Show HE WAS A POOH BAH HOW YOUNG FOX RAN A WHOLE COUNTY IN DAKOTA ne held all the offices for one winter and bather enjoyed the experience though it la presumed that no was sometimes a attle lonesome there is a man in this town who was the supreme anler of the whole county for almost six months he was a pooh bah with a vengeance his name is E 3 fos and he is fond of tolling how ho w ho ran cavalier county in the first winter of its existence it came about in this way cavalier county had been named but unorganized for several years up to 1884 it consisted of a large strip of land all owned by tho government lying west of the western boundary line of pembina county about that time P mchugh of bathgate was elected as a representative of pembina county in the legislature arid it occurred to him and to attorney W J mooney of the same village that it would be well to organize cavalier county and add to it the three ranges in the western part of pembina county this western part of pembina consy bonsy was very much higher than tho rest of the county and was situated the said and say yet on tho mountain so mchugh got a bill through the legislature denning cavalier county as it is today that was in the winter of 1884 5 A courthouse was built at langdon which was designated as the county seat and at the election in november various county officers were elected but none of the county officers came to langdon to live it was already a bad winter and they could see no reason why they should come if there was some one there to tako charge of the records so they emited in asking E J fox a young man just from canada to take charge of the offices until summer fox accepted the position or positions and in december took charge of the affairs of the county the courthouse was then a large building in fact too largo for use fox decided that it would bo better to leave it vacant until spring and he took up his abode in a one room claim shack tho only other building in town this was about 15 by 20 feet in dimensions and there ho lived and did business that winter ho was deputy clerk of tho courts county judge county treasurer county auditor and register of deeds the sheriff lived in thu country and the superintendent of schools lived just across the manitoba line the sheriff did not serve out his term for he was put in jail for shooting a man in a fight there was not another living soul within two miles fox lived entirely alone and did his own cooking except the bread baking was a neighbor tareo miles away langdon though the county seat was not a postoffice post office the postmaster of olga in the eastern part of the county used to send over a largo package of letters and papers about twice a week to the people whom he knew lived near langdon and fos would give to these people their mail when they called for it there was not one settler 40 miles to the west but about 40 and 60 miles northwest near the manitoba line there were several settlers and some of these used to drive that great distance to file on a homestead or a tree claim when they did that fox had to civo them their meala and lodgings and in fact he had often to keep a sort of hotel the winter of 1884 5 was very cold and at night fox often to lie awake and listen to the blizzards howl around his little shack he was kept busy however for there were many filings registe rings of mortgages and a few deeds an average of two or three men would come to see him daily on business but he seldom saw a woman nearly all the settlers near him at that time were bachelors who afterward went back to canada to get married and indeed fox did the same everybody was poor and yet they all seemed to enjoy themselves though they had to haul their wheat from 50 to 75 miles to market tho winter passed very swiftly and in the summer mooney and mchugh came with their families then other settlers began to pour in buildings went ap as if by magic and in a few months there were a and a dozen dwellings talk of a railroad began to be heard and in a few months it came then indeed pooh bah eos had to surrender his glory ho choso to take up the humble position of superintendent of the schools of tho county and ho still retains tho place ho is disposed to think that in spite of the comforts and conveniences of the present mode of life here he enjoyed himself more that winter when ho was monarch of all the government offices of cavalier county langdon N D cor chicago record |