Readers who have followed some of these stories featuring Nancy McClure might wonder “what’s up with that.” The main reason is that I’ve found her to be an interesting real-life character who lived in the Sandhills near my hometown of Sheldon. Furthermore I once drove a truck on the ground where she lived when I helped friends chop corn for silage and got to know something about that little spot called Pigeon Point.
One time I laid a ruler down on a map to join these two places and discovered the line coincided with the old rutted wagon road that angled through our meadow. As our proverbial crow always flies, the distance would have been only seven or eight miles. Old timers told Dad this was the road settlers used. Nancy never traveled on that road because Sheldon did not yet exist when she lived in the area, but the point is my curiosity about the early settlers had been awakened and began growing. Dusty papers, archived newspapers, interviews of early settlers, publications of the first historians all started yielding an almost forgotten story in which I found and imagined Nancy’s presence.
My membership in the group known as the Western Writers of America gave me impetus to move along with research. But it’s also to get in the face somewhat of fellow members who disregard the history of our area and emphasize such characters as Buffalo Bill, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and many more. Our resident characters just never rose to their idealized heights full of stretched truth and inaccuracy.
There is no reason not to call Pigeon Point a gateway to the West, another reason for concentrated study. And it was a gateway until Fargo took its place with the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Already by 1854 steamboat traffic had reached St. Paul on the Mississippi River. To the west stood St. Cloud, then Fort Abercrombie, and onward to Fort Ransom and the wide open spaces of the West.
The gold and silver strike in Montana in 1864 began drawing people. A. H. Laughlin, one of the early pioneers who spoke of the area’s history, presented a themed paper to the Sheldon Old Settlers Picnic in 1907 that he titled “Footprints of Ransom County Pioneers.” He stretched things a bit when he said General Sibley marched through here with 10,000 troops in 1863. Instead we know it was closer to 2,000 troops. And he probably overstated when said overland routes in Ransom County carried “hundreds of thousands of northwestern pioneer empire builders.” Large numbers of hopeful miners and settlers did pass through, however.
Nancy was in residence at the beginning of the westward march. Things didn’t always go so good for her. We can gossip a little about her about her domestic life, she had a problem husband who liked the bottle and probably had a wandering eye. One time she remarked that he was a handsome man, but if he had been neglecting Nancy, he shouldn’t have because another man stepped in. Charles Huggan came hunting and trapping along the Sheyenne River, soon became sweet on Nancy, and a love affair blossomed. When her husband Dave Faribault became aware of the romance, he threatened Huggan with his long hunting knife, a threat that only caused the couple to be more discreet.
How to solve the problem? Well, Huggan procured whisky from somewhere, and when some bullwhackers stayed overnight, he made it available. Available, that is, if they’d promise to make sure Faribault drank plenty. When he woke from a drunken stupor, he couldn’t find Nancy. The lovebirds had run away and never came back. They settled in Flandreau, South Dakota where they lived the rest of their lives. No further information could be found regarding Faribault.
The area where Nancy lived is now called the Pigeon Point Preserve which consists of 571 acres, purchased and controlled by the Nature Conservancy. In addition to any historical significance it possesses, at least fifteen rare plants grow there. A visitor to the site can find depressions in the ground where buildings once stood. Pictures do not exist, but sources indicate the presence of several buildings standing there one time. In fact, three of us visited the site a couple of years ago to walk the ground where we noted the remaining cellar depressions.
Nancy will take a break now while we give voice to other early residents who have made their presence known. She will return.
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