On this date in 1929, residents of Ward County mourned the loss of James H. Scofield, a long time resident and pioneer of the state. He passed away just a few days earlier from a heart condition, following a bout with influenza, marking the end of a prosperous and varied life.
Scofield was born in Rochester, Minnestota, in 1857. He moved to Dakota Territory as a young man in the early 1880s, living near Cando, and also in Grand Forks and Devils Lake. He moved to Minot in 1886, when the Great Northern Railroad established the townsite where it had halted its western expansion for the winter.
Scofield soon entered the local political scene, running for mayor of in 1887. Marshall McClure, publisher of the Minot Optic newspaper, acted as his campaign manager. According to later reports, the night before the election, scores of people quickly applied for naturalization, so they could cast their vote.
The Jamestown Weekly Alert reported, "Minot, the year old and vigorous infant of the Mouse [River], has been under the watchful nursing of Editor McCLure and the other able rustlers long enough to hold a triumphant election for city officers, in which the ‘People's ticket’ got there, and don't you forget it."
The Bismarck Tribune also noted: "Minot, the boom town...held its charter election on Saturday last, and it would have done the heart of the Bismarck old-timer good to have seen the balloters zig-zag to the polls with the flourish of whoop and a fringe of enthusiasm. There w[ere] two candidates for mayor, one a gambler and saloonkeeper—J.H. Scofield—and the other a hardware dealer named Scott. As will be seen... the town does not go much on hardware."
Scofield became the first mayor of Minot. He was afterward involved in multiple political ventures, playing a part in moving the Ward County seat from Burlington to Minot, and eventually getting elected as treasurer of the county in 1894.
Outside of politics, he found a world of agriculture open to him. He established a livery and sale stable in Minot in 1888, and then got into the sheep business, running a ranch outside of town, as well as a separate farm. Later, he also got into the farm implement business.
James Scofield was an interesting character in the tapestry of North Dakota's early history, and left a legacy of history with his passing.
Dakota Datebook by Sarah Walker
Sources:
Jamestown Weekly Alert, September 8, 1887, p4
Bismarck Weekly Tribune, September 2, 1887, p5
The Ward County Independent, February 14, 1929, p1 and 2
The Bowbells Tribune, OCtober 19, 1900, p4
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