EDITOR’S NOTE November 2nd marks the 127th anniversary of North Dakota statehood. In advance of that date the Minot Daily News is publishing a series of six articles on famous people and events from early day Dakota Territory. Today in part four, we look at some of the those whose writings helped preserve our state’s colorful history.

Those who wrote about their experiences in Dakota Territory knew they were recording a fascinating era of the fading frontier. Among the prolific writers who graced early day North Dakota was Linda Slaughter, wife of Army surgeon Dr. Benjamin Slaughter. Dr. Slaughter was assigned to Fort Rice, Dakota Territory, in 1871 shortly after the couple became married. Fort Rice was located on the west bank of the Missouri River about 20 miles south of present day Bismarck.

At Fort Rice she had time for writing as any venture outside the post was considered dangerous. Slaughter noted in her writings that most of the grave markers at the Fort Rice cemetery contained the inscription, “Killed by Indians”. In 1872 Dr. Slaughter was sent to Camp Hancock in what would later become Bismarck.

Linda Slaughter opened Bismarck’s first Sunday school and first public school. Her accomplishments included becoming the first postmistress of Bismarck, a duty that brought her into conflict with Lt. Col. George Custer at Fort Abraham Lincoln. Custer had ordered that locked mailbags be cut open so he could retrieve Fort Lincoln mail before the mailbags reached Bismarck. Slaughter held her ground, threatened to report Custer and the opening of the mailbags ceased.

Among her notable writings was “Fortress to Farm or Twenty-three Years on the Frontier” which details much of her early experiences in Dakota Territory. She died in St. Cloud in 1911.

Joseph Taylor authored “Frontier and Indian Life” and “Kaleidoscope Lives”, his most notable writings about events he witnessed in early day Dakota. Taylor was a true frontiersman, having arrived in the Washburn area as early as 1869. He staked a claim in 1871. His cabin, which was located in the historic Painted Woods south of Washburn, still stands in downtown Washburn today.

Taylor’s writings include vivid descriptions of Indian battles, encounters with desperate escapees on the run and the disappearance of elk and bison on the frontier. He was serving as editor of the newspaper McLean County Mail when he died in 1908.

Aboard his trademark mule, writer Mark Kellogg met his death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. Kellogg was accompanying the ill-fated Custer expedition for the purpose of writing stories for the Bismarck Tribune, New York Herald and Chicago Tribune. Kellogg’s notes were found strewn about his body on the battlefield. His final dispatch, written perhaps only two days before his death, read: “I go with Custer and will be at the death.”

Kellogg had arrived in Bismarck in 1873. He was an accomplished telegraph operator and well-known writer for the new Bismarck Tribune. He also was known as one of Bismarck’s finer citizens.

It was Col. Clement Lounsberry who hired Kellogg. Lounsberry arrived in Bismarck on May 11, 1873 on the first train to the city. By July 11 he published the first first issue of the Bismarck Tribune which he claimed was “the largest and best paper on the frontier.”

The Civil War veteran who had suffered four wounds in battle soon found himself facing dangers of another kind. When Lounsberry printed an article in the Bismarck Tribune urging the formation of a “vigilance committee” to deal with the growing presence of lawbreakers in the frontier town, two of them showed up, heavily armed, at the Tribune office.

Lounsberry told ruffians Dave Mullen and Jack O’Neil that he had “heard bullets fly before” and was ready to commence with hostilities. Mullen and O’Neil explained that they were desperate men who were determined to “die with their boots on” in Bismarck rather than travel any further. Lounsberry refrained from any future writing that might instigate trouble for the duo. Mullen would later be killed in a Bismarck gunfight. O’Neil fled the city only to return later and be shot dead outside Bismarck’s Exchange Saloon.

Lounsberry served as both publisher and as a writer for the Bismarck Tribune for a dozen years. Later in life he penned “Lounsberry’s History of North Dakota”. Although the book is a rambling collection of stories and personal remembrances, it has proven to be a valued record of the history of this state.

For a short period of time, 1879-1880, Stanley Huntley was the editor of the Bismarck Tribune. The journalist was in Bismarck long enough to get a taste of frontier living and observe the community’s various personalities. Huntley left the Bismarck Tribune to write for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. It was there that he entertained Easterners with stories about early day Bismarck.

Huntley poked fun at life on the frontier and the residents of Bismarck. His humorous columns included references to an overly simplified way of life that delighted his readers. Nothing was off limits. Huntley’s writings often centered around the peculiarities of Mayor John McLean, Lounsberry and roaring bartender and speculator Dennis Hannifin.

Card playing and whiskey drinking were particularly enjoyable topics for Huntley. In one column he wrote about a poor Bismarcker trying to find some “bad whiskey” while visiting in the East.

Quoting the Bismarck resident, using the pseudonym “Spoopendyke”, Huntley wrote: “Do you think this whiskey would make a man dig up his dead enemies just so he could lick ’em all over again? That’s the kind of whiskey I want!”

While that may have not been the image of Bismarck that its leading citizens wished to have portrayed in the press, it probably was too far from the truth for the early days in our capitol city.