When the Carrington and Casey Land Company purchased their extensive tract of land in the southwest part of what is now Foster County in 1882, Section 19 of Township 146, Range 66 (now Carrington Township) was reserved for a townsite. This section was chosen because it was to be the temporary terminus of the Jamestown and Northern branch line coming up from Jamestown in a northwesterly direction. The tracks were being laid north from Melville in the summer and fall of 1882.
The name Carrington was given to the townsite by Lyman R. Casey, the resident manager of the land company in honor of the president of the firm, Miles D. Carrington of Toledo, Ohio.
During the summer of 1882 there were already a few settlers in the area of the townsite but as late as August there were no buildings on the location. Mr. Will Reed of Anoka, Minnesota who visited Carrington in 1932 said in an interview that there was not a building to be seen when he reached the site in August 1882. He built a shack on land just west of the townsite in the next township (Wyard) and he said he helped one or two others build. Of these he remembered only the Solidays, Henry A. and his son George and Jack Middleton who had a shack over in Wells County. A few others came a little later that year but most of them left before the winter set in.
In September 1882 the Government surveyors marked the corners of the sections of what was to be Carrington Township. The townsite of Carrington was laid out at about the same time to form the square Original Townsite of 64 blocks, 300 feet to the side with 66-foot wide streets between them. The townsite platting may have preceded the government survey since the center of Main Street does not correspond to the quarter line. The Railroad tracks reached the townsite on December 2, 1882 but no trains were run during the winter. The story of the last train to run that year is vividly recounted in Mrs. J.R. McKenzie's Reminiscences. When she and her mother arrived at the end of the tracks in the midst of a blizzard there were only two shacks where the town was to be. Both were located on or near the present site of the J.C. Penney store on Main Street (Block 36 of the Original Townsite). One of the shacks was occupied by the Solidays who were planning to establish a general store to take care of the needs of the flood of immigrants expected when the train service began in the spring. The other shack was the quarters of two young real estate men, Bruce Waring and Loren H. Harriman.
The following is the account by Mrs. J.R. MacKenzie:
The most popular musical ballad at that time was 'The Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim' which bore the refrain:
"Oh ‑ The hinges are of leather and the windows have no
glass,
and the board roof lets the howling blizzard in,
and I hear the hungry coyote as he sneaks up through the grass,
in my little old sod shanty on the claim."
My mother very much enjoyed telling her guests that the soup which they were partaking was made of a stock soup bone for the foundation, which she put out of doors every night to feed the hungry coyotes, and brought in every morning for the soup kettle.
This trying winter passed however and the spring of '83 dawned; the railroad again resumed operations, and the fame of this little city had evidently spread over land and‑sea, for people began pouring in from seemingly every state in the union, particularly the eastern states; also from foreign countries, England, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, and Germany were all represented.
The boom was on. Everybody was as busy as a bee. The music of hammer and saw was to be heard everywhere and buildings seemed to spring up like mushrooms in the night, and soon many lines of business and seemingly every branch of industry established. These new comers represented every station in life. There were peasants, mechanics, business and professional men. Many of the choicest people of which Carrington has ever been able to boast of, came in these early days, coming from cultured homes in the east and bringing their talents with them.
Carrington society has from the beginning been good. One of the most cultured families was the one of Mr. Lyman R. Casey who was associated with his brother T.B. Casey of the Carrington‑Casey Land Company that owned and controlled not only the townsite of Carrington but also a large portion of Foster County. Mrs. Casey was a most refined and beautiful woman, having been brought up in luxury and elegance, being the daughter of the wealthiest and most prominent family of Baltimore, namely the Platts of oyster fame. She was active and a moving spirit in church and society during their several years residence here.
Mr. Casey was without exception the most polished gentleman I have ever met. He was a linguist, speaking several languages, and had traveled extensively. It was during one of their tours through Switzerland that their beautiful daughter, Theodora, was born. Mr. Casey was dignified, genial and gracious to everyone. This is one of many of our fine pioneer families.
