Y^^^^I NORTH DAKOTA STATE LIBRARY
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•£^J^^ Y^^^^i NORTH DAKOTA STATE LIBRARY ^.b^e 75 YEARS 1906 -1981 Diamond Jubilee Pek'm, North Dakota NESS PRINTING CO., DEVILS LAKE, ND North Dakota State Library 604 E 8ou!evard Avenue Rkmairk til) <#V&JWM • COMMITTEE COMMENTS - ficmiMflOftoca For this, our Diamond Jubilee Booklet, the entire 1956 Pekin Golden ( ubilee Booklet has been reprinted. Included are recent additions to the history, businesses, organizations, churches, post office and city improvements. In the family section, pictures of the next generation have been added where available. To those who gave us their biographies with pictures, bits of information and other help, we thank you. Pekin Pioneers Committee Minnie M. Polis Alice Stahl Benora Stenslie Gordon Raaen Arnold Molmen - SCHEDULE OF EVENTS - 1981 JULY 10 - First Night Dance in Pekin Auditorium Music by Cliff Foreng's Orchestra JULY 11-Second Day Parade, Food Stands and Other Amusements JULY 12 - Third Day Sunday Services Commemorative Caps, Buttons and Cups Are For Sale — 1956 Golden Jubilee Booklet Dedication — To the courageous and hardy pioneers who braved the bleak, desolate Dakota prairie to homestead Osago Township and the surrounding area; and who later founded the village of Pekin we proudly and respectfully dedicate this book. It is the hope of the committee that this brief history will give a concise, factual report of the progress of Pekin and community and that it will be regarded a proper tribute to the memory of those to whom this book is dedicated. As a fitting memento of this 50th anniversary celebration of the Village of Pekin, we the Pekin Jubilee History Committee, after considerable effort do herewith submit this treatise as our final effort to accurately trace the history of our own small portion of the world — Osago Township and the Village of Pekin. — HISTORY — Prior to the coming of the homesteaders the only inhabitants of this area were a village of "breeds" of French and Indian extraction who were located in the clearing along the Sheyenne River just east of the present Peterson Dam. There were also a few Indian stragglers who occasionally passed through on their journeys to and from the reservation which lay some ten miles to the west of this Indian village. The Sibeley Trail crossed the river at a point five miles west of Pekin near the Bjorn Tollefsrud farm. Wheel tracks of this famous trail can still be seen today at various points along the trail. These tracks in the soft virgin soil were left by the heavy freight wagons as they transported supplies from Valley City to Fort Totten and U.S. Army caravans traveling from Fort Abercrombie and Fort Ransom to Fort Totten where General Sibeley had troops to protect the settlers and to police the Indian reservation. The first white settlers in the Pekin community were emigrants from Norway who made the final push toward Dakota Territory from various points in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. In their drive westward to free land they passed through the Mayville trough, commonly known at that time as the Goose River Prairie, which was already pretty well settled by other homesteaders so there was no choice but to go further west for a choice piece of land. Two prime requisites of a good homestead were ample water and timber for fuel and building purposes; consequently land along the Sheyenne River was among the first to be claimed. Peace Demonstration - April 1916 The first homesteaders to arrive in Osago Township arrived in the spring of 1881. It was quite a common practice at the time that the man of the family came first to select a homesite and the family made their appearance at a later date. As the first settlers arrived they learned that the nearest town for their patronage was Larimore and the courthouse at which they transacted the necessary business of filing their homesteads was located in Grand Forks. The majority of these hardy pioneers had to walk or drive a team of oxen as very few could afford the luxury of owning horses. Since travel was so slow a trip to town was quite an ordeal and usually required several days planning least something be Welcome to Pekin forgotten. Many of these early settlers learned the near tragedy of coming home to learn that some essential had been forgotten and of course an immediate return trip to town was out of the question. There were no roads or trails to guide them and there were very few landmarks on this great expanse of prairie other than an occasional tree, bush or hill rising out of the distance by which they could plot their Pcki