Bicentennial Story #48-Racial Rivalry at Richardton

Bicentennial Story #48-Racial Rivalry at Richardton

Account of entanglements between German and Irish immigrant groups in Richardton in 1883.

7/7/1975

Father Louis Pfaller
Jack Hjort

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mp3

audio reel, analog, 1/4 inch polyester tape

English

BS-048

Richardton, ND

Copyright Stark County Historical Society and Dickinson Museum Center

In 1953, 86-year old Robert Hunke told me that when he came to Richardton on April 19, 1883, the village had a huge depot, capable of holding 150 people in the waiting room. The C.B. Richard Company had just erected a "first class" hotel, three stores, and five bungalows for the immigrants from Germany. The Germans found that Irishmen who had constructed the railroad were on the site and were a pretty rough lot. One time the tough Patties invited the German's to a dance and had erected a gallows for lynching the "Dutchies." But the Germans discovered the plot and waylayed them with table legs from the hotel. One of them, trigger happy Jack Callihan, was shot through the lungs and died. The others abandoned the field to the Germans.

This is Bicentennial Story No. 48, prepared by Father Louis Pfaller, for the Stark County Historical Society.

Interview with Robert Hunke, Sr., by Fr. Louis Pfaller, 1953

Sound recordings

1:19

128kbps

1970 1979

Bicentennial tape #2, Bicentennial stories 46-66