democrat, and has been active in public affairs since coming to the county. He was appointed postmaster in 1895, and served three years, and has been either postmaster or deputy postmaster almost continuously since beginning business in the county. He is also a land owner, and in 1896 took government land, and went through the claim shanty experience along with other pioneers of the county. He is popular and highly esteemed throughout the county.
JOHN McKINNON, a resident of Omemee, Bottineau county, was born on a farm in Scotland, in 1867, and preserves the best traditions of his race. His father, Isaac McKinnon. was a farmer, and brought his family to America in 1875. He settled in Ontario, and the subject of this article grew to manhood. His parents, true to Scottish notions that nothing was too good for their children, did what they could for the children that had come to them. John was the second in a family of seven children that attained their majority and in so large a family parental opportunities were limited. But John was sent to the public school, and afterward to the Globe Business College at St. Paul, from which he was graduated in the business course. He came to North Dakota in 1883 and settled in Grand Forks county. There he spent three years engaged in farming wherever he could find employment. He became familiar with the country and in 1886 located in Bottineau county. not far from Omemee. He was encouraged to persuade his parents and all the family to come out and take their chances. They did so and have never lived to regret the change. He took government land, "batched" it, and in 1887 harvested his first wheat crop. The yield was twenty-five bushels to the acre. The next year his crops were an entire failure owing to late cold spells. In 1895 he found his star year, harvesting thirty-four bushels to the acre.
From 1889 to 1891 Mr. McKinnon spent much of his time engaged in railroading in Montana . There were exceptional opportunities for work at that time and he was not willing to let them go by. In the fall Mr. McKinnon, in company with his brother, Donald, F. W. Cathro and W. M. Mcintosh, started the Omemee State Bank. It was opened for business October 2, 1899, with F. W. Cathro, president, and Donald McKinnon. vice-president. John McKinnon is now the proprietor of a farm of three hundred and forty acres, with two hundred acres under cultivation. He is a Republican and belongs to the Brotherhood of American Yeomen.
LEVI MELLON, a successful farmer of Bottineau county. North Dakota, whose home is in township 161, range 76, was born on a farm in Ontario, Canada, in 1858. His father, Charles Mellon, was a blacksmith, and later in life became a farmer. He was born in Boston. Massachusetts, of Irish parentage, and married Lucy Gittey, a native of Ontario of Irish descent.
Levi Mellon is the fourth in a family of ten children, and from early boyhood was inured to hard work. He had very fair schooling, both in the country and in the village, and when eighteen left_ home to care for himself, and entering the lumber woods of Michigan presently became an expert lumberman. He put in some fourteen years in the woods and on the drives, and came to North Dakota in the spring of 1882. He spent a year en Forest river at Grafton, and March 27, 1883, landed in Bottineau county, driving overland from Grafton, and "squatted" on his present location March 27, 1883.
He was married to Miss Pool in 1876. She died in May, 1898, and was the mother of nine children: Fred. Stanley, Ethel. Ida, Irene, Mont, Dora and Forbus, all born in Canada. Much of the family success may fairly be attributed to Mrs. Mellon.
In 1883 Mr. Mellon put a log house on the site of the present home, and hauled all his supplies from Devil's Lake with ox teams, one hundred miles away. There he also marketed his first wheat. He has had good crops and poor. In 1888 untimely frosts caused the absolute failure of his wheat, but, take it all into consideration, he has done grandly well. Mr. Mellon went into the threshing machine business and has carried it on some ten years. In 1896 a fire was started from his engine, and before it could be extinguished burned up four hundred dollars' worth of grain, for which he had to pay. Today he is the owner of nine hundred and sixty acres of land, well cultivated and highly improved, and makes one of the largest farms in this part of the state. About eight hundred acres are under the plow. A never failing water supply for the stock is found in Oak creek that crosses the farm from north to south, and never runs dry. He has a good house, a barn put up in 1896 with stone basement and ample outbuildings. During the harvest he runs four binders and the farm is a busy place. Mr. Mellon is a Democrat and a member of the Independent Carder of Odd Fellows, the Yeomen and the Independent Order of Foresters.
WARREN M. MOORE, an intelligent and well-to-do farmer, whose residence is in township 161, range 75, was born on a farm in Ontario, Canada, April 11, 1862, and is a son of William S. Moore, a native of New Jersey, of Irish descent, and a life-long farmer. The Moore family has been in this country since before the Revolution. Rachel (Thompkins) Moore, the mother of the subject of this article, was of German descent, and was born in New York, her family having long been settled in that country.
Mr. Moore is the fourteenth in a family of fifteen children, reared on the farm in Canada, and as the statement of such a family might suggest there was work for all. He grew up accustomed to hard work and has much to be thankful for in the fact that as a boy and a young man he was familiar with labor. He remained on the home farm until he had attained his majority, and soon after this he came to North Dakota to seek a home. In 1884 he took a farm three miles northwest of the city of Bottineau, and put up a shanty made of boards from Turtle Mountains, there being a sawmill there at that time. The following year he put up a larger shanty, and bought a yoke of oxen and a plow, and began the preparation of his farm. In 1885 he raised his first crop of five hundred bushels of wheat and three hundred of oats. The next summer he rented his farm and worked out all the season, and in the fall went back to Ontario. In 1888 he returned to North Dakota, sold his claim and worked through the season. That fall he bought another farm, and cultivated it for several years with poor success. In 1895 he sold it and bought his present home, a farm of three hundred and twenty acres, six miles south of Bottineau, and put up a complete set of buildings. From this tune his progress towards financial ease and independence has been rapid. He now owns four hundred and eighty acres, and has all but about one hundred acres under cultivation. He has a good outfit of machinery and six first-class horses. Upon his farm are a few small natural groves. These he is enlarging, and has great hopes for them. He is a Democrat and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.