course on these treks across the plains, consequently many a traveler found himself wandering a considerable distance out of the way and in winter and the resulting blizzards many became lost and many perished. To relieve the hardships encountered by these pioneers and of course with the thought of capitalizing on the great opportunities of this territory, the Great Northern Railway began pushing their tracks westward from Larimore in 1883. They reached the town of Bartlett that first year. Now these early farmers had two closer points at which they did much of their trading. Michigan City, a distance of about 30 miles, and later Lakota, a distance of about 20 miles. Living conditions in general received a great boost from this closer proximity to a ready market and life on this western prairie became a good deal more bearable and pleasant. In 1896 the Great Northern Railway built a road from Fargo as far west as Aneta and the Northern Pacific built a railroad to what became known as Cooperstown. Photography business, about 1906 The Great Northern stopped at Aneta for a period of ten years and the Northern Pacific stopped at Cooperstown for four years, then pushed on to Binford and later McHenry which became the end of the line and still remains so today. The people of this area did much of their business in Aneta, Lakota and Cooperstown and were happy with the thought that now they were in a position to bargain for the marketing of their produce and the buyers began to feel the competition and had to cater to the farmer a little or his business felt the result of not dealing fairly. With the coming of the railroad in 1906 through the site where the village of Pekin now stands, the first order of business was to survey and plot the site for laying out the town. They made a wise choice of location and a very orderly arrangement of the layout as a whole — firm soil and good drainage which has proven very essential to good streets and good building locations. Although the soil is on the light and sandy order, it has proven its ability to grow trees, lawns and gardens that are a pride to any town and community. The town of Pekin is located in the heart of a good trade territory overlooking the winding Sheyenne valley with New Housing Unit -1980 Stump Lake Park with recreational facilities a short distance to the north and a few miles beyond the Sheyenne River to the south is the beautiful fresh water lake of Red Willow, with its fishing and other recreational facilities. -1- Pekin through the years has been a great town for celebrations and the June 7 ffUtfir- ft'i !V*S V celebrations were held each year from the first years until these were transformed by the A. L. Gulbro Implement Co. into the famous Chevrolet Days. Each year a Chevrolet automobile was given to the holder of the lucky ticket. These celebrations lasted for 3 days and no one complained about not having time to attend and capacity crowds came to celebrate each day. The nucleus around which these festivities centered were the famous "North Dakota State Band" and a ball team which was practically undefeated — both products of Pekin and of which the Pekin community were and still are justly proud. The village of Pekin was founded and built on the SW V* section 44 in Osago Township on land owned by the late Trong (Tom) Alstad who also served as the town's first mayor. The town was incorporated in 1906, grew and prospered by leaps and bounds and soon many flourishing business places were established. Traveling by covered wagon Trond (Tom) Alstad, first mayor of Pekin arrived in ?ffi/iV WHISKER CLUB Osago Township in the spring of 1881 in the company of six other land seekers — 30year celebration, June 2-3,1937 Bernt Opoien, Nels Hagen, Lars Loe, Halvor (A.T.) Johnson, Paul Vrem and Ole Vrem. This trip was planned with the thought of looking over the land and selecting a good home site. Of this party only two, Tom Alstad and Lars Loe, were family men, so they chose their land, built their long cabins and went back to Minnesota to get their families. They returned with their families to their homesteads on November 20, 1881 and took up the serious task of making a living. T. J. Alstads homestead was located just south of the Sheyenne River about a half mile west of Ingvold Hoibergs farm on land presently owned and operated by Wallace Opoien. Married in 1874 to Miss Annie Hagen in Chippewa County, Minnesota, Tom Alstad, emigrant from Norway, took up life in America. To this marriage was born two children. The first daughter Jette (Mrs. Nels Forde of Hamar) and secondly a son James, killed at Ottofy Lake by lightning at the age of 16.