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Our recent history begins in Crookston Minnesota. Here Tony LABRIER met my Grandmother, Mary Ann REGAN. They were married in Grand Forks N.D. on September 3, 1893.(photo)
Mary REGAN was born in Glenacuna Townland, Co. Tipperary, Ireland April 14, 1872 - d. Edmonton Alberta Canada August 1, 1940. She was the oldest daughter of Timothy REGAN and Margaret (ENGLISH) REGAN. She had five siblings, John REGAN, Ed REGAN, Mrs. Frank ANDRIS (Maggie), Michael REGAN, Daniel REGAN. (photo)
Mary's Father was born in Tipperary County, as was her mother. They came to Crookston in 1884. Timothy REGAN died at his home on Jackson Avenue, Jerome's addition, in May 1907, he was 63 years old. He was employed by the Great Northern Railway. Margaret (ENGLISH) REGAN died in Bismark N.D. March 11, 1924 at the home of her daughter Mrs. Frank ANDRIS(Maggie) Tony LABRIER (photo) lived in Lakota and Edmore N.D., where he was a businessman. This would have been in the early 1890's. He owned a bakery (photo) , restaurant, and I also understand that he had some interest in a hotel. In a news item in the Lakota museum, it says, "Tony LABRIER opened Tony's Restaurant in 1895, and apparently met with some success. "When you want a square meal, call at "Tony's" and you won't be disappointed. He is receiving a large patronage, which he is justly entitled to. His next move will be the erection of a brown stone front." In the "Nelson County" history the following news item was reported, "In July of 1910, a fire destroyed the Fred Ferris Store, J.G. Jennings Drugs, and LABRIER Restaurant. These stores were all located on the east side of what is now Main Street."
Marguerite (Margaret) LABRIER (WINKLER) b. 1896(photo) approx. Rebecca LABRIER (LEE) b. 1897 approx. Michael John LABRIER(photo)b. Dec 3, 1898 d. Feb 1974 In 1901 - 1902 Tony and family moved to Edmore ND, where he again opened a restaurant. (photo) Apparently this restaurant prospered until 1907 when it burned down in a terrible fire that destroyed other businesses. It was operated by a Mr. John Williams at the time.
Marguerite and Rebecca LABRIER are shown as attending the Edmore ND school during the 1902 - 1903 and 1903 - 1904 terms. After this, I was told they attended convent school in Devils Lake. From a copy of their teachers report, dated May 29, 1903, the girls were very good students. (Photo of old school) Michael John attended the Edmore School until 1907. (Photo New School) He was taken out of school after suffering a ruptured appendix.
Tony and family moved to Lakota two months before the fire, Tony and a friend John E. Dougherty, also owned 160 acres of land adjoining Edmore on the South in 1909. It is not known how long Tony kept his share of the property. Tony also had 80 acres in Section 31 of Lawton Township, less than two miles southwest of Lawton, and built a home there in 1900.
When the "Peoples Bank of Lakota" crashed Tony lost most of his assets. The Peoples Bank of Lakota operated until January 27, 1910, when it was closed due to embezzlement of funds by the two officers listed, according to a July 1910, newspaper account.
For personal reasons the family decided to try their luck in Canada. They moved to Edmonton Alberta Canada approximately 1913. Soon after arriving, Tony became seriously ill. He died in 1920. The family continued to live in Edmonton. Daughter Marguerite (Margaret)(photo)married a lawyer, Gordon WINKLER, from Winkler Manitoba. Rebecca married Reg LEE of Barrie Ontario, a chief dispatcher with a railway. Marguerite (Babe) gave birth to five children, four daughters and a son. Rebecca gave birth to one daughter, Mary, who is still living in the area. Michael John LABRIER(photo) married Doris Irveene McLEOD ( b. Apr 2, 1904 d. May 1972) on November 16, 1922.(photo)Doris was born in Moosehead Maine, her mother Elnora WITHAM's home state. Michael worked as a railway conductor on the Northern Alberta Railway for 45 years.(photo) Doris (photo)and Mike raised three children.
Becky Ann
After burning the Ferris & Son store, the fire was stopped on the north by the brick building owned by the Lakota Mercantile Co. It jumped the street, however, and consumed the Harlin elevator."
Michael Thomas, married Lavona Dowling. They had one son Robert (Bob) LABRIER. Bob lives in Canada and has one daughter Cassidy.
John I. married his High School Sweetheart, Noreen MAXWELL.(photo) They raised three sons, Michael J., Patrick L., Timothy J., two daughters, Becky L., and Kelli L. These five children gave us sixteen grandchildren, 9 grandsons and 7 granddaughters. An added bonus last year (1999 ) was identical twin Great Grandsons. They all live in Canada except Timothy who lives in the U.S.A.
