Harry E. Brown
Harry E. Brown, of Section 6, Melrose Township, Steele County, was the 2nd of 6 children born to John G. and Martha A. (Gibson) Brown. Mr. John G. Brown was born in Ohio, July 10, 1844. He farmed for 23 years in Illinois. In May 1883 he sold out there and moved to Steele County. He died Jan. 21, 1898.
Harry E. was 15 when the family came to Dakota.
Was in its prime with Fred Stone the owner and operator. Pete Mac's Hotel was quite a place, and another hotel south of Syverson store. Many of the farmers in Griggs County got their start working for Cooper, and in 1902 when Cooper was farming 16000 qcres and had acquired the larges grain elevator in town with two Legs for elevating the grain to the top of grain bins, 2 scales for weighing the 125 bushel grain trucks in which most of the farmers hauled in their grain.Fred Beier waw the opertor of this elevator, but in the fall when threshing ws in full swing, Fred Beier could not take care of the elevator alone, so Mr. Cooper took charge of one of the scales and they both worked early and late to take care of all of the farmers that brought in grain to his elevator.
This is when I started to work for Mr. Cooper. He had just secretly built his office just north of First National Bank, and because he felt that he was needed in the elevator, he hired me to take care of his office. They were too busy to pay the farmers for their grain at the elevator so the farmers got a scale ticket showing the grade and weight of the load they brought in and then they were were sent to the office to get their pay.
John Houghton was foreman on Section Seven Ranch northeast of Cooperstown, and he too would write a time ticket for the men for their services and they too would call at the office for their pay.
There were 4 other elevators in town, and soon after threshing started, they were all filled up and all were scrambling for cars to empty out their bins. Mr. Cooper soon tired of asking N.J. Payne, the Northern Pacific agent in Cooperstown, for empty cars in which to load and ship out grain. All the other elevators were filled up aqnd the railroad was unable to furnish cars fast enough.
So Mr. Cooper tried a new start. He called up the Supt. of Northern Pacific at Dilworth, Minn. and told him that he wanted a train load of empty grain cars to load with grain out of his own elevator. Mr. Cooper promised the Supt. tht he could load 55,000 bushels of grain in 48 hours if he had the cars and so a day later here come a train up the line with 26 cars, and the train crew stayed right in town and did the switching as needed for loading all these cars, and they were on their way out down the line loaded for Furle and Co. grain dealers in Minneapolis and Duluth. None of the other elevators in town got any cars out of this train load. I can still hear some of the cussing the railroad.
Many other interesting tales I could tell, but perhaps this is enough for now.
Yours truly,
Otto H. Bruns