Last week I attended a part of the interesting Teddy Roosevelt Symposium in Dickinson and listened to several historians speak on various aspects of TR. It got me anxious to start reading more history of that period and thought the best place to start was with my hometown newspapers on file with the North Dakota archives. The Sheldon Enterprise’s on file go back to early 1885 and that’s where I started. Once I got into reading them it was hard to stop. I wondered if Sheldon’s paper would make any mention of TR, and sure enough, I quickly found this reference in the May 19, 1886 edition: " Theodore Roosevelt, the prominent New York politician, has arrived at his ranch on the Elkhorn in the western part of Dakota where he expects to spend the summer." Other news that interested me in the first few issues I read were notices of General U. S. Grant’s illness and death and the vote of the Senate affirming the dividing Dakota into two states.
The local news, though, was the most entertaining. Some good examples from 1885-86 follow:
"Last Saturday was a lively day in Sheldon. Thirty or forty teams could be counted on Front Street at almost any hour of the day.
After four or five revolver shots, Mr. Creswell’s favorite dog gave up the ghost in front of the drug store last Wednesday evening. He had been poisoned.
Long lines of moving wagons are to be seen passing every day destined to new homes in the west.
Mr. Creswell and hired man were seeding all day last Saturday in their bare feet. Too warm to wear boots or shoes. How’s that for the 4th of April in Dakota.
Five Indians, well armed and carrying two canoes were seen making a beeline northward yesterday. Going to join Riel?
A lady passed through Jamestown, on a train, bound for Oregon, with a revolver stuck in her belt.
K. E. Rudd is setting up a sample McCormick binder, across the street from our office, this morning.
When ordering a pail of beer, be sure and instruct your clerk to see that he gets it fresh from the convenient slop tub, otherwise it might be too strong and make you sick.
Fourth of July to be celebrated at Sheldon in a grand style. A cornet band to be here on that day. Good speakers. Exciting races and games. Processions, etc., etc. and a prominent feature of the day - two balloon assentions (sp) and grand fireworks in the evening. All to wind up with a grand ball in the evening at the new skating rink.
Sheldon shipped the first car load new wheat this year from the field of P. P. Goodman that was shipped on any of the lines of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
Herman Schultz was in town Saturday and marketed a wagon load of extra nice cabbage.
Deputy Sheriff Tom Eastman has been having his hands full of wood thieves during the past week. He had four of them on his hands at once. Two paid their fines and the other two landed in the Fargo jail for 10 days.
Dr. Henning sports a new fancy cutter. Tell you what, it’s a daisy.
A team of mules, attached to a cutter, took a glorious tumble in the street, opposite our office, yesterday. The mules were not shod sharp and being driven on the smooth ice in the street, one of them went down and the other rolled clear over him. No damage except considerable scare and a broken cutter tongue.
(And my favorite) A Ransom County lawyer was found dead in his sleigh one day last week. Just how he happened to be sleigh riding, instead of having his hands in a client’s pockets, is unknown, but it is surmised that was because the client had had his pockets emptied by having previously called on another lawyer. His death was doubtless caused by attempting to tell the truth to a jury and then going out in the cold while he was still sweating."
I intend to keep mining those veins of entertaining news and gossip from the old home town papers. It makes for fascinating reading and maybe a poem or two will come from it.