JOHN F. MORRISON, the popular county treasurer of Bottineau county. North Dakota, and a resident of Bottineau, is one of the most successful farmers of this portion of the state and has conquered success in the face of apparently insurmountable obstacles. He was born on a farm in Canada, in 1866, and belongs to a good old Scotch family. His parents. Norman and Annie (Nicholson) Morrison, were born in Scotland, married there and came to Canada in 1840.
John F. Morrison is the seventh in a family of eleven children and was brought up on a farm. He attended country school and followed the migrations of his parents until he was twenty-five years old. They removed to Michigan in 1866 and made their home in Marquette county for some years. Their next location was in Blue Earth county, Minnesota, and here our subject finished his education in the Mankato schools. They went to Manitoba in the fall of 1872 and lived there for some fifteen or twenty years. Here Mr. Morrison struck out for himself and secured a position in a wholesale house in Winnipeg, which he held for some five years. In the spring of 1892 he appeared in North Dakota as a prospective settler and liking it located on a farm in Bottineau county, some ten miles south of the thriving young city of that name.
He was married, in 1888, to Miss Ellen Theresa Ferguson. She was born in Ontario, and is of mingled Scotch, English and German blood. Her people were born in America, though her grandfather was a native of London, England, and her grandmother of Scotland. She was a very successful school teacher in North Dakota and is a lady of much ability.
Mr. Morrison located on government land and put up a shanty of straw and logs. He had an ox-team and a wagon, with twenty-rive cents in money, which represented about all his total assets when he began business as a Dakota farmer. He spent much of 1892 and 1893 in Colorado and in 1894 harvested his first crop of two hundred and eighty bushels of wheat from thirty acres. 1895 was the great wheat year, when it ran forty bushels to the acre. The last four years it has averaged each year fifteen bushels to the acre. He has carried on a general grain and stock farming and now owns four hundred and eighty acres, with two hundred and thirty under cultivation. He has good buildings and ample machinery, and some twenty-five head of stock. He is a Democrat and was elected county treasurer in 1898 by the Fusionists. He is an active worker in political affairs and is a Mason. He has faced prairie fires in the early days, spent nights in blizzards and knows every phase of pioneering by personal experience.
NILS P. NORDIN, county auditor of Bottineau county, and a substantial agriculturist and pioneer of the county, resides on his well-equipped farm east of the city of Bottineau, and is one of the best known men in this section of the state.
Mr. Nordin was born in Sweden, December 9, 1861, on a farm in the northern part of that kingdom. He is the third child of his father's second marriage. His father was a merchant in early life, but afterward retired to the farm. He died in his native land. The mother of our subject was Margaret Christena, also a native of Sweden.
Nils P. Nordin was reared on the farm and attended the common schools and then took a four-years advanced course in high school, receiving a good education. The farm on which he was reared was near the sea and he amused himself in fishing and sailing during his boyhood days. After he had finished his education he went to sea, first sailing to Scotland and then Montevideo, South America, then to Buenos Ayres, returning to Belgium and home. The next summer he sailed to France, next to London, England, and then to Quebec, Canada. At the mouth of the St. Lawrence river he had a narrow escape from a watery grave. The vessel ran into the ice and was wedged in and for eight days and nights they were compelled to pump to save the vessel from sinking.
Mr. Nordin lived about two years at Three Riers. province of Quebec, Canada, and during that time obtained a knowledge of the French language. He then came to the United States and located in Houghton county, Michigan, where for two years he was employed by a wholesale liquor, grocery and merchandise store. He also spent some time in the lumber woods of Michigan. In the spring of 1883 he left Calumet, Michigan, and came to Bottineau county by way of Winnipeg, Manitoba City and St. Johns, North Dakota, and from that point he came on foot to Bottineau county. He took up government land east of the city of Bottineau and for the first six or seven years lived the life of a pioneer bachelor. His first team was a yoke of oxen and with these he farmed until 1888. At the time of his settlement supplies had to be hauled from Devils Lake, and many times he made these trips with oxen and accompanied by half-breed Indians. He is now the owner of a farm of three hundred and twenty acres of land, about fifty of which is under cultivation, and the rest devoted to pasture and hay lands. He has a comfortable residence, with good barn, granary and all machinery for farm work, including a threshing outfit.
Mr. Nordin was married, in 1890. to Miss Rosalee Juneau. Mrs. Nordin was born in Merrill. Wisconsin, and is of French descent. Her parents came to the United States from Canada and her father's uncle, Solomon Juneau, founded the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mrs. Nordin was educated at St. Joseph's Academy, of St. Paul. Minnesota, and is an accomplished musician and artist. To Mr. and Mrs. Nordin five children have been born, named in order of birth as follows: Peter A., Lawrence O., Rosa M., Norman P. and Maria C, all born on the farm in Bottineau county.
