By Paul Black
Here in this part of Foster County some of the earliest and most interesting history has taken place. One of the reasons for this is the geography of the area. There are the hills, Lake Juanita, and the James River. Also the first so-called highway in the county, the Fort Totten Trail was first used through here in the early 1870s.
The earliest recorded expeditions passing through Foster County was that of Gov. Isaac I. Stevens, who in 1853 was on his way to the west coast. They passed just north of Grace City on their way west. Also in 1862 Captain James L. Fisk led a party of gold miners through here using much the same route as Stevens. They camped at the north end of Lake Juanita and gave the lake its first name of Townsend after an U.S. Army officer. Lake Juanita has had four names, Townsend, Belland, Smith and Juanita.
The name Belland came from Henry Belland who was supposed to be the first white man here to live in Foster County. He was a squaw man and lived in a dugout on the west side of Lake Juanita. The dugout can still be seen.
The name Smith came from E. Delfield Smith and brother Herbert who lived on the east side of the lake in the early 1880s.
Later it was changed to Juanita by the editor of the McHenry Tribune.
In the early 1870s a military road was established between Fort Seward at Jamestown and Fort Totten. Eighteen miles of this went through Foster County and was called the Fort Totten Trail. It entered Foster County on the south edge of section 34 in Bucephalia Township. Going north it followed the James River on the east through Haven Township to Lake Juanita where the Larrabee relay station was established. From there the trail forked, one going on the west side of the lake and the other on the east. They met then in Eddy County going on north.
In 1876 a small distance south of Lake Juanita, on the Northeast part of the Southeast 1/4 of section 25‑147‑64 the Larrabee relay station was built.
Here in the first frame house built in Foster County, lived the Larrabee family. They were the first white family here and Mrs. Larrabee was the only white woman in the county for three years. On May 12, 1877 the first white child in the county was born to the Larrabee family. His name was Berkley Terry Larrabee. Mail and passengers were carried through on the Fort Totten Trail. At that time, the only post office in the county was at Larrabee's.
In the early 1880s a schoolhouse was built near the Larrabee station. The first school board in 1884 consisted of W.H. Larrabee, Herbert Smith and George Backen. The school district consisted of all of Dewey and the portion of Larrabee Township north of James River.
Settlers coming up on the Fort Totten Trail found places to live nearby but many left when conditions got tough.
In 1885 the Larrabee house burned down and the family moved east. Today the place is just a bare field.
Before Larrabee left he sold his holdings to Hiram Warren, a Civil War veteran. He became the postmaster of the area and had a store selling supplies to the settlers.
When the railroad came into Carrington and Devils Lake in the early 1880s, the traffic on the Fort Totten became much less and the road was used mostly by settlers moving into the area.
Some of the early settlers arriving in Larrabee township in the period between when Larrabee left through 1900 were the families of Hans Westerlund, Ellis Willoughby, Ole Elton, Helmer and Hans Bonderud, Andrew Jenson, Henry and Ed Scanson, George Fogel, Perry and Elmer Molyneaux, O.A. Dahl, Burt Anderson, William Black, Old Peterson, Jerome Warren, John Look, George Trembley and James Haley.
The next period 1900 through 1910 families coming were Guttrom, Scanson, George Emhoff, George Steadman, Walter and Grover C. Black, John Lindstrom, Olaf Melby, Charles Bohner, Fred Fenneman, Tom and Alvin Dahl, Frank Burk and Ed Taylor.
Mail to the area was first brought up from Jamestown to the Larrabee relay station.
After 1882 mail was carried to inland post offices from Carrington.
The Larrabee Post office was established in the home of different settlers. The names of the postmasters up until the Grace City post office was established were:
William Larrabee, 1882
Herbert Smith, 1886
Hiram Warren, 1887
Jerome Warren, 1896
William Black, 1906 and
Ole Bonderud, 1908
In 1910‑1920 more settlers came including Dan Flatters, Claus Otto, Gus Luttschwager, Milo Halsey, Ernest Johnson, A.R. Kistler, William Miller, Dave Martin, Clarence Chapman and Carl Thorton.
In the township as elsewhere, the early houses were made of sod, some tar paper shacks and a few frame houses.
In 1887 James Haley built a frame house on his homestead northeast of Grace City. When Haley sold out, Ellis Willoughby bought the house and moved it on his homestead. The house, which was added onto, now stands on the Calvin Topp farm and is the oldest building in Larrabee Township.
Larrabee Township had three country schoolhouses built around 1900. When the township was consolidated into the Larrabee school district in 1914, these school buildings were not used so were sold.
W.W. Potter bought one and was moved to Brantford; Andrew Jenson bought one and built it onto his house. The schoolhouse next to Grace City was moved into town and used for a Catholic Church for a few years. Later it was moved out and used for a granary. It is now on the Gary Stedman farm where it was fixed up and used for housing for hired help.
In 1910, the Great Northern Railroad started constructing the roadbed through the township and by 1912 the rails were laid.
In the Melby Hills in Larrabee township is a graveyard that was found. The graves are placed in rows with crosses in the earth between the graves. These graves might be those of white men who had died in fighting the Indians. Skeletons have been unearthed here. Beaded bags of Indians have also been found here.
School district organized 1884.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 310