Sarah Walker

Today is Halloween, a perfect time to talk about scary stories, ghosts, and old legends! The North Dakota State Archives holds many items that speak to such things. After all, history is rife with stories of the unexplained, and North Dakota is no different.

In early 1917, social news about the State Historical Society’s second librarian, Miss Georgia Carpenter, made the columns of the Bismarck Tribune. She was engaged to Charles Hageman of Bismarck. Charles was a travelling salesman for a Duluth hardware company. The two would be marrying in Randolph, New York, from where she hailed, although they planned to make their home in Bismarck.

In the early history of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, the offices were in the basement of the original Capitol. It wasn’t a lot of space, which soon became a problem. In 1913, Secretary Orin G. Libby of the State Historical Society, reported, “the crowded condition of the museum rooms… made it impossible for the Society to enter into any considerable collecting …”

In 1913, Orin G. Libby, secretary at the State Historical Society, reported that the curator of the society was anxious to secure representative collections illustrating the early life of the state’s various nationalities. Only one had proper representation, according to Libby; and while you might think that it was the German, Norwegian or indigenous populations, you would be incorrect. The only group reported as having good representation was the Icelandic population.

In 1916, Librarian Georgia Carpenter noted that in the past year, several visitors of national reputation had visited the library, including Miss Frances Densmore, known for documenting the music of indigenous peoples. She and Orin G. Libby had recorded Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan songs on wax cylinders.

In 1911, the State Historical Society of North Dakota had only one paid employee with an office in the capitol. In 1914, the first librarian was hired. And in November of 1915, Mrs. Katherine Jewell was hired as the first newspaper clerk.

October is Archives Month, an occasion to recognize the efforts to assess, collect, organize, preserve, and provide access to information of lasting value. The North Dakota State Archives is part of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Today, we recognize Georgia Carpenter, who came from out east in 1915 to become the second librarian for the North Dakota State Historical Society.

The year 1919 saw a lot of turbulence, in many ongoing matters, and especially politically in North Dakota. The North Dakota governor was Lynn Frazier, the Nonpartisan League was a major player in politics, and World War I had recently ended.

On this date in 1917, Williston had a bit to boast about within the walls of its county jail. The Williston Graphic reported: “It is not every county jail in the state that can boast of an artist (yes, a really truly [good] artist that paints color and pen and ink sketches that sell on their own merit), [but] Williston can.”

In 1899, revised laws in North Dakota stated that no two townships could have the same name. However, most townships didn’t act on the change. Pembina’s Pioneer Express opined, it was a law “in existence, but … in innocuous desuetude”—which was a fancy way of saying a harmless state of disuse.