Mr. Nordin takes an active part in public affairs of the county and adheres to the Democratic faith in political matters. He has been chosen to fill various local offices and in 1898 was elected county auditor, in which capacity he is now serving. He is popular throughout the county and is an efficient and able official.
PETER SCOTT, the popular register of deeds of Bottineau county, and a resident of Bottineau, was born in county Lesje, Gudbrandsdalen, Norway, June 16, 1874. and was reared on a farm. His father, Paul Scott, was an infantry captain in the Norwegian army and is still living. He has been in the army since he was eighteen years old, and as an officer and soldier has a high reputation. Peter Scott, the grandfather of our subject, was a farmer and a man of character and standing. Captain Scott married Gertrude Nyhus. whose parents were engaged in the cultivation of the soil. She bore him four children and died when his oldest boy, Peter, was six years old. The bereaved soldier kept his family together and sent them to school for the next seven rears. Peter at this time was a manly lad and desired to make a way for himself. He went into a store at Lesje, where he worked two years for his board and two years for wages. In 1891 he went into the southern part of Norway and engaged with a mercantile firm for two years. He determined about this time to seek a home in America, and June 16, 1893, he landed in New York City on his nineteenth birthday. He was alone in a new world, but he knew his fortune was to be found here by industry and courage. He spent some time in Chippewa and Barron counties, Wisconsin. For two winters he worked in lumber camp. In the spring he was on log drives and in the summer on neighboring farms.
Mr. Scott made his first appearance in Bottineau county in the spring of 1895 and did farm work the following summer. In the fall he worked ten weeks with a threshing machine crew. In the winter he worked with W. H. Mcintosh & Company, in their general store and also in the Patrons' Exchange. In this latter establishment he was a clerk until the fall of 1897. He had learned the English tongue and as he was fluent in the three Scandinavian languages, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, he was regarded as an invaluable clerk. In 1897 Mr. Scott returned to the employment of Mcintosh & Company and spent the next two years with them. November 5, 1899, he was appointed register of deeds in place of F. A. Thomas, resigned. The appointment was bestowed upon him by a unanimous vote, and he is now serving to the satisfaction of the patrons of the office. He is a Republican and for a young man he is exerting much influence in political matters. He is quite a fraternal society man and is a familiar figure in the gatherings of the Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Knights of the Maccabees. In this last order he has served as commander for four terms. He belongs to the Lutheran church and is recognized as a man of character and much promise in the community.
Mr. Scott and Miss May L. King were married February 12, 1900. She was born in Canada and is of English blood. She is a lady of much character and education and was a teacher in the public schools for five years preceding her marriage. She began teaching when only sixteen and retains her interest in everything that relates to the public school. Mr. Scott owns a farm of two hundred acres and his wife has a quarter-section in her own right, so that she may justly regard herself as an equal partner in the matrimonial firm. Her father died in Canada and her mother removed to Manitoba with three children: May L., Florence L. and Albert. Presently the mother brought her little family to North Dakota and settled on government land and lived in a claim shanty for a few years. They passed through pioneer experiences in good shape. Mr. and Mrs. Scott are both young and shape. Mr. and Mrs. Scott are both young and full of life and energy and face the future bravely and hopefully as they have a right to do.
EDWIN SIMS, an active and influential citizen of the growingvillage of Omemee, has won an enviable standing in Bottineau county and is regarded as a men whose personal character and business reputation are beyond reproach. He was born on a farm in Ontario, Canada, in 1855, and is a scion of a good old English family. His father, Thomas Sims, was born in London, England, and came to America when a twelve-year-old lad. Thomas Sims, his father and the grandfather of Edwin, brought the family to Canada, thinking that in the larger opportunities of the New World all his children might attain the dignity and comfort fate seemed to deny them in old England. Sarah Pettit, the mother of Edwin Sims, was born in Ontario and was of German descent. Her mother was born in New York.
Edwin Sims is the sixth in a family of fourteen children and was reared on the farm and attended the country schools until eighteen. At that age he took his own support upon himself, and left home to play a man's part in the drama of life. He worked at farm labor and spent the next two years in the lumber regions of Michigan , He was married, in 1879, to Miss Alice M. King. She was born in Ontario , and her father, Henry M. King, was a farmer. He was born in England, and her mother was a native of Scotland . The young husband and bride remained in Canada four years engaged in farming. In 1884 they came to North Dakota and settled in Bottineau county, near Lord's Lake. The first year Mr. Sims was alone, and lived in a claim shanty 14x20 feet. He drove overland with an ox-team from Devils Lake . His wife came on in the spring of 1885. She had spent the previous winter in Ontario . For a time they did not get on well, the gophers doing the harvesting for him. In 1887 he had a fine yield, and from that time on has made rapid progress. In 1885 he hauled his own goods with oxen from Devils Lake and slept out of doors, in 1888 late frosts ruined the crops and he had to buy feed even for his chickens. That stands in his memory as the hardest year he ever passed. In 1887 he took a homestead near Willow City , moved there and made it his home. In 1889 and in 1890 his crops were light, but in 1891 he had over twenty-five bushels of wheat to the acre. In 1892 it was twenty bushels to the acre, and the next year fourteen. In 1895 he had seven thousand bushels of grain, the wheat averaging forty-three and a half bushels to the acre. He owned at this time a half-section of land, had it under good cultivation and well fitted out for successful work. In 1897 he was appointed postmaster at Omemee. He sold out all machinery and cattle on his farm, rented the land and moved to the village. He keeps in addition to his duties as postmaster a small confectionery store, and is a popular and genial gentleman. He is a Republican and was elected justice of the peace in 1898, and is now serving in that capacity. He is quite a secret society man, and holds membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. Mr. Sims is a successful man in the best sense of the word. He has a title to over six hundred acres of land, a pleasant home in the village, a charming home life, commands the respect of the community, and is a man of honor and integrity.