There were numerous social gatherings, the first of which was a "house warming" given in the fall of 1883 at the Meachem home and it was a delightful affair, as the Meachem family was also a choice one. Mrs. Meachem was a beautiful type of womanhood, a college graduate and also active in church and society, in so far as her health would permit. Her early death was a great sorrow to us all.
After the construction of the first Kirkwood Hotel, which was really a beautiful hostelry and named for one of the pioneer residents, Mr. Kirkwood McConnahay, brother of Mrs. Ralph Hall, and it was owned and operated by Dr. David B. McLain of Sheeling, West Virginia. That was the scene of several brilliant social gatherings such as full dress balls, etc. I have never seen any gowns since equal to those worn by the ladies on these occasions, many of them décolleté and the men in full dress.
There were, in addition, others in the county during the winter of 1882‑83; the Holcomb brothers in their sod shack east of town, Charles K. Wing, Edgar Leavenworth and Peter Zink at Melville, the Larrabee family and E. Delafield Smith and his brother Herbert in the Lake Juanita vicinity.
Train service to Carrington began on April 2, 1883 on the Jamestown and Northern branch line. Almost immediately there was an influx of all kinds of people, homesteaders, business and tradesmen of many occupations as well as a few eager to make a quick dollar and then move on. The Carrington and Casey Land Company with Lyman R. Casey as the resident manager had put up the lots of the platted portion of the townsite for sale and many of them had bought lots sight unseen. The even numbered sections in the newly surveyed townships were open for homesteading on March 1, 1883. The odd numbered sections in the grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad were also for sale but nearly all of these in Melville and Bordulac Townships and part of those in Carrington and Rose Hill Townships had been purchased in 1882 by the Carrington and Casey Land Company for their bonanza farm.
Another account of the early days of Carrington is contained in a diary for the year 1883 kept by Alton Giles Covel, a 29‑year‑old attorney who left his home in Corry, Pennsylvania to establish himself as a lawyer in Dakota Territory. The diary contains entries for nearly every day of the year telling briefly of his activities, expenditures, letters written and received and usually the weather.
Covell arrived in Carrington by train at noon on Tuesday, May 1, 1883 with his partner Charles L. White, also from Pennsylvania. Their first order of business was to file on claims. With the help of Bruce Waring the two located claims in what is now Superior Township, Eddy County. Covell chose the Southeast 1/4 of Section 16 and the adjoining Northeast 1/4 of 21 in Township 148, 66. After a shack had been built on the land he and his partner rented an office in the Durbrow Block on Carrington's Main Street. They bought the bare necessities for the office and Covell built some of his own furniture. He used the office for sleeping quarters and made most of his own meals. He says little about the activities of his partner and his own law business did not appear to keep him busy. He attended church regularly, the first time on May 11, 1883. He often recorded the text of the sermon in his diary. He wrote frequently to his family and friends back in Pennsylvania.
He made friends easily and among those mentioned more than once are Will Flagg of the lumber company, H.A. Soliday of the Park Hotel and his son George, Willis H.B. Eisenhuth, proprietor of the town's pharmacy and the McKechnie brothers. He went hunting and fishing with his friends on a number of occasions. He traveled extensively throughout the Territory, to Barlow and the James River on foot, by stage to Fort Totten on the Fourth of July holiday and also visited various people in the Sheyenne River area and by train to Jamestown and Cooperstown. He sat up all night with a sick man, Mr. Chancy, who died on July 1, 1883 during a 100-degree hot spell. He noted that he attended the funeral at 7 p.m. the same night and also that the man was the first to die in Carrington.
Covell's legal business consisted mainly of drawing up legal papers for homesteaders and townspeople. On November 19, 1883 he sold out the Brogan and Haley Saloon to satisfy a chattel mortgage for the Churchill Webster Company. His fee for the job was $10.00. All in all, he did not really prosper during his first year in Dakota Territory; at the end of his diary he gives an accounting of his financial condition and he found himself considerably poorer than when he arrived eight months earlier except for his 320-acre claim 16 miles north of Carrington.
