One of Fargo’s early newspapers was the Fargo Daily Courier-News. In the upper left-hand corner of the paper, it touted Fargo as “The Gate City of North Dakota.”
This week in 1915, the paper’s “Northwest Gleanings” section chronicled events from around the state. Here’s a sample:
“A well-dressed man with a roll of $40.00 tried to sneak into the state fair at Grand Forks without paying.”
“A consignment of sheep numbering 3,800 has been shipped into Towner from Montana to graze on the sand hills south of the city.”
“A Mott resident, just returned from South St. Paul says, no more horses will be purchased for war purposes after July 25th.”
“Miss Jenny Walking Cloud is a popular young lady of the Standing Rock Indian reservation who has decided to change her name, by marrying an Irishman named Murphy.”
“George Manikowski of Morton Richland County, and his windmill for storing electrical energy to light farms, is the subject of an article in a recent issue of the County Gentleman.”
“An especially sharp thunder bolt, striking apparently in several places at Pekin, threw a man over a barn without injury and went down a chimney. No one was hurt.”
“Frogs were heard singing on Main Street in New England on July 15. This may sound funny but ‘it is a fact’ declares the Hettinger County Herald.”
“Professor A.E. Fish, preaching in the Congregational Church, gave an evening sermon based on a number of readings, ending with Poe’s “Raven” and Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”!
And finally, from Mandan, North Dakota, this week in 1915, a news story that every family in the newspaper’s readership could take congratulations and comfort from.
Headline: “Lad rescues playmate from drowning in river.”
“Virgil Larson, 9 years old, was rescued from drowning in the Heart River near here today by Wayne Melton 12 years old. The boys were playing on the bank of the river while attending a Sunday School picnic and Larson slipped off the bank into the water five feet deep. Young Melton saved him as he was going down for the second time.”
A happy ending to a near tragic incident in 1915.
Dakota Datebook by Steve Stark
Source: July 24, 1915. Fargo Daily Courier-News