THEODORE SKOTLAND. This gentleman, whose home and business are in Willow City, Bottineau county, was born in Calmar, Iowa, April 21, 1858. His father, Thore Skotland, was born in Norway, and came to America in 1834, and was in the very forefront of the great flood of Norwegian emigration that has poured such riches of brain and muscle into this country. He was the first white settler in Winneshiek county, and passed through Chicago when it was little more than a swamp. He spent a little time in Wisconsin, but northern Iowa pleased him best, and there he made his life long home. His great-grandfather came from Scotland into Norway, and the Skotland family have preserved some of the best traits of the Scotch character. He married Ingebor Land. She was born in Norway, and accompanied her husband and her father into this country. She died when Theodore was eight years old.
Mr. Skotland is the ninth in a family of ten children, and spent the first thirteen years of his life on the farm. From the age of thirteen to seventeen he attended a college at Decorah, Iowa. For about a year he worked on a farm, and then took a place as a clerk in a general store at Barnesville, Minnesota. He was there some three years, and then secured a more remunerative engagement at Pelican Rapids, in the same state and in the same line, and was there some six years. In the spring of 1886 he came to Grafton, North Dakota, and established under his own name a general store in that thrifty village. In 1888 he disposed of it, and established himself in a similar line at Willow City. He is one of the pioneer merchants of Bottineau county. In Willow City he put up, in 1888, a building 24x60 feet, and carried on his business in it until 1899. That year he constructed a store building, 46x72 feet, with double front, with every convenience the quick and profitable transaction of business may demand. He has an ice house, with refrigerator, a salt house, a flour house and sleeping room for his clerks. There is an ample store room in the rear of the main building, and a very neat office for himself. It is the largest general store in the town.
Mr. Skotland and Miss Bertha Torsen were married, in 1884. She was born in Goodhue county, Minnesota, and is of Norwegian parentage. She is the mother of six children. Walter, her oldest son, was born in Minnesota, and is a graduate of Park Region College at Fergus Falls. The others, Jasen, Arline, Lillian, Marvin and Mahlon, were all born in North Dakota. Mr. Skotland has engaged in farming and owns three farms and a tree claim. He is one of the directors of the Farmers and Merchants' Bank, and is interested in the Rossholt & Sunbery Investment Company, a new enterprise with a hopeful future. He is a Republican and served in the first city council of Willow City. He drafted the first ordinance passed by that body. He has been school director for four years or more. He has taken a leading part in local affairs, and is very popular in the community.
DUNCAN STEWART, a resident of Omemee, Bottineau county, is generally recognized as one of the representative men of this part of the state, and well deserves honorable mention among those who have done so much to convert a wild prairie into the seat of a great commonwealth. He was born on a farm in Wellington county, Ontario, July 10, 1865, and was the first born of a family of seven children bestowed upon his parents. In his youth he was familiar with hard work, and had somewhat scanty opportunities for schooling. He made the most of what came to him, however, and by wide observation and close study of human affairs has become a thoughtful and broad-minded man. When eighteen years old he left the farm and undertook the making of his own fortunes. His first work away from home was found in the lumber woods of Ontario and Minnesota. He spent nine winters in the lumber woods and seven summers on the rivers logging, and for a few months was a sailor on the great lakes.
Mr. Stewart came to North Dakota in 1887, leaving the railway at Hamilton, and walking to Willow City. On his arrival he took up a farm in township'160 north, and range 75 west. He put up a claim shanty of sod and poles. It was twelve by fourteen feet, and gave but scanty protection from the wind and storm. It was good enough, however, for a beginning. That summer he hired the breaking up of ten acres, and engaged himself in the building Of the Great Northern from Minot west to Great Falls, Montana. In the- fall he was busy threshing around Devils Lake, and in the winter went to the Minnesota lumber woods. In the following spring he came to Olga, North Dakota, and bought a yoke of oxen, a cow, a wagon and a plow, and made his way overland to his farm. That year he farmed with his father, and worked hard, but their crops were a total failure. The same thing happened the next year, and in the fall he threshed through the Red river valley. He spent the winter hauling logs from the Turtle mountains. In 1890 he again put in a crop, but it failed. He worked in the valley again in the fall, and spent the winter in Montana, walking from Shelby Junction to Kalispell, Montana, one hundred and eighty miles. He worked for several months in a saw-mill in Flat Head valley, in that state. He had a good crop in 1891, his wheat running twenty-three bushels to the acre, and its results made him much easier in money matters than he had been at any time before. He worked as before on a threshing machine during the fall, and in the winter he put up a more satisfactory habitation on his farm. He bought horses, and began farming on a more considerable scale. In 1892 his crops were good, and in the fall of 1893 he bought a threshing machine, and ran it for four years. He had a sixteen-horse-power steam engine and very complete separator, which was destroyed by fire in 1896.