As the only descendents of Peter LABRIER's family in Canada are mine, all other family members would be in the United States. At the time of his death, my father Michael LABRIER, was on his way to visit a cousin, Ross LABRIER in Kenton Oklahoma.
**August 23, 1901 -- BARTLETT IN EARLY EIGHTIES "Prune" Davis in Minneapolis Journal Tells of Stirring Times. Bartlett was at its best in the early eighties. It was then a town of 1,069 and if anyone had hinted to the mayor that there might be some people who did not know just where Bartlett was located on the map, an ordinance on compulsory education would have been railroaded through the next meeting of the common council.
In Dakota a creek is usually called a river. The good average town takes on the dignity of a city. The mayor of Bartlett in those early days went in for dignity and the belief that right on that location was to be built the Chicago of the northwest. The metropolis of the "empire of No. 1 hard". There were men at Bartlett who knew James J. Hill, president of the Great Northern railroad when he was a steamboat captain on the Red River. One had made the trip on Jim Hill's steamer from Moorhead to Grand Forks. Jim had allowed him to take his trunk on by paying an extra fare.
The boat was crowded and space was at a premium. Others had the Great Northern president's acquaintance to the extent that he always knew them when his private car rolled into Bartlett. With such a pull, who was there to say that Bartlett was not to be one of the towns on the Great Northern system? But Bartlett and the Great Northern disagreed.
The mayor was furious because the road had decided to adopt a policy that would make Bartlett but an ordinary city. Its shops were to be located at some other point. There was to be no terminal elevators at Bartlett nor any of the things that go to make a town big. An indignation meeting was called. The major explained to the excited gathering that "the star in the crown of the great prairie empire" was to be dimmed; that the dreams of a big inland city which they had cherished would be shattered unless they stood for their rights. He said much more. Other speakers followed. They included the old acquaintances of the man who had run the steamboat and who owned the road. Their indignation was great.
One man who knew Hill from way back, declared that had he been able to forsee this sad day he would have given his money to the other steamboat line. The next day the rumors grew blacker. It was learned that four miles down the road a new town was being surveyed. This meant death to Bartlett. Months passed by.
The new town which had been named Lakota, after a band of Indians who had inhabited that region, and who were particularly adverse to any manual labor except shooting ducks, began to assume many airs. It needed a new depot and the officials of the road proposed to put the long wooden structure at Bartlett on wheels and move it to Lakota. General Standish was one of the few men at Bartlett who did not come from Canada. He was very much against any plan that erased good towns from a map already printed and in circulation.
Back in New York where he came from they had tried to move a depot that way once and an injunction had stopped them. The General did not believe in a government by injunction, but it was anything to save Bartlett. The injunction worked. It was made permanent by the court, and the railroad company was forced to leave the long wooden structure where it stood.
Things were lively in Bartlett that day, and the general was the hero. The mayor made a speech in which he tendered the thanks of the "star of the prairie empire" to the general. But the Bill road was building toward the western boundary. Bartlett's ambition was daily growing less. Bartlett is only a wheat market now. In front of the store is a sign about Mr. White and the brand of tobacco he chews. Under it usually sit on a long bench the five philosophers of the town who tell of the days when Bartlett was booming.
The station agent who was a young chap in those days, has outgrown the influence of the general's injunction and has married. His children drive the Jersey cow home from the pasture straight through main street. The traveling man who comes to get the grocer's order for molasses and vinegar treats the crowd to nickel cigars and then fades into the distance toward Lakota. It's all up with Bartlett except the wheat, butter and eggs. No wholesale houses, no factories, no railroad shops. But land is going up and the man who came up the Red River on Jim Hill's steamboat is still there.
General Standish is running a land office in Grand Forks and the ex-mayor is the proprietor of a "Queen's Own" weekly newspaper in western Canada. Nailed to the old coal shed is a sign board that blossomed in better days for Bartlett.
Toronto and return - $25.50 Buffalo and return -
$25.50 Ottawa and return -
$28.95 Montreal and return -
$29.50 Albany and return -
$29.50 Boston and return -
$31.00 Quebec and return -
$32.50 Proportionate rates to all intermediate points.
These tickets are on sale daily and good for return passage until September 30th, 1906. Through sleeping car service from Duluth daily to all points east. For full particulars and sleeping car reservations kindly apply to A. J. Perrin, General Agent, 430 West Superior St., Duluth, Minn. July 20, 1906
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