Pembina, North Dakota

Pembina was the first county seat in North Dakota, being made a county seat in 1867 when the North Dakota territorial assembly created a county called Pembina out of th e eastern portion of the present state of North Dakota. Previous to that four counties had been created by the assembly, but none of those had been organized. When the 1867 act was passed, the territorial governor named Charles Cavilier, Joseph Rolette, and Charles Grant as county commissioners, and they made Pembina the county seat. Cavalier, the city that was last week successful in wresting from Pembina the county seat honors, was named after Charles Cavilier.

In addition to being the first county seat, Pembina holds many other honors of similar nature. It was at Pembina that the first whire man trod North Dakota sod. No record of his name has been kept, but in 1780 when a French trader located there, remaining there forty-three years, being mentioned by Prof. Keating, the chronicler of the Major Long expedition.

Pembina was once made the place where members of the Selkirk colony in Canada sought shelter. This colony, located near the modern city of Winnipeg, had been driven through the failure of crops to seek food and protection in Pembina. The people of Pembina, mostly halfbreeds and traders, were hostile to the Selkirk colony because of their agricultural tendencies, and a persecution of the refugees followed in which the Earl of Selkirk was finally obliged to take a hand, exacting damages from those responsible for the damage done to the early agriculturalists of the valley.

Up to the time of Major Long's arrival im Pembina, in 1823, it was supposed that the post was in British territory, but he raised the American flag. Many of the traders, intensely loyal to England, abandoned Pembina with this action and located at Kildonan.

The city of Pembina has the honor of being the first postoffice in North Dakota, the office being established in 1849. Previously the Hudson Bay company had forwarded mail to the post twice ayear, spring and fall, by special carrier to St Paul, from whence it was forwarded to its destination. Norman W Kittson was the first postmaster of Penbina, making Charles Cavilier his assistant. In 1851 the Pembina customs house was established.

In 1882 [sic] the first United States land office in the state was established in Pembina, with George F Potter as register and BF Brooks reciever. It was removed to Fargo in 1874. In 1870 the first judicial district was formed, and Pembina was made the place for the court terms.

The stripping of the county seat honors from the city of Pembina at this time take from it the last of its possessions of the early days. While Pembina made a hard fight for the retention of the county seat, and is regretful at the result, still its people have confidence in their field and are setting out more determined that before to make Pembina one of the state's finest cities. -- Grand Forks Times.

From the Turtle Mountain Star, 12/1/1910