Mr. Stewart went into a commercial business in 1895 with George Rea, buying the general store already established at Omemee by William Cole. In December, 1896, Mr. Rea disposed of his interest in the business to Walter Cairns, and the firm is now known as Stewart & Cairnes. This is the pioneer store of Omemee, and carries a large stock of merchandise and furniture. Mr. Stewart still holds his farm of one hundred and sixty acres. He is an independent Democrat, and is a man of the very best reputation. In 1898 he was elected county judge, and is still serving in that capacity. He is winning golden opinions from all who have anything to do with him for the fairness of his judgments and the courtesy of his administration of this important office.
Judge Stewart was united in marriage, in 1894, to Miss Annie McFarland. She was born in Wellington county, Ontario, and her father, George W. McFarland, was a farmer of Scotch blood. They are the parents of two children, Clifford A. and Jennie M. He is a Mason of high degree, and is also associated with the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. In whatever walk of life he may be met, he will be found an upright and genial gentleman.
JAMES STEWART, a prosperous Bottineau county farmer, who may be found busily engaged in planning and developing his very complete farm on section 13, township 160 north, range 75 west, was born on a farm in Western Ontario, in April, 1866, and was brought up as a farm lad in what was then quite a frontier region. His father, James Stewart, was also a farmer, and was born in Perthshire, Scotland. He was a single man when he came to Canada in 1832, but was married to Miss Betty Sinclair soon after his arrival. She was also of Scottish birth. She did not leave the old country until she was quite a mature girl of some sixteen years or more. She had two brothers who did valiant service for the cause of liberty in the Union army during the Civil war. They came to the United States for the purpose of enlisting.
James Stewart is the sixth of nine children born to his parents and grew to manhood on the family homestead. He attended the local school and when he was twenty left home and came into North Dakota seeking the fortune a new land might have in store for him. He became a squatter on his present location, and put up a claim shanty, 12x14 feet. The first year he did not attempt and farming except making such improvements as necessity compelled. The first team he secured he held in partnership with his brother. This was in the spring of 1887. He had no money, and. as he puts it. had to go slow. He farmed with oxen for the first five years, and lived alone for seven years. His first crop was harvested in 1888. Previous to that time he had worked out as best he could. He did this for four years after his coming. In 1894 a large crop put him on his feet. In that year his wheat ran twenty-six bushels to the acre; in 1892, twenty; and in 1895 it was forty-two bushels to the acre. In 1899 he harvested sixty-five hundred bushels of wheat. He is now the sole proprietor of a half-section of as fine land as may be found in the region, and rents another quarter-section. He has a good farm, thoroughly modern in all its appointments, and lives in a farm house ample and comfortable in every respect.
Mr. Stewart and Miss Annie F. Crites were married in December, 1892. She is a native of Illinois, and came to North Dakota with her father, W. Crites. He was born in Canada, and is a farmer. They are the parents of two children, Lizzie, who was born in March, 1895 ; and Willie, in August, 1899. Mr. Stewart is almost exclusively a grain farmer, though his cattle and horses are of good grade. He is a Democrat, and was elected a member of the county board in 1897. He takes a somewhat active part in political matters, and is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is an early settler in township 160 north, and brought nothing with him but his own strength and courage, and has literally conquered fortune by his own thrift and industry.
JOHN STEWART. This gentleman is the fortunate proprietor of a very handsome place in township 161, range 74 west, Bottineau county, and has greatly prospered since his coming into North Dakota. His prosperity has been largely the result of his own thrift and industry, and has come in very small degree from the favor of fortune or accident.
Mr. Stewart was born in Waterloo county, Ontario, in 1838, and was reared on a farm. His father, who also bore the name of John, was a native of Perthshire, Scotland, where he was trained to rural life. He emigrated to New York state and settled on a farm with his wife and four children. His wife bore the maiden name of Jean McLean. She was the daughter of a veteran of the English army. Young John was the youngest child, and had to endure the privations common to farm life in the early day. He attended district school in the winter, and made good use of such scanty schooling as his father could afford, and is a man of good sense and broad views of life. When he had reached the age of twenty-four he left home and secured work with the neighboring farmers, thinking it high time for him to have a thought of his own life career. He presently bought a farm of a hundred acres in Ontario, and in 1864, was married to Miss Margaret Sinclair. She was born in Invernesshire, Scotland, and came to America when a little girl. Her father, Alexander Sinclair, was a stone mason by trade. To Mr. and Mrs. Stewart have been born four children, Duncan, Catherine, John A. and Roy.
They remained on their Canadian farm ten years, and though it was in good order and well developed, it seemed all too small for their growing family. It had eighty acres under tillage, good log buildings and a fine orchard, but they sold it, and in 1874 moved to Bruce county, Ontario, and carried on a rented farm for four years. They were nine years in Lampton county, where he was both a lumberman and a farmer, spending every winter in the woods and working land in the summer. Mr. Stewart and his oldest son came to North Dakota in 1887, and located on section 74, township 160 west, Bottineau county. They put up a claim shanty, 12x14 feet, and kept house for themselves the first summer. They broke eighty acres of ground with an ox team. The following winter they spent in the lumber woods of Minnesota, and the next summer the entire family reassembled on the Dakota claim. Mr. Stewart put up better buildings, and started farming on a larger scale. Frost destroyed the crops that year, and there was absolutely nothing to sustain the family. Mr. Stewart found employment, however, and all came through alive and happy.
