As the USA celebrates 250, DLJ takes a look back through its history
By Devils Lake Journal staff
Covering 250 years of this country’s news and events is a daunting task, but journalists have been doing it since long before there was a United States.
Now, newspaper men and women around the nation are putting their backs to the wheel and their noses to the grindstone to attempt to encapsulate this nation’s history as July 4 draws near.
That includes the Devils Lake Journal. As our country celebrates its 250th birthday, this newspaper has its own milestone, as it has been over 120 years since the Journal was first established. The exact date is in question, as there are editions of the Journal found back in our archives dated as far back as September of 1904, while a copy of the paper’s predecessor, the Devils Lake Inter-Ocean was dated Jan. 5, 1900. Our staff has been poring through the archives to find a sampling of the news, both good and bad, that has shaped our community and the world beyond, from our earliest beginnings to the present day.
Enclosed in the sections ahead, you will find reflections on news from around the world, the USA, North Dakota and, most especially, local news from Devils Lake and the Lake Region. There is no way we can touch on everything that’s happened since our nation’s birth, but it is our hope that you will enjoy the sampling that we have found in the pages of the Journal and the Inter-Ocean, long before North Dakota was a state.
Some History
According to the Historical Society of North Dakota “on Nov. 2, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison approved the admission of North Dakota to the Union. The new state was a Republican Party stronghold. The first governor was John Miller, who presided over a turbulent initial legislative session that fought about the question of legalizing lotteries and prohibition.”
“Political life revealed an insurgent tendency that has continued to the present day. In 1890, the cooperative Farmers Alliance formed an Independent Party to challenge the “McKenzie Gang” that dominated the Republican Party. The Independents fused with the minority Democratic Party in 1892 and captured state government with a platform promising significant reforms. In 1894 the Republican Party regained power.
Large lignite mines opened near Beulah and Wilton, local brickworks and flour mills soon dotted the state. The railroad industry, bolstered by completion of both James J. Hill’s Great Northern Railway in 1887 and the Son Line in 1893, built branch lines and fostered new towns. Rail expansion peaked in 1905 when the GN and Soo squared off in a “railway war” in northern North Dakota.”
“Some welcomed the expansion, others were suspicious of huge profits being taken from North Dakota as out-of-stat leadership of rail and commodities companies were often arrogant and unresponsive to the needs of their customers. Rural people felt they were taxed out of proportion to their means. Out-of-state corporate interests dominated North Dakota government furthering private goals of non-residents rather than the general welfare of the citizens of North Dakota.”
“By 1905, Republican progressives united with Democrats to elect John Burke as Governor, his election commenced a reform era. Many new settlers immigrated to North Dakota and many were united into the North Dakota Socialist Party. The goal was returning control of North Dakota’s government and economy to the people, and they were not afraid to demand that state government organize and operate banking, insurances, and processing businesses in order to bring the benefits of competition, lower costs and better services to the people.”
For a complete summary of North Dakota History, go to https://www.history.nd.gov/ndhistory/statehood.html