Almont North Dakota
1906 Centennial 2006
Almont’s
Big Business
by Leona Monson
On July 17,
1910, a tall, slender, blond haired man slipped off an afternoon freight
train at the town of Almont. However, you would hardly have known if
he was blonde or not because of the soot and dirt, not only in his hair
but all over him.
He slowly wandered down to the north end of
main street, walked on across the intersection and on the east side of the
street stepped into the corner building. This was the Chalmers Hotel.
Although he was dirty he didn’t receive
much attention. That year Almont was a buzzing place. It was the year the
Northern Pacific Railroad company built a branch line from Mandan to Mott.
Although Almont wasn’t on that line it was one of the closest towns
so it became the local headquarters.
There were about ten contractors who were
each responsible for a certain number of miles of track. Each had from fifteen
to thirty men working under hem. So the people were used to seeing dirty
men.
The stranger registered at the hotel signing his name as Jim Cartmann.
Then he went to his room and cleaned up a little. Soon he came back
to the lobby and sat down for a few minutes.
Again he wasn’t noticed as he sat buy
a format window and picked up a newspaper, The Almont Arena. He glanced
through a couple pages. ON different pages of the rest of the paper were
local advertisements. First he noticed an advertisement for “Sherwood[‘s
Cafe and Hotel”. This place he had seen just across the street. Like
most of the buildings it was a tall two story structure with a false front.
To the north of this he noticed a smaller
building. There were two signs on it. One read “Doctor Barton”.
The other said “Hiram Goff, Attorney”.
Over the door of the corner building directly
across the street was a sign that read “First State Bank of Almont”.
Glancing at the paper again an ad caught his
eye about a business he had passed when he was coming down the street. The
ad read:
C.
H. CHASE LUMBER COMPANY
The
First Business in Almont
E.
W. HYDE, MANAGER
While Jim was turning the page of his paper,
two men walked in.
“This town has really grown a lot since
I came here,” said one of the men whose name was Ben Bird. “You
know, Chamberlain, the day that I first rode into town it was just a little
dump. The main part was Hyde’s lumber yard and elevator.”
Chamberlain spoke, “I’ll bet Sims
is sorry they wouldn’t sell him a lot to build his yard on over there.
All this trade we get from South Dakota used to go to Sims. Almont is getting
to be a big place. Why look we have five stores. Right south of us here
is Holritz’s store. And next to him, Andrew Knutson. At the end of
the block is Dave Peterson’s and straight across the street from him
is De Vaul, our first storekeeper. New Frey has moved in across from Knutson.”
“Yes,” Ben continued, “and
both Holritz and Dave Peterson had stores in Sims and moved them over to
us.
And now we have the Heart River Lumber Company
yards down here across from Hyde’s building.”
Chamberlain reminded Ben, “He has competition
for the grain business too now since the Occident built the elevator here
three years ago.
“You've got rivals too. Adams has a
feed and livery barn and so does John Tischler now. You didn’t have
the only one for very long.
“What about the doctor and dentist?
And of course there’s the drug store over there north of DeVaul. Roy
and John Davenport have helped a lot with their pharmacy.”
“We were talking about competitors.
As far a machinery is concerned, you had a competitor before you started.
Jens Nelson and his son have been selling machinery for quite a while now.
And they have their big scale for weighing wagons in format of their store
too. But no one rivals you for blacksmithing or for manufacturing bob sleds.
Come winter, there are always several bob sleds lined up along the street
and a good percentage of them were made by you. It’s a necessary item
around here in winter. People have to come to town somehow and it’s
mighty hard on a horse to pull a wagon through the deep snow we get around
here.”
“You’re telling me,” Chamberlain
took up the conversation again, “that’s why I started making
them. I figured I could make them cheaper than we could have them shipped
in. Some day I might even take a notion to ship some of mine out.”
“Almont has quite a bit of capital too.
Two bands here in town. The First State Bank across over here.” Ben
said nodding his heat toward the west, “and the Farmer’s State
Bank on the other side of Knutson’s store.”
“You’ve got to have something to take care of money that flows
through a town like this.
“Say, you know you can’t forget
about our three blind pigs.” Mr. Chamberlain said this and both men
smiled a little. “Prohibition may be in force but there is still
a large amount of money going through those liquor stores. they are the
reason you and that pistol of yours are so busy every night. These railroad
workers often spend more money there that they should and as cop you have
to keep them under control. And I’m not so sure it’s an easy
job.”
“Well,” Bird answered, “since
the town built a jail out back I have some place to put them until they
can control themselves. Templeton as Justice of the Peace has the job of
deciding if they can do that and what their fine is going to be for whatever
they have done.”
Now it was Bird’s turn to listen to
Chamberlain again. “We people how live in town get some pretty good
meat too. Palet and Gillis have a nice butcher shop. Being it’s two
buildings down on the block south of us, some people probably have quite
a ways to walk but we all like good meat.
“And the newspaper office is right on
the other side of our Farmer’s State Bank.”
“There aren’t many towns where
they have one four years after the town site is surveyed.” Ben said.
He shifted his position on his chair a little
and went on. “I surely hope they find a way to settle the water out
there by the cliff.”
“Yes, I hope so too.” chamberlain
agreed. “People have been complaining about sand in their butter.
I guess they’ll have to shut down the creamery if it keeps getting
so riley every time they pump a little too much.
“Ole Jacobson and Ted Peterson did a
lot for Almont’s social life when they built their hall on this side
of Dave Peterson’s store.”
We certainly make use of it every August 12th,” Ben
commented. “Races and baseball games can be held outside but when
we have Simon Peterson come up all the way from Leith, and many others from
long distances, it’s best to have a big building for the people to
gather inside.”
“Almont has a post office now too.” Chamberlain
said. ‘ t took a while after we put in our application before they
would give it to us but they finally decided we had met the requirements.
I think Ed Templeton would much rather be a postmaster here that carry the
mail over from Sims like he did before.”
“Someday,” Ben was thinking of
the future, “we will probably have to put up a building for the post
office but for the time being, part of Dave’s store serves all right.
Of course Templeton also handles the real estate affairs around the country.
“We can be pretty proud of our first
son, too.” Ben had hit on a new subject. “If Mr. Hurley heard
me say that he might not like the idea of my saying his son belonged to
the whole town and I don’t suppose I would like it either if I were
in his place. But he surely did honor the town when he named his boy John
Almont Hurley.”
Chamberlain spoke up again, “The railroad
company did d lot for us when they put is the depot and stock yards. No
more having to hip all our freight to Sims. And as far a shipping cattle
is concerned, the extra six miles drive to Sims would be a lot harder on
cattle. Those who drive from a distance especially appreciate it.
“Yes,” Ben agreed, “the
railroad has helped us a lot. It helped this year by making this their headquarters.
Of course they have to pay their workers and we really benefit bu the trade
the men give u. Of course there might be a bad side to that too. If the
railroad goes through to those other towns, we probably won’;t be
able to enjoy as much of this south trade.
“Yes, maybe you’re right there.” Chamberlain
said thoughtfully. “But I guess I’ve wasted enough time telling
about Almont for the time being. I’d better get back to the shop and
some work.”
“I guess i’d better go down and
get my mail and get back to the barn too.” Ben returned as the two
men went out the door.
Jim Cartman looked at his paper a few moments
and then put it down. He was pretty sure he could find almost any business
he might want to see in the town now so he went over to the Sherwood cafe
for an early supper. He’d get a good night’s sleep and be ready
for a job with one of the contractors on the railroad the next morning.