Mr. Stewart has experienced all phases of our genial western climate. In 1890 he was caught by a blizzard when one mile out from Willow City on his way home. He faced it five miles, and then found refuge in a cow stable. He spent the night there and part of the next day, but reached home alive and uninjured. He has fought prairie fires many times, and more than once has narrowly escaped complete destruction. He is now the owner of a fine farm of four hundred acres with a full half-section under the plow. His buildings are complete, his machinery modern and up to date, and his farm well provided with good horses. He is largely a grain farmer, and one year he harvested four thousand, four hundred and forty-eight bushels from one hundred and three bushels sown-being a yield at the rate of thirty-seven bushels to the acre. Mr. Stewart is a Democrat, and takes a lively interest in everything that concerns his own neighborhood and the county.
ROBERT B. STEWART, of Bottineau, druggist and retired farmer, is one of the best-known men in Bottineau county. He was among its earliest settlers and the extent of his farm operations and his success, together with his prominence in public affairs, have placed him in the front ranks as a citizen and member of the community.
Mr. Stewart was born on a farm in Ontario, Canada, October 7, 1859. He was the third child in a family of nine children born to Alexander Stewart and Margaret (Ferguson) Stewart, the former a native of Scotland, who came to Canada at the age of five years, and the latter born in Canada, of Scotch parentage. Robert B. Stewart was reared on a farm in Canada, in a timbered country, and worked at picking stones and grubbing and attended school in the country. At the age of twenty-three years he came to North Dakota, arriving in Bottineau county May 19, 1883. He at once located a squatter's claim two miles from the old village of Bottineau, put up a claim shanty and started farming, "batching it" for the first eighteen months. He made the first trip overland in covered wagons, there being four in the party and they all settled in the same locality. Provisions had to be hauled from Devils Lake, a distance of one hundred and eight miles. During 1885 and 1886 he spent much time working in the Red river valley and spent one year in Canada, he returned to Dakota in 1887, in the fall, bringing his parents and brother and sisters. They took government land and began farming. In 1888 our subject took a homestead claim and began farming again, and continued for ten years. His greatest crop was obtained in 1895, when his wheat yield was forty-two bushels to the acre and his oats yielded one hundred bushels per acre, his entire grain yield being ten thousand bushels with an expenditure of thirty-six dollars in all for help during the year. This small sum was paid for help in harvest. He is now the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of fine lands, two hundred and fifty of which are in cultivation annually and the balance in pasture. He devotes most attention to grain. He has a well-improved farm, equipped with all modern machinery and with ample farm buildings for housing grain, implements and stock. He engaged in threshing for seven years, owning a thresher with sixteen-horse-power engine. His highest threshing record was in 1895, when in one day he threshed thirty-five hundred bushels of grain. He was engaged in threshing fifty days that season, turning out one hundred and twenty-five thousand bushels of grain.
In 1898 Mr. Stewart's health failed and he took a trip for the purpose of recuperating and resting. He traveled through fourteen states and visited the Pacific coast, where he spent two months, returning to Bottineau county in August, 1898. In May, of the following year, he purchased the drug business of D. B. McArthur, in Bottineau, and has since conducted this business. This business was first established by Jerry Kelsey and Dr. Fisk, of Willow City. The business now occupies a building 35x40 feet, and is prospering.
Mr. Stewart was married, in 1890, to Miss Catherine McArthur. Mrs. Stewart was born in Bruce county, Ontario, Canada, her father, Duncan McArthur, being one of the old settlers of Bottineau county. To Mr. and Mrs. Stewart three children have been born, named as follows: Gladys, Luella and Irene. Mr. Stewart is a Democrat in political faith and has been active in public affairs of the county. He was chosen a delegate to the state convention of his party at Grand Forks in 1900. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and an old settler in the county. He filed for record the first deed recorded in Bottineau county.
WILLIAM STEWART. This is a name familiar to the people of Bottineau county, as that of an old and honored resident of the community, who has done his share in the conversion of a wilderness into a settled and orderly state. His father, Peter Stewart, was a farmer. He was born in Scotland and came to Canada in 1815. He died at the advanced age of eighty-three. He was a man of many good qualities, and of a most peaceable disposition. Christy McLane was the mother of the subject of this article. She was born in Scotland and came to Ontario with her husband. William was the youngest child in their family, and was reared on the farm where he had plenty of hard work to strengthen his muscles and teach him the value of well directed labor. He attended common .school but found very inferior educational advantages as compared with the privileges of the present day. He remained at home until he was twenty-six and helped his father in the care of the farm, which was an extensive place of more than four hundred acres.
William Stewart and Miss Christy McArthur were united in marriage, in 1854. She was born in Ontario, where her father, Duncan McArthur, lived and died a farmer. All her people were of Scotch nativity, and came to Canada with a colony from Scotland in 1815, and settled in Glengerry county, Ontario. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are the parents of eight children: Christine, Duncan, Maria, Jane, Alexandria, Arthur, William and George. The most of these are engaged in farming in Bottineau county.
