Stromme-Graby Drayline

Olof Stromme came to Cooperstown in 1904 from Zumbrota, Minnesota.  Stromme and Arthur Graby from Hortonville, New York purchased the dray-line about 1910.

During World War I and later years, Stromme and Graby spent long hours and days taking their sled and buggy teams for the local doctors on farm calls.

The dray-line provided ice7 for the community up through the 40's.  In the early years the ice was hauled by horse and bobsleds from the Sheyenne River and stored in the icehouse across the tracks.

In the earlier years, Saturdays were a busy day at the livery barn.  Horses were boarded and the sleds were parked while the farmers conducted their business in town.

Mr. Stromme was well known in the area as a horse buyer.  They were not only for his own use but he often shipped carloads of horses out by train.

The dray-line office closed when Stromme became ill in 1948 and he died in 1949.  Graby returned to New York in 1962 and died in 1963.  The original transfer office is located on the Vogt property west of Cooperstown.  Bill Detwiller and Marvin Walen bought the trucks and continued the dray business.

The Stromme and Graby business occupied the northwest quarter of Block 75 at the corner of 7th and Burrell, now part of the Wil-Rich plant.

The partners bought the business from Ben Killeran, who had bought the livery stable from Al Shue, one of Cooperstown's first businessmen.  The barn was moved from its original site where the Masonic Temple now stands.

Source: Cooperstown, North Dakota 1882-1982 Centennial Page 203