Portions as published in the Harlow Golden Jubilee book
1912-1962
Written by Ole and Alma Ronning
and
Seventy-five Years Leeds/York 1886-1961 Jubilee book
It has been said that the land west from Brinsmade was considered a "dry area", so for a time no one cared to venture this way. When someone did dare, and found that the soil was good, it wasn't long before others also came. It appears that the homesteaders started coming in 1894 and ended by 1906 or soon after because all the land was taken. There were over 150 homesteaders in the township. A great many of whose names are unfamiliar to us. Some probably "proved up", sold out and left, and others did not stay long enough to do even that.
We do not know who the first settler or settlers were in Butte Valley township. We have compiled a short history of the homesteaders were able to get any information about. They are as follows:
Rev. M. Albert, pioneer pastor of this country and a territorial missionary, was born Oct. 2, 1861, at Wurzburg, Bavaria, Germany. He was of noble family and bore the rank of count. The Albert family traced their line back over 400 years to the time of Maximillian.
A member of the German nobility, Rev. Albert left his native Bavaria in 1877 and came to America. He studied for the ministry at Wheaton Seminary in Illinois. He was ordained in the ministry in 1887 in Dakota Territory and served the mission field for several years.
He came to Minnewaukan in 1894 where a struggling Presbyterian congregation welcomed him as its eleventh pastor in as many years. Rev. Albert doubled the size of the congregation in a month. He organized Presbyterian churches at Leeds, Brinsmade, and Harlow and was one of the first ministers to serve at these points. He was instrumental in organizing the Benson County Sunday School Association.
He took a homestead in the Harlow community in 1895 and made his home there until his death, serving his various churches. He was first treasurer of Hathaway School District and first clerk of the township board. He passed away Dec. 14, 1942, at Devils Lake where he had lived for several years.
Carl O. Lunde was born in Kristiansand, Norway, July 6, 1874. At the age of 14 he immigrated to America and came to Churchs Ferry, where he worked for his uncle on a farm for several years. In 1897 he filed on a homestead in Butte Valley township. On July 30, 1902, he was united in marriage to Anna Flaagan at Tolna, N. Dak. He served as director on the Harlow School board, the Harlow Farmers Union Co-op Elevator board, and the REA board. Upon retiring from the farm in 1945, he and his wife took up residence in Brinsmade. He passed away Feb. 16, 1956. His wife still continues to live there.
Herman Hermanson was born at Waterville, Iowa in 1874. He came to North Dakota in 1900, and started farming in Butte Valley Township. The family lived for a few years on the homestead on which Mrs. Hermanson had filed in 1898. Mr. Hermanson filed in 1907, on land which adjoined hers.
John Lysne came to the United States in the spring of 1891, coming directly to North Dakota, where he found employment near Grand Forks. He came to Ramsey County later and worked at miscellaneous jobs for several years. He bought a farm of three quarters near Minnewaukan in 1902, and farmed there for three years. In 1907, he bought a farm in Butte Valley Township.
Iver Kinneberg came from Hallingdal, Norway to Churchs Ferry about 1894, and worked in that area prior to filing on a homestead in Butte Valley Township, one-half mile south of St. Petri Church. Later he bought the Kennedy farm.
Portions as published in the Harlow Golden Jubilee book
1912-1962
Written by Ole and Alma Ronning
In 1896, when many of our pioneers had decided to find homes in this section of Benson County, a man by the name of Lois Larsen Ulvestad homesteaded a hundred and sixty acres in the NW 1/4 part of Section 15 of what is now Butte Valley township. He had many times made the statement that some day a town would grow up on his land. This statement proved correct as his land did many years later become the townsite of Harlow. After he had proved up the land he decided in the spring of 1902 to pull up stakes and go to Canada. On Nov 19 1902, he sold his homestead to Olai Ronning, packed his trunk, and with the money he had received for the land, took his leave from these parts. His trunk arrived at his destination but nothing was heard further of Ulvestad, so people thought he might have met with foul play. He couldn't count money so that could have been a motive for his disappearance.
Olai Ronning, after proving up his homestead in the south-east corner of section 9, built a home where Ulvestad had lived. This is where Mrs. Alma Romig now lives. He married in June of 1904, and three of the four children were born there- the oldest being my husband (Ole Ronning). In 1910 the house burned and they moved to the Big Coulee community in Ramsey County, east of Brinsmade. On Mar 9, 1911, he sold the right of way to the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste Marie Railway Company (Soo Line) for section 15 and 16. They were to have 50 feet on each side. Mr. Ronning had passed away so on May 10, 1912, Mrs. Ronning sold the rest of NW 1/4 of Section 15, Township 154 Range 69, to the Tri State Land Company. "They caused this land to be surveyed, platted and dedicated to public use forever all streets, avenues, and alleys therein shown." This was done on July 2, 1912 by O. M. Axtell.
This is what then became the townsite of Harlow. As far as we are able to find out, Harlow was founded in 1912 and unincorporated, was named by the townsite officials for G.H. Harlow, an officer of the railroad construction company. Thus, when the Soo Line Railroad came through Harlow began to grow.
In the summer of 1911, Jacob Jacobson and his brother Morris, built a blacksmith shop in the north-east corner of Christ Muri's eighty, section 21, just south of our land. They lived in Maddock while building the shop and rode bicycles back and forth to work. They could just as well have walked as cycling was slow traveling due to poor road conditions. After the townsite of Harlow was platted they moved the blacksmith shop to where Ruth Knutson's caragana shrubs now grow. This was the first building in the new village. One of Mr. Jacobson's main jobs was shoeing horses, as they were the main mode of power in those long age days. He and his family lived in the back of the blacksmith shop for about three years, and then he built a house where the Melvin Olson's now reside. They lived here several years and then moved out, going into farming. They rented the Hermanson farm for two years while they were in Iowa, and then moved to where their sons Orville and Victor now farm. Some years ago they bought the Dyrud farm just south of the Immanuel Church on No. 30 where they with their son Julin, are living. This then is the story of one of Harlow's first families and businesses.
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