After his marriage Mr. Stewart received a part of the homestead farm. He held this and cultivated it for twenty-nine years. It had grown to an elegant farm of two hundred acres. He had, however, a considerable family, and craved room for them to also hold homes of their own. He could find such a country in Dakota. Here he could find land for all his family, and in search of that land he appeared in Bottineau county May 17, 1883. He put up a house 16x24 feet, one a half stories high, and it was pronounced the best house in the county at the time. While building it he lived in a tent with two of his sons, and batched it after the most approved fashion. In October, 1883, the family came on and spent their first winter in Dakota. On New Year's day Mr. Stewart gave a party to all settlers in the neighborhood. It was the first large social gathering in the country. They were all strangers and were very glad to get acquainted with each other. That day is an epoch in the neighborhood.
Mr. Stewart gathered his first crop in 1884. It was of small acreage, but yielded well, and he was encouraged to keep on in a course of extensive improvements. He has never had a total failure, and in 1900 he harvested his sixteenth crop. Including what the sons have, the Stewart farms now consist of nineteen hundred and twenty acres, sixteen htm-clrcd acres prairie, and there is ample forest growth on balance for fuel for all time to come. They have abundant buildings, comfortable and convenient homes, and ample supply of machinery, including a steam thresher and other costly implements. They have good horses and well-bred cattle and are convinced that the Dakota air is good for men with nerve and determination to succeed.
Mr. Stewart is a Populist, and has been justice of the peace almost from the time he entered the county. He is a Baptist and a strong temperance man. having no patience with the saloon interest in any shape or manner. He is among the early settlers of the county, and has done his part to help onward every good enterprise which has been under taken since his coming. He has endured the privations of early settlement, and is now enjoying the comforts to which he is well entitled, living on his farm within one mile of the thriving village of Bottineau, Bottineau county.
GEORGE TAYLOR. This popular and successful citizen of Omemee, Bottineau county, was born on a farm in Ontario, Canada, October 26, 1860, and was reared as a child as farmer people might expect. His father, John Taylor, was a farmer and wood worker, and at times was largely interested in somewhat speculative investments. The family line runs back to Scotch and English springs, and before John Taylor settled in Canada he was a resident of the state of Illinois. He married Margaret McClaren. She was born in Scotland, and came to Canada with her parents about 1840.
George Taylor was the first born in a family of six children, and learned valuable lessons of endurance and economy in his boyhood on the Canadian farm. He was given a very good common-school education, and remained with his parents until 1883. That year he came to North Dakota and was engaged as a carpenter for the first year after his entrance into the state in Grand Forks county and city. He was employed on the buildings of the University of North Dakota. In 1884, when the construction of these buildings was completed, he spent some time in Walsh county, and in the fall of that year located on a farm in Bottineau county, five and a half miles east of Omemee. Mr. Taylor, his father, William Halls, James Smith, who is now in Washington, and W. D. Davidson, now in California, came in together. They had a tent, and spent much time in hunting along the road. It was a holiday journey to be succeeded by hard work. In the spring of 1885 Mr. Taylor put up a frame shanty, 12x16 feet, with lumber hauled from Devils Lake, and that season broke fifty-four acres with oxen.
Our subject was married, December 31, 1886, to Miss Carlinda Bowerman, at that time a resident of Wisconsin . Her father was of pure German blood, and her grandfather brought the family to Canada about the time of the war of 1812. Mrs. Taylor has more than the usual musical ability, and is the mother of three girls, Inez M., Laura J. and Gertrude M., all natives of North Dakota . He brought his wife by railroad to Walsh county, and thence by ox team to their future home in Bottineau county, and was nine days on the road. They took hold bravely of the work of making a home in the wilderness, though they had every variety of trouble almost, have come through grandly and successfully. In 1886 gophers almost completely destroyed their crops. Prairie fires have swept across their grain fields and meadows, frosts have ruined their tender crops,-but they are alive and happy, and proud of the state of their choice. In 1886 Mr. Taylor had a narrow escape. He was getting out wood on the Turtle mountains when a prairie fire suddenly swept around the hills, and only by driving his oxen and wagon into the waters of a small lake did he escape and save his team. During the fifteen years Mr. Taylor has been in the state his wheat crops have averaged him fifteen bushels to the acre. One year he had an average yield of fifty-one bushels to the acre, and the same year his oats went one hundred and fifteen bushels, in 1894 his wheat was only four bushels to the acre. He kept his home on the farm until 1897, when he moved into the village of Omemee and started in the machine business. In the spring of 1900 he joined his energies with those of David Keller, and the new firm put up a building 24x100 feet, and at once commanded the largest trade in farm machinery throughout the county. Mr. Taylor still retains his half-section of land, of which he keeps two hundred and sixty-six acres in cultivation and uses the remainder for pasture. His farm house is a two-story building, 18x26 feet, and a kitchen twelve feet square. He also has two granaries, 16x18 and 16x24 feet, and a barn 20x40 feet. It is a well equipped and improved farm and reflects credit upon its owner. Mr. Taylor is a Republican, and was appointed deputy assessor in 1886. He served three years, and was the first man in the neighborhood to fill that office. He was school treasurer and clerk eleven years. He is a Mason and belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. He is a man of character, and is highly respected where-ever known.
ELISHA B. TURNER, a farmer, and a resident of township 161, range 76, was born on a farm in Middlesex county, Canada, March I3, 1859. His father. Era Turner, is a farmer and a Baptist preacher. Fie is a native of New Brunswick and is of English blood. His father brought the family to America. Mrs. Hellen (Haeman) Turner, the mother of Elisha B., was born in Ontario and was descended from Dutch ancestors.
