ND Library Association Beginnings

By CATHY A. LANGEMO

Dec. 27 — During this week in 1906, the newly organized North Dakota Library Association held its first annual meeting in Fargo.

`The year before, on December 19, 1905, the Library Association of Fargo/Moorhead invited all librarians and others interested in library work in North Dakota to meet at the Fargo Public Library on January 18, 1906.

The meeting’s purpose was to discuss organizing a State Library Association. From this invitation, a statewide library organization developed.

Twenty-two attended the January 18 meeting. Walter L. Stockwell, superintendent of public instruction and president of the Board of the Carnegie Library, Grafton, spoke, along with Max Blatt of the North Dakota Agricultural College’s library committee.

After lengthy discussion, a motion was made and passed to form the North Dakota Library Association. Frank J. Thompson of the Fargo Public Library was elected as the first president. Other officers were Alice J. MacDonald, Valley City Public Library, as vice-president and Elizabeth Abbott, Grand Forks Public Library, as secretary-treasurer.

At the first annual meeting on December 28, 1906, the main item of business was promoting legislation to establish a State Library Commission, resulting in Senate Bill No. 207 that was introduced during the 1907 Legislative session.

SB 207 provided for a commission of three members, one being the NDLA president, and for an appropriation of $1,500. It also allowed for NDLA to take over the Education Reference Library and traveling libraries from the Superintendent of Public Instruction, for the establishment of a legislative reference bureau and for keeping statistics on all North Dakota libraries. The bill passed the Legislature, with several amendments.

The second annual convention was in November 1907 in Grand Forks, with tremendous news coverage. The original officers stayed in place until 1909, when Max Blatt became president.

In 1911, the NDLA constitution was amended, enlarging the Executive Board and lengthening the president’s term to two years. That year, R.A. Nestos, a lawyer and legislator from Minot and future governor, became president.

NDLA moved to western North Dakota for its eighth annual meeting in 1913. Minot hosted the meeting, and the highlight was an address by Governor Hanna and auto rides provided by the Minot Commercial Club.

The 1914 annual meeting brought a resolution to endorse creation of county libraries, a discussion that continued for the next 20 years. The annual meeting in 1915 was held in conjunction with the North Dakota Education Association.

After the 1916 conference in Williston, the next two conferences, scheduled for Valley City, did not take place — 1917 because of financial issues and 1918 because of the Spanish influenza epidemic. Valley City did successfully host the 1919 conference.

As the years passed, the organization grew in numbers and issues, until it celebrated its 100th annual conference in September 2006 in Fargo, where it all started in 1906.

Donald ‘Don’ Stevenson

By CATHY A. LANGEMO

Dec. 28 — On this date in 1908, Donald “Don” Stevenson, one of the state’s best-known early ranchers, died.

Don Stevenson was born on April 12, 1833, in Scotland, coming to Ontario in 1842 and to Minnesota in 1856. By 1860, he was on the way to Texas to herd cattle and do some freighting between Kansas and Nebraska.

Stevenson returned to Minnesota in 1861 and purchased a farm on land that became Osakis in Douglas County. He married Lydia Ann Stone in March 1863 in St. Cloud, and they raised cattle, sheep, horses and hogs until 1872. He also served as the town’s postmaster and owned the town’s first grist mill.

While farming, Stevenson was also hauling freight, supplies and people from St. Cloud to the forts and new establishments in northern Dakota Territory, maintaining the business from 1866-1882. As an Army contractor, he delivered supplies to the forts and put up hay and firewood for them. He had as many as 125 mowing machines and the men to run them.

He also ran teams to the Black Hills, bringing out the first nuggets that showed there was gold in the Hills.

He moved to Dakota Territory in May 1872 and established the D.S. Ranch in Emmons County, ranching there until 1886. By then, Stevenson had about 800 head of longhorn and beef cattle and horses. He lost about half of them that winter of 1886-1887.

From 1882-1886, Stevenson operated a butcher shop in Bismarck, supplying it with beef, pork and mutton from his ranch and established the Stevenson Post Office at his ranch.

Along with ranching, Stevenson ran a freight business with up to 300 wagons, operating from the ranch. Using mostly oxen and later some Missouri mules and horses, he ran between Bismarck and Camp Meade in southern Dakota Territory.

In 1887, Stevenson moved his ranch to Morton County, where the old Deadwood Stage Road crossed the Cannonball River, about 50 miles south of Mandan. He gave up the freight business then and ranched full time until retiring in 1906 because of poor health. At one time, Stevenson had as many as 1,600 head of horses and cattle.

