Category

  Shanties were the next standard of living for small-scale farmers in the Red River Valley area. Claim shanties were also a new trend in living structures because they were essentially mobile homes. Because of their mobility, settlers would be able to live for an extended period of time to claim land and move to claim more when they had reached the time limit. Because the railroad reached the settlers on a freq

In 2007, the Fargo Forum asked a five person panel of local historians to name the five most influential individuals in the history of Fargo-Moorhead. At the top of the list was Alexander Stern.[1]Originally from Germany, Stern moved to Fargo in 1881, and started his career in Fargo as a local retailer by opening a clothing store. In 1885, he moved this clothing store to the corner of Broadway and N. P. Avenue. He wa

O.J. deLendrecie was born in Canada and worked all around the world before coming to Fargo in 1879. He built the Chicago Dry Goods House, which did an amazing business. He owned a good amount of land around the city.  On the night of November 24th, 1893 a blaze started in Holzer’s Cigar store in the back of the Park Hotel. One of the townsfolk was walking by when he discovered the flames in the back of the store. He

Tent cities traveled with the railroad because they were easy to assemble and could be moved quickly as the railroad developed. They existed because of the construction of the railroad and the building of the city of Fargo. The men that stayed in these cities were accustomed to hard living conditions, as tents did not keep heat very well in the cold area of Fargo. The men that resided in these tents were originally l

There were many department stores in Fargo. One was the Chicago Dry Goods House department store at 618 Front Street.  It later changed its name to the deLendrecie’s. It was situated right in the heart of the city and the location helped to keep it profitable in the midst of the depression in the mid 1890s. That made the store a staple of Fargo until the fire in 1894. The fire led to an influx of architects, many of

While large-scale farming was the major goal of the Northern Pacific Railroad and its successors, small scale-farming was in full swing. Immigrants and settlers from other parts of the Eastern United States moved westward to claim land along the Northern Pacific way. Many of the smaller farmers who came to the Red River Valley claimed land and built sod homes. Resources in the Red River Valley were sparse on the open

“The Land of Milk and Honey” Fargo is a city in southeastern North Dakota, along the Red River which creates a natural border between North Dakota and neighboring Minnesota. It is currently the largest city in North Dakota, both in population and in area. Its twin city is Moorhead, Minnesota, which is just on the other side of the Red River. It is located in a major post glacial terrain feature called the Red River V

As railroads pushed out onto the Great Plains, city founders throughout the nation embraced the idea of developing public parks. In the words of Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar, “By the early nineteenth century municipal and national governments had begun to establish and landscape public parks that represented the romantic ideal of rus in urbe — country in the city.” This is an inversion of the phr

The North Dakota Milling Association, founded in 1892, was supported by the North Dakota people. The majority of the officers and directors were from North Dakota, with the exception of two. The Milling Association had thirteen mills in the North Dakota area and three on the Minnesota side of the Red River Valley. They had the capacity to produce 5,000 barrels of flour a day from all of the mills and in the late 1800

Historically, women in the West were portrayed in a stereotypical manner: they were either the unwilling followers of husbands who were seeking wealth and adventure, or the rebellious Annie Oakley types or brothel operators. The reality of women’s lives in the West is entirely different. Mary Dodge Woodward helped her son manage her cousin’s farm by maintaining the household. She cooked for up to 30 peopl