Mr. Turner is the second in a family of twelve children and was reared on a farm and was early set to hard farm work. When only twelve years old he was sent into the fields with a plow and his was a youth of toil. He attended the country schools and had a fairly good education for the times. When twenty-two years of age he was married to Mss Ella May Johnston, in January, 1882. She was born in Kent county, Ontario, and her father was of Irish blood. Her mother was an English girl. Her father was a carpenter and a farmer and was always an honest and industrious man. Mr. and Mrs. Turner have a family of six children: Frederick A., Edith A., Charles V., Allen E., Fannie and Delia. The oldest child was born in Manitoba and the others in this state. Mr. and Mrs. Turner removed to Brandon, Manitoba, in the spring of 1882, took government land and started farming. They lived in a tent the first summer and spent the winter on the north side of Turtle mountains. Mr. Turner spent six years in Manitoba, but was attended throughout with ill success. He gave it up in the spring of 1889 and transferred himself and family to Bottineau county. North Dakota, where he took up government land and started farming afresh with a cash capital of five dollars. He had six horses, a wagon and a plow. He put up a log shanty, 14x16 feet, with a sod roof-a hard proposition to make a home out of the wilderness. But their hearts beat strong and true, and the skies were fair, and they have never had occasion to regret their coming to the state. He now owns a half section of land, with two hundred and thirty-five acres under cultivation. His house is one and a half stories high, with a foundation 16x22 feet, and an addition 12x14 feet back and face plastered. He has a granary 10x24 feet and a lean-to 14x24 feet. His machinery is ample to his needs, and, though he is largely a grain farmer, he is working into stock and horses. He now has twelve horses and thirteen head of cattle and may be said to have made a success of farming. He is independent in his political relations and is a member of the Independent Order of Foresters.
R. H. WATSON, whose home is in Willow City, Bottineau county, belongs to that large contingent that Canada has sent over to the making of Dakota. It is little enough to say that he sustains all the best traditions of his lineage. His father, John Watson, was a farmer, a native of Ireland, and came to America in 1847. His wife, Mary Dowd, was born and reared in Ireland.
R. H. Watson was the fifth in a family of eight children, and was reared on the Canadian farm. He had a common-school education, and when he attained manhood left home and took up the burden of life for himself. He was born in 1861, and in 1884 he bought land near Orangeville. and began a farming career. He was there nine years and had a farm of one hundred acres, with about ninety under cultivation and good buildings. It compared well with the neighboring places, and he was certainly successful while there. But it was too contracted. He wanted room. He sold out in the fall of 1893 made his appearance in Willow City, where he established a drug store. Two years later he moved it to his present location on Main street, and put up a handsome and commodious building 24x60 feet having drugs in front and a general store in the rear. He owns a farm of one hundred and sixty acres east of the city and engages in farming to a limited extent, and perhaps more for pleasure than for profit.
He was married to Miss Adeline Hutchinson in Canada, December 31, 1894. She was born in Peel county, Ontario, and her father, Hugh Hutchinson, was a farmer. His people were born in Ireland. She is the mother of three children, Mildred, Eva and Wilbur. Mr. Watson is an independent voter and seeks the best interests of the country rather than the promotion of party bigotry. He is a Mason and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America
CHARLES F. WOOD, a farmer in township 162. range 76 west, was born in the town of Bayfield, Huron county. Canada, in October, 1854, and is proving himself a man of energy and ability. His father, Frederick Wood, was a man of fine character, and in early life followed the profession of school teaching. When somewhat advanced in years he became an artist. He was of pure English blood, and married Isabelle Scott, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland. They came to America in early life, and had an honorable and creditable career upon the soil of the new world.
Charles F. Wood is the first born of a family of six children and was reared to manhood in Bayfield. When about thirteen years of age he was apprenticed as a house and sign painter, and worked at the trade seven years. For some five years he worked around Bayfield, and then went to Toronto where he worked two years. He was married, in 1881. to Miss Sarah Craig. She is a native of Peel county. Canada, and is proud of a Scotch strain that runs through her lineage. Her father. Stephen Craig, was a farmer. She is the mother of two children. Maggie and William. In 1882 the newly married couple moved to Northwest territory, seeking a home in the far northwest. While there Mr. Wood lived with a brother already established in the country, and was able to give Manitoba quite a thorough investigation. His decision was to come south and settle in Dakota. Accordingly in the spring of 1883 he and his wife settled in Bottineau county on government land. They drove overland from the Manitoba country with an ox team and a covered wagon. He put up a log house and a log barn, and in 1884 began extensive farming operations, having worked at his trade in Brandon the first summer of his stay in this county. In 1884 he broke twenty-seven acres, and the following year harvested his first wheat crop, which ran twenty-six bushels to the acre. His best crop of wheat was in 1891, when he harvested forty-one bushels to the acre. He has had all the trials and troubles that are incident to pioneer life. In the fall of 1886 he lost nearly forty tons of hay by prairie fire. But he persevered, and is now in very comfortable circumstances. He is a grain farmer, but is working into stock, and now owns a fine farm of three hundred and sixty acres with over two hundred acres under cultivation. It has good buildings, and is provided with ample machinery. Mr. Wood is a Democrat, and is a prominent figure in his party.
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