PIONEER OBSERVES INTERESTING DATE
J. H. Pond Came to Dakota Just Twenty-Six Years Ago
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During That Time He Has Became Well-To-Do  With the Advance of the County—Looks Back Over Many Pleasing Experiences—The Story of a Successful Man.

Yesterday was an anniversary day for J. H. Pond of this city, it being the day upon which he left his old home at Marshall, Michigan, twenty-six years ago and came to Dakota Territory.

Upon the Years intervening between that date and this, Mr. Pond looks back with many pleasant recollections not devoid of pride for the wonderful growth and development of this country.

When Mr. Pond left Michigan in 1880, he went directly to Fargo.  North and South Dakota being then but one great territory.  He worked on a farm near Fargo during harvest and threshing time and by November 1st of that year had saved $140, he having come to this country without a cent of capital. 

In November he and a friend procured a team of horses and drove from Jamestown to Watertown and it can be imagined without exaggeration as being a rather exciting trip as the country was in very first stages of “newness.”  At that time there were but four houses between Jamestown and Watertown, there being one between Jamestown and Columbia and three between that place and Watertown.  Now there are as many as this almost at each mile.

The following Spring he came, with four horses, to what is now Aberdeen though at that time what is now Main street was little more than a cross country road with a few scattered shacks along it, the whole having the characteristic newness of every western village at that time.

Mr. Pond took up a claim immediately upon reaching here, five miles north of this city, the present name of the place being the Sommerville farm.  He proved up on this and sold it the following year for $1,100 .  At that present time it’s worth between thirty and thirty-five dollars per acre.  Since that time Mr. Pond has resided continuously in this vicinity and has been very successful as a farmer and real estate dealer and can well be proud of his record as a citizen of South Dakota.

~Source: The Aberdeen Democrat (Aberdeen, South Dakota) – Friday, August 3, 1906  Page 7

~Transcribed & submitted by Brown County Coordinator, L. Ziemann