In 1896 and 1898, Stevenson was elected to the State Legislature. He was an imposing figure in the House chambers, standing well over six feet tall and weighing more than 300 pounds.

Stevenson was also active in community and county affairs as a Mason; in the Clan of the Caledonian Society of North Dakota, a Scottish organization; as postmaster; church trustee; and the first elected Emmons County treasurer.

After retiring from ranching, Stevenson moved to Shields in western Grant County. He died on Dec. 28, 1908, in Dickinson and is buried in the Mandan Union Cemetery.

Mayor Misdemeanor

By JAYME L. JOB

Dec. 29 — Bismarck’s mayor, E. G. Patterson, was arrested on this date in 1900 on charges of keeping a gambling house. The “gambling house” in question was none other than one of Mayor Patterson’s hotels, in which he had been running games quite publicly for some time. At the start of each legislative session, in fact, Mayor Patterson opened the Sheridan Hotel’s gambling annex for business, candidly inviting the representatives and visitors to the city to participate in games of chance.

Although gambling in the city was prohibited by law, these activities were no secret, and many papers throughout the state had commented on the situation. Despite this, Mayor Patterson proved a popular figure in Bismarck, and had been re-elected without contest for several terms. It was the last election, however, that began the trouble for the mayor. That fall, the mayor cancelled some Burleigh County elections, including that for district judge, after a fight with one of the organizers. Because of this, Judge Winchester of the sixth district court lost his home county, which he had held since statehood.

Although of the same party, hostilities erupted between the two men. So, it came as little surprise in December when the judge drew up a warrant for the arrest of the mayor and the seizure of the gambling equipment. The judge did not even trouble the state’s attorney or the attorney general in the matter, taking the issuance of the order upon himself.

Being a close personal friend to Alexander McKenzie, one of the state’s most influential politicians, and a popular figure himself, Judge Winchester had public opinion on his side. Many criticized Patterson’s gambling hall, “…insisting that members of the legislature should not be subjected to such temptations.” Patterson had just built a second hotel, the Northwestern, and the opening was only days away, with the arrival of the state legislators for the new session. This may have been the reason that the judge waited until December to issue the warrant. The papers reported that there was a “…great deal of bitterness on all sides and indications that the Slope political stream (would) not ripple along smoothly for a time.”

The roulette table, apparently the prize attraction of the hall, was seized and destroyed. At a cost of nearly $1,000, it appeared that the bitterness between the two men was strong indeed.

Anton Klaus

By LANE SUNWALL

Dec. 30 — It was this day in 1829 that the “Father of Jamestown,” Anton Klaus, was born in Brutting Prussia. Like many other Germans of his era, Klaus saw great opportunity across the Atlantic and so set sail for America, arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, November 1849. The mid-nineteenth century was generally good for Green Bay, and as the city prospered, so did Anton Klaus. In the late 1850s Anton invested in the lumber business, buying up local sawmills. He eventually moved into the shingle business and by 1870 was the largest shingle merchant in the country.

The poor immigrant Anton Klaus was now wealthy beyond his dreams and one of the most influential men in Wisconsin. Yet Klaus not only invested in lumber and shingles, but in his community as well. In 1855 he was elected city treasurer and in 1868, mayor. He donated liberally to community projects, tirelessly striving to improve his adopted home. However, disaster struck in 1873 with the stock market crash and the following depression. As Klaus’ investments collapsed one by one, the once wealthy civic leader was made destitute.

But Klaus wasn’t one to sit and mourn the destruction of his financial empire. In 1874, the forty-four-year-old packed up his few belongings and moved to the newly established frontier town of Jamestown, Dakota Territory. In Jamestown, Klaus prospered as he had in Green Bay. He started a general store in 1878 and shortly thereafter purchased a quarter section of land just south of town, which he divided into lots and sold for a profit. By 1880, Klaus owned two hotels and a sawmill. In 1882 he added a brick factory to his holdings and soon Jamestown was full of brick houses. While he would never again achieve the financial heights of his time in Green Bay, by the mid-1880s Klaus was once again a wealthy man. And once again Klaus worked to improve his community. He invested heavily in the city’s infrastructure and was very generous on behalf of local projects; donating land and money for parks and a new county courthouse.

Thus his death in 1897 was a sudden blow to both family and community. Yet Anton Klaus’s legacy lives on, alive and well in the memories of both Green Bay and Jamestown, which remember him still as one of their earliest and most influential supporters. He’s even immortalized in stained glass at St. James Basicilica in Jamestown.

“Dakota Datebook” is a radio series from Prairie Public in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota and with funding from Humanities North Dakota.