It is to be regretted that the diary of A.G. Covell did not continue beyond December 31, 1883. According to Wells County History, he remained in Carrington only three years and then moved to Sykeston where he was active in city and county affairs for many years.
Although no mention is made of it in his dairy Covell's law office was surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the new town growing up on the prairie. At first a tent city, it gradually changed over the summer into hastily constructed frame buildings, many with false fronts to confuse the people into believing that the facade concealed a two-story structure. During the summer there was no place for the new arrivals to stay. Henry Soliday converted his building intended for a general merchandise store into a hotel, The Park House. The first church services in Carrington were held in the Park House dining room on April 15, 1883.
Accommodations remained meager until the Kirkwood Hotel on the north side of Main Street just east of the railroad tracks, opened for business on November 5, 1883, it burned down a few weeks later on December 15, 1883. The hotel was rebuilt the following year. The story of the first and second Kirkwood hotels is told elsewhere.
The town grew enough during the summer that practically everything needed by the homesteaders and townspeople was readily at hand on Main Street. These facilities included restaurants, saloons, a drugstore, implement dealers, lumberyards, livery stables, coal and wood yards, law and real estate offices, general merchandise store, a meat market. Dr. W.B. Warren, a physician, was an early arrival and J. Morley Wyard commenced the publication of the Carrington News in the summer of 1883. In the late summer a petition was circulated and signed requesting permission from the Territorial Governor to organize the local government in the 36-township area which had been designated as Foster County ten years earlier. The Enabling Act was signed on September 17, 1883 and the formal organization was completed on October 11 when the newly appointed county commissioners met for the first time. The story of the events in connection with the organization, changes in the county boundaries and the division of the area into Foster and Eddy Counties is related elsewhere.
The following list of commercial establishments in Carrington in 1884 has been compiled from two sources: Andreason's Historical Atlas of Dakota Territory published in 1884 and an article in the Independent for June 25, 1931 quoted a copy of the Carrington News for June 25, 1931.
1. Ellis W. Appleby and W.J. Urquart, real estate, loans and insurance
2. Lamonte Durbrow, hardware, farm machinery, furniture.
3. Willis H.B. Eisenhuth, druggist and grocer.
4. L.H. Flagg and Son, lumber, farm machinery.
5. John Green, lumber
6. Rober W. Hunter and Archibald Miller, lumber, coal, wood, flour, grain, buyer of buffalo bones.
7. J.H. McDermott, liquor merchant.
8. O.G. Meacham, Bank of Carrington
9. J.H. Sarles, A. Ballack & Company, lumber and paints.
10. Charles D. Smith, liquor merchant.
11. Edson D. Strong, and Edward M. Chase, general merchandise.
12. McKechnie Brothers, carpenters and contractors, well diggers.
13. F.J. Cravath, livery stable, feed, hay, grain, implements.
14. R.C. Jordan, contractor.
15. T.W. Baker, livery stable.
16. John G. Moore, livery stable.
17. Henry A. Soliday, Park Hotel, no liquor sold.
18. Porter Churchill, mechanic, tin ware shop.
19. John Buchanan and Brewitt, meat market in house
20. A.G. Covell and Charles White, Attorneys
21. Dodge and Camp, Attorneys.
22. Bruce Waring and H. McHugh, Attorneys.
23. Flyn H. Woodward, Attorney.
24. C.E. Gregory, Attorney.
25. A.T. Smith and Son, harness and ox yoke maker.
26. Hicks & Company, C.B. Turner, manager, coal and wood yard.
27. W.B. Warren, physician.
28. Henry Rolder and A.L. Holt, mason and plasterer
29. TY French, surveyor
30. Nathan Flater and William Cushen, blacksmiths
31. Harry Elski, shoemaker
32. Burton Halbert, baker.
33. A.C. Halsey, postmaster.
34. J. Morley Wyard, editor of the Carrington News.
Several businesses have added to the wealth of
Carrington over the past 100 years. The following are acknowledged because of their contributions to the community‑ either past or present.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 198