PRINCETON’S DEPOT FORMALLY OPENED
The Handsome New Station is Crowded With People at the Reception Last Friday Night. Many Visitors Present - Dancing at the Opera House and a Supper at Commercial Hotel.
Princeton’s old depot will in a few days be a thing of the past, at least as a waiting station and freight house for which purpose it has been used for many long years and has served the Great Northern railway and Princeton to the best of its capacity ever since the railroad was built. The old structure will be moved from the right of way and be known no more by the patrons of the Great Northern railway. The handsome new station is now the home of the Great Northern at Princeton and was opened to the public with a reception and ball last Friday night which was attended by about 500 people. The building was prettily decorated with flags and bunting for the occasion and radiant with the electric lights there was an air of welcome everywhere. The committee on arrangements turned in Friday afternoon and scrubbed and cleaned the floors and woodwork and arranged the decorations and all the smaller details and they are entitled to much credit for the interest they took in the work of getting the building ready for the opening event. By 8 o’clock the people commenced to arrive and when the exercises began at 8:45 the station was crowded. The Milaca special arrived at 8:15 and consisted of two coaches that were comfortably filled with people from Milaca, Foreston and adjacent points. A delegation of members of the legislature came up on the evening train and the party consisted of Speaker Babcock, Hon. J. H. Burns, of Lanesboro, Hon. J. B. Kelly, of Dakota county, Hon. W. I. Nolan, of Minneapolis, Hon. D. F. Kelley, of Northfield, Hon. H. E. Craig, of Sherburne county, Hon. Adam Wood, of Wright county, and Hon. H. F. Barker, of Cambridge. In the party were also Sergeant-at-Arms Fanning of the house, Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms R. S. Learch of Duluth, and William C. King, an officer of the house. There were also several visitors from Anoka, including Granville S. Pease, editor of the Anoka Union, Alfred Molander, and Wilbur Chase. There were also a few present from Elk River, Zimmerman and adjacent points.
The exercises commenced by a short address of welcome by Mayor Bryson, after which Hon. J. H. Burns of Lanesboro, was introduced and spoke for Agent Rice of the Great Northern railway. Mr. Burns’ remarks were made in a happy and interesting vein. He prefaced his address by expressing the pleasure it gave him to visit Princeton on such an occasion. The construction of such a depot was suggestive of prosperity on the part of Princeton and of a friendly relationship existing between the Great Northern and the people of Princeton. Mr. Burns spoke of the relationship of corporations and the public and the necessities of communities and trade and commerce that create corporations which are becoming of such far reaching importance. They are becoming so general that people must of necessity deal with them. Notwithstanding the hue and cry about the soulless corporations they have become an absolute necessity and they are the creatures of the people who control them. Cities and villages are corporations and communities are obliged to organize as such under the laws in order to do business and carry out the wishes of the people. All great industries existed as corporations for the purpose of doing business. The Great Northern railway was a corporation whose moving spirit was James J. Hill whose energy, foresight and ability had developed the Great Northern into one of the greatest railways of the country. There were those who questioned Mr. Hill’s motives in working out and perfecting all his great railway and steamship enterprises, but the people of the northwest were indebted to him for what he had done in railway construction to assist in building up and developing not only Minnesota and the northwest but the far west and the Pacific coast. Mr. Hill was getting to be an old man and he had all of this world’s goods that he wanted, none of which he could carry away with him. If it was personal and selfish motives that inspired his constant activity in railway construction and development at his time of life Mr. Hill would have little incentive to keep up the battle, but on the contrary his work was a life dream and unselfish desire (and inspiration?) to perfect a great transportation system that would in years to come be a monument to his life work.
A laughable incident occurred while Mr. Burns was telling about the scenes of joy and sorrow that happened at railway stations and just as he was telling about the affectionate kiss of welcome or goodbye as the word kiss left his lips the electric light in front of him went out with a pop and made a short circuit which put out all the lights in the building for a time. It all happened with dramatic effect. Two kerosene lamps were brought in and the speaker was obliged to finish his remarks in partial darkness. The kissing incident did not disconcert him in the least and in closing he formally tendered the station to the people of Princeton.
