Yesterday, we told you about Heber Creel’s efforts to gain control of the land on the north shore of Devils Lake as the railway headed in that direction. Creel and his cronies used every tactic, legal or not, to make sure they would make a tidy profit if the railroad bought their claims.
In 1880, Heber Creel was a Second Lieutenant in the Seventh Cavalry stationed at Fort Totten at Devils Lake. There, he created detailed maps of the lake and the adjacent reservation. A year later, he was building a telegraph line to the railhead at Larimore when he was drawn in by increasing speculation about where the railroad was next headed. As interest in the land around Devils Lake increased, the 27-year-old got land fever, resigned his post and bet on the lake’s northern edge.
1/30/2007: Today is the birthday of Henry Clay Hansbrough, who was born in Illinois 1848. President James Polk’s opponent for the presidency, Henry Clay, attended the wedding of Elisha Hansbrough and Sarah Hagan. As he rode off, he suggested they name their first boy after them. And they did.