M.L. Berg

After the mail route between Villard and Washburn was ended in July, 1886, other arrangements were soon made to provide mail services to Mouse River Valley residents. The link between McLean County and the Mouse River Valley was kept up, when a new route was established between Coal Harbor and Burlington.

At the time this route went into effect, in July, 1886, Burlington was the county seat for Ward County. It also featured a school, a post office, a hotel, a store, a blacksmithery and a saloon, which was operated by Osborne Benson. Coal Harbor was home to the McLean County Coroner Dr. Edmund Belyea. It also had a store, the Logan House hotel, a blacksmithery, a school, a post office and a saloon run by James Larmer, who was listed as a single, 24 year-old, farmer from Canada in the McLean County census of 1885.

Coal Harbor was founded as the settlement of Victoria in May, 1883, by immigrants from Canada for the most part. For example, Dr. Belyea and his wife Tady were both born in the province of New Brunswick. The first name proposed for the settlement was “Ottawa,” but the decision was made to go with the name of the reigning British queen.

The post master was George Gilbert. Gilbert had originally hoped to attract settlers to another section in the township, to the southeast quarter of Section 22, where he had put in a claim in 1882, the year before. In May, 1883, he applied to start a post office in Section 22, and soon received permission for this and named the post office ‘Coal Harbor’.

Once the village of Victoria was in existence and growing, Gilbert applied to move his post office to Victoria in the fall of 1883. Even though the post office was relocated to Victoria, it retained the name of Coal Harbor. This unusual situation was changed in March, 1885. The Washburn Times reported what changed on the front page of its issue for Friday, March 20, 1885: “G. L. Gilbert returned from Bismarck

last Sunday (March 15), where he had been for the last week. He reports that the legislature (which had met from January 13 to March 13) has passed a bill changing the name of Victoria to that of Coal Harbor, the name of the post office here.”

This item had appeared in a column headed “Life at Victoria,” written by Dr. Belyea, who signed himself “E.H.B.” Dr. Belyea was an occasional correspondent for the Washburn Times. In the very next issue of the Times, for Friday, March 27, 1885, this column was renamed “Life at Coal Harbor.” It was also written by Dr. Belyea

and dated March 18, 1885, less than a week after the legislature had adjourned.

From that time forward, Victoria was Coal Harbor. Victoria/Coal Harbor was set in Section 35 of that township, which is called Coal Harbor Township. (The present day Coleharbor lies well to the east of this previous setting in Victoria Township.)

Given that George Gilbert had tried to start his own Coal Harbor settlement in Section 22 in 1882 and that he had been in Bismarck while the legislature was sitting, it seems likely that Gilbert was the moving force behind the name change.

To be continued …

M.L. Berg of Minot enjoys researching local history.