Rev. W. E. J. Gratz followed Mr. Burns and he referred to the isolated condition of Princeton before the advent of the railroad and of the growth and development of Princeton and the country about her since the railroad was built. By a pretty simile he likened Mr. Hill’s great transportation projects to the story of the Greek goddess in whose pathway there was always to be found a tracing of flowers, and in the pathway of the great railroad builder were innumerable railways penetrating Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana and beyond to the waters of the Pacific, all helping the country to blossom and bloom with fertile fields and prosperous cities and towns.
Hon. W. I. Nolan, who was next introduced, fitted in very well at this particular time and droll wit and story telling convulsed the audience with laughter. Mr. Nolan has been before a Princeton audience before and the people of Princeton are always glad to hear him. His legislative duties have not sobered him in the least, but on the contrary have placed a keener edge than ever on his clever wit and satire.
Hon. H. F. Barker complimented the people of Princeton on their beautiful new station and spoke of how Princeton had grown and waxed great. He referred to the work of the old pioneers, many of whom have long since passed away, and told of their struggles and hardships in helping build up the community.
The last speaker was Hon. R. C. Dunn, who spoke as follows: “Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: It affords me great pleasure to meet with my old friends and neighbors on this auspicious occasion. The dedication of this modern railroad depot to public use marks an epoch in the history of Princeton. The erection of such a splendid structure by the conservative Great Northern Railway company indicates that considerable business is transacted here; it is also an evidence of the practical friendship of James J. Hill for our town and its people.
“Many of you present here to-night will recall the fruitless efforts on the part of our public-spirited citizens in the seventies and early eighties to secure for Princeton railroad connection with the outside world. Elk River, twenty miles away, was then the nearest railroad point - and that stretch of twenty miles, what a fright it was in those days!
“Seventeen years ago this month, when even the most optimistic of our people had abandoned all hope of ever hearing the shriek of the iron horse resounding through the woods and dales of the Rum River valley, genial Major A. M. Fridley - one of nature’s noblemen who has long since gone to his reward - intimated to a few of his friends in a room in the old North Star hotel, that it might be advisable for a committee of our citizens to call on J. J. Hill and talk railroad. ‘Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,’ and we had waited and hoped so long for the advent of a railroad that we were pretty thoroughly discouraged. A drowning man will clutch at a straw, and the suggestion of our good friend, the major, was promptly acted upon. A self-constituted committee waited on Mr. Hill, and was accorded a courteous hearing. In less than nine months from the date of the last conference with Mr. Hill railroad trains were running into Princeton. Since that time our village and the surrounding country have grown and prospered.
“Is it any wonder that the people of Princeton and vicinity have a friendly feeling for James J. Hill? Ingratitude is the basest of sins. Princeton people are not ungrateful. Who has contributed more toward the material prosperity of Princeton, Milaca and Mille Lacs county than James J. Hill? To him and to his affable son Louis W. Hill (who by the way is a chip off the old block) are we mainly indebted for the commodious depot in which we are here assembled. Demagogic politicians may rant and rave, but I for one will never join in senseless denunciation of the man who has done so much for the town and county I love so well.
“But, ladies and gentlemen, you did not come here this evening to listen to prosy speeches, and I will conclude by proposing three cheers for James J. Hill, the man who has contributed more to the prosperity of our town, our county and of northern Minnesota than all of the time-serving politicians that could be stacked up in a forty-acre field.”
At the conclusion of Mr. Dunn’s speech dancing was announced at Jesmer’s opera house, to which place all present were conducted in sleighs, and in a few minutes the floor of the opera house was crowded and all were dancing to the music of Galichio’s orchestra, and the merry dance went on until 4 A. M. at which time the special train for Milaca people left the depot for home.
Supper was served at the Commercial hotel and it fed over 225 people during the evening. Manager Burrell deserves great credit for the supper he served and the manner in which the same was served. The menu consisted of oyster soup, coffee, biscuits, celery, olives, cold turkey, beef tongue and ham, salad, and cake and ice cream. The chef de cuisine certainly was not lacking in any of the essentials of the culinary art. (The Princeton Union, Mille Lacs County, Minnesota, Thursday, February 5, 1903, Volume XXVII, Number 8, Page 1)