Powering lights on Main Street  

Drive through town after dark and check out the lights and Christmas decorations. Just imagine the place in 1871, when construction workers of the Northern Pacific Railway had settled the little village that would later be named Jamestown. If you were fortunate enough to be in a horse and buggy along the narrow roads, the lights you’d see would be gas or candle wax with flickering flames atop. By 1872, the garrison west of the James River Fort Seward would likely have a fire visible from downtown. Soldiers would be there year-round for five years, until the railway was completed though the county.

It would be some time before brick and mortar buildings would be constructed but when they were, the quality of those buildings would be a lasting testament to the city leaders who sought to claim Jamestown as the rightful capital of the soon to be state of North Dakota. On Nov. 2, 1889, Dakota Territory was divided into North and South Dakota, and the fight for its state capital began in earnest. By then, Jamestown College was six years old, as was the Stutsman County Courthouse. Six years later, according to online data, electricity was installed in Jamestown.

Power lines followed the railway, and those villages built along the rails became cities with town halls, civic buildings and founding family homes erected along the earliest roads. On Christmas Day 1895, Jamestown had street-lights lighting up main street. That had to be quite the sight — soldiers and horses, townsfolk at shops, and the sound of the train passing through signaling a modern prairie town readying for a festive holiday.

As the city grew, architectural jewels were built. Franklin School, Alfred E. Dickey Free Library, Grace Episcopal Church, St. James Catholic Church and on the campus of Jamestown College, Voorhees Chapel. Holiday celebrations were simple at first, but as more people moved in to support the railway and immigrants settled to farm and started businesses. The little jewel halfway between Fargo and Bismarck came in to its own as a flourishing prairie stop. The roundhouse west of the James River was “office,” café and shop for folks living along the river east of Fort Seward.

Small shops and local owners welcomed families able to get to town to buy special items for beloved family members. Whether a goose or pheasant made it to the dinner table on Christmas day, the meal would be a special event with delicacies shipped from Minneapolis or maybe even Chicago. The train did deliver more than coal and lumber: sometimes citrus fruits arrived and those were treasured offerings at any table.

Fine fabrics, cottons, wool and some silk would be sold to make special Christmas dresses to be worn for mass or an evening prayer service before Christmas day. New shoes and outer-wear was always top of the list just before Christmas, and oh, how lovely those warm coats and boots looked when seen in the brightly lit window of the town’s best clothing store.

Elizabeth Patterson, wife of Capt. J.H. Patterson, commanding officer of Fort Seward, was said to have gifted citrus to soldiers stationed there during those early days. Between 1872-1877, she was known for her garden spot between the fort and the river, below the Indian mounds west and south of the fort. Canning at home was a necessity to carry over foods from her garden through the winter months. Having those precious jars of food would surely be a treat at Christmas, as would a fruitcake — today the subject of jokes — because it would contain sweet, preserved citrus fruits that made holiday meals such a special time.

Today, we take so much for granted: access to foods, new clothing, tools, equipment and travel itself. More than 150 years ago, those items took time to acquire, and the costs would be prohibitive. When electricity lit up the streets and businesses of Jamestown, it had to be a turning point. Electricity allowed every large city across the United States to become beacons of light, luring window-shoppers out in the weather, just to look and be amazed at “light.”

When power lit up the west, it had to be an amazing moment of celebration. Just watching snow fall wherever there’s a street light … even today … that itself… is a magical moment. Seeing that for the first time had to be transformative way back then.

Before the Christmas lights are taken down, drive through town and imagine yourself in 1895, when electric power first came to town. It was magical then, just as it is today.

If anyone has an item for this column, please send it to Sharon Cox, PO Box 1559, Jamestown, ND 58402-1559.

Sharon Cox retired in 2020 after 28 years at the University of Jamestown, including as department chair and professor of art.