Roscoe Homestead oldest along James River Valley
BY JOY POWERS

Along County Road 63 sits the oldest known farmstead in LaMoure County, known as the Roscoe Homestead. A farm now abandoned, yet full of memories. This is the 10th story of the Scenic Back Roads series highlighting the James River Valley.

Milledge Roscoe left Nova Scotia in late April of 1880, leaving his family behind to come later once he’d settled in the Dakota Territory. Arriving in the U.S.A., he came directly to Jamestown and headed down into the James River Valley. It was here that he filed a homestead on the Southeast Quarter of Section 26 Township 135 Range 62.

His team consisted of one yoke of oxen. His farm equipment was a Fish Brothers Wagon, a 12-inch breaking plow, an Armstrong mower, and a hand rake. He built a small cabin and began holding down his claim. He broke nearly 30 acres and put up a stack of hay until one of his oxen became tangled in a picket rope and threw itself.

Milledge then took a job working for Alfred Dickey. He was to build a small house and have the use of it during the winter in return for taking care of the horses. Alfred, Dickey’s brother-in-law, John Fay, helped Milledge build the house until he took sick.

It was about this time, when Milledge Roscoe’s family was leaving Nova Scotia headed for the "promised land" to find their new home and reunite their family. When the family arrived in the U.S.A. they sent a letter ahead to Milledge to let him know of their arrival and began their journey to the Dakota Territory. They arrived in Jamestown on Saturday, September 20, 1880. As they looked around, there was no one there to greet them. They knew of the place called Dickey’s Landing, of a Post Office called Grand Rapids, and that their destination was located in the middle of nowhere. Eldred and his brother, Robert, left the rest of the family in a hotel in Jamestown as they journeyed down the James River, paddling their own canoes, looking for their father and their new home.

Arriving at their destination, they went into the general store and asked the merchant if they knew of a man called Milledge Roscoe. The merchant said he knew him well but had not seen Milledge for quite some time.

Robert struck up a conversation with a gentleman and discovered he was a neighbor from the east. He had been working on the Cold Spring Farm near Grand Rapids. Although he’d not seen the boys’ father, he offered them a ride out to that area. With their mother and sisters safe at the hotel in Jamestown, the boys began their search for their father. They were dropped off just west of Dickey’s Landing and followed a trail leading to the James River Valley. They traveled nearly a mile, no buildings in site and no sign of their father until finally they spotted a small tent. Inside they found John Fay in bed sick.

The boys asked Mr. Fay if he’d seen their father, Milledge Roscoe. When Mr. Fay explained to them that their father was in the stable taking care of the horses, the boys took off on a dead run. As they approached the stable, Milledge came out of the stable and the joyous sounds of a family reunited could be heard echoing across the countryside.

The next morning Eldred was sent back to Jamestown for the rest of their family and by Tuesday the family was together again living in the basement of their future home. Almost a week later Eldred was sent to Grand Rapids to get the mail, returning with the letter they had sent ahead to their father telling him of their arrival.

The family spent the first winter hunting, trapping, and keeping the stove supplied with wood. With Grand Rapids, nine miles down the river and no neighbors close by, they awaited the arrival of spring. It came with a rush as the James River overflowed its bank and creeks became raging streams. The high water gave the pioneers the opportunity to buy lumber and have it rafted down the river to build their homes. Through those first years in the "promised land" of the Dakota Territory, the Roscoe’s and other pioneers endured many hardships. But without complaint, they kept on, building their homes and lives here in the James River Valley.

Join us in our next story of the Scenic Back Roads Project and the James River Valley as we travel into Dickey, North Dakota.